Henry VIII: beloved monarch or mass-murdering tyrant we refuse to confront?

Why do we glorify a king who executed 1% of England and displaced over 10,000 people for his own power?

It’s time to dismantle everything you thought you knew about Henry VIII.

Historian and educator Jackson Van Uden joins History Rage to expose the real Tudor ruler: a man his own contemporaries labelled a tyrant, not the charming Christmas-bauble king of Hampton Court gift shops. Henry didn’t just kill wives — he destroyed lives, seized land, staged show trials, and crushed dissent with Stalin-level brutality.

We dig into:

• How The Act of Supremacy turned Henry into a Caesar-papist dictator
• The Dissolution of the Monasteries and the 0.4% of England suddenly made homeless
• 200 peaceful Protesters executed after the Pilgrimage of Grace for simply disagreeing with the King
• Tudor “big, sexy history” that distracts from a reign built on fear
• How education today still sanitises Henry for the sake of heritage and TV scandals

If pop culture has convinced you Henry was a misunderstood romantic, strap in — Jackson launches a rage that puts Henry in the same moral category as history’s worst dictators.

By the time we’re finished, those Holbein portraits will never look the same again.

Festival Info:

The Katherine of Aragon Festival Talks are on January 31st and February 1st 2026 at Peterborough Cathedral:

Tickets are available at: https://peterborough-cathedral.org.uk/about/history/katharine-of-aragon/kofa_26/

🎙 Guest: Jackson Van Uden

Historian • Teacher • Host of History With Jackson

Katherine of Aragon Festival contributor and organiser

Tickets for the festival via Peterborough Cathedral link in show notes

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• X/Twitter: @HistoryWJackson

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