'Henry VIII: Man and Monarch' at the Mary Rose Museum

British Library Touring Exhibition

22 April 2009 marks the five-hundredth anniversary of the accession of Henry VIII. Henry is not only England’s best-known king - with his wives, his girth and his bloodthirstiness; he is also our most important single ruler. When he came to the throne, Henry was the Pious Prince who ruled an England at the heart of Catholic Europe; when he died, he was the Great Schismatic, who had created a national Church and an insular, xenophobic politics that shaped the development of England for the next half a millennium. This exhibition will examine the extraordinary transformations - personal and political, intellectual and religious, literary, aesthetic and linguistic - that took place in Henry’s reign. These take us, as nothing else can, into the King’s own mind.

A resource box will be supplied to support schools’ and family activities.

FREE