Henry VIII, supreme head of the Church of England

Now that my divorce is complete, I am at last married to Anne and my blessed new queen is already with child. Oh I know there is much fear in the land that the Pope in Rome will curse all Englishmen and rumours are abound that Charles, the Holy Roman Emperor, will invade us. Indeed I have heard that the Spanish threaten the same but as yet nothing has happened and I doubt if it ever will, not in my lifetime. But now to the business in hand, I need to look into all of these monasteries and abbeys. Indeed, as Supreme Head of the new Church of England, they all belong to me now and there is widespread concern about the condition of some of these monasteries. The monks are said to be lazy, the rules are soft, they secretly support the Pope and they hold far too much wealth. I am sure that by reforming the old church we won’t need all of those buildings and the land they hold. I think I will put our Master Cromwell to the task of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.