A LEADING historian claims an imperious attempt by Henry VIII to overawe his Yorkshire subjects backfired so badly that it was written out of the White Rose county’s history books.
Professor Tim Thornton, of the University of Huddersfield, has written an article about a visit by the monarch to York in 1541, accompanied by his fifth and much younger wife, Catherine Howard.
He says the visit was a deliberate attempt to tackle the issue of bringing Yorkshire, and the North in general, into the King’s dominion.
The city authorities in York made lavish preparations to welcome the Royal party, including the staging of a play at one of the entrances to the city. But Henry approached York from a different direction, bypassing the official ceremonies and then forced leading citizens to kneel ignominiously before him.
Prof Thornton says the response of Yorkshire people was to wipe the event from their memories. “The chroniclers of York, who might have been expected to recall the King’s visit with pride, show little if any interest,” he says, arguing that the principal result of the visit was to ensure that Yorkshire retained a self-conscious cultural and political identity – which was not at all what the king intended.
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