David Starkey – Henry VIII :The First Brexiteer at The Atkinson

David Starkey – Henry VIII :The First Brexiteer at The Atkinson

As we enter a time of huge change and uncertainty historian David Starkey discusses Henry VIII’s reign and how he was in fact, the first Brexiteer.

Henry VIII is the only king whose shape you remember. He bestrides our history like a colossus and the decisions he took still reverberate today. The Reformation is the first Brexit; his ministers devised the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and his tumultuous personal life pitted religion against politics as brutally as in our own age of ISIS.

In this talk David Starkey draws on his unique knowledge of Henry’s reign on the one hand, and his insights as a leading commentator on modern politics on the other, to illuminate both the Tudor age and our own.

An off-shore island? Or an inextricable part of the Continent? Brexit is just the latest episode in a centuries-old debate-sometimes peaceful, often savage as in the great wars against European hegemony and for world-dominion fought with France in the eighteenth century and Germany in the twentieth.

David Starkey considers the arguments and ranges from Henry VIII, who invented the idea of English uniqueness, through the Grand Tourists, who bought European culture with English money, to the modern theorists of the Anglosphere, who carried the day in the Referendum.

David Starkey was born on January 3, 1945 in Kendal, England. He is a well- known radio and TV presenter, as well as writer and director, known for Monarchy with David Starkey (2004), Elizabeth (2000) and Britain’s Tudor Treasure: A Night at Hampton Court (2015).

David Starkey: Henry VIII: The First Brexiteer comes to The Atkinson on Friday 29 September, 7.30pm. Tickets £17 *

To book your tickets please visit theatkinson.co.uk or call Box Office at 01704 533333 .

*Booking fee is £1 per ticket online and via telephone and 2% credit card fee for counter sales