“Defender of the Faith” - but why? Henry VIII, the crusades, and the idea of “Christendom”

Henry VIII was a crusader king. His use of crusading as a means of diplomacy and dynastic legitimation continued even after England’s break with Rome; eight years after declaring himself ‘Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England’, Henry sent £10,000 to Emperor Charles V to finance the recapture of Hungarian territories lost to the Turks - an extraordinary decision that (on the surface) seemed to hold no benefit for England.


Using unpublished material from English and foreign archives, this paper explores the multifarious implications of Henry’s participation in crusading for our understanding of England’s integration into the wider European cultural, diplomatic, and religious landscape in the decades prior to the Reformation.