Suzannah Lipscomb

Suzannah Lipscomb Instagram – It’s finally here!
My new online course on Henry VIII – The Making of a Tyrant? – has opened for enrolment.
I’m not saying that filming it was always straightforward!
But having amassed so much knowledge about Henry VIII and his reign over the years that I’ve never been able to put into a one-hour lecture or a three-part TV series, I persevered.
I want to share with you the thrill of engaging with primary sources and making up one’s own mind about what really happened ‘long ago in that land of mystery which we call the past’ (G.M. Trevelyan).
And now I get to do just that.
There’s so many things that we’ll be deciding together. Questions like:
What drove the divorce crisis?
Was Henry VIII the architect of the Reformation that happened in his name?
Why did Anne Boleyn fall and what does her downfall tell us about politics at Henry VIII’s court?
Was Henry’s magnificence a form of propaganda (and was it effective)?
On his deathbed, was Henry VIII still controlling England’s destiny?
And we’ll be thinking about the character of the king. Was Henry VIII ‘a bit of a booby and a bit of a baby’, as historian Geoffrey Elton once described him? Could he be ‘bounced into action’, as Eric Ives suggested? Or was it ‘hard for any man to rule him’, as Thomas More prophesied?
In short, did Henry VIII become a tyrant?
I’m inviting you to join me on a four-month journey. This course is jam-packed with video lectures, live Zoom sessions, and constant opportunities to engage with primary sources – the contemporary texts, portraits and stuff – so you can make up your own mind. Plus it comes with its own online community of fellow Tudor nerds.
Join me for a deep dive into the life and times, the preoccupations and psychology of England’s infamous monarch, King Henry VIII.
ENROLMENT IS NOW OPEN. Link in bio. | Posted on 19/Mar/2024 19:30:59