Last night we watched "The Pilgrims" on PBS.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/pilgrims/
That is the 2nd time that the programs in the PBS program called "American Experience" socked my little mind a good one. The other American Experience was "American Oz", which jolted me into realizing that The Wizard of Oz has been an important force in American experience for more than a century.
I had read "The Pilgrims" by Sam Fitzgerald but the video showed new aspects and went deeper. I have to be in awe of a group of English Protestants with very strong religious ideas moving to Holland and then sailing across the Atlantic to the Virginia colony to practice religion and religious ceremonies as they thought God wanted. They landed at the north edge of the area England claimed, at a latitude and in a wind and weather place they had no experience with.
They had political problems and social divisiveness among themselves. Very limited books, no central heating, no roads, no cars, no tv, no electricity, no aspirin. At first, they got along with the local Indians pretty well but eventually they didn't. You can imagine the local natives' reaction to these outlandish "Martian" out of nowhere landing and living near them.
I am rather ignorant of English history but I gather that Henry the VIIi founded the Church of England while working to get an official annulment of his marriage so that he could have a different woman as his wife.
Was Henry the 8th a good king?
Yes, Henry VIII was brutal, selfish, and at times, very unpleasant. But despite this, it's hard to deny that King Henry VIII was a very accomplished leader. He achieved a great many things during his reign as King of England between years 1509 and 1547. ... – King Henry VIII established the Church of England.
You may realize that Henry VIII had six wives in all. Of course, King David has 8 or more, not including concubines. Concubines?
"(in polygamous societies) a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives." I guess Henry figured he wasn't in a polygamous society and had multiple wives successively. That is not necessarily the same thing as having them successfully.
The Pilgrims program mentions ideas and practices of religious belief and duties but nothing much about Henry or the separation of the church of England from the Roman Church. But very specific and passionately held ideas of what right religious practice was and wasn't were enough to propel a small band from England to Holland and then across the Atlantic to a wilderness. Experts in the video emphasize that some Americans have held the landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620 to be a pivotal moment in our history but that many other important events happened, too.
