Cromwell’s fear, leading him to rejig the images, became a reality. Henry’s distrust of lay reading led to legislation in 1543, prohibiting lay women and men of the lower classes from accessing the Bible. Our analysis reveals how key players reacted to political and religious changes. The image modifications have laid bare the truth of the English Reformation period and illustrated just how dangerous and political 16th-century England was – especially in the court of King Henry VIII.

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Eyal Poleg, Senior Lecturer in Material History, Queen Mary University of London and Paola Ricciardi, Senior Research Scientist, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image: Wikimedia Commons