ABSTRACT
A nascent English nationalism had surfaced before the early modern era, in a rivalry with France whose election was justifi ed through its papal legitimization of royal power. e eff ort to emulate France’s national status involved the cultivation of a royal mystique and a “political theology,” prominently featuring a providential narrative.5 Interpreted in relation to an international Reformation movement, English nationhood was characterized by a resistance to the universal acclaims of continental Catholic powers allied with Rome.6 e Tudor revolution of the 1530s saw Henry VIII in expression of theological independence, renouncing the foreign jurisdiction of the Papacy and assuming the title of Supreme Head of the Church of England by the fi rst Act of Supremacy in 1534.7 Following Henry’s death, the imprisoned Sir omas Smith declared the transference of elect status through the
succession of divinely ordained British monarchs at a time when the kingdom was “outwardly with foreyne enemies assailed, and within sore shaken with this cyvil dissencion”:
is Realme, o Lord, shuld be and is a chosen Realme to thee, to which thou haest vouchsaved to give the true knowledge of thi veritie and gospell, fi rst by the late King of most famous memorie, Henrie the Eight, and now more amply by his most swete sonne, the Kings Majestie, that now reigneth.8
