Not Just the Tudors – "Henry VIII At War"

Podcast Host: Professor Suzannah Lipscomb
Guest: Professor Neil Murphy, Head of Humanities at Northumbria University
Original Air Date: December 8, 2025
Episode Theme:
A deep dive into Henry VIII’s rarely-discussed military campaigns, focusing on the conquest and occupation of Boulogne (1544-1550), their significance for Tudor history, and how this episode reframes our understanding of Tudor rule and early English colonialism.

Episode Overview

This episode explores the overlooked aspects of Henry VIII’s reign—specifically, his military campaigns in France, and most notably, the conquest and colonization of Boulogne in the 1540s. Host Suzannah Lipscomb and guest Neil Murphy unpack why historians have traditionally dismissed these wars, why Henry sought military glory, and how the brutal occupation of Boulogne shaped England’s development as a colonial power.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Henry VIII at War is Overlooked

• Wars relegated in historical memory, perceived as secondary to the Reformation and Tudor marriages.
• Historians have viewed Henry’s military efforts as expensive, unimpressive, and ultimately futile due to short-lived gains.
  • Murphy: "His wars have been sort of relegated, and in part, I think they look sort of unimpressive...compared to what happens during the Hundred Years War." (07:02)
• The Boulogne campaign represented the largest English army sent abroad up to that point—yet is little discussed in scholarship.
• War, nonetheless, was central to Henry’s self-conception and political goals.

2. The Boulogne Campaign and Shift in Territorial Ambitions

• English invasions of France had fluctuated between seeking the French crown and more limited territorial expansion.
  • Early Henry’s campaigns imitated Henry V’s ambitions to be crowned King of France.
  • By the 1540s, Henry shifted toward seizing and administering contiguous “English” territories on the continent.
  • Murphy: "English monarchs don't rule it as part of their French possessions...It's a little morsel of England, I guess, on the side of the Channel." (13:34)
• The conquest of Boulogne in 1544 was envisaged as a permanent addition to English overseas territories, with legal and administrative integration.

3. The Nature and Brutality of the Conquest

• The campaign featured devastating violence against French civilians, especially in the countryside around Boulogne.
• Systematic destruction of villages, forced depopulation, and atrocities including massacre and sexual violence.
  • Murphy: "The villages are obliterated...systematically burnt by English troops in a deliberate aim to depopulate the region itself." (23:00)
  • Refugees forced into woods and caves; many died from exposure, starvation, and disease.
  • Memorable Quote: "What we have is massacres of civilians taking place within churches, too." (23:00)
  • Rain and cold in autumn 1544 compounded the misery. (31:29)
• The English justified this violence through a legalistic framework: any resistance was rebellion, stripping civilians of protection under the laws of war.

4. Occupation, Colonization, and English Settlement

• Henry’s forces implemented direct English rule: common law, religious reformation, new counties (including New Haven).
• Attempted Anglicization: Laws, language, clerical appointments, and even names were mandated to be English.
  • Murphy: "Anyone who takes up a lease has to speak English...that’s a key instrument, I would say, of colonization here." (48:33)
• Efforts were made to bring English settlers—especially from Kent—to colonize depopulated lands. Soldier-settlers also received farms.
• The original French population was only partially readmitted and under strict conditions.

5. Life in Occupied Boulogne

• Boulogne housed an enormous English garrison (5,000–8,000 men), living in ruined, disease-ridden, and plague-afflicted conditions.
  • Murphy: "The garrison would fluctuate between about 5,000, about 8,000 people, which is massive for the time...Conditions for the soldiers are pretty miserable." (53:44)
• The Boulonnais campaign contributed significantly to the traditions and make-up of England’s emerging professional soldiery.

6. The Treaty, Mapping, and the End of English Rule

• The 1546 treaty formalized English gains but allowed for the possibility of a French “buyback”.
• The peace required unprecedentedly precise mapping: Henry was the first English monarch to make mapping central to government.
  • Murphy: "Henry's really the first British monarch, really, to make sort of mapping a key tool of government." (40:53)
• Economic unsustainability and shifting priorities under Edward VI led to the sale of Boulogne back to France by 1550.
  • The campaign’s prestige faded, increasingly seen as wasteful by later generations.

7. Legacy and Historical Reassessment

• The conquest of Boulogne was celebrated widely at the time as a great Tudor triumph; Henry saw it as his supreme achievement.
  • Murphy: "This is one of the great achievements of Henry VIII...It's celebrated right across the kingdom." (39:17)
• Later historians downplayed and criticized the war as costly and ephemeral in contrast to the enduring significance of the Reformation.
• Murphy argues for recognizing its significance: the Boulogne occupation was a pivotal experiment in English colonialism, bridging medieval continental conquest and later ventures in Ireland and the New World.
  • Murphy: "If we want to understand Henry VIII, we need to understand his wars, we need to understand his conquests...so fundamental, so central to his conception of kingship." (62:51)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Historiographical Amnesia:
  • "Wars have been seen as a sort of sideshow to the real matter of his reign, which is, of course, the Reformation, the marriages, everything tied up with that." – Prof. Neil Murphy (07:02)
• On English Policy Shift:
  • "He's more interested in expanding the Pale... rather than trying to make himself the King of France." – Prof. Neil Murphy (13:34)
• On Colonialism and Atrocity:
  • "This is a year zero in many ways. This is now to be ruled as part of England, and these people are English." – Prof. Neil Murphy (19:26)
  • “The aim here is to create an artificial desert that’s incapable of sustaining life.” (23:00)
• On Early Modern Laws of War:
  • "By their interpretation of the laws of war, any civilian population that offers any resistance...opens them up to the first horrors of violence..." (26:10)
• On the Use of Mapping:
  • “Henry’s really the first English monarch, first British monarch, really, to make sort of mapping a key tool of government at the time.” (40:53)
• On Legacy and Memory:
  • “For Henry, his wars, particularly with France, were arguably the most important aspect of his reign.” (62:51)

Important Timestamps

• 03:33 – Introduction to Boulogne campaign context
• 07:02 – Why historians neglect Henry’s wars
• 11:18 – Army sizes and comparison
• 13:34 – Motives for targeting Boulogne and Montreuil
• 16:12 – Shift from claim to French crown to occupation/annexation
• 19:26 – Characterization as a colonial conflict
• 23:00 – Atrocities and systematic depopulation
• 31:29 – The exacerbating role of weather
• 39:17 – Celebrations in England
• 40:53 – Negotiation and mapping of territory
• 48:33 – Nature of colonization and linguistic policy
• 53:44 – Conditions in the Boulogne garrison
• 56:44 – Why English rule ended
• 62:51 – Historiographical reassessment and summary of significance

Conclusion

Professor Neil Murphy’s research challenges the traditional marginalization of Henry VIII’s military campaigns, especially Boulogne, presenting them as critical not only for Tudor history but for the evolution of English colonial practice. The conquest was a celebrated and brutal episode for contemporaries, marked by atrocities and a drive towards colonization that prefigured later English imperialism. This episode invites listeners to rethink Henry’s reign—not merely as dynastic drama or religious revolution, but as a story of ambition, violence, and the forging of English colonial identity.