Polydore Vergil’s Anglica Historia (1534) represents a turning point in English historiography. Appointed as papal sub-collector in 1502 and encouraged by King Henry VII around 1505, Vergil spent nearly three decades researching and writing his 26-volume history. As an Italian scholar trained in Renaissance humanism, he brought critical textual analysis, classical models (such as Livy and Tacitus), and an outsider’s detachment to a nation previously reliant on medieval monastic chronicles. Click here.

 Polydore Vergil’s Anglica Historia (1534) represents a turning point in English historiography. Appointed as papal sub-collector in 1502 and encouraged by King Henry VII around 1505, Vergil spent nearly three decades researching and writing his 26-volume history.

As an Italian scholar trained in Renaissance humanism, he brought critical textual analysis, classical models (such as Livy and Tacitus), and an outsider’s detachment to a nation previously reliant on medieval monastic chronicles.

1. Demystifying National Myths: The Arthurian Controversy

Vergil’s most controversial contribution to Tudor England was his relentless application of source criticism to national origin stories. Medieval English identity relied heavily on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae, which claimed that Britain was founded by the Trojan prince Brutus and exalted King Arthur as a world-conquering emperor.

Vergil analyzed Roman historians (Caesar, Tacitus, Suetonius) alongside early British writers (Gildas and Bede) and found no supporting evidence for these claims:

• Rejection of Brutus: Vergil dismissed the Trojan founding of Britain as a complete fiction invented to fabricate an ancient lineage comparable to Rome.
• Reduction of King Arthur: Rather than treating Arthur as a conqueror of Rome and France, Vergil reduced him to a brave, local British warlord who resisted Saxon invaders, noting that later chroniclers had embellished his deeds with wild fables.

This sparked fury among Tudor antiquaries like John Leland and John Bale, who accused Vergil of being a foreign imposter attempting to strip England of its ancestral glory.

2. Geography, Regional Temperaments, and National Character

Vergil began Book I of Anglica Historia by deliberately modeling his geographical survey on Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico:

"The whole country of Britain is divided into four parts; whereof the one is inhabited of Englishmen, the other of Scots, the third of Welshmen, and the fourth of Cornish people."

Vergil provided detailed observations on English geography, climate, and public habits:

Domain	Vergil's Observations in Anglica Historia
Climate & Agriculture	Praised England’s temperate climate, fertile soil, abundant rainfall, and rich pasturelands. He highlighted sheep farming and wool production as the backbone of the realm's wealth.
Commoners & Liberties	Described English commoners as exceptionally tall, physically robust, fiercely independent, and proud. He observed that English subjects possessed a strong sense of personal liberty and legal rights compared to Continental peasantry.
Xenophobia & Pride	Noted that the English were deeply insular and inherently suspicious of foreigners (a trait he personally experienced during the Evil May Day riots of 1517). He remarked that Englishmen believed no other land was as prosperous or blessed as their own island.

3. Constructing the "Tudor Myth" and the Wars of the Roses

Although Vergil sought historical truth, Anglica Historia was dedicated to Henry VIII and framed the 15th century in a way that legitimized Tudor rule. Vergil structured the conflict between the Houses of Lancaster and York as a moral drama governed by divine providence:

• The Divine Curse: He argued that England’s 15th-century civil wars were divine punishment for the usurpation and murder of King Richard II by Henry IV.
• The Characterization of Richard III: Vergil established the enduring portrait of Richard III as a deformed, ruthless tyrant driven by ambition, directly accusing him of murdering his nephews in the Tower of London.
• The Tudor Resolution: He cast Henry VII (Henry Tudor) as a providential savior whose marriage to Elizabeth of York united the two rival houses and restored peace to England.

This political framework was picked up by English chroniclers Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed, ultimately providing the foundational source material for William Shakespeare’s history plays (especially Richard III and Henry V).

4. An Insider’s View of the English Church and Court

Having held ecclesiastical offices in England—including Archdeacon of Wells—Vergil had direct access to high political and religious circles.

• Critique of Monastic Decay: Decades before Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, Vergil wrote critically of the spiritual decline, wealth, and administrative laziness of English monastic orders.
• Feud with Cardinal Wolsey: Vergil’s private commentary on court politics turned bitter after 1515, when Cardinal Thomas Wolsey intercepted one of Vergil’s private letters containing critical remarks and threw him into the Tower of London for several months. In later editions of Anglica Historia, Vergil painted Wolsey as an arrogant, power-hungry prelate who corrupted royal governance.