Rory McEntegart. Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation.

(Royal Historical Society Studies in History. New Series, 25.) Rochester and Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, Inc., 2002. x + 244 pp. index, bibl. $75. ISBN: 0-86193-255-2.

Historians of the English Reformation have not paid much attention to Henry VIII's relations with the smaller German states. In particularly they have played down his attempt to join with the Schmalkaldic League in defense of Protestantism during the later 1530s and earlier 1540s. The present study is an attempt to fill this gap with a careful study of negotiations between England and the leaders of the league. Its author, Rory McEntegart, is the academic director of the American College in Dublin; his book is based on a University of London Ph.D. thesis supervised by David Starkey and presented in 1992.

Negotiations began in 1535 with the embassy of Edward Foxe, bishop of Hereford, to Wittenberg and Frankfurt. There were discussions of Henry's divorce and, more generally, of Protestant doctrine, but in the end no accord was reached, partly because of troubles in England. Anne Boleyn's fall and the Pilgrimage of Grace played into the hands of English conservatives, making it more difficult for the reformers (McEntegart calls them league evangelicals) to influence policy.

Diplomatic contacts were revived in 1537 when a Schmalkaldic embassy arrived in London. Discussion centered on the Augsburg Confession, not all of which seemed acceptable to Henry VIII and his advisors. In particular there were disagreements about clerical marriage, confession, and the frequency of Communion. The king said that he hoped Philip Melanchthon would come to England and explain the Lutheran position to him more fully, but that dialogue never took place and Henry was able to confer only with Friedrich Mykonius, a lesser theologian. Again discussions (in McEntegart's phrase) "petered out" and the ambassadors returned to Germany in October 1538.

Subsequent events in England were not favorable to an accord with the Lutherans. The conservative Act of Six Articles passed by Parliament in 1539 rejected some of the chief Protestant doctrines. Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves seemed promising, but when it ended in divorce the reformers suffered another blow, reinforced by the fall of their political leader Thomas Cromwell. In any case the terms offered to England by the league were unappealing; if England joined it would be expected to make financial contributions and it was not clear just what the advantages would be. The last years of Henry's reign were a time of standstill and stagnation. The king's death in 1547 and the defeat of the league's forces at the battle of Muhlberg a few months later brought the history of Anglo-Schmalkaldic relations to an end.

McEntegart's account of these negotiations is interesting. It is based on manuscript sources from archives in Germany--Marburg, Munich, and Weimar--as well as England. Diplomatic and theological details are set in a fresh framework. The writer insists on the importance of recognizing the interrelationship between religion and politics. He views the role of religious faction as being important throughout; it is clear that he favors the reformers and laments the success of the conservative bishops in blocking their efforts at Protestant unity. He sees Thomas Cromwell as the leader of the Protestant cause, not merely because it was politically expedient for him but because he was a genuine believer in reformed doctrine. Throughout, especially in his footnotes, he injects new views into ongoing debates about Cromwell's policies, factionalism, and diplomacy.

In the end, however, one is tempted to view his work as another example of "what if" history. What difference would it have made if an Anglo-Schmalkaldic alliance had been achieved? Would it have meant the adoption of pure Lutheran doctrine as the basis of Anglican theology? If so, would this have precluded the development of the peculiarly English via media which attempted to join the best aspects of the traditional church with the most important reforms of Luther and Calvin? Might England have been involved in European wars of religion? In short, McEntegart convinces us that the history of these negotiations is a matter of considerable interest but leaves us doubtful of its importance.

STANFORD LEHMBERG

University of Minnesota 

Emeritus