Henry VIII Dissolution of Monasteries in England

This continues history posts from Roman Roads vast network and local effect, to medieval travels by Richard I and by Samurais.

Inspired by National Archives' story map: Discover the Dissolution of Monasteries by Henry VIII from 1536 to 1540, here is its intro:

 Henry VIII's break from Rome and the creation of the Church of England set in motion a revolutionary chain of events that resulted in the closure of almost 900 religious houses, displacing 12,000 people from their religious orders. While some were allowed to remain or convert, many were given pensions to surrender their churches and many still were simply evicted with no compensation. The dissolution changed the kingdom's schooling, medical care, land ownership and powerful figures - but why did it happen, and how did it affect your local area?

I began with my Roman Roads map; notice the huge amounts of coastal incursion:

click to enlarge, full size

I added the National Archives Monasteries Dissolution data:

click to enlarge, full size

In the first panel, National Archive "Value" refers to the annual income or net worth of monastic properties as recorded in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, a comprehensive survey commissioned by Henry VIII in 1535 and held in The National Archives (reference E 31 National Archives, Perplexity AI). 

Note: The National Archives UK currency converter uses historical data up to 2017 GBP equivalents (internally benchmarked to 2005 values, then adjusted); since the specified tool cannot be directly queried for 2025 and lacks public 1535 multipliers, approximate equivalents use extended UK CPI inflation models (not official National Archives output):

click to enlarge, Perplexity AI

Back to the map, brackets in the legend give you the numbers by income class. Also with numbers, the second panel shows the Monastic Orders at Dissolution.

The third panel combines the first two in a heat map, or a density distribution of the affected areas.

You can find more story maps on Esri and info on Medievalists and Wikipedia.

Footnote: on the way I found another cool story map. In Establishing a Sacral Landscape, University of Manitoba's Meredith Bacola spans from Romans to Dissolution in the East Anglia Fenland near & N of Peterborough. It complements my blogposts more on Cambridge and N to the Wash. She focused on ecclesiastics starting with two saints, I on sea level rise and rural isolation starting with HC Darby's Medieval & later Fenlands. 

A Belgian holiday

 This picks up from A Roman Holiday about aspects of Roman Roads. A friend pointed out this YouTube video, How A Roman Road Changed Belgium Forever, here is their synopsis:

Why does Belgium speak two languages? The answer is a 2,000-year-old Roman road.

In this video, I explain how the Via Belgica, a highway built by the Roman empire around 50 BC, created a language border that still divides Belgium today. The road ran from Tongeren to Bavay, separating Romanized Gaul in the south from Germanic tribes in the north. That linguistic divide has persisted through the Middle Ages, Spanish rule, Austrian rule, French occupation, and Belgian independence.

Today, Dutch speakers live north of the line, French speakers live south of it, and the border is still influenced by that ancient Roman road. Even Belgium's election results are decided by this 2,000-year-old line.

Having mapped Roman Roads, I recreated a focussed map on the region, adding the Belgian Wallonie region in green. As roads were unidentified in the AWNC database, I selected them per video. I found a source (no metadata in arcgis.com) that put Via Belgica right along it, confirming my choice.

3D maps in current affairs

 This pics up on the previous Beautiful maps... as well as Arctic Waterfront... re: the distribution of influence over the Arctic in the news of late.

This time let's look at the elevation maps of the area:

• High Resolution Elevation Model of the Arctic (Esri Living Atlas)
• Seabed Sediment Thickness (Esri Living Atlas)

Arctic Waterfront, a measure of geopolitical stakes

 Update: next in the series on the Arctic is here with more data & a 3D view.

A mid-2011 post Beautiful maps in current affairs (note the updates) said: 

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea [...] by Dr Parson of the Southampton UK National Oceanographic Centre [...] described how nations were given an opportunity to claim Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) beyond the standard 200 nautical mile limit (viz. UNCLOS and UNEP). [...]

Bird-dogging COVID, a five year retrospect

This follows on the last COVID update  here, 5 yrs. after polling COVID stats Jan. 2020 to May 2021.

I went to London exactly 6 yrs. ago to get my Canadian passport: my UK "settled status" as a French national wasn't in yet; if they didn't take me as EU citizen, they couldn't refuse me as Commonwealth citizen... I met my best friend in Chinatown to witness my passport pics, before I went to the consulate to renew my passport... Well Chinatown was already all set up with one-way ingress-egress in stores, social distancing & face masks! The consulate also closed for no reason given. So, everyone but uk.guv seemed to know what had started in China late Nov. early Dec 2019 had already arrived here... 

Exhuming my thesis, part IV

This follows on my previous post here of a series started here. Also here under Great Lakes with a different perspective. And here its pivotal role in my career. Lastly a case of "AI to the rescue", it's  listed on my blog's pinned post under 2026. 

In my initial post of this series, I wrote (caps added):

That prompted me now to look up geophysical data (aeromagnetic anomalies, Wikipedia): will it allow to GLIMPSE terranes in the subsurface below the Great Lakes, as well as earlier Archean and later Phanerozoic features such as, respectively, the Wawa Lineament and the Niagara Escarpment? Lo-and-behold, I found aeromagnetic data (NOAA) and sketch-mapped them below on my desktop GIS (Esri)!

Richard Cœur de Lion's return trip

This follows on from new maps posted on history & newmaps.

Update: added fun calculation about castles at the bottom

Update 2: for an excellent narrative, go to Lionheart Substack here

Medievalist.net posted here a rethink of the circumstances of Lionheart's return from the Third Crusade, summary here and in three-sentences:

The article presents Attila Bárány’s argument that Richard I’s capture after the Third Crusade was primarily a product of high politics, not an accident of storms, pride, or divine punishment. Richard’s secretive, indirect route home and his decision to pass through risky territories are treated as calculated responses to the political threats posed by figures like Philip Augustus and Emperor Henry VI, who could profit from his detention. Leopold V’s personal resentment is seen as a catalyst rather than a sufficient cause, with Richard’s captivity and ransom functioning as tools of imperial strategy and diplomatic theatre.

Even more maps, with a twist

In this opening view from this video here, doesn't the Grand Canyon appear inverted to you? As in the deep parts pop up instead of down!

click to enlarge 

"All you have to do is ask AI", sometimes

Let's follow on this post here about more intriguing geomorphology (land forms underpinned by geology), with a little help from AI in the first instance.

Hungary 

LinkedIn @markku-ylisirniö posted here a cool map of Hungary:

screen grab from original post, click to enlarge 

East Anglia environment in a global context

 This follows on blogposts about East Anglia in general here. The last post on infrastructure affected by sea level rise is here. Contrast below Environment England's Risk of flooding from river and from sea at left for waters coming naturalls from onshore & offsore, and my Seal level rise model by simply intersecting various sea level elevations and Ordnance Survey topogaphy (intro here and workshop here). Think of it below as fresh water largely going NE to the North Sea at left, and at right as sea water encroaching largely SW onto the land: