Card of the Day: King Henry VIII Making Obeisance Before the Altar

Oh, Henry VIII. He was a lot of trouble. A man with appetites as large as his belly, he went through women as often as he went through chickens. And, he ate a lot of chickens. Nonetheless, we remember him and he did father several powerful historical figures including Mary I, Elizabeth I and Edward VI.
Still, his historical importance notwithstanding, I’m not quite sure why his image is included in a set of cigarette cards devoted to the 1935 Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary. They weren’t even the same strain of the Royal Family of Britain.

I suppose these incongruous images owe more to the desire of Churchman’s Cigarette Company to show the historical progression of Royal Coronations and Jubilees through the ages. Here, we see King Henry VIII—looking rather thin—making obeisance before the altar.

Each of these steps, both the glorious and the misguided, were step closer to our current place in world history—not just the history of Britain or the U.S., but the world as a whole.