A closer look
When Henry VIII threw a tantrum and dissolved the monasteries, centuries of irreplaceable historical records were destined for the medieval equivalent of the shredder. Enter Matthew Parker, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who went on a hoarding spree so aggressive it makes modern antiquarians weep. He salvaged thousands of manuscripts entirely to rewrite history and prove the English Church predated Catholicism. He even casually doodled in them with red chalk like a toddler, horrifying modern archivists while simultaneously saving British history.
