The year is 1510. Henry VIII ascends to the throne of England, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Thus begins an era of reverence and gallantry in the British Isles, one that has seldom been repeated at such a profound scale. As the young king assumes power, he brings with him a vibrant energy that promises to invigorate the British Isles. His reign, full of potential and anticipation, stands to reshape England’s cultural and political landscapes. From the hallowed halls of the royal court to the bustling streets of London, there's a palpable sense of expectancy.
This documentary will explore the pivotal moments and hidden facets of Henry VIII's rule. Join us as we delve into an era where intrigue, ambition, and innovation intertwine, setting the stage for a transformative period in English history that continues to fascinate the world During this pivotal period, the British Isles witnessed significant changes, most notably the reformation of the Church of England—a topic well-trodden on by historians. Yet, often overlooked are Henry's significant exploits on the European continent. This documentary aims to shed light on these lesser-known aspects of his reign, which arguably have exerted a profound influence on modern society. In the quiet, moonless night of the Caspian Sea, the Spanish Fleet sets forth under the stridulous command of General Alvaro Ambrosio de Riviera. No objective consumes his mind more than the conquest of England and its trusts. The King’s word to bring glory to the declining Spanish Empire still fresh in his mind, he contemplates a development through which his information channels could be sidelined such that England’s dominance of European affairs would be no more. To no avail, he rests his bitter gaze upon the rocks of Eur-Panessi, running through his battle plan one last time, before his senior commander calls him to the bridge for help with navigation
However, a small patrol of Indian merchants see the oncoming forces under the moonlight. Within hours, Sir Gavin Merlancaster of the British Raj is notified. A telegram is sent to the British throne. It is then that Henry IX begins coordinating a counter attack. The Spanish fleet seek to take control over vital British trading outposts. A state of emergency is declared, as it is known that the Spanish could easily overpower the feeble British navy. Henry VIII has only hours to decide on which positions to fortify.
Lord Adebowale, 10th Earl of Chichester, takes a swig of Welsh Rum as he unearths his fortune to buy freedom from the incoming Spanish. Lord Graggals, Chancellor of the Exchequer, takes flight to his estate in the City of London, not prepared to face the feared Moorish swordsmen.
In Buckingham palace, Parliament convenes to discuss an early cavalry strike. Henry orders the great Commander Butterfield, appointed by Henry’s late father King Edward IV, to set sail from his Sinhalese post. Butterfield intends to flank the Spanish supply routes, thus giving time for the full force of England to make its frontal offence.
But Ambrosio, through unseen techniques, knows his every move, and within less than two annums, a naval skirmish has commenced off the coast of Aix-en-Provence. The Spanish fleet, its numbers alone decimating hope for the English sailors, can claim no complaint in their performance, and for a second it appears that Butterfield will go down as the commander that lost England.
But then, the Spanish frontlines, under heavy bombardment, moved forth at great haste. Lord Duke Garlington of the 9th regiment, under Captain Abraham Norwich, parries with a wedge manoeuvre. Garlington, having studied the great military tacticians of the likes of Hannibal, Alexander the Great and Napoleon forms a defensive pike over the rugged waters. The Pike is well defended against artillery, however, it is a slow and rigid formation. The Spanish’s brigadiers expect such a tight formation, and as such begin their artillery onslaught. The pike formation is highly undefended against artillery, and soon, the once mighty English fleet has been reduced to a mere shell of its former self, its size better fit for a war museum exhibit than a naval battle against the mighty Spanish Empire.
Garlington notes in his journal: “As I write, good men hurl buckets of water out of ships steadfastly constructed by the mighty labour of the British Empire. Under no condition shall this ship be downed under my command; at least, not from cannons fired by the Spanish.”. It was in these violent waters that Garlington’s ship was downed.
Once again, hope had proven irrational. But all was not lost for England, for an old friend lay its fleet not far from its fragile shores. It was none other than the Great General Benjamin Franklin, President of the United States, a colony and good ally of the United Kingdom. It was a lowly Spanish soldier by the name of Miguel Cabanellas who saw what appeared like a flag, only it was crested with 13 shining red and white stripes and a blue inset of too many white stars to count, a design he had never seen before. He informed his lieutenant of the peculiarity, who, not believing his eyes himself, sends a letter to his loyal King, Philip XLVIII. It is passed on to Riviera, who ordered they fire their cannons at the object. But when the lieutenant received the message, the once insignificant flag has risen to form a magnificent navy of more than twelve times a dozen less than ten thousand.
The President arrives, and at once he boarded the ship of Garlington to discussed the lifting of tariffs on cotton from the British West Indies. The Spanish, unfamiliar with trench warfare, are felled under the heavy machine gun fire of the American fleet.
The French, under the agreements of the Warsaw Pact, quickly ally with the English, and send a trade consort that provides the British frontlines with dearly needed supplies including an additional food surplus, pottery, and salt water for bathing. In return, King George III agrees with King Pierre II of the French Republic to sign the Magna Carta, thus forming the French-English treaty of Versailles.
From an outsider's perspective, Riviera was done for. His fleet floundered in the waters against the famed Virginian cavalry, and he was forced to make an embarrassing retreat from Scotland.
As General Ambrosio’s navy retreats, the murmurs of other potentates resonate across the Mediterranean's expanse. While the few historians who do speak on the war of 1481 provide great detail on the European theatre, the number who venture their focus across the salty seas of the Atlantic to the dusty, arid landscapes that form the stalwart backbone of the great Umayyad Caliphate, are even further reduced, so much to the point that the common person knows less than mere whispers of these episodes of history. In this realm, where the echo of the muezzin's call mingles with the clamour of marketplaces, stands Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I. His dominion, a crucible of myriad cultures and creeds, flourishes under his ardent stewardship. Known for his diplomatic shrewdness and the fervour with which he governs, Bayezid oversees an empire burgeoning with intellectual and artistic vigour—a stark antithesis to the martial strife unsettling Western Europe. As we explore the tenure of Bayezid I, we reveal an epoch characterised by both strategic consolidation and bold confrontations. His decisions reverberate through the annals of history, moulding the political contours of the region for generations to ensue. Meanwhile in the Spanish courts, Ambrosio forms another plan. Knowing Henry VIII personally since his youth, he understands both his cunning, but also his gall. He knows that if he feigns a vulnerable broadwing formation, Henry will not resist the temptation to strike hard prematurely, thus exposing the prime of his fleet to a slice attack by the Namibian cavalry that have made the Niger River Delta a household name as far as Scandinavia. However, Henry has by now returned to England, so this has no effect.
Alas, now in defensive positions along the British shore, the Allies can do nothing but bide their time. However, a desperate lack of freshwater haunts them and their prospects of victory. Riviera just needs to wait them out long enough.
It is now that Henry returns from his time in Britain to assist in the war efforts on the frontlines. He proposes a bill to Parliament in London that will provide much-needed artillery and supplies to the Spanish soldiers, but the Parliamentarians stubbornly refuse unless they are guaranteed a share of the plunder from the Spanish capitals. Henry, eying the profits himself, fails to grant royal assent, much to the disappointment of Andrew Griffith, MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, who proposed the bill.
As the weary forces of the Allies regroup and bolster their defences, the tides of war shift ominously and unpredictably. The year is now 1511, and the winter’s icy grip strangles the morale and capabilities of forces on both sides. Henry VIII, resolute and determined, convenes a secret council in the dimly-lit chambers of Westminster Abbey with some of the finest minds in the kingdom on the topic of war. Nicholas Flamel, Duke of Gloucester, a descendant of Sir Henry Aldwell who fought so bravely in 1066, suggests a covert operation to sabotage the Spanish supply lines.
His proposal is met with scepticism, particularly from the more conservative members of the council who prefer a traditional horse-on-bridge approach like the one proven effective in the Hundred Years War. But Henry takes great interest in the idea, and takes action to encourage his council of ministers to request the establishment of a select committee in the House of Lords by the Lord Speaker, with the stated aim of reviewing the potential allocation of funds towards the creation of a task force and respective independent advisory commission to recommend and oversee the appointment of a special force of soldiers to undertake the mission, though the process is delayed for several weeks by the apparent lack of suitable persons to form the committee’s independent constitutional council.
However, when Henry learns that the expedition shall be commanded by the famed Sir Thomas Blackwood, Earl Marshal of Lancaster Dukenshire, who led the British forces so fearlessly in the American-English war of 1509, he scraps the committee and decrees the operation forthcoming, in spite of frequent murmurs of protest in the House of Commons to be seen in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, General Alvaro Ambrosio de Riviera, impatient with the slow succession of the events brought on by the winter grind, is granted special powers by King Philip, which he uses to declare a state of emergency and thereby devote the entire resources of the Spanish Kingdom to the war efforts. He fortifies his position in France and the Isles of Scilly so that he can take his mind off them, and plans a decisive strike against Allied forces. His spies, deeply embedded within English ranks, relay crucial information on the Allies’ movements and weaknesses. An emissary serving in the Spanish Moroccan colony writes: “Amidst the clangour of war that resonates from home, I find myself embroiled in only local matters—the unexpected scarcity of olive gardens in our midday repasts; oh how I do wish I was back home.”
Ambrosio’s plan was to launch a devastating attack on English forces in Cornwall, particularly around their stronghold in Torquay. If successful, he would be in a good position to reclaim Scotland, which would spread English forces thin across the wide border of Normandy
Control of Cornwall, given its strategic location at the mouth of the British Channel, and the ability armies who control it have to syphon their forces into the channel, was absolutely essential for the second part of the plan to be successful; a full-on assault of Allied forces along the English and French shores. This would give them the casus belli to surround the English Isles in their entirety
This would be the only possible way that the third part of the plan would succeed, that being a complete conquest of Britain, including full domination of its sovereign territory, the decimation of its government and institutions, and the rape and massacre of its civilians. This could only happen if Riviera had the ability to attack from all sides, as otherwise the strong British forces on the mainland would just overpower and annihilate them.
Once Britain was occupied, Ambrosio could send his troops into Cornwall, completing the first part of the plan. Full supremacy of England was the only position an army could stand from for it to be feasible to attack Cornwall in any effective manner. Otherwise, its defensive geography and strong battalions would vanquish any invading forces if they lacked supply from the rest of Britain.
After reviewing the situation, Ambrosio concludes this is the only way he can possibly win the war. He assembles his elite group of commanders to a meeting at the ruins of Axeloti Zoma, an ancient monument of the Statucci people built hundreds of years before the World Wars even began.
As they look up at the ancient inscriptions, Riviera gives a short speech in which he recounts the history of his hatred of the English, dating back to when the then Prince Henry stole a slice of venison from him at a family gathering in New Caledonia.
As he weasels his words around, trying to find a neat way to both warn his commanders of the effort that will be required against the English for victory, while also portraying the English as unintelligent, incompetent and inferior, he reminds them of the trickery and deception the British will use even for the slightest gains, and warns that force alone will not be sufficient to ensure a defeat against the Allies, but that the employment of strategy and reasoning is also prerequisite.
As they look up at the ancient inscriptions showing hunters using intelligence rather than merely strength to outmanoeuvre their prey, Ambrosio gives one final remark, repeating the goals of the mission and pleading his commanders to put in their best effort for the Spanish Kingdom. They leave, the date of the 13th of March agreed upon as the date when their respective armies will carry out their operation, when the Spring air will conceal their movements
Then, Blackwood and his mercenaries successfully sabotage the Spanish flagship, the Gallaquieno. The Spanish are forced to surrender.
King Henry VIII and Queen Henrietta VIII awake to a dazzling dawn from their Royal vessel, as they watch American forces raid the last Spanish ship. Word of the Allied victory has spread like wildfire across the Earth, as does the actual wildfire consuming the Gallaquieno in the horizon. As he stands and watches the American soldiers brutally assault the Spanish survivors, he can only think back to how he was when the war started in 1509, and compare that to how he is now. The friendships he has made, lessons he has learned, relationships he has forged, knowledge he has attained, bonds he has built and wisdom he has earned come back to him. But most importantly, he will now be remembered as one of the greatest military commanders in history,
General Ambrosio de Riviera, his ambitions shattered, is captured and brought before Henry. In a gesture of magnanimity, his life is spared, sending a message of clemency and strength to the world. The Great War of 1491, though marked by strife and suffering, ultimately forges a new era of unity and cooperation among the nations. Involving 70 countries, lasting multiple years, and killing over 20 million people, armies left the battlegrounds with an enhanced understanding of what it means to be human. Many of the greatest war generals today, including George Washington, Horatio Nelson, Napoleon Bonaparte and Douglas Macarthur, all had ancestors who were alive during the war. The lessons learned and alliances forged amidst this tumultuous period lay the groundwork for a future where the spectre of war is but a distant memory, and the bonds of friendship and mutual respect prevail. These events were to form a forever unbreakable bond between England, France, America and the UK.