The topic of the relationship between capitalism, England, and Al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl (the Antichrist) is so intricate, so deep, and so vast in scope that writing a summary would not do justice to it. It requires a separate book.
The Metamorphosis
The Tudor Dynasty took over the reins of power in 1485 AD and ruled till 16O3 AD. However, during the 1490s, the House of Tudor faced one of its biggest challenges. The word challenge is probably an understatement; it was a decade-long trauma and nightmare that threatened the very existence of the House of Tudor and the ruling English establishment with it [1].
In 1490, an impostor, Perkin Warbeck, proclaimed while in Burgundy, France, that he is the illegitimate son of King Edward IV of England. The news must have shaken to the core, the very foundations of the establishment and the House of Tudor [2]. It is a separate story that the House of Tudor traces their ancestry to one John Beaufort, who was an illegitimate son of King Edward III [3].
In 1491, Perkin Warbeck started his campaign from Ireland to claim the throne. Fairly quickly, he managed to gain support from influential people within England and Europe, including Scotland, Ireland, France, and the Pope as well. And yes, the Tudors’ relationship with the Vatican was not warm and friendly, which only deteriorated further in time.
The intense mounting pressure on the English establishment pushed them to make undesirable compromises. In November of 1492, England signed a treaty with France, Peace of Etaples, thus returning all the French territory occupied by the English back to France; in exchange, France stopped support for Perkin Warbeck.
Two major incidents from 1495 further highlight the significance of this crisis.
- William Stanley, the Lord Chamberlain is executed for supporting Warbeck. The Lord Chamberlain is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. England was deeply divided at this time.
- In July of the same year, Perkin Warbeck’s troops landed at Deal, Kent, in support of his claim to the English crown. But they were defeated. He ran away first to Ireland and then to Scotland.
Despite all, he was proclaimed a king in Bodmin, Cornwall in 1497 but was caught the same year and finally hanged in November of 1499. Whether Perkin Warbeck was genuine or a pretender is not important. What is important is the impact the Perkin Warbeck saga had on the psyche of the Tudors as well as on the psyche of England itself. The post-hoc interpretation of this whole affair indicates that this traumatic experience maligned the psyche of England.
The threat was serious, and it must have created a lot of insecurity and fear. Fear triggers a survival response that can be converted or channelled into a purpose. England channelled its fear by creating a new purpose – that purpose was a lust to dominate and conquer. So that external or internal rivals, such as the Pope, are never in a position to manipulate or try to subjugate England again. In this pursuit, if moral values and divine laws had to be side-lined, then so be it. This is exactly what was required by the Antichrist.
Thus, subsequently, England was rewarded with the title of perfidious Albion. This honouring should not be too surprising [4]. When you make an alliance with the Antichrist, there is only one boss.
This does not mean that becoming perfidious was the only thing that helped England become strong. On the contrary, England had a developing economy, and its judicial system was not corrupted, at least not in England. Perhaps the biggest success story of England’s judicial system is the Magna Carta, a charter agreed to by King John of England in the year 1215 AD [5]. The Antichrist began his work not by corrupting and dominating the judicial system but rather by the religious system.
References
[1] “1490s in England,” 06 09 2024. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1490s_in_England.
[2] “House of Tudor,” 24 10 2024. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Tudor.
[3] “Perkin Warbeck,” 19 10 2024. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkin_Warbeck.
[4] “Perfidious Albion,” 24 09 2024. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfidious_Albion.
[5] “Magna Carta,” 21 09 2024. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta.
