Preparing for my Presentation

Whitby3
Originally uploaded by woden325.

The class I'm taking is called Great Women of Shakespeare's England, and in the run-up to the trip, each student has to make a presentation. In the presentation, the student must discuss one of the aforementioned great women, and also discuss one of the destinations.
The woman I chose was Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. I'll have more to say about Henry and Catherine later.
The location I chose was Whitby Abbey, which is one of my favorite places in the world.
I took the picture you see here on my previous trip there in July, 2000. You can see the full set here.
Whitby abbey was founded as a mixed abbey well back in the 7^th century by St. Hilda. It was the scene of the Synod of Whitby in 664, when the Northumbrian King, Oswy, ordered the church to celebrate Easter according to the Roman calendar, rather than the Celtic one. The current building is of later construction, mostly 14^th century. It was ruined when Henry VIII ordered the suppression of the monasteries after his break with Rome. Why did Henry break with Rome, you may ask? So he could divorce Catherine of Aragon.
So Whitby bears witness to both the Roman Catholic origins of the the English church, as well as its transformation to the Protestant Church of England today.