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The dissolution of the monasteries: mindless violence or planned precision? The dissolution of the monasteries has long been cast as an orgy of mindless violence unleashed by a hot-headed Henry VIII. Yet this was a precision-planned operation, writes Hugh Willmott, and wanton destruction wasn’t its primary aim Published: February 1, 2021 at 1:27 pm The dissolution of the monasteries was the greatest single act of vandalism in English, and perhaps European history,” undertaken by “a grasping and tyrannical king, and effected through… ruthless, cynical and philistine men.” So wrote the architectural historian Sir Howard Colvin in an essay on the topic in 1999. ....