The Henry VIII thing is an interesting one, because we all know he was a total bastard (the current David Starkey series on Channel 4 is called 'Mind of a Tyrant', though it's clear Starkey loves him!), but - for purely selfish reasons of his own - the Reformation happened in his reign. Protestantism in England predates his reign, of course, but from then on (with a blip with Bloody Mary) it's the official State religion and in its various forms, the driving force behind Britain's (global) development (I'm an atheist, btw, but I'm fascinated by early protestantism, millenarian revolutionary sects, etc - I was utterly astonished by the way that programme last night skipped over the religious issue in the French Revolution in a couple of lines!). As such, he's a crucial figure, and acknowledged as such. There's an expression here, 'he's a bastard, but he's our bastard', which I suppose explains the attitude a bit.