Even my fourth grade world history book (probably not written by a Catholic) only had maybe four lines about him one which was he wanted to divorce his first wife and so broke with the Catholic Church. The next line was something about him marrying five more times.
That was it.
So the only Americans who would know anything more about him would be the Catholics to whom he was a great villain.
People tend to ignore subjects that they don't know a great deal about so you have the preponderance of American Henry bashers being Catholic.
I don’t tend to agree with your statement that Catholics are more knowledgable regarding Henry VIII than Americans in general. I’d say they know the negatives and only the negatives, viewed strictly through the lens of religion. This lumping of Henry VIII into Protestantism would have been a serious affront to him and to the Church of England. Despite the garbled history insisted upon by some, he persecuted the Reformers right up there with the worst on the European continent and professed himself Catholic for most if not all his life, despite breaking with Rome.
And outside of school, the general public, here, in America, used to know all about Brit history and Henry VII, from books and movies; it was part of general knowledge, no matter what religion one practiced.
And outside of school, the general public, here, in America, used to know all about Brit history and Henry VII, from books and movies; it was part of general knowledge, no matter what religion one practiced.