Because the CoE claims to go as far back as the Christianization of England, not simply when Henry VIII broke away from Rome.
I think it’s a dubious argument, but that’s what I’ve seen presented so far.
It’s a lie. It’s a lie that attacks the historical truth that Henry V and all the plantagenets were Catholic.
Apparently some would rather believe that Mary brought her Catholicism from Spain.
It’s simply NOT dubious that the Church in England, and the Church of England, have been the same entity, before and after the Reformation-era split with Rome. The same bishops, same cathedrals, same churches...which were once in communion with Rome, broke communion with Rome—with the Act of Supremacy in 1534. It wasn’t a group of rebels that “stole” churches from the Roman catholics, rather the whole country—like it or not—withdrew from Roman church rule.
If alliance to Jesus makes a church denomination a Church—than the CofE goes back nearly 2000 years; if alliance to Rome is what makes a denomination a church then, well CofE hasn’t been a Church in nearly 500 years. You can’t have it both ways—either the CofE is, and always has been, Christian, or not.