Edward VI of England church property that had begun under Henry VIII resumed under Edward—notably with the dissolution of the chantries—to the great monetary advantage of the crown and the new owners of the seized property. Church reform was therefore as much a political as a religious policy under Edward VI. By the end of his reign, the church had been financially ruined, with much of the property of the bishops transferred into lay hands. The religious convictions of both Somerset and Northumberland have proved elusive for historians, who are divided on the sincerity of their Protestantism. There is less doubt, however, about the
Tunnelling the English Channel plays the leader of the Salvation Army parade. King Edward was played by a wash-house attendant who closely resembled the monarch, reprising a role he had played five years before in Méliès's film "The Coronation of Edward VII". Special effects used in the film include stage machinery, pyrotechnics, substitution splices, superimpositions, and dissolves. "Tunneling the English Channel" was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 936–950 in its catalogues, where it was advertised as a "fantaisie burlesque à grand spectacle en 30 tableaux". For many of his longer films, Georges Méliès prepared a "boniment", a spoken commentary explaining