All new history alters the significance of all previous history, and for Calderón the present could not but alter the past. Ribadeneyra's interpretation of history (his first Part was published in the year of the Armada) was dictated by the spirit in which he approached it: ‘Who will not abhor so diabolical a sect? Who will not wonder at the patience of the Lord, who endures them? Who will not fight against these monsters? Who will not believe that victory is certain?’No intelligent Spaniard could approach the history of England in that spirit some thirty-four years later. When the original paper, which the last chapter largely reproduces, was published, it was generally accepted that Calderón's play must have been written after 1639 and before 1652, probably therefore after the outbreak of the English Civil War, and perhaps even after the execution of Charles I (an event which aroused consternation and horror in Spain). My essay gave this as the probable reason for Calderón's compassionate treatment of the earlier English king.

After the publication of that original paper it was discovered that a private performance of La cisma de Ingalaterra had been given to Philip IV in the palace, for which payment was made on 31 March 1627. We do not know whether this was the first performance, nor whether the play then performed was the play as we now have it. Assuming that this is the case, the likelihood is that the play was begun, if not completed, in 1626.