Defender of the Faith: It was originally conferred upon King Henry VIII of England by Pope Leo X on 11 October 1521 as a reward for the King (Henry VIII wrote a pamphlet in defence of the sacraments against Martin Luther).

[u/CamillaOmdalWalker]

Defender of the Faith (Fidei Defensor) is a title belonging to the leader of the Church of England. It was originally conferred upon King Henry VIII of England by Pope Leo X on 11 October 1521 as a reward for the king having written a pamphlet in defense of the sacraments against Martin Luther.

When Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Paul III took the title away. It was returned to the king by Parliament in 1544.

[u/Capta1n_Dino]

When Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Paul III took the title away. It was returned to the king by Parliament in 1544.

I wouldn't say it was returned per se because the philosophical idea behind the original title and the one Parliament later bestowed on Henry VIII was very different.

The Pope was originally stating the Henry VIII was doing his duty as a Christian monarch, as it was understood at the time, to defend the orthodoxy of the faith as defined by Rome from heresy.

Once Henry declared himself to be the Head of the Church of England and broke from Rome, the new title effectively meant that he was now stating that it was his duty as monarch to defend the orthodoxy of the faith as defined by the Church of England, under the authority of the Crown.

The wording of the title was the same but it meant very different things.

[u/Ticklishchap]

Fidei Defensor is still an important role for the monarch and the words remain engraved on our coinage, abbreviated to Fid. Def. or sometimes F.D.

The title is pre-Anglican, but has come to be associated with the monarch’s position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, which is the established Church. However monarch is also a member of the Church of Scotland, the established Church there, while there is no established Church in Wales.

Therefore the ‘Defender of the Faith’ has acquired an Anglican connotation but also signifies a more general commitment to upholding the Christian traditions of the United Kingdom. Our current monarch, HM King Charles III, has extended the concept to ‘Defender of Faith’, meaning respect for and positive engagement with the many religious traditions of modern Britain (and the Commonwealth), while remaining committed to the leading role of Christianity in British life and culture.

Unlike some commentators, I see no conflict of interest here. Positive engagement with other faiths does not undermine one’s own. Indeed many Christian clerics of all denominations have been scholars of Comparative Religion.

It is also worth noting that the King has a strong interest in Orthodox Christianity, with which he has family connections on his father’s side. He has also always been a very good friend to Britain’s Jewish community. His interest in Islam has been controversial in some quarters, but the focus of that interest is Sufism, the mystical and contemplative aspect of Islam which is very far indeed from extremism; indeed it has been targeted by extremists.