Apparently unsure whether he’d sufficiently demoralized supporters and pushed himself officially into the second tier of presidential candidates, Rick Perry after the debate started riffing on how the American Revolution happened in the 1500s.

Possibly after Henry VIII executed one of his wives who was born in America. Or something like that.

All jokes aside, NBC News Carrie Dann quotes Perry explaining how the “reason we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown.”