HENRY VIII

The religious reformation took place in king Henry's reign. He took away the roman Catholicism from England, and replaced it with the Protestant religion. King Henry's wife Catherine of Aragon was unable to give Henry a son, and also the fact that King Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn drove him to get a divorce from Catherine. He requested that the Pope Clement VII grant him a divorce so he could re-marry, however it was unethical to Catholics to get a divorce as they believed that marriage is for life, the Roman Catholic Church simply did not allow it. King Henry then went to the Archbishop of Canterbury to grant him the divorce, but William Warham didn’t. Matters were getting worse as Anne was pregnant, Henry needed to marry her or else the child wouldn’t be legitimate. However, King Henry was luck, and William Warham had died, so he appointed Thomas Cranmer to be the next Archbishop and Cranmer granted him the divorce. In 1534, two years after the divorce, the Act of Supremacy took place, and this was caused the break from the Roman Catholic Church, and Henry became the supreme head of the Church of England. This caused King Henry to gain a lot more power than he already had. After a while in around 1536, the dissolution of monasteries took place. The monasteries were very wealthy, they owned vast amounts of land, and they were very loyal to the Pope. This threatened Henry. Also, the monks were corrupt and wicked, they didn’t help the poor they took money from them. King Henry started taking down the monasteries which helped him gain more wealth, more land, and stopped the monks from troubling the poor. The reformation helped the government gain power over politics and laws as prior to the reformation the Church used to govern the politics. The reformation may have happened a long time ago, but it showed people that England is a powerful country it is very independent. King Henry may have torn a lot of people apart, but he also like to unite them as