King Henry Viii's Divorce Against The Catholic Religion

King Henry VIII became king of England in 1509, he married Catherine of Aragon, the first of his six wives, that same year. He would then go on to marry five other women up until 1547. In the 1500’s, many marriages were not for love, but rather money and social status. When the wives of King Henry VIII were not able to provide a male heir, he wanted an annulment, which the Catholic Church denied, therefore he created the Church of England so he was able to get a divorce. King Henry VIII declared himself head of the new church.

Even though King Henry VIII was the king, he couldn’t convince the Pope to make his new religion final. The reason behind this was the fact that it was against the Catholic Religion. King Henry VIII was very
King Henry VIII then decided to come up with a religion where divorce was legal, The Church of England. By 1533, everybody was too scared to tell him that he couldn’t do that. Many people in England were mad at the Roman Catholic Church for stealing their money by having to pay for marriages, baptisms and funerals to get to heaven. So when England split from them, many were very happy. Henry knew of the Catholic church’s unpopularity, and used it to his advantage. Henry made himself Supreme Head of the Church by an Act of Parliament in 1534. The country was still Catholic even though the Pope’s power had ended. Many wealthy Catholics were the monks in the monasteries, and the Pope’s most loyal supporters. King Henry VIII was scared of them, so he decided to prove that the monks weren’t helpful and just stole peoples money. He made the Dissolution happen. It was called this because he wanted them to dissolve to nothing. He decided to send people to the monasteries asking questions that proved that the monks were useless no matter how they answered. Slowly, the monasteries disappeared. One report claimed that the monks in one monastery had eight to ten mistresses each. In another, a monk was accused of fathering six children, which was illegal since they took a vow of celibacy. By 1536, many of the smaller monasteries were taken down, and by 1540, the majority of the larger ones were also taken down. Few monks protested, but some of the chief monks were hanged, but this was very rare. Some of the monastery buildings were ruined by the locals because they were allowed to take anything as long as the silver and gold went to King Henry VIII. This alone was enough to make people like the Dissolution. However, the majority of the items in the monasteries was taken by King Henry VIII. “The only