1. The King’s Great Matter
Henry VIII and the English Reformation

2. Henry VIII, c. 1509
Thomas Wolsey

3. In 1509, Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, the 24 year-old widow of his brother, Arthur.

4. When Catherine married Arthur, he was 14 and whe was 15
When Catherine married Arthur, he was 14 and whe was 15. Catherine swore that her marriage to the frail Arthur was never consummated.
Arthur, Prince of Wales

5. Catherine bore three children, one stillborn and two who died within months of their birth. In 1516, she gave birth to the Princess Mary. Two additional miscarriages followed Mary’s birth.
Princess Mary, c. 1544

6. Henry VIII in his early 30s
Henry VIII “united such corporal and mental beauty as not merely to surprise but to astonish all men.”
--a Venetian ambassador
Henry VIII in his early 30s

7. Henry VIII jousting, while Catherine looks on.

8. 1514: Archbishop of York
1515: Cardinal
1515: Lord Chancellor
1524: Papal Legate
Thomas Wolsey

9. Who made policy—King or minister?
Most historians agree that the King made policy but that his minister (Wolsey) implemented that policy.

10. Three Rival Princes Henry VIII, Defender of the Faith
Francis I, Most Christian King of France
Charles V, Most Catholic Majesty of Spain and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

11. Henry was at a disadvantage in European diplomacy!
England had less population and wealth than did Spain or France.
Geographically, England was far from the center of continental rivalry.
Scotland remained a problem.
Emperor Charles controlled the Low Countries—essential ports for English wool.

12. Areas under the control of Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Empire is outlined in red.
Yellow areas are Spanish dominions.

13. Wolsey and Henry favoured a Spanish alliance.
Economic necessity—Charles could terminate English wool exports at will.
Habit—France was England’s traditional enemy.
Dynasty—Charles V was the nephew of Henry’s wife, Catherine of Aragon.
Personal—Charles could ensure Wolsey’s election as Pope.

14. Control of the Papal States and influence over the Pope was the principal goal of France and Spain.
1525: troops of the Emperor Charles captured Francis I.
1527: imperial troops sacked Rome.
Pope Clement VII

15. Miniature portrait of Catherine of Aragon
A critical situation!
Just when the Pope became a prisoner of the Emperor Charles, Henry demanded what only an independent pope could grant—an annulment of his marriage to his 42-year-old wife.
Miniature portrait of Catherine of Aragon

16. Henry wanted to marry Anne Boleyn for both personal and dynastic reasons.

17. Clement proposed several possible compromises—but Henry was determined that the legitimacy of his heir could not be questioned.
For this, he needed a legal annulment and a legal wife!
Pope Clement VII

18. Wolsey’s failure to secure an annulment for Henry caused his downfall.
In 1529, he was accused of treason (for violating the ancient Statute of Praemunire).
On his way to the Tower, Wolsey died of a heart attack.
Cardinal Wolsey

19. Henry VIII and the Reformation Parliament
Met for seven years
Enacted 137 statutes, 32 of which were of vital national importance.

20. From 1529 to 1532, Parliament enacted a series of acts aimed at church reform:
Mortuaries Act: ended church income from arranging funerals
Probate Act: ended church income from probate of wills
Charged the Convocation of Bishops with treason for recognizing Wolsey as the Pope’s representative
Statute of Annates: abolished traditional payments to the Pope.

21. Sketch of Anne Boleyn, done while she was pregnant in 1533
On January 25, 1533, Henry and Anne Boleyn were secretly married—she was already pregnant.
Sketch of Anne Boleyn, done while she was pregnant in 1533

22. Henry appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury a 43-year-old Cambridge University professor—Thomas Cranmer.
Thomas Cranmer

23. Henry VIII, by Hans Holbein
Henry and Cranmer agreed—Henry, not the Pope, spoke for God in England!
Henry VIII, by Hans Holbein

24. Sketch of Anne Boleyn, by Hans Holbein
Henry searched his conscience and found the solution to his trouble in a passage in Leviticus:
“. . . If a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing. . ., they shall be childless.” (Leviticus 20:21)
Sketch of Anne Boleyn, by Hans Holbein

25. April 1533: Act in Restraint of Appeals
--all spiritual cases would henceforth be determined within England and “not elsewhere”—including that of Queen Catherine’s marriage.

26. The marriage of Henry and Catherine was annulled by order of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in May, 1533.

27. Henry VIII rests his foot on the prostrate body of Pope Clement VII.

28. Miniature portrait of Anne Boleyn
June, 1533:
Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen of England
Miniature portrait of Anne Boleyn

29. But, “to the great shame and confusion of physicians, astrologers, witches, and wizards, all of whom affirmed the child would be a boy,” the child born at three in the afternoon on September 7, 1533, was a girl, Elizabeth Tudor.
Princess Elizabeth, c

30. More Parliamentary statutes:
All clerical appointments were now made solely by the King.
No further papal taxes—now redirected to the King’s treasury.
The Pope’s name was removed from the services of the English Church.

31. March 1534: Act of Succession
Required all church and state officials to accept the King’s marriage to Anne and the declaration that “The Lady Mary” was now a bastard.

32. Medallion showing Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church
November, 1534:
The Act of Supremacy
Henry VIII is acknowledged as “Supreme Head of the Church of England.
Medallion showing Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church

33. 1536: Act Against Papal Authority
All church and state officials must take an oath that the King was the “only Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England.”
To refuse was treason!

34. International monastic foundations were an anomaly in a national church.

35. The monastery of Jarrow
Between , land worth £2 million was nationalised—1/4 of all cultivated land in England.

36. Woburn Abbey
Sale of monastic lands to the “new men” of Tudor England committed the governing elements of the realm to the ideal of a national church!

37. Cromwell’s goal was an efficient and effective government.
Rearranged the collection of royal revenue
Required all parish priests to keep a register of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths.
Thomas Cromwell

38. The Church of England remained Catholic and orthodox in every way but one—it was English and Henrician, not Roman and papal.

39. Henry II and Thomas à Becket
The Reformation in England created the modern sovereign national state.
Henry VIII achieved what Henry II had failed to do—subjugate an international priesthood that followed a legal jurisdiction above the crown.

40. Preamble to the Act in Restraint of Appeals:
“This realm of England is an empire governed by one supreme head and king,” and the monarch in endowed with “plenary, whole and entire power, preeminence, authority, prerogative and jurisdiction to render justice and yield justice and final determination to all manner of folk.”

41. In England, the Reformation began through an accident of marriage and not through the hearts of believers.
Martin Luther

42. Catholicism without the Pope was a “Via Media” or middle way.

43. What was the English Reformation?
An act of governmental coercion?
The result of a long debate over the role of the church and state and the product of a growing anti-clericalism?
The result of religious apathy on the part of the English people?

44. The Reformation as a act of state:
Without Henry’s determination to rid himself of his first wife, the Reformation would never have happened!
Catherine of Aragon

45. The Reformation as a process:
The roots of religious change lie in England’s past—Henry VIII succeeded where Henry II had failed.

46. John Wycliffe and the Lollards

47. The Hunne Case, 1515
In a controversy over “benefit of clergy”, Henry VIII declared that “Kings of England have never had any superior but God above.”
This was in 1515—twenty years before the Act of Supremacy!

48. Cardinal Wolsey was an example of a corrupt priest:
In 1527, Wolsey was Cardinal, Papal Legate, Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop of York, and Abbot of St. Albans (the richest monastery in England).
His church revenues equalled £10,000, while bribes from foreign and domestic sources increased that revenue to £50,000.

49. Hampton Court, the west end (part of Cardinal Woolsey’s original palace)

50. H and A—for Henry and Anne
Anne Boleyn’s Gate, at Hampton Court

51. Martin Luther and his followers challenged the Catholic balance between faith and good works.
Luther was haunted by the fear that he did not deserve God’s mercy.
His solution came from a belief that it was not necessary or even possible to “earn” or “deserve” salvation—God’s grace was a free gift.

52. Henry VIII did not approve of the new “protestants”, but he did use the English Protestants to publicize the abuses of priests and prelates to other Englishmen.

53. The Reformation as a result of apathy!
If 16th C. faith was so strong, why were there not more martyrs ready to die for their faith?
If the process of institutional and spiritual change was so embedded in English history, why did Protestantism spread so slowly among the English public?

54. Religious indifference!
Tradition of deference to authority.
A practical concern for their own safety!

55. Sir Richard Riche: Perjured himself to convict Sir Thomas More
Helped to torture the Protestant martyr Ann Askew
Became a “hot gospeler” during the reign of Edward VI
Returned to Catholicism during the reign of Mary
Resumed the Protestant creed under Elizabeth.

56. Henry used terror to ensure the success of his new church—”it was better for edicts to be written in blood than in water.”

57. The Act of Succession —a loyalty test!
The Act of Treason —treason now included “the malicious willing, or desiring a king’s death. . ., calling him a heretic, tyrant, or usurper. . ., or seeking to deprive the royal family of their royal estate.”
Sir Thomas More was the most famous victim of these acts.

58. More objected to Henry’s determination that the king and state were all-powerful.
He believed that Henry’s actions violated the common heritage of all Western Europe.
Sir Thomas More

59. The Via Media of Catholicism without the Pope faced peril from both sides!
329 were executed during the last years of Henry’s reign.
Some were Catholics who questioned the royal authority in religious matters.
Some were Protestants who questioned the beliefs of the Catholic Church of England.

60. The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536
Rebellions arose in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire in support of the Old Religion.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries was the starting point for the Pilgrimage, but the revolt expressed antagonism to every aspect of Tudor politics.

61. The Ten Articles of Faith, July 1536
Reduced the traditional seven sacraments to three (baptism, Holy Communion, confession).
Rejected concept of Purgatory and prayers for the dead.
But affirmed belief in Transubstantiation, Communion in one kind, clerical celibacy, and confession.

62. Badge of Catherine of Aragon
On January 8, 1536, Catherine of Aragon died.
The old queen’s death was the signal for the death of the new queen, Anne Boleyn.
With both queens dead, Henry could marry again, and no one could question the legitimacy of his new marriage and any children it might produce!
Badge of Catherine of Aragon

63. Anne Boleyn’s grave, St. Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London
On May 29, 1536, after a reign of only three years, Anne Boleyn was executed by a swordsman imported from France.

64. Tower Green, where Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were executed, with the Church of St. Peter ad Vincula in the background.

65. On May 30, 1536, Henry married Jan Seymour, a former lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon.
Jane Seymour, 1537

66. She died a week later from a blood infection.
On October 12, 1537, Jane Seymour gave Henry VIII the male heir he had sought for so long.
She died a week later from a blood infection.
Prince Edward, c. 1539

67. Peace between Francis I and the Emperor Charles V meant that England needed a new ally.

69. Henry agreed to an alliance with the Protestant princes of Germany—an alliance cemented by his marriage to Anne of Cleves.
Anne of Cleves

70. Their marriage was a disaster!
Anne of Cleves

71. For pushing the Lutheran alliance and the marriage to Anne of Cleves, Thomas Cromwell paid with his head!
Thomas Cromwell

72. Their marriage lasted only 18 months!
Henry married the 16-year-old Katherine Howard, his “rose without a thorn” on July 28, 1540.
Their marriage lasted only 18 months!
Katherine Howard

73. Katherine Parr was Henry’s last wife—a dutiful, if not romantic, spouse.

74. Henry sought consolation and distraction in war with the Scots.
At the battle of Solway Moss, Nov. 1542, an English army defeated James V of Scotland.
Tradition holds that James died of shame, leaving a six-day-old infant daughter as his only heir.

75. That child would become Mary, Queen of Scots, a thorn in the sides of the later Tudors.

76. In the King’s Book of 1543, Henry presented his final opinion on religious matters.
Catholic in doctrine, but anti-papal in sentiment.
Placed heavy emphasis on obedience: “God had ordered some sort of men to teach others, and some to be taught.”
Henry VIII in old age

77. Henry VIII on his deathbed

78. Henry VIII, in 1512

79. Miniature of Henry VIII, c. 1526

80. Henry VIII at age 40

81. Henry VIII in 1536

83. Henry VIII, c. 1542

84. Henry VIII, c. 1545

85. Henry VIII, c. 1546

86. Armour of Henry VIII from 1515

87. The armour of Henry VIII from his early 20s
Armour from 1540
The armour of Henry VIII from his early 20s

88. “The time for worry had arrived for a new generation was about to take control.”
King Edward VI, c. 1547

89. The Lady Mary
Edward, Henry VIII, Jane Seymour
The Lady Elizabeth