The annulment of Henry`s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was the turning point in Henry`s friendship with Wolsey. Henry was in love with Anne Bolelyn, one of the Queen`s ladies-in-waiting, and marriage to Anne would hopefully give Henry the male heir he so desperately wanted. In 1525, Henry VIII fell in love with Anne Boleyn, lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine. Anne was between ten and seventeen years younger than Henry and was born between 1501 and 1507. Henry began to persecute her; [50] Catherine was no longer able to have children at this time. Henry began to believe that his marriage was cursed and sought confirmation in the Bible, which he interpreted to mean that if a man marries his brother`s wife, the couple will be childless. [7] [51] Even though her marriage to Arthur had not been consummated (and Catherine insisted until the day of her death that she had come to Henry`s bedside as a virgin), Henry`s interpretation of this passage meant that his marriage had been wrong in God`s eyes. [31] The question of whether the pope at the time of Henry and Catherine`s marriage had the right to annul Henry`s alleged biblical obstacle would become a hot topic in Henry`s campaign to wrest annulment from the current pope. [31] It is possible that the idea of cancellation was proposed to Henry much earlier, and it is very likely that it was motivated by his desire to have a son. Before Henry`s father ascended the throne, England was ravaged by a civil war over rival claims to the English crown, and Henry may have wanted to avoid similar uncertainty about succession. [52] Thomas Cromwell (ca.
1485-1540) also defines Henry`s government. Cromwell returned to England from the continent in 1514 or 1515 and soon entered Wolsey`s service. He turned to law, acquired a good knowledge of the Bible, and was admitted to Gray`s Inn in 1524. He became Wolsey`s “man of all work.” [180] Cromwell, driven in part by his religious beliefs, sought to reform the political policy of the English government through discussion and consent, and through continuity, not external change. [181] He was seen by many as the man they wanted to achieve their common goals, including Thomas Audley. By 1531, Cromwell and his associates were already responsible for drafting many laws. [181] Cromwell`s first office was that of Master of the Royal Jewels in 1532, from which he began to revive the finances of the state. [182] At this point, Cromwell`s power as an effective steward in a council filled with politicians was beyond what Wolsey had accomplished. [183] Henry was a tall, well-built athlete, over 6 feet [1.8 m] tall, strong and wide in proportion, and excelled in tournaments and hunting.
They were more than hobbies; They were political means that served multiple purposes, enhancing his sporting royal image, impressing emissaries and foreign leaders, and conveying his ability to suppress any rebellion. He held a jousting tournament at Greenwich in 1517, where he wore gilded armor and golden horse insignia, as well as velvet, satin, and gold outfits with pearls and jewels. This impressed foreign ambassadors accordingly, one of whom wrote that “the wealth and civilization of the world are here, and those who call English barbarians seem to me to present themselves as such.” Henry finally withdrew from the tournament in 1536 after a heavy fall from his horse rendered him unconscious for two hours.[164] Then he began to add weight and lost the slim, athletic figure that had made him so beautiful, and his courtiers began to dress in heavily padded clothes to imitate and flatter him. Towards the end of his reign, his health deteriorated rapidly. [165] [166] [167] It is clear that divorce as king brings difficulties that most of us will never face, but thanks to the actions of a British monarch, divorce is something we all have access to, rich and poor. In 1534, however, Henry passed the Act of Supremacy. The Act made him and all his heirs the supreme head of the Church of England. This meant that the pope no longer had any religious authority in England and Henry was free to divorce Catherine. In fact, 300 years later, France ended up with a much worse king: Louis XII. He was married at a young age to his cousin Joan of France, but when he ascended the throne, he asked that his marriage be annulled so that he could marry the late king`s widow, Anne of Brittany, and annex his territories to his own.
In what was described as “one of the most transparent processes of the time,” Louis began to insist that he had initially been too young to marry, and when he was unable to annul the marriage, he accused Jeanne of being so physically distorted that sex was impossible and that her own sexual performance had been inhibited by witchcraft. The pope granted him a divorce. Resistance to Henry`s religious policies was quickly suppressed in England. A number of dissident monks, including the first Carthusian martyrs, were executed and many others pilloried. Among the most prominent resistance fighters were John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, both of whom refused to take the oath of allegiance to the king. [90] Neither Henry nor Cromwell attempted to have the men executed; On the contrary, they hoped that both would change their minds and save each other. Fisher openly rejected Henry as supreme head of the church, but More was careful not to openly violate the Treason Act of 1534, which (unlike later laws) did not prohibit mere silence. However, both men were later convicted of treason — more on evidence of a single conversation with Richard Rich, the attorney general. Both were duly executed in the summer of 1535. Henry asked Pope Clement VII to grant him a divorce from Catherine.[90] He argued that the marriage was against God`s will, as she was briefly married to Henry`s deceased brother, Arthur. Henry, much to the chagrin of Thomas Cromwell, insisted that Parliament discuss matters of faith, which he obtained through the Duke of Norfolk. This led to the passage of the Six Articles Act, in which six main questions were all answered by affirming religious orthodoxy, thus limiting the reform movement in England.
[120] This was followed by the beginnings of a Reformed liturgy and the Book of Common Prayer, which took until 1549 to complete. [207] However, the victory of the religious conservatives did not result in major personnel changes, and Cranmer remained in office. [208] Overall, the rest of Henry`s reign witnessed a subtle move away from religious orthodoxy, aided in part by the deaths of prominent figures before the break with Rome, including the executions of Thomas More and John Fisher in 1535 for refusing to renounce papal authority.