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Write about reformation in England
The causes of reformation in England
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In 1533 Henry VIII, King of England, divorced his wife Catherine of Aragon. This event in European history is seen as a scandalous and altering incident, which had many repercussions that stemmed from it over time. The divorce was a turning point in European history because it caused was a defining moment in the English Reformation, when the power shifted to the king over the pope, the religion of England was completely changed resulting in an era of religious turmoil. Leading up to the divorce a number of things occurred to cause Henry to want to end his marriage with Catherine. First, Catherine had been unable to produce a male heir for Henry, which meant the crown would not stay in Henry’s direct line. Henry had also had many mistresses …show more content…
She did this by refusing the king’s sexual advances, unlike the other mistresses who had become pregnant after the king had his way with them, which led him to end their affairs. By resisting the king, Anne won over the king’s heart. One can see this through a letter from Reginald Pole, who opposed the king’s decision to divorce in the 1530s and eventually was exiled for his opposition. In his letter he states, “…miserably burning with passion for the love of a girl. …And in this passionate longing you responded mutually. In fact you surpassed her so that you thought it would be the greatest achievement of your fortunes, the height of your happiness.” This quote from the time period shows not only that the king was so obsessed with Anne he thought that he would be at his highest happiness if he was to be with her, it also shows that people from the time period did not agree with the king’s divorce, which made the divorce a very controversial event in English and European …show more content…
Even though it was against the English religion and church at the time, Catholicism and the Roman Catholic Church, Henry divorce Catherine anyway. The path to divorce was tough for Henry. Problems started when Henry appealed to Pope Clement VII to annul his marriage. His stated that the marriage should be annulled on the grounds of Leviticus 20:31, “If a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an impurity; he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.” The pope had was indecisive about this issue for some time, as he kept procrastinating a decision Henry became more impatient. After waiting for the pope to resolve Henry’s issue, he decided that he should not have to answer to the pope. In 1531 Henry had an assembly of English clergy declare him “protector and only supreme head” of the Church of England. This action made Henry more powerful than the pope and started the loosening the ties with the Catholic
In 1536, Henry began to believe that his wife was being unfaithful. She was charged with treason and adultery, and soon beheaded. He then married Jane Seymour. She gave him a male heir, Edward, and then died a few days after childbirth [1].
The Spanish-English marriage alliance of Catherine of Aragon and Prince Arthur was arranged when the children were very young. Catherine traveled to England only to face tragedy when her young husband, Arthur died in 1502.Henry VII wanted to marry Catherine to his younger son, who would be, Henry VIII so that he did not lose the dowry money from Catherine's parents and to secure some other agreements between the two countries. In the Catholic Church, it was forbidden to marry the wife of a deceased brother. A papal dispensation was required for the marriage. It was easily obtained from Pope Julius II. Henry VII died before the marriage took place but Henry VIII immediately married Catherine once he became King. Many people involved questioned the validity of this dispensation. Catherine's mother, Isabella did not like the idea of her daughter being remarried and requiring a document from the Pope to have it done. But, once Henry VII died and Henry VIII proceeded with the marriage, no one mentioned the dispensation or the validity of it until Henry decided that he needed a grounds for divorce. Under the circumstances of Henry not wanting to be with his wife anymore, he proposed many doctrines that had been insignificant until then.
As Henry continued his reign he realized he needed a son to carry on his name and rule. Henry was married to Catherine of Aragon for eighteen years; however, he still had no son to inherit the English throne. Although she had given birth to many children, including several boys, only one girl had survived infancy. Henry went to Pope Clement VII asking for an annulment. This would allow Henry to end his marriage to Catherine, so he could then remarry in hopes of having a son. An annulment is to consider a marriage invalid. In spite of his request, Pope Clement denied Henry’s request. The Pope dallying because Catherine was the aunt of mighty emperor Charles V. The Pope did not intend to offend Charles (Mullett, 2003). Henry would not accept this defeat. Henry built up
On July 4, 1546, a notation made in King Henry VIII's Privy Council “the executors of John Smyth, late the Queen's receiver. . . allege that books remain in your custody to discharge these debts; we require you to show them.”1 It appeared that the king was going to dispose of his latest queen, Katherine Parr, as he had done to nearly every other wife he had until this time. It was through her education, kind nature and clever move of appealing to the king's pride that she was able to save her neck from the chopping block. Katherine was able to survive this episode and outlived King Henry VIII to be remembered in history as the wife who got away.
Henry VIII requested Pope Clement VII to withdraw his marriage with Katherine. He stated that the previous Pope’s call for the marriage of Arthur and Katherine was incorrect and in conclusion it was wrong that he had married his brother's wife. He quoted the “Book of Leviticus”- ‘if a man takes his brother’s wife, they will die childless’ and used this to support his thought of of his lack of having a son was a sign of god’s displeasure.
By this time Henry was old and weary. Katherine was more like a nurse to him than a wife. She was good to his children helped him reconcile with Catherine of Aragon’s daughter Mary. He got really bad with his old age that when she argued with him that he’d want her arrested. He saw how upset she was then he would call it off.
Henry VIII is approached as one of the most dependable kings in English history. The king was determined to have his name carried on with male heir. This led him to doing something that no one ever had dared to do during the 1400s and 1500s. After establishing that his first wife Catherine of Aragon was not able to bare him a son, he wanted to divorce. Henry asked Pope Clement to divorce him and his wife but the pope refused. By the king being so determined to continue the tradition it persuade him to do something. King Henry VIII hopelessness to divorce his first wife drove him to becoming head of The Church of England. This paper will examine his early life, the purpose of the church
In the early 16th century, Henry VIII ruled over england as the first protestant King of England. This meant that this king would be able to have as many wives as he wanted. The information of his ruling is really expressed through the The Last Wife of Henry VIII A Novel by Carolly Erickson. This book, even though it is mostly historically accurate, is still a work of historical fiction so the events can not be factual until they are proven to be so. In order to find out if some of the main events of this book can be proven true, three key points in the book were chosen to see how accurate this book was with its historical accuracy. The events of the book that have been chosen include, the Anne Boleyn witch controversy, the executions of Catherine
He was a human that had emotions, he experienced grief with the multiple miscarriages and deaths of his sons and the betrayals of his wife’s, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Also the death of Jane Seymour, the only wife to give him a male heir, brought him into a depression. These events changed Henry’s perspective of his own self, that he was without a legal heir, his health was horrendous and he was being betrayed by those closest to him. Lipscomb describes the transformation of Henry from the popular prince to the tyrant king know today. As shown, “the last decade of his reign, Henry VIII had begun to act as a tyrant. The glittering, brilliant monarch of the accession, toppled into old age by betrayal, aggravated into irascibility and suspicion as a result of ill health and corrupted by absolute power, had become a despot”. Henry is not thought of as the good Christian, but Lipscomb writes throughout this book that Henry was very serious about his religious affiliations. Lipscomb portrays Henry VIII as, “a man of strong feeling but little emotional intelligence, willful and obstinate but also fiery and charismatic, intelligent but blinkered, attempting to rule and preserve his honor against his profound sense of duty and heavy responsibility to fulfil his divinely ordained role”. In other words he was an emotional mess that did not know what to do with his feelings, so he bottled them up and south to seek
Henry was a strong and ruthless ruler, forcing changes to the Church-State relationship which excluded the Catholic papacy and strengthened England’s political position while acquiring wealth (Carley, James). The Church of England granted King Henry the annulment he requested from Catherine, which allowed him to marry Anne Boleyn, his second wife. Anne and Henry produced a daughter Elizabeth, however, Anne was unable to produce a male heir. To get out of his marriage to Anne, Henry contrived an elaborate story of adultery and incest which ended in an annulment of their marriage. King Henry ultimately had Anne arrested and beheaded (Kybett M.). Within a day of Anne’s execution King Henry VIII married his third wife Jane Seymour. Jane was able to give Henry a son, Edward (1537), however she died in childbirth, Henry was devastated (Green, Robert). King Henry called his advisor Cromwell to find him a new wife. King Henry’s fourth marriage was to Anne of Cleves, and it was a disaster. Anne was chosen for Henry to solidify the alliance between England and Germany. They quickly divorced after a few months and Henry blamed Cromwell for the mismatched relationship (Jokinen, Anniina). Within weeks Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, 30 years his junior. This marriage was very short lived, Catherine had multiple relationships with courtiers and King Henry had her
King Henry VIII’s reign before he met Anne Boleyn must be assessed in order to understand why he severed his ties with the Roman Catholic Church, and subsequently instated the Act of
In Catholic religion the King could not divorce. Cornwell found a way to turn things in favor of the King’s wishes. He pushed for a disillusion from the Catholic Church and the King could make his own rules. Thomas accompanied Anne Boleyn from when she was just a lady in waiting to the queen on her rise to power as the wife of King Henry and the Queen of England. Thomas was also believed to have a part in the trial and execution on charges of Adultery, Incest and witchcraft. This woman no longer pleased the king and now she had to be removed. Also, the King had his eye on a new lady in waiting, Jane
Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I may have been the English Reformation’s greatest benefactors, all because of self interest. Henry VIII was not originally Protestant, but after the pope denied him of his divorce, Henry VIII took things into his own hands. Due to the power kings had in the Middle Ages, Henry VIII was able to control Parliament and force it to do whatever he wanted. So in 1534, Henry VIII forced Parliament to pass a law he made known as the Act of Supremacy. The Act of Supremacy stated that the king ought to be the head of the Church of England. This law gave the king complete power over the Church of England, instead of the pope. However, the type of church and state relationship did not change. Rather all the Act of Supremacy did was take power from the pope and give it to the king. Surprisingly, the Catholics did not retaliate against this strong change. The pope had always been the head of the church, but now the king had taken his position. This serves as an example of nationalism. The Catholics did not think about how removing the pope could harm their religion in any way. However, instead the people blindly followed Henry VIII because he was the leader of the nation and they assumed he was right. Also, by imposing other laws that punished Protestants, Henry VIII did not give the people much of a choice. Fortunately, for Henry VII, nationalis...
Catherine of Aragon was born on December 16th, 1485 to Ferdinand and Isabella in Alcala de Henares, Spain, a princess who would be matched with her future husband at the age of three. This future husband was Prince Arthur, son of King Henry VII and older brother of King Henry VIII. The two were married later in their teens, but six months after the marriage, Arthur died, likely a victim of the fatal ‘sweating sickness’. Approximately four years later, she married King Henry VIII and became pregnant soon after. After several children, many of whom were stillborn or died shortly after birth, King Henry became impatient with his lack of a male heir. He requested a divorce to Catherine, but the attempt was in vain until he impregnated her mistress’s daughter, Anne Boleyn, and persuaded Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to annul the marriage. Catherine was forced to renounce her title as Queen of England, and became known as the Princess Dowager of Wales, a title that she never accepted. She and her daughter Mary were separated, and Catherine spent the rest of her life in dank castles, never ceasing in prayer. She d...
personalities, appearance, and social status, each woman became content once they married. In the end, the morality of Elizabeth and Catherine led them both to live a wealthy life with their chosen husband despite the different obstacles they faced and the way they faced them.