The English Reformation

Henry VIII1509-1547

The English Reformation started in the reign of Henry VIII whose reign has been obscured by his many marriages.

The wives of Henry VIII

Catherine of Aragon Anne Boleyn

Jane Seymour

Anne of Cleves

Catherine Howard

Catherine Parr

• Henry VIII wanted a male heir so he can ascend the throne after him, but his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, failed to produce this child. Their marriage produced just one child called marry leaving Henry desperate of a son.

• Therefore, he wanted to divorce Catherine to marry another woman. (Anne Boleyn).

• However, a divorce was not a simple issue. In fact, it was a very complicated one. Henry VIII was a Roman Catholic and the head of this church was the pope based in Rome.

• The Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. It did not recognize divorce. Those who were widowed were free to re-marry, but husbands could not simply decide that their marriage was not working, divorce their wife and re-marry.

• This put Henry VIII in a difficult position. If he went ahead and announced that as king of England he was allowing himself a divorce, the pope could excommunicate him. This meant that under Catholic Church law, your soul could never get to Heaven. At the time of Henry, this was a very real fear, and a threat which the Catholic Church used to keep people under its control.

Solution?• Henry VIII tried to convince the pope to grant

him a divorce by asserting that this would not affect the Roman Catholic Church since he is just applying a divorce for the king. Yet, the pope refused!

• Henry VIII, frustrated, asked Archbishop of Canterbury to grant him the divorce he wished for, instead.

• Surprisingly, Archbishop of Canterbury granted him the divorce and this created a revolution within the church. In other words, this event lead England to break from Catholicism in which Henry placed himself as head of this “new” church.

The reaction of the population of England.• Henry knew of the Catholic Church’s unpopularity

and, therefore, used this to his advantage.• The vast bulk of the population were very angry

at the way the Roman Catholic Church had used them as a source of money. You had to pay if you wanted to get married, to get a child baptized, to bury someone, or to sell indulgences, etc…Therefore, the Catholic Church was very wealthy while many poor remained poor. Their money was directly going to the Catholic Church. Therefore, there were no great protests throughout the land as many felt that Henry would ease up on taking money from them. Henry was made Supreme Head of the Church by an Act of Parliament in 1534.

His marriage to Anne Boleyn

• For years before they married, Anne resisted the King's advances, prompting criticism and accusations that she was playing hard to get in order to manipulate him into marrying her and making her queen. The people were furiously loyal toward Katherine of Aragon, and viewed Anne as a "whore" and a home wrecker. 

• Anne had a notoriously sharp tongue, and after Henry VIII married her, he got increasingly tired of it, and of her. What also makes the situation worse is that Anne did not bring Henry the child he desired, in fact, she had many unsuccessful pregnancies, until she gave birth to their only daughter Elizabeth who grew up to be Britain’s greatest monarch; Queen Elizabeth I

How did their marriage end?• Using trumped up

charges of adultery, the King had her imprisoned at the Tower of London, conducted a trial that found her guilty of treason, and had her beheaded. The day after Anne's execution, Henry was betrothed to her successor, Jane Seymour, whom he had been courting for some time.

Third wife - Jane Seymour

• Only one of Henry’s six wives gave him a son: Edward VI. Jane Seymour fulfilled her most important duty as queen, but she was never crowned and died just twelve days after the long and arduous birth. She was Henry's third wife and seems never to have made much of an impression upon anyone except the king.

Children of Henry VIII

1. Edward VI:He ascended the throne at the age of nine, leaving his uncle Edward Seymour to administer the kingdom. He seemed to have been a precious and strong-willed child who might have been a powerful monarch had he not died of tuberculosis at the age of 15 .

Mary I• She was known in

history as a merciless queen.

• Bloody Mary• She is well

remembered for her attempt to restore Catholicism in England. She persecutes protestants.

Elizabeth I• Her name became a

synonym for the era which she dominated (1558-1603)

• Elizabeth I was aware that the tension between Catholics and Protestants is ruining the society so she tried to reach a middle ground. What she did was that she restored Protestantism back as the official religion with giving some rights to the Catholics at the same time. Therefore, there were two religious factions in society.

The Elizabethan Theatre

• The Renaissance in Italy gave Europe its first taste of theatre with Commedia del Arte, an art form often played indoors with scenery. These plays were undoubtedly familiar to English visitors to Italy who has become plentiful as people on business or tourists.

• In England, London’s theatres were built outside the city walls. One of the first built theatres was erected by James Burbage, a carpenter who was also an actor in 1576.

• The establishment of the Elizabethan theatre was one of the cultural achievements of the age.

• The English theatre was directly under the control of the government. Theatre was supported financially by monarchs and the nobility.

• Acting companies had to have a license. • To the Elizabethans, the theatre was an

image of the universe. The stage was the earthly region where humans played out their comedies and tragedies.