England faced significant changes during the years 1532 to 1534 when king Henry VIII decided to

dissociate from the Catholic Church and become the Supreme Head of the Church of England.
A declaration of detachment from the Catholic Church was immediately considered conversion into
Protestantism, this separation led to external conflict with kingdoms that supported the Church,
such as the Anglo-Spanish War
The repercussions of the English Reformation have motivated many historians to study the hidden
reasons behind Henry's decision, for this research I used books by Alison Weir and Peter Ackroyd.
CHAPTER 1
There is no true evidence about the economical situation that England was in with Henry VIII,
historians had argued that the king faced some difficulties regarding the exports since there was a
switch from raw wool to full pieces of clothing, the demand was high and a little disadvantageous to
the crown with other countries exporting the same cargo at lower prices.
Before the divorce the government did not have any financial issues but they did expect some in the
future but they did expect some in the future, they were fearful of a war with the Holy Roman
Emperor, they expected him to lend support after the unfair and non-diplomatic divorce between his
aunt Catherine of Aragon and the King.
In 1532 the idea of confiscating half the estates of the church during hostilities was laid on the table
for Henry to think about and then two years later a statute declared any ecclesiastical domain as
Property of the State. This caused a lot of internal conflicts since the monasteries served as a place
to rest, to take care of the sick and also to teach poor children.
According to financial analysis the Church had more incomes than the crown even with the
monasteries paying taxes. England was not entirely wealthy but was not poor either, the crown's
coffers needed indeed an injection after the war with France in 1522 and the constant war with
Scotland so people believed that the confiscation of lands and ecclesiastical properties were his
main incentive but it has been proven false as the king knew beforehand the benefits from a
detachment, this one was just a collateral effect.
CHAPTER
In 1521 he was honored with the title “Defender of the Faith”, the title was conferred by Pope Leo
X as a reward for the king’s pamphlet Declaration of the Seven Sacraments Against Martin Luther.
This was considered odd as the king later used Martin Luther's ideas to rule England with a
Protestant perspective. Anne Boleyn also in uenced in his beliefs because she was a committed
protestant
The Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. Protestants on the other hand approved
divorce under the right circumstances, the clergyman Thomas Cranmer and the king’s in uential
adviser Thomas Cromwell convinced the King that he should not be subject to the pope’s
jurisdiction.
The King used the Bible in his favor, convincing everyone that the Pope under fear had declared his
marriage with Katherine legitimate even if God forbid so and punished the ones that disobeyed his
word, "If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing...they shall be childless.”
Leviticus chapter 20 verse 21. It was not accepted that a widow re-married as the marriages needed
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to be consummated to be of cial, Katherine was his brother's widow but she claimed that they never
consummated their marriages due to health problems of Arthur. During the nine years of marriage
with Henry they had ve stillborns and only one child survived her childhood, the future Mary I.
The King began to think it was a curse as he desired a male heir to continue the Tudor dynasty and
all he had was a daughter.
Henry's followers later claimed that his decision of marrying Anne Boleyn was of divine providence
because their child later became Elizabeth I also known as the Virgin Queen, who is claimed to be
one of the greatest monarchs of England
CHAPTER
The King had a lot of extra-marital affairs so the Queen turned a blind eye to his affairs.
When Anne Boleyn returned from the French court she caught the attention of everyone, including
Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland who later proposed to her. The King was infatuated with her
so he commanded his minister Cardinal Wolsey to break the engagement between Anne and Henry
Percy, even if this engagement was one out of love
Henry offered Anne to make her his mistress, but she refused as her sister, Mary Boleyn was his
former mistress. Henry began to court her with jewelry, poems and love letters. Henry proposed to
Anne and she couldn’t refuse out of fear so once she accepted the King insisted the Pope Clement
VII for a divorce from queen Katherine but he continuously refused. On January 25th of 1533 the
King married Anne in a secret ceremony, she was already pregnant with Elizabeth and Henry was in
a hurry to marry her so the child could be legitimate as he hoped for a son not a daughter.
CONCLUSION
The strongest reason was his passion and desire for Anne Boleyn and for a male heir. The
Economical reason was just a bene t from his dissociation, when he decided to detach he saw an
advantage to increase the state's wealthiness. On the other hand, the spiritual was not much of a
reason, it was more an argument to convince people that he was in his right to divorce Katherine.
The English Reformation later had a great impact regarding who the next monarch would be. The
King had a total of six wives and three children, only one son who sadly died at the age of fteen.
After his dead people could not decide on which daughter they should support as both of them were
considered illegitimate, Mary was considered illegitimate by Protestants and Elizabeth was
considered illegitimate by Catholics.
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