March 16 - England breaks

March 16 - England breaks

Henry VIII was the king of England during the Reformation and all sorts of exciting things began happening there as he attempted to make the Roman church bend to his will.

Henry wasn't supposed to be king. His older brother, Arthur was in line ... until he died. Henry married Arthur's wife and became king. Alas and alack, poor Catherine had no sons. Since there were no other brothers in the family to produce a future king what was Henry to do? The man wasn't stupid, in fact, he was absolutely brilliant, so he had to come up with a good way to rid himself of this poor woman and marry someone who would give him a son. Funny thing, he had already figured out who that was going to be. He'd had his eye on Anne Boleyn for quite some time.

Here's the problem. Catherine and Henry were Catholics and there was no way that the church was going to allow him to divorce her and remain a member in good standing. As a man with incredible power, you have to know that wasn't going to sit well. Catherine had actually had eight pregnancies, but most were still-born and she'd had one daughter. Annulment really wasn't going to be easily explained. But, remember, Henry was the king of England and knew that he could make things happen his way.

Henry applied to the pope for a special papal dispensation and was refused. He then ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury to give him dispensation. What was that man to do? He needed to remain on good terms with the king, so he agreed. This effectively split England away from the Catholic church. Henry declared himself head of the church in England and approved of his divorce. All would be fine. Well, not really.

Henry knew that the monasteries in England remained part of the Catholic church, so he sent Thomas Cromwell around to dig up any dirt possible on the monks and nuns. Funny thing, there was plenty to be discovered. Cromwell barely had to make up information, it presented itself all throughout England. Monks were fathers of random children, nuns were pregnant, vows were rarely lived. Monasteries were closed all over the country and the people in the surrounding areas were given free reign to loot the monasteries as long as the silver and gold went to the state. This brought a lot of joy to those that had been putting up with lazy monks for years.

While the Roman church no longer had control of the church in England, not much had changed. Henry had his divorce and he had control, but true reform was yet to begin.