I am going to talk about the King Henry VIII, who is often best-remembered for his six wives

and his break from the Catholic Church.

Many people consider that Henry VIIIs reign was the most important one in English history. He
was born on the 28th of January, 1491, and was the second son of Henry VII, the first English
ruler from the Tudor House. While his older brother Arthur was being prepared for the throne,
Henry focused on church career, receiving a broad education in theology, music, languages,
poetry and sports.
Arthur married Katherine of Aragon, the daughter of the Catholic Spanish rulers Ferdinand and
Isabella, in November of 1501. They were both teenagers at the time. Months later, Arthur
died of a sudden illness. Henry took the throne at the age of 17 and in 1503, he was betrothed
to Katherine.
Over the next 15 years, while Henry was fighting three wars against France, Katherine bore
him three sons and three daughters. However, all of them but one died very young. The sole
survivor was Mary, who was born in 1516.
Henry was an active king during those years, keeping a festive court, hunting, jousting, writing
and playing music. However, Katherine became too old and it was clear that she would never
provide Henry with a son. As a consequence, he became obsessed with the idea of having a
male heir no matter what, due to the fact that he needed a son to make his position as King
stronger. This preoccupation was the turning point in Henrys life. To make matters worse, the
monarch had become infatuated with Anne Boleyn, one of Katherines ladies-in-waiting. She
was 19 years old and she had refused to become the Kings mistress. She would only sleep with
him if she became his wife. Some believed this was the real reason why Henry wanted to get
rid of Katherine.

The easy solution for this problem was to get a divorce. 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, Clement VII at that time. The Roman Catholic religion
believed in marriage for life and it did not recognise divorce. The king decided to seek a papal
annulment (a declaration that the marriage was null and void), which would free him to
remarry. However, in order to do that, he needed a very good excuse. Considering that he
didnt have one, he made it up.
Henry was convinced (or at least thats what he said) that his wife had consummated her
previous marriage with his brother (even though she insisted that she didnt). As a result, he
was worried that his marriage to Katherine had been cursed by God and that that was the
reason why they could not have a surviving male heir. However, the Pope rejected this excuse
(one of the reasons was the pressure from Katherines nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V), and the King couldnt get his longed-for dissolution.
However, Henry was extremely stubborn and he did not want to bend to Rome and accept its
decisions. He wanted to have its own way and as a result, he set in motion the creation of the
Church of England and the split from Rome. After many attempts to convince the Pope to
grant him the divorce, in 1533 he ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury (who had been
appointed by Henry himself) to give him a divorce so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. The
Archbishop granted Henry his divorce against the wishes of the pope, and he secretly married
Henry and Anne in January of 1533. The English parliament and the clergy backed up his
decision, so he ultimately decided that he didnt need the popes permission to rule on issues
affecting the Church of England. As a consequence, the Pope excommunicated Henry but the
King didnt really care about that anymore.

This event led to England breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church based in Rome.
Henry placed himself as head of his newly-created church and in that sense, in his eyes, his
divorce was perfectly legal.
This was the main reason that led to the break with Rome. However, this was just the straw
that broke the camels back in an England that was full of problems.
The new Church of England was a Protestant Church, and that is why this period is known as
the Protestant Reformation. This movement believed that the Catholic Church was led by
corrupt and greedy priests. Luther was the leader of this movement and he believed that
people shouldnt listen to the Pope but instead, they should interpret the Bible by themselves.
Anne Boleyn and her family were devout Protestants, so she probably had to do with this
break from Rome and had a great influence in the implementation of Protestantism in
England.
Finally, we need to bear in mind that there were not only religious and personal reasons.
Henry also needed money. His wars with France and his extravagant lifestyle had drained the
monetary resources his father had built up. Also, due to his changes to the Church, Henry, as
the Head of the Church, could now obtain money which would have previously gone to the
Catholic Church.
In order to get money, the monarch dissolved the monasteries (the Church owned (a
quarter) of the land of England). He wanted to make the Dissolution appear to be backed by
law, so in 1535 Henry appointed officials to investigate monasteries for malpractice and the
reports were used to close down of a number of these religious buildings. He sold the land to
his followers after having stripping the monasteries bare of anything of value. This was not an
unpopular move as some monks were idle and corrupt and did no longer fulfil the tasks for
which they had been so valuable in the Middle Ages such as the copying of books, sheltering
travellers and the teaching and caring for the sick

So as you can see, this was an important time for England, which witnessed great changes, not
only religious, but also economic and cultural. These changes have consequences that can still
be seen nowadays. It transformed and changed England for good. It is important to remember
King Henry VIII not only for his bad decisions, but also for the good ones.