King Henry VIII and the Church of England.
King Henry had various problems which included; the influence his seven wives had on the social order, his tyrannical reign of both politics and religion of the period, and his demonizing of the Church of England. It is easy enough for us, looking back; to see that King Henry's struggle to be the strong man of Europe was an expensive failure. It was not so easy for King Henry to see it, for he had lived splendidly and was surrounded by people who tried to please him. There was, on the other hand, one big failure, which nobody could conceal from him; he had not been able to get a legitimate son. .
The King's Wives.
Catherine of Aragon had given him only a daughter, Mary. It was this failure, which led to the important events in King Henry VIII's reign. King Henry decided that he had to get rid of this wife. He had a political motive: it would be dangerous to leave the kingdom to a girl because, as most people then believed, ruling a kingdom needed the full strength of a man. He had a religious motive: Catherine had been married to Arthur, and it was against God's law to marry your brother's widow. True, the Pope had given special permission. But perhaps this was not enough, and God was punishing King Henry and Catherine by not letting them have a boy. (Historical Royal Profiles. Pg 2 Para 2).
He also had a personal motive. Her name was Anne Bullen, or Boleyn. Historians have argued about which of these motives was the strongest. It is almost impossible to say, because they were all urging King Henry in the same direction. King Henry thought that he would be able to persuade the Pope easily to do, as he wanted, to declare that there had been a mistake and that King Henry and Catherine had never been correctly married. However, this is where the problem started. The Pope avoided this at all cost. Catherine was the aunt of the Emperor Charles, and the Pope was even less willing to offend the emperor than the King of England.
