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BACKGROUND
Anne Boleyn was born in . She was not from a royal family, though her parents
were well off and had high aspirations for their three children. Her father was
, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and her mother, Lady . Henry had been
married to his first wife, of (a very committed Catholic) since
. At this time, all English subjects considered themselves Catholics, under the
authority of the -based Pope.
By 1526, when it seemed increasingly unlikely that Catherine would ever produce a
male heir, Henry VIII began his pursuit of Anne. She resisted him for several years.
However, Henry became increasingly fixated with his desire to marry her - but for
that he needed the Pope, the Head of the church, to annul his marriage
to Catherine. When it became clear that Pope would not agree to this,
the breaking down of the Catholic Church's power in England began.
Henry and Anne were formally married in January , though a secret wedding
had already taken place in November 1532. On May 1533, the newly
appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, , declared Henry and
Catherine's marriage null and void; five days later, he declared Henry and Anne's
marriage valid. Shortly afterwards, the Pope decreed sentences of
against both Henry and Thomas Cranmer. ( Excommunication means......
The Church of England was now brought under Henry’s control.
Anne was crowned Queen of England in June 1533 and in September, gave birth to the
future Queen E......... While disappointed in having a daughter, Henry hoped a son
would soon follow. Anne, however, subsequently had several , and by
March 1536, Henry was courting . Now, in order to marry Jane,
Henry had to find reasons to end his marriage to Anne.
So, after just three years of marriage, Henry had Anne accused, tried and found guilty
of adultery, incest and conspiracy against the king. The sentence was, of course,
. Most historians accept that all three charges were .
THE SIGNIFIANCE OF ANNE’S LIFE (and death)
Some consider Anne of Boleyn to be the most influential and important queen
consort England has ever had. Why? Henry's marriage to her, and her execution, made her a key
figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the English Reformation.
1. Anne was a free thinker and drawn to the ideas of Protestantism.
Like Catherine of Aragon, she was extremely intelligent, well-travelled and highly educated.
Anne was also known for her wit and great sense of humour. She was an accomplished singer,
generous in her donations to charity and very charismatic. Both she and Henry were widely
read and interested in exploring ideas to do with religion and theology.
In England at this time, some were already questioning aspects of both the theology and
practice of the Catholic Church. It is almost certain that both Anne and Henry were aware of
this discontent, and likely that Anne was further ahead in her thinking than Henry. The extent
to which she was committed to the Protestant cause and reformist ideas is still contested, but
she was definitely very open minded, and not pro-Catholic – in marked contrast to Catherine
of Aragon.
2. Henry’s decision to marry her, forced him to leave the Catholic church.
By refusing to accept the pope’s ruling regarding his first marriage, Henry was refusing to be
under the authority of the Catholic Church, hence Henry’s excommunication. This made it
inevitable that Henry create a new style of church - one based in England, ruled by the
English king and independent of Rome. Becoming more ‘protestant’ could be used to justify
this decision – though no-one doubted Henry’s real motivation. In itself, the ‘new church’
situation was not a reformation. However, it enabled a movement in that direction to take
place quickly, in the years to come.
3. Henry’s becoming head of the English church, gave him an excuse to break up
the monasteries.
The Act , passed by Parliament in 1534, made Henry ‘Supreme Head of
the Church’ in England. This enabled him to
disband monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland, to take
their income, sell off their assets at will, and to take over some of their functions.
The closure (and often destruction) of the monasteries weakened the power of the Catholic
church in England, thereby making it more likely that England remain a Protestant country in
future years - despite the many who retained their belief in and commitment to the Catholic
cause.
BACKGROUND: The Dissolution of the Monasteries took place mainly between 1536 and 1540. Henry’s annual
income of about £100,000 did not cover ‘expenses incurred’ when suppressing rebellions nor would it pay for his
foreign wars. In 1533, for example, military expenditures on the Scottish border cost £25,000, while the 1534
rebellion in Ireland cost £38,000. Suppressing another rebellion in northern England in 1536 cost £50,000.
Henry’s new palaces were also expensive. In contrast, the English Church earned annual revenue of about
£300,000. Altogether, through the dissolution process, his government collected about £1.4 million.
4. Anne’s daughter was Elizabeth 1st
Elizabeth 1st was Queen of England from until her death in . Intelligent, politically
astute and long-living, her reign brought peace and stability to England, thereby consolidating
the place of Protestantism and reformist thinking that country. (Note that there was a
temporary return to Catholicism under Mary, Queen Elizabeth’s half-sister, who was Queen
from 1553 to 1558. In Mary’s determination to reverse the English Reformation, she had more
than 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake but after her own death in 1558, this re-
establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed by her successor, who was
)
QUESTIONS
1. Henry, like many monarchs, was a well-practised womaniser. Why, therefore, was getting
remarried, such a big deal?
2. WHY the fixation with producing a male heir? [Hint: The Wars of the Roses, a tribal-type civil war was
won in 1485, only 50 years earlier.]
3. WHY was Henry’s excommunication from the Catholic church an event of such significance?
WHY did he have to set up a new church as a result?
4. On a scale of 1 – 10, how important was Anne Boleyn in England’s Reformation ? Justify
your opinion.
