#english_history 

## Reasons
Henry VIII was looking for new sources of money, and, needless to say, [[Heresy and orthodoxy in the 14th century England|the Church was infamous for its rapacity]].

Henry VIII wanted to centralise power.

In **1510** Henry had married Catherine of Aragon, aunt of the king of Spain, Charles V. By **1526** she had still not had a son who survived infancy, so Henry was looking forward to divorcing her. He used his chief minister, Cardinal Wolsey, to persuade the pope into allowing this divorce. The pope, however, was controlled by the King of Spain, who didn't want the divorce to happen. Henry was enfuriated, and Cardinal Wolsey only escaped execution by dying of natural causes.

## "Execute order Anti-Church"
In 1531 Henry persuaded the bishops to make him head of the Church in England, and this became law after [[English Parliament|Parliament]] passed **the Act of Supremacy** in **1534**. Henry divorced Catherin and married Anne Boleyn.

Henry's break with Rome was purely political, as he did not endorse protestantism. In fact, he had earlier written a book criticising it, and the pope then rewarded him with the title *Fidei Defensor*, Defender of the Faith.

Once England had accepted the separation from Rome Henry took the English Reformation a step further. He appointed his assistant, *Thomas Cromwell*, chief minister. Then they made a careful survey of Church property, the first properly organised since [[Feudalism after the Norman Conquest#^e07df8|the Domesday Book]]. In 1536-1539 they closed 560 monasteries and other religious houses. He boosted his own wealth and improved relationships with landowners and merchants by giving them some of the land.

## Consequences
There were little consequences. He remained loyal to Catholic religious teaching, and executed Protestants who refused to accept it. He even made an alliance with Charles V of Spain against France (they were willing to put their differences aside).