Assess the view that Henry VIII's wish for a divorce was the main reason for the break with Rome.

Assess the view that Henry VIII’s wish for a divorce was the main reason for the break with Rome.

Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon’s has been claimed void by the Archbishop of Canterbury. But was this divorce the main reason for Henry’s break with Rome or was it more to do with power, money or politics? In this essay we will be focusing on power, politics and divorce to see whether it was the main reason.

Henry married Catherine in 1509, aunt of Charles V of Aragon, Spain. She bore Henry six children five died (two of which were boys) and one survived, Mary. Since Catherine had failed to produce a male heir and therefore this may have led to a succession crisis or possibly a civil war when he died, bar Mary who was nine years old in 1525, but it was seen as unseemly to have a female heir. So looking at this we can see that at this period in time it may have been worrying for a king to have no son to carry on the throne but would this have been a good reason for the break with Rome? At this early stage it is probably not the main reason, and that this seems to be a rather selfish matter. Although Henry used this idea from Leviticus that if a man should marry his dead brother’s wife (Arthur) then he shall remain childless, although this was note entirely true as Henry did have Mary. But looking at this we can see that this may have helped to make divorce one of the main reasons for the break with Rome as the pope refuse Henry’s wish for a divorce. Also as Henry wished for this divorce so much (as he had already become infatuated with Anne Boelyn) it might have this reason that he created this new faith and appointed the new Archbishop of Canterbury (Thomas Cranmer, 1533) so his divorce could be declared void. Though on the other hand this idea that the divorce was Henry’s most important reason for the break with Rome may not be entirely true. As it is right to say that Henry’s main reasons for the break with Rome were probably more political and pragmatic and most probably due to the break down of relations between the pope and Henry due to the pope’s refusal to grant the divorce. For example Henry wished for a divorce with Catherine of Aragon but as this was being said Catherine’s nephew Charles V, a powerful emperor of Spain, had been holding the pope hostage at the Vatican (1529) so it was extremely unlikely that the pope would grant this divorce. So here we see the first in a break down with relations between the two and this is built upon as the pope wished to have a court with Henry but Henry refuses this request and says that he will not be given to jurisdiction of another country. So we see a fairly high extent of relationship breakdown between the two therefore nudging Henry towards the break with Rome. Although we could see a more money wise way that Henry wanted to break with Rome because if Henry became head of the new faith in England (Royal Supremacy) then all tithes would be payed to him and this would enable him to carry out his wish of invading France.

Although there must have been other reasons for Henry’s break Rome it may have been more power related as Henry was becoming interested in defining his authority over the church in England and Stephen Gardiner produced the De Vera Obedienta in 1535 claiming that England should be ruled by the head of the church and the king of the common wealth (one person), meaning Henry. So looking at this although Henry used this divorce as his main reason for the break with Rome there may have been more political/power motives behind it but these would not have been good evidence ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Power reasons must have been foremost in Henry's mind when the call for Reformation was made. Henry needed to secure the dynasty. He felt that Catherine would bear no more children and therefore he needed to divorce her and marry Anne Boleyn who was pregnant. As the Pope would not grant this, Henry had to 'divorce' the Pope in order to obtain it.

It can be argued that Henry's desire, encouraged probably by Cromwell and Cranmer to take over the church as an institution and use it to extend his power both at home and abroad, played an important role in the Reformation. Henry wished to hold back the Pope's influence in England. The Pope was, for example, the sole leader of the beliefs of the new Church of England. After the Reformation, Henry became sole authority and was immediately concerned that the Catholic Church in England had developed into a 'state within a state' due to its tax privileges, won courts. Henry wished to control this ‘state’, as he wanted sole power on everything within his country. So looking at this evidence it could be said that this idea of divorce being the most important reason for the break with Rome in Henry’s mind might not be entirely true. As looking at this evidence we see that his advisors may have influenced Henry into think that he should be supreme leader of England and rule over everything including the religion. This is strong evidence that Henrys divorce with Catherine was probably not as important as it seems as Henry’s ideas were more to do with power and rule over his country and so therefore would need to break with Rome to become supreme ruler, but then, why divorce Catherine?

The wealth of the church was another political reason for Henry's decision to break from Rome. The king was always in desperate need for money and Henry himself was always short of money. The wealth and land of the church were therefore obvious targets, particularly when Thomas Cromwell reminded Henry of them. The church owned lots of the farming land in England. Henry knew that if he could become head of the church then he would own this. Therefore he could sell this land or rent it providing a steady income of money to himself. This was important as the number of country gentlemen increased by a thousand, therefore helping the stability of England. Becoming head of the church meant that Henry could pass acts such as the Act of First Fruits and Tenths in 1534, which meant the transferring of these payments from the Pope to the king. Also the Act of Annates was passed through parliament, which ended the payment of a third of a Bishop's first year's income to Rome and instead it went to the king. When we analyse this information we can see that this again would lead us to believe that the divorce with Catherine of Aragon may not have been the main reason for the break with Rome for Henry. As we can see that Henry was greatly in debt because he lived a lavish lifestyle and liked home comforts, as did Thomas Cranmer who was never seen without jewellery. Also Henry wished to fund an army to go to war with France and so this would tell us that divorce probably wasn’t as important to Henry as political and power reasons. Though on the over hand maybe divorce was fairly important to Henry.

Evidence that Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon was the most important factor for the break with Rome is that Anne Boleyn's pregnancy in late 1532 would probably have made Henry think about ending Papal power and giving himself the power to divorce Catherine and marry Anne, otherwise their expected child would be illegitimate. This would have been unacceptable for an heir to the throne.

The death of Worham, the Archbishop of Canterbury in August 1532 was of significance. Perhaps events would not have occurred as they did if he had lived. He was a great believer that the Pope should be head of the church in England and he might have challenged Henry's decision to break from Rome. The new Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was happy to go along with Henry's decisions. So looking at this evidence we can see that maybe the divorce with Catherine was the most important reason for the break as Henry was without heir and already had an illegitimate son to one of his mistresses, and so needed to divorce Catherine so that he would be able to marry Anne and to do this he would need to break with Rome as the Pope refused the divorce, but this seems a little drastic. Though on the other hand a political and power reason for the break with Rome is that Henry also wanted to run the church so he could oversee the development of education. The educational role of the church was in decline. Church schools were often of badly run and in many areas simply did not exist. This was important to Henry, as a literate population would be extremely important in helping the Tudor line to run the country. So it would be necessary for Henry to break with Rome so that he could run the church in his own country therefore leading us to believe that maybe “The Kings Great Matter” was not as important as it seems to have been.

After analysing the factors in Henry's decision to break from Rome, I believe that the key factor in Henry's mind was his need for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Although the build up of the factors power and politics cannot be forgotten.

The state of the pre-reformation church was not the key reason for the Reformation because, on the whole, the church may not have been as corrupt as it seemed. However, it would have been a background factor for Henry's 'reform-mindedness'. Henry used this idea of the church being corrupt as an excuse to reform the church and appoint himself 'Supreme Head'.

Money and ultimately power would have been an encouraging factor for Henry to break with Rome. He probably realised that if he could run the church for his own benefit then it would certainly increase his wealth. Henry knew that the sale of church lands to the laity might induce them to become enthusiastic supporters of the government's policies. They would have much to gain if the power and wealth of the church were broken. Again we can see that the sale of land for money was not the true reason. The real reason was that he wanted as many people to support his decision to divorce Catherine and this meant offering them incentives to support him - for example inexpensive church land. Henry realised this would make him more powerful, but as devote Catholic his personal greed would not have been a strong enough reason to break from the Pope. His need to secure his followers would have been strong enough.