ñHenry VIII defied the power of the pope, but it was only under his successors that England became a Protestant country.ñ
Henry VIII (1491-1547) came to the English throne in 1509. He married Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), his brother's widow, in the same year. By 1527, Henry was desperate to produce a son and heir, and at the same time he was infatuated with Anne Boleyn (c.1504-36). He tried to induce the pope, Clement VII, to declare his marriage annulled, but after some hesitation the pope refused. In 1533, the headstrong English monarch defied the authority of Rome, divorcing Catherine and declaring himself head of the Church of England. Bishop John Fisher (1469-1535) and Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) were executed for refusing to accept the king's authority over religious matters. Henry then proceeded to dissolve the monasteries, seizing their very considerable wealth. His clash with Rome had nothing to do with the points of religious dogma that concerned Protestant reformers, however. In matters of liturgy he was strictly Catholic - in 1521 he had been awarded the title of "Defender of the Faith" by Pope Leo X for a pamphlet he had published defending Catholicism against the arguments of the Lutherans.
~The founding of the Church of England~
Henry VIII's children were split in their religious allegiance, according to their relationship to the divorce crisis that had caused the break with Rome. For Catholics, Henry's only legitimate child was Mary Tudor (1516-58), Catherine of Aragon's daughter. His other children had to lean toward Protestantism to validate their claim to the throne. Edward VI (1537-53), son of Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, succeeded to the throne in 1547. Under his rule, the Church of England became effectively Protestant. But his death brought Mary to the throne, despite an effort to replace her with a Protestant candidate, Lady Jane Grey. Queen Mary I married the main defender of the Catholic faith in Europe, Philip II of Spain, and persecuted Protestants with great vigour. Finally, Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Henry VIII's daughter by Anne Boleyn, succeeded in 1558 and established the Church of England as the compromise it has remained ever since, part way between Catholicism and Protestantism. The basic principles of Anglicanism were laid down in the ºBook of Common Prayerº of 1562 and the ºThirty-Nine Articlesº, adopted in 1563. The articles of faith of the Church of England were not fully Protestant in nature. But Elizabethan England still stood firmly in the Protestant camp in Europe, and Catholics were persecuted as a threat to the state.ñ x F
