Henry VIII government and parliament
divorce from CofA and impact on church
divorce and split from Rome acquired through statute law (acts of parliament) whose supremacy over canon law (church law) was established
the Catholic Church as an institution had been weakened by the humanist criticisms of colet and Erasmus.
the church claims to legal supremacy had been challenged in 1528 by lawyer Christopher St German who asserted the supremacy of the superiority of England - helped prepare the parliamentary attack on the church
Henry had been supplied with more intellectual justifications by means of the Collectanea Satis Copiosa - a collection of historical documents compiled by two Cambridge theologians (Cranmer and Foxe) which looked to justify the divorce on legal and historical principles
Henry sought expert opinions on his marital situation from a number of continental universities
pressurising the pope
1531 - clergy collectively accused of praemunire and fined - began a sustained attack on the clergy and clergy forced to acknowledge the king as supreme head of the English church
1532 - Act in Conditional Restraint of Annates - designed to increase pressure on the papacy by withholding the first years income from the office of bishop which the papacy had traditionally enjoyed
1532 - House of Commons Supplication against the ordinaries - designed to increase anticlerical pressure within the House of Commons
1532 - formal Submission of the Clergy to HVIII - provoked the resignation of Sir Thomas Moore as Lord Chancellor
marriage to Anne Boleyn
she forced the annulment issue
took matters into her own hands by consenting to have a sexual relationship with Henry and she was gambling that she would become pregnant, forcing him to take action
this would require open defiance of the pope by both Henry and the authorities of the English Church although this path was eased by the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury who was replaced by Thomas Cranmer who received his authority from Rome
by December 1532 Anne was pregnant and the couple married in a secret ceremony on 25th January 1533
the marriage of Henry and CofA was annulled in may 1533 by Archbishop Cranmer and Anne was crowned shortly afterwards. Her child was born (legitimate in English Law) on 7th September but to henrys dismay it was a girl - the succession problem had not been solved
acts of parliament
Act in Restraint of Appeals - was drafted expertly by Cromwell in April 1533 and founded on the evidence in the collecteana. the preamble to the Act declared that the monarch posed an imperial jurisdiction which was not subject to any foreign power (the papacy). the act declared appeals could not be made to Rome regarding church court decisions - meaning Catherine could not appeal to Rome against her marriage annulment
Act of Succession April 1534 - declared Henry's marriage to Catherine was void, the succession should be vested in the children of his marriage to Anne, to deny the validity of Henry's marriage to Anne was treasonable, an oath should be taken to affirm an individuals acceptance of the new marriage
Act of Supremacy November 1534 - gave legislative force to the royal supremacy. it stated that the kings majesty justly and rightfully is and oweth to be the supreme head of the Church of England. accomplished the break from Rome
Treason Act November 1534 - was tightened so that treason could be committed by the spoken word as well a by deed or writing and so that it was treasonable to describe the king as 'heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel or usurper of the crown'
the Act Annexing First Fruits and Tenths to the Crown November 1534 - the Annates paid by a bishop, which had been intolerable when paid to the Pope, now became perfectly acceptable when paid to the king. the act increased the financial burden on the clergy, strengthening royal supremacy
royal supremacy over the church had been created - despite the assertion made in the Act of Supremacy that the King's role was recognised by the clergy, the supremacy had come about by means of parliamentary statute.
the most important policy was the dissolution of the monasteries beginning in 1536 and completed by 1542. the dissolution meant that the church land was confiscated by the crown, significantly increasing the power of the crown although the benefit to Henry was short lived as much of the property was granted away or sold, often below market price so that the crown could raise money to finance its foreign policy
fall of Anne Boleyn
she was a considerable advocate for church reform and as historian Eric Ives pointed out, she had been responsible for helping to push HVIII into a more protestant direction.
relations between Anne and Cromwell publicly broke down - he was insecure and felt that his relationship with the king was threatened - he allied with conservatives and persuaded Henry that Anne's flirtatious manner had led to adultery
Anne's downfall was sudden - she was always a target for conservatives and she was made more vulnerable when Catherine of Aragon died in 1536
she was accused of adultery and incest which constituted treason and was exectued on 19th may 1536, by this time Henry already had his eyes on Jane Seymour
The fall of Thomas Cromwell
by 1540, his influence was declining - the catalyst for his downfall (similar to Wolsey) was his failure to manage the kings marital affairs
Henry's 3rd wife Jane Seymour had died after giving birth to a son
by 1540, Cromwell had tried to reconcile Henry with the league of Schmalkalden, an organisation of German princes and free cities within the HRE who supported the reformer Martin Luther and his rejection of the Catholic Church, by arranging a marriage with the protestant princess Anne of Cleves.
the partnership with Anne of Cleves was an unhappy one, she proved to be unsuitable to Henry personally and the match had become unwelcome politically, the marriage was quickly annulled destroying what was left of Cromwell's credibility
this gave Cromwells enemies, led by the duke of Norfolk, the chance to bring his downfall. Norfolk, once again was aided by having a niece, Katherine Howard
Cromwell was accused of heresy at a council meeting and executed on the 28th July 1540.
government in 1540-47
the major political implication of the conservative revival of 1539-1540 was that a form of conciliar government was restored. it was a different form of government as the fall of Cromwell saw the emergence of a privy council with fixed membership, supported by a secretary who kept a formal record of the proceedings
there is some debate regarding the amount of power wielded by the king - in 1540 power lay with the conservative in the council such as Norfolk, Gardiner and Wriothesley. it was the problems created by his marital issues that shifted the balance of power
execution of Catherine Howard and marriage to Katherine Parr, rivalries and death of HVIII
Norfolk overlooked the unfortunate fact that his niece Catherine Howard was already sexually experienced. there were also allegations of an affair between her and her distant cousin Thomas Culpepper - Catherine and her lady of the bed chamber were executed for treason on 13th February 1542 - Norfolk managed to extricate himself from the affair but he was wounded politically
as the kings health began to deteriorate, political rivalries intensified, whoever was the most influential in the kings last months was likely to be in a position to dominate under his successor. Edward Seymour could play the card that he was the uncle to the male heir to the throne. HVIII consented to the execution of Norfolk but he was spared the axe by the kings death on the 28th January 1547 and he remained a prisoner in the tower for the whole of Edward VIs reign