gave Henry the long-awaited son, Edward, but died in childbirth (1537). Anne of Cleves, whose marriage to Henry was arranged by Cromwell, was queen for only six months, after which the king divorced her (1540). The fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was beheaded in 1542. The last one, Catherine Parr, survived the king.
The system remained untouched, but instead of being directly controlled by the king it was run by his great minister. Wolsey’s prime task was to fulfill the king’s wish to make England a major country in Europe. All went well until in 1527 Henry decided that his marriage to his brother’s widow was sinful and sought for it to be annulled. This single decision was to cause the greatest changes England had undergone since 1066. The king’s determination on his divorce was to involve the destruction of every link with Rome, the dissolution of the monasteries, and remaking of many old jurisdictions; which, in turn, involved a great increase in the State’s power, a revolution in the distribution of property and the social structure. It’s noteworthy that all these changes were effected by active cooperation with Parliament, for Henry had no standing army, and it was with the help of the unpaid militia of southern England that he put down rebellion in the Catholic north. He acted in Parliament on a scale never known before, keeping the Commons of 1529 in being for seven years, introducing more and more of his councilors into the House, while for every blow at the Church or in every matrimonial misfortune he boldly wielded the weapons of publicity and printed appeal.
The great change needs to be viewed against the background of the Reformation in Europe. By the time Henry wanted his divorce the movement was well established in Germany under the leadership of Martin Luther, whose ideas were already reaching England. Interestingly, Henry VIII wrote a theological paper against Luther, for which the Pope gave him the title of Defender of the Faith. Luther’s ideas anticipated much of what was to happen during the coming decades: the rejection of papal authority, the abolition of religious orders, the ability of priests to marry, the right of the laity to receive the wine as well as the bread at mass or communion, the use of the vernacular for church services and the sweeping away of the cult of the Virgin and saints, pilgrimages and relics. The medieval church had preached seven sacraments: baptism in infancy, confirmation in childhood, matrimony and holy orders, penance and the Eucharist to cleanse and feed the soul, and anointing to comfort the sick and dying. Luther only preached two: baptism and the Eucharist.
Catherine of Aragon had given Henry a daughter, Mary, but all her sons died at birth, and Henry badly needed a son to succeed him. He decided that the way out would be for the Pope to declare that the marriage to his brother’s widow had been allowed by mistake and was unlawful; Wolsey and his bishops supported this view. The pope could easily have agreed, but he was under the control of Emperor Charles V, Catherine’s nephew. Henry was extremely angry. He dismissed Wolsey for failing to obtain a divorce; the latter was arrested and would probably have been executed if he had not died a natural death. Sir Thomas More was appointed a new Lord Chancellor and a new Parliament was called in 1529. At this stage, however, Henry still had no wish to break from the Roman Church. He wanted a reformed national church within the Catholic framework. Parliament consisted not only of the lords, but also representatives of the towns and shires. The great statutes which it was shortly to pass demonstrated a new partnership which set a pattern for the future. The king also benefited from the strongly anti-clerical mood in the Commons. People were envious of the church which held a third of all the country’s land. They resented paying tithes and ecclesiastical courts. The clergy resented the power of Rome.
Thus the scene was set for the king to begin his attack on the Church with the support of Parliament. In 1530 the whole clergy was indicted of unlawful jurisdiction, but two months later pardoned in return for a huge fine and the recognition of the king as supreme head of the Church of England. In 1531 Henry admitted Thomas Cromwell to his Council; he was also made Chancellor of the Exchequer. Events began to move more swiftly. Parliament attacked the church courts and they were put in the hands of the king. In 1533 Henry married Anne Boleyn secretly. In March 1533 Parliament passed an act breaking the church from Rome, in effect creating the Church of England as against the Church in England. When the old Archbishop of Canterbury died Henry appointed a reformer, Thomas Cranmer. He granted the king his divorce, Henry remarried and, in September, the new queen gave birth to Elizabeth.
The year after the Act of Supremacy transferred to the king all ecclesiastical dues formerly sent to the pope. What is surprising is how little opposition this revolution evoked. There were only few protesters, like Thomas More, but on the whole the revolution which destroyed the medieval church in England was a bloodless one.
Anne Boleyn
Now it was the turn of the monasteries. In 1535 Cromwell sent out commissioners to make a detailed review of them. Between 1536 and 1540 the monasteries, about 800, a quarter of the land of the country, were dissolved. It changed the physical appearance of the landscape. The inmates were either pensioned off or became parish clergy. Only 3 abbots resisted and were hanged. Relics and images were destroyed. The shrines were leveled to the ground. The dissolution had important social and political consequences. Two thirds of the abbey lands were sold, the rest was kept by the crown. An immense amount of land came into the possession of the middle classes. Now there were more landowners than ever before: nobility, gentry, merchants, lawyers and yeomen farmers. They gradually came to have great power, for the crown had sought alliance with them to carry through the Reformation. New previously unknown families began to join the ranks of the political йlite.
Henry VIII
The income of the crown doubled calling for new financial departments to deal with the new sources of revenue. The structure of government was changed. An inner circle developed in the Council, the Privy Council, the ancestor of today’s Cabinet. Even more significant was the place given to Parliament, especially the Commons.
By the end of the 1530s the pattern at court was beginning to take on a character it was to have in the future – a division between those who wanted no further change, and indeed wanted to go back, and those who pressed for more. The success of these rival factions changed according to the mood of the king, but in general he began to understand that things were going too far and too fast. After Cromwell’s execution in 1540 the conservatives prevailed. Under the wise influence of his sixth wife Henry was reconciled with his daughters by the first two wives, at the same time appointing Protestant teachers to educate young Edward, by his third wife, and a mainly Protestant Council to rule until Edward was old enough. He wanted a moderate council to keep the peace between the two extremes. While Henry lived he was able to control both Protestant and Catholic trouble-makers. But this policy couldn’t last for ever; England had to make a choice. Before that, however, it had to learn by bitter experience. For six years under the boy Edward the country suffered from extreme Protestants, then for 5 years under Mary – from extreme Catholics.
An interesting example of how families rose to prominence in those times is the history of the Spencer family, of which the late Princess Diana is a member. The Spencers originally came from Warwickshire, where they farmed sheep. They were successful businessmen and with each generation the family grew a little richer. By 1508 John Spencer had saved enough capital to buy the 300acre estate of Althorp. Later he acquired a coat of arms and a knighthood from Henry VIII. His descendants were no less diligent, and in the 17th century the family was one of the richest in England. Granted peerage by James I, the Spencers left farming to their agents and concentrated on court politics. In the 18th century their estate was worth £750,000 – roughly equivalent to £45 million today – and included 100,000 acres in twentyseven different counties. Lord Spencer had an income of £700 a week in an era when a gentleman could live off £300 a year (for the 18th century we usually multiply by 60 to get equivalent 20th century values).
During the reign of Edward VI radical steps were taken in the Protestant direction. First of all, the appearance of every parish church was changed. Images of the Virgin, Christ and saints were taken out, burned or smashed to bits.
