Transcript The English Reformation

The English Reformation
Henry VIII
1509-1547
The English Reformation started in the reign
of Henry VIII whose reign has been obscured
by his many marriages.
The wives of Henry VIII
Catherine of Aragon
Anne Boleyn
Catherine Parr
Anne of Cleves
Jane Seymour
Catherine Howard
• Henry VIII wanted a male heir so he can ascend
the throne after him, but his first wife, Catherine
of Aragon, failed to produce this child. Their
marriage produced just one child called marry
leaving Henry desperate of a son.
• Therefore, he wanted to divorce Catherine to
marry another woman. (Anne Boleyn).
• However, a divorce was not a simple issue. In
fact, it was a very complicated one. Henry VIII
was a Roman Catholic and the head of this
church was the pope based in Rome.
• The Roman Catholic faith believed in
marriage for life. It did not recognize divorce.
Those who were widowed were free to remarry, but husbands could not simply decide
that their marriage was not working, divorce
their wife and re-marry.
• This put Henry VIII in a difficult
position. If he went ahead and
announced that as king of England
he was allowing himself a divorce,
the pope could excommunicate
him. This meant that under
Catholic Church law, your soul
could never get to Heaven. At the
time of Henry, this was a very real
fear, and a threat which the
Catholic Church used to keep
people under its control.
Solution?
• Henry VIII tried to convince the pope to grant
him a divorce by asserting that this would
not affect the Roman Catholic Church since
he is just applying a divorce for the king. Yet,
the pope refused!
• Henry VIII, frustrated, asked Archbishop of
Canterbury to grant him the divorce he
wished for, instead.
• Surprisingly, Archbishop of Canterbury
granted him the divorce and this created a
revolution within the church. In other words,
this event lead England to break from
Catholicism in which Henry placed himself
as head of this “new” church.
The reaction of the population of
England.
• Henry knew of the Catholic Church’s
unpopularity and, therefore, used this to his
advantage.
• The vast bulk of the population were very angry
at the way the Roman Catholic Church had used
them as a source of money. You had to pay if
you wanted to get married, to get a child
baptized, to bury someone, or to sell
indulgences, etc…Therefore, the Catholic
Church was very wealthy while many poor
remained poor. Their money was directly going
to the Catholic Church. Therefore, there were no
great protests throughout the land as many felt
that Henry would ease up on taking money from
them. Henry was made Supreme Head of the
Church by an Act of Parliament in 1534.
His marriage to Anne Boleyn
• For years before they married, Anne resisted the
King's advances, prompting criticism and
accusations that she was playing hard to get in order
to manipulate him into marrying her and making her
queen. The people were furiously loyal toward
Katherine of Aragon, and viewed Anne as a "whore"
and a home wrecker.
• Anne had a notoriously sharp tongue, and after
Henry VIII married her, he got increasingly tired of it,
and of her. What also makes the situation worse is
that Anne did not bring Henry the child he desired, in
fact, she had many unsuccessful pregnancies, until
she gave birth to their only daughter Elizabeth who
grew up to be Britain’s greatest monarch; Queen
Elizabeth I
How did their marriage end?
• Using trumped up
charges of
adultery, the King
had her
imprisoned at the
Tower of London,
conducted a trial
that found her
guilty of treason,
and had her
beheaded. The
day after Anne's
execution, Henry
was betrothed to
her successor,
Jane Seymour,
whom he had
been courting for
some time.
Third wife - Jane Seymour
• Only one of Henry’s six wives gave him a
son: Edward VI. Jane Seymour fulfilled
her most important duty as queen, but she
was never crowned and died just twelve
days after the long and arduous birth. She
was Henry's third wife and seems never to
have made much of an impression upon
anyone except the king.
Children of Henry VIII
1. Edward VI:
He ascended the
throne at the age of
nine, leaving his
uncle Edward
Seymour to
administer the
kingdom. He seemed
to have been a
precious and strongwilled child who
might have been a
powerful monarch
had he not died of
tuberculosis at the
age of 15.
Mary I
• She was known in
history as a merciless
queen.
• Bloody Mary
• She is well
remembered for her
attempt to restore
Catholicism in
England. She
persecutes
protestants.
Elizabeth I
• Her name became a
synonym for the era
which she dominated
(1558-1603)
• Elizabeth I was aware
that the tension
between Catholics and
Protestants is ruining
the society so she tried
to reach a middle
ground. What she did
was that she restored
Protestantism back as
the official religion with
giving some rights to
the Catholics at the
same time. Therefore,
there were two religious
factions in society.
The Elizabethan Theatre
• The Renaissance in Italy gave Europe its first
taste of theatre with Commedia del Arte, an art
form often played indoors with scenery. These
plays were undoubtedly familiar to English
visitors to Italy who has become plentiful as
people on business or tourists.
• In England, London’s theatres were built outside
the city walls. One of the first built theatres was
erected by James Burbage, a carpenter who
was also an actor in 1576.
• The establishment of the Elizabethan theatre
was one of the cultural achievements of the
age.
• The English theatre was directly under the
control of the government. Theatre was
supported financially by monarchs and the
nobility.
• Acting companies had to have a license.
• To the Elizabethans, the theatre was an
image of the universe. The stage was the
earthly region where humans played out their
comedies and tragedies.