Henry the 8th and the Consequences of the Reformation

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We are moving along in our study of the Reformation and its consequences. We have reached King Henry the 8th, or as Minime calls him ... the King that ate a lot. In his mind, Tudor is a figure resembling Friar Tuck from Rocket Robin Hood.

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Certainly the similarities between the Good Friar and the barbarous, bloody Tudor ended at the waistline.

Henry took off a head ... even of those he purported to have once loved ... the same way the powers that be might cancel an influencer who got a little too far off narrative and too close to a hidden truth.

In that light cancelling and shadow-banning are far more preferable than a free night of accommodations in downtown London and eternity of ghostly essence in the dusky-lit corridors and corners of the Tower.

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From our studies ...

In Crash Course European History, Reformation and Consequences, John Green tells us that Henry the 8th of England came to use Protestantism as the medieval excuse to ghost your ex and seize the funds of your detractors.

In other words, Henry Tudor used the Reformation to get divorced and also to acquire the lands of those that did not 'reform' along with him ... the Catholic Church and its stalwart supporters.

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After the War of the Roses (1455- 1487), The Tudors needed to consolidate their divided kingdom. Henry was married to Catherine of Aragon, who was also the aunt of Charles the 5th of the Holy Roman Empire. It was politically savvy marriage but not a particularly fruitful one. The union between Catherine and Henry had not produced a male-heir. Catherine experienced multiple miscarriages and only managed one living female child. In the eyes of the primogeniture ideal of England. Catherine had failed as a royal bride.
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Henry mistress Anne Boleyn was with child, and he wanted the Pope to annul his marriage with Catherine, so Anne could become Queen and her child the heir to the throne. The Pope refused, not only because the marriage was more than two decades old and had produced a female heir, Mary, but also the Pope did not want to offend the powerful Charles the 5th. Charles had supported the papacy on the continent against German reformers.

Tudor turned his back on the Catholic Church, and instituted the Protestant Church of England. He made himself the head of the Church of England and decreed himself annulled from Catherine. Anne became Queen and Catherine was forced to live in isolation.

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Tudor gained favour and gold from English nobles by seizing Catholic Church lands and selling them off to his supporters. The power of the state had increased dramatically by consolidating it with religious power and placing it solely in the hands of the Monarch.

Henry would later come to execute the bride he had coveted for supposed treason after their marriage bed failed to produce a male heir. Many would lose their head after catching the ire of Henry, Anne; his later and much younger wife, Catherine Howard; and Thomas Moore would be executed at the Tower. A Christian humanist,Moore, was put under the axe for refusing to recognize Henry as the head of the Church of England. Moore wasn't alone in his reluctance to accept Henry as the prime religious figure in England. The populace was also heavily divided, with many adhering to the Catholic Church and Papal authority in all things religious. The following years and the years after Henry's death would be marked with violence inspired by religious strife.

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