Henry VIII and the English Reformation

In 1534, King Henry VIII, unable to obtain a papal annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon (who had failed to produce a male heir), passed the Act of Supremacy, declaring himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and severing ties with the Roman Catholic Church. Henry's six marriages — "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived" — became one of history's most memorable mnemonics. But the English Reformation was far more than a royal marital dispute: Henry dissolved the monasteries, seizing their vast lands and wealth and distributing them to loyal nobles, permanently reshaping English land ownership. The break with Rome made England a Protestant nation, set it against Catholic Spain and France, and established the Church of England — an institution that endures today with the British monarch as its Supreme Governor. The religious upheaval continued through Henry's children: Edward VI (Protestant), Mary I ("Bloody Mary," Catholic), and Elizabeth I, who established the moderate Anglican settlement that largely holds to this day.