Many may know the story of Henry VIII and his struggle for power against the Roman Catholic Church, but they might not know the effects that struggle had on England. The story begins with the sudden death of Henry’s older brother, Arthur, in 1502 and Henry’s ascension to the throne. Upon his coronation in 1509, he was wedded to Catherine of Aragon, his brother’s widow. Once Catherine passed child-bearing years without birthing a son, Henry started to believe their marriage was cursed, despite the papal dispensation given to allow it, and this started the beginning of his fight for a divorce. Another reason he wanted to divorce Catherine was that he had fallen for a lady at court, Anne Boleyn, and desperately wanted to marry her. Henry’s …show more content…
The loss of papal influence allowed Parliament to have more control over the politics and worldly affairs of England. Parliament used their newfound power to implement many laws, acts, and statutes. Many members of Parliament were unhappy with the amount of power the Roman Catholic Church held over England and took up the opportunity to break away from the pope. In 1529, the Reformation Parliament was formed and its main purpose was to cut the ties between England and Rome. They passed the Act of Treason in 1534, which also made rejecting the king’s religious rulings punishable by death as well as the aforementioned punishment of treason for denying royal supremacy. Examples of this act being enforced are detailed in a letter to Thomas Cromwell, the chief minister, from one of his agents which states, “there was a poor woman of Wells... that imagined a false tale of a miracle to be done by the image of Our Lady...I committed her therefore to the ward...The next day after, being market day, there I caused her to be set…in a cart and so carried about the market...young people and boys of the town casting snowballs at her... This was her penance; for I knew no law otherwise to punish her but by discretion, trusting it shall be a warning to other light persons in such wise to order themself.” By supposedly seeing a miracle, this woman was humiliated and then sent to the ward. Her incarceration was to be warning to the rest of the town to see what happens to those that do not abide by the laws of their