King Henry VIII is one of the most controversial Kings in English history. From his gluttony, to his executions, to his infamous six marriages, the man is often regarded as a tyrant by many contemporary historians. One of the most famous parts of his rule was his splitting from the Catholic Church, largely in an effort to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and remarry her Lady-in-Waiting, Anne Boleyn. Whilst an important part of his rule, it is often overlooked how contentious this was inside the courts of Whitehall.
Following his accession in 1509, Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his elder brother, Arthur. Because canon law generally prohibited a man from marrying his brother’s widow, the marriage had only been made possible after Pope Julius II granted a special dispensation. For many years, the marriage appeared successful. Catherine was intelligent, politically experienced and highly respected by the English people. When Henry invaded France in 1513, she even served as regent in his absence, overseeing England’s government while he campaigned abroad. During the invasion, a Scottish army loyal to the French crossed the English border. Catherine helped organise England’s response, and the Scots were decisively defeated at the Battle of Flodden, where James IV of Scotland was killed. It was one of England’s greatest military victories of the century.
Despite these successes, Henry’s greatest concern remained the succession. Catherine had become pregnant at least six times, but repeated miscarriages, stillbirths and the deaths of young children meant that only one child survived into adulthood: Princess Mary. In an age when England had never successfully been ruled by a queen in her own right, Henry feared that leaving only a daughter as his heir could plunge the kingdom into another civil war, much like the Wars of the Roses only a generation earlier. Increasingly, he came to believe that God was punishing him for marrying his brother’s widow.
Henry found support for this belief in the Book of Leviticus, which declared:
If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonoured his brother. They will be childless.
Leviticus 20:21
Although Henry was not literally childless, he argued that the verse referred to the absence of a legitimate male heir. In his view, the deaths of his sons were divine proof that Pope Julius II had exceeded his authority by permitting the marriage in the first place. Whether Henry genuinely believed this interpretation or simply used it to justify ending a marriage that had failed to produce the successor he wanted remains a matter of historical debate. By the late 1520s, however, another factor had entered the equation: Henry had fallen deeply in love with Anne Boleyn. Unlike Catherine, Anne refused to become merely the King’s mistress, insisting that she would only marry him as his lawful wife.
Henry therefore instructed his chief minister, Thomas Wolsey, to obtain an annulment from Pope Clement VII. On paper, Henry believed he had a strong legal case. In reality, the timing could hardly have been worse. In 1527, the armies of Charles V of Spain had sacked Rome. Charles was not only the most powerful ruler in Europe but also Catherine’s nephew. Although the Pope remained the head of the Catholic Church, he was effectively under Charles’s political influence and could scarcely be expected to invalidate his aunt’s marriage. For years, Clement delayed making a final decision, hoping to avoid offending either England or the Holy Roman Empire. A special papal court was eventually convened in England, presided over jointly by Wolsey and Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio. However, Campeggio repeatedly postponed proceedings before eventually referring the case back to Rome. After years of uncertainty, the Pope refused to grant the annulment.
The decision transformed what had begun as a personal dispute into a constitutional revolution. Henry blamed Wolsey for his failure to secure the annulment, dismissed him from office and charged him with treason. Wolsey died of illness in 1530 before he could stand trial. Convinced that the papacy would never grant his request while Catherine’s nephew dominated European politics, Henry began searching for another solution. With the support of advisers such as Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer, he gradually rejected papal authority altogether. Through a series of Acts of Parliament, Henry declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. Freed from the Pope’s jurisdiction, Cranmer declared Henry’s marriage to Catherine invalid in 1533, allowing the King to marry Anne Boleyn. What had begun as the King’s search for a male heir had ultimately led to England’s break with Rome and the beginning of the English Reformation.
Whilst Henry’s break with Rome was transforming England, one man found himself increasingly unable to support the King’s new religious settlement: Thomas More. Born in London in 1478, More was one of the most accomplished scholars of the Renaissance. Trained as a lawyer, he quickly earned a reputation for his intelligence, wit and deep religious conviction. His 1516 book, Utopia, described an imaginary island governed by reason and justice, becoming one of the most influential works of political philosophy ever written and establishing More as one of Europe’s leading humanist thinkers. Despite his scholarly reputation, More was also a loyal servant of the Crown. He held a succession of important legal offices, served on the King’s council and became a trusted adviser to Henry VIII.
Henry greatly admired More, valuing both his learning and his honesty. When Cardinal Wolsey fell from power, Henry appointed More as Lord Chancellor in 1529, making him the highest-ranking legal official in England and the first layman to hold the office in centuries. At first glance, the appointment seemed ideal. Both men were devout Catholics, both believed in good government and both had worked closely together for many years. Yet beneath the surface lay a profound disagreement that would ultimately destroy their friendship. More was a committed defender of the Roman Catholic Church and believed that its unity under the Pope was essential to Christianity. During the early years of the Protestant Reformation, sparked by Martin Luther in 1517, More became one of its most determined opponents. He wrote extensively against Protestant theology, defending traditional Catholic beliefs and papal authority. As Lord Chancellor, he also enforced England’s laws against heresy, overseeing the prosecution of several Protestants. Although admired for his integrity and learning, More’s willingness to persecute those he considered heretics has made him a far more controversial figure among modern historians than later generations often acknowledged.
As Henry’s dispute with Pope Clement VII deepened, More found himself trapped between two irreconcilable loyalties. He remained devoted to his King and believed that subjects owed obedience to their lawful monarch. Yet he also believed that no earthly ruler, not even the King of England, possessed the authority to replace the Pope as head of the Church. Unlike many of Henry’s ministers, More refused to reshape his beliefs to fit the King’s wishes. He did not publicly campaign against the royal reforms, nor did he encourage rebellion. Instead, he chose silence. In the increasingly tense political atmosphere of the 1530s, however, silence itself would soon become a dangerous form of opposition.
Recognising that he could no longer support the direction of royal policy, More resigned as Lord Chancellor in May 1532, officially citing poor health. Few contemporaries doubted the real reason for his departure. By stepping down quietly rather than openly confronting the King, More hoped to avoid becoming involved in the increasingly bitter dispute over England’s relationship with Rome. Henry initially allowed his former Chancellor to retire into private life, but More’s silence soon became a problem in itself. As one of the most respected scholars and statesmen in Europe, his refusal to publicly endorse the King’s reforms encouraged others to question their legitimacy.
Over the next two years, Parliament passed a series of laws that steadily dismantled papal authority in England. The Act in Restraint of Appeals, passed in 1533, declared that England was an independent realm whose legal matters could no longer be appealed to Rome. This allowed Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to declare Henry’s marriage to Catherine invalid and recognise his marriage to Anne Boleyn as lawful. Soon afterwards, Parliament passed the Act of Succession, requiring Henry’s subjects to swear an oath recognising Anne’s children as the legitimate heirs to the throne and accepting the validity of the King’s new marriage.
More appeared before commissioners at Lambeth Palace in April 1534 to take the oath. He declared that he was willing to recognise Anne’s children as the lawful heirs to the throne, but he refused to accept the parts of the oath that rejected papal authority and implied that the King’s first marriage had been invalid from the beginning. Rather than openly denouncing the government, More simply declined to swear. Under English law, this refusal was interpreted as an act of disobedience. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he remained for more than a year. While More was confined, Henry pressed ahead with the final stage of his religious revolution. Later that same year, Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, declaring Henry VIII to be the “Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England.” For supporters of the Reformation, the Act confirmed England’s independence from foreign interference. For More, it crossed a line that his conscience would never allow him to cross. To acknowledge the King as head of the Church would be to deny the spiritual authority of the Pope, something he believed no earthly ruler had the power to do.
By the summer of 1535, the government had decided to make an example of its most famous opponent. More was brought before a commission at Westminster Hall and charged with high treason for maliciously denying the King’s supremacy over the Church. The prosecution struggled to prove its case, as More had been careful never to publicly condemn the King’s actions. Its most important witness was Richard Rich, the Solicitor General, who testified that during a private conversation in the Tower, More had explicitly denied that Parliament could make the King head of the Church. More vigorously denied ever making such a statement and accused Rich of committing perjury. Even some contemporaries questioned the reliability of Rich’s testimony, but the jury nevertheless found More guilty.
On July 6th 1535, Thomas More was led to Tower Hill to be executed. Before his death, he remained calm, joking with the executioner and asking for help up the scaffold, adding that he would “shift for myself coming down.” Moments before the axe fell, he declared his enduring loyalty to both his sovereign and his faith, proclaiming that he died “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” With More’s execution, Henry VIII had removed one of the most respected opponents of the English Reformation. To Catholics across Europe, More became a martyr who had sacrificed his life rather than betray his conscience. To Henry and his government, his death demonstrated that even the King’s oldest friends were not above the law. The struggle between Crown and Church had claimed one of its most famous victims, and England’s break with Rome was now irreversible.