Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession by Norton Elizabeth

Author:Norton, Elizabeth [Norton, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9781445606637
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2011-10-05T23:00:00+00:00

The Act expressly stated that matrimonial causes should not be tried by appeal to Rome and that they must be heard within the Church of England. This was the final key statute required and, as soon as Cranmer’s appointment was confirmed, he was ordered by the king to try the validity of Henry’s marriage with Catherine.

In early May 1533, Cranmer travelled to Dunstable, four miles away from Catherine’s residence at Ampthill. Cranmer immediately summoned the queen to attend a church court in order to try the validity of her marriage. Catherine, understandably, refused to heed the summons, saying ‘that inasmuch as her cause was before the Pope, she would have none other judge; and therefore would not take me [Cranmer] for a judge’. Cranmer would have expected this response and this had also been anticipated by Henry who had already given the archbishop orders to proceed with the court regardless of whether the queen attended. Cranmer did just that and, on 8 May, gave final sentence in the court claiming that it had never been possible for the pope to dispense the marriage of Catherine and Henry due to Catherine’s marriage to Arthur. The marriage had therefore been invalid from the start, leaving Henry entirely free to contract another marriage. It is likely that it was Cranmer himself who informed Anne and Henry of his verdict and, as soon as the sentence was given, he hurried back to London in order to prepare for Anne’s coronation.

Even after the divorce had been pronounced, Henry always showed a commitment to the break with Rome and this may have been due to Anne’s continuing influence. In early 1534, Henry put the final touches to the statutes with the Act for the Submission of the Clergy and Restraint of Appeals and the Act of Supremacy. Both Acts ensured that all Henry’s previous actions against the Pope were contained in statute, and the Act of Supremacy sums up Henry’s own beliefs about his power over the Pope:

‘Albeit the king’s majesty justly and rightfully is and oweth to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and so is recognised by the clergy of this realm in their Convocations, yet nevertheless for corroboration and confirmation thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ’s religion within this realm of England, and to repress and extirp all errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses heretofore used in the same; be it enacted by authority of this present Parliament, that the king our Sovereign Lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accept and reputed the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England’.

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