Expert: Mark Smith - 5/10/2007

Question
why did henry v111 fall out with the catholic church ?

Answer
Hello Dom.
It had nothing to do with religious differences, it was something far more simple; he wanted a divorce, but the Pope wouldn't grant him one.
By the late 1520s Henry VIII had been married to Katherine of Aragon for 20 years. She had produced only one child who had survived, a daughter Mary. They had had two sons, but both had died in infancy. Henry wanted a son to succeed him, so he asked the Pope for a divorce so he could remarry, at that time only the Pope could grant a divorce. But the Pope refused. Henry and his chief Minister, Thomas Cromwell, came up with the idea of breaking from the Catholic Church and establishing their own Church, the Church of England, with the King as its Head. In this way he was able to authorise his own divorce.
Mark