On this day in 1531, Henry VIII of England was recognized as the supreme head of the Church of England.
That doesn’t sound like much, but behind that bland fact was years of negotiations with the Roman Catholic Church, political strategizing, bribes, and more, all to secure a divorce from Henry’s first wife, Catherine, so that he could marry the woman he was besotted with; Anne Boleyn.
The only way he was able to divorce Catherine was to invent his own church that he controlled, and who would therefore decree a divorce as legal and binding. He created the Church of England, got his divorce and married Anne swiftly after that.
The marriage was doomed, but the single child Anne bore Henry would become the fabulously successful Elizabeth I. So it wasn’t a completely fruitless match.
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