(Cover image – Unknown Artist – The National Portrait Gallery)
One of Henry VIII’s wives was one.
Two of his children were.
Several of his ministers, privy councillors, and an increasing number of courtiers and gentry, were.
But King Henry VIIII was never a Protestant.
. . .
A common misconception is that Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, thus becoming head of the Protestant Church of England. The break was not as clean or absolute as that. Henry VIII, and the country, went from being Roman Catholic to English Catholic. Elements of worship would gradually change to reflect the lack of papal authority, but the Church of England would not be a Protestant church until the reign of his son, Edward VI, in 1547. Henry VIII was born, lived, and died, a Catholic.
Henry’s religious journey was not led by any deep philosophical or theological beliefs. He was, throughout his life, a conservative Catholic. A mixture of pragmatism, greed and suggestibility led to the break with Rome, but, theologically, the Church of England under Henry VIII remained a Catholic church, just with a new Head. His religious journey can best be viewed through a consideration of his wives - after all, without his desire to divorce Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, it is arguable whether the Reformation would have taken place at all during his reign.
In the beginning, Henry VIII was Christendom’s model of a Catholic prince. Married to Katherine of Aragon, the royal couple were good, pious Catholics, observing holy days and fast days, celebrating their joys with pilgrimages, and calming their fears with vigils and masses.
In 1517, Catholic Europe was shaken to its core when a monk, Martin Luther, nailed his 95 theses to a church door in Wittenberg, attacking papal authority and many of the traditions of the Catholic Church. By 1521, these Lutheran ideas (the term Protestant was not yet used) had a small foothold in England, and Henry VIII was concerned, worried that attacking the authority of the Pope attacked the authority of the King. For several years, Henry had been angling after a title from the Pope, as his fellow European monarchs had been given [1], and he seized this opportune moment. He wrote a scathing book refuting Luther’s reforms, imaginatively titled “A Defence of the Seven Sacraments Against Martin Luther”. Thomas More, Henry’s former tutor and close advisor, suggested he tone it down, warning the Pope “is a prince as you are, and there may grow breach of amity and war between you both. I think it best therefore that his authority be more slenderly touched upon [2]. Henry refused, and was granted the title of ‘Defender of the Faith’. Whilst hugely proud of his title, about a decade later, he would wish he had listened to More.
By 1527, the fairytale of the King and Queen was over. Katherine of Aragon sadly had no living sons, and was likely going through the menopause. Henry, and many of his subjects, believed a son was needed to succeed the throne. For some years, Henry had been harbouring a growing concern that his marriage to Katherine was invalid as she had been married to his brother, and it was God’s displeasure at their match that had prevented him having legitimate male heirs. Plague and outbreaks of the sweating sickness were further proof [3].
Enter Anne Boleyn. Representation of Anne as a Protestant heroine or heretic, depending on the author’s sympathies, are creations of later generations. As with Henry, Anne was a Catholic, but with interest in the ideas of the Reformation. The reformation was, in these early years, simply that - a reforming of the Catholic religion, for example having the Bible available in English, allowing people to pray directly to God rather than through the intermediaries of priests and saints, and rejecting the authority of the Pope. Reformists were still Catholics. In pursuit of her own reformist interests, Anne read banned texts, famously “The Obedience of a Christian Man, and how Christian Kings ought to Govern” by William Tyndale. Tyndale argued kings, not Popes, should be in charge of their subjects’ spiritual well being, after all, the king was chosen by God whilst the Pope was elected by men. When Anne revealed this content of the book to Henry, he is said to have claimed it was a book all princes should read.
Whilst England was a member of the Roman Catholic church, the divorce Henry desperately sought could only be granted by the Pope. The Pope, under the significant influence of (and occasional imprisonment by) Katherine’s nephew, Charles V of Spain, would never grant it. Anne and Thomas Cranmer, an up-and-coming reformist priest, suggested that if Henry was the head of the Church, he would not need the Pope to grant the divorce. Instead, the universities of Europe could pass judgement on whether or not his marriage was valid, and if it was not, the Archbishop of Canterbury could pronounce it as such, and all would be over. In 1531, Henry VIII went before Parliament and announced he was the Church of England’s “sole protector and supreme head" [4]. Parliament did not argue.
A Protestant Allegory by Girolamo de Treviso. This grisaille came into Henry VIII’s collection around 1538 - 1544. It shows the Pope being stoned by four men, their rocks labelled with the names of the Gospel. It illustrates how Henry’s break from Rome was primarily a break from the authority of the Pope. © The Royal Collection Trust/His Majesty King Charles III 2024.
It took two years, but the finest theological scholars in Europe concurred that Henry and Katherine’s marriage was invalid. Henry married Anne Boleyn in January 1533, and Anne was Queen. Of course, not everyone supported the break from Rome, and when Anne Boleyn and her reformist faction fell spectacularly in 1536, the traditionalist Catholics moved to bring the King back to the fold.
The king had no intention of returning to Rome. Whilst he had warmed to some reformist teachings, he was still Catholic in his religious practice. His break with Rome had been a break with papal authority, as opposed to the Catholic religion. However, an additional but not insignificant outcome of the break was that money paid to the Church no longer went to Rome, but into the King’s coffers. The wealthy estates once belonging to the monasteries were divided up amongst the king and his favourites. The sharing of monasterial lands and riches bought many powerful and influential Roman Catholics round to support the new Church of England, and it would be impossible to return to a Roman Catholic Church.
Instead, traditional Catholics in the court could only seek to temper the Reformation. Having seen the influence the King’s mistress, or wife, could have on the King, traditionalist courtiers manoeuvred the demure and traditionally Catholic Jane Seymour into the King’s affections, and, ten days after Anne’s execution, onto the Queen Consort’s throne.
Whilst breaking with Rome had enabled Henry to grant himself his divorce and vastly increased his financial strength, it placed England in a weak position internationally. Spain and France now had common cause to unite together against England, framing any alliance as a defence of the Roman Catholic Church. Henry VIII needed foreign supporters, and, after Jane Seymour’s sad death following the birth of that much wished for son, Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s Master Secretary, orchestrated a marriage between Henry and Anne of Cleves. Cleves was much like England, a reformist Catholic country in need of friends, and the alliance the marriage brought was politically savvy for both. Practically too, Henry needed to remarry and have more sons - a second son himself, he knew all too well the importance of the heir and the spare in ensuring the continuity of the Tudor dynasty. It is further evidence that Henry was not reformist or Protestant in his beliefs, that he did not hold the alliance in great respect, and ended it when he simply decided he was not physically attracted enough to Anne of Cleves to remain married to her.
As the Cleves alliance was ending, Katherine Howard, a member of the traditionally Catholic Howard family, caught the King’s eye. Traditionalists, led by the powerful Howard family, saw a perfect opportunity. They used the failure of the Cleves match to engineer the downfall of the powerful Reformist Cromwell, and manoeuvred the young, joyful, and ill prepared Katherine Howard onto the Consort’s throne. Whether Katherine would have been queen without the machinations of the Howards promoting themselves and the cause of the traditional Catholic, or whether she would have been a much-favoured mistress before contracting a safe and beneficial marriage is a question I think worth considering. As it was, Katherine was ill advised throughout her Queenship, and her naivety and lack of education led to the end of the traditionalists’ hopes on the executioner’s block in 1542.
Henry’s final queen, Kathryn Parr, was the first Protestant queen. By 1542, the Reformation was no longer about a reformed Catholic faith, but support of a new Protestant faith. Kathryn appointed reformists into the roles closest to her, making Sir Robert Tyrwhit, who had been one of those who had suppressed the Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion to return England to the Roman Catholic Church, her Master of the Horse. Her ladies and the royal children’s tutors were almost all reformists too; a very public and clear declaration of her faith. With Henry VIII’s health failing, and the real possibility of Kathryn being regent for Prince Edward, the traditionalists grew anxious that the Church of England would change from its Catholic roots into a Protestant Church, and they attempted to move against her.
That the traditionalists felt they could move against the Queen for her reformist beliefs is further proof Henry was not a Protestant, as was Kathryn’s successful defence argument. She explained she had only engaged with Protestant ideas and texts to educate herself so she could discuss these ideas with Henry, to distract him from his physical discomforts and learn from his great intellect in their debates. Had Henry been Protestant in his beliefs, Kathryn would not have needed to defend herself in such a way, nor would the traditional Catholics been able to use her interest in Protestant ideas against her.
In Henry VIII’s death, we see further proof of his unwavering Catholic faith. In his final will, he created a regency council of reformist peers, acting as equals. None would have the power and title of Lord Protector, which would have championed the Reformist, now Protestant, cause. He also left money for daily masses to be said for his soul, a distinctly Catholic practice [5]. He died in the Catholic faith, as he had been born in it. The only difference in his beliefs at the end of his life was he believed it was him who should be the head of his Church, instead of the Pope.
References:
The King of France, Franics I, was ‘the Most Christian king’ and Charles V, King of Spain, ‘ the Most Catholic King’ and ‘Protector of the Holy See’.
In William Roper’s “The Life of Sir Thomas More, Knight”, quoted in Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: King and Court. Vintage, 2001.
Henry conveniently ignored the previous years of happiness which had been seen as God’s pleasure in the marriage (ignoring facts which did not serve him was one of Henry’s great skills).
Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Vintage, 1991.
Edward Seymour, Lord Hertford, ignored Henry’s last wishes and made himself Lord Protector, putting the Protestant faction into power. The Protestant councillors also ended the daily masses Henry had requested after only a year.
Comments