King Henry VIII and Wives (1491-1547)

[Jo of Palatine]

IIRC Henry VIII. wanted a annullation of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon because of reasons which were valid in itself: she had been married before to his elder brother Arthur and was the widowed Princess of Wales when he married her out of political reasons. Normally you need a dispensation from the pope in a case like this but as Catherine was the daughter of the Christian kings of Spain (Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon) they probably thought it would be alright.

When Henry conveniently remembered that there was something legally amiss with his marriage, he asked the pope for an annulation which legally was correct. Alas, the Spanish and the French took care that the pope did not annull this marriage.

So Henry severed the links of the Church in England to the Vatican and replaced the pope as the head of the English Church while retaining most of the old system. Surely he was encouraged by the way other rulers had decided to support the idea of protestantism but still the Church of England kept their close relationship to the Roman-Catholic Church while the Reformed Church of Scotland eg has been much more protestantisms in its structure. The bishops who followed his lead had been Catholic bishops before but now under the new law it was the king who decided about the anullation of the marriage.

But the reasons were valid even under catholic law - it was not a divorce, Henry had reasons to seek an anullation. The next queen, Anne Boleyn, was killed before the king married Jane Seymour. She died, too, before the king married Anne of Cleve. This marriage was anulled, again on valid grounds even according to Catholic law. Catherine Howard was killed, too and the last wife survived the king and was recognized by queen Mary as the king's widow. So the idea that the Church of England started with a divorce is not historically correct, I believe.

Just another sentence to explain the difficulties between Henry and Catherine of Aragon. According to the Medieval/Renaissance-view on marriages, Catherine became Henry's sister when she married his brother. Not sister-in-law, but real sister legally. As it is not allowed for brothers and sisters to marry, you needed a dispensation which severes this former "sibling"- bond to the widow of your brother. This did not happen or in a way that allowed Henry to ask for an anullation because the marriage was invalid: brothers and sisters cannot marry. I hope it's clearer now.