Handling of the King’s annulment and influence over Henry

• 1.Cromwell realised that helping Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon would be a sure way of gaining further promotion. None of Henry’s noblemen had had the talent to find a strategy to secure divorce, and Henry’s new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, was actively opposed to divorce.
• 2. In 1531 Cromwell proposed a solution: the power of annulment should be removed from the pope and given to Henry instead, and to provide a legal basis for this, parliament could be used to pass a law transferring the power.
• 3. This was a ground-breaking solution, because it directly challenged the power of the pope, and also dramatically expanded the power of parliament, which up to this point had mainly only been used to grant new taxes.
• 4. By January 1533 Anne Boleyn was pregnant, so Henry needed a divorce quickly: he had to marry Anne before she gave birth, to ensure the child was legitimate.
• 5. On 25 January, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, performed a secret marriage ceremony for the couple. However, in the eyes of the Catholic church this ceremony was not legal, so the baby would still be illegitimate.
• 6. In March 1533 the Act in Restraint of Appeals was passed, which stated that the king was the ‘Supreme Head’ of England. This meant that he, rather than the pope, had the right to grant annulments.
• 7. A divorce hearing began in May 1533, headed by Archbishop Cranmer.
• 8. On 23 May the court announced that the original papal dispensation had been invalid, that Henry and Catherine had never been legally married, and that Henry’s secret marriage to Anne was therefore legal.
• 9. A week later, great celebrations were held to mark Anne’s coronation as queen. Anne travelled from Greenwich Palace to the Tower of London, accompanied by 300 boats.
• 10. Anne Boleyn gave birth to a girl, Elizabeth, in September 1533.
• 10. Anne Boleyn gave birth to a girl, Elizabeth, in September 1533.