Henry VIII
The king of England under whom Parliament ended appeals to Rome and, in 1534, declared the king supreme head of the Church of England.
A London chronicle records Henry’s birth at Greenwich in June 1491, the second son of Henry VII (Wriothesley, Chronicle vol. 1, p. 2). In 1533 Archbishop Thomas Cranmer gave sentence against his marriage to Katherine of Aragon and crowned Anne Boleyn, whom Henry had already married (Cranmer, Letters, letter 14, to Nicholas Hawkyns, 17 June 1533). The Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared him and his successors “the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England” (Statutes of the Realm, 26 Hen. VIII c. 1); see England Breaks with Rome.
The lord mayor of London was told on 31 January 1547 that the king had died on the Friday before, 28 January, and his son was proclaimed as Edward VI (Wriothesley, Chronicle vol. 1, p. 178).
In the timeline
- 1534, firm dateEngland Breaks with Rome
Parliament forbids appeals to Rome and in 1534 declares Henry VIII the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England. John Fisher and Thomas More, who deny the title, are beheaded in 1535.