3rd November 1534: English Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy

Henry had been married to Catherine of Aragon, his older brother Arthur’s widow, since 1509. Although she was pregnant seven times only one of Catherine’s children, the future Mary I, survived. Frustrated by the lack of a male heir, by 1527 Henry had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, who was young enough to bear children. Determined to make Anne his wife and produce a male heir, the king soon began to seek an annulment of his marriage to Catherine.

Despite enormous pressure, Pope Clement VII steadfastly refused to grant the annulment and clear the way for Henry’s marriage to Anne. The king’s use of Bible verses and historic documents in support of his cause made little impact on the Pope and, unable to secure the annulment, Henry married Anne in early 1533. He did so on the basis that, if Catherine had consummated her marriage to Arthur, her marriage to Henry was invalid.

Within five months Thomas Cranmer, the newly-appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, declared the marriage to Catherine illegal and that to Anne lawful. Shortly after the birth of the couple’s daughter, Elizabeth, Henry began preparations to formally break from Rome. When the Pope declared in March 1534 his marriage to Anne illegal, Henry responded that the Pope had no authority in England.

Consequently on 3 November 1534 Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy that recognised Henry as the ‘Supreme Head of the Church of England’. Largely political in its origin, the Act nevertheless marked the beginning of the English Reformation.