Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and the reformation in England - Essay Example

Reformation in England YourFirst YourLast Introduction King Henry VIII governed England for over thirty years. King Henry VIII (1491-1547) presided over far-reaching changes that led his country to the protestant reformation. King Henry engaged in the institution of marriage with six different women while looking for political associations, delight in marriage and a male heir in fine fettle (Cobbett & Gasquet, n.d.). His wish to terminate his first marriage devoid of the pope’s consent resulted in the formation of a detached Church of England.

Of all the six marriages that he was involved in, two ended in natural deaths, two with beheadings of his wives for various violations of the law, including treason and adultery and two others were ended after being terminated by the king. The king’s children Elizabeth I, Edward VI and Mary I later on took turns in ruling over England.Analysis The king was handed over the throne at just 17 years. Immediately six weeks after taking the reins of power, he married Catherine of Aragon. King Henry and Catherine were able to have three daughters and three sons within the next fifteen years while in power.

Unfortunately, all but one died during infancy. Mary was the only child that survived. During Mary’s childhood, Henry the VIII was actively participating in jousting, hunting and music writing and composing. King Henry additionally wrote a book commenting on Martin Luther’s proposed reforms on the church. The book received much recognition, even from Pope Leo X, branding him a “Defender of Faith” (Shrank, 2006). However, his lack of a male child, particularly because he procreated a healthy unlawful son in 1519 worried him very much.

In the 16th Century, England was a land of much dissimilarity. It was not as urbanized as either Netherlands or Spain; it nonetheless controlled a flourishing transnational trade headquarters in London. In addition, Cambridge and Oxford were two Centers of learning of exceptional repute. The two institutions later on played a fundamental function in the initial campaigns against Martin Luther King. King Henry VIII kept the brightest theologians by his side, providing him with substantial arguments that allowed him to counter the growing Lutheran sacrilege.

The process of Reformation in England was tightly associated with King Henry’s personal matters. His swelling fear to be released from his matrimonial duties and responsibilities to Catherine of Aragon obligated him to consider deep-seated changes that heavily contradicted the grain of his inbred religious obscurantism. In light of this, the Reformation process in England followed a framework that was closely related to a similar process in Scandinavian countries. Even though England, similar to Bohemia had developed its traditional benighted dissent in Lollardy, Martin Luther King’s attacks directed towards the church had at first generated insignificant effects inside England.

In quick sequences from 1532, the Parliament of England ratified legislations that curbed the effect of the Pope in England. In addition, the legislature additionally gave the king powers to rule and administer the church. When the divorce was finally executed, as well as parliaments role in giving the kind enough powers to manage the church, King Henry VIII took charge of the Church’s’ assets by dissolving the cloisters and convents.From Mary to ElizabethIn the year 1558, Elizabeth took over power, in a period that was marred by religious trouble between the Catholics and the Protestants.

During that time, the Catholic denomination had been removed, and Protestantism had spread over England for about five years (Cobbett & Gasquet, n.d.). However, Elizabeth took over power at a time when Catholicism was being re-established. Even though Mary’s changes on the throne had been reversed again, Elizabeth and her advisors became aware that most of her servants remained attached to older ways of doing things. Protestantism became the religion of choice for most English citizens in the last twenty years of Queen Elizabeth’s I rein.

ReferencesCobbett, W., & Gasquet, F. A history of the Protestant reformation in England and Ireland. New York: Benziger Bros.Shrank, C. (2006). Writing the nation in Reformation England, 1530-1580. Oxford: Oxford University Press.