6 Key Changes During the Reign of Henry VIII. 1. The English Reformation. 2. The statutes which changed England forever. 3. The Church of England and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. 4. The English Parliament. 5. The Royal Navy.
King Henry VIII did not just make changes to the church, he started one of his own. He broke away from the Catholic Church and founded the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church. In this way, he was the leader of the English Reformation.
Henry provided the Church of England’s parishes with some of the first bibles translated into English. This was a radical change; previously, almost all bibles had been written in Latin so were unreadable for ordinary people. Thomas Cromwell was in charge of preparing this religious text, known as the Great Bible.
Unlike other Protestant reformers, Henry did not have serious disagreements with the Catholics in terms of dogma and teachings; his issues were of of personal and political nature. Simply put, he did not like having to yield his royal authority to the Vatican in matters concerning how he maintained the religious institutions of his own kingdom.
Henry VIII was the king of England (1509–47). He broke with the Roman Catholic Church and had Parliament declare him supreme head of the Church of England, starting the English Reformation, because the pope would not annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He wanted to remarry and produce a male heir.
Henry VIII had been a devout Catholic in his younger years. He had defended the Pope against the Protestant ideas published by Martin Luther, a German priest. In 1534, Henry declared that he, not the Pope, was the head of the Church in England. This sparked the English Reformation .
He was a powerful man and charismatic figure; perhaps best known for his tumultuous love life and the establishment of the Church of England. He is also credited with establishing the Royal Navy, encouraging shipbuilding and the creation of anchorages and dockyards.
The reign of Henry VIII marked the true beginning of the Renaissance in England. During his younger years, Henry appeared to be the ideal Renaissance monarch—handsome and dashing, fond of sports and pageantry, well educated, and a supporter of the arts and learning.