<span>The correct answer is King Henry VIII. King Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church because he wanted to divorce his first wife when she did not give him a son. He had fallen in love with another woman and wanted to marry her. The Pope would not grant him a divorce from his first wife, however. Henry then started his own church, the Church of England, and gave himself a divorce.</span>
England's departure from the Catholic Church started during King Henry VIII's rule around 1534, this created the Anglican Church whose traditions are based on the English Book of Common Prayer; that split rose tensions between Protestants and Catholics, the 2 main religions in Elizabethan England, with Elizabeth being Henry VIII's daughter.
And in 1559 the Elizabethan Religious Settlement ultimately separated from the Roman Catholics, 5 years before Shakespeare was born.
Shakespeare's life developed through the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I afterward.
