Question

Describle England before the 1530s and after 1535.

Answer 1

Royal reform: 1529-1541

During the five years after Wolsey's fall Henry changes to a new tack in his pursuit of the annulment of his marriage. Instead of trying to persuade the pope of his case, the new strategy is one of forcing his compliance. Many members of parliament are deeply anti-clerical, in response to the overweening behaviour of great prelates such as Wolsey. Henry easily persuades them to pass a series of measures which restrict papal authority in England and prevent church funds from flowing to Rome. 

These measures fail to win the annulment from Clement VII. But the pope plays into Henry's hands when he accepts his proposal for the see of Canterbury, which falls vacant in 1532. The name put forward is Thomas Cranmer. 
  
Cranmer has been in the forefront of Henry's campaign for the divorce. Now as archbishop, in May 1533, he declares Henry's marriage to Catherine to be null and void. Of the Rival verses, the one from Leviticus has carried the day. At the same time it is announced that Henry and Anne were secretly married in January. There is urgency in all this, for Anne is already four months pregnant. 

Over the coming months parliament passes several acts completing the separation from Rome. The most significant is the Act of Supremacy, in 1534, declaring that Henry VIII is head of the church of England. 
  
Within a week of making himself supreme head of the church, in January 1535, Henry commissions his principal secretary, Thomas Cromwell, to make a detailed survey of monasteries, convents and other ecclesiastical property in England and Wales. This is achieved by Cromwell with great efficiency in a massive document Valor Ecclesiasticus ('Church Wealth'). 

Before the end of 1535 Cromwell's agents are sent out to list evidence of laxity and corruption in the monasteries - not hard to find at the time. In 1536 the process begins of appropriating properties listed in the first survey, on the grounds of abuses discovered in the second. 
  
In this dissolution of the monasteries, the priories and other smaller establishments are closed and appropriated first. Then Cromwell and his master are ready to tackle the great abbeys, with their rich swathes of land. The task is complete by 1541.   

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