James town was the first permanent settlement in North America
Henry VIII started the process of creating the Church of England after his split with the Pope in the 1530s. Henry was anxious to ensure a male heir after his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had borne him only a daughter. He wanted his marriage annulled in order to remarry. In 1534 after several attempts to persuade the Pope to grant an annulment, Henry passed the Act of Succession and then the Act of Supremacy. These recognised that the King was "the only supreme head of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia". Henry adopted the title given to him by the Pope in 1521, that of Defender of the Faith.
The fastest way to communicate across continents in the 1500s was by ship. If you wanted to bring a certain message across a continent than there was no faster way than actually sending it on a ship and waiting for the ship to arrive safely to the other continent.
