This continued until Henry VIII, so desperate to produce a male heir, broke Papal control over England and named himself Head of the Church that taught an offshoot of Christianity based on the teachings of Martin Luther, the Protestant Church of England. This change did not make much difference, as the main different was the head of the Church and belief about divorce. Many more changes came after Henry died in 1547 and Edward VI became king. Edward, led by his advisors, moved England completely from Catholicism and to Protestantism. He passed laws such as making churches and bishops more plain, services be said in English and creating the Book of Common Prayer in 1549 and a refined version in 1552.
The Act in Restraint of Appeals (1533) was a step forward for Henry – while the other legislation was primarily aimed at weakening the Church financially, this act reduced Rome’s political power by preventing people appealing to Rome against a decision made by the powers in England. In historical context Henry’s intentions were clear – that he would secure a divorce in an English court and prevent any appeal to the uncooperative Pope. However, it also signified a milestone in a wider context, as it was the beginning of the removal of the Pope’s powers in England. 1534 brought the Act of First Fruits and Tenths, which forced the clergy to pay the king a large amount of their income, 10% of their annual income and part of the initial windfall that a member of the clergy gets for joining a monastery. After these acts had been passed Henry and his advisors began their attack on the opposition to the break with Rome with attacks on the Carthusians and the Observant Franciscans and the
To what extent can the pilgrimage of grace, 1536 be considered a serious threat to the Tudor Monarchy? The pilgrimage of grace was the largest revolt in England in the reign of Henry VIII and of the Tudor dynasty. It was based in Yorkshire made up of nobles and commoners and differed from the Lincolnshire rising as it was well led by a one eyed lawyer called Robert Aske. Aske was a competent organiser and kept the uprising standardised as he didn’t want to scare off nobles from joining the rebellion. The pilgrimage of grace was orchestrated to help stop the attacks against the Church in England and the monasteries.
During Tudor England, religious identity was extremely important, and therefore religious ‘revolution’ was obviously going to affect the people and the country significantly. To assess this statement each monarch, ‘revolution’ and its affect on England must be discussed. Edward VI came to power in 1547 at the age of just nine, and he was assigned a ‘protectorate’ and in the first half of his reign this was his Uncle, the Duke of Somerset. Somerset did himself appear to be Protestant, welcoming religious radicals such as John Hooper and Thomas Becon into his household. He also made a start on reforming religion; in July 1547 he introduced the Book of Homilies and paraphrases, a religious document that had to be placed in every Church.
A new religion was created by Henry VIII, called Protestant. This authorized people to divorce if they were unhappy about their marriage. This made all the pope, monks and priests very irritated and angry. Henry’s hunger for power slowly increased; he wanted to dissolve the monasteries as he felt strongly about controlling the church his way. Although Henry was king of England, he thought that the pope might have more control over the people in England.
England was a Catholic country, and so Ireland followed in its footsteps and was also a devoted Catholic country. The Act of Supremacy meant that Henry was now the head of the church, a protestant movement. This caused uproar in Ireland since England was becoming a protestant country, and Henry expected Ireland to follow them. On the 11th June 1534, the 8th Earl of Kildare, also known as the vice-deputy of Ireland, renounced his alliance to Henry VIII due to these changes. Henry heard of this and summoned Garette Org Fitzgerald to London since he felt that the way in which Ireland was being run was against the new Henrician reformaties.
At the start of Henry VIIIs reign, most of England were Roman Catholic and accepted the Pope as the Head of the Church, but in the 16th century, and so was he until he split off the English Church from the Roman church When the Pope refused to grant Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He then went on to make himself the spiritual head of the English church rather than the Pope. Henry VIII declared himself supreme head of a new Church of England. (The Act of Supremacy and reformation). The voices of statesmen and of priests extolled his wisdom and power as more than human.
Against Cromwell's Revolution Within Government Thomas Cromwell served Henry VIII as chief minister between 1532-1540. During this time some argue for example Elton that there was a revolution within government. Elton believed that during the time Cromwell was chief minister there were key turning points in the way in which the government functioned. He believes that the changes led to the government turning from medieval to modern. Many historians agree that changes within government took place between 1532-40 however the question arises were these changes great enough to create a revolution within government?
In the 1530s Cromwell began to make many changes to different areas of Tudor government to try and strengthen royal authority. The different areas he made changes to, were the Privy Council, finance and local government. These changes strengthened and weakened royal authority in many ways. Firstly the changes Cromwell made to the Privy Council. The Privy Council previously called the Royal Council was considered the most important single element in the government.
Part of Alexander III’s problem was the legacy left by his father who had begun reforms which raised expectations of major change within Russia. Other problems he faced were that Russia was economically underdeveloped, he had to keep the large multi-ethnic empire together and also the country was still recovering from the death of Alexander II. As a result Alexander III pursued a policy of counter-reform. Counter-reform was partly a reaction to the murder of Alexander II, but Alexander III also believed that his father’s ‘Great Reforms’ had been a mistake, weakening Tsarism and leaving it insecure. His policy was to undo the reforms as far as possible and he did this through a number of social and political changes.