Apart from wanting a divorce, any other reasons why henry the 8th broke with rome?

Answer 1

The reason that he wanted to divorce Catherine and marry Anne was not only (and not even primarily) because he was in love with Anne -- it was primarily because he was obsessed with having a son, and Catherine was reaching the end of her childbearing years, or so it was believed. Which, of course, is also why the Pope wouldn't grant him an annulment: Catherine's family ruled Spain, and to a large extent Spain ruled the Pope. So with Catherine's daughter Mary as the inheritor of the throne of England, the Spanish felt that they would have a significant lever to gain at least indirect, diplomatic control over England.

Henry was having none of this -- he believed that it was the right of the king of England to determine the succession of the throne. England, remember, had been through the Wars of the Roses in the time of Henry's father, Henry Tudor (Henry VII), who took the crown in 1485 at the end of the strife between Lancaster and York that occupied several generations. Henry VIII knew that a weak succession meant a weak kingdom, but the Pope could not go against the Spanish insistence on retaining Catherine as the lawful queen and her daughter Mary as the first in line on Henry's death.

It was Archbishop Cranmer who was the architect of Henry's break with Rome, aided by Thomas Cromwell. In addition to working to translate the Bible into English and writing the Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer was also the cleric who declared Henry's marriage to Catherine null and void, a few months before marrying him to Anne Boleyn. This meant the break was not only with Rome, but also with Spain, and the animosity of those two countries would come to a head in the reign of Henry and Anne's daughter, Elizabeth, in 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada.

The ultimate irony of Henry's death was twofold -- first, that the son he so longed for ruled only a few years, whereupon his eldest half-sister Mary Tudor plunged the country into civil war. And second, she in turn was finally ousted by her younger half-sister Elizabeth, who became what many people (myself most definitely included) consider the greatest ruler England, and possibly any other country, ever had.

Answer 2

Yes, money and increased power. By breaking with Rome, he took over the property of the Church in England and either kept or redistributed it among his nobles by way of royal patronage, the normal way a medieval or early modern king maintained the loyalty of his nobility. Look at the reign of Henry VI to see what happened when a king failed to do this, or when he concentrated patronage exclusively on his personal friends and relatives. For what Henry VIII did, see the Dissolution of the Monasteries and look at places such as Rievaulx Abbey and Whitby Abbey, as well as many others.

Henry VIII wanted a legitimate son - he could probably quite easily have got his divorce from Katherine of Aragon, had her nephew not been the Holy Roman Emperor. Her connections made the transaction very problematic and Henry's new bride was of much lower social status, having started life as mere Mistress Anne Boleyn. It is not true though, that Henry's relationship with Anne actually started the English Reformation or the European Reformation. Both were already well underway but Henry actually opposed them throughout. He mistakenly thought that he could effect his break with Rome and maintain the Catholic faith in England, continuing to torture and kill "heretics" as before, but without acknowledging the Pope's authority. He was wrong though - he had opened the door a crack and couldn't close it again. The impetus of the general desire for religious reform was irresistible and it can be seen now that in spite of all the Church and secular powers in Europe could do by way of repression, torture and murder, people were not going to keep a faith that was so obviously tarnished, having prostituted itself in so many ways. There was also of course considerable Catholic resistance to Henry's limited attempts at reformation - see The Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536. This is a really interesting period to study.

Answer 3

Henry VIII was made defender of the Faith by Rome for his stand against the Protestants. He only got excommunicated because he wanted to divorce the Queen who was related to the Holy Roman Emperor. The divorce was the only reason for the break with Rome. He was a pig in any case. A despotic murderer and if he had been alive today he would be in Wormwood Scrubs rather than Windsor Castle.

Answer 4

I don't think he would have done so but for his need to acquire a male heir. Catherine of Aragon could not have any children and was clearly going to live on and on, so the only option was to re-marry. He never displayed any change of heart in breaking with Rome: his was a Catholic church in all but name. The priests were the same and the services bore a close resemblance to the Roman Catholic Mass, apart from being in English. I think that the advantages of breaking with Rome became apparent subsequently as he sacked the monasteries and accumulated wealth. He was, after all, the son of his father, the avaricious Henry VII!

Answer 5

Nope that is pretty much the only reason why. Henry had an obsession with having an heir for the throne. Catherine had gone through menopause and physically could not have any children and children (boys) was all he wanted. He also really did believe it was wrong to marry and sleep with your dead brother's wife. He found a passage in the bible and he figured that was the reason why Catherine had miscarriages and only gave birth to a girl.

Answer 6

The break was for gain not difference in belief. HenryVIII made himself Head of the Catholic Church in England, not the Protestant Church. In fact Henry was granted the Papal Honour, "Defender of the Faith" - a title which is still used by the Monarch today and appears on every coin of the realm.
The Church of England is unique amongst dissenting churches in that it has always been catholic but pulled in all sorts of directions, between Rome and the protestant extremists and in all positions in between. And still it totters not knowing what it is or where it is going!

Answer 7

Henry the eighth broke from rome so that history teaches ......( grrrr....skeleton)
Could tell there top sets to revise for it as a assesment ......Simple ! Xx

Answer 8

Caicos Turkey and Scott F are both correct, so give one of them Best Answer. Everyone else is reading far too many later events into the earlier one.

Answer 9

It made him very rich and far more powerful than before because he got rid of the Pope and became head of the church of England. The church was far more powerful then than now and far richer. He sold church lands and plundered all the goods and poured the money into his own coffers.

It also gave him tremendous freedom without Rome interfering with English laws.

Henry thought of himself as a Catholic all his life and burned heretics! It was his son who made England totally Protestant.

Answer 10

his main excuse was that he wanted a divorce, but if you really look at it, he was a greedy s.o.b. by making himself the head of the church of england, he got ALL the land that had previously belonged to the catholic church (which was worth a lot of money, money that he needed to finance his wars) and he would be the ultimate authority of england, as both the king and the religious leader. by eliminating the popes power, he successfully got rid of the pope ability to undermine or challenge his authority and power.