Culture Générale, Licence Anglais. 1337 – 1453: Hundred years' wars.

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15-09-2016

A theocracy : a system of governement where all the power is with priest. This systeme was being challenged by Luther and protestants. In England, Henry Viii was to used the question of desired divorced with his wife Catherine of Aragon.

The birth of the nation state (in opposition to theocracy) Henry VIII Was a convinced catholic in 1511, Catherine gave birth to a son and he was so delight that he walked until Walsingham to give thanks for his baby's birth. The baby died after 3 weeks and in fact this family tragedy mark the beginning of destruction btw Catherine and Henry, but she gave him a daughter in 1516 called Mary.

From a doctrinal point of view: One accepting the doctrine of transubstantiation. But Luther denounced both of this doctrines, and for him salvation was a matter of faith. (rejection of catholic idea) In 1521 Henry VIII published a small book untitled “On sacraments” and defended the catholic position and attacked the idea of Luther.

Leo X, was so pleased with Henry that he had a special title “Defender of the Faith”, this title was supposed was to be for Henry alone. It was JUST for Henry, however this title was annexed to the English crown by Parliament in 1543 and then bc Queen Mary she reappeled all the legislations. The title was re-annexed in 1559 and it still exist. (Fidei Defensor)

Henry the 8 wrote a book. In 1521 Henry was still loyal to Rome but his loyalty to Rome was affected because of his deteriorating relationships with his queen (Catherine of Aragon) This different probably went back to 1507 when the couple had a son named Henry but unfortunately this baby son died. Consequently Catherine did not have any male heir and it became a obsession. She had just a daughter named Mary born in 1516. Henry still have no male heir and he became obsessed with this biblical verse in the book of Book of Leviticus Chap 20 v 21: “And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing... they shall be childless.”

Henry knew that if he died with just a daughter as his successor he would have like a civil war. He was conscious of the danger if he didn't have a son, the Dynasty would not exist anymore. Henry interpreted thus versus, he told himself that he was unlawful in the eye's of god. He asked to Catherine to produce a legitimate successor.

→ But in 1526-1527 it was a little bit complicated, Henry fell in love with a girl named Anne Boleyn, a lady-in-waiting, she was in France. But later she went back to London.

Two factors:

_Henry was afraid that the dynasty become extincted bc he didn't have a male heir.

_He was in love

So he decided to divorce cause divorce was to him the answer to all his problems. He did a papal annulment.

[Henry wanted the Pope to allow his marriage whereas it was a sort of incest so in 1501 the pope Clement VII did a dispensation to allow this marriage cause this was against the bible, it was a prohibition.]

But now Henry was claiming that this marriage had been consummated so this marriage was unlawful and he had the bible on his side. He changed his mind whereas at the beginning he was okay to deal with that.

In 1527 he asked Clement VII to divorce so as to propose to Anne Boleyn and he was confident about the answer of the pope.

But for the pope things were particularly complicated. Indeed in may 1527 the armies of the Emperor Charles the V attacked Rome and the city was destroyed. And the Pope Clement became a prisoner of the Emperor and was called ''The Sack of Rome''.

Charles the V was catholic so why did he attacked Rome?

Actually, it was easier to go through Rome so as to follow the French Army in the South. So Charles asked the permission but the pope unwisely refused. The Pope became like the anti Christ because of that.

The lady that Henry wanted to divorce was the aunt of Charles the V so the pope refuse cause it would be a humiliation in many ways.

The cardinal Campeggio in 1530 did not find a solution neither. So Henry became extremely impatient. In the same year Anne Boleyn gave to Henry VIII a book written by William Tyndale (who was English and he had fled to Germany to avoid persecutions because he was a protestant. He transmitted the Bible to English) called “On the Obedience of a Christian man''. This book described how Christian rulers ought to govern: “One king, one law, is God's ordinance in every realm”.

In other words you can't have different law. Anne Boleyn did a group of theologian to support this idea with documents from the early church and she was pushing Henry to accept the idea of the loyal supremacy. Henry thought it was a great idea and he told himself that it was an evidence truth. Things started to accelerate.

Thomas Cromwell

“Chancellor or Secretary of State” 1530-1540.

The Reformation Parliament 1530-1536.

When the pope refuse to allow Henry to divorce as he wanted to he became extremely impatient and finally he used his own Parliament to find a solution. By using Parliament to solved the problem he made his divorce a national issue and Henry made Parliament became an integrate part of the Constitution.

Because Henry decided to use Parliament he gave much authority to the house of laws so they did became a integrate part of the Constitution.

The attack of Rome began in may 1532 “The Act of Submission'' and this refers in fact to the Submission of the clergy. This act forced church assemblies to get royal approval for any new religious laws. [In other words the laws of the Church would from now on be governend by the will of the King.]

In December 1532 Henry learn that Anne Boleyn was pregnant. He was hoping that the child would be a son. It meant that things had to be accelerated the process cause if this son was to be legitimate he had to divorce Catherine and married Anne as soon as possible and made Anne Queen of England.

So he married Anne secretly in January 25th 1533. This situation did not last very long because:

In