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Reformation
King Henry VIII
It must have been in the beginning of the second decade of the sixteenth century that King Henry VIII became aware of a pressing problem. Not an common everyday issue, but a problem that endangered the monastic dynasty. His marriage with Catherine of Aragon, by then well in her 40's, had produced only one surviving heir: Princess Mary, the future Queen May I. Female monarchs were not-done, so behold the problem!
King Henry VIII was not the first monarch who was confronted with this issue. For the Catholic Church divorce was non-existent, but there was a loophole. In similar cases the pope had granted an annulment of the marriage, the king remarried and the male offspring would be recognised by the Church of Rome as legitimate heir of the throne.
To the great indignation of King Henry VIII Pope Clement VII rejected the annulment request and he suspected political interests of the pope. In the recent past the relation between England and Rome had gone sour because Pope Clement VII refused to appoint bishops in England. For lack of bishops the money intended to spend on the dioceses went straight to Rome, while England also had to pay the salaries of the clergy. This economic drain served, in the eyes of King Henry VIII, only one purpose, that was to weaken England in favour of Spain. Withholding England a legitimate heir to the throne perfectly fits this purpose.
Several attempts were made until the issue was brought to the Parliament in 1532. From that moment onwards it escalated. Thomas Cranmer, a priest and proven supporter of Henry VIII, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and declared the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon invalid in May 1533. One week later Anne Boleyn, who was already secretly married with Henry VIII in January 1533, was crowned queen. Pope Clement VII immediately excommunicated Henry VIII and the Parliament reacted in November 1534 with the Act of Supremacy in which is declared that England had only one supreme head, i.e. the king, who possessed whole and entire authority within the realm and, thus, that judgements or excommunications of the Church of Rome were not valid.
The schism with the Roman Catholic Church was a fact, the fundamentals for the Church of England, or Anglican Church, with the monarch being the supreme head, were outlined and what followed was the Reformation, a campaign to cut all ties with the Roman Catholic Church.
Before discussing the impact of the Reformation for Ireland we turn up a side-track for a moment.
Henry VIII's dearly won marriage with Anne Boleyn did not gave him the male heir he had hoped for. The only child born in this marriage was Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth I. In 1536 Anne Boleyn was charged with treason and executed.
Jane Seymoure, Henry's third wife, finally bore him a son in 1537, the later King Edward VI, and died in childbirth of puerperal sepsis 12 days thereafter. The Death of Queen Jane is subject of the song with the same name. The intelligent, but physically weak, Edward remained the only male heir despite the two next marriages of Henry VIII with Katherine Howard, who was executed on adultery charges, and Catherine Parr.
Protestantism
The conversion of King Henry VIII to Protestantism was exclusively based on pragmatism and politics. Religious ideology had nothing to do with it. In the contrary. King Henry VIII was a fierce opponent of the 95 theses nailed on a church door in Wittenberg by Martin Luther in 1516. Pope Leo X rewarded this resistance in 1521 by conferring him the title Fidei Defensor, or Defender of the Faith. King Henry VIII kept this title after his breach with Rome and the current British monarch still holds this Roman Catholic title.
By condemning Roman Catholicism and rejecting Protestantism, as preached by the supporters of Martin Luther, without satisfactory replacement or alternative England plunged in a religious vacuum. For want of something better the Lutheran Bible was extensively used until uniform Protestant services were introduced in 1549. These services were based on the Book of Common Prayer as written by Edward VI, then King of England.
Religion was in the first decades of the Reformation of England a matter of secondary importance. England's main concern was economics, that is said the lack of cash.
Under direction of Thomas Cromwell, forefather of the illustrious and more famous Oliver Cromwell, the English monasteries were dismantled between 1536 and 1540. The monastic assets fell to the treasury and provided sufficient funds defray the costs of England's invasion of France in 1544.
Under King Edward VI, who was crowned at the age of nine in 1547, the Church of England gained idealistic justification and became more explicitly Protestant. Considering his age and short reign, he died 1553 from tuberculosis, it seems fair to attribute the imposition of the Book of Common Prayer and the eradication of Roman Catholic practices to his Protectors, the Duke of Somerset and Duke of Northumberland.
Bloody Mary
After the death of Edward VI England was reigned by Lady Jane Grey, a grand-niece of Henry VIII and the daughter-in-law of the Duke of Northumberland. Just nine days after Lady Jane had ascended the throne she was dethroned by Queen Mary I, Edward VI's half sister.
Queen Mary I immediately started with restoring Roman Catholicism. Approximately 300 people were burned at the stakes for heresy, by which she deservedly gained the nickname Bloody Mary. The English however had grown accustomed to Protestantism in just two decades and when Queen Mary I married the Catholic Philip of Spain she incurred the wrath of her subjects, including and despite their shared religion the Irish. With brute force she conquered the counties nowadays known as Laois and Offaly in 1556 and named them after herself, Queen's County and her husband, King's County. Subsequently she removed the Irish and donated the land to Catholic English settlers.
Her foreign policy was no success either, as she lost the last English continental possession Calais in 1558. Her half sister Queen Elizabeth I inherited not only the throne after Mary's death in 1558, but also a nearly bankrupt and religiously groggy nation.
After these chaotic years, in which successions occurred by lighting speed and England was economically, ideologically and religiously drained, the country urgently needed stability. During her 45 years lasting reign Queen Elizabeth I gave the country stability, she secured the position of the Church of England, but avoided religious domestic wars by a tolerant attitude towards Roman Catholics. For the outside world however England was a Protestant nation, which if needed did not hesitate to assist oppressed fellow believers in France and Spain.
Her reign is considered by some as the most successful and constructive era in the history of Britain. Ireland however was cornered by its geographical position, as well as by its Roman Catholic population. A coalition between France and/or Spain and Ireland would inevitably led to a war with two fronts. She tried to gain control over Ireland by colonisation. Large parcels of land were virtually donated to loyal Protestant settlers, which obviously forced the Irish to stand their grounds and the first rebellion, the First Desmond Rebellion, was launched in Munster in 1569. During the Second Desmond Rebellion the spectre of an Irish-Spanish alliance materialised.
More seriously however was the situation during the Nine Years War, also known as the Tyrone Rebellion, of 1592.