Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life

by Diarmaid MacCulloch

Two factors turned Henry’s amorous playfulness with Anne into a political and theological project to end his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, his wife of nearly two decades. First were the idiosyncratically pious King’s long-standing doubts about the canonical validity of that marriage; Henry decided that he had breached biblical prohibitions on marrying one’s deceased brother’s wife, sparking the wrath of God. That seemed manifest in his lack of a male heir from all Katherine’s pregnancies. If the King was right in his assessment of God’s law, his marriage had never existed. For the good of his and Katherine’s souls, as well as the kingdom’s future, it must be publicly declared null.* Second, and subsequent to that existential disquiet, came Anne’s unusual and unexpected insistence that she would not share Henry’s bed unless she was his wife. Her charisma and sheer force of personality so captured the King that he accepted this audacious challenge.