112 Ch. 3 • The Two Reformations
(Left) Henry VIII. (Right) Anne Boleyn.
desired a male heir for the prestige of the dynasty but he also desired Anne
Boleyn (1507-1536), a lady-in-waiting with long black hair and flashing
eyes.
Henry had obtained a special papal dispensation to marry Catherine, who
was his brother’s widow, and now sought the annulment of this same mar
riage. Obtaining an annulment—which meant, from the point of view of the
Church, that the marriage had never taken place—was not uncommon in
sixteenth-century Europe, providing an escape clause for those of great
wealth. Henry justified his efforts by invoking an Old Testament passage
that placed the curse of childlessness on any man who married his brother’s
widow. He furthermore claimed that English ecclesiastical authorities, not
the pope, had the authority to grant an annulment. Pope Clement VII (pope
1523-1534) was at this time a prisoner of Charles V, the Holy Roman
emperor, whose armies had occupied Rome, and who happened to be
Catherine of Aragon’s nephew. In addition to these political circumstances,
the pope opposed the annulment as a matter of conscience. At Henry’s insis
tence, Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey (1475-1530), in his capacity as
cardinal-legate, opened a formal church proceeding in London in 1529 to
hear the king’s case. But Pope Clement ordered the case transferred to
Rome, where the English king had no chance of winning.
Furious, Henry blamed Wolsey for this defeat. Stripped of his post, Wolsey
died a shattered man in 1530 on the way to his trial for treason and certain
execution. The king had named Thomas More to be his lord chancellor in