Lesson video

Hello and welcome to history with me, Mrs. Dashwood-Anthony.

Today is our third lesson of six lessons which are focusing on the enquiry question, why did Henry VIII make a break with Rome.

Before we get started I'd like to check that you've got a pen and paper or something to write on and with, and if you can try and find a nice quiet space so you can concentrate throughout the lesson.

Once you've got that sorted, let's begin.

What will we be learning about today? In today's lesson we're going to start by having a look at Henry's early attempts to get a divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

Then we're going to move on to have a look at the annulment, which was when Henry and Catherine's marriage ended, and then his marriage to Anne Boleyn.

And finally, we're going to have a look at the Act of Supremacy, which was passed after Henry VIII break with Rome.

Before we move on with today's lesson, it's important to understand what the word annulment means.

So the definition for annulment is an official announcement that something such as a law or a marriage no longer exists.

So in the case of Henry VIII, it's an official announcement that his marriage no longer exists.

So how can we use this word? So previously I've said that Henry VIII wanted to cancel his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Instead of using the word cancel, I can replace it with the word annulment.

So I can then write instead, Henry VIII wanted an annulment of his marriage.

What I'd like you to do now is pause this video and write down the definition for annulment and the example sentence.

Welcome back.

I now want you to take a look at this image.

This is the painting of the divorce court, where people were trying to decide if the marriage should be annulled between Catherine and Henry.

I'd like you to pause the video and consider what might be happening in this image.

Welcome back.

Let's have a look at the image in a bit more detail.

As I said, this is an image of the court where the divorce trial was taking place.

So the purpose of the divorce trial was to listen to different testimonies who, listen to different people and what they had to say in the hope of coming to a decision on the annulment.

When, it was in 1529.

Henry had decided to have a divorce, so started to actively pursue a divorce in 1527.

So this was in 1529.

And most importantly, on left hand side, you can see that Henry is sat down and Catherine is bent on one knee and is addressing him.

So Catherine is down on one knee in front of Henry, and at this point she gave an amazing speech about her innocence.

And we're going to have a look at that speech in bit more detail.

Henry actually tried twice to rise her off her feet, but she never did.

And this was actually the last time that Catherine would appear in court.

So what we're going to do now is have a look at Catherine's speech in a bit more detail, and think about what we learn about Catherine from her speech.

So I'm going to read through it, I'd like you to follow it with me.

"Alas Sir, where have I offended you? "Or what occasion have you of displeasure, "that you intend to put me from you? "I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife, "ever conformable to your will and pleasure.

"I have been pleased and contented "with all things wherein you had delight and dalliance.

"I never grudged a word or countenance, "or showed a spark of discontent.

"I loved all those whom you loved only for your sake, "whether I had cause or no, "and whether they were my friends or enemies.

"This 20 years and more I have been your true wife, "and by me you have had many children, "though it hath pleased God to call them out of this world, "which has been no fault in me.

"When ye had me at first, I take God to my judge, "I was a true maid, without touch of a man." So what I'd like you to do is just pause this video now and reread that on your own, and think about how Catherine is presented.

So how is she coming across? What is she saying in this speech? Welcome back.

So what we are going to do now is have a look at some of the key phrases in this speech before you then complete an activity on this.

So in yellow, I have highlighted, "I have been to you a true, humble, and obedient wife." So there she, I'd like you to focus on the word obedient.

So she's declaring to Henry and everyone else in the court that she has been a good wife.

She's been dutiful and she has done as she was told to do.

But then you're going to have a look at what is in purple.

So the key word here is dalliance.

So in that sentence, so "I have been pleased and contented "with all things wherein you had delight and dalliance." The word dalliance refers to casual romances or casual sexual relationships.

So she is referring to the affairs that Henry had.

So she is stating in court that she has been fine with this, and allowed him to carry on as he pleased.

Again, proving that she is an obedient and a good wife.

The next part I'd like you to have a look at is highlighted in green.

So it says, "these 20 years and more "I have been your true wife." So she's repeated the word true there as well.

So, "these 20 years or more I have been your true wife, "and by me you have had many children, "though it hath pleased God to call them out of this world." So you may remember from last lesson that Catherine was actually, some people viewed her for not fulfilling her duty by providing Henry with a male heir to the throne.

She is stating there that she has given Henry many children.

She gave him six children, but unfortunately many of them were called out of the world, and many of them did not survive.

And she's saying, she is stating that that is not her fault, that she did fulfil her duty and she was a true wife.

And the final part I'd like to draw your attention to is highlighted in turquoise.

And that says, that sentence says, "I take God to be my judge, "I was a true maid without touch of a man." So you may remember again from the last lesson that Henry believed that the Bible stated that a man should never marry his brother's widow.

So Catherine is stating in court in front of very important people that she never had a sexual relationship with Henry's brother, so therefore their marriage was not in sin.

So she is stating quite openly that Henry is wrong to say that their marriage should be invalid because of that, because that did not happen.

That Catherine never slept with Arthur and therefore was the true wife to Henry.

So what I'd like you to do now is read through the different statements about Catherine.

And you're going to decide which of these statements is accurate based on that speech.

So what I'd like you to do is pause the video now, read through each statement, and write down the ones that you believe are true.

So which statements are accurate based on that speech? Welcome back.

Let's go through the answers together.

So what do you learn about Catherine from her speech? The first statement is accurate.

So Catherine is a strong woman who would not give in to Henry VIII.

So the fact that Catherine went down on one knee in front of Henry VIII shows that she is a strong woman.

And at no point in her speech does she give in to Henry or admit, or say that she was wrong.

So that shows that she would not give in to Henry VIII.

The next statement is inaccurate.

So Catherine is confused and desperate for Henry to forgive her.

She clearly states at the end of her speech that she has done nothing wrong to be forgiven for, and that she has fulfilled her duty to Henry.

So for that reason that statement is inaccurate.

The next statement is accurate.

So Catherine believes she has been a loyal and dutiful wife.

Throughout the speech she repeats the word true, and she also uses the word obedient.

So those key words reveal to you that she believes she is loyal and dutiful, and she has been a good wife to Henry.

The next statement is also true.

So Catherine is intelligent for taking this opportunity to expose Henry for lying about his motives for a divorce.

So Henry's motive for divorce was that Catherine was Arthur's wife first, and that they would have had a physical relationship.

Whereas Catherine actually takes this opportunity in court, in front of a very important people, to say that Henry is lying and that she never did lay in Arthur's bed.

The next statement is, Catherine feels guilty as she had had a physical relationship with Arthur.

So again, in the final sentence in the speech, she states that absolutely no way did she, with God has her witness, and Catherine is very religious, she says that that never happened.

So that statement is false.

So what we're going to move on to have a look at today is how Henry ended up breaking with Rome.

So let's just do a bit of a recap.

So in 1521, Henry was awarded the title and Defender of the Faith for being a devote Catholic and impressing the Pope.

But in 1532, Henry's marriage to Catherine is cancelled and he marries Anne Boleyn.

And by 1534, you then have the Act of Supremacy, and this means that Henry is declared the Supreme Head of the Protestant Church of England.

So what we're going to be having a look at is how this happened.

So last lesson we had a look at why Henry would break with Rome, but today we're going to have at how this happened.

So what were the events that led to the Act of Supremacy being passed declaring Henry head of a new Protestant church instead of the Pope who was head of the Roman Catholic Church? So how did Henry finally get his divorce? Henry's efforts to get a divorce started in 1527 and would last until 1533.

And this is often referred to as Henry's great matter.

At this time kings and queens made all the major decisions in a country, like going to war, but the only way a king or queen could cancel their marriage was if the Pope agreed.

So Henry gave his chief advisor, Thomas Wolsey, responsibility for convincing the Pope to grant him a divorce.

Henry believed that he should be granted a divorce based on religious reasons, as he now believed he should've never been allowed to marry Catherine because she was his brother's widow.

But the Pope refused to agree, and by July, 1529 the divorce case had actually been suspended without a final decision being made.

This really frustrated Henry, and it led to Wolsey being accused of treason.

Treason meant betraying your king, so it's a crime where you've betrayed your king or country.

So the situation got worse.

Henry began to rapidly run out of time, because in 1532 he had shared a bed with Anne Boleyn.

And in January, 1533, he found out that Anne Boleyn was pregnant with his child.

This then led to them being secretly married in a ceremony on the 25th of January, 1533.

Henry now had a new sense of urgency for his marriage to Catherine to be annulled before the baby was born in autumn.

This was because if the child was born before Henry got a divorce from Catherine his potential male heir to the throne would be illegitimate.

And what that means is, an illegitimate child is born to parents who are not married to each other and would therefore not be recognised.

So therefore Henry's child would not be recognised by law.

So if Henry did not get a divorce from Catherine before the child arrived, his potential male heir to the throne would not be legitimate.

So along came Thomas Cromwell, Henry's new chief advisor.

And you can see a picture of Thomas Cromwell, or an image of Thomas Cromwell, at the top right hand corner of the screen.

So Henry's new advisor believed that the Pope would never be persuaded to agree to the divorce.

So he came up with a new strategy.

He believed that Henry could get a divorce by taking the matter into his own hands.

To do this Henry must remove the Pope's legal power in England, and instead the Pope's power would go to Henry.

Henry thought this was a brilliant idea and was persuaded to break away from the Roman Catholic Church.

What was also working in Henry's favour at this time was that there was a new Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury.

And the Archbishop of Canterbury had is a really important religious position in England.

And Henry knew that he would support him and his pursuit for a divorce.

So Thomas Cromwell, the new Archbishop of Canterbury would support Henry in the divorce as well.

So Henry then went to parliament and they agreed with the plan to make Henry the head of the Church of England, instead of the Pope.

This was because as well as what was happening with Henry, there was a grand number of people at the time who disliked the Catholic Church, as it seemed too wealthy and too powerful, and that it was moving away from the teachings of the Bible.

So between 1532 and 1536, over the next four years, parliament passed a number of laws restricting the Pope's power and declaring that the king or queen had the final say on matters in the kingdom, including divorce, which meant that Henry could have his divorce approved, because he had the final say.

So then finally, for Henry, in May that 1533, his great matter came to an end when his marriage to Catherine was declared invalid and was annulled by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his marriage to Ann Boleyn was made legal.

So I'm going to pause here and think about who we have learned about so far.

So on the left hand side of the slide are a list of the key names that we've come across.

So Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Thomas Wolsey, Thomas Cranmer, and Thomas Cromwell.

On the right hand side are descriptions of these people.

So what I'd like you to do is, in a moment pause the video.

I'd like you to write down the name and then match it to the description and write down the description.

For example, number one, you'd write down Catherine of Aragon.

Then you'd read through the different descriptions, decide which one was describing her and then write it down next to her name.

So I'd like you to pause this video now and complete that activity.

Welcome back.

Let's go through the answers.

So number one, Catherine of Aragon.

Catherine of Aragon, her marriage to Henry VIII was annulled in 1533.

Anne Boleyn.

She married Henry VIII in 1533 when she discovered that she was pregnant with his child.

Thomas Wolsey, number three, was Henry's chief advisor.

He could not get the Pope to agree to a divorce.

Number four, Thomas Cranmer, was the Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury who supported the divorce.

And finally, number five, Thomas Cromwell, Henry's chief advisor, he persuaded Henry to break with Rome.

Well done.

The next task I would like you to do is to place the following events in chronological order, which will then tell the story of how Henry's marriage was annulled.

So what you need to do is read through the events in the table, the six different events.

I then want you to write them out in the chronological order, so the correct time order.

So let's read through them together first.

So Henry's marriage to Catherine is annulled and his marriage to Anne made legal.

Parliament agrees to Henry becoming the head of the church.

Thomas Cromwell persuades Henry to break with Rome.

Henry and Anne secretly marry.

The divorce case is suspended with no final decision.

Anne Boleyn discovers she is pregnant.

So what I'd like you to do now is pause this video and write out those events in time order, so chronological order.

Well done, and welcome back.

Let's just go through the correct order.

So number one, the divorce case is suspended with no final decision, which really frustrates Henry.

Anne Boleyn discovers she is pregnant, which then leads to Henry and Anne secretly getting married.

Thomas Cromwell then comes up with a new strategy and persuades Henry to break with Rome.

Parliament agrees to this new plan and to Henry becoming the Head of the Church.

And finally, as a result of that, Henry has his marriage to Catherine annulled and his marriage to Anne made legal.

So well done.

Just go back through your answers now and just make any corrections if needed.

We're now going to have a look at the Act of Supremacy.

So the Act of Supremacy was passed in 1534 by parliament.

And what's really important is to think about what the word supremacy means.

So it means for someone to be in a superior state, so a state of being superior to all others.

So they have the most power, the most authority.

They have the leading position in the country.

So the Act of Supremacy was about declaring someone as the superior leader of a country.

So this Act declared Henry the supreme Head of the Church of England, and that church was a Protestant church.

So what the Act did is it finalised that the Pope no longer had legal authority in England, and that the church no longer controlled its own affairs.

Instead it was controlled by Henry and his government.

So this was a huge change for England and Henry wanted to ensure that everyone followed this change and that everyone acknowledged him as the Head of the Church of England.

So what he did is he made all important peoples, all public figures and all clergymen, so men that are part of the church, agree to an oath of loyalty to Henry.

And this was called the Oath of Supremacy.

So they all had to agree to this, and if they did not it was considered to be a crime.

And that crime was for treason, which means to go against your King, to go against your country.

And at the time the punishment for treason was being hanged, drawn and quartered.

So these were serious consequences for people that spoke out against the Act of Supremacy.

What I'd like you to do is just write down what the definition is for the word oath.

So I use the Oath of Supremacy.

So now use that word there in the previous slide.

So what an oath means is a formal promise, and it's like a promise, a legal promise.

So let's see how we can use that word.

So I could have said, Henry VIII made clergyman in England promise to support him.

But instead I can use that word and write, Henry VIII made clergymen in England swear an oath of loyalty.

So that's what that word means.

So I'd like you to just pause this slide and write down the definition for oath and that example sentence.

I would now like you to answer some comprehension questions on the Act of Supremacy.

So what was the Act of Supremacy? So once you've read through the worksheet, I want you to then answer these four questions.

So number one, previously the Pope was the head of the church in England, who did the Act of Supremacy declare Head of the Church now? Number two, was the new church of England a Protestant or Catholic Church? Number three, to make sure everyone acknowledged the Act of Supremacy, what did people have to do? And number four, what punishment could you face if you did not agree with the Act of Supremacy? So what I'd like you to do now is pause this video and answer those questions.

If you need a little bit of help with some sentence starters, they're on the next slide for you.

Welcome back and well done.

Sorry, welcome back and well done for giving that a go.

Let's just go through the answers together.

So number one, previously the Pope was the Head of the Church in England, who did the Act of Supremacy declare Head of the Church now? So an acceptable answer would be Henry VIII, so the King of England.

A good answer there would be a full sentence with a bit more detail.

For example, before the Act of Supremacy was passed, the Head of the Church was the Pope.

However, the Act declared that the monarch was the Supreme Head of the Church.

So when we use the word monarch, it refers to either the king or queen.

Number two, was the new Church of England a Protestant or Catholic church? So an acceptable answer would be Protestant, but an even better answer would be a full sentence.

For example, despite Henry's criticism of Protestantism in 1521, the new Church of England was Protestant.

So what I've done there is added a little bit of extra information, extra detail, just to really make my answer shine.

Number three, to make sure everyone acknowledged the Act of Supremacy, what did people have to do? An acceptable answer would be to swear an Oath of Supremacy.

So swear an oath of loyalty to Henry VIII.

A good answer would be to ensure that everyone acknowledged him as the Head of the Church of England important people had to swear an Oath of Loyalty, which was called the Oath of Supremacy.

And finally, number four, what punishment could you face if you did not agree with the Act of Supremacy? So an acceptable answer might be hanged, drawn and quartered.

A good answer would include a full, would be a full sentence and include a little bit more detail.

So if you're found guilty of treason, the punishment could be death.

A punishment often used for treason was being hanged, drawn and quartered.

If you'd like, you may now have a go at our extension activity.

So we're going to attend to our enquiry question.

So why did Henry make a break with Rome? Now at this point in the enquiry you should be able to write a short paragraph about one of the main reasons why Henry made a break with Rome.

So I'd like you to think back to last lesson and think about what you've learned in today's lesson and consider Henry VIII's relationship with Anne Boleyn and why he was so desperate to have a son.

And I'd like you to think about that information and then answer this question by completing the sentences.

So one of the main reasons why Henry made a break with Rome was, so there I'd like you to add what you think was one of the main reasons why Henry made a break with Rome.

And then I want you to continue to write about this main reason by explaining why that was important to Henry.

So you'd finish the sentence, this is important for Henry, because.

So well done for giving the extension activity a go and good luck.

So what I'd like to do is just quickly recap the main points from today's lesson.

So the first main point is that the Pope's powers were restricted and that the monarch had the final say in church matters.

So as a result of Henry's annulment to Catherine and Henry breaking with Rome, the Pope's powers were restricted and limited and instead the king or queen of England now had the final say in all church matters.

And then the second main point is that the Act of Supremacy declares Henry the Supreme Head of the Church of England.

So say for the remainder remainder of Henry's reign as King he was the Supreme Head of the Church of England.

So that brings us to the end of our lesson today.

Well done for all of your hard work.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your learning today, and I'll see you soon for our next lesson.

Thank you.