Lesson video

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

Today is our final lesson on the enquiry, why did Henry VIII make a break with Rome.

Now before we get started, I'd like you to check your pen and paper and something to write with, and something to write on and if you can try and find a nice quiet space to work.

Once you've got that sorted, let's have a go at answering our enquiry question.

So what will we be learning about today in our final lesson? So we're going to recap what we've learned so far in this unit and consider the different reasons why Henry made a break with Rome.

You're then going to decide which reason you think was the most important reason.

So ultimately, why did Henry VIII make a break with Rome? To start with, we're going to have a look at recapping some of the key events.

So what key events have we learned about in this unit? So on the left hand side of the screen, you can see some key dates.

So number one, 1509, number two 1527, number three, January 1533, number four, May 1533, number five, 1534, and number six, 1536.

Now each date matches an event which is on the right hand side of the screen.

So on the right hand side of the screen, you've got the list of the key events that took place.

So what you need to do is match the date and the event together.

So what I recommend you do is in a moment you'll pause the video and you'll write down number one, 1509 and then either a dash or a colon, and then decide which event matches 1509 and write that down.

Then you'd write number two, 1527, and then repeat the process.

That should take you a few moment, a few minutes.

So I'd like you to pause the video now and complete that task.

Welcome back, let's go through the answers together.

So the first one is 1509, that is when Henry becomes King of England.

So when his dad dies, he then becomes the King of England.

Then we have 1527, this is when Henry starts trying to get a divorce.

So Catherine of Aragon has not produced a male heir and Henry has fallen in love with Anne Boleyn and so he starts to get, starts the process of trying to get a divorce.

In January of 1533, Henry secretly marries Anne Boleyn, who is pregnant.

And then by May 1533, with the help of Thomas Cromwell, Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon is annulled and his marriage to Anne Boleyn made legal.

Following on from that, in 1534 the Act of Supremacy is passed, which declares Henry Head of the Church of England.

That's the official start of the Reformation and Henry's break with Rome.

And finally in 1536, Thomas Cromwell begins the dissolution of the of monasteries.

So it's really important just to recap the start of this unit.

So in 1517 it was the start of Protestantism as a result of the work of Martin Luther, a German priest who was sharing his criticisms of the Catholic church.

And in response to that, in 1521 Henry was awarded the title Defender of the Faith by the Pope, because he wrote a book criticising Martin Luther and Protestantism, and so in support of Catholicism and in support of the Pope.

So why did Henry come to make a break with Rome? So in the next 20 years, Henry did a complete U-turn and then broke with Rome and started the Church of England, which was a Protestant church.

So why did that actually happen? The reasons why Henry VIII made a break with Rome can be organised into three different categories.

So firstly, we have religious reasons.

So any reasons that are linked to religion, either Henry's personal religious views or devised in criticism towards religion, all of those are religious reasons.

We then have political reasons.

So what we mean by political is anything that's to do with Henry's power, his position of authority, and his position of King of England.

So anything to do with his position and his power, refer to or link to political reasons.

And finally, we have economic reasons.

So as you can see on the screen, a big bag of money.

That is what the word economic links to.

So it links to money.

So what monetary reasons does Henry have for wanting to break with Rome? So how did he benefit from that break with Rome? Let's have a look at each category in a little bit more detail now.

So political reasons, Henry wanted to be a powerful ruler.

That was one of his main desires was to be remembered as a powerful European ruler.

Henry did not want the Pope to have authority over him.

So when the Pope refused to agree to the annulment Henry felt that his power and his authority was being threatened.

And also a key political reason was Henry wanted the Tudor royal line to continue.

And if Henry did not make a break with Rome and get his divorce, then he was at risk of ending his Royal line of not having a male heir.

So what religious reasons do we have? So Henry believed he should have never been allowed to marry his brother's wife.

So for religious reasons, he believed that his marriage to Catherine went against the Bible, the teachings of the Bible.

And also at the time, there was a rise in criticisms of the Catholic church not following the teachings of the Bible.

So there was the rise of Martin Luther, Protestant ideas, but also the rise of criticisms of the Catholic church.

And then economic reasons, Henry needed a lot more money to fund his lifestyle and to fund wars with other countries, and the dissolution of the monasteries gave him an optimal income.

So as a result of him breaking with Rome, he became a much wealthier man.

We're now going to have a look at what somebody else has written about why they believe Henry VIII made a break with Rome.

So let's read through the text together.

"Those who supported Henry in his campaign "did point out to the king that until the early Middle Ages, "a king had been sovereign ruler in his kingdom.

"It was only in the Middle Ages "that the Pope acquired a status that trespassed "on the rights of the kings to solely rule their own state.

"Henry's advisors argued that it was perfectly legal "and accessible for a king in the 16th century "to want to return to the time "when he was the sole sovereign ruler of his lands." So the word sovereign there is repeated a couple of times, I just want to explain it.

That means supreme leader, supreme rulers, the only ruler.

So what I'd like you to do now is just pause this video and reread through that text on your own.

Welcome back, let's now go through the text together.

So in the first line it says those who supported Henry pointed out to him that kings used to rule on their own.

So what we mean, what the historians have found by those who supported Henry are people like Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cranwell and Thomas Cranmer who supported him making a break with Rome and were sympathetic to Protestants.

So he's saying that important people to Henry pointed out, so it made it clear to him, that previously kings did not share their power, that they had been sovereign rulers.

So in blue it says, sovereign ruler in his kingdom.

So a supreme ruler, he did not share his power.

And then at the end in purple it says, acceptable for a king in the 16th century, so the 1500s, to want to return to the time when he was the sole sovereign.

So because previously the king ruled on his own, it was completely acceptable and legal for the king to want to do so again.

So which reason does the text suggest is why Henry VIII made a break with Rome? Is it option one political, option two religion, option three economic? So what I'd like to do now is just write down which reason, so which category, which reason that text was referring to as to why Henry VIII wanted to make a break with Rome.

Pause the video now and write that down.

So the answer is political.

The use of the word sovereign ruler, and saying that it was legal for the King to want to be the supreme ruler, the only ruler in his land, refers to power, which refers to political reasons.

So that text was saying that the main reason that Henry VIII made a break with Rome was for political reasons.

So you and I are going to have a go organising your own ideas and information about why Henry VIII made a break with Rome? So your task is to organise information, ideas into one of the categories, political, religious, and economic.

So to do this, you need to draw the table on this slide.

So it needs three columns and two rows.

Remember not to draw the bottom line until you know how much you need to write.

So once you have drawn the table, you then need to read through the information on the next two slides, or on the worksheet and then complete that table.

So that's going to go through all of the different reasons as to why Henry VIII made a break with Rome.

So you need to pause this video now, draw that table, read through the information and then add your notes.

Welcome back, let's go through some of the answers that you could have written down.

So unfortunately I can't fit them all onto my table, so I picked out some, two key ones for each category.

So under political I've put, Henry's authority and power was challenged when the Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine.

So the Pope was challenging Henry's position as King.

And my second one is Henry was in love with Anne Boleyn who was pregnant.

Henry believed that she would have his son who would then be heir to the throne.

So his desire to have a male heir to the throne and to continue his royal blood line was another political reason.

So for religious, I have many English people had concerns about the church.

For example, the rich could pay for their sins to be forgiven.

These criticisms would make it easier for Henry to break with Rome.

So because there was criticisms of the Catholic church it meant that Henry, it was possible for Henry to break with Rome.

And then my second reason for religion is Henry had married his brother's widow in 1509, which he believed went against the teachings of the Bible.

This is why he needed a divorce.

So Henry said that for him to be a true Catholic, for him to live his life in the right way, then he should not be married to Catherine because it goes against what the Bible teaches.

For economic I have, the monasteries were very wealthy and Henry needed more income because war was expensive.

And I also have, the church owned one quarter of the land in England, Henry could how sell this land to local landowners.

So well done, we're now going to move on to think about which reason you think was the most important.

So having a look at your table, think about which column you think sticks out as being the most important reason why Henry made that break with Rome.

And so having considered all of the evidence and organised it into factors, which factor, money, power, or religion do you think was the most important in Henry's decision to break with Rome? So I'd like you just to write a sentence saying which reason you think was the most important.

On this slide here, I have some examples for you.

So Henry believed that he was living in sin by being married to Catherine and was desperate for divorce.

This combined with rumours of corruption in the Catholic church was enough for Henry to want to break with Rome.

Henry's desire for power and to be a great ruler is without a doubt what led him to break with Rome.

Kings knew that their number one priority was to ensure their royal line continued.

If the Pope would have granted the annulment the English Reformation may never have happened.

By controlling the church, Henry could take all of the land and money that belonged to monasteries and increase his personal wealth.

This would enable him to continue his desire to win wars.

So let's just pause the video now and have a think about which reason you think was the most important.

So our final task for this unit is to actually have a go answering our enquiry question, which is why did Henry VII make a break with Rome.

So your task is to apply the knowledge that you have learned across the last six lessons, and write a paragraph explaining why you believe Henry VIII broke with Rome.

Use the sentence starters in the green box to help you.

And the challenge for this paragraph is can you explain another important reason, or explain why a reason has less importance? So when you're writing this paragraph, it's really important to think about the structure.

So the first sentence is almost like an introduction to the paragraph.

So, in 1534 Henry VIII made the important decision to break with Rome.

This decision formally started the English Reformation.

That's our introduction sentences.

Then you need to introduce the main reason why you believe Henry VIII made a break with Rome.

And you can use this sentence starter.

The main reason why I believe that Henry VIII did this was, dot, dot, dot.

And that's where you then pick political, religious, or economic.

Then in your paragraph, you need to add your evidence, your information that link to that category.

So you'd write for example, dot, dot, dot, and then you'd add the knowledge that you have learned about that category into your paragraph there.

And then the final sentence is, this would have motivated Henry to break with Rome because dot, dot, dot.

So that is where you actually explain, so you link back to the question, your enquiry question of why did Henry VIII make a break with Rome, and you say why that would have motivated him.

Then you have the challenge sentence starter, which is another reason why some historians believe that Henry made a break with Rome was.

So I'd now like you to pause this video and have a go at answering the enquiry question by writing your own paragraph.

Good luck.

Welcome back, I'd like to end our lesson and our unit, just by reading through an example paragraph of what you could have written.

It doesn't mean this is the right answer, or this is what you should have written, it's just an answer.

So, in 1534 Henry VIII made the important decision to break with Rome.

This decision formally started the English Reformation.

The main reason why I believe that Henry VIII made a break with Rome was for political reasons, as he wanted to reassert his power over England.

For example, when Henry VIII asked the Pope to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the Pope refused, Henry found that his power and authority was being challenged.

The Pope's refusal sparked a series of events that led to the English Reformation.

So the Pope's refusal would have motivated Henry to break with Rome because he dreamed of being remembered as a powerful European ruler, and before the Middle Ages kings did not share their power with the Pope and ruled alone.

So what this is saying, what I'm saying is I believe it is for political reasons and had the Pope not refused the annulment then what came afterwards may not have ever happened.

So that brings us to the end of this enquiry.

Well done everybody.

I'm so happy that you've joined me in finding out about why Henry VIII made a break with Rome.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and the rest of your learning.