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SavannahYear 8
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HistoryCrown, Church and country, 1509–174530 min★★★ difficulty

Why Henry VIII broke with Rome

It is easy to say Henry VIII changed the Church because he wanted a divorce. That is part of it. Money, power and new religious ideas all pushed the same way, and this lesson sorts out which mattered most.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand the development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745, including the English Reformation and its impact

Key learning points

  • • A king who needed a son
  • • Supremacy and dissolution
  • • The view from a village
  • • Weighing the causes

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

developmentchurchsocietybritainenglish

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

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1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

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Why Henry VIII broke with Rome

An English teaching video on this topic from The Time Map. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Understand the development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745, including the English Reformation and its impact

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should know that in 1509 nearly everyone in England was Catholic and that the Pope in Rome was head of the Church.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Reformation
The sixteenth-century movement that split western Christianity into Catholic and Protestant.
Supremacy
Being the highest authority. The Act of Supremacy made the monarch head of the Church in England.
Annulment
A ruling that a marriage was never legally valid.
Dissolution
The closing of the monasteries and the seizing of their land and wealth.
Heresy
Holding beliefs the Church officially condemned.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

The break itself

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

A king who needed a son

Henry married Catherine of Aragon in 1509 and by the 1520s had one surviving child, Mary. He believed a female heir would mean civil war, and asked the Pope to annul the marriage. The Pope, under pressure from Catherine's nephew Emperor Charles V, refused. Henry's answer was radical: if Rome would not decide, England would decide for itself.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Supremacy and dissolution

The Act of Supremacy of 1534 made Henry Supreme Head of the Church of England. Refusing to swear to it was treason, and Thomas More went to the block for it. Between 1536 and 1541 the monasteries were dissolved. Their land was sold to gentry families who then had a hard financial reason to want the changes kept, which made the Reformation very difficult to reverse.

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Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

What did the 1534 Act of Supremacy do?

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Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Why did selling monastery land make the Reformation hard to reverse?

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Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

What it changed for ordinary people

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

The view from a village

For most people the Reformation was not an argument about theology; it was the loss of familiar things. Statues went, wall paintings were whitewashed, prayers for the dead stopped and the monastery that had given alms and hospitality closed. The Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 saw thousands in the north demand the old ways back.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Weighing the causes

Historians rarely give one cause. Personal need drove the timing, Protestant ideas from Europe supplied the arguments, and monastic wealth made it worth doing. A strong answer ranks these and links them, rather than listing them.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

The Pilgrimage of Grace is best used as evidence of what?

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Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

Which is the strongest way to open an answer on causes of the break with Rome?

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Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Henry did not become Protestant in belief; he kept much Catholic practice while rejecting the Pope's authority.
  • The Pope's refusal was political, not simply religious: he feared Charles V.
  • The dissolution was not only about greed, but the money mattered and explains why the change stuck.
  • The Reformation was not one moment in 1534; it moved back and forth for decades afterwards.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

The Act of Supremacy of 1534 made Henry Supreme Head of the ____ of England.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Why Henry VIII broke with Rome

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Who refused Henry's annulment?

  2. 2. Annulment means a marriage was...

  3. 3. The monasteries were dissolved mainly between...

  4. 4. Who was executed for refusing the oath of supremacy?

  5. 5. Which change would a villager notice most quickly?

  6. 6. Henry's own religious beliefs stayed largely...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

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Games

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Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

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Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Source

A factory inspector's notebook, 1842

"I visited the mill at seven in the morning. The machines were already running. I counted fourteen children at the frames, the youngest no more than nine years of age. The overseer told me they work from six until seven, with forty minutes for dinner."

"The air is thick with cotton dust and the windows are kept shut so the thread does not break. Two of the children showed me hands cut by the shuttles. The owner assured me that the work is light and that the families beg him for the places, since without the children's wages the rent cannot be paid."

"I have written to the magistrates. I doubt much will follow from it."

Original source-style text written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Who wrote this, when, and why might that make it useful to a historian?
  2. What does the source tell you about children's work — and what does it not tell you?
  3. How far does this source show that mill owners were to blame? Answer with a judgement and evidence.

  • Source work

    Reading

    Read the source closely. Write who made it, when, and what it tells you — then what it does not tell you.

    2 paragraphs

  • Essay answer

    Writing

    Answer the enquiry question with a clear judgement. Use two pieces of evidence and finish with a sentence that weighs them up.

    300–400 words

  • Timeline

    Diagram

    Draw a timeline of the events in this lesson with dates, then photograph it.

    6–8 events

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