Though often at odds, most Englishmen adhered to the Roman Catholic faith for nearly a thousand years, before King Henry VIII separated his kingdom from Rome in 1534. The first, and most famous, of England’s official breaks with Rome was a political one, and came when Pope Clement VII refused, over a period of years, to annul King Henry's marriage to Katherine of Aragon, not purely as a matter of principle, but also because the pope lived in fear of Queen Katherine's nephew, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.

There were grounds for Henry to annul his marriage to Katherine. A similar annulment had been granted to Henry VIII's forebear, Henry II of England. Henry VIII used the political crown and the unsuccessful persecution to nourish his break with Rome. As a popular king, and one seen to be devout in his faith, even titled “Defender of the Faith” by the pope, the king ‘s footing was solid among his subjects, but they also adored Queen Katherine. She, too, was seen as devout and pious, and though she was a Spanish princess by birth, she had spent most of her life as an English subject.

Born in Alcala de Henares, Katherine was the youngest surviving child of Ferdinand II and Isabella II of Spain. She was an aunt, among others, of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, John III of Portugal, and their wives, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Henry I of Portugal. Her siblings alone ruled various countries, and her family’s political influence stretched the globe.

She was a granddaughter of both John II of Castile and John II of Aragon. But She was also descended from English royalty, as she was a granddaughter of Edward III of England. She was thus a third cousin of her eventual father- and mother-in-law, Henry VII and Eliazabeth of York, and thus a third cousin once-removed to her eventual husband. But the problem therein lay. Henry VIII had not been her first husband. His brother had.

Katherine had first married Prince Arthur of England on November 14, 1501, thus becoming the princess of Wales, the wife to the heir-apparent to England‘s throne. As prince and princess of Wales, Arthur and Katherine were sent to preside over the Council of Wales at Ludlow Castle on the borders of Wales and England. A few months later, they both became severely ill. Katherine herself nearly died; she recovered to find herself widowed. Katherine testified that, because of the couple's youth, the marriage had not been consummated; Pope Julius II then issued a dispensation, so that Katherine could become betrothed to Arthur's younger brother, Prince Henry, the duke of York, and a political marriage between England and Spain could be salvaged; the dying wish of Henry VII.

The marriage did not take place until after Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509, the marriage on June 11, followed by the coronation on June 24. Both as Princess of Wales and as Queen, Katherine was extremely popular with the people, and she was trusted by Henry VIII. She even governed the nation as Regent while Henry invaded France in 1513.

Henry’s had been a good, though dynastic marriage. Problematically, it failed to produce a son and heir. After the birth of one healthy daughter, Princess Mary, and countless miscarriages and infant deaths, the king came to believe that the marriage was cursed by God.

Henry first asked for an annulment in 1527. After various failed initiatives he stepped up the pressure on Rome, in the summer of 1529, by compiling a manuscript from ancient sources proving in law that spiritual supremacy rested with the monarch, and demonstrating the illegality of Papal authority. In 1531 Henry first challenged the Pope when he demanded 100,000 English pounds from the clergy in exchange for a royal pardon for their illegal jurisdiction. He also demanded that the clergy should recognize him as their sole protector and supreme head. The great split was in effect. Beginning on February 11, 1531, the church in England recognised Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England, however in 1532 he still continued to attempt to seek a compromise with the Pope.

In May 1532 the Church of England agreed to surrender its legislative independence and canon law to the authority of the monarch. In 1533, the Statute in Restraint of Appeals removed the right of the English clergy and laity to appeal to Rome on matters of matrimony, tithes and oblations, and gave authority over such matters to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. This finally allowed Thomas Cranmer, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, to issue Henry's annulment from Katherine of Aragon; and upon procuring it, Henry married Anne Boleyn and made her his queen.

Katherine was formally stripped of her title as queen in time for Boleyn's coronation in June 1533. This was the famous "Break with Rome,” which signalled the end of England's history as a Roman Catholic country. Few people were aware of the significance at the time, and even fewer were prepared to defend the Pope's authority.

Pope Clement VIII excommunicated Henry VIII in 1533.

In 1534 the Act of Submission of the Clergy removed the right of all appeals to Rome, effectively ending the Pope's influence. The first Act of Supremacy confirmed Henry by statute as the Supreme Head of the Church of England in 1536.

Despite separation from Rome, the Church of England under Henry VIII remained essentially Catholic rather than Protestant in nature. Some Protestant-influenced changes under Henry included a limited iconoclasm, the abolition of pilgrimages, and pilgrimage shrines, and the extinction of many saints' days. However only minor changes in liturgy occurred during Henry's reign, and he carried through the Six Articles of 1539 which reaffirmed the Catholic nature of the church. Both Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were delighted at this development – although both remained Catholic in their faith, they outwardly presented the Papacy was a corrupting influence on Christianity.

All this took place, however, at a time of major religious upheaval in Western Europe associated with the Reformation; once the schism had occurred, some reform probably became inevitable.