Parliament at Cromwell’s direction passes the Act…

Parliament at Cromwell’s direction passes the Act in Restraint of Appeals (to Rome) in January 1533, calling for England’s break with the papacy.

Henry VIII therefore has Thomas Cranmer, newly created Archbishop of Canterbury, pronounce, without reference to the pope, the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Catherine is forced into retirement and, almost immediately, Henry weds the object of his infatuation, twenty-six-year-old Anne Boleyn, a niece of Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk.

The Church of England is thus informally established as an independent national church, no longer in communion with the Roman Catholic church or the pope.

Anne gives birth on September 7, but the child is not the English king’s long-sought male heir.

The child is named Elizabeth, and Henry consoles himself with the idea that Anne will soon produce a healthy son.

Elizabeth is declared heir to the throne in place of Catherine's daughter, Mary, who is now regarded as illegitimate.