Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, is the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbands Catholic monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland, appropriates their income, disposes of their assets, and reassigns or dismisses their former members and functions.

Although the policy is originally envisaged as increasing the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property is sold off to fund Henry's military campaigns in the 1540s.

He is given the authority to do this in England and Wales by the Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, which makes him Supreme Head of the Church in England, thus separating England from Papal authority, and by the First Suppression Act (1536) and the Second Suppression Act (1539).

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