I'M HENRY VIII I AM, I AM

Henry VIII with Gloriana in back - Claudius Messing
Originally uploaded by inacentaurdump

It is 500 years since Henry VIII came to the throne and it can hardly be co-incidence that Prince Charles is planning a visit to the Pope, nor that yesterday’s papers were full of stories about how the Vatican would be presenting him with a luxury bound facsimile copy of the papers relating to Henry’s request for the annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. Turned down by the Pope, Henry, as we all know, severed relations with Rome, installed himself as head of the Anglican Church and proceeded to dissolve his marriage to Katherine, ransack the monasteries and confiscate Catholic lands. Of course it didn’t stop there and indeed when he finally died a further five wives later, the concept of divorce had become embedded in English tradition, even though one of his wives actually died and he found it easier to accuse of treason and behead two of them than go through a proper legal process again. Resolution has issued a press release indicating the need to modernise our divorce laws further and distance ourselves from the concept of blame which Henry repeatedly sought to heap on his wives. I won’t repeat the release as John Bolch has done a wonderful job of including it in his blog which you can read by clicking here.