I don't think we can hold Anne Boleyn as solely responsible for the English Reformation as I think she was more of a catalyst. Henry VIII broke with Rome because he wanted to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, and although he was concerned with addressing some of what he saw as the corruption in the church in England he certainly was not Lutheran in his views. Anne Boleyn definitely had reformed views but she was not a full-blown Lutheran either, I think she wanted reform within the Catholic Church. See Anne Boleyn and the Reformation and Anne Boleyn's Faith for further discussion on this.
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2 thoughts on “Could we blame Anne for the reformation of England?”
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Why blame her…I think we should thank her 🙂
I say that while she did have a very big role in the reformation it certainly was not all because of her. First of all we have to go back in English history at bit and consider the War of the Roses and the terrible impact it had on England. And one of the main reasons it happened was because there was no strong and/ or indefinite male heir and with that the greed and the schemes of every noble relative who thought they could lift themselves to glory by putting who they thought was their best person that could be placed upon the throne. This fact alone was a weight so burdensome on King Henry VIII’s shoulders,that it was most likely a constant stress and fear factor for him. Katherine of Aragon brought him no male heir. She also refused to step aside when Henry tried his hardest to get her to do so,so he would be free to marry Anne. Mean while the Lutherine cause grows stronger and stronger. And along comes Anne Boleyn so charming so intelligent and eventually she had the nerve to believe henry would make her his queen. I don’t think many woman at the time would even imagine such a thing but Anne was obviously a woman very unique. Henry is very much in love.And he sees an opportunity in a marriage to her to get the much desired male heir. And with these two factors in mind, he eventually breaks from Rome.It is not Anne,Katherine or even Henry alone. It is almost as if there was this perfect storm of many events and people and determination of their will and situations that lead to the reformation of England.