Acts of Parliament (1533-34)

Part of domestic policies under Cromwell

Why were the series of Acts of Parliament passed

• Passed by Cromwell in order to achieve the break from Rome and establish royal supremacy

The Act in Restraint of Appeals - April 1533

• Declared that the monarch possessed an imperial jurisdiction which was not subject to any foreign power (the papacy)

• Declared appeals could not be made to Rome regarding Church court decisions

• Meant that Catherine could not appeal to Rome against the annulment

The Act of Succession - April 1534

• Declared that:

• Henry’s marriage to Catherine was void

• The succession should be vested in the children of his marriage to Anne

• To deny the validity of his marriage to Anne being treasonable

• An oath should be taken to affirm an individual’s acceptance of the new marriage

The Act of Supremacy - November 1534

• Gave legislative force to the royal supremacy

• Stated that the king’s right is to be Supreme Head of the Church of England

• This act effectively accomplished the break from Rome

The Treason Act - November 1534

• Tightened so that treason could be committed by the spoken word as well as by deed or writing and so that it was treasonable to describe the king negatively, i.e a ‘tyrant’ or ‘heretic’

The Act Annexing First Fruits and Tenths to the Crown - November 1534

• A typically cynical move by Henry and Cromwell

• The annates paid by a bishop to the Pope were unacceptable, but acceptable when paid to the king

• Increased the financial burden on the clergy, and strengthened the royal supremacy

Relationship between England and Rome by 1534

• A relationship of almost a millenium was smashed to pieces

• Despite asserting in the Act of Supremacy that the king’s rule was recognised by clergy, securing supremacy mainly came from parliamentary statute

• Parliament’s role as a law-making body had been strengthened

• Henry now had control over the Church in England

Dissolution of the monasteries

• Later acts

• Began in 1536 and completed by 1542

• Dissolution ensured that a vast amount of the Church’s land was confiscated by the crown

• Significantly increased the wealth and therefore power of the Crown

• However benefit to Henry was short-lived as much of the property was sold so that the Crown could raise money to finance its foreign policy