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The annulment of the marriage between King Henry VIII and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, should be looked at as two parts. In the first part, the annulment never actually took place, as it was done without the blessing of the Pope. In the second part, the annulment can be seen to have taken place, under Henry's own command as king, and the newly Supreme Head of the State.

Henry VIII's wish for an annulment seems to have originated from the year 1527, after a few years of it now becoming apparent that Catherine was no longer capable of bearing any future children, leaving Henry with his only daughter, Mary. This was an immense problem to Henry, who was certain that a female heir would be weak and easily toppled. With hindsight we can now see that Mary I happened not to be overthrown, and that she smoothly passed on the crown to her sister, Elizabeth I, whom became one of the most well-known and successful monarchs throughout English history. To Henry however, he believed, perhaps more than anything else, that a female monarch would be incredibly weak and easily overthrown.

Besides seeking a son as being the key and perhaps most fundamental reason for Henry even to begin contemplating terminating his marriage was his growing admiration for Anne Boleyn. Anne seems to have been most capable of doing what most other mistresses were incapable, keeping Henry's interest and holding back. Psychologically, one always desires what one cannot have, and to the King of England this feeling must have been overwhelming. It has been argued that Henry really did fall deeply in love with Anne, and so this must also be considered as a factor that contributed to Henry's wish for an annulment.

The third reason Henry had for wishing for an annulment was undoubtedly the most controversial. Henry was a keen biblical scholar, already having written in the defence of the Roman Catholic Church and against the reformers and growing threat of Protestantism, of which stemmed from Martin Luther and his 95 thesis. Henry believed that being married to Catherine meant that he was living in sin, reading from Leviticus, "if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an impurity... they shall be childless." Henry had married Catherine after the young death of his elder brother, and so believed that, from this passage, God must be punishing him for his sins by not allowing him to have a son. It was this argument for an annulment that he put forward to his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey to put before

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