King Henry VIII was king of England from 1491-1547 C.E. He is perhaps most well known for his temper and having six marriages during his reign. His ____1____ marriage life, interconnected with politics as almost all royal marriages were during that time period, is significant because it created an entirely new religion. 

People living in the time of King Henry VIII were very religious. Religion dictated politics, social structures, and the minute details of people’s everyday lives. Until the 16th century (the 1500s), most of the people living in England were ____2____ and looked to the Pope in Rome as the supreme authority over religious life. In 1517, a monk from ____3____ named Martin Luther lead a group of people in a break with the Catholic Church in protest over the Catholic Church’s teachings and hierarchical power structures. This new group of Christians lead by Martin Luther were the first Protestants. 

In 1517, King Henry publicly _____4_____ the ideas of Martin Luther, earning the title Fidei Defensor, defender of the faith, from the pope. Almost 10 years after, Henry broke his ties with the Catholic Church and became the supreme head of the Church of England, a church of his own creation. This _____5_____ the English Reformation and created the _____6_____ branch of Protestant Christianity that we know today. 

So what does this series of events have to do with King Henry VIII’s busy family and marriage life? King Henry VIII’s first marriage was to the Spanish Catherine of Aragon, an alliance that ____7____ relations between their two countries. The King was frustrated that Catherine had not yet given him a son, for sons were worth much more than daughters in this era, and additionally Henry had fallen in love with another woman in his court, Anne Boleyn. The King wanted to marry Anne and asked Pope Clement VIII to let him divorce Catherine of Aragon. The Pope refused. 

In order to get his way, King Henry VIII and his advisors ____8____ a plan to sever ties with the Catholic Church and adopt Protestantism, which not only allowed the King to divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne, but the break with Catholic church also gave the King much more power over the wealth of the Church in England and over the ____9____ life of the English. Continued by his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, King Henry VIII set the stage for a Protestant England that would continue for centuries to come. The English reformation lead to increased circulation of ____10____ amongst the people of England and many hundreds of years of wars over faith. 

Henry VIII eventually had Anne Boleyn beheaded for treason and had four more wives after Anne who he either beheaded, divorced, or had their marriage annulled. Henry VIII himself never converted to Anglican Protestantism, but remained a devoted Catholic, which demonstrates that the matter had much more to do with love and power than faith for King Henry.