Henry VIII Marries Anne Boleyn

In January 1533 King Henry VIII of England secretly married Anne Boleyn, with whom he had been involved for several years. The marriage took place while Henry's long effort to annul his union with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, remained unresolved by the Pope. Anne was already pregnant, which lent urgency to securing a wedding before the child was born.

The marriage was bound up with Henry's break from Rome. Thomas Cranmer, newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, soon formally declared Henry's marriage to Catherine null and void and pronounced the union with Anne valid. The Pope's refusal to grant the annulment drove Henry to repudiate papal authority, leading to the English Reformation and the establishment of the monarch as head of the Church of England.

Anne Boleyn was crowned queen in 1533 and in September gave birth to a daughter, the future Elizabeth I. The hoped-for male heir never came, and Henry's affection cooled; in 1536 Anne was accused of treason and adultery, convicted, and executed. Despite her tragic end, the marriage proved historically momentous, both for triggering England's religious revolution and for producing one of its greatest monarchs.