The Birth of the Church of England

The Church of England was literally created because a king wanted a divorce. In 1534,

Henry VIII made himself head of the church through the Act of Supremacy, breaking away from

Rome entirely. His first wife Catherine of Aragon couldn't give him a male heir,

so he just changed the entire religion of England. This sparked the English Reformation

and led to decades of religious chaos. His daughter Mary Tudor earned the nickname Bloody

Mary for executing Protestants, while Elizabeth I later established Protestantism for

good. The 39 Articles in 1563 became the official doctrine, mixing Catholic

traditions with Protestant beliefs, creating Anglicanism as we know it today.