Catherine's claim was monumentally important in the history of Christianity primarily because Pope Clement VII, who was also one of her cousins, took her view on the matter. King Henry was subsequently denied his petition for divorce. Meanwhile, several Protestant sympathizers who had ingratiated themselves to the king enough to become some of his most trusted advisors were beginning to convince Henry that he as soveriegn of the United Kingdom did not need the Pope's approval for divorce. Their argument hearkened back to the medieval concept of the divine right of kings, which essentially states that the king is all powerful not because humanity condones his power but because God has bestowed that power upon him. If this were indeed true, and Henry was certainly inclined to believe it, then Henry's position as king would entail that God had personally chosen him to rule over the people unlike the Pope, who was merely a church official elected by cardinals. According to Henry's Protestant advisors, this essentially meant that he should be the head of the church and not the Pope, at least in his own country.
Now I think you are beginning to see what a major issue this would become, not just for Henry and Catherine's marriage, but for the entire religious history of England, and by extension, the United States of America. Henry decided to ignore the Pope's command to remain married to Catherine; he disassociated himself, and the entire United Kingdom, from the Pope and the Roman Catholic church; he declared himself the head of a new, Protestant church called the Church of England, and as his first official act as head of that church, he granted himself a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Soon afterward, Henry and Anne Boleyn were married in a private service. Interestingly enough, the subsequent monarchs of the United Kingdom carry on the tradition of acting as head of the Church of England, also called the Anglican Church and the Episcopal Church in North America. The current head of that church is Elizabeth II, Queen of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, etc.
Thus bloomed legalized Protestantism for the first time in the British isles. At the same time, the persecution of staunch Catholics who refused to convert began with full force. Churches and monasteries, wealthy stores of Roman Catholicism, were robbed, burned, desecrated, and those who would not publicly condone Henry's new marriage were summarily executed. Among these martyrs was Thomas More, the author of Utopia and King Henry's former teacher and friend. Unfortunately, the religious and domestic upheaval Henry caused because of his divorce hardly ends there. In time, Anne too was unable to produce a male heir although she did give birth to the Princess Elizabeth, who would later become Elizabeth I, Queen of England. Henry also tired of his new wife after a time, and she was accused of adultery, a crime that was considered treasonous in a queen who was meant to act as the holy fount from which God's chosen vessel of lordship should spring forth. Most historians agree that many of the charges of adultery leveled against Anne probably held no merit and served simply as an excuse to get rid of her. At any rate, she was soon beheaded whether she was guilty or not.
Henry, still a Protestant, married a young lady from a powerful Protestant family named Jane Seymour. It is generally believed that Jane Seymour was perhaps Henry's favorite wife, if for no other reason than because she was finally able to do what none of the other wives had accomplished before her. She gave birth to a son, Edward VI, in 1537, but sadly she died not long after from complications with childbirth. Henry ruled for several more years afterward, and of course there were more wives, but let's fast forward to what happened after Henry's death in 1547. Edward -- as the only living, legitimate, male heir -- became king after his father's death, even though he was only about ten years old at the time. His grandfather and uncle on the Seymour side acted as regents for him. Still, Edward was sickly, and after about six years he too died from a fever. After a brief period in which the crown was seriously disputed ( see more information on "Lady Jane Grey"), Henry's oldest living child from his first marriage, his daughter Mary, became the ruler of England. Mary was, naturally, raised as a Catholic by her mother, so for a while England went back to being an aggressively Catholic nation. Many people who had converted to Protestantism immediately changed sides again, and those who refused to change were burned at the stake. Mary's bloodthirstiness in dealing with Protestants earned her the nickname "Bloody Mary".
Fortunately for the Protestants, Mary was only queen for about five years, and then she too died, probably from some kind of stomach or ovarian cancer. Next in the line of succession was Elizabeth, a young, vibrant, healthy, intelligent Protestant, and she ruled for 44 years. She also restored some religious and domestic order to the kingdom, and set the Elizabethan Age in motion, a golden period in which English art, music, literature, and world power flourished. So, in short, the United Kingdom had flip-flopped back and forth between Catholicism and Protestantism, with Catholics burning Protestants and Protestants executing Catholics, for many years. Finally, though Elizabeth, the Protestant Reformation set in with full force. Elizabeth's heir, James I, was also Protestant, and so were all of his descendants in the House of Stuart. James was also the sponsor for a now-famous 1611 translation of the Bible that many literary scholars know and love, the King James Version. Of course, James was also the king who approved the Puritan pilgrimage to North America, setting a precedent for Protestant domination in the United States.
And all of this because Henry wanted a divorce . . . :)
