The Influence of Factions

• The lack of direct opposition by the C+P to the Acts of Parliament can be explained in a number of ways:
  • At the time many believed the work of the RP would be reversed and E would return to its previous relationship with R, once H8 got his divorce, CV having effective control over P was a major stumbling block, but once the papacy was out of his control it was thought an agreement between E and R could be negotiated
  • Possible main reason P couldn't efffectivly oppose it  was that the Acts removed any offical means by which E could appeal to R and through which R could repsond
  • Bishops in HOL might have been expected to state the case of R but although they weren't supportive they had been appointed by K and were dependent on him. Charge of praemunire against W would also have restricted their willingness to support P
  • Opposing groups to H8's views and policies have been seen as factions.
    • It is difficult between 1529 and 1547 to identify two rigid groups with clearly-defined positions. Generally such factions represented interest groups. Often based on a particular belief, or person and had their members who either believed their positions could be bettered through promotoion of a person or idea or defeneded a person or belief being challenged

Possible to identify two different interest groups emerging during the struggle to achieve the annulment: the court faction managed by CW, supported by AB and CM and the Aragonese faction: those who supported COA like TM and John Fisher, also sought to protect C faith and the position of those who were loyal to Rome

Supporters of change:

• CM was key to promoting the arguments in support of annulment, his real skill was in promoting intellectual justifications for the divorce campaign whilst recognising H8's resistance to religious change and hatred of heretical ideas
• Opinions sought from unis in E and abroad, Poland, France,Spain etc. Debates took places om the interpretation of biblical law in the context of consummation or non-consummation, technicalities of orginal dispensation. Most responses challeneged H interpretation, CM wrote the Collectanea Statis Capiosa- sought to prove E bishops had the right to pronounce on H's divorce without reference from R - when P didnt respond H encouraged to use this intellectual justification to assume powers to make the annulment legal. Legislation would need to be passed to make this possible

• Eustace Chapuys, CV's ambassador in E played signif role, adivising COA, enabling her to maintain links to the Imperial court and in court politics
• faction begant to develop in opposition to the power and influence of W
• TM and Bishop Fisher loosely connected to the faction, strength of faction lay in its supporters within court.
• Two members of the K's household spoke out in support of COA, Sir Nicholas Carew and Sir Henry Guilford.
• Two other key players were Lords Darcy and Hussey

• Day after the Submission of the Clergy in May 1532, More resigned his positionn as Chancellor
• He hoped to continue his support for the CC but not to publically comment on the divorce or break with R, turned out to be impossible
• 1st June 1533 TM invited to attend the coronation of AB, he decline. H8 did not forgive this and CW sought an opp to destroy him publicaly
• TM narrowly escaoed being attained for treason by those who tried to implicate him in the case of Elizabeth Barton
• Act of Succession and the required oath presented his enemies with an opp to attack him, TM was called to take the oath and refused, he was imprisioned in the TOL
• TM was prehaps the best legal mind in Ed and her argued he had not strictly broken the law as he refused to either swear the oath or speak against it
• 1st July 1535, TM tried for treason, evidence given by Richard Rich who falsely stated that when he visited TM in his cell he had said that 'Parliament could not make the king SHOTC'
• More deneid this but it was one man's words against anothers
• More was convicted and beheaded on the 6th July

Fisher became the chief supporter of COA and stated that he woud be prepared to die rather than see the marriage dissolved

In 1532 Fisher spoke openly against the divorce and shortly after the secret marriage of H8 and AB in Jan 1533, Fisher was arrested

In 1534 a Bill of Attainder was lodged againt JF for his support of EB but it was his refusal to swear the oath of succession that led to his arrest for treason

As a commoner the result of the Act of Attainder should have been being hung drawn and quatered but at public outcry agasint the barbarity of treating a bishop so brutally he was beheaded in June 1535

1532 EB prophesied that if H was to divorce COA he would die shortly afterwards

Initially no action was taken, as to do so would have been to threaten a person regarded as a saint

Only a prolonged campaign to ruin her reputation gave H the opp to try her for treason

It is alleged that she confessed to having made the visions up.

In 1534 she was hanged at Tyburn

Support for the existing system of beliefs came from the scholarship of two austere monastic orders: Observant Franciscans and the Carthusians, these two orders stressed a life of solitude and devotion with limited contact with the world

Both the Observant Franciscans and the monks of the London Charter house (Cathusians) had been spiritual advisors to H7+H8. Carthusians strictest of the orders and seen as the most holy

5 Carthusian monks refused to swear an oath recognising the right of AB's kids to succeed their loyalty to the CC was sorely tested

They refused to speak even when subjected to the most extreme torture. They were hung, drawn and quatered. Their heads cut off and boiled to be coated in tar and stuck of London Bridge

Such treatments shows something of H's determination to get his own way, and to have his marriage and kids with AB recognised, even if it meant forcing the reluctant into acceptance.All these executions were powerful and graphic illustrations of his unwillingness to compromise. Few would take the risk of opposing him

AB's coronation used to manage public opinion and to gain support for the break with R.

It was fully of symbolism and pageant, intended to impress the people of London as a new begining for H which would lead to the continuation of the T dynasty through the already conceived child.

AB travelled from Greenwich to TOL by barge, greeted by a full gun salute. Next day AB+H entertained and created 18 knights of a new order. On Sat, Queen A processed through London towards Westminister Palace, accompanied by most of the nobility, AB surrounded by 4 chariots + the whole procession was over half a mile in length, banquet at WP and then travelled by barge to York Place to met H8

Sunday (Pentecost) she was crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey, conducted by CM and all the leading bishops and abbots in the country attended

Having won over the centres of commerce and politics, AB was now accepted by the C. To celebrate this the Te Deum was sung in thanks to God and a High Mass was conducted in the C, which H now controlled