A great article, but I thought the Church of England
was started by Henry the 8th - so he could divorce his wife.
You're right. Henry VIII broke from the Holy See in Rome for the reasons you give. He was furious with the Pope who would not allow him to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Bolyn. He simply created the Church of England, so that he could do as he pleased. What the writer probably meant by King James is that James authorized the King James version of the Bible, which from that point forward became the standard version.
It was. Theology was ever the handmaiden of politics.