[Vanders9]

Although the fertility failure brought things to a head, the fact is that trouble with the Catholic church in Britain had been brewing for years. Henry would never have been able to make the break with Rome unless there hadn't been a considerable amount of popular support for the move. Even then there were several rebellions because of it.

I would argue that the root of all the trouble today really started a century later, when that fanatic idiot Catesby bungled a coup attempt against James I.

[jocon307]

“...when that fanatic idiot Catesby bungled a coup attempt against James I.”

You may well be right, but that is way too inside English History for me!

I just read those Hillary Mantel books, I enjoyed them very much, but the story they tell is very shocking.

Esp. at the beginning of the first one, I didn’t really know how widespread, and yes, grassroots, the Reformation was, and how resisted it was by those in power.

Of course you know that Henry had been honored as a defender of the faith by the pope, and then look what happened!

So yeah, something was brewing and it wasn’t just the problems of 3 people, to borrow a bit from Casablanca.