When, in 1533, Henry VIII defied Pope Clement VII and married Anne Boleyn, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, was apoplectic. Frustrated at Clement’s impotence in the face of Henry’s insubordination, Charles sought papal assurances concerning the English king’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Charles V’s aunt. Clement threatened excommunication, which Henry ignored, thereby setting in motion the English Reformation. If the pope was toothless, a full-scale invasion of England by Charles wouldn’t be.
“There were undoubtedly great fears at Henry’s court that such an invasion was possible,” says Dr Owen Emmerson, author of a number of. “Henry’s new minister Thomas Cromwell knew well that riots in support of Catherine would have been warmly met by faithful English Catholics. He was also acutely aware that letters encouraging an invasion of England were being sent by Charles’s ambassador, Eustace Chapuys. His dispatches reveal a court terrified at the potential of Charles’s invasion. According to Chapuys, the mere hint of an impending attack would have ‘the king and court taking flight like a frightened flock of birds’.”
