Statue of Henry VIII

In British history, there was a famous autocratic monarch named Henry VIII. He played a major role in making Britain finally form a unified and centralized modern country. However, he is a very good player of power and will do anything to consolidate his autocratic rule.

He ascended the throne in 1509. In order to consolidate his rule, on the one hand, he pandered to the reformists, calling the anti-church humanist Collette "my doctor" and personally visited Thomas Moore, the author of "Utopia"; on the other hand, in order to win the favor of the Pope, he burned a large number of followers of the "Lauradians" and various "heretics" among the lower classes of the British commoners. He burned the heresy with so much wood that the price of wood rose due to scarcity, which shows the cruelty. He also wrote against Martin Luther, so he was awarded the title of "Protector of the Faith" by the Pope of Rome. However, with the consolidation of his throne. In the interests of the royal family, especially to expand and consolidate his power, he began to reuse the Reformers and implemented the Reformation through a series of parliamentary acts. According to the parliamentary acts, Henry VIII was successively required to extract a large fine from the church, intercept the annual tribute to the Pope, obtain the authority to formulate canons and appoint bishops, replace the Pope as the supreme head of the Church of England, take the bishop's first annual salary and tithes as his own, dissolve all monasteries, and transfer huge land properties to the royal family. The royal family's financial revenue more than tripled, and Henry VIII became the richest king in English history. These religious reforms by Henry VIII aroused strong opposition from anti-reform forces at home and abroad.

On December 17, 1538, Pope Paul III announced the excommunication of "heretical" Henry VIII. The Holy Roman Empire threatened to invade and cut off trade. However, by this time, Henry VIII, whose regime had been consolidated and his country was strong, did not care about the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire. He declared, "I don't care if the Pope excommunicated ten thousand times. I want to prove to all the kings how insignificant the power of the Pope is." At the same time, the "Law of Rebellion" was passed at home, which classified all those who criticized the king as "rebels". A large number of anti-reform priests were killed. Including Thomas More, who he had visited, was also sentenced to death for disagreeing with the proposition.