The only real power at the disposal of the pope was, as it turned out, the Catholic faith of the English people. For the English Establishment did not merely break diplomatically with the papacy; they began a religious revolution, which involved the seizure of the monastic lands, the closing of popular shrines, the overturning of popular customs. The Church had owned about a tenth of the lands of the realm, and with that they had supported many social services, such as schools and hospitals. In addition, the monks had been slow to enclose public lands, dispossessing peasants in order to run sheep for the factories of the low countries, a process that not only enriched the nobility but the merchants of London. In time this lead to a revolt called the Pilgrimage of Grace, an uprising that was quelled only because of the people’s loyalty to the d ynasty,
For the English people were mindful of their souls, and mindful they would remain when the government took measures that threatened their faith. Under Elizabeth the country became accustomed to the New faith and largely abandoned the old, but a hundred years later, when the king sought to suppress Puritanism, they rose up again, but this time against an unpopular king.
I'm not clear on what your point is.
Henry never tried for a divorce. He tried to get the Pope to annul the marriage. When that failed he took England out of the Church and had a puppet court do the same.
In any case, Mary was indeed declared illegitimate and removed from the succession.