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Henty VIII had a legit beef with Rome. The Vatican had certainly granted stranger royal annulments than the one he was asking for. However, you're on the money in that it was the Vatican that gave Henry a Papal Dispensation to marry Catherine of Aragon in the first place. After all the trouble that took, it was unrealistic of Henry to expect the Vatican to un-dispence a Dispensation, especially with the Queen's relatives besieging the plce.

But there's an economic back-story here. The church controlled about 25% of the British economy, with vast tracts of the best developed farmlands in the realm belonging to the monastic orders, substantial holdings by the Bishops, and many prerogatives that effectively left them a law unto themselves. When the trouble between the King and the Church began, the economic issues made a radical solution financially attractive.

Henry VIII was no "Protestant." He merely wanted to run the Roman Catholic Church in England without Romans. He seized Church property, sold it on the cheap, or gave it to his pals, and built a strong anti-Rome constituency, which became more "Protestant," after Henry's death, and Edward's and Elizabeth's Reforms.

Me, I hope the Pope just sets up an Anglo-Catholic outfit in communion with Rome, sort of like the Greek, Chaldean, Syrian, Coptic, etc. rites that drop by the Vatican to have an espresso once in a while, keep the Pope's picture in the office, and with whom the Pope checks in by phone before doing anything really big. Other than that, they have their own liturgy, trick hats, and customs different from Monsignor O'Houlihan's parish.

Quite so, but I would add that its not all down to Henry. The simple fact is that there was a lot of popular support for his actions amongst the English population as a whole. Even an absolutist king would not have been able to make the break with Rome without that. Ordinary people resented the economic and political power of the Catholic Church. Intellectuals derided its corruption. The reformation was in full swing and theologians were beginning to really look at what they were saying. It was a time of great flux.