“Well, the Spanish were at the time invading and looting and desecrating Rome. “
The Pope was indeed an effective hostage, I believe. It sort of gave the Spanish a bit of leverage.
“Then in the end the Church of England simply became a vehicle for an easy annulment/divorce whenever Henry got tired of his wives. The Church at that point was just a religious organization suited to make laws for the convenience of the monarch’s lifestyle choices.”
No. The Church of England was put in place because Rome was favoring Spain for political, not religious reasons and manipulated religious elements - not appointing Bishops so that diocesian funds would go directly to Rome for political purposes. That Spain wanted to dominate England was no secret.
The formation of the Church of England mirrored the decline of political power of Rome and the rise of nation-states.
There were also notable doctrinal disputes, but really - I don’t seek to state one religion is better than another. We are free to choose in this country.
I’m happy for anyone who finds a religious home wherever they find it. I certainly wouldn’t disagree with the stated reasons for some to choose Catholicism if they feel it is best for them.
one other thing, is that Henry VIII NEEDED a son to succeed him and his wife wasn’t fertile and he had nothing but little corpses from her, except the daughter. Then of course Henry VIII was also wildly in love with Anne Boleyn, but his conscience was driving him crazy, espcailly sicne he thought that he had been literally engaging in incest with the wife of his dead brother.
The whole thing was one big miserable mess and it only escalated because Katehrine of Aragon kept refusing to agree to a divorce and also refused to let her daugher be bastardized by her own father. But if Katherine had even nominally taken the veil, she could have lived a normal enough life and Mary would still have remained legitimate.