Factional Politics and the English Reformation, 1520-1540

During the years from 1520 to 1540, both revolution and Reformation were introduced into England. The Royal Supremacy, conceived to meet Henry VIII's domestic needs, ended the jurisdiction of Rome, vested responsibility for the English Church with the crown and demanded uncompromising obedience to the new ecclesiastical order. Spiritual reformation came along with political revolution, bringing continental Protestantism to the heart of English religious life. In this situation, where the king wielded supreme authority, the emergence of different factions gave expression to differing allegiances, ideologies and centres of power. It has been customary for historians to see factional politics as primarily fuelled by self-interest, but Joseph Block departs from this view and suggests that in many cases ideological commitment lay at the heart of the political groupings during the two decades under scrutiny. He establishes an important role for Anne Boleyn with this reading, seeing her as both a stimulus to and a source of change and reform. He further traces the consolidation of reform throughout the changing fortunes of the factions at the Henrician court during the period of Thomas Cromwell's vice-regency, and his account culminates in an analysis of Cromwell's fall and the triumph of faction.