Thread: Some sad news from England

All the best whiskey makers(monks) fled to Ireland and Scotland when all this was going on. So the English lost out on that deal. Lol.

Originally Posted by STF

The Pope wouldn't annul King Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn, because her father the King of Spain was against it and was friends with the Pope.

More importantly Catherine 's nephew was Charles V the emporer of the Holy Roman Empire who was currently embroiled in the Protestant Reformation in Germany and trying to squash the new Lutheran Church (a title that Martin Luther himself despised) and force them into submission under Catholic rule. Charles had a strong ally in Pope Leo X but did not have the same relationship with Clement VII (also a Medici) who turned against him (Charles and the Holy Roman Empire) and tried to drive them out of Italy. Charles responded by defeating the League of Cognac. Coinciding with Henry's marital woes Charles' emperial troops sacked Rome and Clement barely escaped with his life having to flee through a tunnel underground and baracading himself in a castle fort.

Clement left licking his wounds with his city destroyed and fearing not only for his life but his reign was not about to further provoke Charles whose favorite aunt was Catherine.