1. Act of Succession
The first Act of Succession (in German: Act of Succession to the Throne, sometimes also Act of Succession ) of March 23, 1534 was a new regulation of the English succession to the throne by King Henry VIII. The act served to put his daughter Elisabeth from his second marriage to Anne Boleyn in the first place to set the line of succession. His older daughter Maria from his marriage to Catherine of Aragón , however, was declared a royal bastard. Subjects who were asked to do so were required to swear an oath to the act, otherwise they faced charges of high treason . A second Act of Succession was passed in 1536 and finally a third Act of Succession in 1544 , replacing the first.
backgrounds
In 1533, King Henry VIII married his pregnant lover Anne Boleyn after six years of courtship . His marriage to Catherine of Aragón had produced only one daughter instead of the son he had hoped for, the future Maria I. Although women were certainly entitled to inherit in the English line of succession, Heinrich feared that after his death without a male heir, a civil war would break out, as it did under Empress Matilda had happened. From Anne Boleyn, who was much younger than Katharina, Heinrich hoped to finally have male offspring. Instead of a son, however, the new queen gave birth to a daughter on September 7, 1533, the future Elizabeth I.
Up until now, Princess Maria Heinrich had been the only legitimate child and was therefore at the top of the line of succession. According to the law of primogeniture, the birth of a younger sister would in no way have endangered Mary's status, since as the eldest daughter she still had the first right to the crown. Only a brother could have taken her position in the line of succession. However, Heinrich's marriage to Anne Boleyn was not recognized as legitimate abroad and partly also in England, as the Pope had refused to annul the marriage to Katharina. Since Catherine was still alive, the king lived in bigamy for many contemporaries .
This would mean that male offspring from this marriage would only have been a royal bastard, which would have meant exclusion from the line of succession. For this reason it became imperative for Heinrich to legally legitimize Elisabeth and any future descendants of Anne Boleyn. An inevitable consequence of this legitimation was the bastardization of Mary: if the marriage to Anne Boleyn was the only valid marriage of the king with legitimate heirs, then the marriage to Katharina was invalid and her daughter was merely a royal bastard with no claim to the throne.
content
In March 1534, Parliament finally passed the first Act of Succession . The undersigned included a. Thomas Cranmer , Acting Archbishop of Canterbury , Henry's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy , Anne Boleyn's uncle Thomas Howard , her brother George Boleyn , Henry's brother-in-law Charles Brandon, and Henry's cousin Henry Courtenay . Since Heinrich needed a legal basis to legitimize his marriage to Anne Boleyn, the first paragraph of the act declared the interference of the Pope and foreign powers in the English succession as invalid.
“The Bishop of Rome and the Holy See, contrary to the great, inviolable jurisdiction that God has given emperors, kings and princes directly, tried in the past to bestow titles at will in order to inherit in foreign kingdoms and territories we, your devoted spiritual and worldly subjects, deeply detest and hate. "
When the papal authority was withdrawn, the papal judgment regarding Henry's first marriage had also become invalid. The act stated that Katharina “was previously the lawful wife of Prince Arthur , your older brother, by whom she had been fleshly recognized” and that she should therefore “from now on only be referred to and viewed as the widow of Prince Arthur and not as Queen of this realm ”. In order to prevent similarly invalid marriages in the future, the act once again defined the degrees of kinship between which a marriage was prohibited. Children born of these connections became bastards.
In contrast to this was "the final marriage that was consummated and celebrated between Your Highness and your dear, beloved consort Queen Anne". Thus, only Heinrich's children from his marriage to Anne Boleyn were legitimate heirs of the crown. In addition, the act defined it as high treason to designate anyone other than Anne Boleyn and Elisabeth as Queen and Princess of England, respectively. Any attempt to reintegrate Maria into the line of succession was now under the death penalty, as was the vilification of Anne Boleyn.
If anything happened to the king before his heirs were of legal age, the act required them to be raised by their mother and the council. In this case Anne Boleyn would have become regent of England. In order to enforce all these points, an oath was attached at the end of the act, which all subjects had to take when asked. Should they refuse, they would face severe penalties and, in the worst case, could be charged as traitors. Conviction for treason meant not only the death penalty for those concerned, but also the confiscation of all their worldly goods, which in most cases resulted in the impoverishment of their families.
consequences
As soon as the act came into force, Elisabeth received the title of Princess of England and the first place in the line of succession that her half-sister Maria had previously held. Henry's Minister Thomas Cromwell immediately had copies made and sent to Princess Maria and Catherine of Aragon "so that it would be read in their presence and their answers recorded." Both Maria and her mother Catherine of Aragon refused to recognize the act. Katharina declared that she would not discuss the laws of this country, but would only accept the Pope's judgment. However, the act made it illegal to go to the courts in Rome. Unimpressed Katharina replied: “If one of you has the authority to carry out this punishment on me, I am ready. I only ask that I be allowed to die within sight of the people. "
While Mary was ready to recognize Elizabeth as her sister, she refused to refer to her as the Princess of England. Heinrich's attempt to change her mind with requests and promises to royal titles was unsuccessful. Mary insisted that “God had not so blinded her that she would admit, for any kingdom on earth, that her father the king and her mother the queen had lived in adultery for so long; nor would she violate the regulations of the church and declare herself a bastard. ”Because of this refusal, Heinrich separated mother and daughter permanently, even when Maria fell ill and Katharina was dying. The Spanish ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote about the princess to her cousin, Emperor Charles V :
“When he heard from the same doctor that her illness was caused in part by her poor treatment, the King sighed deeply and said it was a pity that she should remain so defiant and thereby rob him of any opportunity to treat her as well as he could he wished it. The doctor advised him to send her to her mother, the queen, where she would live cheaper, more honorable, and healthier, and if anything really happened to her, the king would be free from all suspicion. The king replied that this was quite right, but that there was a great obstacle because if he did so he would never induce her to do what he wanted, which is to give up her rightful and true line of succession. "
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Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher were both ready to recognize the new line of succession, but refused to take the oath for reasons of conscience, according to contemporaries because of the attacks on the Roman Catholic Church in England and out of sympathy with Catherine and Mary. However, Heinrich did not want to be satisfied with half promises, since otherwise it would have encouraged other dissidents. During the six years that Heinrich campaigned for Anne Boleyn, Fisher had always defended Katharina, both in writing and orally. In his treatise The Apology of Sir Thomas More, More himself had urged all Christians to stand firmly on the side of the old faith and not to get involved in what their fathers would have called heresy.
Both were imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed the following year. Nevertheless, their example encouraged Maria and Katharina and strengthened their attitude. Katharina remained steadfast until her death in January 1536. Mary only gave in after the king had already signed his third marriage and threatened her closest friends.
The act was only valid for two years. Shortly after Anne Boleyn's execution in 1536 and the king's remarriage, Parliament passed the Second Act of Succession , which bastardized Elisabeth and only declared Henry's descendants with his new Queen Jane Seymour to be legitimate heirs to the crown. In 1544 Parliament finally passed the third and final Act of Succession under Henry VIII, which accepted both Maria and Elisabeth and the descendants of their aunt Mary Tudor - including Lady Jane Gray - into the line of succession. This act was only repealed by a parliamentary resolution under King James I.
literature
- Tanja Weiler: Henry VIII and the English Reformation. Thesis . 2009 GRIN Verlag, ISBN 978-3-640-58982-1
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Starkey: Elizabeth. The Struggle for the Throne. 2001 Harper Collins, p. 11
- ↑ Oath of allegiance to Henry VIII and his successors, 1534
- ↑ a b c d THE FIRST ACT OF SUCCESSION, AD 1534.
- ↑ a b 19 Dec. Chapuys to Charles V.
- ↑ Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 5 Part 1: 1534-1535
- ↑ a b Anna Whitelock: Mary Tudor. England's first queen. Bloomsbury 2010, p. 64
- ^ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7: 1534
- ↑ David Starkey: Elizabeth. The Struggle for the Throne. 2001 Harper Collins, p. 18
- ^ Anna Whitelock: Mary Tudor. England's first queen. Bloomsbury 2010, p. 65
- ^ Roland Lee, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, to Cromwell
- ↑ John A. Guy: A Daughter's Love. Thomas & Margaret More. Harper Perennial 2009, p. 186
- ↑ John A. Guy: A Daughter's Love. Thomas & Margaret More. Harper Perennial 2009, p. 226