I have just finished the Wolf Hall trilogy which, while fictional, seems to posit three causes:
1) Failure to assassinate Reginald Pole
2) Reluctance to negotiate a divorce of the Cleves marriage
3) Pushing the Reformation too fast, especially by forging relations with Protestants in Germany and Switzerland
I think No. 3 is the underlying cause while the first two were catalysts for the final break of the king's confidence in him. Henry might have tolerated 3 for a couple more years if Pole was dead and Anne of Cleves had not turned him off.
You could just reduce it to:
4) Failing to find a woman to produce a second male heir, especially one who wasn't tied to Lutherans or Papists.
Or:
5) His task was impossible because Henry's demands were contradictory (anti-Pope but also anti-Lutheran, when really those opposing options couldn't be reconciled in European diplomacy at that time).
1) Failure to assassinate Reginald Pole
2) Reluctance to negotiate a divorce of the Cleves marriage
3) Pushing the Reformation too fast, especially by forging relations with Protestants in Germany and Switzerland
I think No. 3 is the underlying cause while the first two were catalysts for the final break of the king's confidence in him. Henry might have tolerated 3 for a couple more years if Pole was dead and Anne of Cleves had not turned him off.
You could just reduce it to:
4) Failing to find a woman to produce a second male heir, especially one who wasn't tied to Lutherans or Papists.
Or:
5) His task was impossible because Henry's demands were contradictory (anti-Pope but also anti-Lutheran, when really those opposing options couldn't be reconciled in European diplomacy at that time).
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