The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Reformation: various religious and political movements that affected both the practice of Christianity in Western and Central Europe and relations between church and state.
Disputes about the Church as in other areas of Europe had a history in England, but what is known as the English Reformation began as more of a political affair than a theological dispute. In 1527, Henry VIII sought an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon but Pope Clement VII refused.