The Reformation of the Church of England was an act of state. The direct cause for England's break with the Catholic Church was when Pop Clement VII refused to annul King Henry VIII's marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The king wanted to marry Anne Boleyn because he thought that she would produce a male heir for him, since his first wife could not. Also Henry thought that his marriage had displeased God, since in the Biblical text (Leviticus 18:16) it said that marriage to a dead brother's widow was forbidden. So Henry ordered his chief minister, Cardinal Wolsey, to go to the papacy for a decree that the marriage was invalid and that Henry was free to marry again. A divorce trial was held in London in 1529 and was adjourned without a decision. In anger at the delay, Henry dismissed Wolsey. By 1532 Henry had found a new chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, who proposed that England break with the papacy so that the archbishop of Canterbury, the highest officer in the English church, could grant the divorce. Legislation to this effect was passed by Parliament in 1532. As a result Henry was free to marry Anne, and the Church of England was established as an indepe

Moreover the book is an historic play because it recreated historical events. Henry VIII wanted out of his marriage to Catherine because she could not bear him male heirs. He wanted to marry Anne Boleyn because he thought that she could bear him male heirs. Also he wanted to marry her because he was I love with her. "...the king needs a son...Catherine is his wife and barren as a brick..." (Bolt 21). Bolt recreates this event as it was in the past. Another event that was recreated was Thomas More's being executed for refusing to accept that the King was the head of the Church of England. "...[More was] found guilty on the charge of High Treason. The sentence of the Court was that [More] shall be taken from this Court to the Tower, thence to the place of execution, and there [his] head shall be stricken from [his] body..." (Bolt 160). Bolt dramatizes the historical events in the play.

The historic portrayal of a protagonist who refuses to renounce his beliefs in Robert Bolt's, A Man for All Seasons, shows messages throughout the story. "...Bolt dramatizes [the] story of the martyrdom of Sir Thomas More who, torn between his loyalty to king and Catholicism, finds that he values his principles more that his life, and because he cannot pledge his allegiance to the king he is executed" (Kaiser 79). The work shows the historical background of England. This crucible of moral standards takes place in the early sixteenth century. The Common Man makes all too clear that the likes of a Sir Thomas More are as rare as they were in Henry's VIII's kingdom. People need to be true to themselves and not follow what society is doing.

Bolt uses actually figures from history in the play. For example, the protagonist of the play is Thomas More, who was actually based on the historical Sir Thomas More. "Bolt accounts the life of Sir Thomas More, the sixteenth-century Lord Chancellor of England who was executed by King Henry VIII..." (McCarten 88). Gertrude Hamilton best describes the historical Sir Thomas More as:

The message of "to know yourself" is evident throughout the play. The crude stagehand dressed in black and called the "Common Man" is an exact shadow of Thomas More, the saint-protagonist. But the Common Man is "harder to find than a unicorn" (Atkins 90). There are two meanings to this. One meaning is that the Common Man i

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Approximate Word count = 1574
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)