In 1534, King Henry VIII infamously broke away from the Catholic Church, becoming the head of the Church of England. Following this, two lesser-known acts were passed, the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535 and the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1539 (also known as the “two Acts of Dissolution”).
These acts were the legal instruments of what is now known as the dissolution of the monasteries, a long process throughout which the hundreds of priories, convents, friaries, and other religious houses which fell under the English monarch’s rule saw their holdings confiscated by the Crown. In doing so, Henry unwittingly set in motion a series of events that would forever change how scholars of English history would access the primary sources used in research.
