King Henry VIII’s love affair with Anne Boleyn had catastrophic consequences on the Protestant Reformation. When Pope Clement VII refused to give Henry a divorce from his wife to marry Anne (the mother of future Queen Elizabeth I), Henry created the Church of England so that he could be granted the divorce he desired. However, Anne never gave birth to a male heir, and Henry deemed her failure to birth a male the cause of her treason when she was beheaded on May 19, 1536.
