28 May 1533 – Henry VIII’s Marriage to Anne Boleyn is Proclaimed Valid

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception 


On 28th May 1533, five days after the special court at Dunstable Priory declared Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon invalid, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer proclaimed the validity of Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn after a special enquiry at Lambeth Palace. The proclamation was just in time for Anne Boleyn’s coronation pageantry, which began the next day.

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn had married on 25th January 1533, before the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, but Henry had believed for several years that his marriage to Catherine had been invalid because she was his brother’s widow. Convocation and the Dunstable court agreed with him, ruling that the Pope had no authority to issue a dispensation for a marriage which was contrary to God’s law.

Also read Did Henry VIII commit bigamy when he married Anne Boleyn?.