Henry VIII Marries Anne Boleyn

January 25, 1533

In a secret ceremony at Whitehall, Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn while still technically wed to Catherine of Aragon. Anne was already pregnant. Thomas Cranmer would soon annul the first marriage, and the break with Rome, three decades in the making, could no longer be postponed. The marriage, before the first was formally annulled, precipitated the Act of Supremacy and England's permanent break with Rome.