BRITAIN: PAST AND PRESENT - London 2015 - page 798

Timeline
1500 London's population swells to 50,000.
1534 Enraged by the pope's refusal to validate his second marriage (to Anne Bo-
leyn), King Henry VIII breaks with Rome. He “dissolves” (destroys) the
monasteries and forms his own Protestant Church of England (Anglican).
This leads to centuries of religious division between Catholics and Protest-
ants; generally speaking, London leans to the Protestant side.
1536 Henry VIII grows tired of Anne Boleyn and executes her; within days he
marries Jane Seymour (the third of his six marriages).
1555 Attempting to convert England back to Catholicism, Queen Mary I—a.k.a.
“Bloody Mary”—burns hundreds of Protestants at the stake.
1558 Elizabeth I—daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and half-sister of
Mary I—is crowned queen, with London's backing. Her reign (the “Eliza-