The English Reformation began in the 1530s when Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church. Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534, declaring the king the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Over the next decade Henry dissolved the monasteries, seized their land and wealth, and used the proceeds to fund his court and his armies.
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Under his Protestant son Edward VI (reigned 1547–1553) the Reformation went further: the Book of Common Prayer was introduced in English in 1549. His Catholic half-sister Mary I (reigned 1553–1558) tried briefly to reverse it, executing leading Protestants. Their sister Elizabeth I established a moderate Protestant settlement that has shaped the Church of England ever since.
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