Final answer:
King Henry VIII established the Church of England as a result of the Catholic Church's refusal to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, with his main aim being to secure a male heir by remarrying.
Step-by-step explanation:
King Henry VIII established the Church of England after the Catholic Church would not allow him to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Henry's primary motivation was his desire for a male heir, which he hoped to achieve by marrying another woman after the annulment. When the Pope refused to grant the annulment, Henry, with the help of Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell, enacted legislation to transform the religious landscape of England, ultimately leading to the establishment of the Church of England with the king at its head.
The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, at its inception remained doctrinally similar to Catholicism, except that it rejected the authority of the Pope. The Act in Restraint of Appeals declared Henry the head of the Church of England and the Act of Submission of the Clergy required English priests to swear allegiance to the king's new church. These political and religious moves also allowed Henry to dissolve the monasteries, thereby confiscating their wealth and strengthening the royal treasury.