In 1534, the Parliament of England passed the historic Act of Supremacy under King Henry VIII in London, England. This legislation officially declared the King to be the 'Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England', completely severing England's ecclesiastical ties with the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Driven by Henry's desire to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, this political break initiated the English Reformation, led to the widespread dissolution of Catholic monasteries, and fundamentally restructured English national identity, governance, and religious life.

The destruction of monastic libraries during the dissolution resulted in a tragic loss of medieval poetry manuscripts, but the political break forced English writers to forge an independent national literary tradition. It created an environment of intense religious nationalism that deeply colored the epic poetry of Edmund Spenser.