Everything about Thomas Wolsey totally explained
Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, (
c. 1470–
1471 –
November 28 or
November 29,
1530), who was born in
Ipswich, Suffolk, England, was an
English statesman and a
cardinal of the
Roman Catholic Church.
When
Henry VIII became king in
1509, Wolsey became the King's
almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by
1514 he'd become the controlling figure in all matters of state and extremely powerful within the
Church. The highest political position he attained was
Lord Chancellor, the King's chief advisor, enjoying great freedom and often depicted as an
alter rex (other king). Within the Church he became
archbishop of York, the second most important see in England, and then was made a
Cardinal in
1515, giving him precedence over even the
Archbishop of Canterbury. His main legacy is from his interest in architecture, his
Hampton Court Palace, which stands today.
Early life
Thomas was the son of Robert Wolsey of
Ipswich (1438–85) and his wife Joan Daundy. His father was widely thought to have been a
butcher but sources indicate that Robert Wolsey died at
Battle of Bosworth Field and was a significant casualty. Robert may have been a respected and wealthy cloth merchant, and the butcher story was perhaps invented to demean Wolsey and show how high he'd climbed in terms of status.
Thomas Wolsey attended
Ipswich School and
Magdalen College School before studying theology at
Magdalen College, Oxford. On
March 10,
1498, he was ordained a
priest in Marlborough and remained in
Oxford, first as the Master of Magdalen College School before quickly being appointed the dean of divinity. In
1502, he left and became a chaplain to
Henry Deane,
archbishop of Canterbury, who died the next year. He was then taken into the household of Sir Richard Nanfan, who trusted Wolsey to be the executor of his estate. After Nanfan's death in
1507, Wolsey entered the service of
Henry VII.
It was to Wolsey’s advantage that Henry VII had introduced measures to curb the power of the
nobility and was prepared to favour those from more humble backgrounds. Henry VII appointed Wolsey
royal chaplain. In this position, Wolsey was secretary to
Richard Foxe, who recognized Wolsey's innate ability and dedication and appreciated his industry and willingness to take on tedious tasks.. Thomas Wolsey’s remarkable rise to power from humble origins can be attributed to his high level of intelligence and organisation, his extremely industrious nature, his driving ambition for power, and the rapport he was able to achieve with the King. In
1509, Henry VIII appointed Wolsey to the post of
Almoner., a position that gave him a seat on the
Privy Council, providing an opportunity to raise his profile and to establish a rapport with the King. His rise coincided with the ascension of the new monarch, Henry VIII, whose character, policies and diplomatic mindset differed significantly from those of his father, Henry VII. A factor in Wolsey's rise was that the young Henry VIII wasn't particularly interested in the details of governing during his early years.. Under the tight personal monarchy of Henry VII, Wolsey was unlikely to have obtained so much trust and responsibility.
Rise to Prominence
The primary counsellors who Henry VIII inherited from his father,
Bishop Fox and
William Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, were cautious and conservative, advising the King to be a careful administrator like his father. Henry soon appointed to his
Privy Council individuals more sympathetic to his views and inclinations. Until
1511, Wolsey was adamantly anti-war; however, when the King expressed his enthusiasm for an invasion of
France, Wolsey was able to adapt to the King's mindset and gave persuasive speeches to the Privy Council in favour of war. Warham and Fox, who failed to share the King’s enthusiasm for the French war, fell from power and Wolsey took over as the King's most trusted advisor and administrator. In 1515, Warham resigned as
Lord Chancellor, probably under pressure from the King and Wolsey, and Henry appointed Wolsey in his place..
Wolsey was careful to try to destroy or neutralise the influence of other courtiers. He was blamed for the fall of the
Duke of Buckingham in 1521 and prosecuted Henry's close friend
William Compton and Henry's ex-mistress
Anne Stafford through the ecclesiastical courts for adultery, in 1527. In the case of
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, Wolsey attempted to win his favour instead, by his actions after the Duke secretly married Henry’s sister
Mary (the recently-widowed queen of France), much to the King’s displeasure. Wolsey advised the King not to execute the newlyweds, but to embrace them.
Wolsey's rise to a position of great secular power was accompanied by increased responsibilities in the Church. He became
Canon of
Windsor, Berkshire in 1511, the same year in which he became a member of the
Privy Council. In
1514 he was made
Bishop of Lincoln, and then
Archbishop of York.
Pope Leo X made him a cardinal in
1515, with the
Titulus S. Caeciliae. As tribute to the success of his campaign in France and subsequent peace negotiations, Wolsey was further rewarded by the church: in
1523 Wolsey was made
Prince-Bishop of Durham.
Foreign policy
War with France
The war against France in 1512–14 was the most significant opportunity for Wolsey to demonstrate his talents in the foreign policy arena. A convenient justification for going to war came in
1511 in the form of a plea for help from
Pope Julius II, who was beginning to feel threatened by France. England formed an alliance with the Pope,
Ferdinand V of Spain, and
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor against
Louis XII of France.
The first campaign against France wasn't a success, partly due to the unreliability of the alliance with Ferdinand. Wolsey learned from the mistakes of the campaign, however and, in 1513, still with papal support, launched a joint attack on France, successfully capturing two French cities and causing the French to retreat. Wolsey's ability to keep a large number of troops supplied and equipped for the duration of the war was a major factor in its success. Wolsey also had a key role in negotiating the Anglo-French treaty of 1514, which secured a temporary peace between the two nations. Under this treaty, the French king,
Louis XII would marry Henry’s young sister, Mary. In addition, England was able to keep the captured city of
Tournai and to secure an increase in the annual pension paid by France.
Meanwhile, a turnover of rulers in Europe threatened to diminish England’s influence. Peace with France in 1514 had been a true achievement for Wolsey and the King. With Henry’s sister
Mary married to the French King,
Louis XII, an alliance was formed, but Louis wasn't in good health. Less than three months later, Louis died and was replaced by the young and ambitious
Francis I.
Queen Mary had allegedly secured a promise from Henry that if Louis died, she could marry whomever she pleased. On Louis' death, she secretly married the
Duke of Suffolk, with Francis I's assistance, which prevented another marriage alliance. As the only princess Henry could use to secure marriage alliances, this was a bitter blow. Wolsey then proposed an alliance with
Spain and the
Holy Roman Empire against France.
Papal Legate
The death of
King Ferdinand of Spain, Henry's father-in-law, and England's closest ally, was a further blow. Ferdinand was succeeded by
Charles V, who immediately proposed peace with France. On the death of
Emperor Maximilian in 1519, Charles was elected in his stead; thus Charles ruled a substantial portion of Europe and English influence became limited on the continent.
Wolsey, however, managed to assert English influence through another means. In 1517,
Pope Leo X sought peace in Europe to form a crusade against the
Ottoman Empire. In 1518, Wolsey was made
Papal Legate in England, enabling him to work for the Pope’s desire for peace by organising the
Treaty of London. The Treaty showed Wolsey as the arbiter of Europe, organising a massive peace summit involving twenty nations. This put England at the forefront of European diplomacy and drew her out of isolation, making her a desirable ally. This is well illustrated by the Anglo-French treaty signed two days afterwards.
Ironically, it was partly this peace treaty which caused conflict between France and Spain. In 1519, when
Charles ascended to the throne of the
Holy Roman Emperor,
Francis I, the King of France, was infuriated. He had invested enormous sums in bribing the electorate to elect him as emperor, and thus, he used the Treaty of London as a justification for the Habsburg-Valois conflict. Wolsey appeared to act as mediator between the two powers, both of whom were vying for England’s support.
Field of the Cloth of Gold
Another of his diplomatic triumphs was the
Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Wolsey organised much of this grandiose meeting between Francis I of France and Henry VIII, accompanied by some five thousand followers. Though it seemed to open the door to peaceful negotiations with France, if that was the direction the King wished to go, it was also a chance for a lavish display of English wealth and power before the rest of Europe. With both France and Spain vying for England’s allegiance, Wolsey could choose the ally which better suited his policies. Wolsey chose Charles mainly because England's economy would suffer from the loss of the lucrative cloth trade industry between England and the Netherlands had France been chosen instead.
Alliance with Spain
The
Treaty of London (1518) is often regarded as Wolsey’s finest moment, but it was abandoned within a year. Wolsey allied with Charles in 1520 in the conflict against France, ignoring the Anglo-French treaty of 1518. Wolsey's relationship with Rome was also ambivalent. Despite his links to the papacy, Wolsey was strictly Henry’s servant. Though the Treaty of London was an elaboration on Pope Leo's ambitions for European peace, it was seen in Rome as a vain attempt by England to assert her influence over Europe and steal some papal thunder. Furthermore, Wolsey’s peace initiatives prevented a crusade to the
Holy Land, which was the catalyst for the Pope’s desire for European peace.
Lorenzo Cardinal Campeggio, who represented the Pope at the Treaty of London, was kept waiting for many months in Calais before being allowed to cross the Channel and join the festivities in London; thereby, Wolsey was asserting his independence of Rome. An alternative hypothesis is that Campeggio was kept waiting until Wolsey received his legacy, thus asserting Wolsey's attachment to Rome.
Though the English gain from the wars of 1522–23 was minimal, their contribution certainly aided Charles in his defeat of the French, particularly in 1525 at the
Battle of Pavia, where Charles' army captured the French king,
Francis I. Henry then felt there was a realistic opportunity for him to seize the French crown, which the kings of England had long laid claim to. Parliament, however, refused to raise taxes. This led to Wolsey devising the
Amicable Grant, which was met with even more hostility, and ultimately led to his downfall. In 1525, after Charles had abandoned England as an ally, Wolsey began to negotiate with France, and the Treaty of the More was signed with the Regent of France during Francis' captivity, his mother,
Louise of Savoy.
The closeness between England and Rome can be seen in the formulation of the
League of Cognac in 1526. Though England wasn't a part of it, the League was organized in part by Wolsey with papal support. Wolsey’s plan was that the League of Cognac, composed of an alliance between France and some Italian states, would challenge Charles’
League of Cambrai. This initiative was both a gesture of allegiance to Rome and an answer to growing concerns about Charles V's dominance over Europe.
The final blow to this policy came in
1529, when the French made peace with Charles. Meanwhile, the French also continued to honour the "
Auld Alliance" with Scotland, stirring up hostility on England's border. With peace between France and the Emperor, there was no one to free the Pope from Charles, who had effectively held Clement VII captive since the
Sack of Rome in 1527. Therefore there was little hope of securing Henry an annulment from his marriage to Charles’ aunt,
Catherine. Since
1527, Wolsey’s foreign policy had been dominated by his attempts to secure an annulment for his master, and, by
1529, none of his endeavours had succeeded.
Wolsey's downfall
Despite his many enemies, Cardinal Wolsey held Henry VIII's confidence until Henry decided to seek an
annulment of his marriage to
Catherine of Aragon, so that he could marry
Anne Boleyn. Wolsey's failure to secure the annulment is widely perceived to have directly caused his downfall and arrest.
Henry's marriage to Catherine had produced no sons who survived childhood, leading to the possibility of a power struggle after Henry's death; the
Wars of the Roses were still within living memory. His daughter
Mary was considered unable to hold the country together and continue the
Tudor dynasty, because England until then hadn't accepted a
queen regnant —except arguably for
Empress Matilda who fought and lost a long civil war in order to keep her throne.
Henry believed that Catherine's inability to produce a viable male heir was due to her being the widow of his elder brother,
Arthur, Prince of Wales, which, he became convinced, violated bibical proscription and cursed his marriage as incestuous. He also believed that the papal dispensation for his marriage to Catherine was invalid because it was based upon the claim that Catherine was still a virgin after her first husband's death. Henry argued that Catherine's claim wasn't credible, and thus, the original papal dispensation must be withdrawn and their marriage annulled. Henry's motivation has been attributed to his determination to have a son and heir, and to his desire for Anne Boleyn, one of his wife's
maids-of-honour. Catherine had no further pregnancies after 1519; Henry began annulment proceedings in 1527.
Catherine, however, maintained that she'd been a virgin when she married King Henry. Because Catherine was opposed to the annulment and a return to her previous status as Dowager Princess of Wales, the annulment request became a matter of international diplomacy, with Catherine's nephew, the
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, pressuring the Pope to not annul his aunt's marriage.
Pope Clement VII was presented with a problem: he could either anger Charles or else anger Henry. He delayed announcing a decision for as long as possible; this infuriated Henry and Anne Boleyn, who began to doubt the
papal legate Wolsey's loyalty to the State over the Church.
In 1529, Wolsey was stripped of his government office and property, including his magnificently expanded residence of
York Place, which Henry chose to replace the
Palace of Westminster as his own main London residence. However, Wolsey was permitted to remain
Archbishop of York. He travelled to
Yorkshire for the first time in his career, but at
Cawood in
North Yorkshire, he was accused of
treason and ordered to
London by the
Earl of Northumberland. In great distress, he set out for the capital with his personal chaplain,
Edmund Bonner. Wolsey fell ill and died on the way, at
Leicester on
November 29 1530, around the age of sixty. "If I'd served my God", the Cardinal said remorsefully, "as diligently as I did my king, He wouldn't have given me over in my grey hairs."
In keeping with his practice of erecting magnificent buildings, Wolsey had designed a grand tomb for himself, but he was buried in
Leicester Abbey (now
Abbey Park) without a monument. Henry VIII considered using the impressive black sarcophagus for himself, but
Lord Nelson now lies in it, within the crypt of
St. Paul's Cathedral.
Domestic achievements
During his fourteen years of chancellorship, Cardinal Wolsey had more power than any other servant in English history.. As long as he was in the King’s favour, Wolsey had a large amount of freedom within the domestic sphere, and had his hand in nearly every aspect of its ruling. For much of the time, Henry VIII had complete confidence in him, and as Henry's interests inclined more towards foreign policy, he was willing to give Wolsey a free hand in reforming the management of domestic affairs, for which Wolsey had grand plans.
Taxation
Wolsey made significant changes to the taxation system, devising with the treasurer of the Chamber, John Heron, of the "Subsidy". This revolutionary form of tax was based upon accurate valuations of the taxpayer’s wealth, where one shilling was taken per pound from the income. This tax, the foundation of today’s
income tax, while still employing the fixed tax of 15ths and 10ths which had meant that those who earned very little money had to pay almost as much in tax as the wealthy. With the new income tax the poorer members of society paid much less. This more efficient form of taxation enabled Wolsey to raise enough money for the King’s foreign expeditions, bringing in over £300,000. Wolsey was also able to raise considerable amounts of capital through other means, such as through "benevolences" and enforced donations from the nobility, which raised £200,000 in 1522.
Justice
As a legal administrator Wolsey reinvented the equity court, where the verdict was decided by the judge on the principle of "fairness". As an alternative to the Common Law courts, Wolsey re-established the position of the prerogative courts of the
Star Chamber and the
Court of Chancery. The system in both courts concentrated on simple, inexpensive cases, and promised impartial justice. He also established the
Court of Requests for the poor, where no fees were required. Wolsey’s legal reforms were popular, and overflow courts were required to attend to all the cases. Many powerful individuals who had felt themselves invincible under the law found themselves convicted; for example, in 1515, the
Earl of Northumberland was sent to
Fleet Prison and in 1516 Lord Abergavenny was accused of illegal retaining.
Wolsey also used his courts to tackle national controversies, such as the pressing issue of
enclosures. The countryside had been thrown into discord by the entrepreneurial actions of landlords enclosing areas of land and converting from arable farming to pastoral farming, requiring fewer workers. The Tudors valued stability, and this mass urban migration represented a serious crisis. Wolsey conducted national enquires in 1517, 1518 and 1527 into the presence of enclosures. In the course of his administration he used the court of Chancery to prosecute two hundred and sixty-four landowners, including peers, bishops, knights, religious heads, and Oxford colleges. Enclosures were seen as directly linked to rural unemployment and depopulation, vagrancy, food shortages and, accordingly, inflation. This pattern was repeated with many of Wolsey’s other initiatives, particularly his quest to abolish
enclosure. Despite spending significant time and effort in investigating the state of the countryside and prosecuting numerous offenders, Wolsey freely surrendered his policy during the parliament of 1523, in order to ensure that Parliament would pass his proposed taxes for Henry’s war in France. Enclosures continued to be a problem for many years to follow.
Wolsey used the Star Chamber to enforce his 1518 policy of “Just Price”, which attempted to regulate the price of meat in London and other major cities. Those who were found to be charging excessive amounts were prosecuted by the Chamber. After the bad harvest of 1527, Wolsey took the initiative of buying up surplus grain and selling it off cheaply to the needy. This act of generosity greatly eased disorder and became common practice after a disappointing harvest.
Church reforms
Although it would be difficult to find a better example of abuses in the Church than the Cardinal himself, Wolsey appeared to make some steps towards reform. In 1524 and 1527 he used his powers as papal legate to dissolve thirty decayed monasteries where corruption had run rife, including abbeys in Ipswich and Oxford. However, he then used the income to glorify himself by founding a
grammar school in
Ipswich and
Cardinal College in
Oxford. The college in Oxford was renamed
King's College after Wolsey's fall. Today it's known as
Christ Church. In 1528, he began to limit the benefit of clergy.
Relationships
Wolsey’s position in power relied solely on maintaining good relations with Henry. He grew increasingly suspicious of the
minions, particularly after infiltrating one of his own men into the group, and attempted many times to disperse them from court, giving them jobs which took them to the Continent and far from the King. After the failure of the Amicable Grant, the minions began to undermine him once again. Consequently Wolsey devised a grand plan of administrative reforms, incorporating the infamous
Eltham Ordinances of 1526. This reduced the members of the
Privy Council from twelve to six, removing Henry's friends such as
Sir William Compton and
Nicholas Carew.
One of Wolsey’s greatest impediments was his lack of popularity amongst the nobles at court and in Parliament. Their hatred partly stemmed from Wolsey’s excessive demands for money in the form of the Subsidy or through Benevolences. They also resented the
Act of Resumption (1515), by which many nobles were forced to return lands which the King had given to them as a gift. Many nobles resented the rise to power of a low-born man, whilst others simply disliked his monopolisation of the court and his concealing of information from the Privy Council.
When mass riots broke out in East Anglia, which should have been under the control of the Dukes of
Norfolk and
Suffolk, Henry was quick to denounce the Amicable Grant, and began to lose faith in his chief minister. During the relatively peaceful period which England had been enjoying since the War of the Roses, the population of the nation had increased. With increased demand for food and no additional supply, the price increased. Landowners were forced to enclose land and convert to pastoral farming, which brought in more profit. Wolsey’s quest against enclosure was fruitless in terms of restoring the stability of the economy.
The same can be said for Wolsey’s legal reforms. By making justice accessible to all and encouraging more people to bring their cases to court, the system was ultimately abused. The courts became overloaded with incoherent, tenuous cases, which would have been far too expensive to have rambled on in the Common Law courts. Wolsey eventually ordered all minor cases out of the Star Chamber in 1528. The result of this venture was further resentment from the nobility and the gentry.
Failures with the Church
As well as his State duties, Wolsey simultaneously attempted to exert his influence over the Church in England. As cardinal and, from 1524, lifetime papal legate, Wolsey was continually vying for control over others in the Church. His principal rival was Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury who made it more difficult for Wolsey to follow through with his plans for reform. Despite making promises to reform the bishoprics of England and Ireland, and, in 1519, encouraging monasteries to embark on a program of reform, he did nothing to bring about these changes.
Wolsey's family
Wolsey had two children by his mistress, Joan Larke (born circa 1490) of
Yarmouth,
Norfolk. These were a son, Thomas Wynter (born circa 1528) and a daughter, Dorothy (born circa 1512), both of whom lived to adulthood. The son was sent to live with a family in Willesden and was tutored in his early years by Maurice Birchinshaw. He married and had children. Dorothy was adopted by John Clansey, and was in due course placed in Shaftsbury Nunnery, which had a fine reputation as a 'finishing school'. After the later dissolution of the monasteries (under
Thomas Cromwell) she received a pension.
Fictional portrayals
Further Information
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