born c. 1465 in Ipswich
died 29 November 1530 in Leicester

He was a man
Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking
Himself with princes...
His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he is now, nothing...
Shakespeare and Fletcher, All Is True; the History of King Henry VIII.
Katharine of Aragon is speaking of Cardinal Wolsey.

O Cromwell, Cromwell!
Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
All Is True. Wolsey's speech in act IV.

The life of Cardinal Wolsey is one of the great cautionary tales of Henry VIII's reign; like his protégé, Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey rose and fell by the whim of a conflicted and contradictory king. He was born in obscurity, the son of a butcher in Ipswich, a town in Suffolk. But he was intelligent and ambitious enough to attend the University of Oxford and in 1498 he was ordained a priest. Five years later, he became the chaplain to the deputy lieutenant of Calais, a nobleman named Sir Richard Nanfan. Nanfan recommended Wolsey's services to his king, Henry VII, but Wolsey did not leave Calais until Nanfan's death in 1507. Then he journeyed to London to begin his service to the king; Henry VII was as impressed with Wolsey as Nanfan had been and, shortly before his death in April 1509, appointed him dean of Lincoln. Upon Henry's death Wolsey, about thirty years of age and blessed with energy and confidence, found himself with a new master - an eighteen-year-old king determined to achieve as much glory and renown as possible.

Wolsey and Henry became close friends, or as close as one could be to a king. Both men were determined to leave their mark upon history but while Henry preferred costly wars and grandiloquent diplomacy, Wolsey was committed to financial and judicial reform in England and English-arbitrated European peace. Wolsey was always a churchman though this should not imply ignorance of the material world. He was determined to gain his own fortune, thus cementing his rise from obscurity, but he also possessed a great legal mind and a shrewd understanding of international affairs. He combined these attributes with his earlier spiritual training to dominate both the secular and spiritual aspects of English life.

Henry VIII was quick to recognize Wolsey's intelligence and appointed him royal almoner in November 1509 but, as the years passed, delegated more and more authority to Wolsey. The early years of Henry's reign were spent with the young monarch, regaled as the handsomest prince in Europe, jousting, hunting, and debating visiting scholars. And while Henry was interested in more practical affairs, he grew to depend on Wolsey's assistance. Wolsey's position, however, was completely changed by the French expedition of 1513. Henry VIII had long wanted to prove English strength in battle against this old
enemy. His wish is understandable; he was young and, like many young people, had chafed at his father's authority. When Henry VII died, his son saw this as an opportunity to reveal a new England to Europe. Under this new Henry, England would no longer be solvent but boring, dependable but not lively. Instead, it would be a court of artists, musicians, dancers, and scholars, all presided over by the new king.

Henry's plan to gain this European respect was simple: a successful military strike against France. After one failure, he went in person to achieve glory in August 1513 at the Battle of the Spurs. Only a month later, the English defeated the Scots at Flodden Field where Henry's brother-in-law James IV was killed. Of course, the English couldn't sustain a permanent presence in France so they decided on to make peace. Henry's youngest sister Mary was the sacrificial lamb. At eighteen, she was married to the sixty-year-old Louis XII of France. The bridegroom survived just three months of marriage and Mary angered her brother by secretly following her heart and marrying Henry's best friend Charles Brandon just weeks after Louis XII's death. Mary and Brandon were the grandparents of Lady Jane Grey.

Henry was exultant at his French victory; this success was Europe's true introduction to his reign. England would be taken seriously as a European power broker, courted by the French and Spanish and mediating between these nations and the vulnerable papacy. Henry was generous in rewarding Wolsey for his service. Upon Henry's recommendation, Pope Leo X made Wolsey bishop of Lincoln in February 1514 and, just nine months later, archbishop of York. But the honors did not end there. The next year he was made Cardinal and, in December 1515, lord chancellor of England.

Perhaps even more importantly for Wolsey, he was taken into Henry's complete confidence. He was friend, confidante, and advisor to a king increasingly conflicted in his personal life. Eventually, Henry would want a divorce from Katharine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn and secure his throne. Whether motivated solely by personal dissatisfaction or spiritual unrest or both, Henry was determined to end his marriage. And, once determined on his course, he was committed to it. Naturally enough, he turned to his most capable and trusted servant, Wolsey, for help.

Before the divorce issue, Wolsey had quickly established himself as second only to Henry in power. This naturally angered the old nobility who made up the privy council and dominated Parliament. They were indignant that Wolsey, son of a butcher, controlled access to the king. They were also angry that Wolsey refused to treat them as they deserved - simply put, they were nobility and he, despite the honors the king heaped upon him, was a commoner. In the natural order, he was their inferior. His refusal to act inferior was galling to them, particularly the powerful dukes.

Certainly Henry was even more proud that his nobles. That begs the question - was he ever insulted by Wolsey's supposedly overbearing arrogance? No; in fact, Henry displayed his typical cunning by selecting his advisor based on both ability and indebtedness. Wolsey was his creation - his to reward or, as he did eventually, destroy.

Wolsey was also careful to never offend or anger Henry. It was a careful dance and a tribute to his own intelligence that he succeeded in managing this most unmanageable king. (The complexity of Henry's character, both as man and monarch, cannot be adequately addressed here. I highly recommend L. B. Smith's Henry VIII: The Mask of Royalty, a wonderful study of the nature of kingship, life in 16th century England, and Henry's moral universe.) Wolsey appealed to Henry's vanity by crediting all success to the king and all failures to his own inadequacies. For a long while, there were no failures. In 1518, the pope made him a special papal representative a latere. With his incredible secular and ecclesiastical authority, Wolsey was able to achieve wealth and influence second only to the king. At Hampton Court Palace, over four hundred servants waited to attend him in their richly embroidered livery. People scurried to win his favor for they knew that the only way to Henry was through Wolsey. But his ties to Rome, including his religious training, would prove the Cardinal's undoing. He could not serve two masters.

Before his loyalties were divided between Rome and Henry, Wolsey was able to serve Henry's European interests. As stated before, they wanted England to be the balancing power in Europe. At the time, Europe was dominated by the two rival powers of France and the Holy Roman Empire of the Hapsburgs. The situation became even more complicated when Katharine of Aragon's nephew Charles became Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. Originally, Wolsey and Henry favored an alliance with the Imperial power. This was based on economics (English trade with the Lowlands), history (England was
rarely at peace with France), and also family (after all, Charles was Katharine's nephew.) Furthermore, Charles recognized Wolsey's ambition and intimated he could influence the papal elections in the Cardinal's favor. But first Wolsey tried his hand at peace by arranging meetings between Henry and the two rival monarchs in 1520.

The meetings were unsuccessful, however, and war broke out in 1521. In 1523 Henry and Wolsey agreed to support the Hapsburgs by sending troops to France. But war costs a great deal of money and then, as now, the way to raise money was to raise taxes. And then, as now, the decision was incredibly unpopular. This unpleasant task fell to Wolsey - Henry was careful to let Wolsey implement the collection and, accordingly, take the blame.

Also, the foreign policy which demanded this increased taxation became inconsistent and illogical. In 1528, the English were supporting their former enemy, France, against the Hapsburgs; in August 1529, France and the Hapsburgs made peace and isolated England. It was a confusing and contradictory mess, further complicated when the hired troops of the Holy Roman Emperor sacked Rome in 1527. The Emperor Charles had to face the unpleasant task of explaining how he, the protector of Christendom, had allowed the Eternal City to be pillaged and the pope sent fleeing through an underground tunnel. However, Charles - and the rest of Europe - were quick to recognize that he now controlled Rome and the pope.

During this time, Wolsey was also reforming the English judicial system. The end result - Wolsey was despised by both ordinary Englishmen and the aristocracy alike. He was determined to extend justice to the nobility who were essentially lawless. Only their code of honor determined their behavior for Henry often excused rape and murder on the part of his fellow nobles; treason against him was another matter entirely. Wolsey used the power of the Star Chamber to impose his new laws, thus making the noble and the commoner - if not equal under the law - at least more equal than before. He also developed
committees to hear cases involving the poor; these became known as the Court of Requests in 1529.

His attempts to reform the English church were less successful. After all, he was unable to devote much time or effort to the cause since his duties as lord chancellor were so great. Also, his own life was, in many ways, at odds with his spiritual training and titles. His wealth was tremendous and ostentatious, he had two illegitimate children, and he struck many as greedy and vain. Undoubtedly, the ordinary churchman was not impressed with the moral foundations of Wolsey's leadership. But despite the appearance of hypocrisy, he did institute some reforms. Most notably, he suppressed nearly 30 monasteries to pay for Cardinal's College at Oxford, later called Christ Church. Understandably, these actions alienated the clergy and concerned the papacy. Wolsey had by now offended everyone except the king. And, ironically, most of his offensive policies were always implemented either at Henry's instigation or approval. Many historians have portrayed Henry VIII as a credulous monarch manipulated by Wolsey, Cromwell, and his unruly nobles. The truth is far more complex.

Henry did not turn on Wolsey until after the Cardinal's opulent lifestyle first aroused his envy. Jealousy planted a seed which Wolsey sensed too late; for example, he gave Hampton Court to Henry as a gift once the king remarked it was a finer palace than any of his own. In the late 1520s, Henry was not simply envious; he was also desperate for personal happiness, spiritual freedom, and a secure succession. His only hope was a divorce from Katharine of Aragon. Poor Wolsey - his spiritual master, the Pope, was a paawn of Emperor Charles V, and his temporal master wanted a divorce from the emperor's aunt.

The Pope had no choice but to obey Charles's wishes though he struggled to appease Henry as much as possible. He suggested that Henry's illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond, should wed Katharine and Henry's daughter Mary. He told Henry to take Anne Boleyn as his mistress and promised to legitimize their children. The pope even suggested bigamy, advising the king to send Katharine to a nunnery and marry Anne. But Henry wanted no doubt of the legitimacy of his second marriage and its hoped-for offspring. From 1527 to 1529, he was content to let Wolsey try the usual diplomatic and military solutions but these were unsuccessful. After all, England did not have the military might to force Charles from Italy and free the Pope to make an independent decision. Had he been free of Charles, the Pope would undoubtedly have ruled in Henry's favor; it had been done before for monarchs throughout Europe. In fact, though the term 'divorce' is most often used in this case, Henry wasn't actually seeking a divorce. He was actually seeking an annulment - he argued that he had never been legally married to Katharine.

Matters were further complicated because Wolsey lacked virtually any support at the English court. Henry's infatuation with Anne Boleyn had also cost the Cardinal for Anne, while kind to Wolsey when he was still powerful, recognized him as a rival - and, later, an obstacle to her and Henry's marriage. In fact, Wolsey's sympathies were probably torn between Katharine and Anne. Though portrayed as an enemy to both women, he was undoubtedly unable to choose which side to support. This, too, was a result of his conflicting loyalties to the Pope and Henry. Also, Wolsey had usually supported peace with the Hapsburgs and was loathe to offend the powerful emperor by helping Henry discard Katharine for an English knight's daughter.

But as Wolsey, near sixty-five, failed to secure an acceptable solution, Henry became impatient. He was now all too willing to listen to his outraged nobles; having suffered with Wolsey for so long, they used their king's impatience to secure his destruction. It was suddenly remembered that Wolsey's office of papal legate was in direct violation of the ancient Statute of Praemunire which outlawed direct papal jurisdiction. Of course, Henry had sanctioned Wolsey's legatine authority and so had broken the law himself. This did not matter. Wolsey was no longer useful to his increasingly ruthless master and on 9
October 1529, he was deprived of everything but the archbishopric of York. He left London for York in April 1530.

But Wolsey's enemies wanted him completely destroyed and evidence, probably fabricated, was produced which showed he was corresponding with the French king. This was argued to be high treason; the Cardinal still believed himself to be invulnerable and fit to represent the king's majesty. On 4 November, Wolsey was arrested on charges of treason and taken from York Palace. On his way south to face dubious justice at the Tower of London, he grew ill. The group escorting him were concerned enough to stop at Leicester. There, Wolsey's condition quickly worsened and he died on 29 November.
His death was timely for it saved him from being executed as a traitor.

This cardinal,
Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly
Was fashion'd to much honor from his cradle.
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading:
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;
But to those men that sought him sweet as
summer.
And though he were unsatisfied in getting
Which was a sin, yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely: ever witness for him
Those twins of learning that he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford! one of which fell with
him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little:
And, to add greater honors to his age
Than man could give him, he died fearing
God.
Shakespeare and Fletcher, All Is True.
Griffith tells of Wolsey's death, Act IV.

Read a contemporary account of Wolsey's fall from grace at the Primary Sources section.

to Tudor Citizens
to Tudor England