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7 | <title>Tudor Citizens - Thomas Wolsey</title>
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10 |
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11 | <center><img SRC="wolsey.gif" ALT="Thomas Wolsey" height=67 width=286>
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12 | <br>born c. 1465 in Ipswich
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13 | <br>died 29 November 1530 in Leicester</center>
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14 |
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15 | <p>
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16 | He was a man
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17 | <br>
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18 | Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking
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19 | <br>
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20 | Himself with princes...
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21 | <br>
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22 | His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
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23 | <br>
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24 | But his performance, as he is now, nothing...
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25 | <br><font size=-1>
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26 | Shakespeare and Fletcher, <i>All Is True; the History of King Henry VIII</i>.</font>
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27 | <br><font size=-1>
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28 | Katharine of Aragon is speaking of Cardinal Wolsey.</font>
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29 | <blockquote> </blockquote>
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30 |
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31 | O Cromwell, Cromwell!
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32 | <br>
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33 | Had I but served my God with half the zeal
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34 | <br>
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35 | I served my king, he would not in mine age
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36 | <br>
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37 | Have left me naked to mine enemies.
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38 | <br><font size=-1>
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39 | <i>All Is True</i>. Wolsey's speech in act IV.</font>
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40 | <br>
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41 | <br>
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42 | <p><img SRC="wolsey-small.jpg" ALT="Cardinal Wolsey" BORDER=0 height=296 width=190 align=LEFT>
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43 | The life of Cardinal Wolsey is one of the great cautionary tales of Henry
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44 | VIII's reign; like his protégé, Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey rose
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45 | and fell by the whim of a conflicted and contradictory king. He was
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46 | born in obscurity, the son of a butcher in Ipswich, a town in Suffolk.
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47 | But he was intelligent and ambitious enough to attend the University of
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48 | Oxford and in 1498 he was ordained a priest. Five years later, he
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49 | became the chaplain to the deputy lieutenant of Calais, a nobleman named
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50 | Sir Richard Nanfan. Nanfan recommended Wolsey's services to his king,
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51 | Henry VII, but Wolsey did not leave Calais until Nanfan's death in 1507.
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52 | Then he journeyed to London to begin his service to the king; Henry VII
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53 | was as impressed with Wolsey as Nanfan had been and, shortly before his
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54 | death in April 1509, appointed him dean of Lincoln. Upon Henry's
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55 | death Wolsey, about thirty years of age and blessed with energy and confidence,
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56 | found himself with a new master - an eighteen-year-old king determined
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57 | to achieve as much glory and renown as possible.
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58 | <p> Wolsey and Henry became close friends, or as close
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59 | as one could be to a king. Both men were determined to leave their
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60 | mark upon history but while Henry preferred costly wars and grandiloquent
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61 | diplomacy, Wolsey was committed to financial and judicial reform in England
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62 | and English-arbitrated European peace. Wolsey was always a churchman
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63 | though this should not imply ignorance of the material world. He
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64 | was determined to gain his own fortune, thus cementing his rise from obscurity,
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65 | but he also possessed a great legal mind and a shrewd understanding of
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66 | international affairs. He combined these attributes with his earlier
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67 | spiritual training to dominate both the secular and spiritual aspects of
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68 | English life.
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69 | <p> Henry VIII was quick to recognize Wolsey's intelligence
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70 | and appointed him royal almoner in November 1509 but, as the years passed,
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71 | delegated more and more authority to Wolsey. The early years of Henry's
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72 | reign were spent with the young monarch, regaled as the handsomest prince
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73 | in Europe, jousting, hunting, and debating visiting scholars. And
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74 | while Henry was interested in more practical affairs, he grew to depend
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75 | on Wolsey's assistance. Wolsey's position, however, was completely
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76 | changed by the French expedition of 1513. Henry VIII had long wanted
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77 | to prove English strength in battle against this old
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78 | <br>enemy. His wish is understandable; he was young and, like many
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79 | young people, had chafed at his father's authority. When Henry VII
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80 | died, his son saw this as an opportunity to reveal a new England to Europe.
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81 | Under this new Henry, England would no longer be solvent but boring, dependable
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82 | but not lively. Instead, it would be a court of artists, musicians,
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83 | dancers, and scholars, all presided over by the new king.
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84 | <p> Henry's plan to gain this European respect was simple:
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85 | a successful military strike against France. After one failure, he
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86 | went in person to achieve glory in August 1513 at the Battle of the Spurs.
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87 | Only a month later, the English defeated the Scots at Flodden Field where
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88 | Henry's brother-in-law James IV was killed. Of course, the English
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89 | couldn't sustain a permanent presence in France so they decided on to make
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90 | peace. Henry's youngest sister Mary was the sacrificial lamb.
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91 | At eighteen, she was married to the sixty-year-old Louis XII of France.
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92 | The bridegroom survived just three months of marriage and Mary angered
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93 | her brother by secretly following her heart and marrying Henry's best friend
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94 | Charles Brandon just weeks after Louis XII's death. Mary and Brandon
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95 | were the grandparents of <a href="../relative/janegrey.html">Lady
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96 | Jane Grey</a>.
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97 | <p> Henry was exultant at his French victory; this success
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98 | was Europe's true introduction to his reign. England would be taken
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99 | seriously as a European power broker, courted by the French and Spanish
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100 | and mediating between these nations and the vulnerable papacy. Henry
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101 | was generous in rewarding Wolsey for his service. Upon Henry's recommendation,
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102 | Pope Leo X made Wolsey bishop of Lincoln in February 1514 and, just nine
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103 | months later, archbishop of York. But the honors did not end there.
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104 | The next year he was made Cardinal and, in December 1515, lord chancellor
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105 | of England.
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106 | <p> Perhaps even more importantly for Wolsey, he was
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107 | taken into Henry's complete confidence. He was friend, confidante,
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108 | and advisor to a king increasingly conflicted in his personal life.
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109 | Eventually, Henry would want a divorce from Katharine of Aragon to marry
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110 | Anne Boleyn and secure his throne. Whether motivated solely by personal
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111 | dissatisfaction or spiritual unrest or both, Henry was determined to end
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112 | his marriage. And, once determined on his course, he was committed
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113 | to it. Naturally enough, he turned to his most capable and trusted
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114 | servant, Wolsey, for help.
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115 | <p> Before the divorce issue, Wolsey had quickly established
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116 | himself as second only to Henry in power. This naturally angered
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117 | the old nobility who made up the privy council and dominated Parliament.
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118 | They were indignant that Wolsey, son of a butcher, controlled access to
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119 | the king. They were also angry that Wolsey refused to treat them
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120 | as they deserved - simply put, they were nobility and he, despite the honors
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121 | the king heaped upon him, was a commoner. In the natural order, he
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122 | was their inferior. His refusal to act inferior was galling to them,
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123 | particularly the powerful dukes.
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124 | <p> Certainly Henry was even more proud that his nobles.
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125 | That begs the question - was he ever insulted by Wolsey's supposedly overbearing
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126 | arrogance? No; in fact, Henry displayed his typical cunning by selecting
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127 | his advisor based on both ability and indebtedness. Wolsey was his
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128 | creation - his to reward or, as he did eventually, destroy.
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129 | <p> Wolsey was also careful to never offend or anger
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130 | Henry. It was a careful dance and a tribute to his own intelligence
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131 | that he succeeded in managing this most unmanageable king. (The complexity
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132 | of Henry's character, both as man and monarch, cannot be adequately addressed
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133 | here. I highly recommend L. B. Smith's <i>Henry VIII: The Mask of
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134 | Royalty</i>, a wonderful study of the nature of kingship, life in 16th
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135 | century England, and Henry's moral universe.) Wolsey appealed to
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136 | Henry's vanity by crediting all success to the king and all failures to
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137 | his own inadequacies. For a long while, there were no failures.
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138 | In 1518, the pope made him a special papal representative a latere.
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139 | With his incredible secular and ecclesiastical authority, Wolsey was able
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140 | to achieve wealth and influence second only to the king. At Hampton
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141 | Court Palace, over four hundred servants waited to attend him in their
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142 | richly embroidered livery. People scurried to win his favor for they
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143 | knew that the only way to Henry was through Wolsey. But his ties
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144 | to Rome, including his religious training, would prove the Cardinal's undoing.
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145 | He could not serve two masters.
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146 | <p> Before his loyalties were divided between Rome and
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147 | Henry, Wolsey was able to serve Henry's European interests. As stated
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148 | before, they wanted England to be the balancing power in Europe.
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149 | At the time, Europe was dominated by the two rival powers of France and
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150 | the Holy Roman Empire of the Hapsburgs. The situation became even
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151 | more complicated when Katharine of Aragon's nephew Charles became Holy
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152 | Roman Emperor in 1519. Originally, Wolsey and Henry favored an alliance
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153 | with the Imperial power. This was based on economics (English trade
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154 | with the Lowlands), history (England was
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155 | <br>rarely at peace with France), and also family (after all, Charles was
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156 | Katharine's nephew.) Furthermore, Charles recognized Wolsey's ambition
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157 | and intimated he could influence the papal elections in the Cardinal's
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158 | favor. But first Wolsey tried his hand at peace by arranging meetings
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159 | between Henry and the two rival monarchs in 1520.
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160 | <p> The meetings were unsuccessful, however, and war
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161 | broke out in 1521. In 1523 Henry and Wolsey agreed to support the
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162 | Hapsburgs by sending troops to France. But war costs a great deal
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163 | of money and then, as now, the way to raise money was to raise taxes.
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164 | And then, as now, the decision was incredibly unpopular. This unpleasant
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165 | task fell to Wolsey - Henry was careful to let Wolsey implement the collection
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166 | and, accordingly, take the blame.
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167 | <p> Also, the foreign policy which demanded this increased
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168 | taxation became inconsistent and illogical. In 1528, the English
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169 | were supporting their former enemy, France, against the Hapsburgs; in August
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170 | 1529, France and the Hapsburgs made peace and isolated England. It
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171 | was a confusing and contradictory mess, further complicated when the hired
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172 | troops of the Holy Roman Emperor sacked Rome in 1527. The Emperor
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173 | Charles had to face the unpleasant task of explaining how he, the protector
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174 | of Christendom, had allowed the Eternal City to be pillaged and the pope
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175 | sent fleeing through an underground tunnel. However, Charles - and
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176 | the rest of Europe - were quick to recognize that he now controlled Rome
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177 | and the pope.
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178 | <p> During this time, Wolsey was also reforming the English
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179 | judicial system. The end result - Wolsey was despised by both ordinary
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180 | Englishmen and the aristocracy alike. He was determined to extend
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181 | justice to the nobility who were essentially lawless. Only their
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182 | code of honor determined their behavior for Henry often excused rape and
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183 | murder on the part of his fellow nobles; treason against him was another
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184 | matter entirely. Wolsey used the power of the Star Chamber to impose
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185 | his new laws, thus making the noble and the commoner - if not equal under
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186 | the law - at least more equal than before. He also developed
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187 | <br>committees to hear cases involving the poor; these became known as
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188 | the Court of Requests in 1529.
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189 | <p> His attempts to reform the English church were less
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190 | successful. After all, he was unable to devote much time or effort
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191 | to the cause since his duties as lord chancellor were so great. Also,
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192 | his own life was, in many ways, at odds with his spiritual training and
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193 | titles. His wealth was tremendous and ostentatious, he had two illegitimate
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194 | children, and he struck many as greedy and vain. Undoubtedly, the
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195 | ordinary churchman was not impressed with the moral foundations of Wolsey's
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196 | leadership. But despite the appearance of hypocrisy, he did institute
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197 | some reforms. Most notably, he suppressed nearly 30 monasteries to
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198 | pay for Cardinal's College at Oxford, later called Christ Church.
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199 | Understandably, these actions alienated the clergy and concerned the papacy.
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200 | Wolsey had by now offended everyone except the king. And, ironically,
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201 | most of his offensive policies were always implemented either at Henry's
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202 | instigation or approval. Many historians have portrayed Henry VIII
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203 | as a credulous monarch manipulated by Wolsey, Cromwell, and his unruly
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204 | nobles. The truth is far more complex.
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205 | <p> Henry did not turn on Wolsey until after the Cardinal's
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206 | opulent lifestyle first aroused his envy. Jealousy planted a seed
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207 | which Wolsey sensed too late; for example, he gave Hampton Court to Henry
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208 | as a gift once the king remarked it was a finer palace than any of his
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209 | own. In the late 1520s, Henry was not simply envious; he was also
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210 | desperate for personal happiness, spiritual freedom, and a secure succession.
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211 | His only hope was a divorce from Katharine of Aragon. Poor Wolsey
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212 | - his spiritual master, the Pope, was a paawn of Emperor Charles V, and
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213 | his temporal master wanted a divorce from the emperor's aunt.
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214 | <p> The Pope had no choice but to obey Charles's wishes
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215 | though he struggled to appease Henry as much as possible. He suggested
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216 | that Henry's illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond, should
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217 | wed Katharine and Henry's daughter Mary. He told Henry to take Anne
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218 | Boleyn as his mistress and promised to legitimize their children.
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219 | The pope even suggested bigamy, advising the king to send Katharine to
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220 | a nunnery and marry Anne. But Henry wanted no doubt of the legitimacy
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221 | of his second marriage and its hoped-for offspring. From 1527 to
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222 | 1529, he was content to let Wolsey try the usual diplomatic and military
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223 | solutions but these were unsuccessful. After all, England did not
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224 | have the military might to force Charles from Italy and free the Pope to
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225 | make an independent decision. Had he been free of Charles, the Pope
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226 | would undoubtedly have ruled in Henry's favor; it had been done before
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227 | for monarchs throughout Europe. In fact, though the term 'divorce'
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228 | is most often used in this case, Henry wasn't actually seeking a divorce.
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229 | He was actually seeking an annulment - he argued that he had never been
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230 | legally married to Katharine.
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231 | <p> Matters were further complicated because Wolsey lacked
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232 | virtually any support at the English court. Henry's infatuation with
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233 | Anne Boleyn had also cost the Cardinal for Anne, while kind to Wolsey when
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234 | he was still powerful, recognized him as a rival - and, later, an obstacle
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235 | to her and Henry's marriage. In fact, Wolsey's sympathies were probably
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236 | torn between Katharine and Anne. Though portrayed as an enemy to
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237 | both women, he was undoubtedly unable to choose which side to support.
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238 | This, too, was a result of his conflicting loyalties to the Pope and Henry.
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239 | Also, Wolsey had usually supported peace with the Hapsburgs and was loathe
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240 | to offend the powerful emperor by helping Henry discard Katharine for an
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241 | English knight's daughter.
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242 | <p> But as Wolsey, near sixty-five, failed to secure
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243 | an acceptable solution, Henry became impatient. He was now all too
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244 | willing to listen to his outraged nobles; having suffered with Wolsey for
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245 | so long, they used their king's impatience to secure his destruction.
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246 | It was suddenly remembered that Wolsey's office of papal legate was in
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247 | direct violation of the ancient Statute of Praemunire which outlawed direct
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248 | papal jurisdiction. Of course, Henry had sanctioned Wolsey's legatine
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249 | authority and so had broken the law himself. This did not matter.
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250 | Wolsey was no longer useful to his increasingly ruthless master and on
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251 | 9
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252 | <br>October 1529, he was deprived of everything but the archbishopric of
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253 | York. He left London for York in April 1530.
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254 | <p> But Wolsey's enemies wanted him completely destroyed
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255 | and evidence, probably fabricated, was produced which showed he was corresponding
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256 | with the French king. This was argued to be high treason; the Cardinal
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257 | still believed himself to be invulnerable and fit to represent the king's
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258 | majesty. On 4 November, Wolsey was arrested on charges of treason
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259 | and taken from York Palace. On his way south to face dubious justice
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260 | at the Tower of London, he grew ill. The group escorting him were
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261 | concerned enough to stop at Leicester. There, Wolsey's condition
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262 | quickly worsened and he died on 29 November.
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263 | <br>His death was timely for it saved him from being executed as a traitor.
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264 | <br>
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265 | <p>
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266 | This cardinal,
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267 | <br>
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268 | Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly
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269 | <br>
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270 | Was fashion'd to much honor from his cradle.
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271 | <br>
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272 | He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
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273 | <br>
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274 | Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading:
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275 | <br>
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276 | Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;
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277 | <br>
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278 | But to those men that sought him sweet as
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279 | <br>
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280 | summer.
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281 | <br>
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282 | And though he were unsatisfied in getting
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283 | <br>
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284 | Which was a sin, yet in bestowing, madam,
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285 | <br>
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286 | He was most princely: ever witness for him
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287 | <br>
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288 | Those twins of learning that he raised in you,
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289 | <br>
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290 | Ipswich and Oxford! one of which fell with
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291 | <br>
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292 | him,
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293 | <br>
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294 | Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
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295 | <br>
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296 | The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous,
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297 | <br>
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298 | So excellent in art, and still so rising,
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299 | <br>
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300 | That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
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301 | <br>
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302 | His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
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303 | <br>
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304 | For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
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305 | <br>
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306 | And found the blessedness of being little:
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307 | <br>
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308 | And, to add greater honors to his age
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309 | <br>
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310 | Than man could give him, he died fearing
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311 | <br>
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312 | God.
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313 | <br> <font size=-1>
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314 | Shakespeare and Fletcher, <i>All Is True</i>.</font>
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315 | <br><font size=-1>
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316 | Griffith tells of Wolsey's death, Act IV.</font>
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317 | <center>
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318 | <p>Read a contemporary account of Wolsey's fall from grace at the <a href="../primary.html">Primary
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319 | Sources</a> section.
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320 | <br>
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321 | <hr WIDTH="100%">
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322 | <br><font size=-1><a href="../citizens.html">to
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323 | Tudor Citizens</a></font>
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324 | <br><font size=-1><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to Tudor
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325 | England</a></font></center>
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326 |
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327 | </body>
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328 | </html>
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