[28145] | 1 | <html>
|
---|
| 2 |
|
---|
| 3 | <head>
|
---|
| 4 | <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
|
---|
| 5 | <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
|
---|
| 6 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
|
---|
| 7 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
|
---|
| 8 | <title>Primary Sources: The fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, 1530</title>
|
---|
| 9 | <style fprolloverstyle>A:hover {color: #0000FF; font-weight: bold}
|
---|
| 10 | </style>
|
---|
| 11 | </head>
|
---|
| 12 |
|
---|
| 13 | <body link="#0000FF" vlink="#0000FF" alink="#0000FF">
|
---|
| 14 |
|
---|
| 15 | <div align="center">
|
---|
| 16 | <center>
|
---|
| 17 | <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4" width="94%">
|
---|
| 18 | <tr>
|
---|
| 19 | <td valign="bottom" colspan="3">
|
---|
| 20 | <p align="center"> <br>
|
---|
| 21 | <p align="center">
|
---|
| 22 | <img border="0" src="1530.gif" alt="Primary Sources: 1530: The fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey" width="471" height="76"><p align="center"> </td>
|
---|
| 23 | </tr>
|
---|
| 24 | <tr>
|
---|
| 25 | <td></td>
|
---|
| 26 | <td></td>
|
---|
| 27 | <td></td>
|
---|
| 28 | </tr>
|
---|
| 29 | <tr>
|
---|
| 30 | <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size="2">This account
|
---|
| 31 | of Thomas Wolsey's fall from royal favor was written by the Tudor
|
---|
| 32 | chronicler Edward Hall.</font><p><font size="2">Wolsey was born c1473 and
|
---|
| 33 | eventually held the titles Cardinal-Archbishop of York and Lord
|
---|
| 34 | Chancellor. He was famous at Oxford University for taking his degree
|
---|
| 35 | at the age of fifteen; he was intelligent, hard-working, and also very
|
---|
| 36 | fond of pomp and ceremony.</font></p>
|
---|
| 37 | <p><font size="2">He became King Henry VII's chaplain during the last two
|
---|
| 38 | years of his life. Henry VIII appointed him to a minor office upon
|
---|
| 39 | his accession, but Wolsey's only became involved in government affairs in
|
---|
| 40 | 1512. He urged Henry to wage war against the French on behalf of
|
---|
| 41 | Pope Julius II. The war was successful and Henry generously rewarded
|
---|
| 42 | its main proponent and organizer. Wolsey subsequently became the
|
---|
| 43 | king's chief minister from 1515 to 1529.</font></p>
|
---|
| 44 | <p><font size="2">His powerful office and close friendship with Henry
|
---|
| 45 | earned him many enemies, particularly aristocrats who resented his
|
---|
| 46 | usurpation of their traditional influence. They also resented his
|
---|
| 47 | great wealth. Over the years, Wolsey amassed a vast fortune, though
|
---|
| 48 | he did so largely through his church offices. He spent lavishly, but
|
---|
| 49 | he was also charitable and personally financed many diplomatic missions.
|
---|
| 50 | It should be noted that most gentlemen entered government service for
|
---|
| 51 | financial reward; Wolsey was no different. And as the king's chief
|
---|
| 52 | minister, he was expected to entertain foreign dignitaries and maintain a
|
---|
| 53 | suitably impressive lifestyle. His increasingly ostentatious
|
---|
| 54 | displays of wealth did, however, damage both his personal reputation and
|
---|
| 55 | that of the church.</font></p>
|
---|
| 56 | <p><font size="2">Wolsey lacked the genius for administration of his
|
---|
| 57 | protégé and successor, Thomas Cromwell. But he was efficient and
|
---|
| 58 | capable; when he found he could not control Parliament (it met only once
|
---|
| 59 | during his years as chancellor), he simply refused to summon it. He
|
---|
| 60 | was also blamed for the high taxation necessary to support Henry VIII's
|
---|
| 61 | ambitious foreign policy.</font></p>
|
---|
| 62 | <p><font size="2">He maintained the king's favor until he failed to secure
|
---|
| 63 | an annulment of Henry's first marriage. From 1527-1529, as Anne
|
---|
| 64 | Boleyn's influence rose, Wolsey's waned. She disliked the Cardinal
|
---|
| 65 | because of his interference in her earlier engagement to Henry Percy.
|
---|
| 66 | And both she and the king were increasingly impatient with the pope's
|
---|
| 67 | endless prevarication. Torn between his secular and spiritual
|
---|
| 68 | masters, Wolsey chose Henry's side - but it did not matter. On 9
|
---|
| 69 | October 1529, he was indicted for praemunire; he later confessed his
|
---|
| 70 | guilt. Parliament was summoned to indict him on forty-four charges.
|
---|
| 71 | The king kept him from prison but stripped him of many offices and all of
|
---|
| 72 | his power. Wolsey was ordered to retire to his archbishopric of
|
---|
| 73 | York. Indiscreet letters to Rome led to his arrest on 4 November.
|
---|
| 74 | He died on the 24th, while returning to London and, most likely, execution
|
---|
| 75 | at the Tower.</font></p>
|
---|
| 76 | <p><font size="-1">Hall implies that Wolsey committed suicide. He
|
---|
| 77 | did not. He did, however, avoid execution at the Tower which was the
|
---|
| 78 | fate Henry VIII intended for him.</font></p>
|
---|
| 79 | <p><font size="-1">It should be noted that Cromwell defended Wolsey in
|
---|
| 80 | parliament.</font></td>
|
---|
| 81 | <td width="4%"></td>
|
---|
| 82 | <td valign="top" width="48%">
|
---|
| 83 |
|
---|
| 84 | <p>You have heard under the last year how the cardinal of York [Wolsey]
|
---|
| 85 | was attainted in praemunire, and despite that the king had given him the
|
---|
| 86 | bishoprics of York and Winchester, with great possessions, and had licensed
|
---|
| 87 | him to live in his diocese of York. Being thus in his diocese, grudging
|
---|
| 88 | his fall and not remembering the kindness the King showed to him, he wrote
|
---|
| 89 | to the court of Rome and to several other princes letters reproaching the
|
---|
| 90 | king, and as much as he was able stirred them to revenge his case against
|
---|
| 91 | the King and his realm; so much so that various opprobrious words about
|
---|
| 92 | the king were spoken to Dr Edward Kern, the king's orator at Rome, and
|
---|
| 93 | it was said to him that for the cardinal's sake the king's matrimonial
|
---|
| 94 | suit would have the worse speed. The cardinal would also speak fair
|
---|
| 95 | to the people to win their hearts, and always declared that he was unjustly
|
---|
| 96 | and untruly commanded, which fair speaking made many men believe that he
|
---|
| 97 | spoke the truth. And to be held in higher repute by the people he
|
---|
| 98 | determined to be installed or enthroned at York with all possible pomp,
|
---|
| 99 | and caused a throne to be erected in the Cathedral Church of such a height
|
---|
| 100 | and design as was never seen before; and he sent to all the lords, abbots,
|
---|
| 101 | priors, knights, esquires and gentlemen of his diocese to be at his manor
|
---|
| 102 | of Cawood on 6 November, and so to bring him to York with all pomp and
|
---|
| 103 | solemnity.
|
---|
| 104 | <p>The King, who knew of his doings and secret communications, all this
|
---|
| 105 | year pretended to ignore them to see what he would eventually do, until
|
---|
| 106 | he saw his proud heart so highly exalted that he intended to be so triumphantly
|
---|
| 107 | installed without informing the king, even as if in disdain of the king.
|
---|
| 108 | Then the king thought it was not fitting or convenient to let him any longer
|
---|
| 109 | continue in his malicious and proud purposes and attempts. Therefore
|
---|
| 110 | he sent letters to Henry, the sixth earl of Northumberland, willing him
|
---|
| 111 | with all diligence to arrest the cardinal, and to deliver him to the earl
|
---|
| 112 | of Shrewsbury, great steward of the king's household. When the earl
|
---|
| 113 | had seen the letter, with a suitable number of men he came to the manor
|
---|
| 114 | of Cawood on 4 November, and when he was brought to the cardinal in his
|
---|
| 115 | chamber he said to him: "My Lord, I pray you have patience, for here
|
---|
| 116 | I arrest you." "Arrest me," said the cardinal; "Yes," said
|
---|
| 117 | the earl, "I have orders to do so." "You have no such power," said
|
---|
| 118 | the cardinal, "for I am both a cardinal and a peer of the College of Rome,
|
---|
| 119 | and ought not to be arrested by any temporal power, for I am not subject
|
---|
| 120 | to that power, therefore if you arrest me I will withstand it." "Well,"
|
---|
| 121 | said the Earl, "here is the king's commission, and therefore I charge you
|
---|
| 122 | to obey." The Cardinal somewhat remembered himself, and said, "Well,
|
---|
| 123 | my lord, I am content to obey, but although by negligence I fell under
|
---|
| 124 | punishment of the praemunire and lost by law all my lands and goods, yet
|
---|
| 125 | my person was in the king's protection and I was pardoned that offence.
|
---|
| 126 | Therefore I wonder why I now should be arrested, especially considering
|
---|
| 127 | that I am a member of the apostolic See, on whom no temporal man should
|
---|
| 128 | lay violent hands. Well, I see the King lacks good counsel."
|
---|
| 129 | "Well," said the earl, "when I was sworn warden of the marches you yourself
|
---|
| 130 | told me that I might with my staff arrest all men under the degree of king,
|
---|
| 131 | and now I am stronger for I have a commission for what I do as you have
|
---|
| 132 | seen." The cardinal at length obeyed, and was kept in his private
|
---|
| 133 | chamber, and his goods seized and his officers discharged, and his physician,
|
---|
| 134 | Dr Augustine, was also arrested, and brought to the Tower by Sir Walter
|
---|
| 135 | Welshe, one of the king's chamber. On 6 November the cardinal was
|
---|
| 136 | conveyed from Cawood to Sheffield Castle, and there delivered into the
|
---|
| 137 | keeping of the earl of Shrewsbury until the king's pleasure was known.
|
---|
| 138 | About this arrest there was much talk among the common people, and many
|
---|
| 139 | were glad, for surely he was not in favour with the commons.
|
---|
| 140 | <p>When the cardinal was thus arrested the king sent Sir William Kingston
|
---|
| 141 | Knight, captain of the guard and constable of the Tower of London with
|
---|
| 142 | some of the yeomen of the guard to Sheffield, to fetch the cardinal to
|
---|
| 143 | the Tower. When the cardinal saw the captain of the guard he was
|
---|
| 144 | much astonished and shortly became ill, for he foresaw some great trouble,
|
---|
| 145 | and for that reason men said he willingly took so much strong purgative
|
---|
| 146 | that his constitution could not bear it. But Sir William Kingston
|
---|
| 147 | comforted him, and by easy journeys he brought him to the Abbey of Leicester
|
---|
| 148 | on 27 November, where through weakness caused by purgatives and vomiting
|
---|
| 149 | he died the second night following, and is buried in the same Abbey.<p align="center"> <p align="center"><a href="primary.html">
|
---|
| 150 | <font size="2">to Primary Sources</font></a></td>
|
---|
| 151 | </tr>
|
---|
| 152 | </table>
|
---|
| 153 | </center>
|
---|
| 154 | </div>
|
---|
| 155 |
|
---|
| 156 | </body>
|
---|
| 157 |
|
---|
| 158 | </html><!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="http://hostingprod.com/js_source/geov2.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1108082597" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript>
|
---|
| 159 | <IMG SRC="http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=76001524&t=1108082597" ALT=1 WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1>
|
---|