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