Thomas Wolsey

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Thomas Wolsey : biography

March 1473 – 1530

Early life

Thomas Wolsey was born circa 1473, the son of Robert Wolsey of Ipswich and his wife Joan Daundy. His father was widely thought to have been a butcherSpanish Chronicle, p.1 and a cattle dealer,G. R. Elton, England under the Tudors: Third Edition (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 74 but sources indicate that Robert Wolsey died at the 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 had climbed in terms of status.

Thomas Wolsey attended Ipswich SchoolThomas Wolsey (1473–1530), royal minister, archbishop of York, and cardinal by Sybil M. Jack in Dictionary of National Biography. and Magdalen College School before studying theology at Magdalen College, Oxford. On 10 March 1498, he was ordained a priest in Marlborough, Wiltshire and remained in Oxford, first as the Master of Magdalen College School before quickly being appointed the dean of divinity. Between 1500 and 1509 he held the living of Church of Saint Mary, Limington, in Somerset. In 1502, he left and became a chaplain to Henry Deane, archbishop of Canterbury, who died the following year. He was then taken into the household of Sir Richard Nanfan, who trusted Wolsey to be 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.Oxford Dictionary National Biography, Henry VII. Henry VII appointed Wolsey royal chaplain.Williams p.26 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.Oxford Dictionary National Biography, Richard Fox 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 April 1508, Wolsey was sent to Scotland to discuss rumours of the renewal of the auld alliance with King James IV.Macdougall, Norman, James IV, Tuckwell (1997), p.254: Letters of James IV, Scottish History Society (1953) pp.xlii, 107-111

Wolsey’s rise coincided with the accession of the new monarch, Henry VIII, whose character, policies and diplomatic mindset differed significantly from those of his father. In 1509, Henry 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.Williams, p.26 A factor in Wolsey’s rise was that the young Henry VIII was not particularly interested in the details of governing during his early years.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "Henry VIII"; 2004 Under the tight personal monarchy of Henry VII, Wolsey was unlikely to have obtained so much trust and responsibility.

Rise to prominence

[[Banner of the arms of Cardinal Wolsey as Archbishop of York, impaling his personal arms (viewer’s right) with the arms of his office as Archbishop of York (viewer’s left)]] The primary counsellors whom Henry VIII inherited from his father – Richard Foxe (Bishop of Winchester) 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 own 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 Foxe, who failed to share the King’s enthusiasm for the French war, fell from power (1515/1516) 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.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "William Warham"; 2004.

Wolsey carefully tried to destroy or neutralise the influence of other courtiers. He was blamed for the fall of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, in 1521; and in 1527 he prosecuted Henry’s close friend William Compton and Henry’s ex-mistress Anne Stafford, Countess of Huntingdon, through the ecclesiastical courts for adultery. 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 Tudor, 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 paralleled increased responsibilities in the Church. He became a Canon of Windsor in 1511, the same year that he became a member of the Privy Council. In 1514 he was made Bishop of Lincoln, and then Archbishop of York in the same year. Pope Leo X made him a cardinal in 1515, with the titular church S. Cæciliæ trans Tiberim. As tribute to the success of his campaign in France and subsequent peace negotiations, Wolsey was further rewarded by the church: in 1523 he became Prince-Bishop of Durham.