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WOLSEY, THOMAS (c. 1475–1530)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 780 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WOLSEY, See also:THOMAS (c. 1475–1530) , See also:English See also:cardinal and statesman, See also:born at See also:Ipswich about 1475, was son of See also:Robert Wolsey (or Wuley, as his name was always spelt) by his wife See also:Joan. His See also:father is generally described as a See also:butcher, but he sold other things than See also:meat; and although a See also:man of some See also:property and a See also:church-See also:warden of St See also:Nicholas, Ipswich, his See also:character seems to have See also:borne a striking resemblance to that of Thomas See also:Cromwell's father. He was continually being fined for allowing his pigs to stray in the See also:street, selling See also:bad meat, letting his See also:house to doubtful characters for illegal purposes, and generally infringing the by-See also:laws respecting weights and See also:measures (extracts from the Ipswich records, printed in the See also:Athenaeum, 1900, i. 400). He died in See also:September 1496, and his will, which has been preserved, was proved a few days later. Thomas was educated at Magdalen See also:College, See also:Oxford; but the details of his university career are doubtful owing to the defectiveness of the university and college registers. He is said to have graduated B.A. at the See also:age of fifteen (i.e. about 1490); but his earliest definite See also:appearance in the records is as junior See also:bursar of Magdalen College in 149$–1499, and See also:senior bursar in 1499–15oo, an See also:office he was compelled to resign for applying funds to the completion of the See also:great See also:tower without sufficient authority (W. D. Macray, Reg. of Magdalen College, i. 29-30, 133-134). He must have been elected See also:fellow of Magdalen some years before; and as See also:master of Magdalen College school he had under his See also:charge three sons of Thomas See also:Grey, first See also:marquess of See also:Dorset.

Dorset's beneficent intentions for his sons' See also:

pedagogue probably suggested Wolsey's ordination as See also:priest at See also:Marlborough on See also:March 10, 1498, and on See also:October 10, 1500, he was instituted, on Dorset's presentation, to the rectory of Limington in See also:Somerset. His connexion with Magdalen had perhaps terminated with his resignation of the bursarship, though he supplicated for the degrees of B.D. and D.D. in 1510; and the college appears to have derived no See also:advantage from Wolsey's subsequent greatness. At Limington he came into conflict with See also:law and See also:order as represented by the See also:sheriff, See also:Sir Amias See also:Paulet, who is said by See also:Cavendish to have placed Wolsey in the See also:stocks; Wolsey retaliated See also:long afterwards by confining Paulet to his See also:chambers in the See also:Temple for five or six years. Dorset died in 1501, but Wolsey found other patrons in his pursuit of See also:wealth and fame. Before the end of that See also:year he obtained from the See also:pope a See also:dispensation to hold two livings in See also:conjunction with Limington, and See also:Arch-See also:bishop See also:Deane of See also:Canterbury also appointed him his domestic See also:chaplain. Deane, however, died in 1503, and Wolsey became chaplain to Sir See also:Richard Nanfan, See also:deputy of See also:Calais, who apparently recommended him to See also:Henry VII. Nanfan died in 1507, but the See also:king made Wolsey his chaplain and employed him in See also:diplomatic See also:work. In 1508 he was' sent to See also:James IV. of See also:Scotland, and in the same year he pleased Henry by the extraordinary expedition with which he crossed and recrossed the Channel on an errand connected with the king's proposal of See also:marriage to See also:Margaret of See also:Savoy. His ecclesiastical preferments, of which he received several in 1506-1509, culminated in his See also:appointment by Henry to the deanery of See also:Lincoln on See also:February 2, 1509. Henry VIII. made Wolsey his See also:almoner immediately on his See also:accession, and the See also:receipt of some See also:half-dozen further ecclesiastical preferments in the first two years of the reign marks his growth in royal favour. But it was not till towards the end of 1511 that Wolsey became a privy councillor and secured a controlling See also:voice in the See also:government. His See also:influence then made itself See also:felt on English policy.

The See also:

young king took little pains with the government, and the See also:control of affairs was shared between the clerical and See also:peace party led by Richard See also:Fox (q.v.) and See also:Archbishop See also:Warham, and the See also:secular and See also:war party led by See also:Surrey. Hitherto pacific counsels had on the whole prevailed; but Wolsey, who was nothing if not turbulent, turned the See also:balance in favour of war, and his marvellous administrative See also:energy first found full See also:scope in the preparations for the English expedition to See also:Biscay in 1512, and for the See also:campaign in See also:northern See also:France in 1513. He brought about the peace with France and marriage between See also:Mary Tudor and See also:Louis XII. in 1514, and reaped his See also:reward in the bishoprics of Lincoln and See also:Tournai, the archbishopric of See also:York, which wasconferred on him by papal See also:bull in September, and the cardinal-See also:ate which he had sent Polydore Vergil to beg from See also:Leo X. in May 1514, but did not receive till the following year. Nevertheless, when See also:Francis I. in 1515 succeeded Louis XII. and won the See also:battle of Marignano, Wolsey took the See also:lead in assisting the See also:emperor See also:Maximilian to oppose him; and this revival of warlike designs was resented by Fox and Warham, who retired from the government, leaving Wolsey supreme. Maximilian proved a broken See also:reed, and in 1518 Wolsey brought about a See also:general pacification, securing at the same See also:time his appointment as See also:legate d latere in See also:England. He thus superseded Warham, who was legatus natus, in ecclesiastical authority; and though legates d latere were supposed to exercise only See also:special and temporary See also:powers, Wolsey secured the See also:practical permanence of his office. The See also:election of See also:Charles V. as emperor in 1519 brought the rivalry between him and Francis I. to a See also:head, and Wolsey was mainly responsible for the attitude adopted by the English government. Both monarchs were eager for England's See also:alliance, and their suit enabled Wolsey to appear for the moment as the arbiter of See also:Europe. England's commercial relations with Charles V.'s subjects in the See also:Netherlands put war with the emperor almost out of the question; and cool observers thought that England's obvious policy was to stand by while the two rivals enfeebled each other, and then make her own profit out of their weakness. But, although a gorgeous show of friendship with France was kept up at the See also:Field of See also:Cloth of See also:Gold in 1520, it had been deter-See also:mined before the See also:conference of Calais in 1521, at which Wolsey pretended to adjudicate on the merits of the dispute, to See also:side actively with Charles V. Wolsey had vested interests in such a policy. See also:Parliament had in 1513–1515 showed signs of strong See also:anti-clerical feeling; Wolsey had in the latter year urged its speedy See also:dissolution, and had not called another; and he probably hoped to distract See also:attention from the church by a spirited See also:foreign policy, as Henry V. had done a See also:century before.

He had, moreover, received assurances from the emperor that he would further Wolsey's candidature for the papacy; and although he protested to Henry VIII. that he would rather continue in his service than be ten popes, that did not prevent him from secretly instructing his agents at See also:

Rome to See also:press his claims to the utmost. Charles, however, paid Wolsey the sincere compliment of thinking that he would not be sufficiently subservient on the papal See also:throne; while he wrote letters in Wolsey's favour, he took care that they should not reach their destination in time; and Wolsey failed to secure election both in 1521 and 1524. This ambition distinguishes his foreign policy from that of Henry VII., to which it has been likened. Henry VII. cared only for England; Wolsey's See also:object was to See also:play a great See also:part on the See also:European See also:stage. The aim of the one was See also:national, that of the other was See also:oecumenical. In any See also:case the decision taken in 1521 was a blunder. Wolsey's assistance helped Charles V. to that position of predominance which was strikingly illustrated by the defeat and See also:capture of Francis I. at See also:Pavia in 1525; and the balance of See also:power upon which England's influence rested was destroyed. Her efforts to restore it in 1526–1528 were ineffectual; her See also:prestige had depended upon her reputation for wealth derived from the fact that she had acted in See also:recent years as the paymaster of Europe. But Henry VII.'s accumulations had disappeared; parliament resisted in 1523 the See also:imposition of new See also:taxation; and the attempts to raise forced loans and benevolences in 1526–1528 created a See also:storm of opposition. Still more unpopular was the brief war with Charles V. in which Wolsey involved England in 1528. The See also:sack of Rome in 1527 and the defeat of the See also:French before See also:Naples in 1528 confirmed Charles V.'s supremacy. Peace was made in 1529 between the two rivals without England being consulted, and her influence at Wolsey's fall was less than it had been at his accession to power.

This failure reacted upon Wolsey's position at See also:

home. His domestic was sounder than his foreign policy: by his development of the See also:star chamber, by his See also:firm See also:administration of See also:justice and See also:maintenance of order, and by his repression of feudal See also:jurisdiction, he rendered great services to the See also:monarchy. But the inevitable opposition of the See also:nobility to this policy was not mitigated by the fact that it was carried out by a churchman; the result was to embitter the antagonism of the secular party to the church and to concentrate it upon Wolsey's head. The control of the papacy by Charles V., moreover, made it impossible for Wolsey to succeed in his efforts to obtain from See also:Clement VII. the See also:divorce which Henry VIII. was seeking from Charles V.'s aunt, See also:Catherine of See also:Aragon. An inscription on a contemporary portrait of Wolsey at See also:Arras calls him the author of the divorce, and See also:Roman See also:Catholic historians from See also:Sanders downwards have generally adopted the view that Wolsey advocated this measure merely as a means to break England's alliance with See also:Spain and confirm its alliance with France. This view is unhistorical, and it ignores the various See also:personal and national motives which See also:lay behind that See also:movement. There is no See also:evidence that Wolsey first suggested the divorce, though when he found that Henry was See also:bent upon it, he pressed for two points: (i.) that an application should be made to Rome, instead of deciding the See also:matter in England, and (ii.) that Henry, when divorced, should marry a French princess. The See also:appeal to Rome was a natural course to be advocated by Wolsey, whose despotism over the English church depended upon an authority derived from Rome; but it was probably a See also:mistake. It ran See also:counter to the ideas suggested in 1527 on the captivity of Clement VII., that England and France should set up See also:independent patriarchates; and its success depended upon the problematical destruction of Charles V.'s power in See also:Italy. At first this seemed not improbable; French armies marched See also:south on Naples, and the pope sent See also:Campeggio with full powers to pronounce the divorce in England. But he had hardly started when the French were defeated in 1528; their ruin was completed in 1529, and Clement VII. was obliged to come to terms with Charles V., which included Campeggio's recall in See also:August 1529. Wolsey clearly foresaw his own fall, the consequent attack on the church and the See also:triumph of the secular party.

Parliament, which he had kept at See also:

arm's length, was hostile; he was hated by the nobility, and his general unpopularity is reflected in See also:Skelton's satires and in See also:Hall's See also:Chronicle. Even churchmen had been alienated by his suppression of monasteries and by his See also:monopoly of ecclesiastical power; and his only support was the king, who had now See also:developed a determination to See also:rule himself. He surrendered all his offices and all his preferments except the archbishopric of York, receiving in return a See also:pension of loon marks (equal to six or seven thousand pounds a year in See also:modern currency) from the bishopric of See also:Winchester, and retired to his see, which he had never before visited. A See also:bill of See also:attainder, passed by the Lords, was rejected at Cromwell's instigation and probably with Henry's See also:goodwill by the See also:Commons. The last few months of his See also:life were spent in the exemplary See also:discharge of his archiepiscopal duties; but a not altogether unfounded suspicion that he had invoked the assistance of Francis I., if not of Charles V. and the pope, to prevent his fall involved him in a charge of See also:treason. He was summoned to See also:London, but died on his way at See also:Leicester See also:abbey on See also:November 30, and was buried there on the following See also:day. The completeness of Wolsey's fall enhanced his former appearance of greatness, and, indeed, he is one of the outstanding figures in English See also:history. His qualities and his defects were alike exhibited on a generous See also:scale; and if his greed and arrogance were See also:colossal, so were his administrative capacity and his appetite for work. " He is," wrote the Venetian See also:ambassador See also:Giustiniani, " very handsome, learned, extremely eloquent, of vast ability and indefatigable. He alone transacts the business which occupies all the magistrates and See also:councils of See also:Venice, both See also:civil and criminal; and all See also:state affairs are managed by him, let their nature he what it may. He is See also:grave, and has the reputation of being extremely just; he favours the See also:people exceedingly, and especially the poor, See also:hearing their suits and seeking to despatch them instantly." As a diplomatist he has had few rivals and perhaps no superiors. But his See also:pride was equal to his abilities.

The See also:

familiar charge, repeated in See also:Shakespeare, of having written Ego et meus See also:sex, while true in fact, is false in intention, because no Latin See also:scholar could put the words in any other order; butit reflects faithfully enough Wolsey's See also:mental attitude. Giustiniani explains that he had to make proposals to the cardinal before he broached them to Henry, lest Wolsey " should resent the See also:precedence conceded to the king." " He is," wrote another diplomatist, " the proudest See also:prelate that ever breathed." He arrogated to himself the privileges of See also:royalty, made servants attend him upon their knees, compelled bishops to tie his shoelatchets and See also:dukes to hold the See also:basin while he washed his hands, and considered it condescension when he allowed ambassadors to See also:kiss his fingers; he paid little heed to their sacrosanct character, and himself laid violent hands on a papal See also:nuncio. His egotism equalled Henry VIII.'s; his See also:jealousy and See also:ill-treatment of Richard See also:Pace, See also:dean of St See also:Paul's, referred to by Shakespeare but vehemently denied by Dr See also:Brewer, has been proved by the publication of the See also:Spanish state papers; and Polydore Vergil, the historian, and Sir R. See also:Sheffield, See also:speaker of the House of Commons, were both sent to the Tower for complaining of his conduct. His morals were of the laxest description, and he had as many illegitimate See also:children as Henry VIII. himself. For his son, before he was eighteen years old, he procured a deanery, four archdeaconries, five prebends and a chancellorship, and he sought to thrust him into the bishopric of See also:Durham. For himself he obtained, in addition to his archbishopric and See also:lord See also:chancellor-See also:ship, the abbey of St Albans, reputed to be the richest in England, and the bishopric first of See also:Bath and See also:Wells, then of Durham, and finally that of Winchester. He also used his power to extort enormous See also:pensions from Charles V. and Francis I. and lavish gifts from English suitors. His New Year's presents were reckoned by Giustiniani at 15,000 ducats, and the emperor paid —or owed—him 18,000 livres a year. His palaces outshone those of his king, and few monarchs could afford such a display of See also:plate as commonly graced the cardinal's table. His See also:foundations at Oxford and Ipswich were, nevertheless, not made out of his superabundant revenues, but out of the proceeds of the dissolution of monasteries, not all of which were devoted to those laudable See also:objects. That such a man would ever have used the unparalleled powers of ecclesiastical jurisdiction with which he had been entrusted for a genuine See also:reformation of the church is only a pious See also:opinion cherished by those who regret that the Reformation was See also:left for the secular arm to achieve; and it is useless to plead lack of opportunity on behalf of a man who for sixteen years had enjoyed an authority never before or since wielded by an English subject.

Wolsey must be judged by his deeds and not by doubtful intentions. During the first half of his government he materially strengthened the Tudor monarchy by the vigorous administration of justice at home and by the brilliance of his foreign policy abroad. But the prestige he secured by 1521 was delusive; its decline was as rapid as its growth, and the expense of the policy involved taxation which seriously weakened the See also:

loyalty of the people. The concentration of civil and ecclesiastical power by Wolsey in the hands of a churchman provided a precedent for its concentration by Henry VIII. in the hands of the See also:crown; and the personal example of lavish ostentation and loose morals which the cardinal-archbishop exhibited cannot have been without influence on the king, who See also:grew to maturity under Wolsey's guidance. The Letters and Papers of Henry VIII., vols. i.-iv., supplemented by the Spanish and Venetian Calendars, contain almost all that is known of Wolsey's public career, though additional See also:light on the divorce has been thrown by See also:Stephen Ehses' Romische Dokumente (1893). Cavendish's brief Life, which is almost contemporary, has been often edited. See also:Fiddes's huge tome (1724) is fairly exhaustive. Brewer, in his elaborate prefaces to the Letters and Papers (reissued as his History of the Reign of Henry VIII.), originated modern admiration for Wolsey; and his views are reflected in See also:Creighton's Wolsey in the " Twelve English Statesmen " See also:series, and in Dr See also:Gairdner's careful articles in the See also:Diet. Nat. Biog. and See also:Cambridge Modern History. A less enthusiastic view is adopted in H. A.

L. See also:

Fisher's See also:volume (v.) in See also:Longmans' See also:Political History (1906) and in A. F. See also:Pollard's Henry VIII. (1902 and 1905). (A. F.

End of Article: WOLSEY, THOMAS (c. 1475–1530)

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