Posted on Sep 22, 2020
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey Death & Fall From Grace 1530
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On September 22, 1529, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was stripped of office as Lord Chancellor of England. From the article:
"Cardinal Thomas Wolsey Death & Fall From Grace 1530
This account of Thomas Wolsey’s fall from royal favor was written by the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall.
Wolsey was born c1473 and eventually held the titles Cardinal-Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor. He was famous at Oxford University for taking his degree at the age of fifteen; he was intelligent, hard-working, and also very fond of pomp and ceremony.
He became King Henry VII’s chaplain during the last two years of his life. Henry VIII appointed him to a minor office upon his accession, but Wolsey’s only became involved in government affairs in 1512. He urged Henry to wage war against the French on behalf of Pope Julius II. The war was successful and Henry generously rewarded its main proponent and organizer. Wolsey subsequently became the king’s chief minister from 1515 to 1529.
His powerful office and close friendship with Henry earned him many enemies, particularly aristocrats who resented his usurpation of their traditional influence. They also resented his great wealth. Over the years, Wolsey amassed a vast fortune, though he did so largely through his church offices. He spent lavishly, but he was also charitable and personally financed many diplomatic missions. It should be noted that most gentlemen entered government service for financial reward; Wolsey was no different. And as the king’s chief minister, he was expected to entertain foreign dignitaries and maintain a suitably impressive lifestyle. His increasingly ostentatious displays of wealth did, however, damage both his personal reputation and that of the church.
Wolsey lacked the genius for the administration of his protégé and successor, Thomas Cromwell. But he was efficient and capable; when he found he could not control Parliament (it met only once during his years as chancellor), he simply refused to summon it. He was also blamed for the high taxation necessary to support Henry VIII’s ambitious foreign policy.
He maintained the king’s favor until he failed to secure an annulment of Henry’s first marriage. From 1527-1529, as Anne Boleyn’s influence rose, Wolsey’s waned. She disliked the Cardinal because of his interference in her earlier engagement to Henry Percy. And both she and the king were increasingly impatient with the pope’s endless prevarication. Torn between his secular and spiritual masters, Wolsey chose Henry’s side – but it did not matter. On 9 October 1529, he was indicted for praemunire; he later confessed his guilt. Parliament was summoned to indict him on forty-four charges. The king kept him from prison but stripped him of many offices and all of his power. Wolsey was ordered to retire to his archbishopric of York. Indiscreet letters to Rome led to his arrest on 4 November. He died on the 24th while returning to London and, most likely, execution at the Tower.
Hall implies that Wolsey committed suicide. He did not. He did, however, avoid execution at the Tower which was the fate Henry VIII intended for him.
It should be noted that Cromwell defended Wolsey in parliament.
This account of Thomas Wolsey’s fall from royal favor was written by the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall.
Wolsey was born c1473 and eventually held the titles Cardinal-Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor. He was famous at Oxford University for taking his degree at the age of fifteen; he was intelligent, hard-working, and also very fond of pomp and ceremony.
He became King Henry VII’s chaplain during the last two years of his life. Henry VIII appointed him to a minor office upon his accession, but Wolsey’s only became involved in government affairs in 1512. He urged Henry to wage war against the French on behalf of Pope Julius II. The war was successful and Henry generously rewarded its main proponent and organizer. Wolsey subsequently became the king’s chief minister from 1515 to 1529.
His powerful office and close friendship with Henry earned him many enemies, particularly aristocrats who resented his usurpation of their traditional influence. They also resented his great wealth. Over the years, Wolsey amassed a vast fortune, though he did so largely through his church offices. He spent lavishly, but he was also charitable and personally financed many diplomatic missions. It should be noted that most gentlemen entered government service for financial reward; Wolsey was no different. And as the king’s chief minister, he was expected to entertain foreign dignitaries and maintain a suitably impressive lifestyle. His increasingly ostentatious displays of wealth did, however, damage both his personal reputation and that of the church.
Wolsey lacked the genius for administration of his protégé and successor, Thomas Cromwell. But he was efficient and capable; when he found he could not control Parliament (it met only once during his years as chancellor), he simply refused to summon it. He was also blamed for the high taxation necessary to support Henry VIII’s ambitious foreign policy.
He maintained the king’s favor until he failed to secure an annulment of Henry’s first marriage. From 1527-1529, as Anne Boleyn’s influence rose, Wolsey’s waned. She disliked the Cardinal because of his interference in her earlier engagement to Henry Percy. And both she and the king were increasingly impatient with the pope’s endless prevarication. Torn between his secular and spiritual masters, Wolsey chose Henry’s side – but it did not matter. On 9 October 1529, he was indicted for praemunire; he later confessed his guilt. Parliament was summoned to indict him on forty-four charges. The king kept him from prison but stripped him of many offices and all of his power. Wolsey was ordered to retire to his archbishopric of York. Indiscreet letters to Rome led to his arrest on 4 November. He died on the 24th, while returning to London and, most likely, execution at the Tower.
Hall implies that Wolsey committed suicide. He did not. He did, however, avoid execution at the Tower which was the fate Henry VIII intended for him.
It should be noted that Cromwell defended Wolsey in parliament.
You have heard under the last year how the cardinal of York [Wolsey] was attainted in praemunire, and despite that the king had given him the bishoprics of York and Winchester, with great possessions, and had licensed him to live in his diocese of York. Being thus in his diocese, grudging his fall and not remembering the kindness the King showed to him, he wrote to the court of Rome and to several other princes letters reproaching the king, and as much as he was able stirred them to revenge his case against the King and his realm; so much so that various opprobrious words about the king were spoken to Dr Edward Kern, the king’s orator at Rome, and it was said to him that for the cardinal’s sake the king’s matrimonial suit would have the worse speed. The cardinal would also speak fair to the people to win their hearts, and always declared that he was unjustly and untruly commanded, which fair speaking made many men believe that he spoke the truth. And to be held in higher repute by the people he determined to be installed or enthroned at York with all possible pomp, and caused a throne to be erected in the Cathedral Church of such a height and design as was never seen before; and he sent to all the lords, abbots, priors, knights, esquires and gentlemen of his diocese to be at his manor of Cawood on 6 November, and so to bring him to York with all pomp and solemnity.
The King, who knew of his doings and secret communications, all this year pretended to ignore them to see what he would eventually do, until he saw his proud heart so highly exalted that he intended to be so triumphantly installed without informing the king, even as if in disdain of the king. Then the king thought it was not fitting or convenient to let him any longer continue in his malicious and proud purposes and attempts. Therefore he sent letters to Henry, the sixth earl of Northumberland, willing him with all diligence to arrest the cardinal, and to deliver him to the earl of Shrewsbury, great steward of the king’s household. When the earl had seen the letter, with a suitable number of men he came to the manor of Cawood on 4 November, and when he was brought to the cardinal in his chamber he said to him: “My Lord, I pray you have patience, for here I arrest you.” “Arrest me,” said the cardinal; “Yes,” said the earl, “I have orders to do so.” “You have no such power,” said the cardinal, “for I am both a cardinal and a peer of the College of Rome, and ought not to be arrested by any temporal power, for I am not subject to that power, therefore if you arrest me I will withstand it.” “Well,” said the Earl, “here is the king’s commission, and therefore I charge you to obey.” The Cardinal somewhat remembered himself, and said, “Well, my lord, I am content to obey, but although by negligence I fell under punishment of the praemunire and lost by law all my lands and goods, yet my person was in the king’s protection and I was pardoned that offence. Therefore I wonder why I now should be arrested, especially considering that I am a member of the apostolic See, on whom no temporal man should lay violent hands. Well, I see the King lacks good counsel.” “Well,” said the earl, “when I was sworn warden of the marches you yourself told me that I might with my staff arrest all men under the degree of king, and now I am stronger for I have a commission for what I do as you have seen.” The cardinal at length obeyed, and was kept in his private chamber, and his goods seized and his officers discharged, and his physician, Dr Augustine, was also arrested, and brought to the Tower by Sir Walter Welshe, one of the king’s chamber. On 6 November the cardinal was conveyed from Cawood to Sheffield Castle, and there delivered into the keeping of the earl of Shrewsbury until the king’s pleasure was known. About this arrest there was much talk among the common people, and many were glad, for surely he was not in favour with the commons.
When the cardinal was thus arrested the king sent Sir William Kingston Knight, captain of the guard and constable of the Tower of London with some of the yeomen of the guard to Sheffield, to fetch the cardinal to the Tower. When the cardinal saw the captain of the guard he was much astonished and shortly became ill, for he foresaw some great trouble, and for that reason men said he willingly took so much strong purgative that his constitution could not bear it. But Sir William Kingston comforted him, and by easy journeys he brought him to the Abbey of Leicester on 27 November, where through weakness caused by purgatives and vomiting he died the second night following, and is buried in the same Abbey."
"Cardinal Thomas Wolsey Death & Fall From Grace 1530
This account of Thomas Wolsey’s fall from royal favor was written by the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall.
Wolsey was born c1473 and eventually held the titles Cardinal-Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor. He was famous at Oxford University for taking his degree at the age of fifteen; he was intelligent, hard-working, and also very fond of pomp and ceremony.
He became King Henry VII’s chaplain during the last two years of his life. Henry VIII appointed him to a minor office upon his accession, but Wolsey’s only became involved in government affairs in 1512. He urged Henry to wage war against the French on behalf of Pope Julius II. The war was successful and Henry generously rewarded its main proponent and organizer. Wolsey subsequently became the king’s chief minister from 1515 to 1529.
His powerful office and close friendship with Henry earned him many enemies, particularly aristocrats who resented his usurpation of their traditional influence. They also resented his great wealth. Over the years, Wolsey amassed a vast fortune, though he did so largely through his church offices. He spent lavishly, but he was also charitable and personally financed many diplomatic missions. It should be noted that most gentlemen entered government service for financial reward; Wolsey was no different. And as the king’s chief minister, he was expected to entertain foreign dignitaries and maintain a suitably impressive lifestyle. His increasingly ostentatious displays of wealth did, however, damage both his personal reputation and that of the church.
Wolsey lacked the genius for the administration of his protégé and successor, Thomas Cromwell. But he was efficient and capable; when he found he could not control Parliament (it met only once during his years as chancellor), he simply refused to summon it. He was also blamed for the high taxation necessary to support Henry VIII’s ambitious foreign policy.
He maintained the king’s favor until he failed to secure an annulment of Henry’s first marriage. From 1527-1529, as Anne Boleyn’s influence rose, Wolsey’s waned. She disliked the Cardinal because of his interference in her earlier engagement to Henry Percy. And both she and the king were increasingly impatient with the pope’s endless prevarication. Torn between his secular and spiritual masters, Wolsey chose Henry’s side – but it did not matter. On 9 October 1529, he was indicted for praemunire; he later confessed his guilt. Parliament was summoned to indict him on forty-four charges. The king kept him from prison but stripped him of many offices and all of his power. Wolsey was ordered to retire to his archbishopric of York. Indiscreet letters to Rome led to his arrest on 4 November. He died on the 24th while returning to London and, most likely, execution at the Tower.
Hall implies that Wolsey committed suicide. He did not. He did, however, avoid execution at the Tower which was the fate Henry VIII intended for him.
It should be noted that Cromwell defended Wolsey in parliament.
This account of Thomas Wolsey’s fall from royal favor was written by the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall.
Wolsey was born c1473 and eventually held the titles Cardinal-Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor. He was famous at Oxford University for taking his degree at the age of fifteen; he was intelligent, hard-working, and also very fond of pomp and ceremony.
He became King Henry VII’s chaplain during the last two years of his life. Henry VIII appointed him to a minor office upon his accession, but Wolsey’s only became involved in government affairs in 1512. He urged Henry to wage war against the French on behalf of Pope Julius II. The war was successful and Henry generously rewarded its main proponent and organizer. Wolsey subsequently became the king’s chief minister from 1515 to 1529.
His powerful office and close friendship with Henry earned him many enemies, particularly aristocrats who resented his usurpation of their traditional influence. They also resented his great wealth. Over the years, Wolsey amassed a vast fortune, though he did so largely through his church offices. He spent lavishly, but he was also charitable and personally financed many diplomatic missions. It should be noted that most gentlemen entered government service for financial reward; Wolsey was no different. And as the king’s chief minister, he was expected to entertain foreign dignitaries and maintain a suitably impressive lifestyle. His increasingly ostentatious displays of wealth did, however, damage both his personal reputation and that of the church.
Wolsey lacked the genius for administration of his protégé and successor, Thomas Cromwell. But he was efficient and capable; when he found he could not control Parliament (it met only once during his years as chancellor), he simply refused to summon it. He was also blamed for the high taxation necessary to support Henry VIII’s ambitious foreign policy.
He maintained the king’s favor until he failed to secure an annulment of Henry’s first marriage. From 1527-1529, as Anne Boleyn’s influence rose, Wolsey’s waned. She disliked the Cardinal because of his interference in her earlier engagement to Henry Percy. And both she and the king were increasingly impatient with the pope’s endless prevarication. Torn between his secular and spiritual masters, Wolsey chose Henry’s side – but it did not matter. On 9 October 1529, he was indicted for praemunire; he later confessed his guilt. Parliament was summoned to indict him on forty-four charges. The king kept him from prison but stripped him of many offices and all of his power. Wolsey was ordered to retire to his archbishopric of York. Indiscreet letters to Rome led to his arrest on 4 November. He died on the 24th, while returning to London and, most likely, execution at the Tower.
Hall implies that Wolsey committed suicide. He did not. He did, however, avoid execution at the Tower which was the fate Henry VIII intended for him.
It should be noted that Cromwell defended Wolsey in parliament.
You have heard under the last year how the cardinal of York [Wolsey] was attainted in praemunire, and despite that the king had given him the bishoprics of York and Winchester, with great possessions, and had licensed him to live in his diocese of York. Being thus in his diocese, grudging his fall and not remembering the kindness the King showed to him, he wrote to the court of Rome and to several other princes letters reproaching the king, and as much as he was able stirred them to revenge his case against the King and his realm; so much so that various opprobrious words about the king were spoken to Dr Edward Kern, the king’s orator at Rome, and it was said to him that for the cardinal’s sake the king’s matrimonial suit would have the worse speed. The cardinal would also speak fair to the people to win their hearts, and always declared that he was unjustly and untruly commanded, which fair speaking made many men believe that he spoke the truth. And to be held in higher repute by the people he determined to be installed or enthroned at York with all possible pomp, and caused a throne to be erected in the Cathedral Church of such a height and design as was never seen before; and he sent to all the lords, abbots, priors, knights, esquires and gentlemen of his diocese to be at his manor of Cawood on 6 November, and so to bring him to York with all pomp and solemnity.
The King, who knew of his doings and secret communications, all this year pretended to ignore them to see what he would eventually do, until he saw his proud heart so highly exalted that he intended to be so triumphantly installed without informing the king, even as if in disdain of the king. Then the king thought it was not fitting or convenient to let him any longer continue in his malicious and proud purposes and attempts. Therefore he sent letters to Henry, the sixth earl of Northumberland, willing him with all diligence to arrest the cardinal, and to deliver him to the earl of Shrewsbury, great steward of the king’s household. When the earl had seen the letter, with a suitable number of men he came to the manor of Cawood on 4 November, and when he was brought to the cardinal in his chamber he said to him: “My Lord, I pray you have patience, for here I arrest you.” “Arrest me,” said the cardinal; “Yes,” said the earl, “I have orders to do so.” “You have no such power,” said the cardinal, “for I am both a cardinal and a peer of the College of Rome, and ought not to be arrested by any temporal power, for I am not subject to that power, therefore if you arrest me I will withstand it.” “Well,” said the Earl, “here is the king’s commission, and therefore I charge you to obey.” The Cardinal somewhat remembered himself, and said, “Well, my lord, I am content to obey, but although by negligence I fell under punishment of the praemunire and lost by law all my lands and goods, yet my person was in the king’s protection and I was pardoned that offence. Therefore I wonder why I now should be arrested, especially considering that I am a member of the apostolic See, on whom no temporal man should lay violent hands. Well, I see the King lacks good counsel.” “Well,” said the earl, “when I was sworn warden of the marches you yourself told me that I might with my staff arrest all men under the degree of king, and now I am stronger for I have a commission for what I do as you have seen.” The cardinal at length obeyed, and was kept in his private chamber, and his goods seized and his officers discharged, and his physician, Dr Augustine, was also arrested, and brought to the Tower by Sir Walter Welshe, one of the king’s chamber. On 6 November the cardinal was conveyed from Cawood to Sheffield Castle, and there delivered into the keeping of the earl of Shrewsbury until the king’s pleasure was known. About this arrest there was much talk among the common people, and many were glad, for surely he was not in favour with the commons.
When the cardinal was thus arrested the king sent Sir William Kingston Knight, captain of the guard and constable of the Tower of London with some of the yeomen of the guard to Sheffield, to fetch the cardinal to the Tower. When the cardinal saw the captain of the guard he was much astonished and shortly became ill, for he foresaw some great trouble, and for that reason men said he willingly took so much strong purgative that his constitution could not bear it. But Sir William Kingston comforted him, and by easy journeys he brought him to the Abbey of Leicester on 27 November, where through weakness caused by purgatives and vomiting he died the second night following, and is buried in the same Abbey."
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey Death & Fall From Grace 1530
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The Rise and Fall of Cardinal Wolsey
The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII's minister, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Music Used: Nowhere Land - Kevin MacLeod Clear Air - Kevin MacLeod Suonatore Di Liuto - K...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on September 22, 1529, after having maintained Henry VIII's favor until he failed to secure an annulment of Henry’s first marriage, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was stripped of office as Lord Chancellor of England.
The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII's minister, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-d5tjMICaI
Images:
1. Cardinal Wolsey at the Gate of Leicester Abbey painted by Charles West Pope in 1847, oil on canvas
2. Cardinal Wolsey Going in Procession to Westminster Hall by Sir John Gilbert
3. Oct 1529 Illustration of George Cavendish´s biography of Wolsey, showing the Cardinal fall: the Cardinal surrenders the great seal of England, symbolising the Lord Chancellorship, to his enemies, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, Oct 1529
4. Illustration of George Cavendish´s biography of Wolsey, showing the Cardinal pomp: Wolsey riding in procession preceded by his great crosses, as Archbishop and legate; and his Cardinal hat.
Biographies:
1. englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens/thomas-wolsey
2. kyrackramer.com/2017/11/04/wolseys-treason/
1. Background from {[https://englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens/thomas-wolsey/]}
Thomas Wolsey: Biography, Portrait, Facts & Information
Thomas Wolsey was born in Ipswich, c1475. His beginnings were not auspicious. After he rose to power, jealous courtiers claimed his father had been a butcher; Wolsey’s own servant and eventual biographer, George Cavendish, said merely that Wolsey was “an honest poor man’s son.” Whatever the truth of his father’s work, they were a poor and unknown family and it was Wolsey’s brilliance and hard work which led him from Ipswich to become ruler of England in all but title.
He was educated at Oxford and took his degree at 15, a formidable achievement. He then became a fellow of Magdalen College and was ordained a priest in 1498. Given Wolsey’s vast accumulation of wealth in later years, some of which was acquired by suppressing almost 30 monasteries, many historians and biographers have questioned his religious vocation. His contemporaries were equally skeptical. But in his early career, Wolsey was neither ostentatious nor grasping. And the only indication we have that he was fast and loose with money is this – appointed bursar of Magdalen in 1499, he was forced to resign when officials learned he had misapplied funds to a construction project without their approval. This was hardly scandalous. Wolsey shortly thereafter became chaplain to Archbishop Deane of Canterbury. This position was short-lived and, in 1503, he was made chaplain to Sir Richard Fanfan, the deputy lieutenant of Calais. It was this appointment which marks the beginning of Wolsey’s political career.
Fanfan spoke highly of Wolsey to King Henry VII and, upon his death in 1507, the old king chose Wolsey to be his chaplain. The old king’s opinion of Wolsey was high enough that he appointed him dean of Lincoln shortly before his own death in April 1509. The death of Henry VII provided Wolsey with an opportunity that any brilliant, ambitious man would have seized. Unfortunately for Wolsey, he was not a courtier of noble blood; such gentlemen considered royal favor and intimacy as their birthright. They were not inclined to look kindly upon Wolsey as he now became fast friends with their new king, Henry VIII.
Wolsey was smart, energetic, and confident. These were qualities he shared with the 18-year-old Henry VIII. And Wolsey was a particularly shrewd judge of Henry’s character; this, more than anything else, was the reason he succeeded so brilliantly – and for so long – at managing a notoriously mercurial king.
Henry VIII’s ascension was viewed as the dawn of a new age by his contemporaries. Not only was it the beginning of a new century, but it was also the beginning of the Renaissance in England. The printing press, first developed by Gutenberg in the mid-15th century, was now a fixture of most European cities, including London. This not only allowed the free exchange of ideas across the continent, but it also encouraged that exchange. For the first time in human history, a physical distance was not a significant barrier to communication.
And so we must make certain allowances for King Henry VIII. His people were becoming more educated and consequently more assertive. They did not question his divine rights, but – especially in the later years of his reign – they did question his decisions.
In the early years of his reign, Henry allowed Wolsey to make most of the decisions. Henry had appointed Wolsey royal almoner a few months after his coronation. And it was easy for Wolsey to flatter the new king into allowing him more and more control over the boring business of state. Henry was an intelligent man, but he was like most kings in that he preferred the pleasurable aspects of rule to the routine of business. It was easy enough to let Wolsey hear petitions, or advise him on matters of state, or to talk with foreign envoys and report back to him. And as Wolsey did so, Henry’s reliance upon him grew. And it was in 1513 that Wolsey had his greatest foreign policy success, and it did much to solidify his bond with the young king.
Henry had long wished to make his mark upon European affairs. This was partly youthful bravado. He was young, brash, strong; he wished to stride upon the world stage and make his fellow monarchs (particularly the new king of France) take notice. Henry had married his brother’s widow, Katharine of Aragon; she was the Catholic daughter of the rulers of Spain, and cousin to the Holy Roman Emperor. When Pope Julius II needed aid against the French in 1513, Henry seized the chance to prove his worth. But of course it was Wolsey who must organize and implement the king’s grand – and vague – plans. And he did so with aplomb. Henry’s campaign against the French was a resounding success. Victories at Therouanne, Tournai, and the battle of the Spurs made Wolsey untouchable at court – and indispensable to his king.
Pope Leo X (who succeeded Julius) soon made Wolsey bishop of Lincoln, archbishop of York, and cardinal. And in December 1515, when William Warham resigned from the position, Wolsey was made Lord Chancellor of England. His greatest ecclesiastical ambition was achieved when Leo made him a special papal representative with the title legate a latere. (Wolsey’s accumulation of ecclesiastical offices led his contemporaries, and later historians, to argue that he yearned to be the first English pope. There is certainly cause to think Henry – especially when seeking his annulment from Katharine of Aragon – liked the idea. Wolsey himself showed no particular desire to leave England.) These titles – along with lesser ones – allowed Wolsey to amass great wealth and soon his fortune was second only to the king’s. This did not go unremarked upon by Henry’s jealous courtiers. But Wolsey was merely following tradition; few, if any, Tudor statesmen did not enrich themselves while in office.
From about 1515 to 1529, Wolsey controlled the English state. Certainly he was ultimately dependent upon the will of the king, but he managed the increasingly temperamental Henry as well as anyone could. As Lord Chancellor, Wolsey governed the state of England; as legate, he governed the church in England. Such complete control of the mechanics of political and religious life would never be achieved by another English statesman.
But of course Wolsey must fall. Once he had achieved all that he could, there was nothing for him to do but fail.
The primary cause of Wolsey’s fall would be his inability to settle the king’s ‘Great Matter’. Henry initially sought an annulment of his marriage to Katharine because she had not produced a male heir. He was later spurred by his love affair with Anne Boleyn. Henry justified his actions by a belated realization that Katharine’s prior marriage to his older brother, Arthur, made her later marriage to him incestuous and thus unlawful. Of course, he conveniently ignored the papal dispensation which had made their wedding legitimate in the eyes of the church. In Henry’s new interpretation of religious law, papal dispensations were all well and good, but they could not trump the actual words of the Bible. This was merely the philosophical cover for what he believed would be a political decision. The pope had no cause to refuse his request for an annulment; Henry – and Wolsey – expected it to be granted relatively quickly.
But they did not reckon on the interference of Katharine’s nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Family pride and, more importantly, dynastic ambition (Katharine and Henry’s daughter Mary was considered a potential wife for either Charles or his son Philip) made him hostile to Henry’s plans. And Charles was quite literally in charge of the pope.
And so Henry’s desired annulment, far from being speedily approved, was not so hastily declined. The pope was not eager to anger Henry, or Charles. He prevaricated. He commissioned experts to debate Henry’s petition. He requested documents. He sent emissaries to England and back. Meanwhile, the months passed and Henry’s patience grew thin. He pressed Wolsey; Wolsey pressed the pope. But Wolsey also considered the end result of the annulment. For the annulment meant Henry’s certain marriage to Anne Boleyn and the ascendancy of her family, the Norfolks. This great aristocratic house had long disliked Wolsey and connived against him. Like the other nobles, they felt their natural place was at the king’s side as his trusted advisers.
Wolsey had no great affection for Katharine of Aragon and, like any good Englishman, he wished for a male heir to the throne. If Henry was determined to have a new wife, well enough – but why not a foreign princess? A match that could enrich England and widen its sphere of influence? When Wolsey contemplated Henry’s future bride, it was not the odious Norfolk’s niece that he imagined. This meant that he did all he could to facilitate the annulment from Katharine whist trying to pry him from Anne Boleyn. He was not successful at either task. And his machinations against Anne earned him her open scorn and enmity. They both recognized that as one influence waned, the other waxed; it was merely a question of whether the king’s romantic passion would overcome his long reliance upon Wolsey.
And here we must consider Henry’s opinion of Wolsey, after two decades of service. The king was not unaware of gossip about his chancellor. Wolsey’s wealth was vast; he had illegitimate children; he traveled with a retinue of hundreds. He served his king well, but he had prospered in that service. And perhaps his vanity was not becoming to a priest? Henry might have dismissed gossip against Wolsey before. But now he was in love, – truly in love for the first time in his life – and the object of that passion was the one who shared the gossip. The Cardinal was old, inept; he hated her; he did not obey the king’s will, but rather his own ambitions. And so on.
In the end, Wolsey failed. The endless debates, commissions, letters, – they all ended as they began. The papa dispensation that had allowed the marriage in 1509 was valid; Henry and Katharine were legally wed. On 24 June 1529, Wolsey had presciently remarked, “The Pope has refused all the concessions, relying on him, I had promised the king…. And that will be my ruin.” But Henry was uncharacteristically generous in Wolsey’s fall. On 9 October 1530, he was indicted for Praemunire, which essentially meant that Wolsey supported papal connivance against his monarch. A week later, he surrendered the great seal and his chancellorship; on 22 October, he confessed his guilt. But now the king was merciful. With his confidante brought low and his ultimate authority demonstrated to all, Henry refused imprisonment for Wolsey, and allowed him to retire to his archbishopric of York. Ironically, Wolsey had never visited York since his investiture fifteen years earlier. And he was destined to never reach it this time.
The trip to York – complete with a retinue of hundreds, for Wolsey wished to make his arrival as splendid as possible – moved so slowly that Wolsey had time to send ill-considered correspondence to Rome. These letters were reported to the king. Mercy had been offered once, but not again. On Friday, 4 November, Wolsey was arrested and ordered to return to London and certain imprisonment. He escaped the fate his enemies had planned for him.
Wolsey is usually remembered with opprobrium. His two most famous protégés, Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, both remarked upon him in speeches to Parliament after his fall. More denounced Wolsey in particularly colorful terms, and this can either be interpreted as blatant self-interest or genuine disgust at Wolsey’s machinations. For his part, Cromwell demonstrated bravery and loyalty by defending his former master. Of course, a decade later, both More and Cromwell would be dead – executed at the whim of Henry VIII.
Wolsey was the last of his kind, – the great ecclesiastical statesmen that had flourished throughout medieval Europe. He had mostly operated within the confines of existing government structure, and must of his administration was a continuation of Henry VII’s government. Parliament met only once from 1515 to 1529, but this, too, was not unlike the reigns of Henry VII and Edward IV. Wolsey’s unpopularity with Parliament, and the common Englishman, stemmed mostly from unexpectedly heavy taxation. Henry VIII had inherited a full treasury from his notoriously thrifty father. He had also executed his father’s two chief tax collectors on trumped-up charges upon his own ascension. The English people thus had reason to believe their new king would be less of a financial burden than his father. But they had not reckoned upon Henry VIII’s martial ambitions. Initially successful, they were increasingly lengthy, costly, and unsuccessful. And it was Wolsey’s task to find the funds for the king’s ambition. He did so with enthusiasm, and some degree of fairness; even as he pushed for more money, Wolsey also organized the tax system into a more transparent and equitable operation. Henry received his money and he used Wolsey, as always, as his scapegoat.
Wolsey’s influence upon English justice was slight, but he began a series of welcome changes that would later be continued under his protégé Cromwell. He remade the Star Chamber into a court with fixed rules, and he was adamant that those rules were not broken by the mighty. He openly boasted to the king when unruly nobles were brought into line; certainly, this did not endear him to courtiers either. Wolsey also sought to reform the practice of enclosure, one of the more egregious sins against England’s peasantry. His influence upon the English church was mostly negative. Wolsey’s vanity led him to establish certain independence of spirit with regard to Rome. He did not consciously encourage separation from Rome, but he did not actively encourage their involvement in the English church. Put another way, one could argue that the English church was more nationalized than its European counterparts. And this independence would ease the way into its eventual acceptance of the king as its supreme head, rather than the pope. Wolsey also began the process of suppressing various monasteries in an attempt to consolidate his own wealth. This would be the blueprint which Cromwell (with Henry’s approval) would follow after the break with Rome.
2. Background from {[http://www.kyrackramer.com/2017/11/04/wolseys-treason//]}
THE ARREST AND TREASON OF CARDINAL WOLSEY
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was King Henry VIII’s right hand man for years, and when he fell from the king’s favour, the prelate — along with everyone else — blamed Anne Boleyn for his disgrace. This is, however, poppycock. Wolsey was accused of committing treason because he committed treason.
Motivated by his hatred of Henry’s intended bride, in 1530 Wolsey foolishly offered his clandestine support to the king’s first wife, Katherina of Aragon, in order to frustrate Henry’s plan to gain an annulment. Wolsey even began “advising foreign powers on the best tactics to use against his sovereign” in an attempt to “foment unrest in England” and “coerce Henry into leaving Anne”[1]. That, by anyone’s standards, is base treason.
There are some historians who believe that Anne pushed Henry into arresting Wolsey for treason on 4 November 1530 — that she threatened to leave the king if he did not move against his pernicious former Chancellor[2]. However, there is no evidence that it was Anne who initiated Wolsey’s arrest. Moreover, there was no need for Anne to make that demand. Wolsey had clearly dug his own grave with his back-handed rebellion against his monarch. Finding out Wolsey was plotting against him would have spurred Henry into action much more quickly than any coaxing by Anne Boleyn.
It will never be known if Wolsey would have sweet-talked the king into forgiving him, because the Cardinal died a natural death on the trip back to London, on 29 November 29. Henry was still angry enough at his former favourite to punish him beyond the grave. The king changed the name of Wolsey’s former home — York Place — to Whitehall and gave it over to Anne’s use in a severe posthumous insult to the dead Cardinal. [4]
Did Anne feel a sense of satisfaction when she was at Whitehall, thinking of how unhappy Wolsey would be to know his worst enemy was enjoying the home he worked so hard on? Did she feel this would “work as much displeasure” for the Cardinal as she felt after Henry Percy was torn away from her? Who knows? Anne never said. Nonetheless, the lack of information as to Anne’s true feeling has not stopped historians for assuming she orchestrated and levered in Wolsey’s downfall. Then, as now, Anne perpetually serves as a scapegoat for the actions of Henry VIII.
The Cardinal’s arrest was a scandal and the tales doubtlessly grew in the telling. Shortly before Wolsey’s death, imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote to Emperor Charles V to tell him an item of gossip he had gleaned from Wolsey’s personal physician. According to Chapuys, the doctor had admitted to him that Wolsey had urged the Pope to excommunicate the king unless he sent Anne away and that the Cardinal hoped to “raise the country and obtain the management” by these intrigues. [5] It is completely understandable that the Cardinal would want to rid himself of Anne Boleyn, but it seems doubtful he was planning to help the Holy Roman Empire take over England by force. Chapuys was desperate to coax Charles V into an invasion of England in the hopes of placing Henry’s eldest daughter, Princess Mary, on the throne. It seems far more likely that Chapuys would take any rumour of a plot to overthrow Henry and exaggerate it for fullest effect than that Wosley was plotting an imperial assault on Britian.
A Spanish invasion of England was nonetheless not such a far-fetched possibility that it could be ignored or dismissed by Henry VIII. Two years earlier, in November of 1528, an English agent had written to Wolsey in order to warn him that the Spanish chancellor had bragged that “if we wished we could expel [Henry] from his own Kingdom in three months. What force had the King? his own subjects would expel him”[6]. This was probably bravado on the part of Spain; in spite of Chapuy’s claims and the Spanish chancellor’s boasts, the people of England were not so eager to get rid of their king.
When the words of the Spanish chancellor were reported in London they were received poorly, turning popular opinion against the Emperor and even lessening support for the Princess Mary. A letter from one English nobleman to another stated that Charles V “lost the hearts of one hundred thousand Englishmen” that day.[7] The king’s later later paranoia about the potential rebellion of his first wife and daughter was not as groundless as it would seem.
Henry VIII had not yet made the transformation from monarch to monster in the first part of the 1530s, and Wolsey’s arrest was a rational outcome of the Cardinal’s own behaviour rather than paranoia on the king’s part or malicious efforts by Anne Boleyn. Wolsey’s death is one that should not be laid at Henry’s door.
________________________________________
[1] Starkey, David. 2003. Six Wives : The Queens of Henry VIII. Chatto & Windus.
[2] Starkey, 2003:429-430
[3] Starkey, 2003:432
[4] Lindsey, K. 1995. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
[5] Froude, James Anthony. 1891. The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon: The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry VIII … Longmans, Green & co.
[6] Froude, 1891:82
[7] Froude, 1891:83"
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The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII's minister, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-d5tjMICaI
Images:
1. Cardinal Wolsey at the Gate of Leicester Abbey painted by Charles West Pope in 1847, oil on canvas
2. Cardinal Wolsey Going in Procession to Westminster Hall by Sir John Gilbert
3. Oct 1529 Illustration of George Cavendish´s biography of Wolsey, showing the Cardinal fall: the Cardinal surrenders the great seal of England, symbolising the Lord Chancellorship, to his enemies, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, Oct 1529
4. Illustration of George Cavendish´s biography of Wolsey, showing the Cardinal pomp: Wolsey riding in procession preceded by his great crosses, as Archbishop and legate; and his Cardinal hat.
Biographies:
1. englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens/thomas-wolsey
2. kyrackramer.com/2017/11/04/wolseys-treason/
1. Background from {[https://englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens/thomas-wolsey/]}
Thomas Wolsey: Biography, Portrait, Facts & Information
Thomas Wolsey was born in Ipswich, c1475. His beginnings were not auspicious. After he rose to power, jealous courtiers claimed his father had been a butcher; Wolsey’s own servant and eventual biographer, George Cavendish, said merely that Wolsey was “an honest poor man’s son.” Whatever the truth of his father’s work, they were a poor and unknown family and it was Wolsey’s brilliance and hard work which led him from Ipswich to become ruler of England in all but title.
He was educated at Oxford and took his degree at 15, a formidable achievement. He then became a fellow of Magdalen College and was ordained a priest in 1498. Given Wolsey’s vast accumulation of wealth in later years, some of which was acquired by suppressing almost 30 monasteries, many historians and biographers have questioned his religious vocation. His contemporaries were equally skeptical. But in his early career, Wolsey was neither ostentatious nor grasping. And the only indication we have that he was fast and loose with money is this – appointed bursar of Magdalen in 1499, he was forced to resign when officials learned he had misapplied funds to a construction project without their approval. This was hardly scandalous. Wolsey shortly thereafter became chaplain to Archbishop Deane of Canterbury. This position was short-lived and, in 1503, he was made chaplain to Sir Richard Fanfan, the deputy lieutenant of Calais. It was this appointment which marks the beginning of Wolsey’s political career.
Fanfan spoke highly of Wolsey to King Henry VII and, upon his death in 1507, the old king chose Wolsey to be his chaplain. The old king’s opinion of Wolsey was high enough that he appointed him dean of Lincoln shortly before his own death in April 1509. The death of Henry VII provided Wolsey with an opportunity that any brilliant, ambitious man would have seized. Unfortunately for Wolsey, he was not a courtier of noble blood; such gentlemen considered royal favor and intimacy as their birthright. They were not inclined to look kindly upon Wolsey as he now became fast friends with their new king, Henry VIII.
Wolsey was smart, energetic, and confident. These were qualities he shared with the 18-year-old Henry VIII. And Wolsey was a particularly shrewd judge of Henry’s character; this, more than anything else, was the reason he succeeded so brilliantly – and for so long – at managing a notoriously mercurial king.
Henry VIII’s ascension was viewed as the dawn of a new age by his contemporaries. Not only was it the beginning of a new century, but it was also the beginning of the Renaissance in England. The printing press, first developed by Gutenberg in the mid-15th century, was now a fixture of most European cities, including London. This not only allowed the free exchange of ideas across the continent, but it also encouraged that exchange. For the first time in human history, a physical distance was not a significant barrier to communication.
And so we must make certain allowances for King Henry VIII. His people were becoming more educated and consequently more assertive. They did not question his divine rights, but – especially in the later years of his reign – they did question his decisions.
In the early years of his reign, Henry allowed Wolsey to make most of the decisions. Henry had appointed Wolsey royal almoner a few months after his coronation. And it was easy for Wolsey to flatter the new king into allowing him more and more control over the boring business of state. Henry was an intelligent man, but he was like most kings in that he preferred the pleasurable aspects of rule to the routine of business. It was easy enough to let Wolsey hear petitions, or advise him on matters of state, or to talk with foreign envoys and report back to him. And as Wolsey did so, Henry’s reliance upon him grew. And it was in 1513 that Wolsey had his greatest foreign policy success, and it did much to solidify his bond with the young king.
Henry had long wished to make his mark upon European affairs. This was partly youthful bravado. He was young, brash, strong; he wished to stride upon the world stage and make his fellow monarchs (particularly the new king of France) take notice. Henry had married his brother’s widow, Katharine of Aragon; she was the Catholic daughter of the rulers of Spain, and cousin to the Holy Roman Emperor. When Pope Julius II needed aid against the French in 1513, Henry seized the chance to prove his worth. But of course it was Wolsey who must organize and implement the king’s grand – and vague – plans. And he did so with aplomb. Henry’s campaign against the French was a resounding success. Victories at Therouanne, Tournai, and the battle of the Spurs made Wolsey untouchable at court – and indispensable to his king.
Pope Leo X (who succeeded Julius) soon made Wolsey bishop of Lincoln, archbishop of York, and cardinal. And in December 1515, when William Warham resigned from the position, Wolsey was made Lord Chancellor of England. His greatest ecclesiastical ambition was achieved when Leo made him a special papal representative with the title legate a latere. (Wolsey’s accumulation of ecclesiastical offices led his contemporaries, and later historians, to argue that he yearned to be the first English pope. There is certainly cause to think Henry – especially when seeking his annulment from Katharine of Aragon – liked the idea. Wolsey himself showed no particular desire to leave England.) These titles – along with lesser ones – allowed Wolsey to amass great wealth and soon his fortune was second only to the king’s. This did not go unremarked upon by Henry’s jealous courtiers. But Wolsey was merely following tradition; few, if any, Tudor statesmen did not enrich themselves while in office.
From about 1515 to 1529, Wolsey controlled the English state. Certainly he was ultimately dependent upon the will of the king, but he managed the increasingly temperamental Henry as well as anyone could. As Lord Chancellor, Wolsey governed the state of England; as legate, he governed the church in England. Such complete control of the mechanics of political and religious life would never be achieved by another English statesman.
But of course Wolsey must fall. Once he had achieved all that he could, there was nothing for him to do but fail.
The primary cause of Wolsey’s fall would be his inability to settle the king’s ‘Great Matter’. Henry initially sought an annulment of his marriage to Katharine because she had not produced a male heir. He was later spurred by his love affair with Anne Boleyn. Henry justified his actions by a belated realization that Katharine’s prior marriage to his older brother, Arthur, made her later marriage to him incestuous and thus unlawful. Of course, he conveniently ignored the papal dispensation which had made their wedding legitimate in the eyes of the church. In Henry’s new interpretation of religious law, papal dispensations were all well and good, but they could not trump the actual words of the Bible. This was merely the philosophical cover for what he believed would be a political decision. The pope had no cause to refuse his request for an annulment; Henry – and Wolsey – expected it to be granted relatively quickly.
But they did not reckon on the interference of Katharine’s nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Family pride and, more importantly, dynastic ambition (Katharine and Henry’s daughter Mary was considered a potential wife for either Charles or his son Philip) made him hostile to Henry’s plans. And Charles was quite literally in charge of the pope.
And so Henry’s desired annulment, far from being speedily approved, was not so hastily declined. The pope was not eager to anger Henry, or Charles. He prevaricated. He commissioned experts to debate Henry’s petition. He requested documents. He sent emissaries to England and back. Meanwhile, the months passed and Henry’s patience grew thin. He pressed Wolsey; Wolsey pressed the pope. But Wolsey also considered the end result of the annulment. For the annulment meant Henry’s certain marriage to Anne Boleyn and the ascendancy of her family, the Norfolks. This great aristocratic house had long disliked Wolsey and connived against him. Like the other nobles, they felt their natural place was at the king’s side as his trusted advisers.
Wolsey had no great affection for Katharine of Aragon and, like any good Englishman, he wished for a male heir to the throne. If Henry was determined to have a new wife, well enough – but why not a foreign princess? A match that could enrich England and widen its sphere of influence? When Wolsey contemplated Henry’s future bride, it was not the odious Norfolk’s niece that he imagined. This meant that he did all he could to facilitate the annulment from Katharine whist trying to pry him from Anne Boleyn. He was not successful at either task. And his machinations against Anne earned him her open scorn and enmity. They both recognized that as one influence waned, the other waxed; it was merely a question of whether the king’s romantic passion would overcome his long reliance upon Wolsey.
And here we must consider Henry’s opinion of Wolsey, after two decades of service. The king was not unaware of gossip about his chancellor. Wolsey’s wealth was vast; he had illegitimate children; he traveled with a retinue of hundreds. He served his king well, but he had prospered in that service. And perhaps his vanity was not becoming to a priest? Henry might have dismissed gossip against Wolsey before. But now he was in love, – truly in love for the first time in his life – and the object of that passion was the one who shared the gossip. The Cardinal was old, inept; he hated her; he did not obey the king’s will, but rather his own ambitions. And so on.
In the end, Wolsey failed. The endless debates, commissions, letters, – they all ended as they began. The papa dispensation that had allowed the marriage in 1509 was valid; Henry and Katharine were legally wed. On 24 June 1529, Wolsey had presciently remarked, “The Pope has refused all the concessions, relying on him, I had promised the king…. And that will be my ruin.” But Henry was uncharacteristically generous in Wolsey’s fall. On 9 October 1530, he was indicted for Praemunire, which essentially meant that Wolsey supported papal connivance against his monarch. A week later, he surrendered the great seal and his chancellorship; on 22 October, he confessed his guilt. But now the king was merciful. With his confidante brought low and his ultimate authority demonstrated to all, Henry refused imprisonment for Wolsey, and allowed him to retire to his archbishopric of York. Ironically, Wolsey had never visited York since his investiture fifteen years earlier. And he was destined to never reach it this time.
The trip to York – complete with a retinue of hundreds, for Wolsey wished to make his arrival as splendid as possible – moved so slowly that Wolsey had time to send ill-considered correspondence to Rome. These letters were reported to the king. Mercy had been offered once, but not again. On Friday, 4 November, Wolsey was arrested and ordered to return to London and certain imprisonment. He escaped the fate his enemies had planned for him.
Wolsey is usually remembered with opprobrium. His two most famous protégés, Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, both remarked upon him in speeches to Parliament after his fall. More denounced Wolsey in particularly colorful terms, and this can either be interpreted as blatant self-interest or genuine disgust at Wolsey’s machinations. For his part, Cromwell demonstrated bravery and loyalty by defending his former master. Of course, a decade later, both More and Cromwell would be dead – executed at the whim of Henry VIII.
Wolsey was the last of his kind, – the great ecclesiastical statesmen that had flourished throughout medieval Europe. He had mostly operated within the confines of existing government structure, and must of his administration was a continuation of Henry VII’s government. Parliament met only once from 1515 to 1529, but this, too, was not unlike the reigns of Henry VII and Edward IV. Wolsey’s unpopularity with Parliament, and the common Englishman, stemmed mostly from unexpectedly heavy taxation. Henry VIII had inherited a full treasury from his notoriously thrifty father. He had also executed his father’s two chief tax collectors on trumped-up charges upon his own ascension. The English people thus had reason to believe their new king would be less of a financial burden than his father. But they had not reckoned upon Henry VIII’s martial ambitions. Initially successful, they were increasingly lengthy, costly, and unsuccessful. And it was Wolsey’s task to find the funds for the king’s ambition. He did so with enthusiasm, and some degree of fairness; even as he pushed for more money, Wolsey also organized the tax system into a more transparent and equitable operation. Henry received his money and he used Wolsey, as always, as his scapegoat.
Wolsey’s influence upon English justice was slight, but he began a series of welcome changes that would later be continued under his protégé Cromwell. He remade the Star Chamber into a court with fixed rules, and he was adamant that those rules were not broken by the mighty. He openly boasted to the king when unruly nobles were brought into line; certainly, this did not endear him to courtiers either. Wolsey also sought to reform the practice of enclosure, one of the more egregious sins against England’s peasantry. His influence upon the English church was mostly negative. Wolsey’s vanity led him to establish certain independence of spirit with regard to Rome. He did not consciously encourage separation from Rome, but he did not actively encourage their involvement in the English church. Put another way, one could argue that the English church was more nationalized than its European counterparts. And this independence would ease the way into its eventual acceptance of the king as its supreme head, rather than the pope. Wolsey also began the process of suppressing various monasteries in an attempt to consolidate his own wealth. This would be the blueprint which Cromwell (with Henry’s approval) would follow after the break with Rome.
2. Background from {[http://www.kyrackramer.com/2017/11/04/wolseys-treason//]}
THE ARREST AND TREASON OF CARDINAL WOLSEY
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was King Henry VIII’s right hand man for years, and when he fell from the king’s favour, the prelate — along with everyone else — blamed Anne Boleyn for his disgrace. This is, however, poppycock. Wolsey was accused of committing treason because he committed treason.
Motivated by his hatred of Henry’s intended bride, in 1530 Wolsey foolishly offered his clandestine support to the king’s first wife, Katherina of Aragon, in order to frustrate Henry’s plan to gain an annulment. Wolsey even began “advising foreign powers on the best tactics to use against his sovereign” in an attempt to “foment unrest in England” and “coerce Henry into leaving Anne”[1]. That, by anyone’s standards, is base treason.
There are some historians who believe that Anne pushed Henry into arresting Wolsey for treason on 4 November 1530 — that she threatened to leave the king if he did not move against his pernicious former Chancellor[2]. However, there is no evidence that it was Anne who initiated Wolsey’s arrest. Moreover, there was no need for Anne to make that demand. Wolsey had clearly dug his own grave with his back-handed rebellion against his monarch. Finding out Wolsey was plotting against him would have spurred Henry into action much more quickly than any coaxing by Anne Boleyn.
It will never be known if Wolsey would have sweet-talked the king into forgiving him, because the Cardinal died a natural death on the trip back to London, on 29 November 29. Henry was still angry enough at his former favourite to punish him beyond the grave. The king changed the name of Wolsey’s former home — York Place — to Whitehall and gave it over to Anne’s use in a severe posthumous insult to the dead Cardinal. [4]
Did Anne feel a sense of satisfaction when she was at Whitehall, thinking of how unhappy Wolsey would be to know his worst enemy was enjoying the home he worked so hard on? Did she feel this would “work as much displeasure” for the Cardinal as she felt after Henry Percy was torn away from her? Who knows? Anne never said. Nonetheless, the lack of information as to Anne’s true feeling has not stopped historians for assuming she orchestrated and levered in Wolsey’s downfall. Then, as now, Anne perpetually serves as a scapegoat for the actions of Henry VIII.
The Cardinal’s arrest was a scandal and the tales doubtlessly grew in the telling. Shortly before Wolsey’s death, imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote to Emperor Charles V to tell him an item of gossip he had gleaned from Wolsey’s personal physician. According to Chapuys, the doctor had admitted to him that Wolsey had urged the Pope to excommunicate the king unless he sent Anne away and that the Cardinal hoped to “raise the country and obtain the management” by these intrigues. [5] It is completely understandable that the Cardinal would want to rid himself of Anne Boleyn, but it seems doubtful he was planning to help the Holy Roman Empire take over England by force. Chapuys was desperate to coax Charles V into an invasion of England in the hopes of placing Henry’s eldest daughter, Princess Mary, on the throne. It seems far more likely that Chapuys would take any rumour of a plot to overthrow Henry and exaggerate it for fullest effect than that Wosley was plotting an imperial assault on Britian.
A Spanish invasion of England was nonetheless not such a far-fetched possibility that it could be ignored or dismissed by Henry VIII. Two years earlier, in November of 1528, an English agent had written to Wolsey in order to warn him that the Spanish chancellor had bragged that “if we wished we could expel [Henry] from his own Kingdom in three months. What force had the King? his own subjects would expel him”[6]. This was probably bravado on the part of Spain; in spite of Chapuy’s claims and the Spanish chancellor’s boasts, the people of England were not so eager to get rid of their king.
When the words of the Spanish chancellor were reported in London they were received poorly, turning popular opinion against the Emperor and even lessening support for the Princess Mary. A letter from one English nobleman to another stated that Charles V “lost the hearts of one hundred thousand Englishmen” that day.[7] The king’s later later paranoia about the potential rebellion of his first wife and daughter was not as groundless as it would seem.
Henry VIII had not yet made the transformation from monarch to monster in the first part of the 1530s, and Wolsey’s arrest was a rational outcome of the Cardinal’s own behaviour rather than paranoia on the king’s part or malicious efforts by Anne Boleyn. Wolsey’s death is one that should not be laid at Henry’s door.
________________________________________
[1] Starkey, David. 2003. Six Wives : The Queens of Henry VIII. Chatto & Windus.
[2] Starkey, 2003:429-430
[3] Starkey, 2003:432
[4] Lindsey, K. 1995. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
[5] Froude, James Anthony. 1891. The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon: The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry VIII … Longmans, Green & co.
[6] Froude, 1891:82
[7] Froude, 1891:83"
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The King's Cardinal? Wolsey and Henry VIII presented by Glenn Richardson
Prof Glenn Richardson, the author of Renaissance Monarchy (Bloomsbury) and The Field of the Cloth of Gold (Yale) will discuss this relationship in the light ...
The King's Cardinal? Wolsey and Henry VIII presented by Glenn Richardson
Prof Glenn Richardson, the author of Renaissance Monarchy (Bloomsbury) and The Field of the Cloth of Gold (Yale) will discuss this relationship in the light of research carried out for his forthcoming biography on Wolsey."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxrWKq7JyPI
Images:
1. Tomb of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey at Abbey Park in Leicester, England,
2. Thomas Wolsey [1473 -1530 Cardinal, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England ordained as priest at St Peter's Church, High Street , Marlborough on 10th March 1498
3. Bust of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey kept at St Stephen Church - Ipswich
4. Bronze statue of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in St Nicholas Street, Ipswich
Background from {[http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/ThomasWolsey(Cardinal).htm]}
Cardinal Thomas WOLSEY
Born: ABT 1471, Ipswitch
Died: 29 Nov 1530, Leicester Abbey, Leicestershire, England
Father: Robert WULCY
Mother: ¿?
Associated with: Joan LARCKE (dau. of Peter Larke) (m.2 George Legh of Adlington - m.3 Sir George Paulet)
Children:
1. Thomas WYNTER (See his Biography)
2. Dorothy WYNTER
________________________________________
Cardinal, Archbishop of York, b. at Ipswitch, the usually accepted date, 1471, being probably three or four years too early; d. at Leicester Abbey, 29 Nov, 1530. His father, Robert Wulcy (or Wolsey), was a man of substance, owning property in Ipswich, but it is not known that he was a butcher as commonly reported. The Cardinal himself always wrote his name as "Wulcy". He was unusually intelligent and was sent to Magdalene College of Oxford University at the age of eleven instead of the normal age of fourteen. At the early age of fifteen Wolsey had gained his degree as a Bachelor of Arts, which earnt him the nickname of the 'boy bachelor'. About 1497 he was elected fellow of Magdalen, and after becoming M. A. was appointed master of the adjoining school. The father of three of his pupils, Thomas Grey, 1º Marquis of Dorset, presented him the rectory of Limington in Somerset in Oct, 1500. He had been ordained priest at Marlborough (10 Mar 1498) by the suffragan of the Bishop of Salisbury. He also received other benefices, and became one of the domestic chaplains to Henry Dean, Archbishop of Canterbury.
After leaving Oxford Wolsey worked his way up the social ladder with help from the Marquis of Dorset and Henry Deane. After Dean's death (1503) Wolsey entered into the service of Sir Richard Nanfan, deputy lieutenant of Calais, who perceived his remarkable talent for administration. Nanfan recommended Wolsey to the King on his retirement in 1506 and in 1507 Wolsey became a chaplain to Henry VII, and was befriended by the influential Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester. He shortly acquired the livings of Redgrave in Suffolk (1506) and Lydd in Sussex (1508), and about this time the King began to employ him in the diplomatic service; it was probably then that he made the well- known journey into Flanders and back as special envoy to the Emperor Maximilian with such rapidity that when he returned on the third day the King, believing he had not yet started, rebuked him for remissness. As Master of the Rolls his grasp of practical affairs enabled him to initiate reforms which greatly accelerated the business of the Court.
On 2 Feb 1509, he was made dean of Lincoln, and on the accession of Henry VIII, which happened shortly after, he received an assurance of the continuance of royal favour in his appointment as almoner.
On Henry VII's death Wolsey stood to lose everything as 'the old king's favourites were not popular in the new reign' but by 1509, with help from Richard Fox, Wolsey secured the deanery of Hereford. Wolsey, about thirty years of age and blessed with energy and confidence, found himself with a new master - an eighteen-year-old King determined to achieve as much glory and renown as possible. From here on the rise of Wolsey must have been wanted by Henry VIII. This is indicated by the actions of the other members of the council. On 26 May 1511 Wolsey presented Warham with a bill signed by the King but which lacked the authentication of both signet and privy seal and yet the chancellor accepted it because 'Dominus Wulcy' gave him the letters by the King's direct command. It suggests that the King did trust Wolsey, even from an early stage and that those close to the King recognised this too. It would seem then that the increased speed of Wolsey's rise was not coincidental and was manufactured by Henry himself.
It would be illogical to say that Wolsey's rapid rise to power from the lowest depths proves that Henry VIII had complete trust in him. Henry was merely following the policy implemented by his father of choosing the most able man for the job and Wolsey was the product of Henry VII's system. Wolsey's rise to power was also aided by the kings annoyance at his councillors left from his father's reign who pressured him to maintain the same policies and who actively discouraged him from going to war.
During the next years he supplicated for the degrees of B. D. and D. D., and obtained the additional livings of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London, and Torrington in Devonshire, as well as a prebend in Hereford cathedral. On 17 Feb 1511, he became a canon of Windsor and soon after registrar to the Order of the Garter.
By 1512 he was exercising marked influence in political affairs and his share in the royal favour was already attracting the dislike of the old nobility. In foreign and domestic business alike the King followed his counsel and daily entrusted more power to his hands. Fresh preferment continued to pour in on him. He became successively dean of Hereford (1512), dean of York (1513), dean of St. Stephen's, Westminster, and precentor of London. He began to keep some state and when he accompanied the King to France in Jun 1513, he was followed by a train of two hundred gentlemen.
Henry's plan to gain this European respect was simple: a successful military strike against France. After one failure, he went in person to achieve glory in Aug 1513 at the Battle of the Spurs. Just a month later, the English defeated the Scots at Flodden Field; Henry's brother-in-law James IV was killed. Of course, the English couldn't sustain a permanent presence in France so they decided on to make peace. Henry's youngest sister Mary was the sacrificial lamb; just eighteen, she was married to the sixty-year-old Louis XII of France. The bridegroom survived just three months of marriage and Mary angered her brother by secretly following her heart and marrying Henry's best friend Charles Brandon just weeks after Louis XII's death.
Wolsey was present through Henry's successful campaign, and at the King's request the Pope named him Bishop of Tournay; but he never obtained possession and later on surrendered his claim to the bishopric for an annual pension. Instead he was appointed Bishop of Lincoln, the papal bulls being dated 6 Feb 1514, and he was consecrated at Lambeth palace on 26 Mar. In the following Sep he succeeded Cardinal Bainbridge as Archbishop of York, and on 10 Sep 1515, was created Cardinal with the title "S. Caecilia trans Tiberim", receiving the hat in Westminster Abbey on 18 Nov. A month later (24 Dec) he became Lord Chancellor of England, and had thus attainted at the early age of forty or there-abouts the highest dignities, spiritual and temporal, that a subject could hope for. His power with the King was so great that the Venetian Ambassador said he now might be called "Ipse rex" (the King himself). Wolsey was also careful to never offend or anger Henry. It was a careful dance and a tribute to his own intelligence that he succeeded in managing this most unmanageable King. Wolsey appealed to Henry's vanity by crediting all success to the King and all failures to his own inadequacies. Henry did not request daily information about Wolsey's doings like his father had done of Empson and Dudley and in Eltons view 'the King was often in a state of ignorance' but this maybe shows a difference in character rather than blind trust. Henry VIII thought himself, at least at the beginning of his reign so strong and powerful that nobody would dare to disregard his wishes.
After 1516 a new group of younger friends gathered around Henry, "the mignons": Sir Francis Bryan, William Carew, Henry Norreys, William Coffin, William Carey; who, in emulation of the French court, became known as the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber. Wolsey dispersed these "mignons" on a series of military and diplomatic missions to prevent their attempts to poison Henry against him. In 1513 both Knyvett and Edward Howard were killed in military service. In 1519 he expelled the mignons to Calais for unbecoming conduct at court. William Compton’s control of the Privy Purse was restricted as was the mignons’ intervention in administering the King’s Wards. His own appointees, Sir Richard Wingfeld, Sir Richard Weston, Sir Richard Jerningham and Sir William Kingston were placed close to the King as Bedchamber Knights of the Body. In 1523 Compton was sent on service to Scotland. He used the Eltham Ordinances in 1526 (supposedly to reform and improve the royal household) to influence appointments to Henry’s closest circle. The number of gentlemen was cut from 12 to 6, among the victims were Wolsey’s key enemies, Compton, Carew and Boleyn. He was able to get the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk to co-operate with him because his competence in government could not be denied. He was also helped by the jealousy and faction that divided his noble opponents; Buckingham, Norfolk and Suffolk had very little time for the mignons.
Of Wolsey's foreign policy only the main lines can be indicated. His first efforts were to lead the King back to his father's policy of an alliance with France in opposition to Fernando of Spain and the Emperor Maximilian. But the French conquest of Milan at the battle of Marignano in 1515 checked this scheme, and led Wolsey to make new treaties with Maximilian and Fernando. After Fernando's death the Cardinal's policy entered on a new phase, calculated to meet the entirely new situation. Fernando's successor, Carlos V, now held Spain, the Indies, Sicily, Naples, and the Netherlands with reversion of the duchy of Austria. Rivalry between the two young monarchs, Francois and Carlos, thus became inevitable, and Wolsey saw the advantage which England would derive from the sense each had of the value of the English alliance. At this time the Pope was endeavouring to raise a crusade against the Turks, and Wolsey adroitly succeeded in effecting a universal peace to which the Pope and Emperor as well as Francois and Carlos were parties. Under cover of this peace Wolsey pushed forward his favourite policy of alliance with France. A treaty with France was carried through by the Cardinal himself and the other councillors were only called to approve what had already been settled.
But in Jan 1519, the situation was again changed by the death of the Emperor Maximilian and the consequent contest for the imperial crown. When Carlos was duly elected Emperor the rivalry between the houses of Habsburg and Valois was accentuated. Instead of three powers -Maximilian, Francois, and Carlos- Wolsey had now only two to reckon with and to play off against each other. He determined on a policy of neutrality with the view of giving England the decisive power in guiding the destinies of Europe. Meetings between Henry and both the rival monarchs took place; he met Carlos at Canterbury and Francois at the celebrated Field of the Cloth of Gold. But a second meeting with the Emperor followed immediately and Henry's personal predilections were in favour of an alliance with him rather than with France. Still Wolsey persuaded the King that the neutral policy was the most profitable, especially when war actually broke out. Both parties to the war were soon willing to accept England's mediation, and Wolsey conducted a long conference during which his conduct was more diplomatic than honest, and before the conference was over he signed a secret treaty with the Emperor which provided for an offensive and defensive alliance against France. This was a new policy for him to adopt, and it is clear that in this treaty his own wishes were overborne by Henry's desire for a new war with France, and it was not till two abortive campaigns had disillusioned the King that Wolsey was again able to resort to diplomatic measures. This treaty with the Emperor was, however, of importance in Wolsey's own life as it opened up the way for his possible election to the papacy.
The death of Leo X (2 Dec 1521) gave the Emperor an opportunity of exercising his influence in Wolsey's favour as he had promised, but the imperial influence was not in fact brought to bear and Wolsey received very few votes. During the year 1522 the alliance with the Emperor continued, and Wolsey was occupied in raising large sums of money for the proposed war against France, becoming thereby still more unpopular with the nation. The new Pope, Adrian VI, died on 14 Sep 1523, and again Wolsey was a candidate for the papacy. The English Ambassadors at Rome were confident that the united influence of Carlos and Henry would secure his election, but again Carlos deceived him and Clement VII was chosen. The new Pope not only confirmed his legateship for life, but gave him the Bishopric of Durham in addition to his Archbishopric of York. Upon this Wolsey resigned the See of Bath and Wells which he had held in commendam since 1518. It does not seem that Wolsey personally was particularly anxious to become Pope, though doubtless he would have accepted the position had he been chosen. On the election of Pope Clement he wrote, "For my part, as I take God to record, I am more joyous thereof than if it had fortuned upon my person", and Anglian historians, such as Bishop Creighton and Dr. James Gairdner, accept this as representing his genuine feelings. The alliance with the Emperor, which had always been against Wolsey's better judgment, did not survive the events of 1523. Henry could not make war again for want of means, and Carlos now distrusted him; so Wolsey reverted to his original idea of alliance with France, but he was not able to do much until 1525, when the defeat and capture of Francois at the battle of Pavia made the dominant power of Carlos a danger to all Europe. In face of this peril Henry reluctantly made a new treaty with France. It was a bold policy for Wolsey, for, having incurred the jealousy of the nobility by his power, he had aroused the hostility of the people by financial exactions, and he provoked the enmity of all by the extravagant pomp with which he surrounded himself on all his public appearances.
The costly splendor of his palaces, his gold and silver plate, and his New Year's gifts outshone those of kings. His servants knelt to wait on him. Bishops tied his shoe-latchets. Dukes held the basin while he washed his hands. Ambassadors might consider themselves honored in being permitted to kiss his hand but might not presume to discuss new business with the King before broaching it to Wolsey.
Wolsey ruthlessly swept away feudal jurisdictions. He initiated the policy of destroying the monasteries, which was to be carried through to completion by Henry VIII. Some of the confiscated property he applied to the foundation of Christ Church College at Oxford. But Wolsey's greed, arrogance, and insatiable lust for power outweighed his many great qualities, and the sumptuous edifice to his grandeur was built on sand. His more than regal state was sustained not by the revenues of his many offices alone but also by enormous pensions from foreign sovereigns, bribes from English applicants for justice, and the misappropriated revenues of the suppressed religious foundations.
Wolsey had quickly established himself as second only to Henry in power. This naturally angered the old nobility who made up the privy council and dominated Parliament. They were indignant that Wolsey, son of a butcher, controlled access to the King. They were also angry that Wolsey refused to treat them as they deserved - simply put, they were nobility and he, despite the honors the King heaped upon him, was a commoner. In the natural order, he was their inferior. His refusal to act inferior was galling to them, particularly the powerful dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk. Certainly Henry was even more proud that his nobles. That begs the question - was he ever insulted by Wolsey's supposedly overbearing arrogance? No; in fact, Henry displayed his typical cunning by selecting his advisor based on both ability and indebtedness. Wolsey was his creation - his to reward or, as he did eventually, destroy. He could rely only on the King's favour, and he knew that to lose this was complete ruin. Just at this critical juncture the King raised the question of the divorce from Queen Catalina in order that he might marry Anne Boleyn. This personal matter "widened into unexpected issues and consumed Wolsey's energies till it led to his fall" (Creighton, p. 150). Wolsey did not wish Henry to marry Anne, but he was not averse to ridding himself of Catalina's adverse political influence, for her sympathy with her nephew the Emperor caused her to dislike Wolsey's French policy. So he lent himself to forward the King's wishes. The first steps were taken in his own legatine court, apparently with the idea that if this tribunal pronounced against the validity of Henry's marriage the Pope would confirm the sentence. But Catalina learned of the King's plan and prepared to defend her rights. As she could count on the sympathy of both Pope and Emperor the King despatched Wolsey to persuade the French King to bring sufficient pressure to bear on the Pope to counteract the influence of Carlos. The scheme was to deliver the Pope from Carlos V, who had sacked Rome, in the hope that Clement's gratitude would induce him to favour the King with regard to the divorce.
The history of the divorce question has been treated of under the articles Clement VII and Henry VIII; it will suffice here to note Wolsey's attitude. When he returned to England he heard for the first time of Knight's embassy to Rome, and thus learnt that he no longer enjoyed the King's complete confidence. And though Anne Boleyn and the King, realizing that he might yet be useful, treated him with friendliness and consideration, he realized that in Anne he had a serious political rival. When the Pope appointed Cardinal Campeggio to try the case in England with Wolsey, the English Cardinal soon learnt that the matter was entirely in his colleague's hands. All Campeggio's efforts to avoid holding the trial at all having failed, the court sat at Blackfriars on 18 Jun, 1529. BEF this Anne Boleyn, regarding Wolsey as responsible for the long delay, had set herself to bring about his fall. The failure of the trial rendered this possible, and during Aug and Sep he was kept at a distance from the Court and was known to be in disgrace.
The Pope had no choice but to obey Carlos's wishes though he struggled to appease Henry as much as possible. He suggested that Henry's illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, should wed Catalina and Henry's daughter Mary. He told Henry to take Anne Boleyn as his mistress and promised to legitimize their children. The Pope even suggested bigamy (send Catalina to a nunnery and marry Anne). But Henry wanted no doubt of the legitimacy of his second marriage and its hoped-for offspring. From 1527 to 1529, he was content to let Wolsey try the usual diplomatic and military solutions but these were unsuccessful. After all, England did not have the military might to force Carlos from Italy and free the Pope to make an independent decision. Had he been free of Carlos, the Pope would undoubtedly have ruled in Henry's favor; it had been done before for monarchs throughout Europe. In fact, though the term 'divorce' is most often used in this case, Henry wasn't actually seeking a divorce. He was actually seeking an annulment - he argued that he had never been legally married to Catalina.
But as Wolsey, near sixty-five, failed to secure an acceptable solution, Henry became impatient. He was now all too willing to listen to his outraged nobles; having suffered with Wolsey for so long, they used their King's impatience to secure his destruction. It was suddenly remembered that Wolsey's office of papal legate was in direct violation of the ancient Statute of Praemunire which outlawed direct papal jurisdiction. Of course, Henry had sanctioned Wolsey's legatine authority and so had broken the law himself. This did not matter. Wolsey was no longer useful to his increasingly ruthless master and on 9 Oct 1529, he was deprived of everything but the archbishopric of York.
In Nov a bill of indictment was preferred against him, and on 19 Nov he had to surrender the great seal of England. On 22 Nov he was forced to sign a deed confessing that he had incurred a praemunire and surrendering all his vast possessions to the King. On 30 Nov judgment was given that he should be out of the King's possession and should forfeit all his lands and goods. He remained at Esher through the winter, disgraced, though not without occasional messages of kindness from the King. His health, which had been bad for many years, now failed seriously. In Feb he received a general pardon, and the possessions of his archbishopric were restored to him, except York House, which he had to convey to the King. He was then allowed to retire to York, where he spent the last six months of his life in devotion and a sincere effort to do his duty as a Bishop. He left London for York in Apr 1530. Though he had been worldly and his private life had not been stainless, he had always been a Catholic. His last days were embittered by the news that the King intended to suppress the two colleges, at Ipswich and Oxford, which he had founded with such care. The former perished, but Christ's College survived, though not in the completeness he had intended.
But Wolsey's enemies wanted him completely destroyed and evidence (probably fabricated) was produced which showed he was corresponding with the French King. This, they argued, was high treason; the Cardinal still believed himself to be invulnerable and fit to represent the King's majesty. He was in residence at Cawood near York, preparatory to being enthroned in York minster, when, on 4 Nov, commissioners from the King came to arrest him on a charge of high treason. Slowly and as an invalid he travelled towards London, knowing well what to expect. "Master Kingston, I see the matter against me now it is framed; but if I had served God as diligently as I have done the King He would not have given me over in my gray hairs". The end came at Leicester Abbey where on arrival he told the abbot, "I am come to leave my bones among you". In Shakespeare's play 'King Henry VIII', in which most of the action centers on the fall of Wolsey, the Cardinal is made to say:
O Cromwell, Cromwell!
Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my King, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
He died unregretted by any save his immediate attendants, yet he had given his life unselfishly to the interests of his country, and no Englishman has ever surpassed him in the genius with which he directed both the foreign and domestic relations of England, so as to make each undertaking help his great design of making her the centre of European politics. His foreign policy, though planned on great and heroic lines, was severely practical. Its object was to help English trade and to maintain peace, to secure union with Scotland, and to effect judicious ecclesiastical reforms. He looked for a European settlement of the difficulties that beset the Church and desired England to take the leading part therein. His failure was owing to the selfishness of Henry. The question of the divorce not only led to the fall of Wolsey, but withdrew England for generations from European politics and made her, not the leader that Wolsey had dreamed of, but a nation apart.
When Wolsey's gentleman usher, George Cavendish, who had been at Wolsey's deathbed at Leicester, travelled to London to tell the King how the Cardinal had died, he found Henry shooting at the butts in the park at Hampton Court. Henry told Cavendish to wait until he had finished shooting, and then changed into his nightgown, and taking Cavendish into the palace through a private door, spoke with him alone about Wolsey's last hours.
Of the contemporary accounts of Wolsey, Polydore Vergil (who had been imprisoned by the Cardinal) in his Anglica Historia and Hall in his Chronicle are equally prejudiced and hostile. So too are the rhymes of Skelton. Opposed to these is Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, which gives a vivid and touching personal account abounding in intimate touches (latest reprint, London, 1887). All the volumes of State Papers from 1509 to 1530 are of importance and their publication in recent years has superseded all the earlier lives of Wolsey. The results of the careful study of these documents may be obtained in Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII (London, 1884) and, in briefer form, in Creighton, Cardinal Wolsey (London, 1888). A Catholic view is represented by Taunton, Thomas Wolsey, Legate and Reformer (London, 1901). See also Gairdner in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.
According to the Dictionary of National Biography Wolsey had a mistress, the sister of John Wynter, Keeper of the King's Storehouse who died in 1554 but she may have been the daughter of another John Wynter of Cardington in Bedfordshire, the second wife of Sir William Gascoigne, Comptroller of Wolsey's Household. There is a brass at Cardington, Bedfordshire to William Gascoigne and his two wives. His second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of John Wynter (Vinter) of Cardington whose arms were "ermine, a bull passant sable" (Wyther or Wynter).
Other sources name his mistress as Joan, perhaps the daughter of Peter Larke, an inn-keeper of Thetford. His son Thomas Larke (d. Jul 1530) became Wolsey's confessor and the King's chaplain. He was given a canonry of St. Stephen's on 10 Nov 1511 and became Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1520-5.
The living of Winwick was held on 21 Jun 1515 by Thomas Larke, Wolsey's chaplain, followed by Wolsey's son, Thomas Wynter in 1525, who was presented to it by the King, after which it went to Thomas Boleyn and Thomas Stanley. It was then restored to Thomas Larke in 1529, followed by William Boleyn and Thomas Wynter.
Wolsey's chaplain may have had some connection with Thomas Larke, vinteyner or captain of a troop of 20 soldiers and Lord Lisle's secretary. Larke, John and Leonard Smyth and William Gonson, Clerk of the King's Ships were residents of Calais in 1539 when Wolsey was chaplain there under the Commander of Calais, Admiral Arthur Plantagenet.
Peter Larke's other sons were William Larke, a draper and Peter, employed by John Kite, Archbishop of Armagh (Wolsey's friend) and afterwards by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester (Wolsey's protégé and secretary) .
Joan Larke or Wynter, later wife of George Legh or Lee of Adlington, Cheshire, lived in a manor house by the Thames near Thames Ditton and Hampton which was later turned into the Swan Inn where Wolsey carved his initials on the mantlepiece of the fireplace.
Wolsey had a son by Joan Larke called Thomas Wynter and a daughter Dorothy Wynter (b. Michaelmas 1512). Why Wolsey gave his children the surname Wynter is a mystery unless it was because Thomas Larke was a vintener or captain of 20 men. Thomas was called Wolsey's nephew, usually an euphemism for an illegitimate son but if he was actually the Cardinal's nephew son, this may mean Wolsey's sister married a Wynter. Perhaps Joan married a Larke, was the Cardinal's sister and had a son by a Wynter. The Cardinal gave her a dowry when she married George Legh or Lee of Adlington, Cheshire. His dau. Dorothy was adopted by John Clansey and later became a nun at Shaftesbury. She received a pension after the Dissolution of Shaftesbury Abbey in 1540 and died there in about 1553. Thomas Wynter may have held the manor of Saunderton in Buckinghamshire as a tenant at the Dissolution of the Abbeys in 1537.
A poor kinswoman of Wolsey's married his servant John Oxenherd, a seaman who carried the Cardinal's goods by sea to the north in Apr 1530. She was threatened with eviction by Thomas More and his son-in-law Daunce.
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Prof Glenn Richardson, the author of Renaissance Monarchy (Bloomsbury) and The Field of the Cloth of Gold (Yale) will discuss this relationship in the light of research carried out for his forthcoming biography on Wolsey."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxrWKq7JyPI
Images:
1. Tomb of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey at Abbey Park in Leicester, England,
2. Thomas Wolsey [1473 -1530 Cardinal, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England ordained as priest at St Peter's Church, High Street , Marlborough on 10th March 1498
3. Bust of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey kept at St Stephen Church - Ipswich
4. Bronze statue of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in St Nicholas Street, Ipswich
Background from {[http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/ThomasWolsey(Cardinal).htm]}
Cardinal Thomas WOLSEY
Born: ABT 1471, Ipswitch
Died: 29 Nov 1530, Leicester Abbey, Leicestershire, England
Father: Robert WULCY
Mother: ¿?
Associated with: Joan LARCKE (dau. of Peter Larke) (m.2 George Legh of Adlington - m.3 Sir George Paulet)
Children:
1. Thomas WYNTER (See his Biography)
2. Dorothy WYNTER
________________________________________
Cardinal, Archbishop of York, b. at Ipswitch, the usually accepted date, 1471, being probably three or four years too early; d. at Leicester Abbey, 29 Nov, 1530. His father, Robert Wulcy (or Wolsey), was a man of substance, owning property in Ipswich, but it is not known that he was a butcher as commonly reported. The Cardinal himself always wrote his name as "Wulcy". He was unusually intelligent and was sent to Magdalene College of Oxford University at the age of eleven instead of the normal age of fourteen. At the early age of fifteen Wolsey had gained his degree as a Bachelor of Arts, which earnt him the nickname of the 'boy bachelor'. About 1497 he was elected fellow of Magdalen, and after becoming M. A. was appointed master of the adjoining school. The father of three of his pupils, Thomas Grey, 1º Marquis of Dorset, presented him the rectory of Limington in Somerset in Oct, 1500. He had been ordained priest at Marlborough (10 Mar 1498) by the suffragan of the Bishop of Salisbury. He also received other benefices, and became one of the domestic chaplains to Henry Dean, Archbishop of Canterbury.
After leaving Oxford Wolsey worked his way up the social ladder with help from the Marquis of Dorset and Henry Deane. After Dean's death (1503) Wolsey entered into the service of Sir Richard Nanfan, deputy lieutenant of Calais, who perceived his remarkable talent for administration. Nanfan recommended Wolsey to the King on his retirement in 1506 and in 1507 Wolsey became a chaplain to Henry VII, and was befriended by the influential Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester. He shortly acquired the livings of Redgrave in Suffolk (1506) and Lydd in Sussex (1508), and about this time the King began to employ him in the diplomatic service; it was probably then that he made the well- known journey into Flanders and back as special envoy to the Emperor Maximilian with such rapidity that when he returned on the third day the King, believing he had not yet started, rebuked him for remissness. As Master of the Rolls his grasp of practical affairs enabled him to initiate reforms which greatly accelerated the business of the Court.
On 2 Feb 1509, he was made dean of Lincoln, and on the accession of Henry VIII, which happened shortly after, he received an assurance of the continuance of royal favour in his appointment as almoner.
On Henry VII's death Wolsey stood to lose everything as 'the old king's favourites were not popular in the new reign' but by 1509, with help from Richard Fox, Wolsey secured the deanery of Hereford. Wolsey, about thirty years of age and blessed with energy and confidence, found himself with a new master - an eighteen-year-old King determined to achieve as much glory and renown as possible. From here on the rise of Wolsey must have been wanted by Henry VIII. This is indicated by the actions of the other members of the council. On 26 May 1511 Wolsey presented Warham with a bill signed by the King but which lacked the authentication of both signet and privy seal and yet the chancellor accepted it because 'Dominus Wulcy' gave him the letters by the King's direct command. It suggests that the King did trust Wolsey, even from an early stage and that those close to the King recognised this too. It would seem then that the increased speed of Wolsey's rise was not coincidental and was manufactured by Henry himself.
It would be illogical to say that Wolsey's rapid rise to power from the lowest depths proves that Henry VIII had complete trust in him. Henry was merely following the policy implemented by his father of choosing the most able man for the job and Wolsey was the product of Henry VII's system. Wolsey's rise to power was also aided by the kings annoyance at his councillors left from his father's reign who pressured him to maintain the same policies and who actively discouraged him from going to war.
During the next years he supplicated for the degrees of B. D. and D. D., and obtained the additional livings of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London, and Torrington in Devonshire, as well as a prebend in Hereford cathedral. On 17 Feb 1511, he became a canon of Windsor and soon after registrar to the Order of the Garter.
By 1512 he was exercising marked influence in political affairs and his share in the royal favour was already attracting the dislike of the old nobility. In foreign and domestic business alike the King followed his counsel and daily entrusted more power to his hands. Fresh preferment continued to pour in on him. He became successively dean of Hereford (1512), dean of York (1513), dean of St. Stephen's, Westminster, and precentor of London. He began to keep some state and when he accompanied the King to France in Jun 1513, he was followed by a train of two hundred gentlemen.
Henry's plan to gain this European respect was simple: a successful military strike against France. After one failure, he went in person to achieve glory in Aug 1513 at the Battle of the Spurs. Just a month later, the English defeated the Scots at Flodden Field; Henry's brother-in-law James IV was killed. Of course, the English couldn't sustain a permanent presence in France so they decided on to make peace. Henry's youngest sister Mary was the sacrificial lamb; just eighteen, she was married to the sixty-year-old Louis XII of France. The bridegroom survived just three months of marriage and Mary angered her brother by secretly following her heart and marrying Henry's best friend Charles Brandon just weeks after Louis XII's death.
Wolsey was present through Henry's successful campaign, and at the King's request the Pope named him Bishop of Tournay; but he never obtained possession and later on surrendered his claim to the bishopric for an annual pension. Instead he was appointed Bishop of Lincoln, the papal bulls being dated 6 Feb 1514, and he was consecrated at Lambeth palace on 26 Mar. In the following Sep he succeeded Cardinal Bainbridge as Archbishop of York, and on 10 Sep 1515, was created Cardinal with the title "S. Caecilia trans Tiberim", receiving the hat in Westminster Abbey on 18 Nov. A month later (24 Dec) he became Lord Chancellor of England, and had thus attainted at the early age of forty or there-abouts the highest dignities, spiritual and temporal, that a subject could hope for. His power with the King was so great that the Venetian Ambassador said he now might be called "Ipse rex" (the King himself). Wolsey was also careful to never offend or anger Henry. It was a careful dance and a tribute to his own intelligence that he succeeded in managing this most unmanageable King. Wolsey appealed to Henry's vanity by crediting all success to the King and all failures to his own inadequacies. Henry did not request daily information about Wolsey's doings like his father had done of Empson and Dudley and in Eltons view 'the King was often in a state of ignorance' but this maybe shows a difference in character rather than blind trust. Henry VIII thought himself, at least at the beginning of his reign so strong and powerful that nobody would dare to disregard his wishes.
After 1516 a new group of younger friends gathered around Henry, "the mignons": Sir Francis Bryan, William Carew, Henry Norreys, William Coffin, William Carey; who, in emulation of the French court, became known as the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber. Wolsey dispersed these "mignons" on a series of military and diplomatic missions to prevent their attempts to poison Henry against him. In 1513 both Knyvett and Edward Howard were killed in military service. In 1519 he expelled the mignons to Calais for unbecoming conduct at court. William Compton’s control of the Privy Purse was restricted as was the mignons’ intervention in administering the King’s Wards. His own appointees, Sir Richard Wingfeld, Sir Richard Weston, Sir Richard Jerningham and Sir William Kingston were placed close to the King as Bedchamber Knights of the Body. In 1523 Compton was sent on service to Scotland. He used the Eltham Ordinances in 1526 (supposedly to reform and improve the royal household) to influence appointments to Henry’s closest circle. The number of gentlemen was cut from 12 to 6, among the victims were Wolsey’s key enemies, Compton, Carew and Boleyn. He was able to get the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk to co-operate with him because his competence in government could not be denied. He was also helped by the jealousy and faction that divided his noble opponents; Buckingham, Norfolk and Suffolk had very little time for the mignons.
Of Wolsey's foreign policy only the main lines can be indicated. His first efforts were to lead the King back to his father's policy of an alliance with France in opposition to Fernando of Spain and the Emperor Maximilian. But the French conquest of Milan at the battle of Marignano in 1515 checked this scheme, and led Wolsey to make new treaties with Maximilian and Fernando. After Fernando's death the Cardinal's policy entered on a new phase, calculated to meet the entirely new situation. Fernando's successor, Carlos V, now held Spain, the Indies, Sicily, Naples, and the Netherlands with reversion of the duchy of Austria. Rivalry between the two young monarchs, Francois and Carlos, thus became inevitable, and Wolsey saw the advantage which England would derive from the sense each had of the value of the English alliance. At this time the Pope was endeavouring to raise a crusade against the Turks, and Wolsey adroitly succeeded in effecting a universal peace to which the Pope and Emperor as well as Francois and Carlos were parties. Under cover of this peace Wolsey pushed forward his favourite policy of alliance with France. A treaty with France was carried through by the Cardinal himself and the other councillors were only called to approve what had already been settled.
But in Jan 1519, the situation was again changed by the death of the Emperor Maximilian and the consequent contest for the imperial crown. When Carlos was duly elected Emperor the rivalry between the houses of Habsburg and Valois was accentuated. Instead of three powers -Maximilian, Francois, and Carlos- Wolsey had now only two to reckon with and to play off against each other. He determined on a policy of neutrality with the view of giving England the decisive power in guiding the destinies of Europe. Meetings between Henry and both the rival monarchs took place; he met Carlos at Canterbury and Francois at the celebrated Field of the Cloth of Gold. But a second meeting with the Emperor followed immediately and Henry's personal predilections were in favour of an alliance with him rather than with France. Still Wolsey persuaded the King that the neutral policy was the most profitable, especially when war actually broke out. Both parties to the war were soon willing to accept England's mediation, and Wolsey conducted a long conference during which his conduct was more diplomatic than honest, and before the conference was over he signed a secret treaty with the Emperor which provided for an offensive and defensive alliance against France. This was a new policy for him to adopt, and it is clear that in this treaty his own wishes were overborne by Henry's desire for a new war with France, and it was not till two abortive campaigns had disillusioned the King that Wolsey was again able to resort to diplomatic measures. This treaty with the Emperor was, however, of importance in Wolsey's own life as it opened up the way for his possible election to the papacy.
The death of Leo X (2 Dec 1521) gave the Emperor an opportunity of exercising his influence in Wolsey's favour as he had promised, but the imperial influence was not in fact brought to bear and Wolsey received very few votes. During the year 1522 the alliance with the Emperor continued, and Wolsey was occupied in raising large sums of money for the proposed war against France, becoming thereby still more unpopular with the nation. The new Pope, Adrian VI, died on 14 Sep 1523, and again Wolsey was a candidate for the papacy. The English Ambassadors at Rome were confident that the united influence of Carlos and Henry would secure his election, but again Carlos deceived him and Clement VII was chosen. The new Pope not only confirmed his legateship for life, but gave him the Bishopric of Durham in addition to his Archbishopric of York. Upon this Wolsey resigned the See of Bath and Wells which he had held in commendam since 1518. It does not seem that Wolsey personally was particularly anxious to become Pope, though doubtless he would have accepted the position had he been chosen. On the election of Pope Clement he wrote, "For my part, as I take God to record, I am more joyous thereof than if it had fortuned upon my person", and Anglian historians, such as Bishop Creighton and Dr. James Gairdner, accept this as representing his genuine feelings. The alliance with the Emperor, which had always been against Wolsey's better judgment, did not survive the events of 1523. Henry could not make war again for want of means, and Carlos now distrusted him; so Wolsey reverted to his original idea of alliance with France, but he was not able to do much until 1525, when the defeat and capture of Francois at the battle of Pavia made the dominant power of Carlos a danger to all Europe. In face of this peril Henry reluctantly made a new treaty with France. It was a bold policy for Wolsey, for, having incurred the jealousy of the nobility by his power, he had aroused the hostility of the people by financial exactions, and he provoked the enmity of all by the extravagant pomp with which he surrounded himself on all his public appearances.
The costly splendor of his palaces, his gold and silver plate, and his New Year's gifts outshone those of kings. His servants knelt to wait on him. Bishops tied his shoe-latchets. Dukes held the basin while he washed his hands. Ambassadors might consider themselves honored in being permitted to kiss his hand but might not presume to discuss new business with the King before broaching it to Wolsey.
Wolsey ruthlessly swept away feudal jurisdictions. He initiated the policy of destroying the monasteries, which was to be carried through to completion by Henry VIII. Some of the confiscated property he applied to the foundation of Christ Church College at Oxford. But Wolsey's greed, arrogance, and insatiable lust for power outweighed his many great qualities, and the sumptuous edifice to his grandeur was built on sand. His more than regal state was sustained not by the revenues of his many offices alone but also by enormous pensions from foreign sovereigns, bribes from English applicants for justice, and the misappropriated revenues of the suppressed religious foundations.
Wolsey had quickly established himself as second only to Henry in power. This naturally angered the old nobility who made up the privy council and dominated Parliament. They were indignant that Wolsey, son of a butcher, controlled access to the King. They were also angry that Wolsey refused to treat them as they deserved - simply put, they were nobility and he, despite the honors the King heaped upon him, was a commoner. In the natural order, he was their inferior. His refusal to act inferior was galling to them, particularly the powerful dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk. Certainly Henry was even more proud that his nobles. That begs the question - was he ever insulted by Wolsey's supposedly overbearing arrogance? No; in fact, Henry displayed his typical cunning by selecting his advisor based on both ability and indebtedness. Wolsey was his creation - his to reward or, as he did eventually, destroy. He could rely only on the King's favour, and he knew that to lose this was complete ruin. Just at this critical juncture the King raised the question of the divorce from Queen Catalina in order that he might marry Anne Boleyn. This personal matter "widened into unexpected issues and consumed Wolsey's energies till it led to his fall" (Creighton, p. 150). Wolsey did not wish Henry to marry Anne, but he was not averse to ridding himself of Catalina's adverse political influence, for her sympathy with her nephew the Emperor caused her to dislike Wolsey's French policy. So he lent himself to forward the King's wishes. The first steps were taken in his own legatine court, apparently with the idea that if this tribunal pronounced against the validity of Henry's marriage the Pope would confirm the sentence. But Catalina learned of the King's plan and prepared to defend her rights. As she could count on the sympathy of both Pope and Emperor the King despatched Wolsey to persuade the French King to bring sufficient pressure to bear on the Pope to counteract the influence of Carlos. The scheme was to deliver the Pope from Carlos V, who had sacked Rome, in the hope that Clement's gratitude would induce him to favour the King with regard to the divorce.
The history of the divorce question has been treated of under the articles Clement VII and Henry VIII; it will suffice here to note Wolsey's attitude. When he returned to England he heard for the first time of Knight's embassy to Rome, and thus learnt that he no longer enjoyed the King's complete confidence. And though Anne Boleyn and the King, realizing that he might yet be useful, treated him with friendliness and consideration, he realized that in Anne he had a serious political rival. When the Pope appointed Cardinal Campeggio to try the case in England with Wolsey, the English Cardinal soon learnt that the matter was entirely in his colleague's hands. All Campeggio's efforts to avoid holding the trial at all having failed, the court sat at Blackfriars on 18 Jun, 1529. BEF this Anne Boleyn, regarding Wolsey as responsible for the long delay, had set herself to bring about his fall. The failure of the trial rendered this possible, and during Aug and Sep he was kept at a distance from the Court and was known to be in disgrace.
The Pope had no choice but to obey Carlos's wishes though he struggled to appease Henry as much as possible. He suggested that Henry's illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, should wed Catalina and Henry's daughter Mary. He told Henry to take Anne Boleyn as his mistress and promised to legitimize their children. The Pope even suggested bigamy (send Catalina to a nunnery and marry Anne). But Henry wanted no doubt of the legitimacy of his second marriage and its hoped-for offspring. From 1527 to 1529, he was content to let Wolsey try the usual diplomatic and military solutions but these were unsuccessful. After all, England did not have the military might to force Carlos from Italy and free the Pope to make an independent decision. Had he been free of Carlos, the Pope would undoubtedly have ruled in Henry's favor; it had been done before for monarchs throughout Europe. In fact, though the term 'divorce' is most often used in this case, Henry wasn't actually seeking a divorce. He was actually seeking an annulment - he argued that he had never been legally married to Catalina.
But as Wolsey, near sixty-five, failed to secure an acceptable solution, Henry became impatient. He was now all too willing to listen to his outraged nobles; having suffered with Wolsey for so long, they used their King's impatience to secure his destruction. It was suddenly remembered that Wolsey's office of papal legate was in direct violation of the ancient Statute of Praemunire which outlawed direct papal jurisdiction. Of course, Henry had sanctioned Wolsey's legatine authority and so had broken the law himself. This did not matter. Wolsey was no longer useful to his increasingly ruthless master and on 9 Oct 1529, he was deprived of everything but the archbishopric of York.
In Nov a bill of indictment was preferred against him, and on 19 Nov he had to surrender the great seal of England. On 22 Nov he was forced to sign a deed confessing that he had incurred a praemunire and surrendering all his vast possessions to the King. On 30 Nov judgment was given that he should be out of the King's possession and should forfeit all his lands and goods. He remained at Esher through the winter, disgraced, though not without occasional messages of kindness from the King. His health, which had been bad for many years, now failed seriously. In Feb he received a general pardon, and the possessions of his archbishopric were restored to him, except York House, which he had to convey to the King. He was then allowed to retire to York, where he spent the last six months of his life in devotion and a sincere effort to do his duty as a Bishop. He left London for York in Apr 1530. Though he had been worldly and his private life had not been stainless, he had always been a Catholic. His last days were embittered by the news that the King intended to suppress the two colleges, at Ipswich and Oxford, which he had founded with such care. The former perished, but Christ's College survived, though not in the completeness he had intended.
But Wolsey's enemies wanted him completely destroyed and evidence (probably fabricated) was produced which showed he was corresponding with the French King. This, they argued, was high treason; the Cardinal still believed himself to be invulnerable and fit to represent the King's majesty. He was in residence at Cawood near York, preparatory to being enthroned in York minster, when, on 4 Nov, commissioners from the King came to arrest him on a charge of high treason. Slowly and as an invalid he travelled towards London, knowing well what to expect. "Master Kingston, I see the matter against me now it is framed; but if I had served God as diligently as I have done the King He would not have given me over in my gray hairs". The end came at Leicester Abbey where on arrival he told the abbot, "I am come to leave my bones among you". In Shakespeare's play 'King Henry VIII', in which most of the action centers on the fall of Wolsey, the Cardinal is made to say:
O Cromwell, Cromwell!
Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my King, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
He died unregretted by any save his immediate attendants, yet he had given his life unselfishly to the interests of his country, and no Englishman has ever surpassed him in the genius with which he directed both the foreign and domestic relations of England, so as to make each undertaking help his great design of making her the centre of European politics. His foreign policy, though planned on great and heroic lines, was severely practical. Its object was to help English trade and to maintain peace, to secure union with Scotland, and to effect judicious ecclesiastical reforms. He looked for a European settlement of the difficulties that beset the Church and desired England to take the leading part therein. His failure was owing to the selfishness of Henry. The question of the divorce not only led to the fall of Wolsey, but withdrew England for generations from European politics and made her, not the leader that Wolsey had dreamed of, but a nation apart.
When Wolsey's gentleman usher, George Cavendish, who had been at Wolsey's deathbed at Leicester, travelled to London to tell the King how the Cardinal had died, he found Henry shooting at the butts in the park at Hampton Court. Henry told Cavendish to wait until he had finished shooting, and then changed into his nightgown, and taking Cavendish into the palace through a private door, spoke with him alone about Wolsey's last hours.
Of the contemporary accounts of Wolsey, Polydore Vergil (who had been imprisoned by the Cardinal) in his Anglica Historia and Hall in his Chronicle are equally prejudiced and hostile. So too are the rhymes of Skelton. Opposed to these is Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, which gives a vivid and touching personal account abounding in intimate touches (latest reprint, London, 1887). All the volumes of State Papers from 1509 to 1530 are of importance and their publication in recent years has superseded all the earlier lives of Wolsey. The results of the careful study of these documents may be obtained in Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII (London, 1884) and, in briefer form, in Creighton, Cardinal Wolsey (London, 1888). A Catholic view is represented by Taunton, Thomas Wolsey, Legate and Reformer (London, 1901). See also Gairdner in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.
According to the Dictionary of National Biography Wolsey had a mistress, the sister of John Wynter, Keeper of the King's Storehouse who died in 1554 but she may have been the daughter of another John Wynter of Cardington in Bedfordshire, the second wife of Sir William Gascoigne, Comptroller of Wolsey's Household. There is a brass at Cardington, Bedfordshire to William Gascoigne and his two wives. His second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of John Wynter (Vinter) of Cardington whose arms were "ermine, a bull passant sable" (Wyther or Wynter).
Other sources name his mistress as Joan, perhaps the daughter of Peter Larke, an inn-keeper of Thetford. His son Thomas Larke (d. Jul 1530) became Wolsey's confessor and the King's chaplain. He was given a canonry of St. Stephen's on 10 Nov 1511 and became Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1520-5.
The living of Winwick was held on 21 Jun 1515 by Thomas Larke, Wolsey's chaplain, followed by Wolsey's son, Thomas Wynter in 1525, who was presented to it by the King, after which it went to Thomas Boleyn and Thomas Stanley. It was then restored to Thomas Larke in 1529, followed by William Boleyn and Thomas Wynter.
Wolsey's chaplain may have had some connection with Thomas Larke, vinteyner or captain of a troop of 20 soldiers and Lord Lisle's secretary. Larke, John and Leonard Smyth and William Gonson, Clerk of the King's Ships were residents of Calais in 1539 when Wolsey was chaplain there under the Commander of Calais, Admiral Arthur Plantagenet.
Peter Larke's other sons were William Larke, a draper and Peter, employed by John Kite, Archbishop of Armagh (Wolsey's friend) and afterwards by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester (Wolsey's protégé and secretary) .
Joan Larke or Wynter, later wife of George Legh or Lee of Adlington, Cheshire, lived in a manor house by the Thames near Thames Ditton and Hampton which was later turned into the Swan Inn where Wolsey carved his initials on the mantlepiece of the fireplace.
Wolsey had a son by Joan Larke called Thomas Wynter and a daughter Dorothy Wynter (b. Michaelmas 1512). Why Wolsey gave his children the surname Wynter is a mystery unless it was because Thomas Larke was a vintener or captain of 20 men. Thomas was called Wolsey's nephew, usually an euphemism for an illegitimate son but if he was actually the Cardinal's nephew son, this may mean Wolsey's sister married a Wynter. Perhaps Joan married a Larke, was the Cardinal's sister and had a son by a Wynter. The Cardinal gave her a dowry when she married George Legh or Lee of Adlington, Cheshire. His dau. Dorothy was adopted by John Clansey and later became a nun at Shaftesbury. She received a pension after the Dissolution of Shaftesbury Abbey in 1540 and died there in about 1553. Thomas Wynter may have held the manor of Saunderton in Buckinghamshire as a tenant at the Dissolution of the Abbeys in 1537.
A poor kinswoman of Wolsey's married his servant John Oxenherd, a seaman who carried the Cardinal's goods by sea to the north in Apr 1530. She was threatened with eviction by Thomas More and his son-in-law Daunce.
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