Dromo's Den

[Up] [Dromo's Den]

Thomas Wolsey Biography

Thomas Wolsey Image

WOLSEY, THOMAS (?1475-1530). A famous English cardinal and statesman. He was born at Ipswich, in Suffolk. His father was a butcher and a small merchant of somewhat unscrupulous character. Young Wolsey was sent to Oxford, where he entered Magdalen College, and graduated at 15. He was selected fellow about 1497, and ordained priest in the spring of the following year. He was appointed master of the college school soon after. In 1500 the, Marquis of Dorset, three of whose sons he had educated, presented him to the living of Limington in Somerset. His career was marked by a steady rise. Besides receiving two other benefices, he became chaplain to Archbishop Deane of Canterbury, and afterward to Sir Richard Nanfan, deputy of Calais, who commended him to Henry VII. As royal chaplain he made many friendships at court, and acquitted himself so well in special embassies to the King of Scotland and the Emperor that he rose higher. Just before Henry's death he became dean of Lincoln, and on the accession of Henry VIII, rolal almoner. Other ecclesiastical dimities followed, and he took his seat in the Privy Council towards the end of 1511.

The influence which Wolsey exercised in public affairs was such as has seldom been enjoyed by a subject. After holding for a short time the deaneries of Hereford and York, he was appointed Bishop of Tournay, which had just fallen into the hands of the English, though he never actually held the see. In the spring of 1514, however, he became Bishop of Lincoln, and six months later he was translated to the archbishopric of York. His foreign policy favored the alliance with France and gradually led the young King away from the Emperor. His position in Europe was recognized by his nomination as Cardinal by Leo X in September, 1515; and before the year's end he was Lord Chancellor in Warham's place. His revenues were of princely magnitude, and were further enlarged by subsidies from foreign potentates, anxious for his favor. He did not bear his honors meekly; in his manner of life he affected a sumptuous magnificence, and his bearing was imperious. He openly aspired to be Pope; there seemed more than once ground for supposing that this crowning object of his ambitions was actually within reach. He became the direct representative of the papacy in 1518, as legate a latere in conjunction with Cardinal Campeggio, and this was afterward prolonged indefinitely, with increased powers.

His purpose in cementing the alliance with France was not to commit England exclusively to that country, but to put her in a position to control the fate of Europe. In 1521, accordingly, circumstances having changed, we find him acting as commissioner for the King in negotiating an offensive and defensive alliance with Charles V against France. He was obliged to side with the war party in the Council, and his measures for raising money caused him to be very unpopular with the nation at large. His enemies were many: eager, on occasion, to discredit him with the King; and the occasion came when, the King set his heart on divorcing Queen Catharine and marrying Anne Boleyn. Wolsey was definitely hostile to the Kin's project, and his negotiations with the Pope for securing his consent to the divorce were conducted, it seemed to Henry, in a half-hearted manner. In 1527 he set out for France as the King's ambassador, and concluded a number of treaties with Francis I at Amiens. But during his absence Henry's displeasure was carefully fanned, and the disgrace of the once powerful Minister was accomplished. In 1529 Wolsev was stripped of his honors and driven from the court. A bill of attainder was passed against him in the House of Lords, though it was thrown out in the Commons. He retired to Esher, a house belonging to the bishopric of Winchester, which by this time he had acquired, and lived in seclusion until he received orders to go to his diocese of York. He moved slowly towards Yorkshire, but on the way was arrested by the Earl of Northumberland at Cawood on a charge of high treason. Less than a month afterward (Nov. 29, 1530), as he was being conveyed towards London in custody, he died of dysentery at the abbey of Leicester.

The faults of Wolsey are obvious; but his pride, ambition, and luxury were counterbalanced by redeeming qualities. He was generous and affable to his dependents, not a few of whom remained faithful to him, at considerable risk. Of learning he was a liberal and enlightened patron; the endowment of Christ Church, Oxford, which he had designed to call Cardinal College, is a monument of this. He was a man of large capacity, and on the whole a faithful, conscientious, and salutary counselor to the monarch who so long entirely trusted him. Consult, besides the state papers of the period, which are condensed in J. S. Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII from his Accession to the Death, of Wolsey (London, IS84) ; Mandell Creighton, Cardinal Wolsey (ib., 1888; new ed., 1903); James Gairdner, "The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey," in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (ib., 1899); E. L. Taunton, Cardinal Wolsey (London, 1900); and the contemporary Life by George Cavendish, as edited by Henry Morley (new ed., Boston, 1905).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 674-675.