Thomas Wolsey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Lord High Chancellor of England | |
| In office 1515–1529 | |
| Preceded by | William Warham |
| Succeeded by | Sir Thomas More |
| Church | Roman Catholic |
| Appointed | 15 September 1514 |
| Term ended | 29 November 1530 |
| Predecessor | Christopher Bainbridge |
| Successor | Edward Lee |
| Other post(s) | Cardinal-Priest ofS. Cecilia (1515–1530) |
| Previous post(s) |
|
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 10 March 1498 by Augustine Church, Titular Bishop of Lydda |
| Consecration | 26 March 1514 by William Warham |
| Created cardinal | 10 September 1515 byLeo X |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. March 1473 Ipswich, Suffolk, England |
| Died | (1530-11-29)29 November 1530 (aged 57) Leicester, Leicestershire, England |
| Buried | Leicester Abbey |
| Parents |
|
| Children | Thomas Wynter Dorothy |
| Education | Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Signature |  |
| Coat of arms |  |
Thomas Wolsey[a] (/ˈwʊlzi/WUUL-zee;[1]c. March 1473[2] – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholiccardinal. WhenHenry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king'salmoner.[3] Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figure in virtually all matters of state. He also held important ecclesiastical appointments. These included theArchbishop of York—the second most important role in the English church—and that ofpapal legate. His appointment as acardinal byPope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy.
The highest political position Wolsey attained wasLord Chancellor, the king's chief adviser (formally, as his successor and discipleThomas Cromwell was not). In that position, he enjoyed great freedom and was often depicted as thealter rex ("other king").[4] After failing to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage toCatherine of Aragon, Wolsey fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles.[5] He retreated to York to fulfil his ecclesiastical duties as archbishop, a position he nominally held but had neglected during his years in government. He was recalled to London to answer to charges of treason—charges Henry commonly used against ministers who fell out of his favour—but died from natural causes on the way.[5]
Thomas Wolsey was born in about 1473, the son of Robert Wolsey ofIpswich and his wife, Joan Daundy.[3] Widespread traditions identify his father as a butcher; his modest origin became a topic of criticism later, when he amassed wealth and power that critics thought more befitting a member of the highnobility. Wolsey attendedIpswich School[3] andMagdalen College School before studying theology atMagdalen College, Oxford.[6]
On 10 March 1498, he was ordained as a priest inMarlborough, Wiltshire,[7] and remained in Oxford, first as the Master of Magdalen College School, and soon the dean of divinity. From 1500 to 1509, Wolsey held a living as rector ofSt Mary's Church, Limington, in Somerset.[8]
In 1502, he became a chaplain toHenry Deane, archbishop of Canterbury, who died the following year.[3] He was then taken into the household of SirRichard Nanfan, who made Wolsey executor of his estate.[9] After Nanfan's death in 1507, Wolsey entered the service of KingHenry VII.[10]
Wolsey benefited from Henry VII's introduction of measures to curb the power of the nobility; the king was willing to favour those from more humble backgrounds.[11] Henry VII appointed Wolseyroyal chaplain.[12] In this position Wolsey served as secretary toRichard Foxe, who recognised Wolsey's ability, dedication, industry and willingness to take on tedious tasks.[13] Wolsey's remarkable rise to power from humble origins attests to his intelligence, administrative ability, industriousness, ambition, and rapport with the king. In April 1508, Wolsey was sent to Scotland to discuss withKing James IV rumours of the renewal of theAuld Alliance.[14][15]
Wolsey's rise coincided with the accession in April 1509 of Henry VIII, whose character, policies and attitude to diplomacy differed significantly from his father's. In 1509 Henry appointed Wolsey to the post of almoner, a position that gave him a seat on thePrivy Council and an opportunity to attain greater prominence and establish personal rapport with the king.[12] A factor in Wolsey's rise was the young Henry VIII's relative lack of interest in the details of government during his early years.[16]
The primary counsellors Henry VIII inherited from his father wereRichard Foxe (c. 1448–1528, Bishop of Winchester 1501–1528) andWilliam Warham (c. 1450–1532, Archbishop of Canterbury 1503–1532). They were cautious and conservative, advising the king to act as a careful administrator like his father. Henry soon appointed to his Privy Council men more sympathetic to his own views and inclinations. Until 1511, Wolsey was adamantly antiwar, but when the king expressed his enthusiasm for an invasion of France, Wolsey adapted his views to the king's and gave persuasive speeches to the Privy Council in favour of war. Warham and Foxe, who did not share the king's enthusiasm for theFrench war, fell from power (1515/1516), and Wolsey took over as the king's most trusted advisor and administrator. When Warham resigned asLord Chancellor in 1515, probably under pressure from Wolsey, Henry appointed Wolsey in his place.[17]
Wolsey made careful moves to destroy or neutralise other courtiers' influence. He helped cause the fall ofEdward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham in 1521, and in 1527 he prosecuted, unsuccessfully, Henry's close friendWilliam Compton and Henry's ex-mistressAnne Stafford, Countess of Huntingdon, for adultery. In the case ofCharles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Wolsey adopted a different strategy, attempting to win Suffolk's favour by his actions after the duke secretly married Henry's sisterMary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France, much to the king's displeasure. Wolsey advised the king not to execute the newlyweds but to embrace them; whether this was out of care for the couple or because of the threat they posed to his own safety remains unclear. The bride, both as sister to Henry and as Dowager Queen of France, had high royal status that could have threatened Wolsey had she so chosen.
Wolsey's rise to a position of great secular power paralleled his increasing status in the church. He became acanon of Windsor in 1511. In 1514 he was madeBishop of Lincoln and then Archbishop of York in the same year.Pope Leo X made him a cardinal in 1515, with the titular church ofSt Cecilia in Trastevere. In 1518 he was appointed as abbot of St. Albans and bishop of Bath.[18] Following the success of the English campaign in France and the peace negotiations that followed, Wolsey's ecclesiastical career advanced further: in 1523 he becameBishop of Durham, a post with wide political powers, and thus became known as Prince-Bishop of Durham. In 1529 he moved on from the bishop position in Durham to become the Bishop of Winchester.[18] With his roles in the church came great wealth and estates, and with the accumulation of his different roles in the church he made upwards of £35,000 a year.[19]
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TheAnglo-French War (1512–14) gave Wolsey a significant opportunity to demonstrate his talents in foreign policy. A convenient justification for going to war came in 1511 in the form of a plea for help fromPope Julius II, who was beginning to feel threatened by France. England formed an alliance with Julius, KingFerdinand II of Aragon, andMaximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor against KingLouis XII of France.[21]
The first English campaign against France proved unsuccessful, partly due to the unreliability of the alliance with Ferdinand. Henry learned from the mistakes of the campaign and in 1513, still with papal support, launched a joint attack on France with Maximilian, successfullycapturing two French cities and causing the French to retreat. Wolsey's ability to keep a large number of troops supplied and equipped for the duration of the war proved a major factor in the English success. He also had a key role in negotiating the Anglo-French treaty of 7 August 1514, which secured a temporary peace between the two nations. Under this treaty,Louis XII would marry Henry's young sister,Mary. In addition England was able to keep the captured city ofTournai and secure an increase in the annual pension France paid.[22]
Meanwhile, a turnover of rulers in Europe threatened to diminish England's influence. With Henry's sister, Mary, married to Louis XII on 9 October 1514, an alliance was formed, but Louis was not in good health. Less than three months later, he died and was succeeded by the young and ambitiousFrancis I.
Queen Mary had allegedly secured a promise from Henry that if Louis died, she could marry whomever she pleased.[23] Following Louis's death, she secretly married Suffolk, with Francis I's assistance, which prevented another marriage alliance. As Mary was the only princess Henry could use to secure marriage alliances, this was a bitter blow. Wolsey then proposed an alliance with Spain and theHoly Roman Empire against France.
The death ofFerdinand II of Aragon, Henry VIII's father-in-law and England's closest ally, in 1516 was a further blow. Ferdinand was succeeded byCharles V, who immediately proposed peace with France. After Maximilian I's death in 1519, Charles was elected in his stead; thus Charles ruled a substantial portion of Europe and English influence became limited on the continent.
But Wolsey managed to assert English influence by other means. In 1517,Pope Leo X sought peace in Europe to form a crusade against theOttoman Empire. In 1518 Wolsey was madePapal Legate in England, enabling him to realise Leo's desire for peace by organising theTreaty of London. The treaty showed Wolsey as the arbiter of Europe, organising a massive peace summit involving 20 nations. This put England at the forefront of European diplomacy and drew her out of isolation, making her a desirable ally. This is well illustrated by the Anglo-French treaty signed two days afterwards. It was partly this peace treaty that caused conflict between France and Spain. In 1519, when Charles V ascended to the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor, King Francis I of France was infuriated. He had invested enormous sums in bribing the electorate to elect him emperor, and thus used the Treaty of London as a justification for the Habsburg-Valois conflict. Wolsey appeared to act as mediator between the two powers, both of which were vying for England's support.[24]
Another of Wolsey's diplomatic triumphs was theField of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.[25] Wolsey organised much of this grandiose meeting between Francis I and Henry VIII, accompanied by 5,000 followers and involving court activities more than military discussion. Though it seemed to open the door to peaceful negotiations with France if the king wished, it was also a chance for a lavish display of English wealth and power before the rest of Europe, through flamboyant celebrations and events such as jousting, with the two kings competing, though not against each other. With France and Spain vying for England's allegiance, Wolsey could choose the ally that better suited his policies. Wolsey chose Charles mainly because England's economy would suffer from the loss of the lucrative cloth trade industry between England and the Netherlands had France been chosen instead.[26]
Under Wolsey's guidance, Europe's chief nations sought to outlaw war among Christian nations.Garrett Mattingly, who has studied the causes of wars in that era, found that treaties of non-aggression such as this one could never be stronger than their sponsors' armies. When those forces were about equal, the treaties typically widened the conflict. That is, diplomacy could sometimes postpone war, but could not prevent wars based on irreconcilable interests and ambitions. What was lacking, Mattingly concludes, was a neutral power whose judgements were generally accepted either by impartial justice or by overwhelming force.[27]
The Treaty of London is often regarded as Wolsey's finest moment, but it was abandoned within a year. Wolsey developed links with Charles in 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. At the Calais Conference Wolsey signed the SecretTreaty of Bruges (1521) with Charles V, stating that England would join Spain in a war against France if France refused to sign the peace treaty and ignored the Anglo-French treaty of 1518. Wolsey's relationship with Rome was also ambivalent. Despite his links to the papacy, Wolsey was strictly Henry's servant. Though the Treaty of London was an elaboration on Pope Leo's ambitions for European peace, it was seen in Rome as a vain attempt by England to assert her influence over Europe and steal some papal thunder. Furthermore, Wolsey's peace initiatives prevented a crusade to theHoly Land, which was the catalyst for the Pope's desire for European peace.[21]
CardinalLorenzo Campeggio, who represented the Pope at the Treaty of London, was kept waiting for many months in Calais before being allowed to cross the Channel and join the festivities in London in what may have been a display by Wolsey of his independence of Rome. An alternative hypothesis is that Campeggio was kept waiting until Wolsey received his legacy, thus asserting Wolsey's attachment to Rome.
Though the English gain from the wars of 1522–23 was minimal, their contribution certainly aided Charles V in his defeat of the French, particularly in 1525 at theBattle of Pavia, where Charles's army captured Francis I. Henry then felt there was a realistic opportunity for him to seize the French crown, to which the kings of England had long laid claim. Parliament, however, refused to raise taxes. This led Wolsey to devise theAmicable Grant, which was met with even more hostility, and contributed to his downfall. In 1525, after Charles V had abandoned England as an ally, Wolsey began to negotiate with France, and theTreaty of the More was signed, during Francis I's captivity, with the Regent of France—his mother,Louise of Savoy.[28]
The closeness between England and Rome can be seen in the formulation of theLeague of Cognac in 1526. Though England was not part of it, the League was organised in part by Wolsey with papal support. Wolsey's plan was that the League of Cognac, an alliance between France and some Italian states, would challenge Charles'sLeague of Cambrai. This was both a gesture of allegiance to Rome and an answer to growing concerns about Charles's dominance over Europe.
The final blow to this policy came in 1529, when the French made peace with Charles. Meanwhile, the French also continued to honour the "Auld Alliance" with Scotland, stirring up hostility on England's border. With peace between France and the Emperor, there was no-one to free the Pope from Charles, who had effectively heldPope Clement VII captive since theSack of Rome (1527). There was thus little hope of securing Henry VIII an annulment from his marriage to Charles's auntCatherine of Aragon. Since 1527, Wolsey's desire to secure an annulment for his master had dictated his foreign policy, and by 1529 none of his endeavours had succeeded.[29]
Henry's marriage to QueenCatherine of Aragon had produced no sons who survived infancy; theWars of the Roses were still within living memory, leading to the fear of a power struggle after Henry's death. Henry felt the people would accept only a male sovereign, not his daughterMary. He believed God had cursed him for the sin of marrying the widow of his elder brother, and that the papal dispensation for that marriage was invalid because it was based upon the claim that Catherine was still a virgin after her first husband's death. Henry argued that Catherine's claim was not credible, and thus the dispensation must be withdrawn and the marriage annulled. His motivation has been attributed to his determination to have a son and heir, and to his desire forAnne Boleyn, one of his wife'smaids-of-honour. Queen Catherine had no further pregnancies after 1519; Henry began annulment proceedings in 1527.[30]
Catherine, however, maintained that she had been a virgin when she married Henry.[5] Because she opposed annulment and a return to her previous status as Dowager Princess of Wales, the annulment request became a matter of international diplomacy, with Catherine's nephew Charles V pressuring Clement not to annul the marriage. Clement faced a dilemma: he would anger either Charles or Henry. He delayed his decision as long as possible, infuriating Henry and Anne Boleyn, who began to doubt Wolsey's loyalty to the Crown over the Church.
Wolsey appealed to Clement for an annulment on three fronts. First, he tried to convince the Pope that the dispensation was void as the marriage clearly disobeyed instructions in the book ofLeviticus. Second, Wolsey objected to the dispensation on technical grounds, claiming it was incorrectly worded. (Shortly afterwards, a correctly worded version was found in Spain.) Third, Wolsey wanted Clement to let the final decision be made in England, which, as papal legate, he would supervise.[31]
In 1528 Clement decided to allow two papal legates to decide the outcome in England: Wolsey and Campeggio. Wolsey was confident of the decision, but Campeggio took a long time to arrive, and when he finally did, he delayed proceedings so much that the case had to be suspended in July 1529, effectively sealing Wolsey's fate.
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During his 14 years as chancellor, Wolsey had more power than any other Crown servant in English history.[32] This led to his being hated by much of the nobility, who believed that power should be theirs. The king protected him from being attacked. As long as he was in the king's favour, Wolsey had great freedom in domestic matters, and had his hand in nearly every aspect of them. For much of the time, Henry VIII had complete confidence in him, and as Henry's interests inclined more towards foreign policy, he was willing to give Wolsey free rein in reforming the management of domestic affairs, for which Wolsey had grand plans. HistorianJohn Guy explains Wolsey's methods:
Only in the broadest respects was [the king] taking independent decisions. ... It was Wolsey who almost invariably calculated the available options and ranked them for royal consideration; who established the parameters of each successive debate; who controlled the flow of official information; who selected the king's secretaries, middle-ranked officials, and JPs; and who promulgated decisions himself had largely shaped, if not strictly taken.
— Guy 1988, p. 87
Operating with the king's firm support, and with special powers over the church given by the Pope as legate, Wolsey dominated civic affairs, administration, the law, the church, and foreign policy. He was amazingly energetic and far-reaching. He built a great fortune for himself and was a major benefactor of arts, humanities and education. He projected numerous reforms, with some success in areas such as finance, taxation, educational provision and justice. From the king's perspective, his greatest failure was an inability to get a divorce when Henry wanted a new wife to give him a son who would be the undisputed heir to the throne. Historians agree that Wolsey was a man dogged by other men's failures and his own ambition. In the end, abandoned by the king, Wolsey was charged with treason, but died of natural causes before he could be beheaded.[33][34]
Wolsey made changes to the taxation system, devising, with treasurer of the Chamber John Heron, the "Subsidy". This form of tax was based upon accurate valuations of the taxpayer's wealth, where one shilling was taken per pound from the income. The old fixed tax of 15ths and 10ths meant that those who earned very little had to pay almost as much as the wealthy. With the new income tax the poorer members of society paid much less. This more progressive form of taxation enabled Wolsey to raise enough money for the king's foreign expeditions, bringing in over £300,000. He also raised considerable capital through other means, such as "benevolences", and enforced loans from the nobility, which yielded £200,000 in 1522.[35] Ultimately, Wolsey's fiscal policy became increasingly disliked- his forced loans and benevolences culminated in theAmicable Grant (1525). This was met with hostility as the Amicable Grant provoked 'full-scale revolt in Suffolk... the most serious rebellion since 1497'[36] (Cornish rebellion).
As a legal administrator, Wolsey reinvented the equity court, where the verdict was decided by the judge on the principle of "fairness". As an alternative to the Common Law courts, Wolsey re-established the position of the prerogative courts of theStar Chamber and theCourt of Chancery. The system in both courts concentrated on simple, inexpensive cases, and promised impartial justice. He also established theCourt of Requests (although this court was only given this name later on) for the poor, where no fees were required. Wolsey's legal reforms were popular, and overflow courts were required to attend to all the cases. Many powerful men who had felt invincible under the law found themselves convicted; for example, in 1515, theEarl of Northumberland was sent toFleet Prison and in 1516 Lord Abergavenny was accused ofillegal retaining.[clarification needed]
Wolsey also used his courts to tackle national controversies, such as the pressing issue ofenclosures. The countryside had been thrown into discord by the entrepreneurial actions of landlords enclosing areas of land and converting from arable farming to pastoral farming, requiring fewer workers. The Tudors valued stability, and the resulting mass urban migration represented a serious crisis. Wolsey conducted national enquiries into enclosures in 1517, 1518 and 1527. In the course of his administration, he used the Court of Chancery to prosecute 264 landowners, including peers, bishops, knights, religious heads, and Oxford colleges. Enclosures were seen as directly linked to rural unemployment and depopulation, vagrancy, food shortages and, accordingly, inflation. This pattern repeated in many of Wolsey's other initiatives, particularly his quest to abolish enclosure. Despite spending significant time and effort investigating the state of the countryside and prosecuting numerous offenders, Wolsey freely surrendered his policy during the parliament of 1523 to ensure that Parliament passed his proposed taxes for Henry's war in France. Enclosures remained a problem for many years.
Wolsey used the Star Chamber to enforce his 1518 policy ofJust Price, which attempted to regulate the price of meat in London and other major cities. Those found to be charging too much were prosecuted by the Chamber. After the bad harvest of 1527, Wolsey bought up surplus grain and sold it off cheaply to the needy. This greatly eased disorder and became common practice after a disappointing harvest.
In 1524 and 1527 Wolsey used his powers as papal legate todissolve 30 decayed monasteries where monastic life had virtually ceased in practice, some inIpswich andOxford. He used the income to found agrammar school in Ipswich (The King's School, Ipswich) andCardinal College in Oxford (in 1532, after Wolsey's fall, the king renamed it King Henry VIII's College; it is now known asChrist Church). In 1528 he began to limit thebenefit of clergy. He also attempted, as legate, to force reform on monastic orders like the Augustinian canons.
Wolsey died five years before Henry'sdissolution of the monasteries began.
Wolsey's power depended on maintaining good relations with Henry. He grew increasingly suspicious of the "minions"—young, influential members of thePrivy chamber—particularly after infiltrating one of his own men into the group. He attempted many times to disperse them from court, giving them jobs that took them to the Continent and far from Henry. After theAmicable Grant failed, the minions began to undermine him again. Consequently, Wolsey devised a grand plan of administrative reforms, incorporating the notoriousEltham ordinances of 1526. This reduced the members of the Privy Council from 12 to 6, removing Henry's friends such asSir William Compton andNicholas Carew.
One of Wolsey's greatest impediments was his lack of popularity amongst the nobles at court and in Parliament. Their dislikes and mistrusts partly stemmed from what they saw as Wolsey's excessive demands for money in the form of the Subsidy or benevolences. They also resented the Act of Resumption of 1486, by which Henry VII had resumed possession of all lands granted by the crown since 1455.[37] These lands had passed onto his heir, Henry VIII. Many nobles resented the rise to power of a low-born man, whilst others simply disliked that he monopolised the court and concealed information from the Privy Council.
When mass riots broke out inEast Anglia, which should have been under the control of the Dukes ofNorfolk andSuffolk, Henry was quick to denounce the Amicable Grant, and began to lose faith in Wolsey. During the relatively peaceful period in England after the War of the Roses, its population increased. With more demand for food and no additional supply, prices increased. Landowners were forced to enclose land and convert to pastoral farming, which brought in more profit. Wolsey's quest against enclosure was fruitless in terms of restoring economic stability.
The same can be said for Wolsey's legal reforms. After he made justice accessible to all and encouraged more people to bring cases to court, the system was abused. The courts became overloaded with incoherent, tenuous cases, which would have been far too expensive to have rambled on in the Common Law courts. Wolsey eventually ordered all minor cases out of theStar Chamber in 1528. The result of this venture was further resentment by the nobility and the gentry.
From 1515, when he became cardinal, until his death, Wolsey used art and architecture to underpin his positions. He initiated a building campaign on a scale not only unprecedented for an English churchman and Lord Chancellor, but also exceeded by few English kings. In so doing, he brought Italian Renaissance ideas, classical embellishments, and architectural models into English architecture. Scholars generally cite Somerset House in London (1547–1552) as the first classical building in England, built for Edward Seymour, the first Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector to King Edward VI. But Wolsey embraced Italian-inspired classicism nearly half a century before Seymour, though more theoretically than visually. Wolsey's subsequent disgrace over his failure to garner papal approval of an annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon has clouded the fact that he was not only the first high-profile patron in England to seek out and promote Italian classicism in art, architecture, and magnificence, but also that his contributions endured.
Among Wolsey's projects were lavish, classically inspired additions to York Palace in London, the Archbishop of York's residence. He supervised the grandiose temporary buildings at the Field of Cloth of Gold and renovated Hampton Court, which he later relinquished to the king. Wolsey's use of architecture as a symbol of power, along with his introduction of Italian classical ornamentation, set a trend continued by Henry VIII and others.[38] Wolsey oversaw tombs for Henry's VIII's parents at Westminster Abbey and negotiated contracts for Henry VIII's tomb as well as one for himself. If these works had been completed as planned, they would be among Europe's largest, most elaborate, and grandest tombs. The college originally founded and planned by Wolsey and refounded by Henry VIII (Christ Church) remains the largest and grandest of all Oxford colleges.
As well as his State duties, Wolsey simultaneously attempted to exert his influence over the Church in England. As cardinal and, from 1524, lifetime papal legate, Wolsey continually vied for control over others in the Church. His principal rival wasWilliam Warham, theArchbishop of Canterbury, who made it more difficult for Wolsey to follow through with his plans for reform. Despite making promises to reform the bishoprics of England and Ireland, and, in 1519, encouraging monasteries to embark on a programme of reform, he did nothing to bring about these changes.
In spite of having many enemies, Wolsey retained Henry VIII's confidence until Henry decided to seek an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey's failure to secure the annulment directly caused his downfall and arrest. It was rumoured that Anne Boleyn and her faction convinced Henry that Wolsey was deliberately slowing proceedings; as a result, he was arrested in 1529, and the Pope decided that the official decision should be made in Rome, not England.[citation needed]
In 1529, Wolsey was stripped of his government office and property, including his magnificently expanded residence ofPalace of Whitehall, which Henry took to replace thePalace of Westminster as his own main London residence. Wolsey was permitted to remain Archbishop of York. He travelled to Yorkshire for the first time in his career, but when he was staying at one of the Archbishop's residences,Cawood in northYorkshire, he was accused of treason and ordered to London byHenry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland.
In great distress, Wolsey leftCawood Castle on the evening of 7 November.[39] He lodged at Pomfret Abbey inPontefract that night and the following day made it toSheffield Castle, where he spent the next 14 days hosted byGeorge Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury.[40]
_-_Cardinal_Wolsey_at_the_Gate_of_Leicester_Abbey_-_RCIN_403879_-_Royal_Collection.jpg)
At Sheffield, Wolsey fell seriously ill withdysentery.[40] Taken into custody by SirWilliam Kingston,Constable of the Tower,[40] Wolsey left forHardwick Hall on 25 November. He was so ill that Kingston's guards believed Wolsey to be dying, and wept openly.[41] Spending the night in the city ofNottingham, Wolsey proceeded toLeicester Abbey in the city ofLeicester. He was so weak, he could barely sit on his mule. He reached the abbey on the evening of 27 November, and had to be carried upstairs.[41]
Wolsey remained in bed the next day, his health rapidly failing.[41] He began to lose his sight, and repeatedly lost consciousness the night of 28 to 29 November.[42] He madeconfession at 7 a.m. on 29 November,[43] and died an hour later.[44]
Wolsey was buried in a simple pine coffin, dressed in his episcopal robes and with his cross, mitre, and ring. He lay in state at the abbey until 5 p.m. on 29 November, after which his body was moved to abbey church. Funeral Mass was sung at 4 a.m. on 1 December, and he was buried two hours later.[44]
Leicester Abbey was turned over toWilliam Cavendish after thedissolution of the monasteries.His son tore down the abbey,[45] and the site of Wolsey's burial was lost.[46] (The site of the former abbey is nowAbbey Park.)
In keeping with his practice of erecting magnificent buildings at Hampton Court, Westminster and Oxford, Wolsey had planned a magnificent tomb at Windsor byBenedetto da Rovezzano andGiovanni da Maiano. Henry VIII contemplated using the impressive black sarcophagus for himself, butLord Nelson now lies in it, in the crypt ofSt. Paul's Cathedral.
Henry often receives credit for artistic patronage that properly belongs to Wolsey.[47]
Wolsey lived in a "non-canonical" marriage for around a decade with a woman calledJoan Larke ofYarmouth, Norfolk. The edict that priests, regardless of their functions or the character of their work, should remain celibate had not been wholeheartedly accepted in England.[48]
Wolsey had two children, both before he was made bishop: a son,Thomas Wynter (born circa 1510),[49] and a daughter, Dorothy (born circa 1512),[50] both of whom lived to adulthood. The son was sent to live with a family inWillesden and tutored in his early years by Maurice Birchinshaw. He later married and had children of his own. Dorothy was adopted by John Clansey, and was in due course placed in the convent atShaftesbury Abbey.
Following thedissolution of the monasteries underThomas Cromwell she was awarded a pension.[51]
Following his rapid promotion, Larke became a source of embarrassment to Wolsey, who arranged for her marriage to George Legh of Adlington, in Cheshire, circa 1519. He provided the dowry.[49] Henry VIII had a mansion built for Legh atCheshunt Great House.
Before Wolsey was removed from power, he planned to make his home town ofIpswich a seat of learning. He built a substantial college, which for two years, 1528–1530, was parent of the Queen Elizabeth School orIpswich School, which today flourishes on another site. All that remains of Wolsey's structure is the former waterside gate, figured byFrancis Grose in hisAntiquities, which can still be seen on College Street.
In 1930 Wolsey was commemorated in Ipswich with a pageant play.
An appeal was launched in 2009 to erect a permanent memorial to Wolsey in Ipswich.[56] This led to the commissioning of a more-than-life-sized bronze statue from sculptorDavid Annand. Wolsey is shown seated and facing south towards St Peter's Church (the former medieval Augustinian priory church, which he annexed as the chapel of his college), teaching from a book, and with a cat at his side. The statue was unveiled in June 2011, when it was dedicated by theBishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, and launched in a civic capacity by the Mayor of Ipswich.[57][58]
Another statue of Wolsey stands in Leicester'sAbbey Park close to the site of his burial. It was donated by theWolsey hosiery company, a major employer in the city and also named after the cardinal.[59]
The Wolsey Place shopping centre andWoking F.C.'s nickname The Cardinals commemorate the fact Wolsey was visiting Henry VIII atWoking Palace when the news arrived that he had been made a cardinal.[60]
Cardinal Wolsey's bust was used in the 1980s above theLondon Transport roundel onLondon's buses in west and south-west London as the symbol of the Cardinal bus district, which was named after him and his residence at Hampton Court.[61]
Carlos Logario, a Spanish doctor practising in England, was the doctor to Thomas Wolsey.
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| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Lord Chancellor 1515–1529 | Succeeded by |
| Catholic Church titles | ||
| Preceded by | Bishop of Lincoln 1514 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Archbishop of York 1514–1530 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Bath and Wells 1518–1522 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Durham 1523–1529 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Winchester 1529–1530 | Succeeded by |
| Early Medieval 634–1006 |
|  Arms of the Bishop of Winchester |
|---|---|---|
| High Medieval 1006–1304 | ||
| Late Medieval 1305–1501 | ||
| Early Modern 1501–1820 |
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| Late Modern 1820–current | ||
