foreign policy

Another aim that Henry had was to build national prestige for England. He wanted England to be seen as a rich, powerful country. An example of this was the field of the cloth of gold in 1520. He spent a whole year’s wages on this occasion, having the best of everything. He did this to prove how wealthy and powerful England was, and to gain the trust of France and Spain. It was just after the first French war, and Henry was determined to get into France and Spain’s ‘good books’. This worked at the time, but Henry was never really seen as a threat to the other countries.

Wolsey had the aim of delivering peace. He showed this by having the idea of the Treaty of London. He showed all his humanism ideas to the other rulers and tried to deliver peace between them all. he managed to succeed in this, because most of the rulers signed the peace treaty. He also wanted to save money and make England a extremely wealthy country. Here he failed. Henry had spent so much money on wars and on the field of the cloth of gold.   Some historians believe this was all for humanities and for England’s well being; others believe that Wolsey was doing all this to boost up his own personal prestige. If he succeeded in all this, he would be great, and popular.

Henry also wanted to boost his prestige, and power within England and other countries. He wanted to be feared and seen as a great leader. He tried to conquer France, and managed to only get two parts, which weren’t particularly important parts. By spending 50 million pounds on the field of the cloth of gold, Henry wanted to impress Francis and Charles. He also wanted to raise his prestige and he wanted to have a claim on the French throne.

Overall, the English foreign policy was not successful, mainly because other countries did not think much of Henry, nor fear him. He also did not get the wars or land he had hoped for; but was forced into peace. Wolsey’s prestige was raised, in the view of a great humanities leader.