Jack Stephenson
How successful was Wolsey’s Domestic policy
During his fourteen years of chancellorship Wolsey exercised considerable influence over Henry VIII’s domestic policy during the years 1515 to 1529, involving himself in economic, legal, aristocratic and church affairs. Wolsey’s domestic policy was relatively successful with some failures. Wolsey was no domestic reformer in any modern political sense and he saw his prime duty as Lord Chancellor.
Wolsey was either loved or hated for his wealth, position and lofty manner. Historians also differ in their views of Thomos Wolsey, Peter Gwyn sees Wolsey as a man of “enormous ability and unstoppable determination” with a huge capacity for hard work and whose reforms were limited because of the ambitions of Henry in Europe. Other historians like John Guy and David Loades acknowledge Wolsey’s abilities but are less effusive in their praise and see his own deficiencies as responsible for the failure of some of the reforms he embarked on.
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Peer Reviews
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Quality of writing
I found one spelling mistake - the rest, grammar and punctuation, are perfect. The student makes great use of historians to back up their argument and presents the argument in a very well structured essay. The common danger is the structure of essay - a weak structure naturally gives way to a weak argument (as the argument is buried in a confused format). Thus, the student has handled this problem very well.
Level of analysis
The level of analysis is excellent. The historiography present in the essay helps push marks up; however, I would say that there are a few cases where a quote appears to be put into the essay just for the sake of it being there. Such quotes do nothing to the essay and coursework word counts could be better used for e.g. developing a point further in another area. The general rule is that if a quote or an historian's view is not supported, then it is pretty useless in the essay. That said, the evidence provided in the essay gives sound foundations to developing a very strong argument.
Response to question
The student has tackled a hard question very well and has answered with fluency via a well structured and argued essay. The judgement of "success" is a hard concept to grasp and there is always the danger of either missing the point of the question or giving long and 'waffley' answers. The use of historians is very good and helps support the argument well. A strong opening and conclusion is given which is key to identifying a well written essay.