Why did Wolsey acquire and develop Hampton Court in 1514?

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Hampton Court Katie Povey 11CC

Why did Wolsey acquire and develop Hampton Court in 1514?

The first buildings at Hampton Court belonged to the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, a religious order founded in the early 12th century to protect the Holy Land from the Turks.

The Knights acquired the manor of Hampton in 1236 and used the site as a grange - a centre for their agricultural estates, where produce was stored and accounts kept. Excavations and early documents suggest that the Knights had a great barn or hall and a stone camera (room) which they used as an estate office. There was probably very little, if any, residential accommodation.

For many years Hampton Court has long been a favoured place. A manor has existed on the site since the time of the Saxons. When the Domesday Book was written, its value was set at the sum of £39, at the time making it expensive.

The founding father of this great manor Hampton Court Palace was Cardinal Wolsey. It was he who expanded the manor house into something much more splendid.

Thomas Wolsey, born in Ipswich in 1900, was

the son of a grazier and innkeeper. Wolsey was

educated at Magdalen College on Oxford, and

after becoming a priest he was appointed chaplain

to Henry V111. Wolsey won rapid advancement,

and was appointed Archbishop of York and Lord

Chancellor as well as Cardinal. Wolsey became

Minister and the most powerful subject in the

Kingdom. During the first twenty years of his reign,

Henry V111 left the shaping of politics in the hands

of Wolsey, who sought to give England importance

by acting as an arbiter between France and Spain.

Wolsey began to acquire great power and wealth. He received his first major secular appointment in 1511, when he was made a privy councillor. In 1513 he assisted in planning and carrying out the highly successful English invasion of France; in the following year he secured a peace with France. By the time he was made (1515) lord chancellor of England, he already virtually controlled both foreign and domestic affairs for Henry.

Wolsey raised royal authority in England to a new height, but in doing so he incurred many enemies. In the popular mind, Wolsey, as the executor of policy, was responsible for the imposition of heavy taxes to pay for wars. He also was unpopular with Parliament and the nobility because of his power over the king and his ostentatious displays of wealth at a time when there was increasing resentment against the clergy. In affairs abroad Wolsey attempted to make England arbiter of the struggle for power between king Francis I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Wolsey played the two rivals against each other, giving England the balance of power in Europe until 1529, when Francis and Charles made peace with each other.
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Wolsey also rose rapidly in the church and a papal legate in 1518. After being made a legate for life in 1524, he wielded power over the church in England comparable to his secular power as chancellor. He aspired to the papacy and made an alliance with Charles for his support in two papal elections. The emperor did not keep his word, however, and Wolsey never achieved his highest aim.

Wolsey ruled England without taking Henry's other Ministers views into account. Wolsey made decisions first and informed the other ministers afterwards. In source five we see ...

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