How far were Henry VIII and Wolsey successful in Foreign Policy 1509

How far were Henry VIII and Wolsey successful in Foreign Policy 1509-29?

Henry's foreign policy was driven by a desire for himself and England to be a major power in Europe. He wanted England to be a ‘Sovereign Nation State’ that is a country that did not rely on other countries. To begin with he wanted to follow the traditional policy of English Kings, which was to wage war against France to reclaim the French crown. The first twenty years of Henry's reign 1509-1529 were dominated by foreign policy and it was in this period that Thomas Wolsey was to rise to prominence.

Yet foreign policy at this time was not just concerned with the prosecution of war or the associated acquisition of territories. It was in fact altogether more complex, both in its operation and objectives. Fundamentally, what Henry and Wolsey both sought was the protection of English interests, which in essence meant ensuring that treaties between foreign powers which were prejudicial or hostile to England's security, her broader political concerns or her commercial interests were prevented. This entailed on-going diplomatic and frequent military efforts to ensure that English interests were at least recognised and at best accommodated. This effectively is what England's foreign policy was all about: it was less a number of isolated and discrete wars and events, and more a series of continuous, albeit often reactive, measures. Foreign policy required an active effort, then, and this often, but not exclusively, meant war. Given the limitations of England's resources, Wolsey was often obliged to defer to the interests of his more powerful allies as the price of winning influential friends. In short, the foreign policy of the period 1509 to 1526 endeavoured to maintain England's interests through a series of mostly appropriate policies. Insofar as absolute gains were limited -- and this is especially true of the period between 1526 and 1529 when Wolsey encountered significant failure -- this was often because of wider circumstances, and not because Henry's foreign policy was vainglorious. Indeed, in the context of the constraints under which Wolsey was obliged to operate, his achievements were relatively successful.

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The Field of the Cloth of Gold was an event to make peace with France Henry and Francis I met in France. The meeting was spectacular. It was a scene of merrymaking. The site was quickly converted into a temporary city and covered with beautifully decorated pavilions. Henry even had a prefabricated wooden hall made which was then built in France. There were tournaments, jousts, banquets, and concerts. To give you some idea of the enormity of the event, Henry took with him nearly 5000 attendants and 3000 horses. 7000 conger eels, 2014 sheep, 312 heron, 70 litres of mustard and over £100 of cream even though the treaty was going successfully after things started to fall such as all the extravagance of the meeting came to nothing. Francis was thinking about war against the new Emperor Charles V, whilst Wolsey had now decided to have secret talks with Charles. Wolsey thought that Charles would be a greater help in his quest for the papacy.

In 1520, Charles and Henry signed a treaty against France. In 1525, Charles defeated the French at the Battle of Pavia. Henry saw his chance to march on Paris and claim the throne of France for himself. Charles and Henry fell out. Charles could not except why Henry, who had done so little

In the defeat of France, should have such a prize as the Crown of France. This adds to the view that Henry and Wolsey did not handle foreign policy well as this resulted in Henry using his entire allowance left by his father spent.

If we look at it from a traditional view Henry VIII's campaigns achieved few concrete gains and often seem to have been conducted for this allies' benefit rather than his own. He only succeeded in capturing the towns of Therouanne and Tournai in northern France in 1513, and these were soft targets. Neither of these campaigns directly served English interests.

To conclude the common view of Henry VIII's and Cardinal Wolsey's foreign policy is that it was a failure. What are the main components of this view? Firstly, that Henry VIII failed to achieve his primary goal, which was to recover the French empire which had been conquered by Henry V. Secondly, that this aim was unrealistic: Henry's high hopes were naive, given that his resources were tiny compared with those of France. In short, foreign policy under Henry and Wolsey was unaccomplished, anachronistic, naive and aimless.

Funsho Adebari, Mr Anderson, AS History