How influential was the role of Cardinal Wolsey in the conduct of England´s foreign policy from 1515 to 1529?
History Essay II:
How influential was the role of Cardinal Wolsey in the conduct of England´s foreign policy from 1515 to 1529?
Thomas Wolsey (1465-1530) was born in obscurity, the son of a butcher in Ipswich, a town in Suffolk. He was intelligent and ambitious enough to attend the University of Oxford.
Wolsey and Henry VIII became close friends, or as close as one could be to a king. Both men were determined to leave their mark upon history but while Henry preferred costly wars and grandiloquent diplomacy, Wolsey was committed to financial and judicial reform in England and English-arbitrated European peace. Wolsey was always a churchman though this should not imply ignorance of the material world.
Henry VIII was quick to recognize Wolsey's intelligence and appointed him royal almoner in November 1509 but, as the years passed, delegated more and more authority to Wolsey. The early years of Henry's reign were spent with the young monarch, regaled as the handsomest prince in Europe, jousting, hunting, and debating visiting scholars. And while Henry was interested in more practical affairs, he grew to depend on Wolsey's assistance. Wolsey's position, however, was completely changed by the French expedition of 1513. Henry VIII had long wanted to prove English strength in battle against this old
enemy. His wish is understandable; he was young and, like many young people, had chafed at his father's authority.
Henry's plan to gain this European respect was simple: a successful military strike against France. In 1511 Henry joined in the Holy League against France, and in 1513 he led the English forces through a victorious campaign in northern France. Meanwhile, France's ally James IV of Scotland led an invasion of northern England which was crushed in September 1513 at Flodden Field by Henry's commander Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, with the death of the King and many Scottish nobles. Deserted by his allies, Henry arranged a marriage in 1514 between his sister Mary and Louis XII of France, with whom he formed an alliance. After one failure, he went in person to achieve glory in August 1513 at the Battle of the Spurs. Only a month later, the English defeated the Scots at Flodden Field where Henry's brother-in-law James IV was killed.
Henry was exultant at his French victory; this success was Europe's true introduction to his reign. England would be taken seriously as a European power broker, courted by the French and Spanish and mediating between these nations and the vulnerable papacy. Henry was generous in rewarding Wolsey for his service. Upon Henry's recommendation, Pope Leo X made Wolsey bishop of Lincoln in February 1514 and, just nine months later, archbishop of York. But the honors did not end there. The next year he was made Cardinal and, in December 1515, lord chancellor of England.
Perhaps even ...
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Henry was exultant at his French victory; this success was Europe's true introduction to his reign. England would be taken seriously as a European power broker, courted by the French and Spanish and mediating between these nations and the vulnerable papacy. Henry was generous in rewarding Wolsey for his service. Upon Henry's recommendation, Pope Leo X made Wolsey bishop of Lincoln in February 1514 and, just nine months later, archbishop of York. But the honors did not end there. The next year he was made Cardinal and, in December 1515, lord chancellor of England.
Perhaps even more importantly for Wolsey, he was taken into Henry's complete confidence. He was friend, confidante, and advisor to a king increasingly conflicted in his personal life. Eventually, Henry would want a divorce from Katharine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn and secure his throne. Whether motivated solely by personal dissatisfaction or spiritual unrest or both, Henry was determined to end his marriage. And, once determined on his course, he was committed to it. Naturally enough, he turned to his most capable and trusted servant, Wolsey, for help.
Before the divorce issue, Wolsey had quickly established himself as second only to Henry in power. This naturally angered the old nobility who made up the privy council and dominated Parliament. They were indignant that Wolsey, son of a butcher, controlled access to the king.
Wolsey was also careful to never offend or anger Henry. It was a careful dance and a tribute to his own intelligence that he succeeded in managing this most unmanageable king.
Wolsey appealed to Henry's vanity by crediting all success to the king and all failures to his own inadequacies. For a long while, there were no failures. In 1518, the pope made him a special papal representative a latere. With his incredible secular and ecclesiastical authority, Wolsey was able to achieve wealth and influence second only to the king.
Before his loyalties were divided between Rome and Henry, Wolsey was able to serve Henry's European interests. As stated before, they wanted England to be the balancing power in Europe. At the time, Europe was dominated by the two rival powers of France and the Holy Roman Empire of the Hapsburgs. The situation became even more complicated when Katharine of Aragon's nephew Charles became Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. Originally, Wolsey and Henry favored an alliance with the Imperial power. This was based on economics (English trade with the Lowlands), history (England was
rarely at peace with France), and also family (after all, Charles was Katharine's nephew.) Furthermore, Charles recognized Wolsey's ambition and intimated he could influence the papal elections in the Cardinal's favor. But first Wolsey tried his hand at peace by arranging meetings between Henry and the two rival monarchs in 1520.
The meetings were unsuccessful, however, and war broke out in 1521. In 1523 Henry and Wolsey agreed to support the Hapsburgs by sending troops to France. But war costs a great deal of money and then, as now, the way to raise money was to raise taxes. And then, as now, the decision was incredibly unpopular. This unpleasant task fell to Wolsey - Henry was careful to let Wolsey implement the collection and, accordingly, take the blame.
Also, the foreign policy which demanded this increased taxation became inconsistent and illogical. In 1528, the English were supporting their former enemy, France, against the Hapsburgs; in August 1529, France and the Hapsburgs made peace and isolated England. It was a confusing and contradictory mess, further complicated when the hired troops of the Holy Roman Emperor sacked Rome in 1527.
However, Charles - and the rest of Europe - were quick to recognize that he now controlled Rome and the pope.
During this time, Wolsey was also reforming the English judicial system. The end result - Wolsey was despised by both ordinary Englishmen and the aristocracy alike. He was determined to extend justice to the nobility who were essentially lawless.
His attempts to reform the English church were less successful. After all, he was unable to devote much time or effort to the cause since his duties as lord chancellor were so great. Also, his own life was, in many ways, at odds with his spiritual training and titles.
Most notably, he suppressed nearly 30 monasteries to pay for Cardinal's College at Oxford, later called Christ Church. Understandably, these actions alienated the clergy and concerned the papacy. Wolsey had by now offended everyone except the king. And, ironically, most of his offensive policies were always implemented either at Henry's instigation or approval. Many historians have portrayed Henry VIII as a credulous monarch manipulated by Wolsey, Cromwell, and his unruly nobles. The truth is far more complex.
Henry did not turn on Wolsey until after the Cardinal's opulent lifestyle first aroused his envy. His only hope was a divorce from Katharine of Aragon. Poor Wolsey - his spiritual master, the Pope, was a paawn of Emperor Charles V, and his temporal master wanted a divorce from the emperor's aunt.
From 1527 to 1529, he was content to let Wolsey try the usual diplomatic and military solutions but these were unsuccessful. After all, England did not have the military might to force Charles from Italy and free the Pope to make an independent decision. Had he been free of Charles, the Pope would undoubtedly have ruled in Henry's favor; it had been done before for monarchs throughout Europe. In fact, though the term 'divorce' is most often used in this case, Henry wasn't actually seeking a divorce. He was actually seeking an annulment - he argued that he had never been legally married to Katharine.
Matters were further complicated because Wolsey lacked virtually any support at the English court. Henry's infatuation with Anne Boleyn had also cost the Cardinal for Anne, while kind to Wolsey when he was still powerful, recognized him as a rival - and, later, an obstacle to her and Henry's marriage. In fact, Wolsey's sympathies were probably torn between Katharine and Anne.
Also, Wolsey had usually supported peace with the Hapsburgs and was loathe to offend the powerful emperor by helping Henry discard Katharine for an English knight's daughter.
But as Wolsey, near sixty-five, failed to secure an acceptable solution, Henry became impatient. He was now all too willing to listen to his outraged nobles; having suffered with Wolsey for so long, they used their king's impatience to secure his destruction.
Of course, Henry had sanctioned Wolsey's legatine authority and so had broken the law himself. This did not matter. Wolsey was no longer useful to his increasingly ruthless master and on 9
October 1529, he was deprived of everything but the archbishopric of York. He left London for York in April 1530.
But Wolsey's enemies wanted him completely destroyed and evidence, probably fabricated, was produced which showed he was corresponding with the French king. This was argued to be high treason; the Cardinal still believed himself to be invulnerable and fit to represent the king's majesty. On 4 November, Wolsey was arrested on charges of treason and taken from York Palace. On his way south to face dubious justice at the Tower of London, he grew ill. The group escorting him were concerned enough to stop at Leicester. There, Wolsey's condition quickly worsened and he died on 29 November where he said "If I had served my God as well as I have served my King, he would not have thrown me over in my grey hairs."
His death was timely for it saved him from being executed as a traitor.
Wolsey rose quickly and fell slowly.
Although historians have often dismissed Wolsey as beginning too much, (e.g. Guy writes that "he declined to delegate and finish what he had begun, thereby clogging up the administrative system", and Scarisbrick too shares this opinion), he really did make an impact on finance, which was to have an effect in the long term.
