However, I believe that Wolsey was more important in directing foreign affairs, as he was the one that negotiated Henry’s policies between France and Spain and thus secured Henry’s throne for him. Wolsey’s role in English foreign policy was as an organiser. This was because Henry liked to indulge in the finer things of Tudor life, like hunting and jousting in order to prove his strength and to show off which left Wolsey to manage things like foreign policies.
Henry had a strong desire for war which meant that peace loving Wolsey had to arrange aggressive like polices in order to satisfy Henry’s needs. In reality Wolsey wanted to organise foreign policies for the King to gain favour for himself and remain important in the King’s eyes – as summed up by Randall, "Wolsey made most decisions on a day-to-day basis but Henry intervened decisively at times to redirect events as he wished them to go". This supports the evidence that Wolsey would plan policies according to Henry’s needs and Henry would act as a supervisor, watching over him to make sure he was doing his job correctly.
This can be seen because Wolsey as a member of the church and a humanitarian would have naturally wanted a peaceful policy, yet the policies followed for most of his "time in power" were war-like, so would have been dictated by Henry. Therefore, without Henry’s influence Wolsey would have had no policies to direct, so from that point of view Henry was the more important in “directing” foreign affairs. On the other hand, it was Wolsey who actually implemented and directed the policies that Henry gave him the rough outline of.
A clear example of Wolsey fulfilling Henry’s wishes in his own way comes in October 1518. Many representatives from the countries of Europe came to England to sign the Treaty of London, declaring international peace in Europe. Henry was not a natural peacemaker, preferring the art of war to the art of peace. It has often been said that he considered war "the sport of kings". However Wolsey knew the Treaty would get Henry the glory and fame he sought, and Henry would have realised this as well, so Wolsey was allowed to continue with his plans for peace in Europe. The Treaty did indeed give Henry a significant amount of glory, although as a peace treaty it was somewhat lacking, seeing as its participants were only interested in peace until they were ready for war.
In that particular example although the policy would have please Henry and given him what he wanted the initial idea actually came from Wolsey, making him the more important person in the directing of that policy.
Another historian, Ian Dawson, argues that Wolsey and Henry were following two distinct policies at this time, one of peace and one of war. On the other hand John Guy feels that they usually worked harmoniously together and only occasionally disagreed, such as in the spring of 1522, when Wolsey urged Henry to launch an attack on French ships at port, but Henry declined because he thought it was too risky. The truth probably lies somewhere in between, with Wolsey following Henry’s policies more often than not, even though he did not always agree with them. Still, it shows that it Wolsey even tries to follow a different policy to Henry he will eventually end up following Henry’s, no matter how long it takes for him to come around. This would imply that it was Henry who was more important, because he ultimately got his way whatever happened.
Essentially, Wolsey and Henry were a double act. Henry told Wolsey roughly what he wanted done and Wolsey did it for him. Wolsey worked to please Henry, which he usually did very well. However, because of their double act status it is very difficult to decide which of them was the more important in directing English foreign affairs, as directing could mean starting the policies or finishing them. The argument for Henry is that without him there would be no policies to start with, as he supplied the skeleton of the policies. The argument for Wolsey is that he actually did the most of the hard work in implementing the policies to put Henry’s ideas into effect. Therefore, I think that Wolsey was more important in directing foreign affairs because without his efficiency and effectiveness Henry might not have achieved the foreign policies he desired.
