Wolsey’s lavish nature – conveyed by his ostentatious exemplifications of his wealth and power for all to see - instigated jealousy amongst the nobles of the government. His power originated from his role as the King’s advisor; therefore, Wolsey would have been by the King’s side – his right-hand man if you will. Bearing this in mind, and coupled with Henry’s inability to cope with the document work of the country, Wolsey would have essentially had the power to make all the decisions upon his own judgement. This furthermore outraged the nobility, as not only does Wolsey not have the right to make the choices of the country on his own, but also that they, the nobles, people of such prestigious backgrounds and ancestors, were taking orders and obeyed a mere peasant born, butcher’s son. The nobility’s discrimination of Wolsey on this basis led to Wolsey’s unprovoked and ruthless actions of dispensing “justice” and imprisoning nobles who believed their status made them invincible – such as the Earl of Northumberland who was sent to Fleet prison in 1515, and Lord Abergavenny who was accused of illegal retaining. This retaliation upon the nobles angered them greatly and further increased his unpopularity.
Moreover, by Wolsey helping the peasants, as he did greatly in the justice system by opening the Court of Requests, and the Court of Star Chamber and Chancery, the nobles were set out lose quite a lot – this view is shown by Wolsey’s particular pleasure in cases that had a “David and Goliath” aspect, in which Wolsey used the courts as a weapon to help the peasants (David) to beat the over mighty nobles (Goliath). Due to the fact that Wolsey inevitably had the last word, the nobles could do nothing but wait for biased judgement to be dispensed. Further cases, such as the Eltham Ordinances of January 1526 in which the powerful nobles of the members of the Privy Council were reduced from 12 to 6, just enforced Wolsey’s unpopularity by his intervention in the nobility’s power and the excessive, merciless punishment he continually dispensed upon those who had been prejudiced towards him. As a large number of the nobility thoroughly disliked Wolsey, it is by no means surprising that a faction occurred in court where the nobles – or most of them – opposed Wolsey and continuously attempted to belittle and degrade him. They obtained this opportunity by the presence of Anne Boleyn.
Henry had been very aware that he had yet to produce a male heir, and he sought a new wife as a solution to this. His current wife, Catherine of Aragorn, was however, the auntie of Charles, the Holy Roman Emperor – therefore, an annulment from this marriage would not have occurred as easily as Henry hoped it would have been. Furthermore, relations with the holy roman emperor and the pope would have been damaged from this incident, damaging foreign relations and foreign power and status. From Campeggio’s enquiry visit into the matter however, Catherine was seen as no trouble at all and the case was not settled. Wolsey carried on to declare it invalid in his legatine court and persuaded the French king to put pressure on the pope. The fact that Henry still trusted Wolsey with such responsibility, even after his failure in persuading the pope showed that he wasn’t completely unpopular with the King – this is all he needed to stay strong. Finally, in 1519, Catherine’s trial took place and Anne Boleyn became queen – Wolsey did, however, make an enemy of Catherine, as she believed that he was the reason the matter took so long in settling her status.
His unpopularity with Boleyn is most probably the main factor for his downfall. Her influence over King Henry as his lover and the potential producer of an heir was by far greater than Wolsey’s – whose views were mainly of diplomatic subjects. With this in mind, and the fact that Anne already disliked him to begin with, there was yet another faction in court, but going further than just parties, but complete manipulation and influence over the King. As aforementioned, the King had a very manipulate-able mind, therefore the power struggle over who would influence him carried on until the nobles and Boleyn herself persuaded that Wolsey was guilty of praemunire. This view is based on the fact that Wolsey achieved the status of papal legate - a personal representative of the to Foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church – and that he was a candidate for 2 times for the role of the Pope. This view immediately convinced Henry of Wolsey’s treachery and immediately made him unpopular with the last source of his power. With this gone, Wolsey was stripped of his power, status, and property.
The nobles and Boleyn had achieved their goal in driving Wolsey out of power. There is still evidence however, that Henry did not completely lose popularity and fondness of Wolsey even after the stripping of his title shown through the amount of letter he sent to Wolsey. This is proof that Wolsey’s downfall was only due to the actions of Boleyn, the nobles, and Henry’s weak mind. One could even go as far as to say that if the annulment matter had been sorted faster, then Wolsey would be popular with at least Boleyn and therefore stayed in power – this is however, a possibility, but it is true to state that Wolsey’s unpopularity resided with people of very high status’; some of these could have been avoided, such as the nobles. Therefore, Wolsey’s actions throughout his reign were the only reason for his unpopularity – which implies that Wolsey’s downfall was inevitable if his reign was accompanied by his nature.
