Thomas Wolsey: 'The Other King'

Thomas Wolsey, Son of a Butcher

Thomas Wolsey was born in Ipswich in the early 1470s – we don’t know exactly when. His father Robert ran a tavern in the town and traded as a butcher. Whilst the family had money and property, they were not part of the traditional ruling classes of medieval England.

But the Tudor age opened up new opportunities for those clever and wealthy enough to seize them – King Henry VII was keen to find new, loyal men to challenge the power of the nobility. Wolsey’s modest beginnings would later prompt snobbish ridicule from his rivals.

Education and Early Career

Family money provided Thomas with an Oxford University education to study theology. After graduating, he was ordained as a priest while gaining business experience working for the University, becoming senior bursar at Magdalen College in 1499.

Wolsey’s first church appointment came the following year, in Limington, Somerset, through contacts he’d made at Oxford. But seeking a higher position than parish priest, he also joined the household of Henry Deane, Archbishop of Canterbury, as a chaplain. He also worked for Sir Richard Nanfan, treasurer of the English port of Calais.

‘Well beloved clerk and chaplain’ to Henry VII

Always on the lookout for new opportunities, Wolsey’s busy networking got him another post as a royal chaplain, where his diligence and speed of work soon attracted the notice of Henry VII.

The King sent Wolsey on several diplomatic missions in the last years of his reign, to the Netherlands and Scotland. His rewards as Henry’s ‘well-beloved clerk and chaplain’ were more royal and church appointments.

When the King died in 1509, Wolsey was one of the men singled out for further promotion, becoming almoner to the new King, Henry VIII.

Wolsey’s Mistress and Children

Flushed with success, but unable to marry because he was a priest (at the time Catholic priests, whatever their role, were meant to remain celibate) Wolsey had two children with ‘Mistress Larke’, Thomas and Dorothy. Later, at the height of his power, this relationship would become an embarrassment, but Wolsey provided for both his mistress (paying for her marriage in 1519) and his children.

Thomas Wolsey and Henry VIII

Over the next few years, Wolsey made himself as indispensable as possible to Henry VIII, seeking out friendships and alliances with Henry’s councillors, and earning a reputation for efficiency and managing the tedious workloads of everyday government.

He also listened. And paid attention to the youthful aspirations of his royal master. Henry VIII was only 18 in 1509, and wanted to emulate his royal heroes of the past by winning a glorious victory against England’s traditional enemy, France, on the battlefields of western Europe.

War with France

Wolsey became the director of Henry’s military campaign of 1513, backing the King against the advice of some of his ministers. He arranged for the supply of the army, the mustering of ships and organised the raising of the enormous funds required. The English army captured Tournai and Thérouanne, and forced the French to accept a peace treaty that married Henry’s sister Mary to Louis XII King of France.

Success for the Tudors meant rewards for Wolsey. In 1514, he became Archbishop of York, and the following year Lord Chancellor, effectively Henry’s chief minister. At the same time, at the King’s request, the Pope created Wolsey a ‘Cardinal’.

Chief Minister and 'Alter Rex' ('The Other King')

All of this made Wolsey in charge of Henry’s home and foreign policy, of England’s legal system, and of England’s relations with the Catholic Church.

For the next 15 or more years, Henry would do little without the help, support and guidance of a man who became known to some as the alter rex (the other king). As the political landscape shifted, and England’s policy moved from war to peace, it was Wolsey, again, who played the key diplomatic role.

The Field of Cloth of Gold

Wolsey positioned England and the King as an arbiter between the two, more powerful European ruling dynasties of France and the Holy Roman Empire. He negotiated a complex series of peace treaties, supported by the Pope, who wanted the whole of Europe to stand together against the threat of the expanding Islamic empire of the Ottomans.

In 1520, the Treaty of London between England and France was celebrated in lavish style at a festival and sporting tournament held near Calais. So magnificent was the occasion, as both the English and French courts tried to outdo each other, that it became known as The Field of Cloth of Gold.

Henry and Wolsey were, throughout the 1510s and early 1520s, a formidable team.

European Isolation

Universal peace in Europe, so carefully negotiated by Wolsey, did not last. In 1525, the armies of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V defeated the forces of Francis I, King of France at the Battle of Pavia, as both rulers fought over control of northern Italy. Francis was captured, and ultimately signed a separate peace treaty with Charles.

This left England isolated, and with few cards to play. Henry VIII had been married to Katherine of Aragon for 20 years, but a story of still-births and infant death had left them with only one daughter, Princess Mary. Henry needed a son and heir, both to secure the Tudors as the ruling dynasty in England, and to negotiate marriage alliances abroad.

Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII’s ‘Great Matter’

The arrival of Anne Boleyn at the English court offered Henry new hope. He planned to divorce Katherine, marry Anne, and acquire the family he craved. But this was not straightforward, even for the King of England.

With Katherine refusing to accept her fate, Wolsey was charged with finding a solution. This meant appealing to Pope Clement VII, who could provide Henry with an annulment, and legitimise his second marriage.

But the Pope’s political authority was limited, as he was himself reliant on the support of Emperor Charles V. It suited Charles to have Henry remain without a male heir, and effectively powerless, so he wasn’t inclined to help.

Wolsey's Defeat and Death

Wolsey failed to resolve Henry’s 'Great Matter' and lost his power and some of his positions as a result. In 1529, he surrendered Hampton Court to the King, and travelled north to visit his Yorkshire archdiocese. But in his desperate attempts to retain his favour with Henry, he overstepped his authority by negotiating with continental contacts without the King's knowledge.

Accused of treason, the Cardinal was summoned back to London. By this point, he was not a well man. Apparently overweight and troubled by a variety of illnesses and infections, grief and fear, Thomas Wolsey fell sick at Leicester Abbey, and died in the early hours of 29 November 1530.

Pride and Fall: How Should We Remember Thomas Wolsey?

The story of Thomas Wolsey’s rise and fall is often told as a cautionary tale. Beware the perils of being too ambitious and becoming so powerful, that you sow the seeds of your own destruction. In this version of events, Wolsey angered both the King with his extravagance, and incurred the envy of his rivals at court. He was a Tudor ‘villain’ described by his successors and enemies as a fat, lecherous, vainglorious tyrant, who deserved his fate.

Wolsey certainly inspired jealousy and criticism, but what finally brought Wolsey down was Henry VIII’s ‘Great Matter’, the King’s desire for an annulment from Katherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.

Wolsey couldn’t deliver. And when a man like Wolsey falls from power, his enemies are all too quick to seize an opportunity.

Tudor Icon and Hampton Court Celebrity

Yet we should remember Wolsey as one of the Tudor age’s great administrators, who did his level best to enable Henry VIII’s aspirations to be a great ‘Renaissance Prince’. He aimed to position England at the centre of European politics and culture, through his busy, clever diplomacy and his patronage of art and architecture.

Wolsey initiated reforms in taxation and government management that allowed Henry’s court to flourish, increasing royal revenue and centralising authority. He also made it easier for his successors, like his protégé Thomas Cromwell to govern well.

At Hampton Court, his legacy is the palace itself, which would not have become Henry VIII’s great pleasure palace without Wolsey’s investment and energy.