[Gutenberg 53526] • Cardinal Wolsey

‘He was probably the greatest political genius whom England has ever produced.’ Furthermore, he was a ‘political artist’.

Wolsey graduated from Oxford University aged fifteen, survived being sent to the stocks and became chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He moved on to serve Henry VII in a diplomatic capacity, where he became accustomed to people breaking promises and changing their minds; on Henry VII’s death he became almoner to the new king, charged with mediating the affairs of Europe which were in constant flux and representing the monarch on behalf of the people.

At a time of great change in England, at a time when Henry threatened to and then did break with Rome, Wolsey was the one tasked to deliver what was necessary for the nation through his statesmanship and patriotism. He believed royal power, not the church or Parliament, would hold England together and worked to that end.

Wolsey wanted to install peace in Europe under the guarantee of England. When that did not work, he set about allying England with other nations, including France, Italy and the Netherlands. He had ambitions to become Pope and wished to make England govern over the papal church.

Though he sometimes met objections, he never wavered from his purpose. At home he built Cardinal College, Oxford, which was renamed Christchurch, and supervised the dissolution of the monasteries.

In the mid-1520s Henry had moved away from Wolsey’s confidence. He treated him as a servant rather than a friend. The king actively pursued divorce from his first wife and, also, war with France in spite of Wolsey’s belief in neutrality and peace; worse, Wolsey bore the brunt of popular dissent and remained extremely devoted to the proud Henry even as his dream of a united Europe vanished through forces he was unable to control.

He was hardly mourned at the end of his life, and hated by everyone as a tyrant, upstart or reformer. Yet five centuries removed from his negotiations and machinations, Wolsey is still held as an example for diplomacy in foreign affairs.

‘Cardinal Wolsey’ by Mandell Creighton is perfect for anyone who wishes to understand the political scene in the years preceding Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall.

Mandell Creighton (1843-1901) was a scholar who gained degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Glasgow and Harvard universities. He held a chair in Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University and edited the English Historical Review. He wrote a well-received History of Rome and a history of the Papacy during the Reformation.

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