Henry 8th

• Wolsey’s rise to Power as Chief Minister

  • Wolsey’s personality
  • Help from the Church
  • The Royal Council
  • Helping Henry VIII
• Wolsey’s Personality

  • ambitious demonstrated by his drive to escape his humble beginnings
  • Clever and gained degree at Oxford at age 15 through the church with an excellent education
  • Built a good relationship with the King which showed he was charming as Henry had no time for Dull and boring Royal councillors
  • Wolsey was not a noble which allowed Henry to trust him as not a threat to his right of the throne.
• Wolsey’s help from the church

  • Wolsey would have never made it out a common man in the Great Chain of Being. He would’ve become a butcher like his dad
  • church allowed him to gain education at oxford where he was studying to become a priest
  • he became the college’s treasurer and undertook a huge college rebuilding programme. He became chaplain for Henry 7th and he was appointed Royal Almoner as Henry 8th came to power
• Wolsey in the Royal Council

  • became Royal Almoner in 1509 to Henry 8th which was a formal advisory body to the king. this was a powerful position and allowed Wolsey to develop a relationship with the king.
  • he was appointed of giving charity to the poor
• Wolsey helped Henry VIII

  • gained power from his assets and successes with helping King Henry VIII with the paperwork a king would normally do.
  • Wolsey handled the financial and administration side of running government.
  • Wolsey organised a successful war with France in 1513 which made Henry look like a favourable king and helped Wolsey‘s reputation grow with him.
  • from developing a well-equipped army, he was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1515.
• Wolsey’s domestic reforms

  • unfair justice
  • illegal enclosure
  • royal finances
  • funding a war with France (1525)
  • Dirty, expensive palaces (1526)
• Unfair Justice

  • reason
  • legal system slow and expensive and often unfair
  • verdicts often favoured those with the most money
  • summary
  • made more use of star chamber,
  • oversaw cases in person
  • no one was above the law, even a nobleman, Henry Prince was imprisoned.
  • evidence
  • work rate of star chamber went from 12 to 120 cases a year
  • failure
  • used the justice system to attack his enemies like Sir Amias Paulet
• Illegal Enclosure

  • reason
  • out of genuine concern for poor and a way to attack wealthy
  • individual landowners fencing off land for profitable sheep rearing which led to poverty in rural areas
  • summary
  • Wolsey set up an enquiry to investigate where land had been enclosed without persmission.
  • success
  • 260 court cases brought against landowners which was a stark number as it was rare for people to go to court
  • failure
  • Increased unpopularity among wealthy landowners and some parliament members forced Wolsey to halt investigations. Problem stilll remained
• Royal finances

  • reason
  • King wanted to follow an aggressive foreign policy to prove himself as the greatest in Europebut only had an income of £110,000 which was not enough to win wars abroad.
  • summary
  • solution was to set a subsidy based on an assessment of a person’s income. The greater income, the more tax paid.
  • success
  • 1513-1516, fifteenths and tenths raised £90,000 whereas subsidy raised £170,000
  • failure
  • still not enough. Henry spent £1.4 million on wars between 1511 and 1525. Rated of taxation was unpopular
• Funding a war with France- 1525

  • Reason
  • Charles V captured King of France and Henry wanted to strike the iron while it was hot. But England already used funds for the invasion
  • summary
  • Wolsey came up with a direct tax without gaining approval from parliament
  • success - none
  • failure
  • first rebellion of King Henry’s reign. Henry claimed to be oblivious and ordered the collection to be stopped. Wolsey grew unpopular. Henry could not invade.
• Dirty, expensive Palaces- 1526

  • reason
  • because hundreds attended court on the daily. money was spent without thought
  • Eltham Ordinances
  • servants who were sick were laid off
  • the amount of people who were allowed for food and drinks was cut
  • meals were at set times
  • dogs were banned to promote cleanliness
  • Reduced costs with set meal time. Privy chamber cut down from 12 to 6.
• Henry the great peacemaker 1518-1520

  • treaty of london(1518) - this gave the reputation as a great peacemaker as he made 20 leading rulers promise to not go to war with each other.
  • field of the cloth of gold(1520)- War seemed likely between Francis I and Charles . In the field of cloth of gold Henry met Francis to see if this could be avoided. However, nothing of substance was achieved and by 1521 there were at war with each other.
• Henry at war with France - 1522-1525

  • Henry and Wolsey decided to ally with charles V against France. In 1522, the Earl of Surrey led a raid into France but nothing was achieved.
  • Even though they both agreed to invade France in 1523, the English army made it to Paris but the attack fell apart because Charles V did not send his troops in.
• The capture of Francis (1525)

  • Henry tried to suggest to divide France between them but was rejected. Henry had no money to invade France himself but had no money.
• Treaty of the More (1525)

  • Henry and Wolsey decided to ally with traditional enemy France and oppose Charles V. The alliance was deeply unpopular in England
• League of Cognac - 1526

  • Wolsey established an alliance of France, the Pope, Venice and Florence.
  • However, this did not help stop the expansion of the Habsburg Empire in Italy
  • Charles V was then able to capture the pope making him more powerful
• League of Cognac 2

  • in 1528, France and England declared war on Charles V
  • France invaded northern Italy but no English army was raised in support.
  • Wolsey planned to prevent trade reaching the Netherlands which Charles V owned but strikes were held in England as workers would go bankrupt without trade.
  • England was ineffective, weak and useless
• Treaty of Cambrai 1529

  • Charles V and Francis I decided it make peace after Charles V defeated Francis I forces. Wolsey only knew these peace negotiations last minute so England was diplomatically isolated and not treated equally.
• Royal Household

  • A small group of the King’s closest friends
  • Main role was to entertain Henry
  • but were so close they influenced his political decisions
• Royal Council

  • A body which tended to be ignored by the king until he needed new taxes
  • Consisted of House of Lords and House of Commons
  • Official advice
• Privy Chamber

  • Made up of leading noblemen known as Courtiers, its job was to provide dazzling entertainment to the King and his guests
  • informal advice
• 94% of people lived in rural areas
• England’s population was around 2.5million
• Why did Henry want to annul his marriage

  • King’s Great matter to have a male heir and secure dynasty
  • He believed he should not have married his brother’s wife as God disapproved of this. Leviticus in the Bible states “If a man shall take his brother’s wife it is an impurity… …they shall be childless”
  • Henry was also interested with a younger and more attractive woman than Catherine of Aragon - Anne Boleyn- who he had fallen in love with
• Four ways Wolsey attempted to secure an annulment

  1. Paperwork argument

  2. Bible Wars

  3. Nun option

  4. Court Case
• Paperwork argument


  Wolsey argued that the marriage was invalid because Rome had made a mistake in the original paperwork but Catherine's supports a correctly worded Spanish version which made it valid
• Bible Wars


  1. Henry and Wolsey tried to find evidence that the marriage was wrong with Leviticus

  2. Deuteronomy was pointed at which suggested that a man could marry his brother's widow and have children

  3. No clear answer

  4. The Leviticus quote would only work if they had consummated their marriage and this was just gossip

  5. The pope would also not admit his mistake in special dispensation because it would ruin his reputation
• Nun option


  • If Catherine would become a nun then the marriage would automatically terminate without the Pope's approval
  • Catherine was accused of hating the King because of she was too friendly with the public which was a threat to try to make her a nun
• Court Case


  1. A court case in England would make Wolsey, as Papal Legate, do what the king wished and rule on behalf of the Pope with Cardinal Campeggio

  2. Campeggio was told to delay the trial for as long possible

  3. The case was stalled until July 1528 and called off for the summer
• Catherine opposed the annulment because it opposed her catholic principles. If the annulment went through, her daughter would become illegitimate to the throne. Catherine also believed she was a dutiful Queen and she still loved Henry.
• The Pope was on Catherine’s side as he was controlled by Charles V who was Catherine’s nephew. Charles V was in charge of the Vatican and pressured the Pope. Pope would also be embarrassed it his dispensation was originally a mistake.
• Wolsey's Biig failures

  • fiasco with the amicable grant
  • failure of the alliance with france against charles V
  • Failure to secure the annulment
  • Boleyn Faction
• Fiasco of the Amicable Grant

  • Wolsey tried to build a direct tax to help raise money for a war with france but angered the people as it did not pass parliament.
  • all blame shifted to wolsey
• Failure of the alliance

  • Wolsey failed to form an alliance with France and Spain meaning England was diplomatically isolated
• Failure to secure annulment

  • Meant Henry was suspicious of Wolsey being on the Pope's side
  • therefore, Wolsey was committing Praemunire and could be executed
• The Boleyn Faction was made up of nobles in court who despised wolsey and thought he did not belong to be as powerful as he should not have climbed the Great Chain of Being
• Cromwell's time in Europe developed him

  • joined the army in France agianst and deserted the army and oved to florence. he used his sharp mind to rise up the Frescobaldi household who was a leading merchant banker
  • Cromwell was living in a city at the heart of the renaissance so he became well cultured
  • He developed trading knowledge and made contacts whn moving to Antwerp in Belgium as a cloth merchant
  • He didnt develop any formal legal training but learnt through gaining a business and reputation so developed a thriving legal practise.
• • By 1519, Cromwell becmae a member of Wolsey's council.
  • He took a stark amount of high profile legal cases in the star chamber
  • Wolsey frequently sent him to send news to the king
  • In 1523, Cromwell became an MP
• The fall of Wolsey was potentially dangerous to Cromwell as he had no formal position so his career could be over. Cromwell could also be threatened as attacks on his master could lead back to him
• Cromwell benefitted from Wolseys fall by

  • impressing the King with his loyalty and handling legal affairs of Wolsey's death
  • Cromwell was in the Royal Council and placed in Henry's circle of trust
  • Cromwell was then able to secure the annulment with Catherine of Aragon