Why did the all-powerful Cardinal Wolsey fall from power?

• Traditional

• Wolsey unpopular royal favourite manipulating Henry VIII

• Wolsey fighting and plotting to maintain his position

• Long term anti Wolsey conspiracy seized it opportunity

• Divorce crisis 1528-9

• Revisionist

• No deliberate antagonising of nobles

• Short-term opportunist faction saw chance to get rid of him

• Due to the King’s Great Matter

• And boost their own careers at court

• Led by dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk

• Henry VIII’s government increasingly unpopular 1527-29: Why?• Foreign policy

• Wolsey’s alliance with France 1527 unpopular with nobility• Aims: break Habsburg control in northern Italy

encourage HRE Charles V into negotiations over Henry VIII’s marriage

• Charles V was Katherine of Aragon’s nephew

• Soon after alliance, Charles V’s men sacked Rome

• Henry VIII now in weak position• Over divorce

• Trade with Low Countries disrupted

• And an unpopular alliance

• What do you already know about Wolsey’s relationship with the nobility?

• How did events of:

• 1525

• 1526

• 1527 worsen it?

• Court faction developed against Wolsey:

• ‘Wolsey may have paid lip service to conciliar government,

but his close relationship with the King created envy and no

little resentment.’

• Wolsey hated by Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk BUT…

• Long-term noble conspiracy unlikely

• Pointless when Henry trusted Wolsey so much

• Anne Boleyn: Henry besotted

• Anne: reasons for revenge against Wolsey?

• Previous engagement? Unlikely – better offer

• Eltham Ordinances 1526?

• Brother George Boleyn fell victim

• Duke of Norfolk was Anne’s uncle

• Anne: ideal way to gain influence with King at Wolsey’s expense once Great Matter went wrong

• Timeline: 1526-1529

• 1526: just after Amicable Grant and around time of Eltham Ordinances

• Henry believed Wolsey’s high ecclesiastical rank would enable annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon

• But papal confirmation required

• Wolsey decided to challenge Pope Julius II’s dispensation for Katherine of Aragon to marry Henry VIII on technicality

• Challenge: marriage to Arthur consummated therefore in eyes of Church Henry and Katherine

• Problem: Katherine of Aragon swore the marriage to Arthur never consummated and appealed to Rome

• May 1527: Wolsey hoped to use legatine power to annul marriage in England after receiving confirmation from Clement VII

• But Charles V’s men sacked Rome

• Effectively making Pope Clement the HRE’s prisoner

• Wolsey’s plan to press ahead in Avignon without Pope failed

• Especially after Pope released December 1527

• New plan: get Pope to agree Wolsey could settle matter in England

• But Clement still unwilling to offend HRE Charles V

• Tried to find compromise

• Clement VII sent Campeggio to England with necessary powers to annul marriage

• Privately told him not to sue them and to delay proceedings

• March 1529 court hearing annulment issue at Blackfriars

• Katherine of Aragon swore marriage to Arthur never consummated and appealed directly to Pope

• 23rd July Campeggio adjourned court

• Clear case would never be heard / agreed in England

• 9th October Wolsey charged with Praemunire

• November 1529 Parliament called

• Would become the Reformation Parliament

• Charge of Praemunire marked beginning of end

• Arrested and died on 24th November 1530 at Leicester en route to prison to face charges of treason

• Anne Boleyn believed Wolsey delaying on purpose

• By end of 1528 clear she was very important to King

• King increasingly anxious to divorce Katherine of Aragon

• Parliament passed anti-clerical Acts

• Designed to warn pope that England had independent traditions where Church concerned

• Wolsey’s fall from power reinforced this

• Although had been made cardinal at Henry’s request

• Pope still wary of upsetting Charles V

• “Had I but served God as diligently as I have served the King,

He would not have given me over in my grey hairs … For I

assure you I have often kneeled before him in privy chamber

on my knees the space of an hour or two to persuade him

from his will and appetite; but I could never bring

to pass to dissuade him therefrom.

Therefore, Master Kingston, if it chance hereafter

you to be one of his privy council, warn you to

be well advised and assured what matter ye put

in his head; for ye shall never pull it out again.”