Wolsey, Thomas

Wolsey, Thomas (about 1473-1530), cardinal, statesman b. Ipswich, Suffolk, England.

Thomas Wolsey was the son of a butcher.

He started his career as a lecturer at Oxford University and rose to become one of the richest and most powerful men in England. By today's standards, he was a billionaire. He had 1,000 servants and Hampton Court Palace (near Kingston, Surrey) was one of his residences.

The Pope made Wolsey a cardinal, and Henry VIII made him Lord Chancellor of England.

He looked after most of the affairs of the kingdom something like the way a Prime Minister does today.

Wolsey had the job of asking the Pope to grant Henry a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. The Pope said no, and Wolsey fell into the King's disfavor. He had many enemies and they quickly plotted his downfall.

He had to give up his post as Chancellor, had most of his wealth taken away from him, and he went to York to be Archbishop there. Then in November 1530, he was arrested on a charge of high treason.

On the way to London as a prisoner, he was taken ill and rested at Leicester Abbey. There he died saying, 'If I had served God as I have done the King he would not have given me over in my grey hairs.'

See George Cavendish Two Early Tudor Lives: The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish; The Life of Sir Thomas More by William Roper