Cardinal Wolsey

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530) will always be remembered as the Lord Chancellor who fell from power when he failed to obtain the annulment of King Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The eminent British historian, Mandell Creighton, writes that Wolsey was branded by Tudor historians as "the minion of the Pope, and the upholder of a foreign despotism." But the publication in the nineteenth century of the mass of documents relating to the reign of Henry VIII made possible a truer assessment of the visionary schemes of the great cardinal and of his underlying patriotism. In his patient diplomacy and careful construction of alliances, the author concludes that "at a great crisis of European history he impressed England with a sense of her own importance and secured for her a leading position in European affairs." - Summary by Pamela Nagami