Thomas Wolsey was a churchman and statesman who became cardinal, archbishop of York and Henry VIII’s lord chancellor. For much of the 1510s and 1520s he dominated English government and diplomacy, but his inability to obtain the king’s annulment from Catherine of Aragon destroyed his position.
Charged with treason, he died in 1530 while travelling south to face the king. J. Thomas Wolsey served as Lord Chancellor and cardinal. Thomas Wolsey is generally dated to 1473–1530.
In Gareth Russell’s The Palace, Thomas Wolsey transformed an existing manor into a palace capable of receiving rulers and ambassadors before Henry VIII absorbed it into the royal estate. Tudor marriages, childbirths, religious changes and court entertainments established Hampton Court as one of the principal stages on which monarchy displayed its power. In David Field’s The King’s Commoner, Henry VIII’s England. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of York owes his favoured status to the most volatile monarch that the nation has ever known. Further fictional perspectives on Thomas Wolsey can be found in Alison Weir’s The Cardinal, Alison Weir’s The Cardinal’s Daughter, and Steven Veerapen’s Of Blood Descended. For broader historical treatment of Thomas Wolsey, see Steven Veerapen’s Overlord and Alison Weir’s Henry VIII: King and Court.
