WOLSEY, Thomas, English states man and cardinal: b. Ipswich, Suffolk, March 1471 (according to others about 1475); d. Leicester, 29 Nov. 1530. He was the son of a butcher and was sent to Magdalen College. Oxford, of which he became a bachelor at 15 and was elected Fellow. Being appointed master of a grammar-school dependent on the college, he had three sons of the Marquis of Dorset under his care, which led that nobleman to present him to the living of Limington, Somerset. He was afterward chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, then to one of the governors of Calais and finally was recom mended to Henry VII, who made him one of his own chaplains. Under Henry VIII his progress in advancement was very rapid. In 1509 he was made dean of Lincoln; in 1510 became rector of Torrington; in 1511, canon of Windsor, registrar of the order of the Garter and privy councillor; in 1513 dean of York and bishop of Tournay (being then in France); in 1514, bishop of Lincoln and then archbishop of York In 1515 Pope Leo X elevated him to the dignity of cardinal, and in the end of the same year Henry made him lord-chancdlor His nomination in 1518 to be the Pope's legate o lettere completed his ecclesiastical dignities, by exalting him above the archbishop of Canter bury. At the time when the rivalry between the Emperor Charles V and Francis I rendered the friendship of Henry of great importance Wolsey was treated with the greatest respect by both sovereigns, receiving pensions fence each, as well as a third from the Pope He ultimately, however, favored the side of Char les, who settled upon him the revenues of two bishoprics in Spain and flattered him with hopes of the Papal chair, which induced him to in volve Henry in a war with France. Insatiable in the pursuit of ecclesiastical emolument, in 1519 he gained the administration of the see of Bath and Wells, and the temporalities of the al)l ey of Saint Albans, his revenues now nearly equaling those of the Crown. Part of them he expended in pomp and ostentation and part in laudable munificence for the advancement of learning. His love of splendor was signally dis the Field of the Cloth of Gold in June 1520; his love of !ranting in his founda tion of several lectures, as well as the college of Christ Church at Oxford, and of a school at Ipswich. He built a palace for himself at Hampton Court, hut this he in the end presented to the king. In 1522, on the death of Leo X and again in 1525, on the death of Adrian VI. he failed to secnre elevation to the papacy, and on both occasions attributed his failure to Charles V, to whom he ever after ward entertained a strong aversion The criti cal affair of the divorce of Queen Catharine e as one of the first steps to his fall Wttb Cardinal Campeggio he was appointed to de termine the legitimacy of Henry's marriage with her, and lost the favor of the king by exposing himself to the suspicion of causing eidsys in the settlement of the question. He
Tell still more into disfavor by advising the long against marrying Anne Boleyn, and of course roused the hosulity of Anne herself and her friends. Leading nobles deeming this a ,food occasion for contriving, his ruin, caused him to be accused of having in the exercise of his duties of papal legate violated the statute f priernunire (1529), and he was convicted. The Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk were sent to require the great seal from him, he was ordered to quit York Palace, his palace in Lon don and retire to Esher, in the diocese of Winchester, and his lands, goods and chattels were declared forfeited. Henry still assured him of his protection. Part of his revenues were restored to him and he was even rein stated in the diocese of York. But Henry did not continue his protection long. Toward the close of the year 1530 he was arrested at his mansion of Cawood, in the diocese of York, whither he had retired, and was ordered to be conveyed to London on a charge of high treason. Illness and mental distress obliged hint to stop at Leicester, where he was well re ceived at the abbey and when he died a few days afterward. Shortly before his death he is said to have exclaimed to the of appointed to conduct him: `Had I but served God as dili gently as I have served my king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs.' There has been considerable disposition in later writers to vindicate the character of this minister; and it must not be forgotten that, in the reign of Henry VIII, who had broken his heart; of Mary, the daughter of the much-injured Cath arine; and of Elizabeth, whose mother (Anne Boleyn) was the chief instrument of his down fall, scant justice could be expected to be ren dered to the better traits of his mixed char aver. If • lie was loose in his morals, grasping in his ambition and rapacious, he was liberal and even profuse toward his dependents, and in his patronage of letters. He was enlightened far beyond the period in which be lived. As a diplomatist it is very difficult to say whether his abilities or industry were the most remark able. and it is to hint that England is indebted for the first notion of a vigorous police and for a regular system in the administration of nastier. Consult 'Life' by Cavendish (1641) and 'Lives' by G. Howard (1824): C. Martin (1862): S., 'Reign of Henry VIII' (London 18114): Creighton. M.. 'Cardinal Wol scy' (it; 1888; new ed., 1903) ; Gardiner, .1., *The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey' (in 'Trans actions of the Royal Historical Society.' ib. 1899); Gasquet, 'The Eve of the Reformation' (18)2); Law, F.... England:s First Great War Minister' (London 1918); Taunton, E. L., 'Cardinal Wolsey' (London 1900); Williams, 'Lives of the English Cardinals' (1868).