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Essay: Assess the Reasons for Wolsey's fall from Power
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This is a complete essay on the subject of Wolsey, Henry VIII's chief minister, and his fall from power. I received 20/20, full marks, for this essay.
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Assess the Reasons for Wolsey’s fall from powerThere were several factors that contributed to Wolsey’s wall from power, such as opposition
from the Boleyn faction, and a lack of support from the nobility. However, the two most
important were his inability to secure a divorce for Henry VIII, and his failures in foreign
affairs.
Wolsey’s handling of foreign policy was one of the main reasons for his downfall. It was not
because he was necessarily bad at navigating the world of foreign affairs, but because he
was never able to fully provide the results that Henry sought, despite making beneficial
agreements. He was not helped by the fact that what Henry wanted – fame and glory,
preferably through conquest – often completely opposed what the country had resources to
provide. At this time, England was not equipped to successfully go to war, particularly
against major powers such as France, Spain, or the Holy Roman Empire. As such Wolsey had
to continuously employ new solutions to provide Henry with the glory he so desperately
wanted. These solutions often meant that England’s foreign policy wildly fluctuated
between agitating for war and seeking peace. For example, for much of the 1510s, England
had been trying to start a war with France (which they did, but with very little success) to
then suddenly drawing up the Treaty of London in 1518 when the country ran out of money.
Although the treaty established England as peacemaker and dispelled some of the tension
between France and Spain, Henry was still displeased by it as he felt Wolsey had forced him
into following peaceful foreign policy. Nevertheless, this policy changed when Charles V, the
Holy Roman Emperor, and Francis I of France came to power. Tensions between these two
countries were high, and it was incredibly likely that they would go to war. So, although
England did try to play peacemaker between the two, an alliance (the Treaty of Bruges,
1521) was eventually created with the Holy Roman Empire. Under the treaty England
promised to provide troops to help Charles invade France. This meant that England was
forced to send soldiers to France in 1523. They did so without the support promised by
Charles, who had backed out. England had spent an inordinate amount of money and had
gained nothing in return. As it was, Henry was once gain forced to follow a peaceful foreign
policy and England continued to play a very limited role in foreign affairs. This was
illustrated by the fact that when Charles and Francis did eventually make peace with the
signing of the Treaty of Cambrai (1529), England was very nearly left out of it. Therefore, we
can clearly see that Wolsey had failed to gain Henry any international prestige. All in all,
Wolsey’s foreign policy was not very successful, and the only reason he had not been
dismissed already was because he had continuously come up with new ways of placating
Henry in the short term. When in 1529 he ran out of solutions, Henry started to doubt
Wolsey’s ability to get him what he wanted to fulfil his wishes. As it was, Wolsey’s failures in
foreign policy over the course of many years undoubtedly played a large role in gradually
antagonising the king against Wolsey. This had a long-term effect on the relationship
between himself and Henry, and it would eventually become one of the two main reasons
for his dismissal. The other was Wolsey’s failure to secure Henry a divorce from Catherine of
Aragon, the divorce proceedings largely took place between 1525 and 1530 when foreign
policy was getting worse and worse.
Like foreign policy, Wolsey’s fall from power was brought about by his multiple failings to
secure Henry a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Henry felt a divorce from Catherine was
necessary, because not only had she failed to give him a son, but he was also by this time
completely infatuated by Anne Boleyn. First of all, Wolsey tried to convince the Pope to
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