The Fall of Wolsey

The great matter of the king

By 1527 Henry VIII had been married to Catherine of Aragon for eighteen years. She had been pregnant at least six times. One son had lived seven weeks in 1511. The only child alive was Mary, born in February 1516, and Catherine, at forty-one, would have no more. The Tudors had held the throne for one reign, and no queen had ever ruled England in her own right. Henry had found a text in Leviticus that said a man who married the widow of his brother would be childless, and he had found Anne Boleyn. What he needed was a ruling from Rome that his marriage had never been valid, and the man whose job it was to get it was the Cardinal who had got him everything else. The exam asks why Henry wanted the annulment, why Pope Clement VII would not grant it, what happened in the court at Blackfriars in 1529, and why the failure destroyed Wolsey. This module gives you the dated evidence and the question shapes.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the moment it mattered, because a bare definition earns nothing in a 12-mark answer.

The great matter, in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• Princess Mary is born, the only child of the marriage to survive
• Wolsey opens a secret court at Westminster to try the validity of the marriage
• The army of Charles V sacks Rome and the Pope becomes his prisoner
• Cardinal Campeggio arrives in London with instructions to go slowly
• Catherine kneels before Henry at Blackfriars and appeals to Rome
• Wolsey surrenders the Great Seal and is charged with praemunire

Why would the Pope not say yes?

Popes had annulled royal marriages before, and Wolsey was the papal legate in England. Yet from 1527 to 1529 Clement VII gave Henry nothing but delay. Which explanation best accounts for it?

• From May 1527 Clement was in the power of Charles V, whose army had sacked Rome and whose aunt was Catherine; to annul the marriage he would also have had to declare that a previous Pope had erred in granting the dispensation of 1503; and Catherine appealed to Rome herself, which gave him every reason to keep the case in his own hands and out of England.
• Clement believed Henry had become a Protestant.
• Henry refused to pay the fee the Pope demanded.
• The Pope disapproved of Anne Boleyn personally.

The case for the king and the case for the queen

Both sides argued from scripture and from fact, and the examiners reward answers that can state each side fairly.

The Boleyns and the fall

Five statements about the fall of Wolsey. Tap the TWO that give evidence of the influence of the Boleyn faction, as opposed to the failure of the divorce proceedings.

• Campeggio adjourned the Blackfriars court on 23 July 1529 for the summer vacation of the Roman courts, and Clement revoked the case to Rome.
• Anne had not forgotten that Wolsey had broken her engagement to Henry Percy in about 1523, and by 1529 she was reading his correspondence with the king before he did.
• On 18 October 1529 Wolsey surrendered the Great Seal and eight days later Thomas More was made Lord Chancellor.
• The Duke of Norfolk, uncle of Anne, and the Duke of Suffolk led the council that drew up the charges against Wolsey, and Thomas Boleyn was made Earl of Wiltshire that December.
• Wolsey was arrested at Cawood in November 1530 and died at Leicester Abbey on the road to London.

Blackfriars, 1529: which are true?

Select the THREE statements that are true of the legatine court of 1529.

• It was presided over by two cardinals, Wolsey and Campeggio, sitting as judges for the Pope, and it opened at Blackfriars on 31 May 1529.
• Catherine appeared once, on 21 June, knelt before Henry, declared that she had come to him a true maid, and appealed her case to Rome before walking out.
• Campeggio adjourned the court on 23 July without a verdict, and the Pope called the case to Rome.
• The court declared the marriage invalid.
• Pope Clement attended in person.
• Anne Boleyn gave evidence against Catherine.

Why Wolsey fell: weigh the causes, with dates

The grade-9 note on this bullet is explicit: the fall was cumulative, and the strong answer weighs the failure of the divorce against the Boleyn faction with evidence for both, rather than picking one. The divorce. Wolsey had promised what he could not deliver. The secret court of May 1527 was overtaken by the Sack of Rome that same month; Campeggio arrived in October 1528 with orders to delay; Catherine appealed to Rome on 21 June 1529; the court was adjourned on 23 July. A minister whose whole value to the king was that he got things done had failed at the one thing the king wanted. The Boleyns. Anne had a grievance from 1523, access to the king that Wolsey could no longer match, and a family: her uncle Norfolk and his ally Suffolk sat on the council that framed the charges, and her father was made an earl within weeks of the fall. The rest. The nobles Wolsey had prosecuted in Star Chamber; the taxpayers of the Amicable Grant; the Peace of Cambrai in August 1529 made without England. And the king himself, who had used Wolsey for fourteen years and needed someone to blame. The fall needed all of these, and the top-level answer says so with dates.

In the shoes of the Cardinal, 1527 to 1529

Four moments when Wolsey had to choose. Choose as he chose, and notice what each choice cost.

• Spring 1527. The king has told you his conscience is troubled by Leviticus and he wants the marriage ended. You are papal legate in England. What do you do?
• June 1527. Word arrives that the army of the Emperor has sacked Rome and the Pope is a prisoner in the Castel Sant Angelo. Your secret court has just collapsed. What now?
• 21 June 1529. In open court Catherine has knelt to the king, sworn she came to him a virgin, appealed to Rome and walked out. What does the court do?
• October 1529. The court has been revoked to Rome, Cambrai has been made without you, and the council of Norfolk and Suffolk has drawn up a charge of praemunire. The king sends for the Great Seal. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

Because Catherine had no living son and was past forty by 1527, Henry read _____ as the judgement of God on his marriage. Because Julius II had granted a dispensation in _____, Clement could not annul the marriage without saying a Pope had erred. Because the army of Charles sacked Rome in May 1527, the Pope who had to decide was the prisoner of the nephew of the queen. Because Catherine appealed to Rome at _____ in June 1529, the case left England and Wolsey with it. And because Anne had a grudge from 1523 and an uncle called _____, there was a faction ready to turn the failure into a charge of _____.

Why the succession pressed

Catherine of Aragon was born in December 1485. In 1527, when Henry began to seek the annulment, roughly how old was she? Give her age in years.

The 4-mark question

Question (a) might read: Describe two features of the legatine court at Blackfriars in 1529. It is marked feature plus supporting detail, twice. Which answer scores all four marks?

• One feature was that it was a papal court sitting in England, with two cardinals, Wolsey and Campeggio, as judges from 31 May 1529. Another was that it never gave a verdict: after Catherine appealed to Rome on 21 June, Campeggio adjourned it on 23 July and the Pope called the case to Rome.
• It had two judges. It failed.
• The court at Blackfriars was very important because it was the moment when Henry tried to end his marriage.
• The court failed because the Pope was in the power of Charles V after the Sack of Rome and had told Campeggio to delay.

A 12-mark paragraph, marked

Question (b): Explain why Wolsey fell from power in 1529. One reason for the fall of Wolsey was the failure of the divorce proceedings in London. Wolsey had staked his position on getting the king an annulment, and by 1529 he had tried twice: a secret court at Westminster in May 1527, which the Sack of Rome that same month made worthless, and the legatine court at Blackfriars from 31 May 1529, sitting with Campeggio, who had arrived from Rome in October 1528 under orders to delay. When Catherine appealed to Rome on 21 June and Campeggio adjourned the court on 23 July, the Pope revoked the case to Rome. This meant that the one thing Henry wanted was now beyond the reach of the one minister who had always got him what he wanted, and a minister valued for results had none to show. Within three months Wolsey had given up the Great Seal. The divorce did not fall alone, but it was the failure that made his enemies safe to strike. What earned the marks: a cause named in the first sentence; specific support (the two courts with dates, Campeggio and his orders, the appeal, the adjournment); the link phrase this meant that; and a closing sentence that returns to the question and weighs the cause. Two more paragraphs, on the Boleyn faction and on the enemies Wolsey had made among the nobility, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the 12-mark answer

Explain why Henry VIII failed to obtain an annulment of his marriage in the years 1527 to 1529. You may use the following in your answer: the Sack of Rome; Catherine of Aragon. You must also use information of your own.

• Support that counts: a date, a name, a text or a court
• Causes of your own: the dispensation of 1503, the instructions given to Campeggio, or the appeal to Rome

The 16-mark judgement

Question (c) might read: "The main reason for the fall of Wolsey was the failure of the divorce proceedings." How far do you agree? A student has written the case FOR. Which is the strongest point to set AGAINST it?

• The failure of the divorce did not have to end in a charge of praemunire: it took a faction to make it fatal, and the Boleyns supplied one, with Anne controlling access to the king from 1529, her uncle Norfolk and Suffolk on the council that framed the charges, and her father made Earl of Wiltshire in December, so that the divorce explains why Wolsey was vulnerable and the Boleyns explain why he fell.
• Wolsey was old and unwell by 1529.
• Wolsey was too loyal to the Pope to serve a king who wanted an annulment.
• Campeggio adjourned the court in July 1529.