Editing Thomas Wolsey (section)

==Domestic achievements==
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During his 14 years as chancellor, Wolsey had more power than any other Crown servant in English history.{{sfn|James|2009|pp=1–}} This led to his being hated by much of the nobility, who believed that power should be theirs. The king protected him from being attacked. As long as he was in the king's favour, Wolsey had great freedom in domestic matters, and had his hand in nearly every aspect of them. For much of the time, Henry VIII had complete confidence in him, and as Henry's interests inclined more towards foreign policy, he was willing to give Wolsey free rein in reforming the management of domestic affairs, for which Wolsey had grand plans. Historian [[John Guy (historian)|John Guy]] explains Wolsey's methods:

{{blockquote|Only in the broadest respects was [the king] taking independent decisions. ... It was Wolsey who almost invariably calculated the available options and ranked them for royal consideration; who established the parameters of each successive debate; who controlled the flow of official information; who selected the king's secretaries, middle-ranked officials, and JPs; and who promulgated decisions himself had largely shaped, if not strictly taken.|source={{harvnb|Guy|1988|p=87}} }}

Operating with the king's firm support, and with special powers over the church given by the Pope as legate, Wolsey dominated civic affairs, administration, the law, the church, and foreign policy. He was amazingly energetic and far-reaching. He built a great fortune for himself and was a major benefactor of arts, humanities and education. He projected numerous reforms, with some success in areas such as finance, taxation, educational provision and justice. From the king's perspective, his greatest failure was an inability to get a divorce when Henry wanted a new wife to give him a son who would be the undisputed heir to the throne. Historians agree that Wolsey was a man dogged by other men's failures and his own ambition. In the end, abandoned by the king, Wolsey was charged with treason, but died of natural causes before he could be beheaded.{{sfn|Bindoff|1950|p=78}}{{sfn|Mackie|1952|pp=286–334}}

===Taxation===
Wolsey made changes to the taxation system, devising, with treasurer of the Chamber John Heron, the "Subsidy". This form of tax was based upon accurate valuations of the taxpayer's wealth, where one shilling was taken per pound from the income. The old fixed tax of 15ths and 10ths meant that those who earned very little had to pay almost as much as the wealthy. With the new income tax the poorer members of society paid much less. This more progressive form of taxation enabled Wolsey to raise enough money for the king's foreign expeditions, bringing in over £300,000. He also raised considerable capital through other means, such as "[[benevolence (tax)|benevolences]]", and enforced loans from the nobility, which yielded £200,000 in 1522.{{sfn|Fellows|Dicken|2015|p=63}} Ultimately, Wolsey's fiscal policy became increasingly disliked- his forced loans and benevolences culminated in the [[Amicable Grant]] (1525). This was met with hostility as the Amicable Grant provoked 'full-scale revolt in Suffolk... the most serious rebellion since 1497'{{sfn|Guy|1988|pp=102–103}} ([[Cornish rebellion of 1497|Cornish rebellion]]).

===Justice===
As a legal administrator, Wolsey reinvented the equity court, where the verdict was decided by the judge on the principle of "fairness". As an alternative to the Common Law courts, Wolsey re-established the position of the prerogative courts of the [[Star Chamber]] and the [[Court of Chancery]]. The system in both courts concentrated on simple, inexpensive cases, and promised impartial justice. He also established the [[Court of Requests]] (although this court was only given this name later on) for the poor, where no fees were required. Wolsey's legal reforms were popular, and overflow courts were required to attend to all the cases. Many powerful men who had felt invincible under the law found themselves convicted; for example, in 1515, the [[Earl of Northumberland]] was sent to [[Fleet Prison]] and in 1516 [[George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny|Lord Abergavenny]] was accused of maintaining a larger armed [[retinue]] than legally permitted.

Wolsey also used his courts to tackle national controversies, such as the pressing issue of [[enclosure]]s. The countryside had been thrown into discord by the entrepreneurial actions of landlords enclosing areas of land and converting from arable farming to pastoral farming, requiring fewer workers. The Tudors valued stability, and the resulting mass urban migration represented a serious crisis. Wolsey conducted national enquiries into enclosures in 1517, 1518 and 1527. In the course of his administration, he used the Court of Chancery to prosecute 264 landowners, including peers, bishops, knights, religious heads, and Oxford colleges. Enclosures were seen as directly linked to rural unemployment and depopulation, vagrancy, food shortages and, accordingly, inflation. This pattern repeated in many of Wolsey's other initiatives, particularly his quest to abolish enclosure. Despite spending significant time and effort investigating the state of the countryside and prosecuting numerous offenders, Wolsey freely surrendered his policy during the parliament of 1523 to ensure that Parliament passed his proposed taxes for Henry's war in France. Enclosures remained a problem for many years.

Wolsey used the Star Chamber to enforce his 1518 policy of ''Just Price'', which attempted to regulate the price of meat in London and other major cities. Those found to be charging too much were prosecuted by the Chamber. After the bad harvest of 1527, Wolsey bought up surplus grain and sold it off cheaply to the needy. This greatly eased disorder and became common practice after a disappointing harvest.

===Church reforms===
In 1524 and 1527 Wolsey used his powers as papal legate to [[Dissolution of the Monasteries#English precedents of the Church|dissolve]] 30 decayed monasteries where monastic life had virtually ceased in practice, some in [[Ipswich]] and [[Oxford]]. He used the income to found a [[grammar school]] in Ipswich ([[The King's School, Ipswich]]) and [[Christ Church, Oxford#History|Cardinal College]] in Oxford (in 1532, after Wolsey's fall, the king renamed it King Henry VIII's College; it is now known as [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]]). In 1528 he began to limit the [[benefit of clergy]]. He also attempted, as legate, to force reform on monastic orders like the Augustinian canons.

Wolsey died five years before Henry's [[dissolution of the monasteries]] began.

===Relationships===
Wolsey's power depended on maintaining good relations with Henry. He grew increasingly suspicious of the "minions"—young, influential members of the [[Privy chamber]]—particularly after infiltrating one of his own men into the group. He attempted many times to disperse them from court, giving them jobs that took them to the Continent and far from Henry. After the [[Amicable Grant]] failed, the minions began to undermine him again. Consequently, Wolsey devised a grand plan of administrative reforms, incorporating the notorious [[Eltham ordinances]] of 1526. This reduced the members of the Privy Council from 12 to 6, removing Henry's friends such as [[William Compton (courtier)|Sir William Compton]] and [[Nicholas Carew (courtier)|Nicholas Carew]].

One of Wolsey's greatest impediments was his lack of popularity amongst the nobles at court and in Parliament. Their dislikes and mistrusts partly stemmed from what they saw as Wolsey's excessive demands for money in the form of the Subsidy or benevolences. They also resented the Act of Resumption of 1486, by which Henry VII had resumed possession of all lands granted by the crown since 1455.{{sfn|Truman|2007}} These lands had passed onto his heir, Henry VIII. Many nobles resented the rise to power of a low-born man, whilst others simply disliked that he monopolised the court and concealed information from the Privy Council.

When mass riots broke out in [[East Anglia]], which should have been under the control of the Dukes of [[Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk|Norfolk]] and [[Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk|Suffolk]], Henry was quick to denounce the Amicable Grant, and began to lose faith in Wolsey. During the relatively peaceful period in England after the War of the Roses, its population increased. With more demand for food and no additional supply, prices increased. Landowners were forced to enclose land and convert to pastoral farming, which brought in more profit. Wolsey's quest against enclosure was fruitless in terms of restoring economic stability.

The same can be said for Wolsey's legal reforms. After he made justice accessible to all and encouraged more people to bring cases to court, the system was abused. The courts became overloaded with incoherent, tenuous cases, which would have been far too expensive to have rambled on in the Common Law courts. Wolsey eventually ordered all minor cases out of the [[Star Chamber]] in 1528. The result of this venture was further resentment by the nobility and the gentry.

===Art patronage ===
From 1515, when he became cardinal, until his death, Wolsey used art and architecture to underpin his positions. He initiated a building campaign on a scale not only unprecedented for an English churchman and Lord Chancellor, but also exceeded by few English kings. In so doing, he brought Italian Renaissance ideas, classical embellishments, and architectural models into English architecture. Scholars generally cite Somerset House in London (1547–1552) as the first classical building in England, built for Edward Seymour, the first Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector to King Edward VI. But Wolsey embraced Italian-inspired classicism nearly half a century before Seymour, though more theoretically than visually. Wolsey's subsequent disgrace over his failure to garner papal approval of an annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon has clouded the fact that he was not only the first high-profile patron in England to seek out and promote Italian classicism in art, architecture, and magnificence, but also that his contributions endured.

Among Wolsey's projects were lavish, classically inspired additions to York Palace in London, the Archbishop of York's residence. He supervised the grandiose temporary buildings at the Field of Cloth of Gold and renovated Hampton Court, which he later relinquished to the king. Wolsey's use of architecture as a symbol of power, along with his introduction of Italian classical ornamentation, set a trend continued by Henry VIII and others.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Foyle |first1=Jonathan |title=A Reconstruction of Thomas Wolsey's Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace |journal=Architectural History |year=2002 |volume=45 |pages=128–158 |publisher=SAHGB Publications Limited |doi=10.2307/1568780 |jstor=1568780}}</ref> Wolsey oversaw tombs for Henry's VIII's parents at Westminster Abbey and negotiated contracts for Henry VIII's tomb as well as one for himself. If these works had been completed as planned, they would be among Europe's largest, most elaborate, and grandest tombs.  The college originally founded and planned by Wolsey and refounded by Henry VIII ([[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]]) remains the largest and grandest of all Oxford colleges.

===Failures with the Church===
As well as his State duties, Wolsey simultaneously attempted to exert his influence over the Church in England. As cardinal and, from 1524, lifetime papal legate, Wolsey continually vied for control over others in the Church. His principal rival was [[William Warham]], the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], who made it more difficult for Wolsey to follow through with his plans for reform. Despite making promises to reform the bishoprics of England and Ireland, and, in 1519, encouraging monasteries to embark on a programme of reform, he did nothing to bring about these changes.