A Comparison Of Henry VIII And Wolsey's Foreign Policies

Henry VIII and Wolsey’s foreign policy during the time period saw many adjustments of which large European power they would support, be it Charles V or Francis I. There was also a balanced approach mixing war and peaceful treaties to try and achieve long lasting peace and secure England’s place in European politics. We can see shifts in their policies depending on who they are supported by and what their main aim is to get out of the situation.

On one hand, we can see Henry VIII pursued war as a means of glory by the numerous invasions he made into France, first in 1511 and later in 1513. This was one of Henry’s first moves as he King of England which would suggest that he did this to prove he was worthy of being King as Henry V had proven

Historians such as Pollard believe that Wolsey’s ultimate motive whilst handling England’s foreign policy was proving himself as a worthy candidate for pope in the future. If he could increase England’s standing in Europe in the political front and bring it out of isolation then he stood a chance of being recognised as being a great leader, like the pope would need to be. We can see Wolsey making his largest effort to bring Europe to peace when the Treaty of London was formed, this was a treaty that secured peace with all the countries and England, so ultimately England were in control of what happened next following on from the treaty. However the treaty was undone when Maximilian the Holy Roman Emperor died, leaving a struggle between Charles I and Francis I which resulted in Charles V winning and becoming Holy Roman Emperor which drew matters out of Wolsey’s control. Then after an initial try to bring peace between England and its two neighbours (France and Spain), Wolsey and Henry made the decision to back to more powerful Charles V (Valois) in the hope that he would support them in their foreign policy aims, such as another invasion of France in 1522 to strengthen England’s position in Europe, however no help came from Spain, therefore Wolsey and Henry made the decision to support the French (Hapsburg). The constant switching of support between the two countries shows that Henry and Wolsey wanted support from a more wealthy and more powerful country with their foreign policy aims, when one of the countries let them down they would make the decision to gain support from the other. You could also argue that this was Henry and Wolsey trying to survive the conflict and power struggle between the two countries/families this view is supported by historians such as Starkey, as we can clearly see the changes