Henry Wolsey Essay

512 Words3 Pages

Henry VIII could not have ruled without his counselors and chief ministers. Monarchs get all the credit, but many actions were addressed by Henry’s helpers. Thomas Wolsey was an English churchman and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, who later became the Lord Chancellor of the King. He majorly helped in the war with France during 1512-1514. Since Cardinal Wolsey was part of the Roman Church, he tried to communicate with the Pope during the divorce of Henry and Catherine of Aragon, but, “The fall of Wolsey was intimately associated with the demise of the Church” (Ackroyd 61). Since Wolsey was unable to communicate well between Henry VIII and the Pope, he was one of the reasons that England split from the Roman Catholic Church which led …show more content…

Before he became Chief Minister, he worked under Wolsey and, still helped to engineer the divorce of the King's marriage first marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragon so that Henry could lawfully marry Anne Boleyn. Cromwell helped the king in tremendous ways. He helped Henry swindle the English Parliament into passing the Act of Appeals and Act of Supremacy. He assisted Henry VIII in closing down the Catholic monasteries, while creating The Church of England as well (Meyer 307). These were all important events that happened throughout England’s history, that led up to the switch of the official religion of England from Catholicism to Protestantism. Cromwell introduced reforms into the administration that delineated the King's household from the state and created a modern administration. He radically altered the role of Parliament by forcing the revisions of many important laws and giving himself a high station in the newly created, elite executive sub-board of Parliament: the Privy Council. This gave Henry VIII a loyal minister in a high place of power that was crucial for many of Henry’s acts to be passed. Although, Thomas Cromwell carried out many different and important tasks for the king, he executed Chancellor Cromwell for treason and heresy in 1540. Little time after, Henry eventually realized that he made a mistake