The fall of Wolsey

Cardinal Wolsey bows before the messenger from the King, as imagined in the Eighteenth Century. From Hume and Smollet's History of England.

Wolsey lost his favoured position mainly because he was unable to arrange Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon; since Wolsey's authority was derived from the Pope he would not risk making a decision without papal approval. Enemies of Wolsey in the Council easily persuaded the king to move towards a break with Rome. Wolsey was charged with violating the Statute of Praemunire* and most of his properties were confiscated by the crown. Sir Thomas More replaced him as Chancellor, while Cranmer and Cromwell rose to power in the King's Council by succeeding where Wolsey had failed: they developed a plan for royal supremacy over the Church and annulled Henry's marriage.

Henry did not abandon his former favourite entirely: he allowed Wolsey to keep some of his estates and restored to him the Archbishopric of York. Wolsey continued to live in lavish style and only his continued attempts to exert influence in politics led to his arraignment for treason in late 1530. But he died* on his way to London for trial, and was buried near Richard III, a site later known as "tyrants' grave."