Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him > Status Update

‘Sir John Russell, who was much closer to Henry, concurred that he was ‘a prince of much wisdom and knowledge, yet he was very suspicious and much given to suspection (suspicion)’. This situation was at least partly of the king’s making. He had fostered an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust through his own fickle behaviour, which had deprived his men of the luxury of feeling secure in his favour.‘

‘It was vital that the power void left by Courtenay should quickly be filled, and that all trace of him be eradicated. The message was clear: Henry’s men were like chess pieces to be manoeuvred or removed from the board completely, as their master saw fit. No matter how high they might rise, if they opposed or angered the king, he would swiftly prove how dispensable - and replaceable - they were.’

‘The fact that Henry was content to see his wife’s sister marry the son of a commoner is one of the clearest demonstrations he had ever made of the esteem that he held for Cromwell. While his noble councillors and companions scorned this base-born minister, Henry apparently valued his exceptional ability and loyalty so highly that he was willing to tie their two families together.’

‘In the scramble for places and honours that followed Anne Boleyn’s demise, Cromwell was undoubtedly the greatest winner. Even though cracks had begun to appear in the king’s relationship with his chief minister, in dispatching the unwanted queen with such devastating effectiveness, Cromwell had once more proved just how indispensable he was to his royal master.’

‘This first phase of the dissolution brought Henry in the region of £100,000, equivalent to more than £32 million today. The annual incomes of the religious houses, meanwhile, delivered the crown a further £32,000 (£10.3 million). Little wonder that he was apparently content to allow Cromwell to continue his work, regardless of the dangerous resentment that was brewing among his subjects.’

‘For all that, though, More was still a shrewd man and, far from being the willing martyr that he is so often portrayed as, he tried to chart the hazardous course between upholding his principles and retaining just enough royal favour to avoid the block. Having made his stand by refusing to acknowledge Anne as queen and resigning the chancellorship, he resolved to do nothing further to provoke the king’s ire.‘

‘in his younger days, had been content to leave even the weightiest of business to the cardinal, it was now clear that he intended to exercise a much tighter control. Partly this was because Henry no longer spent the majority of his time hunting and pursuing the other pleasurable pastimes of his youth, but it was also because Wolsey’s failure to secure an annulment had forced him to play a more active role.’

‘On 22 October, Wolsey was offered the choice of answering to the king or parliament. Without hesitation, he chose the former. The fact that he had been given a choice at all is an indication of Henry’s reluctance to destroy his faithful servant. After all, Wolsey had encompassed an exceptional range of talents and there was no obvious candidate to replace him.‘

‘The proposed reforms had given him the excuse he needed to get rid of his rivals. With the support of the council, in May 1519, Wolsey set about purging the privy chamber of the ‘minions’ whom he and his fellow ministers claimed were having a deleterious influence on their royal master. The men were charged before the council with over-familiarity with the king, for having ‘played such light touches with him‘’

‘Although many at Henry’s court resented Brandon’s rapid rise to power, one man who did not was Thomas Wolsey. This may have been because the two men dominated different spheres of Henry’s life - Brandon the private and military, and Wolsey the political and ecclesiastical. Each nearly counterbalanced the influence of the other’