In the Lion's Court by Derek Wilson

Author:Derek Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780753551301
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2017-06-08T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

Out of Control

Life at the political centre was entering a new and distinctive phase. The high tension at court, the fluctuations of policy, the feverish activity and the making and breaking of reputations that marked the years 1530–33 were the results of two new phenomena: royal initiative and court rivalries. The quest for some means of extricating Henry from one marriage and projecting him into another dominated all policy-making. The more the ardent wooer was frustrated in his dynastic and carnal desires by a helpless Pope, ‘intransigent’ ecclesiastics, ‘incompetent’ councillors, scheming supporters of Catherine, and a hostile public opinion, the more stubborn and irascible he became, the more he intervened in the work of government generally, the more susceptible he was to the ideas of new men who offered innovative or radical solutions. As Henry became increasingly desperate individuals in court and Council vied earnestly and frenetically with each other to win favour or avoid the sovereign’s wrath. They thrust their way into the large void left by the departure of the Cardinal’s bulky figure. They coagulated into groups and dispersed to form other combinations.

Historians intent on tracing a pattern in the events which led to the political Reformation have tended to portray Henry as either at the mercy of his advisers and willing to do anything to secure the divorce or ruthlessly controlling people and events so that they delivered the results he demanded. Reality requires that we shun the temptation to systematise and to provide neat answers. The King’s will certainly brooded over all. It always had done but now the psychological power surging from the nation’s political centre was more puissant. Henry was less susceptible to the distractions of his younger days – sport, courtly festivities and games of international prestige. The hypochondriac monarch was beginning to feel and to fear the pain of the vein inflammation (cellulitis) which presaged his later, more severe condition. Above all, he was emotionally involved. This undoubtedly led to his constant interference in those affairs of state he had previously left to others but it did not result in consistency or a clearly conceived political strategy. Henry’s Janus attitude towards Wolsey well illustrates the dilemma into which he was driven. His degrading of the Cardinal was an attack not on the minister who had managed his affairs for two decades; still less on an old, much-loved companion; it was an assault on the Pope’s representative. The voltage of royal wrath was intended to run along the cables connecting the English Church to Rome. It was simply unfortunate that Wolsey took the full force of the shock and the King went out of his way on several occasions to assure the fallen servant that there was ‘nothing personal’ in his actions.

Of course, there was very much that was personal in the actions of Wolsey’s court and conciliar foes. Among them there was unity only on one issue: the Cardinal, objectionable in himself and representative of an ecclesiastical hierarchy too powerful in the state, had to be forced out and, more problematically, kept out of power.

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