Summary
Upon young Henry VIII's succession, the king's council
consisted primarily of his late father's ministers. Two of these
men, Sir Thomas Empson and Edmund Dudley, became the first of many
to be put to death for treason during Henry VIII's reign. Empson
was originally charged with extorting money from the people while
he was a manager of the royal finances. An additional charge of
treason was laid upon him when evidence surfaced that he had conspired
while Henry VII was dying to gain the support of friends in the
event that his government position became threatened under the new
administration. Dudley was also implicated in this conspiracy, and
in August 1510 he and Empson were sent to the scaffold for execution.
For Henry VIII, this execution proved a popular move: previously,
Henry had proclaimed to the people of London that all who had grievances
against the late king's ministers should come and charge them.
Many came, and the first Parliament of Henry's reign endorsed the
proceedings.
Henry's most important minister was the ordained Catholic priest,
Thomas Wolsey, who entered into the royal service in the summer
of 1509. Wolsey became Archbishop of York in late 1514, was created
a cardinal of the Church the following November, and replaced William
Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, as Lord Chancellor of the realm
in December 1515. Wolsey achieved singular stature in these offices;
since Henry was not so interested in administration as his minister,
Wolsey took over many of the duties of kingship. While Wolsey was
busy overseeing England's finances and diplomatic relations with
other European powers, King Henry often spent his days on horseback,
enjoying himself with the hunt and other sports. He tended to exasperate
his secretaries, who had to make excuses for him when he declined
to read dispatches or to engage in other administrative activities.
In the spring and summer of 1520, Henry met twice with
the young Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the French King Francois
I–doubtless the two most powerful men in Europe at the time–in
order to further amicable foreign relations. The seventeen-day meeting
with Francois on the Field of Cloth-of-Gold in northern France
was famously lavish in its splendor and medieval, royal pomp, much
of which was meticulously orchestrated by Cardinal Wolsey. The
kings and their several-thousand-person entourages were entertained
by jousting tournaments, in which the kings themselves particpated.
Henry and Francois also engaged in a friendly wrestling match with
one another–Henry was beaten by Francois. The "friendly" opposition
between the kings in these games proved more indicative of future
Anglo-French relations than did the hearty hugs and handshakes
at the meeting. In August 1521, Henry secretly signed the Treaty
of Bruges with Emperor Charles V–again at Wolsey's prompting–and
within a year Henry declared war on France. The war lasted until
Henry and Francois engaged in peace negotiations in 1524. When Charles
V defeated the French armies at Pavia in northern Italy in February
1525, Henry and Wolsey attempted actually to reverse alliances
and make Charles, rather than Francois, the enemy. Charles' empire
had grown very powerful, and Wolsey saw it as a grave threat to
the European balance of power. In August 1525, Wolsey conluded
the Treaty of the Moor with the French.
Though Henry was for the most part hands-off when it came
to royal administration during these early years of his reign,
he was very active when it came to promoting learning and artistic
culture in England. Henry was an advocate of humanism in England,
a new school of thinking whose most talented intellectual stars
were men such as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, and the Englishmen John
Colet, William Grocyn, Thomas Lineacre, and Sir Thomas More. More
was on of the king's close friends in these years: a devout Catholic
like Henry, he helped the King compose a high quality theological
treatise called Assertio Septem Sacramentorum contra Martinum
Lutherum ("In Defense of the Seven Sacraments Against
Martin Luther"). The treatise challenged the Martin Luther's heretical
opinions on the seven sacraments and was presented to Pope Clement
VII in October 1521. Henry was subsequently named Defensor
fidei ("Defender of the Faith") by the Roman pontiff–a
title which proved ironic in light of the events of the late 1520s
and early 1530s surrounding the king's divorce and his break with
Rome.
Analysis
British historian G.R. Elton wrote the following about
the early years of Henry's reign: "From the first, he was utterly
sure of himselfpassionately devoted to his own interests and inclinations, unscrupulous
but careful of legal form, and clever." At the same time, Henry
was extremely dependent on Thomas Wolsey, whose zeal and ability
as an administrator made him indispensable to the king. Among Henry's
contemporaries on the European continent, many considered Wolsey
to be the true ruler of England, since it was to him that foreign
officials were often directed to address concerns meant for the
English king. Elton agrees somewhat with this assessment, writing
that it was Wolsey who devised and carried out the policies which
Henry endorsed.
Some historians have argued that Henry had the mindset
of a late medieval monarch rather than an eye for the potentials
of modern legal and political reforms. Early in his reign, his
concern for military adventure confirms such a view. Upon his accession,
Henry was determined to gain glory for himself and for England
in military engagements in France, and his superficial successes
in these engagements won him much popular support. Henry's chief
minister Cardinal Wolsey concerned himself with the details of
the financial matters of the realm and with the political strategies
of alliances and with the European balance of power–less glorious
pursuits than leading men into war, but ones which were of greater
long-term importance to English political stability.
