Thomas Wolsey




Thomas Wolsey (c. March 1473 – 29 November 1530; sometimes spelled Woolsey) was an English churchman, statesman and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the King's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered, and by 1514 he had become the controlling figure in virtually all matters of state and extremely powerful within the Church, as Archbishop of York, the second most important cleric in England. The appointment of 1515 as a cardinal by Pope Leo X gave him precedence even over the Archbishop of Canterbury.