Wolsey Essay
Using Sources T, U and V and your own knowledge.
Do you accept the view in Source V that Wolsey’s domestic policies were disappointing?
Wolsey’s domestic policies covered a wide range of aspects including his focus on justice, especially through the Star Courts which allowed anyone to stand before him regardless of wealth or status whilst he was also able to practice civil law rather than common law. However Wolsey did use the courts to his advantage on occasion, causing some of the nobility to share resentment towards Wolsey. There is also a lot of focus on his failed attempt at the reversal of the sealing off of enclosed land as he tried to force land owners to allow poorer people to farm on unused land again, this failure showed he could not always exert power on his superiors which bred hatred towards him from the nobility. Wolsey again brewed anger within the nobility as he created a larger tax burden on the richer in conjunction with a lower burden on the poorer. He also managed to cause widespread anger and hatred with the Amicable Grant of 1525, a non parliamentary tax after the Battle of Pavia, by which the public responded with a rebellion and refusal to pay the tax. Whilst Wolsey’s domestic policy had promising ideas, he never managed to please everyone. Also, his role as the papal legate improved England’s connection with the pope.
Source ‘T’, written by Polydore Vergil: a known enemy of Wolsey, criticizes Wolsey’s ‘ambition’ and ‘arrogance’ which in pair would assume a very unlikeable character, also in the Tudor era the public preferred sustainability rather than growth which supports Source ‘V’ in which Dawson explains that the sixteenth century ‘sought stability’ rather than ‘change’. Vergil also expresses that Wolsey held ‘the hatred of the whole country’ due to his ‘hostility’ towards the majority possibly in relation to his failed attempt at the Amicable Grant which forced many to rebel against him: a huge failure on his part, which did in
Do you accept the view in Source V that Wolsey’s domestic policies were disappointing?
Wolsey’s domestic policies covered a wide range of aspects including his focus on justice, especially through the Star Courts which allowed anyone to stand before him regardless of wealth or status whilst he was also able to practice civil law rather than common law. However Wolsey did use the courts to his advantage on occasion, causing some of the nobility to share resentment towards Wolsey. There is also a lot of focus on his failed attempt at the reversal of the sealing off of enclosed land as he tried to force land owners to allow poorer people to farm on unused land again, this failure showed he could not always exert power on his superiors which bred hatred towards him from the nobility. Wolsey again brewed anger within the nobility as he created a larger tax burden on the richer in conjunction with a lower burden on the poorer. He also managed to cause widespread anger and hatred with the Amicable Grant of 1525, a non parliamentary tax after the Battle of Pavia, by which the public responded with a rebellion and refusal to pay the tax. Whilst Wolsey’s domestic policy had promising ideas, he never managed to please everyone. Also, his role as the papal legate improved England’s connection with the pope.
Source ‘T’, written by Polydore Vergil: a known enemy of Wolsey, criticizes Wolsey’s ‘ambition’ and ‘arrogance’ which in pair would assume a very unlikeable character, also in the Tudor era the public preferred sustainability rather than growth which supports Source ‘V’ in which Dawson explains that the sixteenth century ‘sought stability’ rather than ‘change’. Vergil also expresses that Wolsey held ‘the hatred of the whole country’ due to his ‘hostility’ towards the majority possibly in relation to his failed attempt at the Amicable Grant which forced many to rebel against him: a huge failure on his part, which did in