Thomas Wolsey, an English prelate, born in Ipswich in 1471, died in Leicester, Nov. 29, 1530. He graduated at Oxford, was elected a fellow, received holy orders, and obtained the living of Lymington, Somersetshire.. About 1506 he became chaplain to Henry VII., and afterward was intrusted with a secret mission to the emperor Maximilian. His dexterity in this employment was rewarded with the rich deanery of Lincoln. Henry VIII., shortly after his accession, appointed him his almoner. During the war he went with the king to France, and after the capture of Tournay (1513) became administrator of that see. Suitors at court now eagerly bought his patronage, and he grew rich rapidly. Before the end of 1514 he was archbishop of York. In September, 1515, Leo X. made him a cardinal, hoping through his influence to gain the aid of Henry against the French. Three months later he was created lord chancellor of England, and in 1518 received from Leo the appointment for two years of legate a latere; and receiving successive prorogations and additional powers, he at length exercised within the realm nearly all the prerogatives of the sovereign pontiff.

Besides the regular emoluments of his offices, he farmed the revenues of the sees of Hereford and "Worcester, held in commendam the abbey of St. Albans and the bishopric of Bath, and drew besides large revenues from continental benefices. His household comprised from 500 to 800 persons, among whom were knights and barons, and the sons of many distinguished families. He built the magnificent palace of Hampton Court, and gave it to his sovereign. He had the tact to govern the state without letting Henry know it; and while the king took a personal share in all important state affairs, it was Wolsey who directed them. He was constantly informed of the secret proceedings of the continental courts, and so skilfully preserved the balance of power between France and the house of Austria that he was feared and courted by popes and princes, while the king held the position of arbiter of Europe. After the death of the emperor Maximilian (1519), Henry VIII, Francis I., and Charles of Spain, Maximilian's grandson, became candidates for the imperial throne, and both Henry and Francis Held out to Wolsey the prospect of the papacy in the event of their success.

He was disappointed by the election of Charles. In 1520 he was commissioner to arrange the meeting between the kings of France and England on the "field of the cloth of gold." Wolsey remained two days with the king of France, the result being a new treaty with England. In the following year he was chosen arbitrator between Charles and Francis, and took the opportunity to visit the emperor at Bruges and arrange a secret treaty for a joint invasion of France. When the war began, he was charged with the task of raising money. On the death of Leo X., and again on that of Adrian VI., he aspired to the tiara, but the French cardinals prevented his election. The doctrines of Luther were now beginning to disturb the Christian world, and Wolsey entered warmly into his sovereign's projects for suppressing them in England. The part taken by him in the king's endeavors to obtain divorce from Catharine of Aragon, while it pleased no one, brought upon him the enmity of Anne Boleyn and her family. (See Henry VIII, and Anne Boleyn.) Anne extorted a promise from her royal lover never more to speak with the cardinal; and on Oct. 9, 1529, the attorney general filed two bills in the king's bench charging him with having as legate transgressed the statute of prazmunire.

Wolsey ordered his attorney to plead guilty, resigned the great seal (Oct. 17), transferred to the king the whole of his personal estate, valued at 500,000 crowns, and the yearly profits of his ecclesiastical benefices, and then retired to Esher, a seat belonging to his bishopric of Winchester. Through the lingering friendship of the king, Wolsey was ultimately allowed to retain the administration of the diocese of York, and received a general pardon and an annuity of 1,000 marks. After a short residence at Richmond, he was commanded in April, 1530, to retire to the limits of his archbishopric. Here his thoughts seemed devoted to the duties of his station, but his enemies at court were not idle. On Nov. 4 he was arrested at Cawood on a charge of high treason, and conducted toward London. He was suffering from dropsy, and the journey was necessarily slow. As he entered the monastery of Leicester he said to the abbot: "Father abbot, I am come hither to leave my bones among you." He was at once carried to bed. The second day, seeing the lieutenant of the tower in his chamber, he said to him: " Master Kyngston, if I had served God as diligently as I have done the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs.

But this is the just reward that I must receive for my diligent pains and study that I have had to do him service; not regarding my service to God, but only to satisfy his pleasure." He expired the next morning. Wolsey was a man of some learning and a munificent patron of letters. He heaped preferment on native scholars, invited the most eminent foreigners to teach in the English universities, established at Oxford seven lectureships, and founded Christ Church college at the same university, besides a college at Ipswich intended as a nursery for it. - His life was written by Cavendish, his gentleman usher (London, 1641). See also " Lives of the English Cardinals," by Folkestone Williams (2 vols., London, 1868); " Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of Henry VIII," from the public record office, edited by J. S. Brewer (rolls' series, vol. iv., part i., 1870; part ii., 1872; introduction and appendix, 1875).