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September 15
September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years). There are 107 days remaining.
Events
- 608 - Saint Boniface IV becomes Pope.
- 921 - Saint Ludmila is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law at Tetin.
- 1514 - Thomas Wolsey is appointed Archbishop of York.
- 1556 - Vlissingen ex-emperor Charles V returns to Spain.
- 1584 - San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid is finished.
- 1590 - Giambattista Catagna is elected as Pope Urban VII.
- 1644 - Giambattista Pamfili becomes Pope Innocent X, succeeding Pope Urban VIII.
- 1656 - England & France sign peace treaty.
- 1683 - Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. is founded by 13 immigrant families.
- 1749 - According to mathematical calculations, Pluto moves outside Neptune's orbit to remain the outermost planet until 1979.
- 1776 - American Revolutionary War: British land at Kip's Bay during the New York Campaign.
- 1789 - The United States Department of State is established (formerly known as Department of Foreign Affairs).
- 1812 - The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow.
- 1821 - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua jointly declare independence from Spain.
- 1830 - The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens (see also deaths, below).
- 1831 - The locomotive John Bull operates for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
- 1835 - The HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands.
- 1851 - Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1857 - Timothy Alder patents the typesetting machine.
- 1862 - American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
- 1873 - Franco-Prussian War: The last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
- 1883 - The Bombay Natural History Society is founded in Bombay (now Mumbai), India.
- 1894 - First Sino-Japanese War: Japan defeats China in the Battle of Ping Yang.
- 1914 - World War I: The Battle of Aisne begins between Germany and France.
- 1916 - World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.
- 1928 - Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
- 1928 - Tich Freeman becomes the only bowler to take 300 wickets in an English cricket season.
- 1931 - In Scotland, the two-day Invergordon Mutiny against Royal Navy pay cuts begins.
- 1935 - Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship.
- 1935 - Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag with the swastika.
- 1940 - World War II: The Battle of Britain ends with a Royal Air Force victory over the Luftwaffe.
- 1941 - The U.S. Attorney General rules that the Neutrality Act is not violated when U.S. ships carry war materiel to British territories, opening the door for the Lend-Lease Act.
- 1942 - World War II: The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Wasp is torpedoed at Guadalcanal.
- 1944 - Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
- 1945 - A hurricane in southern Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond.
- 1946 - Baseball: The Brooklyn Dodgers are beating the Chicago Cubs, 2-0, in the 5th inning when a swarm of gnats causes the game to be postponed.
- 1947 - RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube.
- 1948 - The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 1080 km/h.
- 1949 - The television series The Lone Ranger premieres on the ABC.
- 1950 - Korean War: United States forces land at Incheon, Korea.
- 1951 - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes closes on Broadway in New York City after 740 performances.
- 1952 - United Nations gives Eritrea to Ethiopia.
- 1954 - The U.S. Postal Service issues its 2¢ Thomas Jefferson Liberty Series stamp.
- 1955 - The I Love Lucy episode featuring John Wayne premieres.
- 1957 - West Germany holds its third parliamentary election. Konrad Adenauer remains chancellor.
- 1958 - A New Jersey commuter train crashes through a drawbridge, killing 48.
- 1959 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.
- 1961 - Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour.
- 1962 - The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- 1963 - The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing kills four children at an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
- 1964 - The Beatles play at a public auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
- 1964 - The Sun newspaper launches, replacing the Daily Herald.
- 1965 - The television series Lost in Space premieres.
- 1966 - The spaceship Gemini XI, with astronauts Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon aboard, returns to earth.
- 1967 - Former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas, writes a letter to the United States Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.
- 1968 - The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
- 1969 - Baseball: St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Steve Carlton sets a record by striking out 19 New York Mets in a single game.
- 1971 - Baseball: In a game against the Houston Astros, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 636th home run, tying Mickey Mantle for third spot on the career home runs list.
- 1972 - A magnitude 4.5 earthquake shakes Northern Illinois.
- 1973 - Secretariat wins the Marlboro Cup in world record time.
- 1974 - Air Vietnam flight 727 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.
- 1975 - The French department of Corse (the entire island of Corsica) is divided into two: Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
- 1975 - Pink Floyd releases the album Wish You Were Here in the US and UK.
- 1976 - Soyuz 22 carries two cosmonauts into earth orbit for eight days.
- 1978 - Muhammad Ali beats Leon Spinks for the world heavyweight boxing title.
- 1980 - Paul McCartney releases "Temporary Secretary".
- 1981 - The United States Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to the United States Supreme Court.
- 1981 - The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, DC.
- 1982 - The first issue of USA Today is published by Gannett.
- 1983 - Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
- 1985 - Willie Nelson's Farm Aid concert begins.
- 1986 - First broadcast of the TV show LA Law on NBC.
- 1987 - U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze sign a treaty to establish centers to reduce the risk of nuclear war.
- 1988 - Lillehammer, Norway, beats Anchorage, Alaska, United States, to host the 1994 Winter Olympics.
- 1989 - The U.S. Congress recognizes Terry Anderson's continued captivity in Beirut.
- 1990 - France announces it will send 4,000 troops to the Persian Gulf.
- 1993 - Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II disbands parliament.
- 1994 - Muslim fundamentalists kidnap & behead 16 people in Algeria.
- 1997 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 1997
- 1997 - Hastings Wise murders four at the R.E. Phelon Company lawn mower parts manufacturing factory in Aiken, South Carolina. The only possible motive for the murders was Hastings' dismissal from his job eleven weeks earlier.
- 1998 - WorldCom and MCI Communications finish their landmark merger, forming MCI WorldCom which would later be renamed WorldCom and become the largest bankruptcy in United States history.
- 2000 - The 27th Summer Olympics opens in Sydney, Australia.
- 2001 - Alex Zanardi, driving in a CART race is injured in Germany, resulting in both legs being amputated below the knee.
- 2004 - Davíð Oddsson the longest serving Prime Minister of Iceland, steps down after serving in office from 1991, and becomes minister for foreign affairs. At the time he was the longest serving PM in Europe
- 2005 - Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellwegger file for divorce after four months of marriage.
Births
- 973 - Al-Biruni, mathematician (d. 1048)
- 1254 - Marco Polo, Italian explorer (d. 1324)
- 1580 - Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (d. 1659)
- 1613 - François de La Rochefoucauld, French writer (d. 1680)
- 1649 - Titus Oates, English minister and plotter (d. 1705)
- 1715 - Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French artillery specialist (d. 1789)
- 1789 - James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist (d. 1851)
- 1828 - Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov, Russian chemist (d. 1886)
- 1857 - William Howard Taft, President of the United States and Supreme Court Justice (d. 1930)
- 1876 - Bruno Walter, German conductor (d. 1962)
- 1879 - Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
- 1881 - Ettore Bugatti, Italian automobile engineer and designer (d. 1947)
- 1883 - Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist, and engineer (d. 1950)
- 1889 - Robert Benchley, American author (d. 1945)
- 1890 - Agatha Christie, English writer (d. 1976)
- 1890 - Frank Martin, Swiss composer (d. 1974)
- 1894 - Jean Renoir, French film director (d. 1979)
- 1898 - J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and novelist (d. 1936)
- 1901 - Sir Donald Bailey, British engineer (d. 1985)
- 1903 - Roy Acuff, American musician (d. 1992)
- 1904 - King Umberto II of Italy (d. 1983)
- 1907 - Fay Wray, Canadian-born actress (d. 2004)
- 1908 - Penny Singleton, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1913 - John N. Mitchell, United States Attorney General and convicted Watergate criminal (d. 1988)
- 1914 - Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (d. 1999)
- 1922 - Jackie Cooper, American actor and director
- 1924 - Bobby Short, American musician (d. 2005)
- 1926 - Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician
- 1928 - Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1975)
- 1929 - Eva Burrows, Salvation Army general
- 1929 - Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1933 - Henry Darrow, American actor
- 1933 - Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Spanish conductor
- 1937 - Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1938 - Gaylord Perry, baseball player
- 1940 - Merlin Olsen, American football player and actor
- 1941 - Flórián Albert, Hungarian footballer
- 1946 - Tommy Lee Jones, American actor
- 1946 - Oliver Stone, American film director
- 1949 - Joe Barton, American politician
- 1951 - Johan Neeskens, Dutch football player
- 1961 - Dan Marino, American football player
- 1969 - Jim Curtiss, American writer
- 1976 - Paul Thomson, Scottish drummer (Franz Ferdinand)
- 1978 - Eidur Gudjohnsen, Icelandic footballer
- 1979 - Amy Davidson, American actress
- 1984 - Prince Harry of Wales
Deaths
- 1500 - John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1596 - Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (b. 1535)
- 1613 - Thomas Overbury, English writer (murdered) (b. 1581)
- 1643 - Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, Irish politician (b. 1566)
- 1649 - John Floyd, English Jesuit preacher (b. 1572)
- 1700 - André Le Nôtre, French landscape architect (b. 1613)
- 1701 - Edmé Boursault, French writer (b. 1638)
- 1707 - George Stepney, English poet and diplomat (b. 1663)
- 1712 - Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, English politician
- 1750 - Charles Theodore Pachelbel, German composer (b. 1690)
- 1794 - Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1725)
- 1803 - Gian Francesco Albani, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1719)
- 1830 - William Huskisson, first rail fatality
- 1842 - Pierre Baillot, French violinict and composer (b. 1771)
- 1859 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer (b. 1806)
- 1864 - John Hanning Speke, British explorer (b. 1827)
- 1885 - Jumbo, P. T. Barnum's circus elephant (hit by a train)
- 1893 - Thomas Hawksley, English civil engineer (b. 1807)
- 1926 - Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1846)
- 1930 - Milton Sills, American actor (b. 1882)
- 1945 - André Tardieu, Prime Minister of France (b. 1876)
- 1945 - Anton Webern, Austrian composer (shot) (b. 1883)
- 1965 - Steve Brown, American musician (b. 1890)
- 1972 - Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1887)
- 1973 - King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (b. 1882)
- 1980 - Bill Evans, American jazz pianist (b. 1929)
- 1989 - Robert Penn Warren, American writer (b. 1905)
- 2003 - Jack Brymer, English clarinetist (b. 1915)
- 2003 - Josef Hirsal, Czech novelist (b. 1920)
- 2004 - Johnny Ramone, American guitarist (The Ramones) (prostate cancer) (b. 1948)
Holidays and observances
- In Slovakia - Holyday of the Seven sorrows of Virgin Maria
- In ancient Greece, the second day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the priests of Demeter declared the public start of the rites.
- Independence Day from Spain (1821) for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, celebrated everywhere with marches from schoolchildren.
- RC Saints - Feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows.
- Also see September 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics).
- Britain - the British commemorate the Battle of Britain on the day of the last massive Luftwaffe attack in 1940.
- Japan - Respect for the Aged Day before 2003; beginning in 2003, Respect for the Aged Day is held on the third Monday of September.
- Bulgaria - The first day of school.
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/15 BBC: On This Day]
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September 14 · September 16 · August 15 · October 15 · more historical anniversaries
ko:9월 15일
ja:9月15日
simple:September 15
th:15 กันยายน
Leap yearA leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected.
Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not.
The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days.
This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job.
Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png
Which day is the leap day?
The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March").
Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year.
Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years.
This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4.
This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.
Revised Julian Calendar
The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar.
This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.
Chinese calendar
The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".
Hebrew calendar
The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19.
In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.
Hindu Calendar
In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.
Iranian calendar
The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.
Long term leap year rules
The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000.
(The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].)
However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably:
#Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year.
#Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer.
In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.
Marriage proposal
There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.
Saint Patrick and the leap year
:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question.
:Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown.
(Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988)
According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.
Birthdays
A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March.
There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance.
Category:Calendars
Category:Units of time
als:Schaltjahr
ko:윤년
ja:閏年
simple:Leap year
th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน
Pope Boniface IV
Boniface IV (ca. 550 – May 25 615) was pope from 608 to his death.
Son of John, a physician, a Marsian from the province and town of Valeria; he succeeded Boniface III after a vacancy of over nine months. He was consecrated on either 25 August (Duchesne) or 15 September (Jaffé) in 608. His death is listed as either 8 May or 25 May, 615 by these two authorities.
In the time of Pope Gregory I, he was a deacon of the Roman Church and held the position of dispensator, that is, the first official in connection with the administration of the patrimonies.
Boniface obtained leave from the Emperor Phocas to convert the Pantheon, Rome into a Christian Church, and on May 13 609 (?) the temple erected by Agrippa to Jupiter the Avenger, to Venus, and to Mars was consecrated by the pope to the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs. It was the first instance at Rome of the transformation of a pagan temple into a place of Christian worship. Twenty-eight cartloads of sacred bones were said to have been removed from the Catacombs and placed in a porphyry basin beneath the high altar.
During the pontificate of Boniface, Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, went to Rome "to consult the pope on important matters relative to the newly established English Church" (Bede, H. E., II, iv). While in Rome he assisted at a council then being held concerning certain questions on "the life and monastic peace of monks", and, on his departure, took with him to England the decree of the council together with letters from the pope to Lawrence, Archbishop of Canterbury, and to all the clergy, to King Ethelbert, and to all the English people "concerning what was to be observed by the Church of England". The decrees of the council now extant are spurious. The letter to Ethelbert (in William of Malmesbury, De Gest. Pont., I, 1464, ed. Migne) is considered spurious by Hefele (Conciliengeschichte, III, 66), questionable by Haddan and Stubbs (Councils, III, 65), and genuine by Jaffé [Regest. RR. PP., 1988 (1548)].
Between 612 and 615, the Irish missionary Saint Columban, then living at Bobbio in Italy, was persuaded by Agilulf, King of the Lombards, to address a letter on the condemnation of the "Three Chapters" to Boniface IV, which is remarkable at once for its expressions of exaggerated deference and its tone of excessive sharpness.
"You have already erred, O Rome! — fatally, foully erred. No longer do you shine as a star in the apostolic firmament," Columban wrote.
In it he tells the pope that he is charged with heresy for accepting the Fifth Ecumenical Council (the Second Council of Constantinople in 553), and exhorts him to summon a council and prove his orthodoxy. Despite Columban's letter, it seems not to have disturbed in the least his relation with the Holy See, and it would be wrong to suppose that Columban regarded himself as independent of the pope's authority.
During the pontificate of Boniface there was much distress in Rome owing to famine, pestilence, and inundations. The pontiff died in monastic retirement (he had converted his own house into a monastery) and was buried in the portico of St. Peter's Basilica. His remains were three times removed — in the tenth or eleventh century, at the close of the thirteenth under Boniface VIII, and to the new St. Peter's on 21 October, 1603.
Boniface IV is commemorated as a saint in the Roman Martyrology on his feast day, 25 May.
During Boniface's reign, the Prophet Muhammad began to preach in Mecca, forming the basis of Islam.
References
- Bede. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
- Gasquet, Francis Aidan. A Short History of the Catholic Church in England, 19
- Gregorovius, Ferdinand. II, 104
- Hunt, William. The English Church from Its Foundation to the Norman Conquest. Vol. 1. "A History of the English Church", W. R. W. Stephens and William Hunt, ed. London: Macmillan and Co., 1901. 42
- Jaffé, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum 1198. Berlin, 1851; 2d ed., Leipsic, 1881-88. I, 220
- Langen, 501
- Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne), I, 317
- Mann, Horace K. Lives of the Popes I, 268-279
- Mansi, Gian Domenico. X, 501
- Paul the Deacon, History of the Longobards, IV, 36 (37)
External links
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02660c.htm Biography] from the Catholic Encyclopedia
- [http://www.cfpeople.org/Books/Pope/POPEp67.htm Biography] from CFPeople.org
Boniface 4
Boniface 4
Boniface IV
Boniface 4
Boniface 4
ko:교황 보니파시오 4세
921
Events
- Embassy of Ahmad ibn Fadlan from Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir
- Henry the Fowler invades Bavaria and obtains fealty from Arnulf the Bad
Births
- King Edmund I of England (d. 946)
- Abe no Seimei, Japanese cosmologist
Deaths
- September 1 - Richard of Autun, Duke of Burgundy
- September 15 - Saint Ludmila, ruler of Bohemia
Category:921
ko:921년
1514
Events
- March - Louis XII of France makes peace with Emperor Maximilian.
- July - Peace between England and France.
- September 8 - Battle of Orsha - In one of the biggest battles of the century, Belarussians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
- September 15 - Thomas Wolsey is appointed Archbishop of York.
- October 9 - marriage of Louis XII of France and Mary Tudor
- Albrecht Dürer makes his famous engraving Melancholia I.
Births
- January 1 - Henry, Duke of Cornwall, third son of Henry VIII of England
- March 8 - Amago Haruhisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (died 1562)
- June 16 - John Cheke, English classical scholar and statesman (died 1557)
- December 31 - Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (died 1564)
- Hosokawa Harumoto, Japanese military leader (died 1563)
- George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, Scottish nobleman (died 1562)
- Georg Joachim Rheticus, cartographer and scientific instrument maker (died 1574)
- Shimazu Takahisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (died 1571)
Deaths
- January 2 - William Smyth, English bishop and statesman (born 1460)
- January 9 - Anne of Brittany, queen of Charles VIII of France (born 1477)
- February 11 - Henry, Duke of Cornwall, third son of Henry VIII of England
- March 11 - Donato Bramante, Italian architect (born 1444)
- October 25 - William Elphinstone, Scottish bishop and statesman (born 1431)
Category:1514
ko:1514년
simple:1514
Thomas WolseyThomas Cardinal Wolsey, PC (circa 1475 – November 29, 1530), born Thomas Wulcy in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, was an English statesman and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the most powerful person in England, besides the King, for many years.
He was a son of Robert Wulcy of Ipswich (1438 – 1496) and Joan Daundy Wulcy. His father is reported by various later sources as a butcher but this is not certain. Wolsey was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford and then headed the Magdalen College School before becoming a personal chaplain, first to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and then to the governor of Calais where he met Henry VII. In due course he became Henry's personal chaplain before being appointed the Dean of Lincoln.
When Henry VIII became king in 1509, Wolsey's affairs prospered. He became Canon (priest) of Windsor, Berkshire in 1511, the same year in which he became a member of the Privy Council. His political star was in the ascendant, and he soon became the controlling figure in all matters of state. In 1514, he was made Bishop of Lincoln, and then Archbishop of York. Pope Leo X made him a cardinal in 1515, with the Titulus S. Caecilae. In 1523, he was made Prince-Bishop of Durham. Wolsey loved display and wealth, although it is generally accepted that, as the King's principal servant, such things were necessary to present a good image to foreign diplomats and kings. He lived in royal splendour in his palace at Hampton Court, which was made the seat of Henry VIII after his fall. There is a theory that his long-term ambition was to become Pope, although much evidence discredits this. The idea that he aligned English foreign policy to that of the Papacy does not explain why he was often involved in wars in continental Europe, even if they were not on behalf of the Papacy. There is also the fact that he never attempted to build up support in the Papal Curia, which was necessary to obtain the Papal Tiara.
Around 1525, Wolsey used his powers as papal legate to dissolve abbeys in Oxford and Ipswich to establish his own university colleges. The college in Oxford was originally named Cardinal College, but was renamed King's College after his fall. Today it is known as Christ Church.
The Rise to Power of Thomas Wolsey
Christ Church
For many he epitomized all that was corrupt and heretical about the English Church prior to reformation, unpopular among most historians, contemporary and past, for his ostentatious display of wealth and gluttony, and his ruthless and unscrupulous nature, indifferent to the many lives he destroyed in his ambitious quest for power. However, no historian can deny Thomas Wolsey’s remarkable rise to power from such humble origins, certainly coupled with his high level of intelligence and organization and an extremely industrious nature, fueled by a driving ambition for power. Furthermore, it is perhaps no coincidence that his rise to power happened to coincide with the ascension of a new monarch, whose policies and diplomatic mindset were completely separate from those of his father.
Wolsey's rise to power can be seen in two stages. The ultimate position of power he attained was Lord Chancellor and Cardinal in 1515, becoming Henry VIII’s first minister, enjoying great freedom and often depicted as alter rex (second king). However, the first crucial stepping stone in Wolsey’s rise to power was in 1509, when he first came to the attention of the new king and appointed to the post of Almoner, which not only gave him the opportunity to create a rapport with Henry and show off his intellectual muscle, but it also gave him a seat on the council, beginning his political career. Wolsey essentially reached this peak through sheer intelligence and intuition, first by getting his name known in intellectual circles, resulting in his talents being singled out and recognized by those who mattered, such as Sir Richard Nanfan, who recommended Wolsey to King Henry VII. Much to Wolsey’s favour, Henry VII distrusted the nobility and deliberately sought to favour those from more humble backgrounds for positions of prominence, and so, being the son of a butcher may have influenced Wolsey’s appointment to Royal Chaplain. In this position, Wolsey was secretary to Bishop Fox, who was important for encouraging Wolsey’s career, recognizing Woolsey's innate ability and dedication and the fact that Woolsey always took on more work than was necessary, never backing down from tedious tasks, and thus bringing him to the new king’s attention after the death of Henry VII and the rise of Henry VIII in 1509. Without completing this first objective and coming to Henry’s attention through determination, and despite Wolsey’s ability to please him, he would never have advanced in politics. Henry would have simply chosen someone else.
Another crucial aspect for Wolsey’s ascension can certainly be attributed to the character of Henry VIII. Henry VII was a calculating and administrative financier with a very passive outlook in foreign policy, understanding that a war would only wreck the national finances. He held the nobility in low esteem, both in taxing much of their wealth and property, and being very infrequent in bestowing of titles. Henry VIII did not want his reign to be hindered by displeasing the nobility, who essentially controlled Parliament and would be the deciding factor in whether he could fulfill his quest for war with France. As well as inheriting a stabilized economy, Henry also inherited his father’s counsellors, who were cautious and conservative, advising the king to be an administrator like his father. Henry understood that in his venture for popularity he would need to restock his council with like-minded, war-mongering individuals, so that he could unite the nobility behind him in an invasion of France to gain the glory and honour of the French crown, emulating his idols Henry V and the legendary King Arthur, among others. For the early years of his reign, these counsellors were Bishop Fox and William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and they acted like a couple of schoolmasters, nagging Henry to spend more time at the court and less time gallivanting around with his noble chums, playing tennis, jousting, composing songs and sonnets to woo the ladies of the court. However, it was the King’s Almoner, Thomas Wolsey, who urged otherwise. The more the bishops scolded Henry to apply himself, the more Wolsey persuaded him to do the contrary, which delighted Henry and caused him to have great affection and love for Wolsey, who was put in high favour, given greater amounts of responsibility. When it came for Henry’s annual clearing out of the council, Wolsey got off scot-free.
Furthermore, it should be noted that it is a tribute to the distractible nature of Henry VIII that Wolsey was given opportunity to assume such unprecedented responsibility. Under the tight personal monarchy of Henry VII, Wolsey would not have been given nearly as much trust and responsibility. Henry VII oversaw nearly all aspects of government, particularly concerning finances, in which the king took personal supervision under a method known as ‘household government’. During his reign he would have had no need for the controlling and ambitious Cleric, thus Wolsey would certainly have never reached his pinnacle. His rise, therefore, could be attributed to a king who, though in admiration of his father’s efficient governing, was too distracted by the upholding of the majesty and glory of his position in English culture, reveling in follies of war and women, left Wolsey alone to work his magic. Moreover, Henry VIII, who,upon attaining his majority, never expected to become king, had little political and governmental tutoring prior to ascending to the throne, and, acknowledging his own inexperience in the field of economy and domestic affairs, was much contented to have someone like Wolsey handle the fundamentals for him.
For a long time Wolsey was Henry’s like-minded fix-it man, and as time progressed, Henry trusted Wolsey more and more. To some extent this could be attributed to Wolsey’s integrity and talent at getting the job done. He often opted for the tedious tasks shunned by others and was always willing to overstep the boundaries of what his job as almoner entailed, flexing his muscles in both domestic and legal affairs, and foreign polices, leaving an impression of the king’s counsellors and the king himself. Wolsey knew the risks of climbing the political ladder, and when the king expressed his enthusiasm about an invasion of France, despite moral and economic reservations, Woolsey was able adapt to the king's mindset and exploit the war as much to his own benefit as possible. Wolsey, after all, was an opportunist, whereas Warham and Fox failed to share the king’s enthusiasm and accordingly fell from power, allowing for the rise of Woolsey to fill their places.
The affection Henry had for Wolsey perhaps went further than Wolsey’s ability to get the job done. Henry VIII was known for filling his court with men not only of like mind but also of similar build and presence. It is perhaps no coincidence that Wolsey was a gross, corpulent fellow with a physique Henry would later wholeheartedly adopt. Moreover, both men were greedy, extroverted, ostentatious, and somewhat pretentious creatures, reveling in lavish displays of their wealth and power. This rapport was a vital key in the ascension of Wolsey.
Henry’s ambitions for war were very much linked to the political situation in Europe in the early 16th century. Wolsey greatly exploited those ambitions in the English campaign against France as a means of justification to ensure a victory, leading to his rise. As a man of the church, a viable justification for going to war would be a plea for help from the Pope, which came in 1511 from Pope Julius II, who was beginning to feel threatened by France. This also allowed England to form an alliance with Ferdinand of Spain, and Maximilain, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, giving England strong support, at least in theory. Without this climate of hostility against France, a war supported by strong allies would not have been possible.
The war against France in 1512-13 was the most significant event that permitted Wolsey to effectively show off his talents for organization and military strategy. However, it is crucially linked with the ambitious nature of the King and the political climate in Europe, coupled with papal support, and, without which, a war might not have been possible. Although the first campaign against France was not a success, partly due to an unreliable alliance with Ferdinand, Wolsey no doubt learned from the mistakes of this campaign and, in 1513, still with papal support, launched a joint attack on France, successfully capturing two French cities and causing the French to retreat.
The whole charade pleased Henry, who was able to achieve his aims of proving his mettle in Europe and acquire some prestige by chasing after a few Frenchmen, At the centre of it all was Wolsey, his military dynamism at the fore-front, particularly in his ability to keep such a large number of troops supplied and equipped for the duration of the war. Furthermore, to Henry’s pleasure, was Wolsey’s key role in skillfully negotiating the face-saving Anglo-French treaty of 1514 that secured a temporary peace between the two nations, particularly in allowing the French king, Louis XII to marry Henry’s young sister, Mary. It also established England as the victor of this conquest. This allowed England to keep the captured city of Tournai and also receive a hefty pension from France. For his contribution, Wolsey was placed in higher favour, and Henry gave him greater responsibilities and awarded numerous bishoprics, including the very powerful position of Archbishop of York in 1514. As tribute to his successful campaign in France and his fair negotiations for peace, Wolsey was rewarded by both the king and the church, and, in 1915, he became Cardinal Wolsey. To further consolidate his power, he was appointed as Lord Chancellor in the same year.
Nevertheless, despite having won the favour of the king, Wolsey’s ascendancy to chancellor would certainly have been compromised had he not taken care of those within the council who held grudges against this ambitious butcher’s son from Ipswich. Wolsey assertively cemented his name in the council, letting all know of his intentions and overshadowing all objections. Perhaps this is why, under the amounting pressure directed from Wolsey, Warham resigned as chancellor in 1515, leaving the gap open for Wolsey to readily fill. There were a few nobles in the party who did pose a threat to the stability of Wolsey’s position, such as the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham, whom he passively ignored, eventually muting their resistance. However, in the case of the Duke of Suffolk, Wolsey attempted to win his favour instead, when the duke was secretly wed to Henry’s sister, much to the king’s displeasure. Wolsey, supposedly, advised the king not to execute the newlyweds, but embrace them. With Suffolk indebted to Wolsey, the cardinal had made the necessary precautions in consolidating his power.
Ultimately, Henry probably could not have afforded to not appoint Wolsey to Lord Chancellor in 1915 out of fear that he may have grow restless playing second fiddle to Warham and may have resigned his services, which had proved to be so crucial both domestically and in foreign affairs, coupled by the strong rapport between the king and Wolsey, as at this point Wolsey had become so rich and powerful in his own right that he didn’t need to be employed in the king’s services. The chancellorship was a means of securing Wolsey’s loyalty to the king first, then the church.
Wolsey’s Foreign Policy 1515-1529
A complex network of constantly changing, intemperate alliances occupied Europe in 16th century; an environment of immense hostility between nations, where each nation was continually enforcing her sovereignty and supremacy over other nations in the ruthless power struggle that was foreign policy. Prior to Henry VIII’s accession England had done well in steering clear of the foreign conflicts, where Henry VII was wholly satisfied with his annual pension from France. Henry VIII’s rule broke free from his father’s skepticism towards European diplomacy and sought to boost the minimal influence of this isolated, uninteresting island nation in the convoluted European scene. Considering the inexperience of the king and his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, and their lack of clear, specific aims, their accomplishments in making England a desirable ally to be sought after by the two pioneers of the European diplomacy, France and Spain, and becoming a significant power in her own right, should not be berated. Even the annual French pension was significantly increased. However, Wolsey, for all his ambition and organization, lacked the crucial skills of diplomacy, and once too often let England be exploited by her unreliable allies. Wolsey was perhaps trying to please everyone all at once; his king, his allies, his pope, sacrificing the overall gains for England, and thus he was unable to fully satisfy anyone.
Foreign Policy was Henry VIII’s doing. It was Wolsey’s task to fulfill his master’s aims, which, to an extent, he successfully accomplished. What Wolsey understood was that when there was peace between France and Spain, England became isolated, as it was pointless for her to ally with one of the two as she was not needed. Therefore it was beneficial for England, in the hope of gaining new territory and influence that there was continual conflict between the two powers. Between 1515 and 1517 England was very much isolated because of the peaceful relations between France and Spain. Wolsey had to assert English influence through another means, so he conveniently chose peace. The Treaty of London (1518) showed Wolsey as the arbiter of Europe, organizing a massive peace summit involving 20 nations. This put England at the forefront of European diplomacy and drew her out of isolation, making her a desirable ally. This is illustrated through the Anglo-French treaty signed 2 days afterwards.
Furthermore Wolsey may have had other ulterior motives, linked with my initial point, in devising the treaty. Ironically it was partly this peace treaty which caused the desired conflict between France and Spain. In 1519, when Charles ascended to Holy Roman Emperor, Francis, the king of France, was infuriated as he had invested enormous sums of money in bribing the electorate to elect him as emperor, and thus he used the Treaty of London as a justification for the Habsburg-Valois conflict. Now Wolsey was able to mediate between the two powers, both who were vying for England’s support.
Another of Wolsey’s diplomatic triumphs was the Fields of Cloth of Gold (1520). He assiduously organized every detail of this grandiose meeting between the French king, Francis, and Henry, accompanied by some 5000 followers. Though it did seemingly open the door for peaceful negotiations with France, if that was the direction the king wished to go in, it was more a lavish display of English wealth and power to the rest of Europe, cementing her reputation.
With both France and Spain vying for England’s allegiance Wolsey was given the opportunity chose the ally which best suited his policies. Wolsey wisely and selfishly chose Charles since, quite simply, England's economy would suffer from the loss of the lucrative cloth trade industry between England and the Netherlands. Furthermore Henry had closer links with Charles than with Francis, as he was married to Charles’ aunt, and, as the king had yet to produce a male heir, a marriage between Henry’s daughter, Mary, and Charles would ensure the security and influence of England after Henry’s death. Equally, in keeping with his duty to the pope who was strictly anti-French, this alliance had complete papal support.
Some historians would argue that Wolsey’s foreign policy was influenced by that of the pope, perhaps reflecting his papal ambitions. In some respects this angle of foreign policy was successful. In 1517 Pope Leo X sought for peace in Europe in order to form a crusade against Turkey. In 1518 Wolsey was made Papal Legate in England and thus was able to extrapolate the pope’s desires for peace by organizing the Treaty of London. Whether this pleased the pope personally is another matter; however it showed Wolsey’s foreign policy in good light and no doubt drew him closer to Rome.
Moreover, similar ties with Rome can be seen in the formulation of the League of Cognac in 1526, which, though England was not a part of, Wolsey helped organize, under papal support. Wolsey’s plan was that the League, which was composed of an alliance between France and some Italian states, would challenge Charles’ League of Cambrai and rescue the pope, Clement VII, who had been held captive by Charles in the sacking of Rome. However this initiative was not merely a gesture of allegiance to Rome. It was also following through on Henry’s desire for an annulment from Catherine of Aragon, an aspect which was beginning to dominate foreign policy. This was yet another ingenious strategy, devised by Wolsey, in an attempt to please everybody.
Analyzing the failure of Wolsey’s foreign policy is somewhat more complicated as there are multiple roots and causes involved in its ultimate ineffectiveness, where its partial success is largely attributed to the ingenuity of Wolsey. To one extent it was not entirely his fault, but the product of a recurring series of unfortunate setbacks. For example the poorly timed turnover of rulers in Europe greatly diminished England’s influence. Peace with France in 1514 was a true achievement for Wolsey and the king. With Henry’s sister Mary married to the French King, Louis XII, the prospect of perpetual peace was open. However only a year later Louis died and was replaced by the young, ambitious, war-mongering Francis I, who had no intention of continuing an alliance with England and became a significant rival to Henry VIII, stirring up tensions. Furthermore Mary decided not to be married off to the new king and married the Duke of Suffolk instead. Out of anxiety Wolsey proposed an alliance with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire against France. However further bad luck came in the form of the death of King Ferdinand of Spain, England’s closest ally, and father-in-law of Henry VIII. He was replaced by Charles V, who immediately proposed peace with France, and was soon followed by his grandfather, Maximillian, the Holy Roman Empire. Therefore, by 1517, England was diplomatically isolated and Wolsey’s polices had failed.
Further instances of bad fortune for Wolsey’s foreign policy occurred during the 1522-23 wars with France. Though it is true that Henry’s aims were drastically overambitious in these campaigns and the invasion was certainly not as well organized and thought through as the 1513-14 invasion had been, fate was certainly not on Wolsey’s side. All England’s hopes rested on the disgraced French noble Bourbon leading a revolt which would distract the French defense from the English invasion in August 1523. However the revolt failed. It was truly unfortunate how long it took for messages to be sent from one country to another. Without any modern commutation systems it took weeks for a message from France to reach England. No doubt this also played a part in the failed attack. Furthermore Charles, who had promised to come to England’s aid, decided to stay out of the affair due to a lack of funds. The situation was further exacerbated by bad weather, which was critical in the English defeat. This was an extremely costly disaster and parliament had to most begrudgingly raise additional taxes to cover the expenses.
Parliament played a decisive part in burdening Wolsey’s foreign policy. Particularly after the disastrous campaigns of 1522-23 there was little enthusiasm for war. It had become obvious to many members of the nobility that England’s losses in Europe were outweighing her gains, and they began to distrust and criticize the actions of Wolsey in particular. Wolsey equally disliked parliament and let his resent show. However in 1525, when Charles won a decisive battle at Pavia and captured the French king, a realistic opportunity for Henry to seize power of the French crown presented itself. All that stood in the way of victory was parliament, which ultimately refused to raise anymore money by taxation. This accordingly led to Wolsey devising the Amicable Grant, which was met with even more hostility, and ultimately led to his own downfall. With no money there was no invasion of France. Charles became tired of his fruitless alliance with England and the “Great Enterprise” crumbled.
The final blow to Wolsey’s foreign policy, which was ultimately out of his hands and partially just bad luck, was in 1529 when the French made peace with Charles, shattering Wolsey’s ambitions for the League of Cognac. With peace between France and Charles there was no one to free the pope of Charles’ supremacy, thus he would be unable to grant Henry an annulment from Charles’ aunt, Catherine. Since 1527 Wolsey’s foreign policy had been dominated by trying to secure an annulment for his master, and by 1529 his policy had failed.
Nevertheless it would be foolish to ignore Wolsey’s lack of diplomatic experience. Rarely did Wolsey have any clear and concise aims, and often what they achieved from their experiences in Europe was more a consequence of the times rather than Wolsey acting on and following through on specific aims. Wolsey is often praised as being the arbiter of Europe, however often these initiatives for a balance of power were more a consequence of England’s diplomatic isolation than of true and honest concerns for peace. For example The Treaty of London (1518) is often regarded as Wolsey’s finest moment, however it was ultimately an excuse for England to assert some influence in Europe and its half-hearted aspirations for peace were abandoned within a year. Wolsey more or less endorsed the rejection of the treaty by allying with Charles in 1520, in the conflict against France, equally snubbing the Anglo-French treaty of 1520.
A further example can be seen in 1525, when England made peace with France at the Treaty of the More, only after Charles had abandoned England as an ally. Isolated and in a financial crisis after the wars of 1522-23, Wolsey felt forced to negotiate with France. This feeble attempt to make the best of a bad situation failed to enthrall France who then went behind Wolsey’s back and made peace with Charles, shattering all of Wolsey’s ambitions for a papal annulment. Therefore this lax attitude of not following through on policies and treaties directly resulted in the failure of Wolsey’s foreign policy.
Moreover, Wolsey’s inability to have clear objectives in foreign policy is evident in his pointless and fruitless switching of allegiances between France and Charles. This is particularly apparent in 1520 when, in June, Francis and Henry had their first meeting at the lavish Field of Cloth of Gold. This was an extremely costly venture and ended in Henry pledging his eternal allegiance to Francis. However both before in the meeting, in May, and afterwards, in July, Wolsey met with Charles to propose a “Great Enterprise” between the two nations, both against France. This made everything that was ‘achieved’ in June, with France, pointless. This was reiterated in the Calais conference of 1521, which was supposed to have mediated peace between the three nations, however, later that same month, Charles was formally joined in an alliance with England. The Calais conference became null and void. Wolsey’s foreign policy was one of confusion and indecision, where little overall progress was made.
This is equally prevalent in Wolsey’s organizing the League of Cognac in 1526, essentially allying England with France and against Charles. This virtually undermined everything Wolsey had worked on, throughout the past decade, in improving relations with Charles. Admittedly relations with Charles had deteriorated anyway, however Wolsey’s would have been much better off resigning England from European diplomacy. However he was far too concerned with seeking for papal support for Henry’s annulment. Therefore he underestimated the devastating effects of posing as an enemy to the most powerful empire in Europe. Though no war was fought between England and Charles, the wool trade suffered heavily. England’s principal customers were either provinces of the Charles’ empire or surrounded by his territory. As an adversary, Charles ceased trade with England. With little income from the wool trade, tax revenue declined, affecting the entire nation. Wolsey failed to show concern for such domestic qualms as this; however the popular resentment his policies had created would ultimately lead to his downfall.
Where it was unfortunate that in 16th century England had few reliable friends abroad, Wolsey seemed to have a knack for allying with bigger, more dominant nations who took advantage of England’s vulnerability and Wolsey’s naivety. Admittedly, in 1515, Wolsey was new to the diplomacy game and can be forgiven for handing out vast amounts of money to Maximillian, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Swiss, to secure their loyalty to their alliance against the new French king, Francis, with England. Maximillian obviously did nothing to deserve this money. However Wolsey failed to learn from his mistake and in 1517, when Charles ascended to the Spanish throne and allied with France, Wolsey gave more money to Maximillian, who would only deceive Wolsey by allying with France.
Charles, like his grandfather Maximillan, proved to be a poor ally. By entering into the “Great Enterprise” England was dragged into the wars of 1522-23 which had no possible gain for England. Charles intended to use and discard his ally. These wars were a disaster for England; however the support allowed Charles the upper hand. Charles was plainly an unreliable ally and did not repay his gratitude for England’s effort, most evidently in the war of 1523 when Charles refused to come to England’s aid. After his success at the battle of Pavia, in 1525, Charles had no further need for England as an ally and quickly discarded her. By 1525 England was just as isolated as she had been in 1515 and had achieved very little, largely down to the unreliability of Charles.
Wolsey was not a diplomat at heart. In his attempts to please those who at the time mattered, he had a habit of stepping on the toes of those who mattered less. He had an inability to foresee a possible reversal of favour, where those whom he angered and harboured resentment toward him may someday have the power to destroy him and his foreign policy. One of the most significant examples is France. France had always been the traditional enemy of England and in the wars of 1513-14 England had shown their worth in capturing the city of Tournai. No doubt this humiliation frustrated the French; however they did not retaliate, and simply increased the annual pension given to England, which was further increased in 1518. It must have also aggravated them when, in 1520-21, England persisted to toy with and deceive them, by, at the Field of Cloth of Gold, pledging eternal support, whilst really allying with their enemy, Charles. Charles, remember, had robbed Francis of his desired position of Holy Roman Emperor. Though the English gain of the wars of 1522-23 was minimal, their contribution certainly aided Charles in his defeat of the French, particularly in 1525 at Pavia. Now, after all this, in 1525, Wolsey suggests making peace with France. It is, therefore, no surprise that the French, who must have had enormous contempt toward the English, in 1529, deceived Wolsey by making peace with Charles, dissolving Wolsey’s beloved League of Cognac as well as his hopes for a papal annulment. Furthermore the French continued to honour the Auld alliance with Scotland, continuing to stir up hostilities much closer to England.
Another instance of long-term resentment can be seen in the relationship between Wolsey and Rome. Despite having loyalties to the papacy, Wolsey was strictly Henry’s servant. Though the Treaty of London was an elaboration on the pope’s ambitions for European peace, it was seen in Rome as a vain attempt by England to assert her influence over Europe and steal some of the pope’s thunder. Furthermore, Wolsey’s initiative for peace prevented the combined crusade of Turkey, which was the catalyst for the pope’s desire for European peace. In addition to this, Cardinal Campeggio, the papal envoy, who represented the pope at the Treaty of London, was kept waiting for many months in Calais before being allowed to sail the channel and join the festivities in London. This was merely Wolsey asserting his authority over Rome. However Campeggio was still around in 1529 and by this point even more powerful. His resentment, as well as the resentment for the Treaty of London, was instrumental in the refusal of an annulment, the most significant failure of Wolsey’s foreign policy.
Ultimately Wolsey’s biggest shortcoming was his failure to acknowledge that, particularly after 1518, England’s influence was seriously declining, and realistically she could not compete with the formidable strength of France or Charles’ empire. Instead of being the desirable, influential ally who had the upper-hand, England was exploited by her allies, who later discarded her. By 1525 England was once again isolated, and, despite her decade of featuring at the forefront of European diplomacy, had no material gains.
Did Wolsey successfully realize what he sought to achieve in his domestic policy?
For his fourteen years of chancellorship, Cardinal Wolsey had more power than any other man in English history, beside that of the monarch. As long as he was in the king’s favour, Wolsey had the freedom to reform England how he saw fit, and had his hand in nearly every aspect of its ruling. For much of the time, Henry VIII had complete confidence in him, and, as the king’s interests favoured more towards foreign policy, was willing to give Wolsey a free hand in reforming the management of domestic affairs, which Wolsey indeed had grand plans for. Superficially his reforms were concentrated around carrying out the king’s wishes and enforcing his principle of fair justice for all, no doubt influenced by the Christian ethos he was bound to, as a man of the church. Nevertheless, there were always impediments, obscuring the path of the complete realization of his reforms, whether it was through his own shortcomings or by the action of those who resented Wolsey’s influence over the king.
A good example of Wolsey’s combining of obligations to the king and the sense of moral duty is Wolsey’s devising, with the treasurer of the Chamber John Heron, of the ‘Subsidy’. This was a revolutionary form of tax which was based upon accurate valuations of the taxpayer’s wealth, where one shilling was taken per pound from the income of the taxpayer. This tax, which is the foundation of today’s income tax, replaced the rather inefficient fixed tax of 15ths and 10ths. As a fixed tax, the latter incurred that those who earned very little money had to essentially pay as much in tax as those with a lot. With an income tax the poorer members of society paid much less and their quality of life was greatly improved. Furthermore, with a more efficient form of taxation, Wolsey was able to successful rise enough money for the king’s foreign escapades, bringing in over £300 000. Wolsey was also able to raise considerable amounts of capital through other means, such as through ‘benevolences’, enforced donations from the nobility, which, in 1522, raised £200 000.
As a legal administrator Wolsey had a good sense of natural justice and was genuinely concerned with opening up justice for all, and stamping out those who attempt to pervert justice, regardless of wealth or social standing. Therefore he reinvented the equity court, whereby the verdict was decided by the judge on the basis of what seemed most fair. Acting as an alternative to the Common Law courts, Wolsey reestablished the position of the prerogative courts of the Star Chamber and the Court of Chancery, which Wolsey was freely able to monopolize. Both courts operated under a system of quick and inexpensive cases, as well as promising impartial justice. Wolsey also established the Court of Request for the poor, where no fees were required. Wolsey’s legal reforms proved to be immensely popular and overflow courts were required to attend to all the cases. Many high powered individuals who felt themselves to be invincible to the long arm of the law were convicted by Wolsey. For example, in 1515, the Earl of Northumberland was sent to fleet prison and in 1516 Lord Burgavenny was accused of illegal retaining.
Wolsey also used his courts to tackle national controversies, such as the pressing issue of enclosures. Wolsey genuinely wished to restore peace to the countryside, which had been thrown into a frenzy over the wickedness of landlords, who greedily enclosed areas of land and converting from arable farming to pastoral farming, which does not require as many workers. The Tudors believed that enclosures were directly linked to rural unemployment and depopulation, vagrancy, food shortages and, accordingly, inflation. The Tudor valued stability above all else, and this mass urban migration proved to be a serious crisis for them. Therefore Wolsey conducted national enquires in 1517, 1518 and 1527 into the presence of enclosures. Over the course of his administration he used the court of Chancery to prosecute 264 landowners, including peers, bishops, knights, religious heads, and Oxford colleges.
Furthermore, Wolsey used the Star Chamber to enforce his 1518 policy of “Just Price”, which attempted to regulate the price of meat in London and other major cities. Those who were found to be charging excessive amounts were prosecuted by the Chamber. Moreover, after the bad harvest of 1527, Wolsey had the virtuous initiative to buy up all the surplus grain and sell it off cheaply to the needy. This act of generosity greatly eased disorder and became common practice after a disappointing harvest.
This Christian philosophy of communal righteousness is certainly a product of Wolsey’s position as papal legate for the church in England. He took his job seriously and made marginal efforts for improving the reputation of the church. For example, throughout the anti-clerical mood of the parliament of 1515, he defended the church right to the end, and refused to permit the resigning of the law which diminished the “Benefit of the Clergy”, despite being in the wake of the murder of Richard Hunn by his clergymen jailers. Wolsey was forced to kneel down to the king and assure him that the “Benefit” would be of no threat to his authority.
Moreover, Wolsey was aware of the ongoing corruption in the Catholic Church and he made certain steps to reform its heretical ways. For instance in 1524 and 1527 he dissolved 30 decayed monasteries, where corruption had run rife, and used the income to found a grammar school in Ipswich and Cardinal’s College in Oxford, generously giving something back to the communities which had nurtured him. Furthermore, in 1528, he began to limit the benefit of the clergy, and, in the same year, stood up to Henry by disapproving of his choice of a woman of dubious virtue for the position of Abbess of Wilton. Wolsey had honest concern for the reputation of the Church, however, as in many cases, he was not willing to pursue his reforms to their completion, as that would ultimately threaten his ultimate influence over the king.
A common trend, throughout all of Wolsey’s ventures, is the inability to effectively realize his reforms and make a lasting impact, due to the enormous overall responsibility Wolsey took on. Wolsey’s principal preoccupation throughout his fourteen years as Lord Chancellor was maintaining power. This meant both reducing the influence of others over the king, who may turn Henry away from Wolsey, and refusing to impart lesser responsibilities to others, as this may have jeopardized his overall control. Essentially this paranoia led him to become overrun with the day-to-day problems of running a country, as well pursuing his own initiatives.
Wolsey’s position in power solely relied on keeping good relations with Henry. Therefore it is understandable why Wolsey would have been concerned about whom the king surrounded himself with. The Gentlemen of the Privy, or Minions, were in daily contact with the king, and, due to their youthful, athletic characteristics, were very popular with him. Wolsey grew increasingly suspicious of the minions, particularly after infiltrating one of his own men into the group, and attempted many times to dispel them from court, giving them jobs which took them to Europe and far from the king. Nevertheless, after the failure of the Amicable Grant, the minions once again began to stir up trouble. Consequently Wolsey devised a grand plan of administrative reforms, incorporating the infamous Eltham Ordinances of 1526. This limited the cleverly reduced the members of the Privy from 12 to 6, removing trouble makers such as William Compton. As soon as Wolsey’s influence had been secured he dropped the plan of reforms. Wolsey had no intention of reforming the government if it would compromise his own position of power.
This could also be said for many of Wolsey’s other initiatives, particularly in his quest to abolish enclosure. Despite spending a significant time and effort in investigating into the state of the countryside and prosecuting numerous offenders, Wolsey freely surrendered his policy during the parliament of 1523, in order to win the favour of parliament, in the hope that they would pass his proposed taxes for Henry’s war in France. Consequently enclosures continued to cause trouble in the countryside for many years to follow.
One of Wolsey’s greatest impediments was his lack of popularity amongst the nobles at court and in parliament. There are countless instances where Wolsey, the retched butcher’s son whose unprecedented rise to power and envious wealth was much resented, upset the nobility. Whether their hatred stemmed from Wolsey’s excessive demands for money in the form of the Subsidy or through Benevolences, or through the Act of Resumption (1515), where many nobles were forced to give back lands which the king had given to them as a gift. Or by making the nobility responsible for their crimes, like a mere commoner, through his policy against enclosures and the prosecution of the nobility through the Star Chamber. Or many simply disliked his monopolization of the court and his concealing of information from the council. They were only going to tolerate Wolsey for so long, and, in 1525, when they had endured about as much as they could, it is unsurprising why there was unanimous hostility and rejection to the forced benevolence of the Amicable Grant. If Wolsey had made any prior attempts to nurture a possible rapport with the nobility perhaps they would not have been so unreceptive to his demands. However this was not the case, and mass riots broke out in East Anglia, under the supervision of the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, sworn enemies of Wolsey. Henry was quick to denounce the grant, and the king quickly began to lose faith in his chief minister. Wolsey ultimately failed the primary objective of his domestic policy, which was to deliver what the king wanted.
Despite his genuine talent for administration and organization, there were many instances where Wolsey simply overreached, beyond his ability and understanding. A prime example of this was his confused crusade against enclosure. Admittedly the majority of Tudor England knew no better than Wolsey, failing to see that enclosure was not the actual cause of inflation. Ironically inflation was actually the cause for enclosure. Due to the relatively peaceful period which Tudor England had been enjoying since the War of the Roses, the population of the nation had accordingly increased. With more folks demanding and nothing more to supply, the price of food increased. In order to make up for the additional cost of living, landowners were forced to enclose land and convert to pastoral farming, which brought in more profit, as pastoral farming requires fewer workers than arable. Therefore Wolsey’s quest against enclosure was fruitless in regard to restoring the stability of the economy, as he failed to see the big picture. Furthermore, the horrors of enclosures were significantly hyperbolized. In truth there were relatively few enclosures, and, even after Wolsey’s labours, the countryside was still ripe with enclosure. This may have been partly down to Wolsey’s decision to have the J.P’s enforcing the laws of conduct, yet they themselves were the landowners who were enclosing land. In any case, all Wolsey managed to do was agitate a great many nobles.
The same can be said for Wolsey’s legal reforms. By making the fount of justice accessible to all and encouraging more people bring their cases to Wolsey’s courts, the system was ultimately abused. The courts became overloaded with incoherent, tenuous cases, which would have been far too expensive to have rambled on in the Common Law courts. Wolsey ultimately became disillusioned with delivering justice for all, and, in 1528, ordered all minor cases out of the Star Chamber. Once again, the overriding product of this venture was reinvigorated resentment from the nobles and gentry, who had suffered at the impartial hand of Wolsey, and also the lawyers, who regarded Wolsey as stealing their business. The only people who may have respected him were the commoners; however their influence was insignificant in comparison with those who detested Wolsey.
As well as juggling the convoluted matters of state, Wolsey attempted to stamp his influence over the church in England. As Cardinal and, from 1524, having lifetime legateship, Wolsey was continually vying for control over the church. His principal rival was Wareham, the archbishop of Canterbury, which was unlike his control over the state, which was uncontested. Therefore it was understandably more difficult for Wolsey to follow through with his plans for reform; however, considering he was still significantly powerful, he made few attempts to even try to reform the church from within. Despite making promises to reform the bishoprics of England and Ireland, and, in 1519, encouraging monasteries to embark on a programme of reform, he did nothing to enforce either issue. Moreover, he refused to promote others to instigate the reforms for fear of losing his precious influence over the church.
Many historians see Wolsey’s handling of the church as his greatest failure. Wolsey epitomized all that was corrupt and heretical about the church prior to reformation. Wolsey is often seen as quite the hypocrite, condemning the debauchery of corrupt clergymen, yet himself partaking in the crimes of pluralism, absenteeism (he was archbishop of York, yet never visited the city until 1529), simony (for example, even when appointed, Bishops and abbots could not take up their posts unless they had been “confirmed” by Wolsey, at a price), ostentatious display of wealth, sexual relations, nepotism, and ordination of minors (the latter three illustrated through the premature rise to power of his illegitimate son). Wolsey effectively used his position in the church for his own ends, such as awarding bishoprics to those Wolsey sought to keep loyal to the crown, illustrated by the appointment of Cardinal Campeggio to Bishop of Salisbury, in 1524, as a means of securing Campeggio’s role as papal curia for England. This is also an example of Wolsey extorting the money from these bishoprics, which were bequeathed to foreigners, without their knowing it. Wolsey was not a good advertisement for Catholicism, and his depravity made it easier for reformists to condemn the Church and win the public over to the Lutheran ideology. Considering that Wolsey was acting as Papal Legate for England, Wolsey had the duty to uphold the moral values which the pope promoted, as God’s Earthly representative. However, bearing in mind Wolsey’s lecherous reputation, many doubts would have certainly surfaced in the minds of those questioning the pope’s judgment and whether he was an effective figurehead for their faith. These were the doubts which fueled the campaign of the Lutheran reformists.
Wolsey’s greatest fault in supervising the church, and in a sense reflected through his administration of the state, was the belief in absolute supremacy. As papal legate he believed himself to be the uncontested figurehead of the church in England, and he sought to consolidate this power by reducing the number of bishops controlling the church, and populating the remaining bishoprics with bishops under his influence. Effectively Wolsey was ruling as a dictator, which caused cataclysmic problems once Wolsey was removed from power, and the church was left without the leader it was dependant upon, with virtually no influence at all. It is hardly surprising that the reformists were met with very little opposition from the weakened body of the Catholic Church.
Moreover, Wolsey was criticized, particularly by Thomas More, for failing to stamp out the threat of Lutheran heresy, during the 1520s. Despite threatening heretics with reproof and forcing them to recant, Wolsey refused to resort to prison sentences and execution, thus Lutheran ideology spread around the country, paving the way for reformation. Wolsey certainly did not wish for the church, for which he had devoted a good part of his life to, to be destroyed, however his ignorance, in believing that power and influence reigned supreme, made this inevitable.
The greatest criticism of Wolsey’s domestic policy is that considering, apart from the monarch, that Wolsey possessed more power than any other figure in British history, we can only be disappointed with what little he actually achieved. Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey’s successor, did not have anywhere near as much power, yet he was able to achieve so much, and drastically reform nearly every aspect of administration, in almost half the time Wolsey had. All that can be deduced from Wolsey’s ‘reign’ is a wasted opportunity. Nevertheless, one has to admit that Wolsey was the last of a generation of medieval administrators, who shared the Tudor mindset of fearing change and favouring stability. It is also true that in the political upheaval of the Reformation administrative changes were essential, and Wolsey was not given the opportunity to work in this environment. No doubt Wolsey had the ability to work in this environment, as his reformation of the legal system and introduction of the subsidy were revolutionary initiatives, and both were adopted by later administrations.
Trivia
One of the world's oldest textile manufacturers Wolsey, which was established in 1755, is named after Cardinal Wolsey - the connections being the location of thieer factory near buiral place at Leicester Abbey and a pun based on their products being largely based on wool.
Biographies
- Naked to Mine Enemies: The Life of Cardinal Wolsey (2 volumes, ©1958) by Charles W. Ferguson
- The King's Cardinal: The Rise and fall of Thomas Wolsey, by Peter Gwyn, pub 1990
- The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, by George Cavendish (gentleman usher to Thomas Wolsey)
- In the Lion's Court: Power, Ambition, and Sudden Death in the Reign of Henry VIII, by Derek Wilson, New York, St. Martin's Press, 2001
- Wolsey, by A. F. Pollard, pub 1929
Wolsey, Thomas
Wolsey, Thomas
Wolsey, Thomas
Wolsey, Thomas
Wolsey, Thomas
Wolsey, Thomas
Wolsey, Thomas
Wolsey, Thomas
Wolsey, Thomas
1556
Events
- January 16 - Abdication of Emperor Charles V. His son, Philip II becomes King of Spain, while his brother Ferdinand becomes Holy Roman Emperor
- January 23 - The Shaanxi Earthquake, the deadliest earthquake in history, occurs with its epicenter in Shaanxi province, China. 830,000 people may have been killed.
- February - Truce of Vaucelles - Temporary end to the fighting between France and Spain.
- February 14 - Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic
- March 9 - Scottish nobles kill David Rizzio, the secretary to Mary I of Scotland in the queen's precense
- March 21 - In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury | | |
