1724 LIFE of CARDINAL WOLSEY by Richard Fiddes ILLUSTRATED FOLIO antique ENGLISH

Fiddes, Richard

 The Life of Cardinal Wolsey.

London, 1724

Engraved frontispiece, 6 engraved plates (1 double-page),

engraved vignette of coins.


Folio, old calf-backed wooden board, worn;
covers and endpapers detached, spine destroyed

Very good interior, endpapers with old manuscript notes

ex-library

Size 9 by 14 1/8"

Text in English
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Thomas Wolsey[a] (1473 – 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic cardinal.
When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner.[3] Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figure in virtually all matters of state. He also held important ecclesiastical appointments. These included the Archbishop of York—the second most important role in the English church—and that of papal legate. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy.

The highest political position Wolsey attained was Lord Chancellor, the king's chief adviser (formally, as his successor and disciple Thomas Cromwell was not). In that position, he enjoyed great freedom and was often depicted as the alter rex ("other king").
After failing to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Wolsey fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles.[5] He retreated to York to fulfil his ecclesiastical duties as archbishop, a position he nominally held but had neglected during his years in government.
He was recalled to London to answer to charges of treason—charges Henry commonly used against ministers who fell out of his favour—but died from natural causes on the way.
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