Do you agree with the view that in the years 1515-1525 Henry VIII wholly surrendered power in government to Cardinal Wolsey?

To a certain extent within 
Source 4 (by J.J. Scarisbrick 1968) supports the idea that possibly Henry VIII actually did surrender power over to Wolsey. The evidence within the source that suggests this possibly for being the truth is ‘a self-indulgent King had wholly surrendered the cares of the state into the Cardinals hands’. To further support this case, it is clear that Wolsey was extremely powerful, he had vast amounts of bishoprics (Archbishop of Canterbury, Tournai, Durham just to name a few) and was the head of things such as the Star Chamber where Wolsey got himself heavily involved with. This is shown …show more content…

Source 6 is a letter from Henry to Wolsey in 1520, it says, ‘I desire you to keep a watch on the Duke of Suffolk, the Duke of Buckingham, my lord of Northumberland, my lord Derby, my lord of Wiltshire and on any others of whom you are suspicious’ The source shows Henry giving orders to Wolsey, suggesting that Wolsey did not have all of the governmental power, I also know this from my own knowledge. For example Wolsey’s fall from grace on the 9th October 1529 (when he is charged with praemunire, which is exercising his legatine power to the detriment of the King) because he was unable to secure the divorce for Henry. The fact that the King was able to remove Wolsey’s power so quickly again illustrates how Henry had no wholly surrendered his government power to Wolsey, as his decisions overruled any of Wolsey’s. The source is also fairly reliable, as it was written by Henry himself and is clearly giving Wolsey orders, even before he has fallen from grace. 


In conclusion, I do not agree with the view that in the year’s 155-1525 Henry VIII wholly surrendered power in government to Cardinal Wolsey. This is because both sources 5 and 6 corroborate the idea that although Wolsey does have a large amount of government power, Henry still makes overruling decisions and exercises government power over Wolsey. This is also backed up with my own knowledge. Therefore, Henry did not wholly surrender his