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BISHOP OF LONDON M.A. OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE, D.C.L. OF DURHAM LL.D. OF GLASGOW AND HARVARD
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET. LONDON 1912
_First Edition April_ 1888 _Reprinted_ 1888, 1891, 1895, 1898, 1902, 1904, 1906 (_twice_), 1912
PAGE CHAPTER I THE STATE OF EUROPE, 1494-1512 1
CHAPTER II THE FRENCH ALLIANCE, 1512-1515 18
CHAPTER III THE UNIVERSAL PEACE, 1515-1518 35
CHAPTER IV THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD, 1518-1520 51
CHAPTER V THE CONFERENCE OF CALAIS, 1520-1521 66
CHAPTER VI THE IMPERIAL ALLIANCE, 1521-1523 84
CHAPTER VII RENEWAL OF PEACE, 1523-1527 101
CHAPTER VIII WOLSEY'S DOMESTIC POLICY 123
CHAPTER IX THE KING'S DIVORCE, 1527-1529 150
CHAPTER X THE FALL OF WOLSEY, 1529-1530 184
All men are to be judged by what they do, and the way in which they do it. In the case of great statesmen there is a third consideration which challenges our judgment--what they choose to do. This consideration only presents itself in the case of great statesmen, and even then is not always recognised. For the average statesman does from day to day the business which has to be done, takes affairs as he finds them, and makes the best of them. Many who deliberately selected the questions with which they dealt have yet shrunk from the responsibility of their choice, and have preferred to represent their actions as inevitable. Few can claim the credit of choosing the sphere of their activity, of framing a connected policy with clear and definite ends, and of applying their ideas to every department of national organisation. In short, statesmen are generally opportunists, or choose to represent themselves as such; and this has been especially the case with English statesmen--amongst whom Wolsey stands out as a notable exception. For Wolsey claims recognition on grounds which apply to himself alone. His name is not associated with any great achievement, he worked out no great measure of reform, nor did he contribute any great political idea which was fruitful in after days. He was, above all things, a practical man, though he pursued a line of policy which few understood, and which he did not stop to make intelligible. No very definite results came of it immediately, and the results which came of it afterwards were not such as Wolsey had designed. Yet, if we consider his actual achievements, we are bound to admit that he was probably the greatest political genius whom England has ever produced; for at a great crisis of European history he impressed England with a sense of her own importance, and secured for her a leading position in European affairs, which since his days has seemed her natural right.