France in 1513 and in the next year ar-
ranged a truce between England and
France. He was appointed bishop of Lin-
coln in 1514, archbishop of York in the
same year. Pope Leo X named him a car-
dinal in 1515. Henry appointed Cardinal
Wolsey as the lord chancellor of England
in 1515; in this post Wolsey directed for-
eign policy as well as the affairs of En-
gland on behalf of the king, who took little
interest in the bothersome day-to-day de-
tails of managing a kingdom. Wolsey ar-
ranged a general truce in Europe in 1518
and also brought the kings of France and
England together at the famous meeting
on the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.
Wolsey failed in his attempt to make En-
gland the arbiter of disputes on the conti-
nent, however, and in 1522 advised the
king to make an alliance with Charles V,
the Holy Roman Emperor, against France.
He fell out of favor with the English popu-
lace by levying heavy taxes and forcing
loans of money to pay for English military
campaigns. More dangerously, he lost the
support of the king after failing to per-
suade the pope to grant Henry an annul-
ment of his marriage to Catherine of Ara-
gon in 1529. This event lost Wolsey most
of his titles and offices that had brought
him the wealth and power that made him
the focus of widespread jealousy and re-
sentment. In 1530, he was placed under
arrest for treason after letters he had sent
to the king of France were discovered.
While on his way to face trial before the
king, he fell ill and died in the town of
Leicester.SEEALSO: Henry VIII; More, Sir ThomasWolsey, Thomas