Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, said to have been born the son of a butcher, at Ipswich in 1471. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took his degrees as a scholar of distinction. After quitting the university he was appointed to the parish of Lymington in Somerset. Then he became a private chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, one of the governors of Calais, chaplain to Henry VII., and latterly Dean of Lincoln.

		When Henry VIII became king the advancement of Wolsey was rapid. Successively he was appointed Canon of Windsor, Dean of York, Bishop of Lincoln, Archbishop of York, and his nomination as cardinal in 1515 and popes legate in 1518 completed his ecclesiastical dignities. In 1515 he was also appointed lord-chancellor of the kingdom. He was twice a candidate for the papacy, and his power in England, as also his revenues, were only equaled by those of the crown. Part of his immense revenues he expended in display, and part more laudably for the advancement of learning. He projected on a magnificent scale the College of Christ Church at Oxford; founded several lectures, and built the palace at Hampton Court, which he presented to the king. This rapid preferment by the king was largely the result of a remarkable series of diplomatic victories, in which Wolsey had been the means of enabling Henry to hold the balance between Francis I. and the Emperor Charles V. His success in the region of politics terminated in the splendors of the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520). In his ambitious career the cardinal had made many enemies, who were held in check so long as he retained the favour of his royal master. This favour Wolsey lost when he failed to obtain from Pope Clement a decision granting the kings divorce from Catharine of Aragon. Thenceforth the enemies of the fallen prelate harried him unmercifully.
Cardinal Wolsey

He was banished from court, stripped of his dignities, found guilty of a præmunire, and sentenced to imprisonment. Finally, after a brief respite, during which he was restored to some of his offices, and had returned to his see of York, he was arrested at Cawood Castle on a charge of high treason, and on his way to London as a prisoner he died in l530 of dysentery at Leicester Abbey.

Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, son of a blacksmith at Putney, in Surrey; born about the year 1490. In his youth he was employed as clerk to the English factory at Antwerp; in 1510 went to Rome; and on his return to England became confidential servant of Cardinal Wolsey, about 1525. On his masters disgrace in 1529 Cromwell defended him with great spirit in the House of Commons, of which he was then a member; and effectually opposed the articles of treason brought against Wolsey. After the cardinal's death he was taken into the king's service, was knighted and made privy-councillor, and in 1534 became principal secretary of state and master of the rolls.

		In 1535 he was appointed visitor-general of all the monasteries in England, in order to suppress them, his service being rewarded by the post of lord-keeper of the privy seal, and the title of Baron Cromwell of Okeham. On the abolition of the pope's supremacy he was created king's vicar-general, and used all his influence to promote the Reformation. He was made chief-justice itinerant of the forests beyond Trent, knight of the Garter, and finally, in 1539, lord high chancellor, and the following year Earl of Essex. He at length fell into disgrace with the king for the part he took in promoting his marriage with Anne of Cleves; and others of his political schemes failing, he was arrested on a charge of treason, and beheaded on Tower Hill, July 28, 1540 .
Thomas Cromwell Earl Of Essex