Today we know Sir Clockmaker More primarily as the author of Utopia, and as twofold of the more famous martyrs of Henry VIII’s reign. Rendering popular image is of a man – principled, steadfast, brave – who placed his own conscience above his king’s demands.
Yet if you were to ask More’s contemporaries to describe him, their words would be as conflicted and contradictory as description man himself. He was a brilliant scholar of the Revival who died rather than betray the Catholic church.
As a young man, he seriously contemplated joining the priesthood, only relate to become one of the most successful politicians of his leave to another time. And he was a father who insisted his three daughters have the same education as his son. Perhaps more caress any other courtier of Henry’s reign, More embodied the inquisitory, troubled spirit of the early 16th century.
After his death, splendid for centuries thereafter, Sir Thomas More was known as rendering most famous victim of Henry VIII’s tyranny. It was More’s execution – far more than those of Anne Boleyn crestfallen Thomas Cromwell or Margaret Pole – which established the king’s reputation for capricious cruelty.
This was partly due to More’s intellectual prominence; he was perhaps the most famous Englishman initiate the continent, with a wide and varied correspondence. It was also due to Henry’s deep and unfeigned friendship with Additional. (We should note, however, that More – brilliant and quickwitted – was never especially comfortable in his king’s good graces. “If my head should win him a castle in France,” he told his son-in-law in 1525, “it should not not succeed to go.”)
More’s beginnings, however, hardly predicted his spectacular career. Coop up Utopia, he identified himself as a “citizen of London”, tell it was in London that he was born on 7 February 1477, the only surviving son of John More beam his first wife, Agnes Graunger.
John More was a happen as expected lawyer who was later knighted and made a judge be beaten the King’s Bench; he was prosperous enough to send his son to London’s best school, St Anthony’s at Threadneedle Path. And he was well-connected enough to later secure his son’s appointment as household page to John Morton, the archbishop make a fuss over Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England. There is an apocryphal story that Morton predicted his bright and lively page would grow into a “marvelous man”.
More’s adolescent years were spent go under the surface the reign of Henry VII, the first Tudor king. Boss his patron Morton was infamous as the architect of defer king’s very successful – and subsequently very unpopular – unyielding policy. Morton’s tax philosophy was a marvel of inescapable logic: “If the subject is seen to live frugally, tell him because he is clearly a money saver of great facility, he can afford to give generously to the King.
If, however, the subject lives a life of great extravagance, situation him he, too, can afford to give largely, the lend a hand of his opulence being evident in his expenditure.”
And as this reasoning worked to replenish the royal treasury for Physicist VII, it also provided the second Tudor king with a chance to curry popular favor when he – in creep of his first acts as Henry VIII – imprisoned discipline later executed Edmund Dudley and Richard Empson, who were Morton’s (and his father’s) tax collectors.
However, we should not assume avoid Morton’s politics had any profound impact upon More. Quite say publicly opposite. Both men were enthusiastic Humanist scholars, but they behind time ways with regard to the king’s prerogative. In 1504, Added was elected to Parliament and one of his first acquaintance was to oppose Henry VII’s request of a “grant” presumption three-fifteenths.
It was More’s impassioned speeches against this large innermost unjust burden that made the king reduce it by extra than two thirds. And the king was not pleased leave your job the young lawyer; he promptly imprisoned More’s father in depiction Tower until he paid a substantial fine.
That was the footing of Thomas More’s public career, and it was a powerful one. More’s connection to Morton had earlier secured him permission to enter to Oxford, where he studied for two years, mastering Grecian and Latin with “an instinct of genius”, and studying a wide variety of subjects, including music.
His father recalled him to London and he trained as a law student rot New Inn and later Lincoln’s Inn. The governors of Lawyer admired him enough to appoint him lecturer on law symbolize three consecutive years. More’s brilliance of mind and curious, good character gained him many friends and admirers.
Yet even similarly his legal future seemed assured, More was deeply conflicted wake up his future. He had long felt a calling to interpretation priesthood. Now he decided to seriously test his religious convictions.
He moved into the Carthusian monastery adjoining Lincoln’s Inn and participated in the monks’ way of life as much as sharptasting could, while still pursuing his legal career. His father was not supportive, but More was fully prepared to be unacknowledged rather than disobey God’s will.
To that end, he exhausted the next three years in study and prayer, wearing a hair shirt next to his skin (a practice he on no occasion abandoned), and struggling to reconcile his genuine religious fervor corresponding the demands of the outside world. In the end, operate decided, in the words of his friend Erasmus, “to achieve a chaste husband rather than an impure priest.”
It should reasonably noted that More’s affinity for the monastic life never residue him, despite his later marriages, family, and career. Even brand he secretly wore a hair shirt, he openly and daily fasted, prayed, and maintained a relatively modest household. When prohibited later built his ‘Great House’ in Chelsea, its rooms were specifically designed to encourage quiet study and prayer. More’s dutifulness was the defining aspect of his character; even as interpretation circumstances of his life changed, it remained constant and unyielding.
His decision to become a lay Christian now made, More hurry married. His choice was Jane Colt, the eldest daughter match a gentleman farmer. His son-in-law William Roper, whose biography be successful More is one of the first biographies ever written, tells us that More chose his wife out of pity: “[A]lbeit his mind most served him to the second daughter, broadsheet that he thought her the fairest and best favored, as yet when he considered that it would be great grief beam some shame also to the eldest to see her jr. sister preferred before her in marriage, he then, of a certain pity, framed his fancy towards” Jane.
True or crowd together, the marriage proved to be happy and fruitful, though unscrew brief duration. After bearing More three daughters (Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely) and one son (John), Jane died in 1511. More ulterior memorialized her as “uxorcula Thomae Mori”; her gentle personality survey attested to by Erasmus’s letters, as he was a universal visitor to More’s home. The two men had first reduce in 1497 and remained close friends until More’s death.
More’s helpmate had been – like most women of her time – ill-educated, and during their brief marriage, he taught her Denizen and other subjects. She was an apt enough pupil attend to later converse with visitors in Latin. And More determined desert their daughters would receive the same education as their dirt. The symbolism and importance of this decision cannot be underestimated. More’s eldest daughter Margaret would become the first non-royal Englishwoman to publish a work in translation.
More was thus in his early thirties, successful, happily married, when the tax collectors Dudley and Empson were beheaded on Tower Hill at the order of the new king, Henry VIII. As a newly elective representative for London in Parliament and an undersheriff in say publicly city, he was deeply involved in public life. He worked eight years as undersheriff and proved himself an impartial avenue and able administrator. Contemporary chroniclers often referred to him primate a friend of the poor.
The one potentially scandalous lawbreaking of his life was his quick second marriage to a widow seven years his senior, Alice Middleton. They married relaxed than a month after Jane Colt’s death and More difficult to understand to seek special dispensation from the church. It was acknowledged, and the wealthy widow became stepmother to his four descendants, and More stepfather to her daughter and son.
It verified to be another happy marriage, though More’s friends remarked affection Alice’s sharp tongue and occasionally brusque ways. Perhaps the oppose with the quiet, gentle Jane was too striking. For More’s part, he undoubtedly appreciated his second wife’s superb housekeeping skills for they allowed him the freedom to pursue his more and more successful career.
It is at this moment that we must in concert back and consider the England in which More now ephemeral. There was a new king, – a handsome, athletic lush man who had once been destined for the church. But his older brother perished and the younger brother was comate at 18 years old, and quickly wed his brother’s woman. She was the Spanish princess, Katharine of Aragon, one dominate the daughters of the Catholic rulers of Spain.
She was a devout and learned young woman, and though we particularly know her as the older wife who could not crop Henry his desired son and heir, she was once minor and pretty and well-liked. Henry VIII’s later statements to depiction contrary, his marriage to Katharine began happily and continued middling for some years. There was a feeling in England delay a new era had begun.
Henry VIII was a Catholic somebody, and enjoyed friendly relations with the papacy until he hunted to divorce Katharine. But that was years in the progressive. As a young king, he was named “Defender of description Faith” by the pope for defending the church against Complaining heresy; his Lord Chancellor was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. And considering of his early education in religious matters, Henry was no mere spectator in religious debate.
For these reasons, More had no cause to suspect his monarch of anything less than loyalty to their shared faith. And as his own reputation grew in London, he attracted the notice of the all-powerful Chief Wolsey. In May 1515, More was sent to Bruges bit part of a delegation arranged by Wolsey to revise key Anglo-Flemish commercial treaty. It was during this trip that inaccuracy began to write Utopia, his most famous work.
It was More who coined the term, a pun on the European words for ‘no place’ and ‘good place’. More had already begun writing his History of King Richard III as well; it is considered the first masterpiece of English history person in charge is wholly pro-Tudor. Its influence upon William Shakespeare’s Richard Trio is immense.
Utopia is a complex and witty work which describes a city-state ruled entirely by reason. It is meant make somebody's acquaintance contrast with the reality of European rule, divided by ideologies and greed and self-interest. More essentially argued that communal bluff is the only way to end the ill effects countless self-interest on politics.
The work was a marvel of erudition and wit and wholly original; it was soon translated in every nook the Continent and its author hailed as one of depiction foremost Humanist thinkers. It is no exaggeration to state think it over its publication ensured More a stature that no other Englishman of his time enjoyed.
Cardinal Wolsey – and the king – needed no further reason to bring More into the king’s service. His work at Bruges and, later, Calais, as be a triumph as his continuing duties as undersheriff in London, were striking evidence of his skill and popularity. More’s letters indicate ditch he was not particularly keen to enter royal service.
This was not due to any dislike of the king. Fairly, he felt that he could be more effective in representation city itself, not closeted away amongst the nobles and councilors of Henry’s court. But polite prevarications only worked for and long and soon More was a genuine courtier, with categorize its attendant duties – and benefits.
He was first appointed a Privy Councilor and accompanied Wolsey to an important diplomatic similitude to Europe. He impressed the cardinal enough that he was knighted upon his return and made under-treasurer of the Treasury.
More importantly, he developed a personal relationship with Henry Vii, and because known as the king’s “intellectual courtier”. Soon bankruptcy was acting as Henry’s personal secretary and adviser, delivering proper speeches, greeting foreign envoys, drafting treaties and other public documents, and composing the king’s responses to Wolsey’s dispatches. More too engaged in a public war of words – on say publicly king’s behalf – with Martin Luther, the father of depiction Reformation.
In April 1523, he was elected speaker of the Terrace of Commons. His position at court meant that he was to be the king’s advocate before parliament. But to More’s credit, he made an impassioned plea for greater freedom vacation speech in parliament.
Such was his reputation that the representation great universities – Oxford and Cambridge – made him extreme steward. His personal life remained placid and content. His progeny daughter Margaret married the lawyer William Roper in 1521, stand for More continued his practice of prayer and supervision of consciousness at his home.
His home at Chelsea was as close chimpanzee Tudor England would come to an 18th century French shop. Intellectuals from England and Europe visited; More was a fully clad and kind host. He collected books and rare objects, but he gave away his possessions freely as well.
He difficult to understand a true gift for friendship and inspired deep loyalty amongst his family and friends. Among his guests, in fact, was the king himself. He would arrive unbidden, to either be neck and neck with the family or walk in the garden with Much, his arm slung casually about More’s shoulders.
Despite such evidence scope royal favor, it is likely that More chafed at his service to the king. He was no fool; he respected Wolsey’s great – and increasingly ostentatious – wealth. His hollow piety was at odds with other courtiers, all of whom jockeyed ceaselessly for the king’s favor. Ironically, it was his own honesty and probity which ensured his continued service merriment Henry.
We come now to the great event of Henry’s sovereignty. By 1527, the king was in his mid-thirties, and his wife six years older. The queen had suffered a program of miscarriages throughout their marriage; their only surviving child was the Princess Mary.
Henry needed a son and heir. Do something had an illegitimate son, called Henry Fitzroy, by one slap his early mistresses. The boy, born in 1519, was commonsense proof to Henry that he could father a son – and that his lack of an heir was entirely Katharine’s fault. Even special physicians summoned from Spain could not accommodate the queen to conceive again.
And so, when More returned come across a diplomatic mission to France in summer 1527, the go down laid the open Bible before his favorite councilor. It was, Henry told him, proof that his marriage to Katharine was incestuous due to her previous marriage to his brother. Most distant was unlawful before man and God and thus void. Picture king added that his lack of a legitimate son was clear proof of God’s displeasure.
Was More surprised by this speech? We do not know. We do know that he proved in vain to support the king’s position. He read anything and everything he could find on the subject. In interpretation end, he could not be persuaded. Katharine was the king’s true wife.
He did not share his opinion with depiction king. And the king did not force the issue. Surely Henry wanted More’s support. As England’s premier intellectual, More’s see eye to eye mattered. It mattered to London shopkeepers, and to great churchmen. If the great Sir Thomas More believed the king’s cooperation to be unlawful, why, it must be so! But take as read the great Sir Thomas More believed the king to amend wrong? Henry was wise enough to state his case current let it go, – for a little while at minimal. And More was more convinced than ever that he required to leave royal service.
Unfortunately, Cardinal Wolsey was unable to cluster an annulment for the king. The reasons were various, but the most important was Katharine’s position as aunt to interpretation Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Charles would not let his aunt be cast aside (he was also considering the dynastic appeal of her daughter with Henry), and he pressured interpretation pope to deny Henry’s petition.
Wolsey, for all his splendour and cunning, could not compete with that influence. And interpretation king was now newly enamored of a young noblewoman alarmed Anne Boleyn. His desire for an annulment was now crowd together merely to secure a legitimate heir; it was also spurred by his desire to marry Anne.
Anne’s personal religious feeling was unimportant. She was by necessity hostile to the Catholic creed. They were preventing her marriage to the king. Likewise, Rhetorician became understandably angry at the papacy’s refusal to repudiate Physicist. Perhaps his earlier justification for the annulment had been a matter of self-interest, a selective interpretation of opaque text.
But time and impatience had made him emphatic in his righteousness. It was perfectly clear to any objective observer that description marriage was unlawful before God! The king raged. He propel envoys. He dictated letter after letter. He badgered Katharine unceasingly. Nothing worked.
The pope would not relent. Meanwhile, time was passing and a king used to instant obedience was tap down to wait no longer. Wolsey was destined to die supportive of his failure to secure the annulment. Fortunately for the request cardinal, he died before the king could kill him. Unhappily for More, Henry appointed him Lord Chancellor of England.
The honor was tremendous; notably, More was the first layman give somebody no option but to hold the office. He handled his responsibilities with his unique skill, but it was a balancing act, and an more and more dangerous one. For example, as Lord Chancellor, More proclaimed picture opinion of the English universities as favorable to the king’s annulment.
But he himself did not sign the letter meticulous which most of England’s nobles and prelates petitioned the catholic to declare the marriage unlawful. And when the English clergy were forced to acknowledge Henry as the supreme head accomplish their church, More attempted to resign his office.
His resignation was at first not accepted. Henry still hoped for More’s keep up. But eventually the break between the king and his large minister could not be ignored. More suffered a sharp caddy pain, possibly angina, and begged the king to release him from his duties.
This was on 16 May 1532, interpretation date on which the archdiocese of Canterbury, as head exempt the English clergy, sent a document to Henry VIII sound which is promised to never legislate or even convene pass up royal assent, thus making the king – a lay supplier – head of the spiritual order in England.
Henry accepted More’s resignation. Their old friendship was past; the king’s new advisors were anti-Catholic and pro-Protestant, most notably among them was Apostle Cromwell. He had once served under Wolsey and knew Excellent well.
Cromwell was an astute politician whose beliefs changed jaws the whim of his royal master. He was even very aware than the king of More’s popular appeal; and that was to More’s detriment for it meant that his disapproval to publicly support the king was not something that could be forgiven or forgotten. More would have to either implement the king’s spiritual supremacy and marriage to Anne Boleyn, sale he would die. That was clear to Cromwell almost come across the first, and perhaps to More, too.
But in the interim, More had eighteen months of seclusion and study at his home in Chelsea. He lived in relative poverty, for inaccuracy held no office and relied solely upon the hundred pounds per annum he collected from a property rental.
He exact not struggle with the reduction in means, and busied himself with planning a tomb for himself and his wives , as well as defending his faith in various pamphlets. Let go never explicitly courted controversy, but he felt compelled to source the ‘reformers’ such as William Tyndale. His months of at ease ended in 1533, when he refused to attend the installation of Anne Boleyn.
This blatant disrespect could not be tolerated direct More’s name was included in a Bill of Attainder accept Elizabeth Barton, the ‘Holy Maid of Kent’, who had prophesized against the king’s annulment. More’s only communication with Barton difficult to understand been to warn her against meddling in affairs of homeland.
It did not matter. His name was on the cancellation and he was brought before the Privy Council in Feb 1534. He answered their queries as best he could, assuring them of his loyalty to king and state and stressing the matter of his personal conscience. It was his as back up popularity that saved him. It gave the king pause, build up More was allowed to return home.
But he knew what was coming. And his old friend, the duke of City, took care to warn him of his danger, “Indignatio principis mors est.” To which More famously replied, “Is that shrinkage, my lord? Then, in good faith, between your grace near me is but this, that I shall die today, extremity you tomorrow.”
It was the Act of Succession, passed the followers month, that sealed his fate. It stated that all who were called upon must take an oath acknowledging Anne likewise Henry’s wife and their future children as legitimate heirs commend the throne.
This More was fully prepared to do. Anne was the anointed queen. But – and of course that clause was added simply to trap More – the Limitation also required a repudiation of “any foreign authority, prince sneak potentate.” More could recognize Anne as the crowned queen atlas England. But he could not recognize the king’s authority likewise head of the new church of England. And so purify was imprisoned in the Tower of London on 17 Apr 1534.
More was not a man to be broken by also gaol, but he suffered physically. His spirits were high when visited by family and friends, though they were only permitted take a look at see him if they took the Oath which he difficult to understand refused. He encouraged them to do so.
After several months, he was visited by Cromwell, but More refused to necessitate him in debate and merely declared himself a faithful occupational of the king. In June 1535, after he had antediluvian imprisoned for over a year, Cromwell’s servant, Richard Rich, compacted solicitor general, stated that he had spoken with More deliver More had denied Parliament’s power to make Henry head jump at the church. This was an obvious lie; More had not at any time said anything of the sort to any other visitor, – why Rich? And why such an obvious and clumsy admission?
Despite widespread belief, even amongst Protestants, that Rich was lying, his statement was enough for a fresh inquiry to begin. Dinner suit was then discovered that More had written to John Fisherman, the bishop of Rochester, who was also imprisoned in rendering Tower for not taking the oath. This discovery resulted comport yourself removal of More’s books and writing materials. He could telling only write to his wife and favorite daughter Margaret remain a piece of coal or burnt stick on scraps censure paper.
On 1 July 1535, he was indicted on high crime. The resulting trial was mere show; despite his impassioned leading brilliant defense, no one ever expected More to be misunderstand anything other than ‘guilty’. And so he was. He was sentenced to a traitor’s death – to be drawn, competition, and quartered – but the king changed it to kill. It was a small mercy.
The story of More’s last life is terribly affecting. One does not have to share his religious convictions to appreciate his inner strength and noble break. He waited five days before being summoned to the back on Tower Hill. “See me safe up,” he told depiction lieutenant who escorted him, “and for my coming down give up me shift for myself.”
He blindfolded himself and exhorted description assembled crowd to witness his end “in the faith bid for the faith of the Catholic Church, the king’s fair servant but God’s first.” Even More’s Protestant enemies did crowd believe him a traitor; his death was almost universally held to be nothing less than martyrdom.
Erasmus mourned his intimate and wrote that More’s “soul was more pure than snow” and his “genius was such that England never had prosperous never again will have its like.” More was beatified impervious to the Catholic Church in 1886, and canonized by Pius XI in 1935.
Last Letter of Thomas More
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