"Thomas Wolsey (or Wulcy as the family spelt the name at the time) was born in Ipswich between 1471 & 1475. His father Robert, an innkeeper & butcher, & his mother Joan, lived at that time near St. Mary Elms church, but moved soon afterwards to St. Nicholas Street where Thomas grew up. A plaque now marks the spot near to where this house stood.
Thomas attended Ipswich School before going on to study theology at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he later became a master. He was ordained in 1498 & became rector of the Church of Saint Mary, Limington, Somerset in 1500, before becoming chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury two years later. In 1507 he entered the service of King Henry VII as Royal Chaplain. When Henry VII died in 1509 he was succeeded by his son Henry VIII, who appointed Wolsey to the post of Almoner; a position which gave him a seat on the Privy Council & allowed him to raise his profile & get himself noticed.
Wolsey became a Canon of Windsor in 1511, & in 1514 he was consecrated as a Bishop; being made both Bishop of Lincoln, & then Archbishop of York in that same year. In the following year he was made a Cardinal. The Pope made him Papal Legate to England in 1518, & in 1523 he became Prince-Bishop of Durham.
Running parallel with his religious career, his rise to power in the Royal court saw him become a powerful & controlling figure in most matters of state, & the King's most trusted advisor and administrator. By 1515 he had become Lord Chancellor. Over the next 14 years he gradually destroyed or neutralised many other influential courtiers who he perceived as a threat to his position.
One of his greatest triumphs was arranging the Field of the Cloth of Gold; a meeting between King Henry VIII & King Francis I of France, that took place in June 1520 near Calais. The object of the meeting was to increase the friendship between the two nations following the Anglo-French treaty of 1514.
Wolsey had an interest in architecture; having Hampton Court Palace in Richmond upon Thames built around 1514, as well as rebuilding York Place in Whitehall, London around the same time. Both properties were seized by the King after Wolsey’s downfall.
This came in 1529, when he was unable to get Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled by the Pope. He was stripped of office & had his property confiscated; although he retained his position as Archbishop of York. It was whilst travelling to York in the following year that he was arrested & accused of treason. He died at Leicester on 29th November 1530, on his way to stand trial in London. He was buried in Leicester Abbey.
Wolsey had a great interest in education. In Ipswich he had sought permission to build a school, the aim of which was to act as a feeder for Cardinal College, Oxford (now Christ Church), which he also founded. The site chosen was near St Peter’s Church in what is now College Street, close to the quay. The school opened in 1528, but within a year was being dismantled after his fall from power. All that remains today is the gateway to the Cardinal College of St. Mary, commonly known as Wolsey’s Gate.
Apart from Wolsey’s Gate, there are several other places in Ipswich named either Wolsey or Cardinal in his honour, such as:
Wolsey Street, Cardinal Street, New Cardinal Street, Cardinal House (offices in St Nicholas Street, close to where his house stood), Wolsey House (offices in Princes Street), New Wolsey Theatre (in Civic Drive), & Cardinal Park (leisure complex on Grafton Way, featuring restaurants, bars & cinema).
Sculpted by David Annand, a bronze seated statue of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was unveiled on 29th June 2011 on Curson Plain, at the junction of Silent Street & St Peter’s Street; close to the site of the house that Wolsey grew up in."
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