How Successful Was Henry Wolsey

Wolsey had the potential to become very successful and this potential got him into high positions of power where he served Henry VIII almost like a second King. He was successful in the earlier years, most of his endeavours show a great starting potential but then don't succeed due to a circumstance that should have been forseen but wasn't. The taxation in general was a good idea in order to gain money for the campaign Henry was planning, but as a good advisor Wolsey should have been aware of the already dire financial situation of his country. He should have paid attention to the inflation and high rate of unemployment as well as the factor that previous loans had not been repaid and subsidies were sill being paid out. If he had taken these factors into consideration he …show more content…
A similar problem is seen in the reformation of the justice system, although his ideas looked great on paper he did not take into consideration that moving all the courses to the great court houses and making courts available for the less fortunate would flood those institutions with cases and soon overload them. He might have been able to make his system more successful if he had been able to adjust the capacity of the court houses accordingly, but did no such thing condeming his idea to fail. The attempt to stop enclosures, although a great idea, was shortlived due to him not seeing how beneficial it might have become in the future and abandoned it too quickly for a problem that was more short lived. The only real success he had was in the hinderence of people abusing the benefit of the clergy and it was not his idea but something that had been initiated by Henry VII. In conclusion although he had great ideas and did lead England through some revolutionary changes, he was ultimately not very successful in his service to Henry VIII as most of his changes were