The Reformation and the Decline of Court Festivals

Abstract IN 1527 Cardinal Wolsey had seemed at the very pinnacle of his career. But already, amidst his triumphal interview with the King of France, the pageants and plays lauding his power, and his fantastic schemes for assuming Papal authority, there were signs that his position was not unassailable. There had long been opposition to him on political, religious, and personal grounds- and the most constant theme for the attacks levelled against him was just that magnificence with which he emphasized and buttressed his supremacy. Much earlier in Wolsey’s career, Skelton had viciously attacked the ‘bochers dogg’ and his pretensions, and had written his magnificence in allusion to the Cardinal’s extravagance and luxury. About the year 1521/2., another writer had pointed out to Henry VIII how this ‘Bochers Curre’, through his pride, had wasted much of the royal treasure. Wolsey became very sensitive to such attacks, especially as they must have multiplied during the financial difficulties engendered by the French war of 1521-3, in the same way that political opposition to the Cardinal developed from the same period.