Photograph of William Warham.
William Warham

Overview

{{Infobox Archbishop of Canterbury| | Full name = William Warham | image = | caption = Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger (1527) | birth_name = | began = 1503 | term_end = August 22 1532 | predecessor = Henry Deane | successor = Thomas Cranmer | birth_date = c. 1450 | birthplace = | death_date = August 22 1532 | deathplace = | tomb = Canterbury Cathedral, Kent |}<noinclude>}

William Warham (c. 1450August 22 1532), Archbishop of Canterbury, belonged to a Hampshire family, and was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, afterwards practising and teaching law both in London and Oxford.

Later he took holy orders, held two livings (Barley and Cottenham), and became Master of the Rolls in 1494, while Henry VII found him a useful and clever diplomatist. He helped to arrange the marriage between Henry's son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Aragon; he went to Scotland with Richard Foxe, then bishop of Durham, in 1497; and he was partly responsible for several commercial and other treaties with Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor who was also Count of Flanders and Regent Duke of Burgundy on behalf of his son Philip IV of Burgundy.

In 1502 Warham was consecrated Bishop of London and became Keeper of the Great Seal, but his tenure of both these offices was short, as in 1504 he became Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1506 he became chancellor of Oxford University, a role he held until his death. In 1509 the Archbishop married and then crowned Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

As archbishop he seems to have been somewhat arbitrary - for example, his actions led to a serious quarrel with Foxe (by then Bishop of Winchester) and others in 1512. This led to his gradually withdrawing into the background after the coronation, resigning the office of Lord Chancellor in 1515, and was succeeded by Wolsey, whom he had consecrated as bishop of Lincoln in the previous year. This resignation was possibly due to his dislike of Henry's foreign policy.

He was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and assisted Wolsey as assessor during the secret inquiry into the validity of Henry's marriage with Catherine in 1527. Throughout the divorce proceedings Warham's position was essentially that of an old and weary man. He was named as one of the counsellors to assist the queen, but, fearing to incur the king's displeasure and using his favourite phrase ira principis mors est, he gave her very little help; and he signed the letter to Clement VII which urged the pope to assent to Henry's wish. Afterwards it was proposed that the archbishop himself should try the case, but this suggestion came to nothing.

He presided over the Convocation of 1531 when the clergy of the province of Canterbury voted £100,000 to the king in order to avoid the penalties of praemunire, and accepted Henry as supreme head of the church with the saving clause "so far as the law of Christ allows."

In his concluding years, however, the archbishop showed rather more independence. In February 1532 he protested against all acts concerning the church passed by the parliament which met in 1529, but this did not prevent the important proceedings which secured the complete submission of the church to the state later in the same year. Against this further compliance with Henry's wishes Warham drew up a protest; he likened the action of Henry VIII to that of Henry II, and urged Magna Carta in defence of the liberties of the church. He attempted in vain to strike a compromise during the Submission of the Clergy. Warham was munificent in his public, and moderate in his private life. He was buried in the Martyrdom or north transept of Canterbury Cathedral.

Sources

*W. F. Hook, Lives of the Archbisliops of Canterbury (1860?1876) *James Gairdner in Dict. Nat. Biog., vol. lix. (1899), and The English Church in the 16th Century (1902) *John Sherren Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII (1884) *A. F. Pollard, Henry VIII (1905) *
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That biography says:

The primary counsellors that Henry inherited from his father, Bishop Fox and William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, were cautious and conservative, advising the King to be a careful administrator like his father...
How is William Warham connected to Henry VII of England? Tell the world.

This biography says:

...Later he took holy orders, held two livings (Barley and Cottenham), and became Master of the Rolls in 1494, while Henry VII found him a useful and clever diplomatist. He helped to arrange the marriage between Henry's son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Aragon; he went to Scotland with Richard Foxe, then bishop of Durham, in 1497; and he was partly responsible for several commercial and other treaties with Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor who was also Count of Flanders and Regent Duke of Burgundy on behalf of his son Philip IV of Burgundy...

This biography says:

{{Infobox Archbishop of Canterbury| | Full name = William Warham | image = | caption = Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger (1527) | birth_name = | began = 1503 | term_end = August 22 1532 | predecessor = Henry Deane | successor = Thomas Cranmer | birth_date = c...

This biography says:

{{Infobox Archbishop of Canterbury| | Full name = William Warham | image = | caption = Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger (1527) | birth_name = | began = 1503 | term_end = August 22 1532 | predecessor = Henry Deane | successor = Thomas Cranmer | birth_date = c. 1450 | birthplace = | death_date = August 22 1532 | deathplace = | tomb = Canterbury Cathedral, Kent |}<noinclude>}...

That biography says:

{{Infobox Archbishop of Canterbury| | Full name = Henry Deane | image = | caption = | birth_name = | began = 1501 | term_end = 15 February 1503 | predecessor = John Morton | successor = William Warham | birth_date = c. 1440 | birthplace = | death_date = 15 February 1503 | deathplace = | tomb = Canterbury Cathedral, Kent |}<noinclude>} :For other uses, see Henry Deane (disambiguation)...

That biography says:

...The monks of Glastonbury used to claim that during the sack of Canterbury by the Danes in 1012, Dunstan's body had been carried for safety to their abbey. This story was disproved by Archbishop William Warham, who opened the tomb at Canterbury in 1508. They found Dunstan's relics still to be there at that time...

This biography says:

{{Infobox Archbishop of Canterbury| | Full name = William Warham | image = | caption = Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger (1527) | birth_name = | began = 1503 | term_end = August 22 1532 | predecessor = Henry Deane | successor = Thomas Cranmer | birth_date = c. 1450 | birthplace = | death_date = August 22 1532 | deathplace = | tomb = Canterbury Cathedral, Kent |}<noinclude>}...

That biography says:

In August 1532, Archbishop William Warham died. Henry arranged for Cranmer to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury to Cranmer's astonishment; Cranmer had held no major position in the Church previous to this extraordinary promotion...

This biography says:

...He helped to arrange the marriage between Henry's son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Aragon; he went to Scotland with Richard Foxe, then bishop of Durham, in 1497; and he was partly responsible for several commercial and other treaties with Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor who was also Count of Flanders and Regent Duke of Burgundy on behalf of his son Philip IV of Burgundy...

This biography says:

...Later he took holy orders, held two livings (Barley and Cottenham), and became Master of the Rolls in 1494, while Henry VII found him a useful and clever diplomatist. He helped to arrange the marriage between Henry's son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Aragon; he went to Scotland with Richard Foxe, then bishop of Durham, in 1497; and he was partly responsible for several commercial and other treaties with Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor who was also Count of Flanders and Regent Duke of Burgundy on behalf of his son Philip IV of Burgundy...

That biography says:

...Cranmer's support of the King's efforts to put aside Catherine of Aragon were rewarded with a position as ambassador to the imperial court, and shortly thereafter, he was appointed to replace William Warham as Archbishop of Canterbury upon the latter's death. Cromwell, meanwhile, earned a position as chief adviser to the king with his even more daring proposal that Henry consider abolishing papal supremacy and declare himself head of the Church in England...

That biography says:

...On the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, he was appointed the king's physician, an office at that time of considerable influence and importance, and practised medicine in London, having among his patients most of the great statesmen and prelates of the time, including Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop William Warham and Bishop Fox. After some years of professional activity, Linacre received priest's orders as the rector of Wigan in 1520, though he had for some years previously held several clerical benefices, including the Precentorship of York Minster...

That biography says:

...In May, 1532, Sir Thomas More resigned the chancellorship, and in June, Fisher preached publicly against the divorce. In August, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, died, and Thomas Cranmer was at once proposed by Henry to the pope as his successor...

That biography says:

...His three profile portraits of Erasmus, two (nearly identical) profile portraits and one three-quarters view portrait were all painted in the same year, 1523. Erasmus used the Holbein portraits as gifts for his friends in England, such as William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury (as he writes in a letter to Warham regarding the gift portrait, Erasmus quips that "he might have something of Erasmus should God call him from this place.") Erasmus spoke favorably of Holbein as an artist and person, but later criticized Holbein whom he had accused of sponging off of various patrons to whom Erasmus had recommended, for purposes more of monetary gain than artistic endeavor...

That biography says:

...She suggested that he should follow the advice of religious radicals like William Tyndale, who denied Papal Authority and believed that the monarch should lead the church. When William Warham, the conservative Archbishop of Canterbury, died, Boleyn had her family's chaplain — Thomas Cranmer — appointed to the vacant position...
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