Pope Wolsey

Would it have been possible for Cardinal Wolsey to become Pope? I understand that it was one of his ambitions, but was it actually feasible?
 
I see a reform of the Church, I believe Wolsey was quite in favour of a reform. It may be enough for England to stay Catholic as well as bringing back various other states from Dissent-ism. Also he'd give the title of 'King of Ireland' to Henry VIII I expect...
 
I've never heard that before, but I could see that causing interesting problems for Henry VIII.

Wolsey became a Cardinal in 1515... I guess he would be quite busy in England with Henry VIII and his personal feud with William Warham to pursue the Papal throne...
On the other hand if we are looking for an English Pope in 16th century Reginald Cardinal Pole is way much propable as in OTL he fell 1-2 votes short from obtaining the 2/3 majority in the 1549 conclave...
 
If you were the king of France or Spain, would you let your cardinals vote for Wolsey? His ties to the English king were probably too strong for him to be elected.
 
If you were the king of France or Spain, would you let your cardinals vote for Wolsey? His ties to the English king were probably too strong for him to be elected.

Well Pole almost made it in 1549... And he had closer ties with the English Kings... He even had his own claim to the English throne...
So why not Wolsey?
 
Well Pole almost made it in 1549... And he had closer ties with the English Kings... He even had his own claim to the English throne...
So why not Wolsey?

I'll take your word for how close he came, but the situation's a bit different. Wolsey was Henry's man through and through. Pole wasn't close to Henry at all, and being a Plantagenet claimant would have been an extra negative from Henry's viewpoint.

In fairness, sometimes someone with very close connections to one of the continental monarchs was elected pope, Adrian VI for example. Since the French weren't able to block that one, maybe it would be possible for Wolsey after all.
 
Pole was highly regarded - and in the 1520s was in fact his cousin's protegee (Henry was very keen on his progress and education) - he split with Henry over the divorce being one of the few to state his view that it was fuelled not by doubts over the validity of the King's marriage to Catherine but out of desire for another woman (Anne Boleyn) and his strong objection to the King's split with Rome - he went into exile in 1536 becoming a cardinal - Henry was furious and took it out on his family including his elderly mother who was eventually executed.
Even Cromwell blamed their deaths on the fact they were simply related to the Cardinal.
 
I seem to remember that Wolsey was considered a contender for the papcy in the early 1520's but he needed the support the HRE, but his relative youth (he was only 50) and Emperor Charles putting forward his own candidates cost Wolsey.
 
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