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Thomas
Earl of Lancaster
Manuscript illustration of Thomas of Lancaster with Saint George.
Earl of Lancaster and Leicester
Predecessor	Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl
Successor	Henry, 3rd Earl
Spouse(s)	Alice de Lacy, 4th Countess of Lincoln (m. 1294; div. c. 1318)
Detail Titles and styles The Earl of Lancaster The Earl of Lincoln
Father	Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster
Mother	Blanche of Artois
Born	c. 1278
Died	22 March 1322(1322-03-22) (aged c. 43–44) Pontefract, Yorkshire

Thomas, Earl of Leicester and Lancaster (c. 1278 – 22 March 1322) was one of the leaders of the baronial opposition to Edward II of England.

Lineage[link]

Thomas was the eldest son of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster and Blanche of Artois, Queen Dowager of Navarre. Crouchback was the son of King Henry III of England.

Titles and lands[link]

From his father Thomas inherited the Earldoms of Lancaster, Leicester, and a Ferrers earldom of Derby.

By his marriage to Alice de Lacy, Countess of Lincoln, daughter of Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, he became Earl of Lincoln, Earl of Salisbury, 11th Baron of Halton and 7th Lord of Bowland upon the death of his father-in-law in 1311. Master of five earldoms, he was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in England.

Thomas was in possession of many key fortresses, particularly in northern England. He was responsible for the extension of Pontefract Castle and in 1313 he began the construction of Dunstanburgh Castle a massive fortress in Northumberland.

Marriage[link]

His marriage to Alice de Lacy was not successful. They had no children, though he had two illegitimate sons. In 1317 she was abducted from her manor at Canford, Dorset by Richard de St Martin, a knight in the service of John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey. This incident caused a feud between Lancaster and Surrey; Lancaster divorced his wife and seized two of Surrey's castles in retaliation. King Edward then intervened, and the two Earls came to an uneasy truce.

Although divorced from his wife, he continued to hold the powerful Earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury. This was due to the marriage contract the two families had agreed, in effect upon the death of his father-in-law, Earl Thomas held these earldoms in his own right, not in right of his wife.

Conflict with Edward II and death[link]

On reaching full age he became hereditary Sheriff of Lancashire, but spent most of the next ten years fighting for Edward I in Scotland, leaving the shrievalty in the care of deputies.

He served in the coronation of his cousin, King Edward II of England, on 25 February 1308, carrying Curtana, the sword of St Edward the Confessor. At the beginning of the King's reign, Lancaster openly supported Edward, but as the conflict between the king and the nobles wore on, Lancaster's allegiances changed. He despised the royal favourite, Piers Gaveston, who mocked him as "the Fiddler", and swore revenge when Gaveston demanded that the King dismiss one of Lancaster's retainers.

Lancaster was one of the Lords Ordainers who demanded the banishment of Gaveston and the establishment of a Baronial oligarchy. His private army helped separate the King and Gaveston, and Lancaster was one of the "judges" who convicted Gaveston and saw him executed.

After the disaster at Bannockburn in 1314, Edward submitted to Lancaster, who in effect became ruler of England. He attempted to govern for the next four years, but was unable to keep order or prevent the Scots from raiding and retaking territory in the North. In 1318 a new faction of barons arose, and Lancaster was deposed from office.

Coats of Arms of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, and his successors.

The new leadership, eventually headed by Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester and his son Hugh the younger Despenser, proved no more popular with the Baronage, and in 1321 Lancaster was again at the head of a rebellion. This time, however, he was defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge, and taken prisoner.

Lancaster was tried by a tribunal consisting of, among others, the two Despensers, Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, and King Edward. Lancaster was not allowed to speak in his own defence, nor was he allowed to have anyone to speak for him. Because of their kinship and Lancaster's royal blood, the King commuted the sentence to mere beheading (as opposed to being drawn, quartered, and beheaded) and Lancaster was convicted of treason and executed near Pontefract Castle.

Upon his death his titles and estates were forfeited, but in 1323 his younger brother Henry successfully petitioned to take possession of the Earldom of Leicester, and in 1326 or 1327 Parliament posthumously reversed Thomas's conviction, and Henry was further permitted to take possession of the Earldoms of Lancaster, Derby, Salisbury and Lincoln.

Thomas became venerated as a martyr and saint within a few months of his death. Hagiographies were written about him, and Edward III wrote three times to the Pope requesting his canonisation. He was never canonised, though rumours to that effect arose in the 1390s, when his cult experienced something of a revival.

In 1942 it was reported by E J Rudsdale that some of Thomas's bones had been found in a box at Paskell's auctioneers in Colchester, Essex, having been removed from Pomfret Castle in 1885.^[1]

Titles, styles, honours and arms[link]

Arms[link]

Inherited from his father, Thomas bore the arms of the kingdom, differenced by a label France of three points (that is to say azure three fleur-de-lys or, each).^[2]

Ancestry[link]

References[link]

1. ^ http://wwar2homefront.blogspot.com/2012/01/31st-january-1942-earl-of-lancasters.html 31st January 1942: The Earl of Lancaster's Bones]
2. ^ Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family

• Given-Wilson, C. (June 1994). "Richard II, Edward II, and the Lancastrian Inheritance". The English Historical Review 109 (432): 553–571. DOI:10.1093/ehr/CIX.432.553. 
• Maddicott, J. R. (1970). Thomas of Lancaster, 1307–1322: A study in the reign of Edward II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821837-1. 
• Mortimer, Ian (2003). The Greatest Traitor. ISBN 978-0-224-06249-7. 

Thomas Lancaster (died 1583) was an English Protestant clergyman, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh from 1568.

Life[link]

He was perhaps a native of Cumberland, probably educated at Oxford. In July 1549 he was consecrated Bishop of Kildare by George Browne, Archbishop of Dublin. An evangelical Protestant, he attended the conference in June 1551 which Sir James Croft, Lord Deputy of Ireland, held at Dublin with George Dowdell, the Primate of Ireland and a Roman Catholic. In 1552 Lancaster was installed in the deanery of Ossory, which he held in commendam with his bishopric. On 2 February 1553 he assisted in the consecration of John Bale as Bishop of Ossory; and about the same time he published a statement of his doctrinal position;^[1] it is dedicated to Edward VI. Lancaster's style of argument resembles Bale's.

Lancaster was married, and on that ground he was deprived of both his preferments by Queen Mary in 1554, and spent the remainder of her reign in retirement. In 1559 he was presented by the crown to the treasurership of Salisbury Cathedral, in succession to Thomas Harding; and he also became one of the royal chaplains. He was a member of the lower house of convocation, and on 5 February 1563 was in the minority of 58 who approved of the proposed six formulas committing the English church to ultra-Protestant doctrine and practices, as against 59 who opposed the change. In the same year he signed the petition of the lower house of convocation for reform of church discipline. He acted as suffragan bishop of Marlborough under Bishop John Jewel, but the dates are not known. In that capacity he held ordinations at Salisbury on 13 April 1560 and 26 April 1568. Writing to Archbishop Matthew Parker (8 May 1568) Jewel complained of Lancaster's want of discretion. Lancaster was also elected Principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford in early 1565.^[2]

When Sir Henry Sydney went to Ireland as Lord Deputy in October 1565, Lancaster had a royal license to attend him and absent himself from his spiritual offices. He accompanied Sydney in his progress through various parts of Ireland. Sir William Cecil was friendly with him, and wrote to Sidney on 22 July 1567 that Lancaster was to be made Archbishop of Armagh, in succession to Adam Loftus, who had been translated to Dublin. Some months passed before the choice was officially announced, but on 28 March 1568 Queen Elizabeth informed the Irish lords justices. His consecration took place, at the hands of Archbishop Loftus of Dublin, Hugh Brady the Bishop of Meath, and Robert Daly the Bishop of Kildare, on 13 June 1568, in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. He preached his own consecration sermon on the subject of 'Regeneration.' The archbishop had license to hold sundry preferments, both in England and in Ireland, on account of the poverty of his see, which had been wasted by rebellion. He died in Drogheda in December 1583, and was buried in St. Peter's Church in the town, in the vault of one of his predecessors, Octavian de Palatio (died 1513). He left a son and two daughters. His will was disputed and the intended foundation of a public grammar school at Drogheda, to be endowed at his cost, and eight scholarships for it at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, came to nothing.

Notes[link]

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Lancaster, Thomas (d.1583)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

Thomas Ewing
1st United States Secretary of the Interior
In office March 8, 1849 – July 22, 1850
President	Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Thomas McKennan
14th United States Secretary of the Treasury
In office March 4, 1841 – September 11, 1841
President	William Henry Harrison John Tyler
Preceded by	Levi Woodbury
Succeeded by	Walter Forward
United States Senator from Ohio
In office July 20, 1850 – March 4, 1851
Preceded by	Thomas Corwin
Succeeded by	Benjamin Wade
In office March 4, 1831 – March 4, 1837
Preceded by	Jacob Burnet
Succeeded by	William Allen
Personal details
Born	(1789-12-28)December 28, 1789 West Liberty, Virginia, U.S.(now West Virginia)
Died	October 26, 1871(1871-10-26) (aged 81) Lancaster, Ohio, U.S.
Political party	Whig Party (1833–1871)
Other political affiliations	National Republican Party (Before 1833)
Spouse(s)	Maria Wills Boyle Ewing
Alma mater	Ohio University
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Thomas Ewing, Sr. (December 28, 1789 – October 26, 1871) was a National Republican and Whig politician from Ohio. He served in the U.S. Senate as well as serving as the Secretary of the Treasury and the first Secretary of the Interior.

Biography[link]

Born in West Liberty, Ohio County, Virginia (now West Virginia), was the son of Revolutionary War veteran George Ewing. After studying at Ohio University and reading law under Philemon Beecher, Ewing commenced the practice of law in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1816.

The Zachary Taylor Administration, 1849 Daguerreotype by Matthew Brady
From left to right: William B. Preston, Thomas Ewing, John M. Clayton, Zachary Taylor, William M. Meredith, George W. Crawford, Jacob Collamer and Reverdy Johnson, (1849).

As a colorful country lawyer, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1830 as a Whig and served a single term. He was unsuccessful in seeking a second term in 1836. Ewing served as Secretary of the Treasury in 1841, serving under Presidents William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. He resigned on September 11, 1841, along with the entire cabinet (except Secretary of State Daniel Webster), in protest of Tyler's veto of the third Bank of the United States^{[disambiguation needed ]}.

Ewing was later appointed to serve as the first Secretary of the Interior by President Zachary Taylor. Ewing served in the position from March 8, 1849–July 22, 1850 under Taylor and Millard Fillmore. As first secretary, he consolidated bureaus from various Departments, such as the Land Office from the Treasury Department and the Indian Bureau from the War Department. The bureaus were being kicked out of their offices as unwanted tenants in their former departments. However, the Interior Department had no office space, so Ewing rented space. Later, the Patent Office building, with a new east wing, provided permanent space in 1852. Ewing initiated the Interior Department's culture of corruption by wholesale replacement of officials with political patronage. Newspapers called him "Butcher Ewing" for his efforts.

In 1850 Ewing was appointed to the Senate to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Thomas Corwin, and served from July 20, 1850 - March 3, 1851. Ewing was unsuccessful in seeking re-election in 1851. In 1861, Ewing served as one of Ohio's delegates to the peace conference held in Washington in hopes of staving off civil war. After the war, Ewing was appointed by President Andrew Johnson to a third post as Secretary of War in 1868 following the firing of Edwin M. Stanton but the Senate, still outraged at Johnson's firing of Stanton—which had provoked Johnson's impeachment—refused to act on the nomination.

Ewing married Maria Wills Boyle, a Roman Catholic, and raised their children in her faith. His foster son was the famous general William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman was given a Catholic baptism in their home, and it is often reported that he only acquired the Christian name "William" at that time and that previously he was known simply as "Tecumseh Sherman." However, there is reason to believe that Sherman was always named "William Tecumseh."^[1] Sherman eventually married Thomas Ewing Sr.'s daughter, Ellen Ewing Sherman. Ewing's namesake son, Thomas Ewing, Jr., was an American Civil War Union army general and two-term U.S. Congressman from Ohio. Two of Ewing's other sons – Hugh Boyle Ewing and Charles Ewing (General) – also became generals in the Union army during the Civil War.

Ewing was born a Presbyterian, but for many years attended Catholic services with his family. He was formally baptized into the Catholic faith during his last illness.^[2]

Prior to his death in 1871, Ewing had been the last surviving member of the Harrison and Tyler Cabinets. Future President and Governor of Ohio Rutherford B. Hayes was a pallbearer at his funeral.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Memorial of Thomas Ewing, of Ohio (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1873), compiled by his daughter, Ellen Ewing Sherman.
• Lewis, Lloyd, Sherman: Fighting Prophet (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1932)
• Miller, Paul I., "Thomas Ewing, Last of the Whigs," Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1933.

External links[link]

• Thomas Ewing at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Thomas Ewing at Find A Grave
• Ewing Family History Pages
  • Biography
• Catholic Encyclopedia information

v t e United States Senators from Ohio Class 1 Smith Meigs Worthington Kerr Ruggles Morris Tappan Corwin Ewing Wade Thurman Sherman Hanna Dick Pomerene Fess Donahey H. Burton Huffman K. Taft Bricker Young R. Taft, Jr. Metzenbaum DeWine S. Brown Class 3 Worthington Tiffin Griswold Campbell Morrow Trimble E. Brown Harrison Burnet Ewing Allen Chase Pugh Chase Sherman Matthews Pendleton Payne Brice Foraker T. Burton Harding Willis Locher T. Burton McCulloch Bulkley R. Taft, Sr. Burke Bender Lausche Saxbe Metzenbaum Glenn Voinovich Portman

v t e United States Secretaries of the Treasury Hamilton Wolcott Dexter Gallatin Campbell Dallas Crawford Rush Ingham McLane Duane Taney Woodbury Ewing Forward Spencer Bibb Walker Meredith Corwin Guthrie Cobb Thomas Dix Chase Fessenden McCulloch Boutwell Richardson Bristow Morrill Sherman Windom Folger Gresham McCulloch Manning Fairchild Windom Foster Carlisle Gage Shaw Cortelyou MacVeagh McAdoo Glass Houston Mellon Mills Woodin Morgenthau Vinson Snyder Humphrey Anderson Dillon Fowler Barr Kennedy Connally Shultz Simon Blumenthal Miller Regan Baker Brady Bentsen Rubin Summers O'Neill Snow Paulson Geithner

v t e United States Secretaries of the Interior Ewing McKennan Stuart McClelland Thompson C Smith Usher Harlan Browning Cox Delano Chandler Schurz Kirkwood Teller Lamar Vilas Noble M Smith Francis Bliss Hitchcock Garfield Ballinger Fisher Lane Payne Fall Work West Wilbur Ickes Krug Chapman McKay Seaton Udall Hickel Morton Hathaway Kleppe Andrus Watt Clark Hodel Lujan Babbitt Norton Kempthorne Salazar

v t e Cabinet of President William Henry Harrison (1841) Vice President John Tyler (1841) Secretary of State Daniel Webster (1841) Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Ewing (1841) Secretary of War John Bell (1841) Attorney General John J. Crittenden (1841) Postmaster General Francis Granger (1841) Secretary of the Navy George Edmund Badger (1841)

v t e Cabinet of President John Tyler (1841–1845) Vice President None (1841–1845) Secretary of State Daniel Webster (1841–1843) Abel P. Upshur (1843–1844) John C. Calhoun (1844–1845) Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Ewing (1841) Walter Forward (1841–1843) John C. Spencer (1843–1844) George M. Bibb (1844–1845) Secretary of War John Bell (1841) John C. Spencer (1841–1843) James M. Porter (1843–1844) William Wilkins (1844–1845) Attorney General John J. Crittenden (1841) Hugh S. Legaré (1841–1843) John Nelson (1843–1845) Postmaster General Francis Granger (1841) Charles A. Wickliffe (1841–1845) Secretary of the Navy George E. Badger (1841) Abel P. Upshur (1841–1843) David Henshaw (1843–1844) Thomas W. Gilmer (1844) John Y. Mason (1844–1845)

v t e Cabinet of President Zachary Taylor (1849–1850) Vice President Millard Fillmore (1849–1850) Secretary of State John M. Clayton (1849–1850) Secretary of the Treasury William M. Meredith (1849–1850) Secretary of War George W. Crawford (1849–1850) Attorney General Reverdy Johnson (1849–1850) Postmaster General Jacob Collamer (1849–1850) Secretary of the Navy William B. Preston (1849–1850) Secretary of the Interior Thomas Ewing (1849–1850)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2010)

Ryan Thomas
Born	(1984-06-10) 10 June 1984 (age 28) Manchester, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2000–present
Partner	Tina O'Brien (2003–09)

Ryan James Thomas (born 10 June 1984 in Manchester) and is an English actor who is currently starring as the character, Jason Grimshaw on ITV's Coronation Street.

Career[link]

Ryan has been nominated for various "Sexiest Male"-type awards. He also won the award for Rear of the Year in 2008.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Ryan attended Wentworth High School in Eccles, Salford. He has two brothers who are twins. One of whom is Adam Thomas, who played Donte Charles in BBC drama, Waterloo Road and is now playing Adam Barton in the ITV soap Emmerdale. His daughter Scarlett Jacqueline Thomas was born on 26 October 2008 to his then girlfriend Tina O'Brien.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ryan Thomas at the Internet Movie Database
• Ryan Thomas's Corrie profile at What's on TV

This article about an English actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

The Right Honourable Sir Thomas More
Lord Chancellor
In office October 1529 – May 1532
Preceded by	Thomas Wolsey
Succeeded by	Thomas Audley
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 31 December 1525 – 3 November 1529
Preceded by	Richard Wingfield
Succeeded by	William FitzWilliam
Speaker of the House of Commons
In office 16 April 1523 – 13 August 1523
Preceded by	Thomas Neville
Succeeded by	Thomas Audley
Personal details
Born	7 February 1478 City of London, London Kingdom of England
Died	6 July 1535(1535-07-06) (aged 57) Tower Hill, Liberties of the Tower of London, Tower Hamlets Kingdom of England
Signature

Sir Thomas More ( /ˈmɔr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More since 1935,^[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and was Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.^[3] He is commemorated by the Church of England as a "Reformation martyr".^[4] He was an opponent of the Protestant Reformation and in particular of Martin Luther and William Tyndale.

More coined the word "utopia" – a name he gave to the ideal and imaginary island nation, the political system of which he described in Utopia published in 1516. He opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church and refused to accept the King as Supreme Head of the Church of England, a title which had been given by parliament through the Act of Supremacy of 1534. He was imprisoned in 1534 for his refusal to take the oath required by the First Succession Act, because the act disparaged papal power and Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In 1535, he was tried for treason, convicted on perjured testimony and beheaded.

Intellectuals and statesmen across Europe were stunned by More's execution. Erasmus saluted him as one "whose soul was more pure than any snow, whose genius was such that England never had and never again will have its like".^[5] Two centuries later Jonathan Swift said he was "the person of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced" (Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, v. 13, Oxford UP, 1959, p. 123), a sentiment with which Samuel Johnson agreed. Historian Hugh Trevor-Roper said in 1977 that More was "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of humanists, the most human of saints, the universal man of our cool northern renaissance."^[6]

Early life[link]

Born in Milk Street in London on 7 February 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,^[7] a successful lawyer, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, considered one of the finest schools in London at that time. He later spent the years 1490 to 1492 as a page in the household service of John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England.^[8]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" of the Renaissance, and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More showed great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at Oxford University (either in St. Mary's Hall (Oriel) or Canterbury College), where More began his studies in 1492.^[9]:38 More may have lived and studied at nearby St. Mary’s Hall. Both Canterbury College and St Mary’s Hall have since disappeared; part of Christ Church College is on the site of Canterbury, and part of Oriel College is on the site of St Mary’s. More received a classical education at Oxford and was a pupil of Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, becoming proficient in both Greek and Latin. He left Oxford in 1494 – after only two years – at the insistence of his father, to begin his legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.^[8]:xvii[10] In 1496, he became a student at Lincoln’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the bar.^[8]:xvii

According to his friend, the theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.^[11] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired the piety of the monks, he ultimately decided on the life of a layman upon his marriage and election to Parliament in 1504.^[8]:xxi In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued to observe certain ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.^[8]:xxi

Family life[link]

More married Jane Colt in 1505.^[9]:118 She was nearly ten years his junior and was said by More's friends to be quiet and good-natured.^[9]:119 Erasmus reported that More had taken an interest early on in giving his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and became a personal tutor to her in the areas of music and literature.^[9]:119 More had four children with Jane: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.^[9]:132 When Jane died in 1511, More remarried almost immediately, choosing as his second wife a rich widow named Alice Middleton. Alice More did not enjoy the reputation for docility that her predecessor had and was instead known as a strong and outspoken woman. More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy", although Erasmus attested that the marriage was a happy one.^[9]:144 More and Alice did not have children together, although More raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More became the guardian of a young girl named Anne Cresacre, who would eventually marry his son, John More.^[9]:146 More was an affectionate father who wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.^{[9]:150[12]:xiv}

More took a serious interest in the education of women, an attitude that was highly unusual at the time. Believing women to be just as capable of academic accomplishment as men, More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education given to his son.^[9]:146–47 The academic star of the family was More's eldest daughter Margaret, who attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.^[9]:147 More recounted a moment of such admiration in a letter to Margaret in September 1522, when the Bishop of Exeter was shown a letter written by Margaret to More:

When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly... he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms... for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin]... to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.^[12]:152

The success More enjoyed in educating his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable towards the idea once he witnessed the accomplishments of More's daughters.^[9]:149

Early political career[link]

Study for a portrait of Thomas More's family, c. 1527, by Hans Holbein the Younger

In 1504 he was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth and in 1510 to represent London.^[13]

From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,^[14] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Councillor, a member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.^[15] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.^[15]

As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential in the government, welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and his Lord Chancellor: Thomas Wolsey, the Cardinal Archbishop of York.

In 1523 he was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, recommended by Wolsey, was elected the Speaker of the House of Commons.^[15]

He later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1525 he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a position that entailed administrative and judicial control of much of northern England.^[15]

Scholarly and literary work[link]

Woodcut by Ambrosius Holbein for a 1518 edition of Utopia. The traveller Raphael Hythlodeaus is depicted in the lower left-hand corner describing to a listener the island of Utopia, whose layout is schematically shown above him.

Between 1512 and 1519, Thomas More worked on a History of King Richard III, which was never finished, but which greatly influenced William Shakespeare's play Richard III. Both More's and Shakespeare's works are controversial to contemporary historians for their unflattering portrait of King Richard III, a bias partly due to both authors' allegiance to the reigning Tudor dynasty that wrested the throne from Richard III in the Wars of the Roses. More's work, however, little mentions King Henry VII, the first Tudor king, perhaps for having persecuted his father, Sir John More. Some historians see an attack on royal tyranny, rather than on Richard III himself or on the House of York.

The History of King Richard III is a Renaissance history, remarkable more for its literary skill and adherence to classical precepts than for its historical accuracy. More's work, and that of contemporary historian Polydore Vergil, reflects a move from mundane medieval chronicles to a dramatic writing style; for example, the shadowy King Richard is an outstanding, archetypal tyrant drawn from the pages of Sallust, and should be read as a meditation on power and corruption as well as a history of the reign of Richard III. The 'History of King Richard III was written and published in both English and Latin, each written separately, and with information deleted from the Latin edition to suit a European readership.

[edit] Utopia

More sketched out his best known and most controversial work, Utopia (completed and published in 1516), a novel in Latin. In it a traveller, Raphael Hythlodeaus (in Greek, his name and surname allude to archangel Raphael, purveyor of truth, and mean "speaker of nonsense"), describes the political arrangements of the imaginary island country of Utopia (Greek pun on ou-topos [no place], eu-topos [good place]) to himself and to Pieter Gillis. This novel describes the city of Amaurote by saying, "Of them all this is the worthiest and of most dignity".

Utopia contrasts the contentious social life of European states with the perfectly orderly, reasonable social arrangements of Utopia and its environs (Tallstoria, Nolandia, and Aircastle). In Utopia, with communal ownership of land, private property does not exist, men and women are educated alike, and there is almost complete religious toleration. Some take the novel's principal message to be the social need for order and discipline rather than liberty. The country of Utopia tolerates different religious practices but does not tolerate atheists. Hythlodeaus theorises that if a man did not believe in a god or in an afterlife he could never be trusted, because he would not acknowledge any authority or principle outside himself.

More used the novel describing an imaginary nation as a means of freely discussing contemporary controversial matters; speculatively, he based Utopia on monastic communalism, based upon the biblical communalism in the Acts of the Apostles.

Utopia is a forerunner of the utopian literary genre, wherein ideal societies and perfect cities are detailed. Although Utopianism is typically a Renaissance movement, combining the classical concepts of perfect societies of Plato and Aristotle with Roman rhetorical finesse (cf. Cicero, Quintilian, epideictic oratory), it continued into the Enlightenment. Utopia's original edition included the symmetrical "Utopian alphabet" that was omitted from later editions; it is a notable, early attempt at cryptography that might have influenced the development of shorthand.

Utopia ironically points out, through Raphael, More's ultimate conflict between his beliefs as a humanist and a servant of the King at court. More tries to illustrate how he can try to influence courtly figures including the King to the humanist way of thinking but, as Raphael points out, one day they will come into conflict with the political reality.

Religious polemics[link]

In 1520 the reformer Martin Luther published three works in quick succession: An Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (Aug.), Concerning the Babylonish Captivity of the Church (Oct.), and On the Liberty of a Christian Man (Nov.).^[9]:225 In these works Luther set out his doctrine of salvation through grace alone, rejected certain Catholic practices, and attacked the abuses and excesses of the Catholic Church.^[9]:225–6 In 1521, Henry VIII responded to Luther’s criticisms with a work known as the Assertio, written with the editorial assistance of More. In light of this work, Pope Leo X rewarded Henry VIII with the title Fidei defensor (“Defender of the Faith”) for his efforts in combating Luther’s heresies.^[9]:226–7

Martin Luther then attacked Henry VIII in print, calling him a “pig, dolt, and liar”.^[9]:227 At the request of Henry VIII, More set about composing a rebuttal: the resulting Responsio ad Lutherum was published at the end of 1523. In the Responsio, More defended the supremacy of the papacy, the sacraments, and other church traditions. More’s language, like Luther’s, was virulent, and he branded Luther an “ape”, a “drunkard”, and a “lousy little friar” amongst other insults.^[9]:230 While writing under the pseudonym of Rosseus, More mirrors Luther's own unscholarly use of language. At one point More offers to:

"throw back into your paternity's shitty mouth, truly the shit-pool of all shit, all the muck and shit which your damnable rottenness has vomited up".^[16]

This confrontation with Luther confirmed More’s theological conservatism, and from then on his work was devoid of all hints of criticism of Church authority.^[9]:230 In 1528, More produced another religious polemic, A Dialogue Concerning Heresies that asserted that the Catholic Church was the one true church, whose authority had been established by Christ and the Apostles, and that its traditions and practices were valid.^[9]:279–81 In 1529, the circulation of Simon Fish’s Supplication for the Beggars provoked a response from More entitled, The Supplication of Souls.

In 1531, William Tyndale published An Answer unto Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue in response to More’s Dialogue Concerning Heresies. After having read Tyndale’s work, More wrote his half-a-million-word-long Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer over the next several months. The Confutation is written as a dialogue between More and Tyndale in which More responds to each of Tyndale’s criticisms of Catholic rites and doctrines.^[9]:307–9 These literary battles convinced More, who valued structure, tradition, and order in society above all else, that Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation in general were dangerous, not only to the Catholic faith but to the stability of society as a whole.^[9]:307–9

Correspondence[link]

Most major humanists were prolific letter writers, and Thomas More was no exception. However, as in the case of his friend Erasmus of Rotterdam, only a small portion of his correspondence (about 280 letters), survived. These letters include everything from personal letters to official government correspondence (mostly in English), letters to fellow humanist scholars (in Latin), including several epistolary tracts, verse epistles, prefatory letters (some fictional) to several of More's own works, letters to his children and their tutors (in Latin), and the so-called "prison-letters" (in English) which he exchanged with his oldest daughter, Margaret Roper while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London awaiting execution.^[17]

More wrote about the more spiritual aspects of religion. This is how he wrote A Treatise on the Passion (Treatise on the Passion of Christ), A Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body (Holy Body Treaty), and De Tristitia Christi (The Agony of Christ), which reads his own hand in the Tower of London at the time he was confined before his beheading on 6 July 1535. This last manuscript, saved from the confiscation decreed by Henry VIII, passed by the will of his daughter Margaret to Spanish hands and through Fray Pedro de Soto, confessor of Emperor Charles V, went to Valencia, home of Luis Vives, a close friend of More. It is now kept in the collection of Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi Museum in Valencia, Spain.

Chancellorship[link]

After Wolsey fell, More succeeded to the office of Chancellor in 1529. He dispatched cases with unprecedented rapidity. Fully devoted to Henry and the royal prerogative, More initially co-operated with the King's new policy, denouncing Wolsey in Parliament and joining the opinion of the theologians at Oxford and Cambridge that the marriage of Henry to Catherine had been unlawful. But as Henry began to deny papal authority, More's qualms grew.