Look at sources C, D, E, F and G. How far do you agree with the statement that Henry was Wolsey’s puppet?
From the sources C, D,E,F, and G I can create a judgement about whether or not Henry was Wolsey’s puppet or not. Firstly source C agrees with the statement. Source C is an extract from a textbook written in 1955 to educate the reader, this tells me that is a reliable source. The first point that I can learn from this source is that Wolsey was in charge of Henry VIII. It describes Wolsey as the ‘Kings chief minister’ and that ‘he was virtually the only one’. This suggests that Wolsey had control and was trusted by Henry and therefore another respectable minister was not needed. The phrase ‘the only one’ implies that Wolsey was in charge, because there was no need for any other advisors to work with him, giving the impression that he had control of the king and of his role. I can infer that the fact he was the ‘only one’ shows that he had control of Henry’s decisions to not employ any other advisors or ministers to help him. I know from my own knowledge that henry was looking for someone young and new after many of the old ministers left and Wolsey being an opportunist snapped up the job and saw a prime opportunity to gain control once in the role. He was so respected and trusted by the king, that he had no need for any other advisors because he trusted everything that Wolsey said, showing how he was the puppet and Wolsey the master. In comparison to source c, source e disagrees with the statement. Source e was also an extract from a book but was written in 1554. In the source I learnt that it was in fact Henry that was the puppet master and not Wolsey. The source states ‘Wolsey was an opportunist. He was able to adapt his views and ideas to fit those of the king’. This tells me that Wolsey was in fact being influenced by the kings decisions