‘Newes’, wrote Thomas Cromwell to John Creke on 17 August 1523, ‘refresshith the spy[rit] of lyffe’. His letter followed hard upon the dissolution four days earlier of the only parliament summoned during Wolsey's chancellorship.

That this parliament was acrimonious thanks to Wolsey's heavy-handedness is uncontroversial. The cardinal soured the atmosphere from the start by demanding supply of £800,000 on top of the £204,424 he collected from the laity by means of ‘loans’ in 1522–3.3 When the commons mustered, Wolsey blustered. He retorted ‘that he would rather have his tongue, plucked out of his hedde with a paire of pinsons, then to move the kyng, to take any lesse some’; he tried to overawe M.P.s but met ‘a marvellous obstinate silence’; he lied that the lords had offered the requisite taxation; he reneged on his promise of 1522 that the ‘loans’ would be repaid out of the proceeds of the next parliamentary subsidy. Yet what proportion of the parliament was taken up by the subsidy negotiations? Did Wolsey have intentions besides taxation in 1523 that, in the event, he was unable to pursue?