The Life And Career Of Thomas More

Sir Thomas More was born on February 7th, 1478 and died July 6th, 1535. During his lifetime More took a revolutionary step by being the first Lord Chancellor to defy the King and claim freedom against the state. Thomas More began his career by attending law school at Oxford University. In all aspects of his life God was at the center of it. He first began his career as an undersheriff in 1510.

Thomas More was 41 when he finally accepted the invitations to join King Henry’s service. He could have done so earlier, but he knew that his young and growing family would need him most in those early years. Thomas’s father, however, had begun preparing his talented son for a life of statesmanship far earlier than young Thomas ever imagined. After sending him to the best grammar school in London, St. Anthony’s on Threadneedle Street, John More apprenticed Thomas More to no one less than Lord Chancellor and Archbishop John Morton at Lambeth Palace. There, waiting on tables and learning what a courtier must know, Thomas More witnessed the ways and dealings of the greatest leaders of England, More would “suddenly sometimes step in among the players and, never studying for the matter, make a part of his own there presently among them which made the lookers-on more sport than all the players beside.” Such “wit and forwardness” led Morton to send Thomas to Oxford to study at his own Canterbury Hall. Young Thomas More had studied at Oxford for two years when John More decided that his son should return to London to complete his education at the inns of court, where Thomas would study a wider range of subjects needed for his success later in life. Studies at New Inn prepared him for entry to Lincoln’s Inn, where he actively participated as a student, then lecturer, and then officer until the end of his life. Even while he was Lord Chancellor, for example, More was called upon to assist the Master of Revels in the Inn’s celebrations, and he continued to participate in its professional and social events.

Though born for friendship, More was not naive. He learned early on that everyone, but especially persons in positions of authority, must test the characters of those with whom they work. More observed the way that Lord Chancellor and Archbishop Morton did this, but More chose a different approach. He chose to use irony instead of Morton’s “rough address” – a lighter and more artful approach that he learned from the classical authors and from the Bible. So effective was More’s use of irony that his own family often did not know when he was joking or serious. And so courageous was he in using irony that he did not hesitate to use it to appeal to the conscience of either cardinal or king.

He took on greater responsibilities in governing Lincoln's Inn, and he was elected to the prestigious Doctors' Commons. He also represented the city's business interests in foreign embassies, and still found time to write and to correspond with Europe's leading intellectuals. In 1518 More joined Henry VIII's service, with reluctance and well aware of the serious risks involved. Besides the dangers and the substantial loss of income, this career change meant he would have less time for his family and for his own study and writing; it also meant he would be a subject of the king rather than a free citizen of London. Yet, “in the interests of Christendom,” More took on what he saw as his civic duty. The year 1518 held new and important opportunities. In that year, both Henry and Wolsey decided to pursue a path of peace instead of war, and both seemed open to much needed reforms in church and state. Nevertheless, before joining Henry's service, More spoke with Henry about matters of conscience. As More reported this conversation, King Henry “graciously declared unto me that he would in no way have me do anything except what I should perceive would serve my own conscience, and that I should first look unto God and after God unto him.” This, More recalled, was the “first lesson...that ever his Grace gave me at my first coming into his service,” and More considered it “the most virtuous lesson that ever prince taught his servant.” Once engaged in the King's court, More rose rapidly in responsibilities and duties. He soon became Henry's private secretary and close advisor. Henry knighted him already in 1521 in 6 recognition of his wide range of services. The confidence of both King and Commons was shown when More became Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523, an important session in the history of British liberties. In 1525 Henry gave Sir Thomas full responsibility for his extensive and lucrative Duchy of Lancaster. As Chancellor of this duchy, More assumed the full scope of administrative and judicial duties of a political ruler. Nonetheless, in 1526, More was given even greater responsibilities when Henry appointed him to his Royal Council's subcommittee of four, the four who oversaw all the major concerns of the realm, excluding matters of war. And yet so strongly was More concerned with peace that he also served as a peace ambassador to France during those years. These peace efforts came to fruition in the Peace of Cambrai in the summer of 1529.

At the beginning of his career, More was well aware of “kings’ games...played upon scaffolds” and the ever-present dangers of a courtier’s life. Even at the height of his favor with King Henry, More made the telling comment that “if my head could win [King Henry] a castle in France...it should not fail to go.” In the poems of his youth, More wrote about the dangers of unchecked kingly power: “A king in his first year is always very mild indeed.... Over a long time a greedy king will gnaw away at this people.... It is a mistake to believe that a greedy king can be satisfied; such a leech never leaves flesh until it is drained.' The barb of the ending is typical of More’s vivid and incisive approach as a youth. As this example shows, the younger More wrote with less tact than the older and practiced statesman who lived in dangerous political conditions. In his early political writings, More regularly used the word “citizen” instead of “subject,” and he pointed out the dangers associated with monarchy. Chief among these was flattery. As he later warned Cromwell: Tell the king 'what he ought to do, but never what he is able to do. So shall you show yourself a true faithful servant and a right worthy Councillor. For if a lion knew his own strength, it would be hard for any man to rule him.” As this statement implies, More was also aware of the dangers of one person possessing unlimited power. Indeed, More’s coronation ode to King Henry warned that “unlimited power has a tendency to weaken good minds, and even in the case of the very gifted.” In contrast, Henry's example of the model king was the chivalric warrior Henry V, the historic figure that seemed to dominate Henry VIII’s imagination of himself as a ruler. This led the new King Henry to plan war with France almost immediately and, against the counsel of his advisors, to lead the troops himself – thus needlessly endangering his life and thus the stability of the English nation. This pursuit of glory through military conquest was in opposition to More’s pursuit of a worldwide peace.

Contrary to the impression given by Robert Bolt's artful A Man for All Seasons, scholars have now clearly shown that Thomas More did not remain silent or passive at the end of his life. Instead, More waged one of the most active and (until suppressed) effective writing campaigns of all times. This campaign was so effective in countering what More saw as the unjust manipulation of England’s most fundamental laws and institutions that Henry VIII and Cromwell used the full force of their leading positions to execute London's most popular citizen and one of Europe’s most respected scholars. 

Up to the last moment of his life, More used discrete but effective means of appealing to the conscience of his king and his country. He did this not only at the cost of his own health and safety but at the cost of his family's material welfare. This he did, convinced that the very principle of just and legitimate government of both church and state was at stake. Although More seemed to end his life as a political failure, history now praises his revolutionary success – a success that helped end a politics of unchecked power and that helped advance a politics of democratic self-rule. As British historian John Guy recently wrote, “For a former Lord Chancellor to defy the King and claim freedom of conscience against the state was a revolutionary step by the standards of the sixteenth century. More stood at the crossroads of history.”