Rule of law vs. tyranny: did Thomas More and Archbishop Warham fail on May 13–16, 1532?

This article invites continued reassessment of who succeeded and who failed in the confrontation between Henry VIII and the leading lawyers of Church and State—along with a reassessment of what standard of “success” historians have chosen. In a narrative review of events from 1532 to 1535, this article argues that Lord Chancellor More and Archbishop Warham opposed Henry’s illegal actions, doing all they could within the law to oppose them. Warham’s final defiance resulted in an uncompromising defense of English law that invoked his predecessor Thomas Becket twenty-eight times—continuing the refusal to cooperate which he articulated in the House of Lords on March 15, 1532, and which he had formulated in an official act dated and witnessed on February 24, 1532. More also, this article argues, spent his last years in a campaign to defend England’s oldest and most venerable laws. More’s writings and actions were so successful that the Parliament of spring 1532 supported him in voting against Henry’s and Cromwell’s plan. This article then reviews how Henry and Cromwell prevailed, but raises the question: At what price? The price, as More saw it—this article argues—was tyranny over the rule of law and parliamentary self-government.