Serving God and King: Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's patronage networks and early Tudor government, 1514-1529, with special reference to the Archdiocese of York.

During the years of his political ascendancy, 1513 to 1529, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey constructed a service-based affinity composed of senior ecclesiastical officials and the most prominent county gentlemen and lawyers with the intention of establishing a kingdom-wide network of administrators to govern the provinces on the crown's behalf Assembled by the leading crown minister, this affinity was an integral part of the greater royal affinity, assisting in the establishment of a more centralised government under increased crown authority and a domestic church increasingly subservient to the power of the monarch, foreshadowing the religious and political events of the 1530s.