Born in
DorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town has been Dorchester since at least 1305, situated in the south of the county at . Between its extreme points Dorset measures from east to west and north to south, and has an area of...
, he was educated at
Balliol College, OxfordBalliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.Traditionally, the undergraduates are amongst the most politically active in the university, and the college's alumni include three former prime ministers. H. H...
. In February of 1477, he was sent by the Yorkist King Edward IV, together with
Sir John DonneSir John Donne was a Welsh courtier, diplomat and soldier, a notable figure of the Yorkist party. In the 1470s he commissioned The Donne Triptych, an altarpiece by Hans Memling now in the National Gallery, London. It contains portraits of him, his wife Elizabeth and a daughter...
, as ambassador to the French court. Edward appointed him
Bishop of ElyThe Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...
on 8 August 1479 and he was consecrated on 31 January 1479. After the dynastic change to the
TudorThe House of Tudor was a prominent European royal house that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch Henry Tudor, descended paternally from the rulers of the Welsh principality of Deheubarth, and maternally from a legitimised branch of the English royal...
s in 1485,
Henry VIIHenry VII was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty.Henry was successful in restoring the power and stability of the English monarchy after the political upheavals of the Wars...
, made him
Archbishop of CanterburyAlso see Leaders of ChristianityThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the see that churches must be in communion with in order to be...
the following year 1486 on October 6. and appointed him
Lord ChancellorThe Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
of England in 1487. Morton was by then an important foe of the preceding Yorkist regime of
King Richard IIIRichard III was King of England from 1483 until his death. He was the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field was the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, and is sometimes regarded as the end of the Middle Ages in England...
.
Life
Born in
DorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town has been Dorchester since at least 1305, situated in the south of the county at . Between its extreme points Dorset measures from east to west and north to south, and has an area of...
, he was educated at
Balliol College, OxfordBalliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.Traditionally, the undergraduates are amongst the most politically active in the university, and the college's alumni include three former prime ministers. H. H...
. In February of 1477, he was sent by the Yorkist King Edward IV, together with
Sir John DonneSir John Donne was a Welsh courtier, diplomat and soldier, a notable figure of the Yorkist party. In the 1470s he commissioned The Donne Triptych, an altarpiece by Hans Memling now in the National Gallery, London. It contains portraits of him, his wife Elizabeth and a daughter...
, as ambassador to the French court. Edward appointed him
Bishop of ElyThe Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...
on 8 August 1479 and he was consecrated on 31 January 1479. After the dynastic change to the
TudorThe House of Tudor was a prominent European royal house that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch Henry Tudor, descended paternally from the rulers of the Welsh principality of Deheubarth, and maternally from a legitimised branch of the English royal...
s in 1485,
Henry VIIHenry VII was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty.Henry was successful in restoring the power and stability of the English monarchy after the political upheavals of the Wars...
, made him
Archbishop of CanterburyAlso see Leaders of ChristianityThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the see that churches must be in communion with in order to be...
the following year 1486 on October 6. and appointed him
Lord ChancellorThe Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
of England in 1487. Morton was by then an important foe of the preceding Yorkist regime of
King Richard IIIRichard III was King of England from 1483 until his death. He was the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field was the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, and is sometimes regarded as the end of the Middle Ages in England...
. In 1493 he was appointed
titularIn Roman Catholicism, a titular can be:*the cardinal who holds a titulus, one of the main churches of Rome. Such holders were initially by tradition native-born Romans . The first church in Rome to have a non-Italian titular was Santi Quattro Coronati: Dietrich of Trier was appointed titular in...
CardinalA cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually a bishop, of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and making themselves available...
of the
church of St. AnastasiaSanta Anastasia is a basilica church in Rome.Santa Anastasia was built in the late 3rd century - early 4th century, possibly by a Roman woman named Anastasia. The church is listed under the titulus Anastasiae in the acts of the 499 synod...
in Rome by
PopeThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
Alexander VI. He built the "Old Palace" of
Hatfield HouseHatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house was built in 1611 by Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salisbury and Chief Minister to King James I and has been the home of the Cecil...
where Queen
Elizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
spent much of her girlhood.
As Lord Chancellor, Morton was tasked with restoring the royal estate, depleted by Edward IV; by the end of Henry VII's reign, his frugality and Morton's tax policy, carried out by
Edmund DudleySir Edmund Dudley , minister of Henry VII of England, was a grandson of John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley.After studying at Oxford and at Gray's Inn, Dudley came under the notice of Henry VII, and is said to have been made a privy councillor at the early age of twenty-three...
and
Richard EmpsonSir Richard Empson , minister of Henry VII, king of England, was a son of Peter Empson, an influential inhabitant of Towcester....
, had replenished the treasury. Morton gave a statement later known as '
Morton's ForkA Morton's Fork is a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives , or two lines of reasoning that lead to the same unpleasant conclusion...
', for the fact that no one was exempt from its two distinctions: "If the subject is seen to live frugally, tell him because he is clearly a money saver of great ability he can afford to give generously to the King. If, however, the subject lives a life of great extravagance, tell him he, too, can afford to give largely, the proof of his opulence being evident in his expenditure."
He died at
Knole HouseKnole is an English stately home in the town of Sevenoaks in west Kent, surrounded by a deer park. It is remarkable in England for the degree to which the early 17th-century appearance of its state rooms is preserved: the interiors of many houses of this period were altered later on...
,
KentKent , originally Cantia, is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent...
, on 15 September 1500. His monument was placed in the south-east part of Canterbury Cathedral's crypt, with an effigy and an arch decorated with angels, cardinal's caps, and
tunTun may refer to:* Tun , an antiquated British measurement of liquid volume, especially wine casks* Tun shells, large sea snails of the family Tonnidae* Tun, a tardigrade in its cryptobiotic state* Lauter tun, a vessel used in brewing...
barrels inscribed with MOR (a pun on his name, Mor-ton). However, this monument is a
cenotaphA cenotaph is a tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάϕιον...
since his actual body was buried in the crypt's central chapel of the Virgin Mary, according to his wishes.
Morton, More, and the history of Richard III
The young
Thomas MoreSir Thomas More , also known as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, scholar, author, and statesman....
served as a page in Morton's house. Morton was a mentor of Sir
Thomas MoreSir Thomas More , also known as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, scholar, author, and statesman....
, who acted in revels at Morton's court at Knole House, the archiepiscopal palace, and mentioned him in his work
UtopiaUtopia is a 1516 book by Thomas More...
. Although most scholars accredit More with the style of
History of King Richard III; they are divided on the issue of the original authorship. Morton is believed by many to be the originator of the account that More rewrote. Modern day
enthusiasts of King Richard IIIRicardian is a term used to describe a person who is interested in rehabilitating the posthumous reputation of Richard III, King of England , seeking to alter the image of Richard which has been popularised by various writers and historians - most famously by the playwright William Shakespeare, who...
thereby accuse Morton of concocting the account of Richard's murder of Edward V and his brother
Richard, Duke of YorkRichard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York and 1st Duke of Norfolk was the sixth child and second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. He was born in Shrewsbury....
and other crimes attributed to Richard III.
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