Thomas Wolsey in the context of "Mary Tudor, Queen of France"

The Second Statute of Repeal (1 & 2 Ph. & M. c. 8) or the See of Rome Act 1554, was an act of the Parliament of England passed in the Parliament of Queen Mary I and King Philip in 1555, followed the First Statute of Repeal (1 Mar. Sess. 2. c. 2) of 1553. The first statute had abolished all religious legislation passed under Edward VI and the second statute built on it by abolishing all religious legislation passed against the papacy from 1529 (the fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey) in Henry VIII's reign. It was supported by the landed classes as it allowed them to keep the monastic land which they had acquired after the dissolution of the monasteries.

Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was a dominant and forceful monarch. He is also known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated by the pope.

Born in Greenwich, Henry brought radical changes to the Constitution of England, expanding royal power and ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings in opposition to papal supremacy. He frequently used charges of treason and heresy to quell dissent, and those accused were often executed without a formal trial using bills of attainder. He achieved many of his political aims through his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and Thomas Cranmer all figured prominently in his administration.

Anne Boleyn (/ˈbʊlɪn, bʊˈlɪn/; c. 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn (later Earl of Wiltshire), and his wife, Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France. Anne returned to England in early 1522, to marry her cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; the marriage plans were broken off, and instead, she secured a post at court as maid of honour to Henry VIII's wife, Catherine of Aragon. Early in 1523, Anne was secretly betrothed to Henry Percy, son of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, but the betrothal was broken off when the Earl refused to support it. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey refused the match in January 1524.

Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, 12 miles (19 kilometres) southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames.

The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York and the chief minister of Henry VIII. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the cardinal gave the palace to the king to try to save his own life, which he knew was now in grave danger due to Henry VIII's deepening frustration and anger. The palace became one of Henry's most favoured residences; soon after acquiring it, he enlarged it to accommodate his sizeable retinue of courtiers.

Christ Church Cathedral is a cathedral of the Church of England in Oxford, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Oxford and the principal church of the diocese of Oxford. It is also the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford; this dual role is unique in the Church of England. It is administered by the dean of Christ Church, who is also the head of the college, and a governing body.

The first church on the site of the cathedral was a nunnery and parish church which was burnt during the St Brice's Day massacre in 1002; it was re-founded as a priory of Augustinian canons by 1122. The priory was suppressed in 1524 by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who intended to demolish the church in order to found a new college on the site. The cardinal fell from favour in 1529 and the project was taken over by Henry VIII, who preserved the church. When the diocese of Oxford was created in 1542 its cathedral was the former Osney Abbey, however it was supplanted by Christ Church in 1546.

A crown-cardinal (Italian: cardinale della corona) was a cardinal protector of a Catholic nation, nominated or funded by its monarch to serve as their representative within the College of Cardinals and, on occasion, to exercise the right claimed by some monarchs to veto a candidate for election to the papacy. More generally, the term may refer to any cardinal significant as a secular statesman or elevated at the request of a monarch.

Francis Burkle-Young defines a crown cardinal as one "elevated to the cardinalate solely on the recommendation of the European kings and in many cases without having performed any service at all for the advancement of the Church."