biography
| name: |
Audley (of Walden), Thomas Audley, Baron
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pronunciation:
[awdlee]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1488–1544)
|
| biography:
| English courtier and jurist, born in Earls Colne, Essex, SE England, UK. He studied law at the Middle Temple, London, became attorney for the Duchy of Lancaster (1530), and king's serjeant (1531). Active in furthering Henry VIII's designs, he profited abundantly by ecclesiastical confiscations. In 1529 he was appointed Speaker of the House of Commons and in 1532 became Lord Chancellor. He was the founder of Magdalen College, Cambridge, and created a baron in 1538. Audley presided at the trial in 1535 of Sir Thomas More, who was subsequently executed for refusing to repudiate papal supremacy in England. He sanctioned Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragón (1533) and in 1540 carried through parliament an act for the dissolution of the king's marriage with Anne of Cleves. In 1542 his bill attainting Catherine Howard of infidelity to the king was passed by parliament, leading to her execution six days later. |
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