31 Facts About Stephen Gardiner

Stephen Gardiner was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip.

Stephen Gardiner's father could have been a John Gardiner, but could have been Wyllyam Gardiner, a substantial cloth merchant of the town where he was born, who took care to give him a good education.

Stephen Gardiner's mother was said to be Helen Tudor, an illegitimate daughter of Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford, but American research from 2011 suggests that this lady was the mother of a different cleric, Thomas Gardiner.

Stephen Gardiner had probably already begun his studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in the classics, especially in Greek.

Stephen Gardiner then devoted himself to canon and civil law, in which subjects he attained so great a proficiency that no one could dispute his pre-eminence.

Stephen Gardiner received the degree of doctor of civil law in 1520, and of canon law in the following year.

Stephen Gardiner undoubtedly acquired a knowledge of foreign politics in the service of Wolsey.

Stephen Gardiner's dispatched messages have survived, and illustrate the competence with which Gardiner performed his duties.

Stephen Gardiner was instructed to procure a decretal commission from the pope, which was intended to construct principles of law by which Wolsey might render a decision on the validity of the king's marriage without appeal.

The matter was instead referred to his cardinals, with whom Stephen Gardiner held long debates.

Stephen Gardiner urged Gardiner to press Clement VII further to deliver the desired decretal, even if it were only to be shown to the king and himself and then destroyed.

Stephen Gardiner was a conservative and an opponent of Anne Boleyn, Cranmer, Cromwell and of any innovation in the Church, although he acquiesced grudgingly in the steadily increasing influence of the Reformation on the royal counsels.

Stephen Gardiner was ambitious, sure of himself, irascible, astute, and worldly.

Stephen Gardiner had already been archdeacon of Taunton for several years.

Stephen Gardiner had, in fact, argued boldly with the king on some points, and Henry now reminded him of the fact.

Stephen Gardiner certainly believed in the semi-divinity of kings, and the divine majesty's right to rule as if the King's law was God's law.

Stephen Gardiner was employed to answer the pope's brief threatening to deprive Henry of his kingdom.

Stephen Gardiner was often so abroad, having little influence on the king's councils; but in 1539 he took part in the enactment of the Six Articles, which led to the resignation of Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Shaxton and the persecution of the Protestant party.

Stephen Gardiner had not approved of Henry's general treatment of the church, especially during the ascendancy of Cromwell.

In 1546 Stephen Gardiner was the significant person involved in a conservative plot to discredit Maud Lane who was Catherine Parr's cousin, Gentlewoman and confidante.

Great as Stephen Gardiner's influence had been with Henry VIII, his name was omitted from the king's will, though Henry was believed to have intended making him one of his executors.

Stephen Gardiner resisted the visitation of his Winchester diocese by the ecclesiastical authorities.

Stephen Gardiner's remonstrances resulted in imprisonment in the Fleet, and the visitation of his diocese was held during his incarceration.

Stephen Gardiner's bishopric was given to John Ponet, a chaplain of Cranmer's, translated from the bishopric of Rochester.

Stephen Gardiner was restored to his Bishopric and appointed Lord Chancellor, and he placed the crown on the Queen's head at her coronation.

Stephen Gardiner opened her first parliament and for some time was her leading councillor.

Stephen Gardiner plays an important part in Shakespeare and Fletcher's play Henry VIII.

Bishop Stephen Gardiner is a character in the Fifth Queen trilogy by Ford Madox Ford.

Stephen Gardiner is a major character in The Path to Somerset by Janet Wertman, which centers on his rivalry with the rising Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset.

Stephen Gardiner is a prominent character in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light, where he appears as an implacable opponent of Thomas Cromwell.

Stephen Gardiner is the villain in Alison MacLeod's 1965 historical novel The Heretic, a biography of the Protestant martyr Anne Askew, of whose execution Stephen Gardiner was the main instigator.