RICHARD FOX (or Foxe), successively Bishop of Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham, and Winchester, Lord Privy Seal, and
founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was born about 1448 at Ropesley near Grantham, Lincolnshire. His parents belonged
to the yeoman class, and there is some obscurity about Fox's early career. It is not known at what school he was educated,
nor at what college, though the presumption is in favour of Magdalen, Oxford, whence he drew so many members of his subsequent
foundation, Corpus Christi. He also appears to have studied at Cambridge, but nothing definite is known of the first thiry-five
years of his career.
In 1484 he was in Paris, whether merely for the sake of learning or because he had rendered himself obnoxious to
Richard III is a matter of speculation. At any rate he was brought into contact with the
Earl of Richmond, who was then beginning his quest for the English throne, and was taken into his service.
In January 1485 Richard intervened to prevent Fox's appointment to the vicarage of Stepney on the ground that he was keeping company
with the "great rebel, Henry ap Tuddor." The important offices conferred on Fox immediately after the
battle of Bosworth imply that he had already seen more extensive political service than can be traced in
records. Doubtless Henry VII had every reason to reward his companions in exile, and to rule like
Ferdinand of Aragon by means of lawyers and churchmen rather
than trust nobles like those who had made the Wars of the Roses. But without an intimate knowledge of Fox's political experience and
capacity he would hardly have made him his principal secretary, and soon afterwards Lord Privy Seal and Bishop of Exeter (1487).
The ecclesiastical preferment was merely intended to provide a salary not at Henry's expense; for Fox never saw either Exeter or the
diocese of Bath and Wells to which he was translated in 1492. His activity was confined to political and especially diplomatic channels;
so long as Archbishop Morton lived, Fox was his subordinate, but
after the archbishop's death he was second to none in Henry's confidence, and he had an important share in all the diplomatic work of
the reign. In 1487 he negotiated a treaty with James III of Scotland, in 1491 he baptized the future
Henry VIII, in 1492 he helped to conclude the treaty of Etaples, and in 1497
he was chief commissioner in the negotiations for the famous commercial agreement with the Netherlands which
Bacon seems to have been the first to call the Magnus Intercursus.
Meanwhile in 1494 Fox had been translated to Durham, not merely because it was a richer see than Bath and Wells but because of its
political importance as a palatine earldom and its position with regard to the Borders and relations with Scotland. For these reasons
rather than from any ecclesiastical scruples Fox visited and resided in his new diocese; and he occupied Norham Castle, which he
fortified and defended against a Scottish raid in Perkin Warbeck's
interests (1497). But his energies were principally devoted to pacific purposes. In that same year he negotiated Perkin's retirement from
the court of James IV, and in 1498-1499 he completed the negotiations for that treaty of marriage between the
Scottish king and Henry's daughter Margaret which led ultimately to the union of the two crowns in 1603
and of the two kingdoms in 1707. The marriage itself did not take place until 1503, just a century before the accession of
James I.
This consummated Fox's work in the north, and in 1501 he was once more translated to Winchester, then reputed the richest bishopric in
England. In that year he brought to a conclusion marriage negotiations not less momentous in their ultimate results, when Prince Arthur
was betrothed to Catherine of Aragon. His last diplomatic achievement in the reign of
Henry VII was the betrothal of the king's younger daughter Mary to the future emperor
Charles V. In 1500 he was elected Chancellor of Cambridge University, an office not confined to noble lords until
a much more democratic age, and in 1507 master of Pembroke Hall in the same university. The Lady Margaret Beaufort
made him one of her executors, and in this capacity as well as in that of chancellor, he had the chief share with
Fisher in regulating the foundation of St John's College and the Lady Margaret
professorships and readerships.
His financial work brought him a less enviable notoriety, though a curious freak of history has deprived him of the credit which is his
due for "Morton's fork." The invention of that ingenious dilemma for extorting contributions from poor and rich alike is ascribed as a
tradition to Morton by Bacon; but the story is told in greater detail of Fox by Erasmus, who says he had it from
Sir Thomas More, a well-informed contemporary authority. It is in keeping with the
somewhat malicious saying about Fox reported by Tyndale that he would sacrifice
his father to save his king, which after all is not so damning as Wolsey's dying words.
The accession of Henry VIII made no immediate difference to Fox's position. If
anything, the substitution of the careless pleasure-loving youth for Henry VII increased the power of his ministry, the personnel of which
remained unaltered. The Venetian ambassador calls Fox "alter rex" and the Spanish ambassador Carroz says that Henry VIII trusted him more
than any other adviser, although he also reports Henry's warning that the bishop of Winchester was, as his name implied, "a fox indeed."
He was the chief of the ecclesiastical statesmen who belonged to the school of Morton, believed in frequent parliaments, and opposed the
spirited foreign policy which laymen like Surrey are supposed to have advocated.
His colleagues were Warham and Ruthal, but Warham and Fox differed on the
question of Henry's marriage, Fox advising the completion of the match with Catherine while Warham expressed doubts as to its canonical
validity. They also differed over the prerogatives of Canterbury with regard to probate and other questions of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
Wolsey's rapid rise in 1511 put an end to Fox's influence. The pacific policy of the first two years of Henry
VIII's reign was succeeded by an adventurous foreign policy directed mainly against France; and Fox complained that no one durst do anything
in opposition to Wolsey's wishes. Gradually Warham and Fox retired from the government; the occasion of Fox's resignation of the Privy Seal
was Wolsey's ill-advised attempt to drive Francis I out of Milan by financing
an expedition led by the emperor Maximilian in 1516.
Tunstall protested, Wolsey took Warham's place as chancellor, and Fox was succeeded by Ruthal, who, said the Venetian
ambassador, "sang treble to Wolsey's bass." He bore Wolsey no ill-will, and warmly congratulated him two years later when warlike adventures
were abandoned at the peace of London. But in 1522 when war was again declared he emphatically refused to bear any part of the responsibility,
and in 1523 he opposed in convocation the financial demands which met with a more strenuous resistance in the House of Commons.
He now devoted himself assiduously to his long-neglected episcopal duties. He expressed himself as being as anxious for the reformation of the
clergy as Simeon for the coming of the Messiah; but while he welcomed Wolsey's never-realized promises, he was too old to accomplish much himself
in the way of remedying the clerical and especially the monastic depravity, licence and corruption he deplored. His sight failed during the last
ten years of his life, and there is no reason to doubt Matthew Parker's
story that Wolsey suggested his retirement from his bishopric on a pension. Fox replied with some warmth, and Wolsey had to wait until Fox's death
before he could add Winchester to his archbishopric of York and his abbey of St Albans, and thus leave Durham vacant as he hoped for the illegitimate
son on whom (aged 18) he had already conferred a deanery, four archdeaconries, five prebends and a chancellorship.
The crown of Fox's career was his foundation of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which he established in
1515-1516. Originally he intended it as an Oxford house for the monks of St Swithin's, Winchester; but he is said to have been dissuaded by
Bishop Oldham, who denounced the monks and foretold their fall. The scheme adopted breathed the spirit of the Renaissance; provision was made
for the teaching of Greek, Erasmus lauded the institution and Cardinal Pole
was one of its earliest fellows. The humanist Vives was brought from Italy to teach Latin, and the reader in theology was instructed to follow
the Greek and Latin Fathers rather than the scholastic commentaries. Fox also built and endowed schools at Taunton and Grantham, and was a
benefactor to numerous other institutions. He died at Wolvesey on the 5th of October 1528; Corpus possesses several portraits and other relics
of its founder.
(A. F. Pollard)
Excerpted from:
Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Ed. Vol XVII.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910. 703.
Other Local Resources:
Books for further study:
Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: The King and His Court.
Ballantine Books, 2002.
Richard Fox on the Web:
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