Thomas More

== Early political career ==
[[File:Study for portrait of the More family, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|thumb|Study for a portrait of Thomas More's family, {{Circa|1527}}, by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]]]

In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent [[Great Yarmouth (UK Parliament constituency)|Great Yarmouth]], and in 1510 began representing [[City of London (UK Parliament constituency)|London]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/more-thomas-i-147778-1535| title=History of Parliament| publisher=History of Parliament Trust|access-date=13 October 2011}}</ref>

More first attracted public attention by his conduct in the parliament of 1504, by his daring opposition to the king's demand for money. [[Henry VII of England|King Henry VII]] was entitled, according to feudal laws, to a grant on occasion of his daughter's marriage. But he came to the House of Commons for a much larger sum than he intended to give with his daughter. The members, unwilling as they were to vote the money, were afraid to offend the king, till the silence was broken by More, whose speech is said to have moved the house to reduce the subsidy of three-fifteenths which the Government had demanded to £30,000. One of the chamberlains went and told his master that he had been thwarted by a beardless boy. Henry never forgave the audacity; but, for the moment, the only revenge he could take was upon More's father, whom upon some pretext he threw into the Tower, and he only released him upon payment of a fine of £100. Thomas More even found it advisable to withdraw from public life into obscurity.<ref name=EB1911/>

From 1510, More served as one of the two [[undersheriff]]s of the [[City of London]], a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. Interested in public health, he became a Commissioner for Sewers in 1514.<ref name=Krivatsy>{{cite journal |last1=Krivatsy |first1=Peter |title=Erasmus' Medical Milieu |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |date=1973 |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=113–154 |jstor=44447526 |pmid=4584234 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44447526 |access-date=28 July 2023 |issn=0007-5140}}</ref> More became [[Master of Requests (England)|Master of Requests]] in 1514,<ref>Magnusson (ed.) ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'' (1990) p. 1039</ref> the same year in which he was appointed as a [[Privy Counsellor]].<ref name=rebhorn>Rebhorn, W. A. (ed.) p. xviii</ref>  After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the [[Holy Roman Emperor]], [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], accompanying [[Thomas Wolsey]], [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] [[Archbishop of York]], to [[Calais]] (for the [[Field of the Cloth of Gold]]) and [[Bruges]], More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the [[Exchequer]] in 1521.<ref name=rebhorn />

As secretary and personal adviser to [[Henry VIII of England|King Henry VIII]], More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, attending the court of the [[Star Chamber]] for his legal prowess but delegated to judge in the under-court for 'poor man's cases'<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Guy |first1=J. A. |title=Wolsey, the Council and the Council Courts |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1976 |volume=91 |issue=360 |pages=481–505 |doi=10.1093/ehr/XCI.CCCLX.481 |jstor=566623 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/566623 |issn=0013-8266}}</ref>{{rp|491,492}} and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as [[High Steward (academia)|High Steward]] for the Universities of [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] and [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]].

In 1523 More was elected as [[knight of the shire]] (MP) for [[Middlesex (UK Parliament constituency)|Middlesex]] and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] elected More its [[List of Speakers of the House of Commons of England|Speaker]].<ref name=rebhorn /> In 1525 More became [[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]], with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.<ref name="rebhorn" />