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Sir Thomas More and Holbein. years Henry VIII had employed him on various diplomatic missions to Rome and the Netherlands, and on each occasion he acquitted himself with great distinction. His popularity with the King, his great ability and success in everything he undertook, soon became the cause of unbounded jealousy on the part of Wolsey, who never ceased to try to get him out of the way. In 1525 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in 1529 on the disgrace of Wolsey was appointed Lord High Chancellor in his place. But in 1532 he resigned after opposing the divorces of Catherine of Aragon and Henry the Eigth. Moreover he declined to recognize the marriage of the King with Anne Boleyn, and would not be present at her wedding. He refused to take the oath to the Act of Parliament of March 1534, which imposed adherence to the act which vested the succession in the issue of Anne Boleyn and of renunciation of the Pope. On April 17, 1535 he was committed to the Tower. Indicted for High Treason on July 1st, and executed July 6th. No man can be held more responsible than Sir Thomas More for that mighty series of English portraits from the hand of Holbein, in the first part of the 16th Century. He it was who when Holbein came to England in 1526, received him, made him his guest in his house at Chelsea, gave him commissions for his own portrait, and those of his family, and introduced him to his friends and the Court of Henry VIII. Ten years before this when Holbein was still at Basle, More published his "Utopia" Holbein designed the title-page for the first edition, and drew the illustrations for the third.

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