Background
Stokesley was born at Collyweston in Northamptonshire, and became a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1495, serving also as a lecturer.
Stokesley was born at Collyweston in Northamptonshire, and became a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1495, serving also as a lecturer.
Soon after 1509 he was appointed a member of the royal council, and chaplain and almoner to Henry VIII. He attended Henry as his chaplain at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.
In 1498 he was made principal of Magdalen Hall, and in 1505 vice-president of Magdalen College. In 1529 and 1530 he went to France and Italy as ambassador to Francis I and to gain opinions from foreign universities in favour of the king"s divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He became Bishop of London in 1530, and in September 1533 he christened the future Queen Elizabeth.
In May 1538, the King"s attorney took out a writ of Praemunire against Stokesley and, as accessories with him, against the Abbess Agnes Jordan and the Confessor-General of Syon Abbey.
Stokesley acknowledged his guilt, implored Thomas Cromwell"s intercession, and threw himself on the King"s mercy. He obtained the King"s pardon, for it was not the Bishop but Syon that Cromwell aimed at.