Audley, Thomas (1488–1544)

Lord Chancellor of England from 1533. In 1529 he became Speaker of the House of Commons. He supported the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon; presided at the trials of Thomas More and John Fisher; passed judgement on the king's discarded wives Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard; managed the conviction of Thomas Cromwell; and effected the dissolution of Henry VIII's marriage with Anne of Cleves.

Audley was born in Essex, studied at Cambridge and the Middle Temple, London, and later became a member of the cleric and politician Thomas Wolsey's household. He was created a peer in 1538.

He re-established Buckingham College, Cambridge, as Magdalene College.