Warham, William (c.1456–1532)

English cleric, archbishop of Canterbury 1504–32, and lord chancellor 1504–15. He enjoyed the confidence of Henry VII and remained as chief royal adviser under Henry VIII until supplanted by Wolsey (who also replaced him as lord chancellor). He opposed the king's proposed annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragón in 1526, but his opinion carried little weight, and Henry forced him to advise the pope to grant the divorce.

Warham was a native of Hampshire, and was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, where he became a fellow in 1475. As a legal expert, he undertook a number of important diplomatic missions abroad on behalf of the government in 1490–1502. In 1502–04, he was bishop of London and lord keeper, and from 1506 until his death, chancellor of Oxford University. His death enabled Henry to make his confederate Thomas Cranmer archbishop of Canterbury.