Thomas More’s resignation as Lord Chancellor is presented as a quiet but decisive transfer of authority: Henry VIII waits in the palace garden while More arrives without the Chancellor’s chain and carries the Great Seal away in a leather bag. The scene makes the change of office visible, even as More’s exchange with the king leaves their personal and political relationship unsettled.

The transfer of office

From a gallery at Whitehall, Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn watch the king wait below as Thomas More approaches. Anne notes that More is no longer wearing the Lord Chancellor’s chain and wonders whether the Seal of England is in the bag he carries. The contrast recalls Thomas Wolsey’s departure: when Wolsey surrendered the Great Seal, he prolonged the process for two days; now Henry waits with his hand open to receive it.

The decision and its immediate consequences

The scene frames More’s departure as a choice Henry has been reluctant to make. Anne says the king does not want to lose More and wants to please everyone, but that the courts still need someone to govern them. Cromwell proposes Thomas Audley as a temporary replacement: a capable lawyer who can be useful to the king without being wholly dependent on him. The exchange links the vacant office to the practical question of who will exercise judicial authority after More leaves.

More and the king

When the king and More meet in the garden, Henry offers his hand. More turns away, then changes his mind and takes it. Henry asks what he will do now; More answers that he will write and pray. Cromwell advises him to write little and pray much, and More responds with a smile by asking whether this is a threat. Their brief exchange preserves courtesy and a measure of personal familiarity, but does not erase the pressure surrounding More’s departure.

The wider conflict over authority

More’s resignation gains significance from the jurisdictional dispute that follows him. In a later conversation reported by Richard Riche, More distinguishes Parliament’s power over temporal matters from its inability, in his view, to transfer spiritual jurisdiction. He therefore rejects the claim that Parliament’s naming Henry head of the church settles the matter. The account shows why the change of office did not settle the underlying conflict: royal and parliamentary authority could alter offices and laws within the realm, while More maintained that spiritual jurisdiction belonged to a different order.