Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England, was for a time the most powerful man in England, second only to the King, Henry VIII. Wolsey fell from favour in 1529 and went north to visit his Archdiocese of York. A year later he was accused of high treason and ordered to return to London. On the way, he stopped at Leicester Abbey. He was so sick that he couldn't ride the mule, seen here behind him. He is greeted by the abbot and his monks on the steps of the abbey. Wolsey died at the abbey on 29 November 1530.

Prince Albert, accompanied by Prince Waldemar of Prussia, visited Cope to see his picture in the making. He was, according to a contemporary account, 'much pleased and complimentary, and stayed nearly an hour.' The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1848. Before the exhibition Cope 'greyed' the shadows on the carpet, deepened the shadows on the cardinal and got the painter Sir Edwin Landseer to work on the mule's head for him.

Signed and dated: C W Cope 1847.