Richard Pace (c. 1482 – June 28 1536) was an English diplomat of the Tudor period. He was educated at Winchester College under Thomas Langton, and later at Padua, at Bologna, and probably at the University of Oxford. In 1509, he accompanied Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge, Archbishop of York, to Rome, where he won the esteem of Pope Leo X, who advised King Henry VIII to take him into his service. The English king did so, and in 1515 Pace became his secretary and in 1516 a secretary of state.

In 1515, Cardinal Wolsey sent Pace to urge the Swiss to attack France, and in 1519 he went to Germany to discuss with the electors the impending election to the imperial throne. He was made dean of St Paul's in 1519, holding the office until 1536, and was also dean of Exeter and Dean of Salisbury. He was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and in 1521 he went to Venice with the object of winning the support of the republic for Wolsey, who was anxious at this time to become pope. At the end of 1526 he was recalled to England, and he died in 1536.

He is portrayed by Matt Ryan in the TV series The Tudors.

Works

His chief literary work was De Fructu Qui ex Doctrina Precipitur (Basel, 1517).

He is the author of Julius exclusus de coelis ("Julius excluded from Heaven"), a satire on Pope Julius II, which was wrongly credited to Erasmus.

References

References