his actions." He therefore pleaded guilty to the information, and threw himself upon the royal clemency. He caused inventories to be made of his plate, furniture, and valuables, showing the immense riches which he had accumulated. These he formally made over to the King, with York Place,-which thenceforth, under the name of Whitehall, became the chief town residence of the Kings of England, and so continued till it was burnt down, in the reign of William and Mary. Some time before he had voluntarily made a gift of Hampton Court to the King, in the vain hope of recovering his favour.

When he entered his barge to proceed to Esher, he found the river Thames covered with above a thousand boats, full of men and women of the city of London, who expected to witness the spectacle of his being carried to the Tower, and there landing at the Traitor's Gate. It is confessed that he was now greatly hated by people of all degrees, and that there was a general disappointment when the head of his barge was turned towards Lambeth, and when he was seen rowed up the river to Putney.

Here he landed and mounted his mule,-when a horseman was seen descending the hill, who turned out to be Sir Harry Norris, with a message to him from the King, "willing him in any wise to be of good cheer, for he was as much in his Highness's favour as ever he had been, and so should continue to be." And, in token of the King's kindness, he delivered him a ring of gold with a rich stone, being the privy token between the King and him when any important secret communication took place between them. Wolsey was so transported with joy at this gleam of returning good fortune, that he instantly dismounted, knelt in the mud, and returned thanks to God his Maker, and to the King his sovereign Lord and Master, who had sent him such comfort. He added, Gentle Norris, if I were lord of a realm, the one half thereof were an insufficient recompence for your pains and good comfortable news. But, good, good Master Norris, consider with me that I have nothing left me but my clothes on my back. Therefore I desire you to take this small reward at my hands." He then gave him a gold chain, with a cross of gold enclosing a piece of the veritable wood of the true cross, which he continually wore round his neck, next his skin.

When Norris was gone a little way he called him back, saying, I am sorry that I have no condign token to send to the King; but if you would present the King with this poor fool, I trust his Highness would accept him well; for surely, for a nobleman's pleasure, he is worth a thousand pounds." This fool, whose name was Patch," was so much attached to his master, that it required six tall yeomen to force him to accompany Norris to Windsor, although he knew that he was to be transferred from disgrace and want to royalty and splendour. It is a pleasure to be told that the King received him most gladly.*

* A fool was so necessary to the establishment of a Lord Chancellor, that we

Wolsey, on his arrival at Esher, found the house without beds, sheets, tablecloths, cups, or dishes, which he was [A. D. 1529.] obliged to borrow in the neighbourhood; but here he remained, with a numerous train of attendants, till the commencement of the following year.

A letter from Erasmus, written at this time to a correspondent on the Continent, though chargeable with some inaccuracies, gives a lively representation of the fallen favourite. "The Cardinal of York has incurred the royal displeasure to such a degree, that, stript of all his dignities, and all his wealth, he is confined, not literally in a prison, but in one of his country houses, attended, or rather guarded, by about thirty servants. Innumerable charges are brought forward against him, so that it is thought he can hardly escape capital punishment. Behold the sport of fortune. From being a schoolmaster, he is made ruler of a kingdom; for he, in truth, reigned more than the King himself: feared by all, loved by few - I might say, by no human being."*

The King continued, from time to time, to send him consoling messages and tokens of affection, though generally by stealth, and during the night; but, at the urgent request of his enemies, who

shall find one in the household of Sir Thomas More. It is very doubtful when Chancellors ceased to have about them any such character.

*"Cardinalis Eboracensis sic offendit animum regium, ut spoliatus bonis et omni dignitate, teneatur, non in carcere, sed in quodam ipsius prædio, adhibitis triginta duntaxat seu famulis seu custodibus. Proferuntur in illum querelæ innumeræ, ut vix existiment effugere posse capitis supplicium. Hic est fortunæ ludus; ex ludi magistro subvectus est ad regnum; nam plane regnabat verius quam ipse rex, metuabatur ab omnibus, amabatur a paucis, ne dicam a nemine." -Ep. 1151. Erasmus thought himself ill-used by Wolsey, who in return for a flattering dedication of the Paraphrase on the Epistles of St. Peter, and in performance of magnificent promises, had only given him a prebend at Tournay, which produced nothing. On another occasion the disappointed wit writes, "Cardinalis perbenigne pollicetur; verum hæc ætas non moratur lentas spes "—Ep. 352.

66

† Cavendish gives a curious account of one of these nocturnal missions, - Sir John Russell. the chief founder of an illustrious house, being the messenger. He was sent off from the Court at Greenwich after dark, with orders to be back before day. It was a dreadfully rainy and tempestuous night, and the Cardinal and his household were all in bed before he arrived at Esher. After loud knocking at the gate, he was admitted, and saying he came from the King, was conducted to the bedchamber of the Cardinal, who had risen and put on his night gown. "When Master Russell was come into his presence, he most humbly reverenced him upon his knees, and delivering him a great ring of gold with a turkis for a token, said Sir, the King commandeth him unto you, and willeth you to be of good cheer; who loveth you as well as ever he did, and is not a little disquieted for your troubles, whose mind is full of your remembrance, insomuch as his Grace, before he sat to supper, called me unto him and commanded me to take this journey secretly to visit you, to your comfort the best of my power. And sir, if it please you, Grace, I have had this night the sorest journey for so little a way that ever I had to remembrance." A great fire was lighted and refreshments prepared, but Master Russell, after being some time in secret communication with my Lord, took leave saying that," God willing, he would be at the Court at Greenwich again before day, for he would not for any thing it were known his being with my Lord that night."

He soon after received a visit from his capital enemy, the Duke of Norfolk, which illustrates strikingly the manners of the times. All his yeomen were drawn up in the hall, and he and his gentlemen went to the gates and there received my

were under a perpetual apprehension that he might be again taken into favour, and avenge himself upon them, permission was given to institute a proceeding against him in the Star Chamber, -and this being attended with some difficulty, to prosecute him by parliamentary impeachment, or by a bill of pains and penalties.

Parliament, after a long interval, met in November in this year; and a Committee of the Lords, over which More, the new Chancellor, presided, prepared, “articles of impeachment," as they were called, against Wolsey. These were forty-four in number, and were generally of a frivolous description. His illegal commissions to raise taxes without the authority of parliament, and his other unconstitutional acts, were entirely passed over; and he was charged with naming himself with the King, saying, "the King and I;" and, in Latin," Ego et Rex meus ;"* with receiving, first, all letters from the King's ministers abroad-requiring to be the first visited by foreign ministers and desiring that all applications should be made through him;-practices hardly to be avoided, unless the King were his own minister and his own secretary. Then he is accused of illegally exercising the legatine authority; and of interfering, in an arbitrary manner, with the administration of justice, and drawing into Chancery questions properly cognisable in the Courts of common law. One of the gravest Lord of Norfolk bare-headed. They embraced each other, and the Duke complimented the Cardinal's attendants on their fidellty to him in his misfortunes. The ·Cardinal praised the magnanimity of his guest, who he said properly had the lion for his cognizance.

"Parcere prostratis scit nobilis ira Leonis.

Tu quoque fac simile, quisquis regnabis in orbem.

"Water being brought into the dining chamber for them to wash before dinner, the Cardinal asked the Duke to wash with him, but the Duke said, "it became hin not to presume to wash with him any more now than it did before in his glory." Yes, forsooth," quoth my Lord Cardinal, "for my authority and dignity legatine is gone, wherein consisted all my high honour." A straw,' quoth my Lord of Norfolk, 'for your legacy. I never esteemed your honour the more or higher for that. But I regarded your honour for that you were Archbishop of York, and a Cardinal, whose estate of honour surmounteth any Duke now being within this realm; and so will I honour you and bear you reverence accordingly. Therefore I beseech you content yourself, for I will not presume to wash with you, and therefore I pray you hold me excused.' So they washed separately." - Another dispute arose as to whether the Duke should sit inside or outside the table at dinner. "The Cardinal wished him to sit inside but he refused the same with much humbleness. There was then set another chair for my Lord of Norfolk, over against my Lord Cardinal, on the outside of the table, the which was by my Lord of Norfolk based something beneath my Lord Cardinal.'. Stowe shows us what store was set upon the nasty compliment of washing together, in his account of a banquet during the visit of Charles V. to Henry VIII. "The Emperor, the King, and the Queen did wash together, the Duke of Buckingham giving the water, the Duke of Suffolk holding the towel. Next them did wash the Lord Cardinall, the Queen of Fraunce, and the Queen of Arragon." On this occasion the Carginal sat on the Emperor's right hand, between the Queen of England and the Queen of Arragon. Stow's Annals.

*A mode of expression justified by the Latin idiom.

charges is, that he whispered in the King's ear when he knew that he laboured under a particular distemper, then supposed to be communicated by the breath.* Lord Herbert goes so far as to affirm, that no man ever fell from so high a station who had so few real crimes objected to; and we are mortified by finding that the articles were subscribed by the virtuous Sir Thomas More, as Chancellor, and presented by him to the King.†

Without any proof, they were unanimously agreed to by the House of Lords, where the Ex-chancellor was particularly odious on account of his haughty bearing to the ancient nobility, and even to his brother prelates; but when they came down to the House of Commons, they were rejected on a speech made by Thomas Cromwell, formerly a servant of the Cardinal who defended his unfortunate patron with such spirit, generosity, and courage, as acquired him great reputation, and mainly contributed to his own subsequent extraordinary rise. The King still having returning fits of kindness for his old favourite, royal influence was supposed to have contributed to this result of the parliamentary proceed ing against Wolsey; and the French ambassador, unable to foresee what might be the final issue of the struggle, advised his Court to render to the fallen minister such good offices as, without giving cause of offence to the existing administration, might be gratefully remembered by Wolsey, if he should finally triumph over his enemies.

At home, however, he was neglected and slighted, even by those whom his bounty had raised.‡ He was unable to pay or to support his dependents who still adhered to him, and he begged them to provide themselves a new master till fortune should prove more auspicious. Tears were copiously shed on both sides, and most of those he addressed refused to leave "so kind a master"

* Shakspeare dwells upon several other articles equally treasonable. "that, without the knowledge

f 1 Parl. Hist.

‡ Storer, in his

Either of King or Council, when you went
Ambassador to the Emperor, you made bold
To carry into Flanders the Great Seal.
That, out of mere ambition, you have caus'd
Your holy hat to be stamp'd on the King's coin.
Then, that you have sent innumerable substance
To furnish Rome, and to prepare the ways
You have for dignities, to the mere undoing
Of all the kingdom."

492.

Hen. VIII. act. iii. scene 2.

metrical history of Wolsey, in describing his feelings at this time, uses one of the most pathetic and original images in poetry, — which would have been worthy of Shakspeare:

"I am the tomb where that affection lies
That was the closet where it living kept;

Yet wise men say affection never dies.
No, but it turns; and when it long hath slept
Looks heavy like the eye that long hath wept.

in his adversity.* A subscription among the chaplains and others of most substance, whom he had promoted, provided a fund from which the most urgent necessities of the establishment were supplied.

These mortifications preyed so much upon his mind that, about Christmas, he fell ill and was supposed to be dying. Henry exclaimed, "God fordid that he should die, I would not lose him fortwenty thousand pounds;" sent his own physicians to attend him; conveyed to him assurances of unabated attachment, and even insisted on Anne Boleyn presenting to him a tablet of gold for a token of reconciliation.

Through the management of Cromwell a settlement of his affairs was made with the King, whereby he received a general pardon on making over all his revenues of every description, except those of the Archbishopric of York, and 1000 marks a year from the Bishopric of Winchester, which he was to be allowed to retain for his sustentation.†

As a further mark of kindness, the King permitted him, for a change of air and better accommodation, to remove from Esher to Richmond, where his health greatly improved, and he again began to gather some society round him.

His enemies, more alarmed than ever by his vicinity to the Court at Windsor, prevailed on Henry to issue a peremptory order that he should thenceforth reside within his archiepiscopal see, and he was supplied with a sum of money to bear the charges of his journey to York.

In is amusing to observe that this journey, which may now be

*Cavendish's picture of this scene is very touching. Afterwards my Lord commanded me to call all his gentlemen and yeomen np into the great chamber, commanding all the gentlemen to stand on the right hand, and the yeomen on the left; at last my Lord came out in his rochet upon a violet gown like a bishop, who went with his chaplains to the upper end of the chamber, where was a great window. Beholding his goodly number of servants, he could not speak to them until the tears ran down his cheeks, which being perceived of his servarts, caused fountains of tears to gush out of their sorrowful eyes, in such sort as would make any heart to relent." Cavendish, 265.

† A difficulty arose respecting the title to York House, which the King had taken possession of, and which belonged to the archiepiscopal see from the gift of a former Archbishop, who had been Lord Chancellor To sanction this palpable spoliation, by le discreditable advice of all the Judges and the new Chancellor, the form was gone through of a fictitious recovery in the Court of Common Pleas, and Wolsey was required to execute a recognisance that the right was in the King. Judge Shelley was sent to Esher to obtain this from him, but found him very reluctant -on the ground that the property was not his, and that he was robbing his successors of it. At last he said, "Master Shelley, ye shall make report to the King's Highness that I am his obedient subject and faithful chaplain and bondsman, whose royal commandment and request I will in no wise disobey, but most gladly fulfill and accomplish his princely will and pleasure in all things, and in especial in this matter, inasmuch as ye, the fathers of the laws, say that I may lawfully do it. Therefore I charge your conscience and discharge mine. Howbeit, I pray you show his Majesty from me that I most humbly desire his Highness to call to his most gracious remembrance that there is both heaven and hell.". We may well believe that Master Shelley did not venture to sound this salutary warning in the royal ear.