The King's Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Wolsey (Pimlico) (164 page)

One thing that this interpretation would seem to challenge is a central theme of this study: that Henry’s and Wolsey’s relationship had been a genuine marriage of minds and personalities. As late as June 1528 Henry wanted Wolsey to know that with the Sweat threatening he was anxious for him to stay as close as possible, so
that ‘every hour one of you might hear of the other, and that his physicians might be as well for his grace as for him if any chance should fortune’.
²⁰⁸
And in the following May du Bellay’s view was that Wolsey loved his master more than himself.
²⁰⁹
But if there was so much love and concern, why did the marriage break down? A final assessment of their relationship must await the last chapter, but as regards Wolsey’s downfall this much may be said. Henry’s ‘great matter’ was not any old issue which, after fifteen years of wear and tear and plenty of opportunity for either party to become bored or irritated by the other, just happened to be the final straw. It was ‘great’ just because it combined a number of powerful ingredients. These included Henry’s latent anticlericalism, and the belief that what was right for him was right for his country. But above all it included love, and one way of explaining Wolsey’s downfall is that in the end Henry loved Anne more than he loved Wolsey.

¹
Rawdon Brown, ii, p.270 (
LP
, iii, 235).

²
See p.153 above.

³
LP
, iii, 1717.

⁴
LP
, iii, 1717.

⁵
It is Pace who mentioned that it was More who had informed him of Wolsey’s displeasure, which rather suggests that More was deputed to; see
LP
, iii, 1717.

⁶
Scarisbrick,
Thought
, 52, p.253.

⁷
Elton,
Tudor Revolution
, pp.32, 56-9; Higham.

⁸
Chambers,
English Representation
, pp.390-3.

⁹
See p.156 above.

¹⁰
Wegg, pp.225 ff for the above and for much of what follows.

¹¹
St. P
, vi, p.288 (
LP
, iv, 374).

¹²
LP
, iv, 605.

¹³
St. P
, vi, p.334 (
LP
, iv, 605).

¹⁴
St. P
, vi, p.341 (
LP
, iv, 605).

¹⁵
St. P
, vi, p.314 (
LP
, iv, 442).

¹⁶
CWE
, 2, pp.141-2.

¹⁷
Sp. Cal
., ii, p.660.

¹⁸
Ven. Cal
., iii, 897.

¹⁹
Ven. Cal
., iii, 899.

²⁰
See pp.385-6 above.

²¹
Ven. Cal
., iii, 888.

²²
Ven. Cal
., iii, 947.

²³
LP
, iv, 1178.

²⁴
See Erasmus’s reference to Pace’s ‘love-affairs’ in
LP
, iv, 1547; see also
LP
, iv, 2252 for Pace’s own references to love. For his insomnia see
LP
, iv, 1546, 1678.

²⁵
Ven. Cal
., iii, 1175, 1187.

²⁶
Ven. Cal
., iii, 888.

²⁷
Ven. Cal
., iii, 975.

²⁸
Chambers,
Cardinal Bainbridge
, pp.22 ff. For Pace’s francophobia see his comment to Wolsey in Feb. 1523: ‘We shall soon leave the French king without a friend; the Gallic eagle will not have a single feather to fly with.’ (
LP
, iii, 2847).

²⁹
Headley,
Emperor and his Chancellor
, pp.86 ff. is interesting on this.

³⁰
LP
, iv, 2420, 2434.

³¹
Ven, Cal
., iv, 144

³²
LP
, 3233, 3235-6;
Sp. Cal
, iii (ii), 224, 442; see also Wegg, pp.273 ff.

³³
Henry Ellis, 3 ser., ii, p.151 (
LP
, iv, 4927).

³⁴
Wegg, pp.285-8.

³⁵
LP
, iv, 3234.

³⁶
See pp.72-3, 205, 551-2 above.

³⁷
Royal Household
, p.155.

³⁸
Ibid, p.156.

³⁹
Ibid, p.155.

⁴⁰
For all this see D.R. Starkey, ‘King’s Privy Chamber’, pp.89-111.

⁴¹
Central to all Starkey’s writing on the privy chamber, but see especially
History Today
, 32.

⁴²
Rawdon Brown, ii, 270 (
LP
, iii, 235).

⁴³
Rawdon Brown, ii, p.271 (
LP
, iii, 235).

⁴⁴
Ibid.

⁴⁵
LP
, ii, 246.

⁴⁶
D.R. Starkey,
Henry
VIII
, pp.73-4;
LP
, ii, 3807 for Wolsey’s displeasure.

⁴⁷
LP
, iii, 247, 261, 259, 265.

⁴⁸
Morgan, p.94.

⁴⁹
LP
, iii, pp.1551; Hall, p.599.

⁵⁰
LP
, ii, 3807.

⁵¹
Rawdon Brown, ii, p.271 (
LP
, iii, 235).

⁵²
Hall, p.598.

⁵³
Walker’s reappraisal of this episode appeared too late to be seriously considered here, but he argues for a genuine desire for a reformation of the court’s lifestyle, pushed not by Wolsey but other royal councillors such as Norfolk; see Walker,
HJ
, 32, pp.12-16.

⁵⁴
LP
, iii, 3384.

⁵⁵
Henry Ellis, 1 ser, i, pp.225-6 (
LP
, iii, 3405).

⁵⁶
LP
, iii, 3458; also
LP
, iii, 3421, 3424.

⁵⁷
Vergil, p.309.

⁵⁸
D.R. Starkey,
History Today
, 32, p.19; see also his ‘King’s privy chamber’, pp.161 ff.

⁵⁹
LP
, iv, 149, quoted in Bernard,
EHR
, xcvi, p.775, but since Surrey was not in Newcastle in March 1524 the
LP
dating must be wrong.

⁶⁰
D.R. Starkey, ‘King’s privy chamber’, pp.161 ff;
Henry
VIII
, pp.86-9.

⁶¹
For non-factional aspects of the Eltham ordinances see pp.365-9 above.

⁶²
Morgan, pp.94, 295.

⁶³
See pp.194 ff. above.

⁶⁴
For both Bryan and Carew see D.R. Starkey,
Henry viii
, pp.69-70; for his income see
LP
, iv, 2972.

⁶⁵
St. P
, vii, p.166 (
LP
, iv, 5481).

⁶⁶
See.pp.190-201.

⁶⁷
LP
, iv, 4656.

⁶⁸
See p.589 below.

⁶⁹
Bernard,
EHR
, xcvi for Compton’s career.

⁷⁰
For the detail see pp.194 ff. above.

⁷¹
LP
, i, 734, 3502; iii, 1321.

⁷²
Vergil, p.265.

⁷³
See Quinn, pp.234-5.

⁷⁴
Clifford Letters
, p.106.

⁷⁵
LP
, iv, 5096.

⁷⁶
LP
, iv, app.125-6, 128.

⁷⁷
Burnet, vi, p.276 (
LP
, xxi, 554).

⁷⁸
Ven. Cal
., iv, 694.

⁷⁹
Elton,
Studies
, i, p.189.

⁸⁰
LP
, iii, 3384.

⁸¹
LP
, iii, 3508.

⁸²
St. P
, iv, p.55 (
LP
, iii, 3515).

⁸³
St. P
, iv, p.48 (
LP
, iii, 3394) Henry to Norfolk, 5 Oct. 1523.

⁸⁴
BL Caligula B ii, fos.31-2 (
LP
, iii, 3477), marginal notes for Henry’s benefit to a letter written by Surrey to Wolsey in Oct. 1523.

⁸⁵
St. P
, iv, pp.53-6 (
LP
, iii, 3515).

⁸⁶
St. P
, iv, p.100 (
LP
, iv, 571).

⁸⁷
Sp. Cal, F.S
., p.432.

⁸⁸
LP
, xii (2), 1049.

⁸⁹
For the marriage see B. Harris,
Journal of Social History
, 15; see also
Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies
, ii, p.367; iii, p.96.

⁹⁰
LP
, iii, 3458.

⁹¹
LP
, iv, 5210, 5679 – though other opponents of Wolsey, under Norfolk’s leadership, were included in this judgement.