Ellis' Letters S1 V2 Letter CIII. Cardinal Wolsey (age 55) to D^r. Stephen Gardener (age 45), afterwards Bishop of Winchester.

[MS. LANSDOWNE BRIT. Mus. 1296. art 12. Orig.] [Around Nov 1528]

Wolsey, in the fatal reverse of his fortunes was entirely deserted by the Nobility. In his elevation he had treated them with scorn and rudeness; and the consciousness of this added much to his dejection. When the blow of adversity first fell upon him he seems to have believed that no friends were left to him in the world but CROMWELL and GARDENER.

Skelton has enlarged upon his treatment of the Nobility in his "Why come ye not to Courte :"

The Erie of Northumberland

Dare take nothing on hand.

Our barons be so bolde,

Into a mouse hole they wold

Runne away and creep,

Like a mainy of sheep:

Dare not loke out a dur

For drede of the maystife cur,

!For drede of the boucher's dog.

"For and this curre do gnar,

They must stande all afar

To holde up their hand at the bar.

For all their noble bloude

He pluckes them by the hood,

And shakes them by the eare,

And bryngs them in such feare;

He bayteth them lyke a beare,

Like an Ox or a Bul;

Their wittes he sayth are dul;

He sayth they have no brayne

Their estate to maintaine:

And make to bowe the knee

Before his Majestie."

But Wolsey carried his hauteur even further than this; as another extract from Skelton will show, respecting the waiting of persons who attended him on business:

"My Lord is not at layser.

Syr ye must tary a stound

Tyl better layser be found;

And Syr ye must daunce attendance.

And take patient sufferaunce,

For my Lords Grace

Hath now no time nor space

To speak with you as yet,

And thus they shal syt,

Chuse them syt or flit,

Stand, walke, or ride

And his laiser abide

Parchaunce half a yere,

And yet never the nere."

And that this Picture is not overcharged appears from a letter of Thomas Allen chaplain to the Earl of Shrewsbury, a copy of which has been preserved by bishop Kennett in one of the Volumes of his Manuscripts now in the Lansdowne Collection^a . The original was written about the month of April 1517.

"Pleseth your Lordship to understande upon Monday was sennight last past I delivered your Letter with the examinacyon to my Lord Cardynall at Guilford, whence he commanded me to wait on him to the Court; I followed him, and there gave attendance, and could have no aunswer. Upon Friday last he came from thence to Hampton Court, where he lyeth. The morrow after I besought his Grace I might know his plesure; I could have no answer. Upon Mondaye last as he walked in the parke at Hampton Court, I besought his Grace I might knowe if he wolde command me anye service. He was not content with me that I spoke to hym. So that who shall be a suitour to him may have no other busynesse but give attendance upon his plesure. He that shall so doe, it is nedefull should be a wyser man then I am. I sawe no remedy, but came without answere, excepte I wolde have done as my Lord Dacre's servaunt doth, who came with Letters for the Kynges service five moneihs since and yet h?.th no answere : and another Servaunt of the Deputy of Calais likewyse who came before the other to Walsingham I heard, when he aunswered them, If ye be not contente to tary my leysure, departe when ye wille." This is truthe. I had rather your Lordship commaunded me to Rome then deliver him letters, and bring aunswers to the same. When he walketh in the parke he will suffer no servaunt to come nyghe him, but commands them awaye as farre as one might shoote an arrowe."

After this statement, no one will wonder that Wolsey should have been forsaken by the nobility and courtiers. Even Cavendish says, " I assure you. in his time he was the haughtiest man in all his proceedings alive,"

The bishoprick of Winchester, which is more than once mentioned in these Letters, and which the King suffered him nominally to retain, was one of the last of the numerous preferments which Wolsey accumulated before his fall. The temporalities were restored to him as late as the 6^th and he was installed in it on the 11th. of April 1529.

My owne goode Mastyr Secretary, aftyr my moste herty recommendacions, with lycke thanks for your goodness towards me, thes shalbe to advirtyse yow that I have beyn informyd by my trusty frende Thomas Crowmuell (age 43) that ye have sygnyfied unto hym to my synguler consolacions howe that the Kyngs Hyghnes (age 37), mouyd with pity and compassyon, and of his excellent goodnes and cheryti consyderyng the lamentable condicion and stat that I stand yn, hath wyllyd yow with other lords and mastyrs of hys honorable Cownsell to intende to the perfygttyng and absolvyng, without further tract or delay, of myn end and appoyntment, and that my pardon shulde be made in the most ample forme that my cownsell cowde devyse; for thys the Kyngs moste gracyous remembraunce, procedyng of hymsylf, I accompte my sylf not onely moste bowndyn to serve and pray for the preservation of hys moste Royal Majeste, but also thancke God that ye have occasyon govyn unto you to be a sollycyter and setter forth of such thyngs as do and shall conserve my said ende, in the makyng and compownyng whereof myn assuryd trust ys that ye wele shewe the love and affeccion wych ye have and bere towards me your old lover and frende. So declaryng your sylf therin that the world may perceive that by your good meanys the Kyng ys the better goode Lorde unto me; and that, nowe, newly in miiner commyng to the world, ther may be such respect had to my poore degre, olde age, and longe contyrtuyd servys, as shal be to the Kyngs hygh honor and your gret prayse and laude, wych undowttydly shal folowe vf ye extende yowr beny volence towards me and mine, perceiving that by your wysdom and dexteryte I shalbe releuyd and in this my calamyte holpyn. At the reverens therfor of God, myn owne goode M. Secretary and refuge, nowe set to your hande that I may come to a laudable ende and reposse; seyng that I may be furnyshyd aftyr suche a sorte and maner as I may ende my short tyme and lyff to the honor of Cryst's Churche and the Prince. And, besydys my dayly prayer and true hert, I shal so requyte your kyndnes as ye shal haue cause to thyncke the same to be wel imployed, lycke as my seyde trusty frende shal more amply shewe unto yow to whom yt may please yow to give for me credens and loving audience : and I shall pray for the increase of your honor. Wryttyn at Asher with the tremylling hand and hevy hart of your assuryd lover and bedysman.

T. CAR^LIS EBOR.

To the rygth honorable and my synguler goode frende Master Secretary.

Note 1. MS, Lansd. Brit. Mus. 978. fol. 213.

Calendars. April 12. [1533] Sanuto Diaries, v. lviii. p. 81.

On the Monday in Passion week¹ Parliament (il Parlamento) [and Convocation ?] assembled. They decided that the marriage of Queen Catharine to the King is null, and that he may marry (poter prender moter); and they have abolished (lecato) the appeal to the Pope. Henceforth, no one may contract marriage by dispensation, but solely as conceded by holy writ, and the sacred canons; so that the dispensation of Pope Julius is void. They have also abrogated the dispensation for holding a plurality of benefices with cure of souls, and for nonage, and other things. They have prohibited obedience to papal monitions and interdicts. The Bishop of Rochester [John Fisher] having publicly opposed these measures, on Palm Sunday [6th April], he was arrested, and given in custody to the Bishop of Winchester [Stephen Gardiner (age 50)]; and three days ago he was sent to reside at a place of his (ad uno locho suo) and is not to go more than a mile beyond it.

Parliament has been prorogued (si levò) until Whitsuntide, which will be on the 6th of June.

Three days ago, the King; sent the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and the Marquis of Exeter (il Marcheze di Anal sic) to notify to the Queen the decision made in Parliament about the divorce, and the new marriage; exhorting her to yield, and secede (rinmorersi) from the judgment of the “Rota.” She replied that she knew not, and was unable to imagine, how such a matter could have been terminated, the decision not having been made by a legitimate judge; and with regard to a new marriage, she believed nothing whatever, knowing the King her husband to be most sage and holy supientissimo et suntissimo. As to yielding to the sentence, she said that although it was her wish to satisfy his Majesty in everything, yet is it beyond her power to do so on this occasion not choosing to peril the salvation of her soul, and disobey the law of God who united her to his Majesty; and that recourse must be had to the true judge and vicar of the Lord. Subsequently the Imperial Ambassador went to the King, and spoke to him molto altamente.

This morning of Easter Eve, the Marchioness Anne (age 32) went with the King to high mass, as Queen, and with all the pomp of a Queen, clad in cloth of gold, and loaded (carga) with the richest jewels; and she dined in public; although they have not yet proclaimed the decision of the Parliament [Convocation ?].

I hear on good authority that the conclusion of the peace with Scotland is expected.

I am assured that some months ago, his Majesty espoused her, and that she bore him a son who is several months old. (Mivien afirmato za più mezi questa Mta averla sposata, e aver uno fiol di qualche meze con lei).

Four days ago, Mons. de Beove [Beauvoir] arrived here with the son (age 30) of the Earl of Wiltshire (age 56), and he told me he hoped the affairs between his Majesty and Scotland will be adjusted; and Dom. Silvestro Dario, the papal nuncio late in Scotland, tells me King James will be satisfied with fair terms, without which he will do nothing, and the Scots would rather die than submit; they plunder the English daily, and their King is dependent on the Emperor.

On the 5th a gentleman came hither to the King from the Duke of Saxony his cousin (germano suo), with letters from Frederick Count Palatine—who last year commanded the troops sent in favour of the Emperor by the Free Towns and other potentates of Germany—to request his Majesty to join their League; and they are holding a Diet, in which, should his Majesty choose, he will have great authority. This envoy went first to France, and he has not yet been despatched.

London, 12th April. Registered by Sanuto 8th May.

[Italian.]

Note 1. In the year 1533 the 13th of April was Easter day, so the case was decided by the “Convocation” or Parliament on the 7th April 1533.”

Letters and Papers 1535. 13 Oct 1535. 594. Cromwell having several times written to me that on his return from Court we should discuss matters of the Queen and Princess, I have waited two days since his return to see what show he would make of doing so, and finding none, I sent to him to ask at what hour I might speak with him. He excused himself for two days on account of business, and did so again yesterday, the third day, saying, however, to my messenger, that he would be here this morning; as he really was. After congratulation of the Emperor on his glorious victory and his arrival in Sicily, and thanking me on the part of the King and himself for the news I had sent them from time to time he replied about the Princess according to what he had written to me, which was to the effect that the King, his master, was good and wise, and that he would take good care, and better than any other, to treat his daughter well; that it was unnecessary to remind him of his duty, whether it were to change her gouvernante (age 59), to get her better companions, or to place her again with the Queen (age 49), her mother. As to the arrears due to the Queen, it was true he had several times promised to get her prompt payment, and if it was only a question of presenting her with the sum due he would do it at once very willingly; but he knew the disposition of the King, his master, was such that if he meddled with it he fell under suspicion of taking the Queen's part, which might cost him his head, and said the King might well give the Queen any sum she could demand, if she would undertake to maintain her own household; and on doing so, he would give her perfect liberty to keep what servants she pleased. This bargain, I think, she will never accept, as it would in some degree prejudice her position; moreover, I think Cromwell threw out the suggestion more by way of compliment than otherwise. After this, Cromwell mentioned that the King was informed from France, Italy, and elsewhere, that your Majesty intended to prepare an army against him and his countries in favour of the Pope, whom he sometimes called bishop of Rome and sometimes idol, but not without begging me to pardon him, and that to stir the fire, some bishop and legate had already come to Flanders; and that the King, his master, notwithstanding the said rumours, which might have been propagated by ill-disposed people, could not well believe that your Majesty, considering the great friendship and repeated alliances between you so solemnly ratified and sworn, would attempt any such thing, especially when there was no cause; for, as regards disobedience to the Pope, the King did not think he had said or done anything to any Christian prince inconsistent with the law of God, and he believed that the Christian religion was not better regulated and reformed in any country in the world than in this kingdom; and the King requested that I would add to the other good offices I had done by notifying this to your Majesty. Cromwell added that, perhaps the King might send you a very honorable embassy, provided he thought that you would give favorable audience to it, both to represent these and other matters, and to promote amities and confederations; on which subject the King wished to have my advice. I replied that I was not so rash as to put myself forward in giving counsel to such a Prince lest I should give him occasion justly to reproach me, as was done without occasion when the earl of Wiltshire was at Bologna with your Majesty; but I fully believed that if such an embassy were sent to your Majesty it would not only be kindly received and heard, but would obtain what it asked for, provided it were a thing that your Majesty could rightly grant according to reason and conscience; and otherwise I would neither advise nor dissuade its despatch, for the above reason. He made no reply to this, and I think, from the way he spoke of the said embassy, there has been no suggestion of it among them, and that he spoke only of himself. He then said I must be already informed that the bishop of Winchester (age 52) was going to France, and the bishop of Atfort (Hereford), formerly the King's almoner, into Germany. He told me nothing more, and I asked if he, who was going into Germany, was to go further than Saxony? He said he did not know where he was going to; and he said the same to a merchant of whom he desired a letter of exchange of 1,000 crs. for the said Bishop, in case he should have need of them, which he did not expect, because he was taking plenty of money with him, and Cromwell wished the said letters to be general for the principal cities of Germany. Cromwell has confessed that the bailly of Troyes had made request for the marriage of the Princess with the Dauphin, and also that he brought the brief of which I before wrote.

Diary of Edward VI. 26 Jun 1548. Besides this examination, or confession as it may be termed, there are also extant, under Edward's own hand, three other proofs of his having held communication with the lord admiral through John Fowler, one of his privy chamber. One consists in the two following lines prefixed to a letter of Fowler, dated from St. Jameses on the 26th June 1548.

[Burghley Papers, edited by Haynes, 1740, fol. p. 75: from the MSS. at Hatfield House.]

I commende me to you, my lord, and praie you to credit this writer. Edward.

Note. Fowler wrote to the lord admiral as follows:

After most humble recommendations to your good lordship. This shalbe to sertefy you that the King's majesty is in good healthe, thankes be gyvin to God, and has him¹ hartely recommended to the Quines grace and to your good lordship. And his grace wyllid me to wrytt to your lordship, declaring to me that his mynd and love, notwithstanding your absens, is towards your lordship as mouche as to any man within Ingland. Also his grace willid me to wrytt to your lordship dissierring yow, as your lordship has willid him to do, if he lak any monny, to send to your lordship. His grace dessiers you, if you conveniently may, to let him have summ monny; I askid his grace, whatt summ I shuld wrytt to your lordship for; his grace wold name no summ, but as it pleasid your lord- ship to send him, for he determins to gjve it away, but to home he wooll not tell me as yet. I am not abull to send your lordship no newes, but that my lord of Winchester (age 65)² prechis afore the King upon sainct Peter's day at Westmyster. His grace is now at St. James's, and my lord protector lies ther every night, but he dines at Westminster; I will send your lordship the bishop's sermon, God willing, the next time I wrytt to your lordship; and if anny newes cumm then I woU sartify your lordship. The King's majesty dessiers

Note 1. Misprinted bin by Haynes,

Note 2. This was the sermon which Gardiner was enjoined to preach in order to test his principles. Certain "points" upon which he was to be explicit were dictated to him by the council; but as he did not give satisfaction he was arrested two days afler. See the full particulars under the head of the 7th Article charged against him, in Foxe's Acts and Monuments: also the protector's letter to him, requiring his attention to the "points," dated Sion, the 28th June, in Burnetts History of the Reformation. Notes of the sermon itself arc preserved in the MSS. of Corpus Christi Coll. Camb. Misc. viii. 15.

Foxe's Book of Martyrs. 04 Feb 1555. The fourth of February suffered the constant martyr of God, Master John Rogers (age 50), concerning whose life, examinations, and suffering, here followeth in order set forth. And first touching his life and bringing up.

John Rogers, brought up in the university of Cambridge, where he profitably travailed in good learning, at length was chosen and called by the merchant adventurers to be their chaplain at Antwerp in Brabant, whom he served to their good contentation many years. It chanced him there to fall in company with that worthy servant and martyr of God William Tyndale, and with Miles Coverdale (age 67), who both, for the hatred they bare to popish superstition and idolatry, and love to true religion, had forsaken their native country. In conferring with them the Scriptures, he came to great knowledge in the gospel of God, insomuch that he cast off the heavy yoke of popery, perceiving it to be impure and filthy idolatry, and joined himself with them two in that painful and most profitable labour of translating the Bible into the English tongue, which is entitled, The Translation of Thomas Matthewe. He, knowing by the Scriptures, that unlawful vows may lawfully be broken, and that matrimony is both honest and honourable among all men, joined himself in lawful matrimony, and so went to Wittenberg in Saxony, where he, with much soberness of living, did not only greatly increase in all good and godly learning, but also so much profited in the knowledge of the Dutch tongue, that the charge of a congregation was orderly committed to his cure.

In which ministry he diligently and faithfully served many years, until such time as it pleased God, by the faithful travail of his chosen and dear servant, King Edward the Sixth, utterly to banish all popery forth of England, and to receive in true religion, setting God's gospel at liberty. He then, being orderly called, having both a conscience, and a ready good will to help forward the work of the Lord in his native country, left such honest and certain conditions as he had in Saxony, and came into England to preach the gospel, without certainty of any condition. In which office, after he had a space diligently and faithfully travailed, Nicholas Ridley, then bishop of London, gave him a prebend in the cathedral church of Paul; and the dean and the chapter chose him to be the reader of the divinity-lesson there; wherein he diligently travailed, until such time, as Queen Mary, obtaining the crown, banished the gospel and true religion, and brought in the antichrist of Rome, with his idolatry and superstition

After the queen was come to the Tower of London, he, being orderly called thereunto, made a godly and vehement sermon at Paul's Cross, confirming such true doctrine as he and others had there taught in King Edward's days, exhorting the people constantly to remain in the same, and to beware of all pestilent popery, idolatry, and superstition. The council, being then overmatched with popish and bloody bishops, called him to account for his sermon: to whom he made a stout, witty, and godly answer; and yet in such sort handled himself, that at that time he was clearly dismissed. But after that proclamation was set forth by the queen to prohibit true preaching, he was called again before the council; for the bishops thirsted after his blood. The council quarrelled with him concerning his doctrine, and in conclusion commanded him as prisoner to keep his own house; and so he did; although by flying, he might easily have escaped their cruel hands, and many things there were which might have moved him thereunto. He did see the recovery of religion in England, for that present, desperate; he knew he could not want a living in Germany; and he could not forget his wife and ten children, and to seek means to succour them. But all these things set apart, after he was called to answer in Christ's cause, he would not depart, but stoutly stood in defence of the same, and for the trial of that truth, was content to hazard his life.

Thus he remained in his own house as prisoner a long time, till at length, through the uncharitable procurement of Bonner (age 55), bishop of London, who could not abide such honest neighbours to dwell by him, he was removed from his own house to the prison called Newgate, where he was lodged among thieves and murderers for a great space; during which time, what business he had with the adversaries of Christ, all is not known, neither yet any certainty of his examinations, further than he himself did leave in writing; which God would not to be lost, but to remain for a perpetual testimony in the cause of God's truth, as here followeth recorded and testified by his own writing.

Description of the examination by Lord Chancellor Bishop Stephen Gardiner (age 72).

Letters of Horace Walpole. 05 Aug 1752. From Sevenoaks [Map] we went to Knowle. The park is sweet, with much old beech, and an immense sycamore before the great gate, that makes me more in love than ever with sycamores. The house is not near so extensive as I expected:³³⁰ the outward court has a beautiful decent simplicity that charms one. The apartments are many, but not large. The furniture throughout, ancient magnificence; loads of portraits, not good nor curious; ebony cabinets, embossed silver in vases, dishes, etc. embroidered beds, stiff chairs, and sweet bags lying on velvet tables, richly worked in silk and gold. There are two galleries, one very small; an old hall, and a spacious great drawing-room. There is never a good staircase. The first little room you enter has sundry portraits of the times; but they seem to have been bespoke by the yard, and drawn all by the same painter; One should be happy if they were authentic; for among them there is Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Gardiner of Winchester, the Earl of Surry, the poet, when a boy, and a Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, but I don't know which. The only fine picture is of Lord Goring and Endymion Porter by Vandyke. There is a good head of the Queen of Bohemia, a whole-length of Duc d'Espernon, and another good head of the Clifford, Countess of Dorset, who wrote that admirable haughty letter to Secretary Williamson, when he recommended a person to her for member for Appleby: "I have been bullied by an usurper, I have been neglected by a court, but I won't be dictated to by a subject: your man shan't stand. Ann Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery." In the chapel is a piece of ancient tapestry: Saint Luke in his first profession is holding an urinal. Below stairs is a chamber of poets and players, which is proper enough in that house; for the first Earl wrote a play³³¹, and the last Earl was a poet³³², and I think married a player³³³ Major Mohun and Betterton are curious among the latter, Cartwright and Flatman among the former. The arcade is newly enclosed, painted in fresco, and with modern glass of all the family matches. In the gallery is a whole-length of the unfortunate Earl of Surry, with his device, a broken column, and the motto Sat superest. My father had one of them, but larger, and with more emblems, which the Duke of Norfolk bought at my brother's sale. There is one good head of henry VIII, and divers of Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, the citizen who came to be lord treasurer, and was very near coming to be hanged.³³⁴ His Countess, a bouncing kind of lady-mayoress, looks pure awkward amongst so much good company. A visto cut through the wood has a delightful effect from the front: but there are some trumpery fragments of gardens that spoil the view from the state apartments.

Note 329. Only son of Dr. Richard Bentley, the celebrated Divine and classical scholar. He was educated at Trinity College, under his father. Cumberland, who was his nephew, describes him as a man of various and considerable accomplishments; possessing a fine genius, great wit, and a brilliant imagination; "but there was," he adds, "a certain eccentricity and want of prudence in his character, that involved him in distresses, and reduced him to situations uncongenial with his feelings, and unpropitious to the cultivation and encouragement of his talents."-E.

Note 330. Evelyn in his Diary for July 25, 1673, says, "In my way I visited my Lord of Dorset's house at Knowle, near Sevenoaks, a greate old-fashion'd house."-E.

Note 331. Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, while a student in the Temple, wrote his tragedy of Gordobuc, which was played before Queen Elizabeth, at Whitehall, in 1561. He was created Earl of Dorset by James the First, in 1604.-E.

Note 332. Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset. On the day previous to the naval engagement with the Dutch, in 1665, he is said to have composed his celebrated song, "to all you Ladies now on Land."-E.

Note 333. On the contrary, he married the Lady Frances, daughter of the Earl of Middlesex, who survived him.-E. [Note. This appears to be a mistake insofar as Richard Sackville 5th Earl Dorset married Frances Cranfield Countess Dorset who was the daughter of Lionel Cranfield 1st Earl Middlesex. Charles Sackville 6th Earl Dorset 1st Earl Middlesex married firstly Mary Bagot Countess Falmouth and Dorset and secondly Mary Compton Countess Dorset and Middlesex. There, however, references to his marrying an actress Alice Lee with whom he appear to have had a daughter Mary Sackville Countess Orrery.]

Note 334. Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, married two wives: the first was the daughter of a London citizen; the second, the daughter of James Brett, Esq. and half-sister of Mary Beaumont, created Countess of Buckingham. To this last alliance, Lord Middlesex owed his extraordinary advancement.-E.