The King's Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Wolsey (Pimlico) (176 page)

⁶⁷
LP Add
, 538.

⁶⁸
See pp.228-9.

⁶⁹
Palsgrave, pp.ix-liv for still probably the best account of his life, though G. Bernard has suggested to me that his charges may predate his dismissal from Richmond’s household and most of the specific things he mentioned are earlier than 1522.

⁷⁰
PRO, C54/396, m.31 I owe this reference to S.J. Gunn.

⁷¹
That there was a search is indicated by the endorsements to the charges; see
LP
, iv, 5750, pp.2561, 2562.

⁷²
LP
, iv, 6204.

⁷³
At least as summarized by Lord Herbert: ‘As touching the articles laid unto me, whereof a great part be untrue, and those which be true are of such sort that by the doing of them no malice nor untruth can justly be arrected unto me … This may be urged to the king.’ (Bodlean Library, MS Jesus Coll, 74, fo.193v). The letter itself is more ambiguous, partly because defective, but certainly Cromwell was urged to be ‘plain’ with Fitzwilliam and Gardiner, both involved in drawing up the details of his pardon. (
St. P
, i, p.354).

⁷⁴
As reported to Wolsey by a messenger, Robert Smythe; see
LP
, iv, 6447.

⁷⁵
LP
, iv, 6496.

⁷⁶
St. P
, i, p.367(
LP
, iv, 6571).

⁷⁷
Both Bismarck and Gladstone had such moments, but not apparently Mrs Thatcher!

⁷⁸
Cavendish, p.138-9.

⁷⁹
Morison, p.E 11v.

⁸⁰
St. P
, i, 352 (
LP
, iv, 6098).

⁸¹
Inter alia LP
, iv, 6098, 6112, 6114, 6181, 6182.

⁸²
St. P
, i, p.352 (
LP
, iv, 6098).

⁸³
St. P
, i, p.355 (
LP
, iv, 6181).

⁸⁴
St. P
, i, p.356 (
LP
, iv, 6181).

⁸⁵
St. P
, i, p.355 (
LP
, iv, 6181).

⁸⁶
Cavendish, p.136 for the statement that even some of Henry’s legal advisers thought the grounds for Wolsey’s indictment for praemunire shaky.

⁸⁷
Herbert, pp.294-302 (
LP
, iv, 6075); see Pollard, p.261 for a discussion of the status of the charges.

⁸⁸
Art. 6.

⁸⁹
Pollard, p.287.

⁹⁰
Sp. Cal
, iv (i), p.387.

⁹¹
See pp.578-9. See also outgoing Venetian ambassador’s report to the senate, 10 Nov. 1531: Catherine was ‘so loved and respected, that the people already commence murmuring; and were the faction to produce a leader, it is certain that the English nation, … would take up arms for the queen.’ (
Ven. Cal
, iv, p.300.)

⁹²
Cromwell’s significance has been especially pushed by Elton; see
Reform and Reformation
, pp.130 ff. for a summary of his views, but see
inter alia
Parmiter, pp.144 ff. A strong counter was provided by Scarisbrick in his
Henry
VIII
, pp.241 ff, but I suspect that the orthodoxy would still be that Henry was incapable of engineering a ‘break with Rome’ on his own. Significantly, however, Dr Guy, an Elton pupil, who, in his
Sir Thomas More
, p.130, accepted his master’s view, now rejects it; see
inter alia his EHR
, xvii,
passim
.

⁹³
See p.518.

⁹⁴
H.A. Kelly, p.123.

⁹⁵
Surts and Murphy, pp.xxii.

⁹⁶
Parmiter, p.124; Cambridge on 9 Mar., Oxford 8 April.

⁹⁷
Ibid;
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), pp.475-6.

⁹⁸
St. P
, iv (i), pp.598-9.

⁹⁹
See pp.49-50.

¹⁰⁰
Scarisbrick,
Henry
VIII
, pp.261 ff. still seems to me to be the best account.

¹⁰¹
See p.53-5.

¹⁰²
Sp. Cal
, iv (i), p.599.

¹⁰³
LP
, iv, app.262.

¹⁰⁴
LP
, iv, 6667 he continued, however, to keep his options open, instructing that if Clement would not accept their arguments they were to continue to press for delay.

¹⁰⁵
TRP
, p.197.

¹⁰⁶
Bernard,
JEH
, 37, p.265 for best account, though he is sceptical of the ambassadors’ reasons.

¹⁰⁷
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), pp.734-5.

¹⁰⁸
Ibid, pp.760-1, 797, 832-3.

¹⁰⁹
Scarisbrick,
Henry
VIII
, p.267.

¹¹⁰
Scarisbrick,
Bibl. d’Humanisme et Renaissance
, xxiv, pp.211-5.

¹¹¹
See pp.280-1.

¹¹²
For this important episode see Bernard,
JEH
, 37; Guy,
EHR
, xcvii, and Scarisbrick,
Cambridge Historical Journal
, xii, and his ‘Conservaive episcopate’, pp.114 ff. In the controversy between Bernard and Guy, I very much side with Bernard.

¹¹³
Guy,
EHR
, xcvii, pp.486-7; the discovery of these two was Guy’s.

¹¹⁴
Ibid, p.484.

¹¹⁵
Fuller, Islip, Melford and Sherburne.

¹¹⁶
Bernard,
JEH
, 37, p.285.

¹¹⁷
Chapuys was in no doubt about the connection between the praemunire charges and the divorce; see
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), p.673.

¹¹⁸
Hall, p.788.

¹¹⁹
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), pp.598-9.

¹²⁰
Ibid, p.690.

¹²¹
Ibid, p.690-1; this Chapuys’s surmise, but since the envoys do not appear to have replied until 17 Sept. he may have been wrong (
LP
, iv, 6667;
LP App
, 262.

¹²²
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), p.727.

¹²³
LP
, iv, 6618;
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), pp.712, 719, 721-6, 734-6, 760-2.

¹²⁴
Ibid
, p.709; also the view of the Milanese and Ventian ambassador (
Mil.Cal
., 827;
Ven. Cal
., iv, 629).

¹²⁵
LP App
, 262.

¹²⁶
LP
, iv, 6469;
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), p.712, 719.

¹²⁷
Ibid, p.758.

¹²⁸
Ibid.

¹²⁹
Ibid.

¹³⁰
Ibid, p.759. It is impossible to give a precise date for the meeting, but Chapuys’s report is dated 15 Oct.

¹³¹
See pp.623-4 were the opposite was suggested. One problem here is my lack of legal expertise; but it must also have been rather unchartered waters for the Crown lawyers, making contrary legal opinions possible.

¹³²
It is worth making the point that even if their non-appearance was not an act of defiance, the mere fact that Henry was anxious for a delay in both the prosecutions and the resummoning of parliament, suggests the weakness of his position and therefore a greater incentive to make use of Wolsey.

¹³³
Mil.Cal
. 833;
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), p.819 [His report of 27 Nov.]. See
LP
, xvi, 590 for rather similar remarks about Cromwell after his fall.

¹³⁴
See especially L. Baldwin Smith, 28 ff, though one needs to bear in mind that the politics of the 1540s is much disputed.

¹³⁵
So thought Chapuys and the Milanese ambassador (
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), pp.711, 720-1;
Mil.Cal
., 827; the suggestion being that in order to strengthen his hand with the French envoys Henry was anxious temporarily to cut the links between them and Francis.

¹³⁶
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), pp.737, 788.

¹³⁷
Ibid, 711-2;
Mil. Cal
., 827;
Ven. Cal
., iv, 618.

¹³⁸
Sp. Cal
., iv (i), pp.790-1.

¹³⁹
St. P
, vii, p.213.

¹⁴⁰
PRO Cotton app, xlviii, fo.110 (
LP
, iv, 6699).

¹⁴¹
Guy,
Sir Thomas
More, pp.136-8, but revised in
EHR
, xcvii, pp.487-8; see also Scarisbrick,
Henry
VIII
, 274 ff. and Elton,
Reform and Reformation
, pp.130-140, where he makes little of Cromwell’s letter, but is anxious to connect the new direction in Henry’s campaign for a divorce in the autumn of 1530 with Cromwell and his fellow radicals.

¹⁴²
Guy,
EHR
, xcvii, p.487.

¹⁴³
When Cromwell assumed a leading position is a crux that may never be resolved, but see
inter alia
, Elton,
Tudor Revolution
, pp.71-91. However, it really cannot have been until at least late 1531.

¹⁴⁴
The notion was originally Scarisbrick’s in
Cambridge Historical Journal
, xii, 27-9, but in my view successfuly challenged by Guy in
EHR
, xcvii, 488-90.

¹⁴⁵
Sp. Cal
, iv (1), p.630.

¹⁴⁶
LP
, iv, 6688.