Read The King's Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Wolsey (Pimlico) Online
Authors: Peter Gwyn
23
Arguably this Henry is more my own construct, and it is important to point out that the dominant Henry can be either a ‘goody’, as in Pollard’s
Henry VIII
, or a ‘baddy’, as in W.G. Hoskins’s
The Age of Plunder
and J. Hurstfield’s ‘Was there a Tudor despotism?’, both of which quote Sir Walter Raleigh: ‘Now for King Henry the eight: if all the pictures and patterns of a merciless prince were lost in the world, they might all again be painted to the life, out of the story of this king.’ L. Baldwin Smith’s
Henry VIII
is also relevant, see p.23, n.2 below.
24
My views on Henry
VIII
are very close to those of G.W. Bernard, no doubt because we have so often discussed the king’s personality together, but see especially his
War, Taxation and Rebellion
, pp.40-5, 60-6.
25
Elton, ‘King of hearts’, p.104.
26
Hall, p.567.
27
Ibid, p.569.
28
Ibid, p.581.
29
Cavendish, pp.11-14.
30
Tyndale,
Exposition and Notes
, p.308.
31
Skelton, p.295, ll.663-5.
32
Calendared in
LP
and
Ven. Cal.
, but for full transcripts see Rawdon Brown. For his first comments on Wolsey see ibid., p.110 (
LP
, ii, 666).
33
See Vergil, pp.194-200 for his account of Wolsey’s rise. It appeared first in the 1555 edition; those of 1534 and 1546 ended with Henry VII’s death.
34
There has been no recent detailed study of Fox, so that E.C. Batten’s introduction to
Registers of Richard Fox
of 1889 still provides the best biographical information. But for a recent pen portrait see Oakley, pp.285-300.
35
Called by S.B. Chrimes, in his
Henry VII
, p.109, ‘Henry
VII
’s ace negotiator’.
36
Tucker’s is the only recent life – though I am not happy with the interpretation.
37
Virgoe.
38
Tucker, pp.68-9.
39
Most notably G.W. Bernard in
Early Tudor Nobility
, pp.21-3, but see also A.F. Pollard, p.109. For a more sceptical view see Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, p.42.
40
For all the quotations above see Vergil, pp.194-200, though I have translated from the original Latin given there.
41
For ambassadorial comments to that effect in 1510 see
Ven. Cal
., ii, 64;
Sp. Cal
., ii, pp.40-2.
42
LP
, i, 157 (PRO SP1/229/fo.8).
43
For these see R.H. Brodie in
LP
, i, intro., xiii f; A.F. Pollard, pp.10-11, 17; Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, pp.25-6; Tucker, pp.94 ff.
44
LP
, i, 157.
45
Tucker, pp.51-74.
46
Gunn,
Charles Brandon
, pp.6-8; Starkey, ‘The king’s privy chamber’, pp.80 ff.
47
Gunn,
Charles Brandon
, p.8.
48
LP
, i, 3376 – Suffolk to Wolsey, 20 Oct.
49
Gunn,
Charles Brandon
, p.8.
50
Very much my own judgement, based on the readily available sources, without the benefit of S. Vokes’s research into the early career of Thomas, the future 3rd duke, which appeared too late to be consulted. But I am thankful to her for a number of conversations on the subject.
51
Richard Fox, p.54 (
LP
, i, 880). It provides a full transcript.
52
LP
, i, 1480.
53
LP
, i, 1852, 1883, 1965.
54
For a full discussion of this topic see pp.178-9, 565-70.
55
Tucker, p.98.
56
Cavendish, p.7.
57
Richard Fox, pp.52-3 (
LP
, i, 880).
58
Richard Fox, p.53 (
LP
, i, 880).
59
Richard Fox, pp.56-8 (
LP
, i, 1356).
60
Richard Fox, pp.60 ff. (
LP
, i, 1858, 1881, 1885, 1899, 1912, 1960, 1976).
61
Richard Fox, p.73 (
LP
, i, 1976).
62
Richard Fox, p.70 (
LP
, i, 1912).
63
Commenting on England’s adherence to the Holy League against France in Nov. 1511, Pollard wrote: The peace party … had received a shot between wind and water. Its mainstays had been Foxe and Warham; but how could they resist when the silver trumpet called them not to convocation, but to war? Henry and Wolsey were at one, but Warham at least held out.’ (A.F. Pollard, p.17). Later he has Wolsey in ‘full control’ during 1513 and 1514 (ibid, p.108). For Scarisbrick, ‘if Wolsey mattered, as he did, by 1512, he mattered still more by the end of 1513. It was his firm hands which had largely shaped the campaign in France of that year …’ (
Henry VIII
, p.41). There was gossip to the effect that Wolsey and Ruthal were responsible for the French and Scottish campaigns of 1513; see Ruthal to Wolsey, 24 Oct. 1513 (
LP
, i, 2394).
64
Recorded in John Taylor’s diary of the expedition (
LP
, i, 2391, p.1059).
65
Cruickshank, p.148.
66
LP
, i, 2367, 2372.
67
Hall, p.569.
68
LP
, i, 5140.
69
In conversation with the Venetian ambassador; see Rawdon Brown, i, p.111 (
LP
, ii, 666).
70
Richard Fox, p.75 (
LP
, i, 2811).
71
LP
, i, 2888 – the draft of a letter from the Council to Poynings, interestingly in Fox’s handwriting.
72
LP
, i, 2611.
73
LP
, i, 2928. It is his reference to the pope receiving their letter of 7 Feb. which suggests the probable date for
LP
, i, 2611.
74
‘We twain,
qui non solum in hoc sanctissima causa verum in omnibus aliis sumus semper unius animi
…’ (
LP
, i, 2611).
75
Richard Fox, pp.114-17 (
LP
, iii, 1122, where it is placed, wrongly, in 1521).
76
Richard Fox, pp.82-4 (
LP
, ii, 1814).
77
In April 1527, when giving evidence about Henry’s marriage to Catherine, he stated that he was seventy-nine.
78
He called himself ‘deaf as a stock’ in a letter to Wolsey, 12 May 1513, implying that he had been for some time (Richard Fox, p.70). The first report of his blindness was by the Venetian ambassador in June 1523 (Ven. Cal., iii, 687), and Batten’s opinion was that it happened in 1521 (
Registers of Richard Fox
, p.112).
79
‘… understand by my fellow, William Purdie, that of late your said lordship [Wolsey] divers times asked of him when I intended to be there, and that finally you commanded him to send to me for my coming thither’ (Richard Fox, p.82).
80
Richard Fox, p.83 (
LP
, ii, 1814).
81
Richard Fox, p.93 (
LP
, iii, 2207, where misdated to 1522).
82
Richard Fox, p.96 (
LP
, add., 185 (10 May 1517).
83
See pp.70-1.
84
In this matter of tone piecemeal quotation is no substitute for reading the letters in full, and I would like to stress how easily this can be done by consulting Richard Fox.
85
Rawdon Brown, ii, p.314 (
LP
, iii, 402).
86
Cavendish, p.7.
87
Ibid, pp.7-10.
88
Ibid, p.13.
89
Ibid, p.195; Ridley,
The Statesman and the Fanatic
, pp.26-7.
90
Cavendish, pp.58-9.
91
Vergil, pp.194 ff.
92
Thus Elton in
Studies
, p.110 writes of ‘the childish flamboyancy, the spirited deviousness of mind, the overpitched ambitions and overcharged emotions which made up so large a part of Wolsey’s personality’. Elton’s ‘Wolsey’ in my view tells us much more about his own personality than Wolsey’s, just as he believes Pollard’s ‘Wolsey’ tells us more about Pollard – and no doubt the same will be said about my ‘Wolsey’!
93
CWE
, 2, p.147.
94
CWE
, 2, p.160.
95
CWE
, 6, pp.62-3.
96
For praise of Henry
VIII
’s court see
inter alia CWE
, 3, pp.86-7, 94-5; 5, pp.392-3, 411; 6, pp.62-3, 356-8, 364-5, 377-80, 387, 405.
97
LP
, iv, 5412.
98
Rawdon Brown, ii, p.312 (
LP
, iii, 402).
99
Ibid.
100
Rawdon Brown, i, p.76 (
LP
, ii, 409); see also ibid, i, pp.79, 86 for the equally enthusiastic reactions of his fellow Venetians, Nicolo Sagudino and Piero Pasqualigo; also
LP
, i, 2351 for that of a correspondent of the duke of Milan, Paulo da Laude.
101
See, for instance, Sir Robert Wingfield’s assessment of Francis
I
in Nov. 1516: ‘He is young, mighty, insatiable; always reading or talking of such enterprises as whet and inflame himself and his hearers … his trust is that by his valour and industry the things which have been lost lettyn and spoiled by his ignoble predecessors shall be recovered, and that the monarchy of Christendom shall rest under the banner of France, as it was wont to do.’ (
LP
, ii, 2536).