Chapter III: Letter XX (2)

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"William Cavendishe his son was in possession of the manor in the fourth year of Elizabeth."... "He was succeeded in this estate by his son William Cavendysh of London, mercer, who, by that description, and reciting himself to be the son of William Cavendishe, gentleman, deceased, by deed dated the 25th of July, in the eleventh year of the reign of Elizabeth, 1569, released all his right and title to this estate, and to other lands lying in different parishes, to William Downes of Sudbury, in Suffolk, Esq."

[Sidenote: His fortune decayed.]

[Sidenote: Married before 1526.]

This detail plainly intimates that decay of the consequence and circumstances of a family which we might expect from the complaints in the Memoirs of Wolsey, of the unequal dealings of fortune, and of the little reward all the writer's "painfull diligence" had received. We see George Cavendish, for a small annual payment in money, giving up the ancient inheritance of his family, a manor _called after his own name_: and only eleven years after, that very estate passed to strangers to the name and blood of the Cavendishes by his grandson and next heir, who was engaged in trade in the city of London. We find also what we have the concurrent testimony of the heralds of that time to prove, that this George Cavendish was married, and the father of sons: but on a closer inspection we find more than this: we discover that he must have been married as early as 1526, when we first find the biographer of Wolsey a member of the Cardinal's household[36]. William Cavendish, the younger, grandson to George Cavendish, must have been of full age before he could convey the estate of his forefathers. He was born therefore as early as 1548. If from this we take a presumed age of his father at the time of his birth, we shall arrive at this conclusion, that George Cavendish the grandfather was a family-man at least as early as 1526.

[Sidenote: A Catholic.]

[Sidenote: Lived in the three reigns.]

To another point, namely, the religious profession of this Suffolk gentleman, our proof, it must be allowed, is not so decisive. I rely however, with some confidence, upon this fact, for which we are indebted to the heralds, that _he was nearly allied to Sir Thomas More_, the idol of the Catholic party in his own time, and the object of just respect with good men in all times, Margery his wife being a daughter of William Kemp of Spains-hall in Essex, Esq. by Mary Colt his wife, sister to Jane, first wife of the Chancellor[37]. Indeed it seems as if the Kemps, in whose house the latter days of this George Cavendish were spent, were of the old profession. The extraordinary penance to which one of this family subjected himself savours strongly of habits and opinions generated by the Roman Catholic system. It is perhaps unnecessary, in the last place, to remind the reader, that what Mr. Ruggles has discovered to us of the owner of Cavendish shows that his life was extended through the reigns of the second, third, and fourth monarchs of the house of Tudor: now the family pedigrees present us with no other George Cavendish of whom this is the truth. And here the case is closed.

[Sidenote: Genealogy.]

It has been thought proper to annex the following genealogical table, which exhibits the relationship subsisting among the several members of the house of Cavendish whose names have been mentioned in the preceding treatise.

[Sidenote: Origin of the mistaken appropriation of this work.]

Supposing that the reader is convinced by the preceding evidence and arguments, that this work could not be the production of Sir William Cavendish, and that he was not the faithful attendant upon Cardinal Wolsey, I shall give him credit for a degree of curiosity to know how it happened that a story so far from the truth gained possession of the public mind, and established itself in so many works of acknowledged authority. That desire I shall be able to gratify, and will detain him but a little while longer, when the disclosure has been made of a process by which error has grown up to the exclusion of truth, in which it will be allowed that there is something of curiosity and interest. Error, like rumour, often appears _parva metu primo_, but, like her also, _vires acquirit eundo_. So it has been in the present instance. What was at first advanced with all the due modesty of probability and conjecture, was repeated by another person as something nearer to certain truth: soon every thing which intimated that it was only conjecture became laid aside, and it appeared with the broad bold front in which we now behold it.

[Sidenote: Kennet.]

The father of this misconception was no other than Dr. White Kennet. In 1708, being then only Archdeacon of Huntingdon, this eloquent divine published a sermon which he had delivered in the great church at Derby, at the funeral of William the first Duke of Devonshire. Along with it he gave to the world Memoirs of the Family of Cavendish, in which nothing was omitted that, in his opinion, might tend to set off his subject to the best advantage. He lauds even the Countess of Shrewsbury, and this at a time when he was called to contemplate the virtues and all womanly perfections of Christian Countess of Devonshire. It was not to be expected that he should forget the disinterested attendant upon Wolsey, and the ingenious memorialist of that great man's rise and fall; whose work had then recently been given to the public in a third edition. After reciting from it some particulars of Cavendish's attendance upon the Cardinal, and especially noticing his faithful adherence to him when others of his domestics had fled to find a sun not so near its setting, he concludes in these words: "To give a more lasting testimony of his gratitude to the Cardinal, he drew up a fair account of his life and death, of which the oldest copy is in the hands of the noble family of Pierrepoint, into which the author's daughter was married: for _without express authority we may gather from circumstances_, that this very writer was the head of the present family; the same person with the immediate founder of the present noble family, William Cavendish of Chatsworth, com. Derb. Esq." p. 63.

[Sidenote: Collins.]

The editors of the Peerages, ever attentive to any disclosure that may add dignity to the noble families whose lives and actions are the subjects of their labours, were not unmindful of this discovery made by the learned Archdeacon. The book so popular in this country under the name of Collins's Peerage was published by the industrious and highly respectable Arthur Collins, then a bookseller at the Black Boy in Fleet-street, in a single volume, in the year 1709. In the account of the Devonshire family no more is said of Sir William Cavendish than had been told by Dugdale, and than is the undoubted truth[38]. But when, in 1712, a new edition appeared, we find added to the account of Sir William Cavendish all that the Archdeacon had said of Mr. Cavendish, the attendant upon Wolsey: but with this remarkable difference, arising probably in nothing more blameworthy than inattention, that while Kennet had written "for _without_ express authority we may gather from circumstances, &c." Collins says, "for _with_ express authority we may gather from circumstances, &c.[39]" A third edition appeared in 1715, in two volumes, in which no change is made in the Cavendish article[40]. In 1735 the Peerage had assumed a higher character, and appeared with the arms engraven on copper-plates, in four handsome octavo volumes. In this edition we find the whole article has been recomposed; and we no longer hear of the _gathering from circumstances_, or the _with_ or _without_ express authority; but the account of Sir William Cavendish's connexion with the Cardinal is told with all regularity, dovetailed with authentic particulars of his life, forming a very compact and, seemingly, consistent story[41]. The only material change that has been introduced in the successive editions of a work which has been so often revised and reprinted, has arisen from the discovery made by some later editor, that my Lord Herbert had quoted the work as the production of a George Cavendish. The gentle editors were not however to be deprived of what tended in their opinion so much to the credit of the house of Cavendish, and rendered the account they had to give of its founder so much more satisfactory. Without ceremony, therefore, they immediately put down the quotation to the inaccuracy and inattention of that noble author.

[Sidenote: The Biographia.]

Having once gained an establishment in a work so highly esteemed and so widely dispersed, and carrying a _primâ facie_ appearance of truth, it is easy to see how the error would extend itself, especially as in this country the number of persons is so small who attend to questions of this nature, and as the means of correcting it were not so obvious as since the publication of the "Ecclesiastical Biography." But it assumed its most dangerous consequence by its introduction into the Biographia. The greatest blemish of that extremely valuable collection of English lives seems to be that its pages are too much loaded with stale genealogy taken from the commonest of our books. Wherever Collins afforded them information, the writers of that work have most gladly accepted of it, and have

"----------whisper'd whence they stole
Their balmy sweets,"

by using in many instances his own words. His facts they seem to have generally assumed as indubitable. In the present instance nothing more was done than to new-mould the account given of Sir William Cavendish in the later editions of the Peerage, and, by an unprofitable generalization of the language, to make his mixture of truth and fable more palatable to the taste of their readers.

[Sidenote: Bragg the bookseller.]

Poor Arthur Collins was not the only bookseller who took advantage of the learned archdeacon's unfortunate conjecture. There was one Bragg, a printer, at the Blue Ball in Ave Maria Lane, a man of no very high character in his profession, who published in 1706 an edition of Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, taken from the second edition by Dorman Newman, and with all the errors and omissions of that most unfaithful impression. Copies were remaining upon his shelves when Kennet's sermon made its appearance. Rightly judging that this must cause inquiries to be made after a book, the production of one who was the progenitor of a person and family at that particular period, from a concurrence of circumstances, the subject of universal conversation, he cancelled the anonymous title-page of the remaining copies, and issued what he called a "Second Edition," with a long Grub-street title beginning thus:

Sir William Cavendish's
Memoirs of the Life of Cardinal Wolsey,
&c.

This has sometimes been mistaken for a really new edition of the work.

[Sidenote: Editions of the work.]

And having thus adverted to the different editions, it may not be improper to add a few words on the impressions which have been issued of this curious biographical fragment. Till Dr. Wordsworth favoured the public with his "Ecclesiastical Biography," what we had was rather an abridgement than the genuine work. But even in its mutilated form it was always popular, and the copies were marked at considerable prices in the booksellers' catalogues.

The first edition, it is believed, is that in 4to, London, 1641, for William Sheeres, with the title "The Negotiations of Thomas Woolsey, the great Cardinall of England, &c. composed by one of his own Servants, being his Gentleman-Usher." The second was in 12mo, London, 1667, for Dorman Newman, and is entitled "The Life and Death of Thomas Woolsey, Cardinal, &c. written by one of his own Servants, being his Gentleman-Usher." The third is the one just mentioned in 8vo, London, 1706, for B. Bragg, and having for its title "The Memoirs of that great Favourite Cardinal Woolsey, &c." It is supposed that it was first made public in order to provoke a comparison between Wolsey and the unpopular Archbishop Laud. These are the only editions known to the writer.

It is printed in the form of notes to Grove's History of the Life and Times of Cardinal Wolsey[42], again in the Harleian Miscellany, and in the selection from that work. And last of all, it forms a most valuable part of the "Ecclesiastical Biography," published by Dr. Wordsworth.

[Sidenote: The supposed edition of 1590.]

It must not however be concealed that mention has been made of a still earlier edition than any of those above described. Bishop Nicholson, in his English Historical Library[43], asserts that it was published at London in 4to, 1590; and in this he is followed by Dodd the Catholic historian. Nicholson's authority is not very high in respect of bibliographical information; and there is great reason to believe that he has here described an edition to be found only in the _Bibliotheca abscondita_ of Sir Thomas Brown. This however is certain, that the commentators on Shakspeare are agreed, that though the labours of Cavendish must have been known in part to our great Dramatist, he has followed them so closely in many of his scenes, it could have been only by a perusal of them in manuscript, or by the ample quotations made from them in the pages of Hollinshead and Stowe. Mr. Malone indeed expressly affirms that they were not sent to the press before 1641. The earliest edition known to the editor of the Censura Literaria, whose intimate acquaintance with early English literature every one acknowledges, and whose attention has been peculiarly drawn to this work, was of that date. The catalogues, published and unpublished, of most of our principal libraries have been consulted, and no earlier edition than that of 1641 found in any one of them. No earlier edition than that is to be found in the Royal Library at Paris. It appears, therefore, on the whole, most probable that though there are undoubtedly black-letter stores, which the diligence of modern bibliomaniacs has not brought to light, no such edition exists, as that which the author of the English Historical Library tells us was published in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and during the height of the persecutions which she authorized against the Catholics. Under this persuasion the succeeding sheets have been composed.

It is possible that Bishop Nicholson may have been misled by another work on the same subject; The Aspiring, Triumph, and Fall of Wolsey, by Thomas Storer, Student of Christ Church. This appeared in _quarto_, 1599.

[Sidenote: Conclusion.]

The writer now lays down his pen with something like a persuasion that it will be allowed he has proved his two points,--that Sir William Cavendish of Chatsworth could not have been the author of the Life of Wolsey, and that we owe the work to his brother George Cavendish of Glemsford. The necessary inference also is, that the foundation of the present grandeur of the house of Cavendish was not laid, as is commonly understood, in an attendance upon Cardinal Wolsey, and in certain favourable circumstances connected with that service. The inquiry, even in all its bearings, like many other literary inquiries, cannot be considered as of very high importance. The writer will not however affect to insinuate that he considers it as of no consequence. In works so universally consulted as the Biographia and the Peerages, it is desirable that no errors of any magnitude should remain undetected and unexposed. Error begets error, and truth begets truth: nor can any one say how much larger in both cases may be the offspring than the sire. I do not indeed scruple to acknowledge, that, though not without a relish for inquiries which embrace objects of far greater magnitude, and a disposition justly to appreciate their value, I should be thankful to the man who should remove my uncertainty, as to whose countenance was concealed by the _Masque de Fer_, or would tell me whether Richard was the hunch-backed tyrant, and Harry "the nimble-footed mad-cap" exhibited by our great dramatist; whether Charles wrote the Εικων Βασιλικη, and Lady Packington "The whole Duty of Man." Not that I would place this humble disquisition on a level with the inquiries which have been instituted and so learnedly conducted into these several questions. In one material point, however, even this disquisition may challenge an equality with them. There is a much nearer approach made to _certainty_ than in the discussions of any of the abovementioned so much greater questions.

There are amongst readers of books some persons whose minds being every moment occupied in the contemplation of objects of the highest importance, look down with contempt upon the naturalist at his _leucophræ_, the critic at his μεν and δε work, the astronomer at his _nebulæ_, and the toiling antiquary at every thing. One word to these gentlemen before we part. To them may be recommended the words of a writer of our own day, a man of an enlarged and highly cultivated mind:--

"He who determines with certainty a single species of the minutest moss, or meanest insect, adds so far to the general stock of human knowledge, which is more than can be said of many a celebrated name. No one can tell of what importance that simple fact may be to future ages: and when we consider how many millions of our fellow-creatures pass through life without furnishing a single atom to augment that stock, we shall learn to think with more respect of those who do."

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] Kippis's Edit. vol. iii. p. 321.

[8] Vol. i. p. 302.

[9] Vol. i. p. 314.

[10] See the marginal references in the Biographia and the Peerages.

[11] Catalogue Harl. MSS. No. 428.

[12] Vol. ii. p. 51.

[13] In his 'Ecclesiastical Biography; or, Lives of eminent Men connected with the History of Religion in England,' 6 vols. 8vo. a useful and valuable collection, Dr. Wordsworth very properly rejected the parenthesis, "at which time it was apparent that he had poisoned himself," which had been introduced into the printed copies without the authority of the manuscripts. The editor of the Censura Literaria once intimated his intention to prepare an edition of this work. (C. L. iii. 372.) How could the press of Lee Priory, of whose powers we have had so many favourable specimens, have been more worthily engaged than in producing a correct edition of this valuable piece of antiquarian lore,--except in favouring the public with more of its able director's own feeling and beautiful essays?

[14] Vol. i. p. 321.

[15] The reader will bear in mind that this passage was written in 1814, when the writer could not, for obvious reasons, have been acquainted with the claims of Mr. Lloyd's manuscript, to be considered as the _original autograph_ of the author. I will here take occasion to observe that, to the manuscripts enumerated above, two more may be added, described in the preface to the Life, which are in the possession of the writer of this note. S. W. S.

[16] It appears by the Catalogus MSS. Anglie that there were two copies in the library of Dr. Henry Jones, rector of Sunningwell in Berks, both in folio: and a third also in folio among the MSS. of the Rev. Abraham De la Pryme, F. R. S. of Thorne in Yorkshire. There was a copy in the very curious library formed about the middle of the last century by Dr. Cox Macro at his house, Norton near St. Edmund's Bury.

[17] See the 'Royal and Noble Authors,' p. 202, and Fasti Oxon. vol. ii. col. 706, ed. 1692.

[18] P. 102 in the present edition.

[19] In the Autograph MS. it stands--"and _after_ Earl of Sussex," v. p. 179 in the present edition.

[20] Milles's Catalogue of Honour, p. 667.

[21]

[Sidenote: A supposed anachronism explained.]

The reader will, it is hoped, excuse the _minuteness_ of this inquiry. We have enough to teach us to take nothing upon trust that has been said concerning this work: and some doubts have been expressed as to the period at which it was written, grounded on a passage near the conclusion. Cavendish tells us that when the Cardinal left the hospitable mansion of the Earl of Shrewsbury at Sheffield, on the borders of Yorkshire, "he took his journey with Master Kingston and the guard. And as soon as they espied their old master in such a lamentable estate, they lamented him with weeping eyes. Whom my lord took by the hands, and divers times, by the way, as he rode, he would talk with them, sometime with one, and sometime with another; at night he was lodged at a house of the Earl of Shrewsbury's, called Hardwick Hall, very evil at ease. The next day he rode to Nottingham, and there lodged that night, more sicker, and the next day we rode to Leicester Abbey; and by the way he waxed so sick, that he was divers times likely to have fallen from his mule." p. 536. This is an affecting picture. Shakspeare had undoubtedly seen these words, his portrait of the sick and dying Cardinal so closely resembling this. But in these words is this chronological difficulty. How is it that Hardwick Hall is spoken of as a house of the Earl of Shrewsbury's in the reign of Henry VIII. or at least in the days of Queen Mary, when it was well known that the house of this name between Sheffield and Nottingham, in which the Countess of Shrewsbury spent her widowhood, a house described in the Anecdotes of Painting, and seen and admired by every curious traveller in Derbyshire, did not accrue to the possessions of any part of the Shrewsbury family till the marriage of an earl, who was grandson to the Cardinal's host, with Elizabeth Hardwick, the widow of Sir William Cavendish, in the time of Queen Elizabeth? If I recollect right, this difficulty perplexed that learned Derbyshire antiquary Dr. Samuel Pegge, who has written somewhat at length on the question, whether the Cardinal met his death in consequence of having taken poison. See Gent. Mag. vol. xxv. p. 27, and vol. liii. p. 751. The editor of the Topographer proposes to correct the text by reading Wingfield in place of Hardwick; vol. ii. p. 79. The truth, however, is, that though the story is told to every visitor of Hardwick Hall, that "the great child of honour, Cardinal Wolsey," slept there a few nights before his death; as is also the story, equally unfounded, that Mary Queen of Scots was confined there; it was another Hardwick which received the weary traveller for a night in this his last melancholy pilgrimage. This was Hardwick upon Line in Nottinghamshire, a place about as far to the south of Mansfield, as the Hardwick in Derbyshire, so much better known, is to the north-west. It is now gone to much decay, and is consequently omitted in many maps of the county. It is found in Speed. Here the Earl of Shrewsbury had a house in the time of Wolsey. Leland expressly mentions it. "The Erle [of Shrewsbury] hath a park and maner place or lodge yn it caullid Hardewike upon Line, a four miles from Newstede Abbay." Itin. vol. v. fol. 94. p. 108. Both the Hardwicks became afterwards the property of the Cavendishes. Thoroton tells us that Sir Charles Cavendish, youngest son of Sir William, and father of William Duke of Newcastle, "had begun to build a great house in this lordship, on a hill by the forest side, near Annesley Woodhouse, when he was assaulted and wounded by Sir John Stanhope and his men, as he was viewing the work, which was therefore thought fit to be left off, some bloud being spilt in the quarrel, then very hot between the two families." Throsby's edit. vol. ii. p. 294.

[22] The reference is to Dr. Wordsworth's text; the passage will be found at p. 77 of the present edition. The same strain of querulous complaint occurs in his prologue to the Metrical Visions:

How some are by fortune exalted to riches,
And often such as most unworthy be, &c.

Afterwards he checks himself, and calls Dame Reason to his aid:

But after dewe serche and better advisement,
I knew by Reason that oonly God above
Rewlithe thos thyngs, as is most convenyent,
The same devysing to man for his behove:
Wherefore Dame Reason did me persuade and move
To be content with my _small estate_,
And in this matter no more to vestigate.

Here we have decisive proof that the writer's fortunes were not in the flourishing condition which marked those of Sir William Cavendish at this period, i. e. in the reign of Mary.

S. W. S.

[23]

[Sidenote: John Wilson of Bromhead.]

It formed part of the curious collection of manuscripts made by the late John Wilson, Esq. of Bromhead near Sheffield, in Yorkshire; a gentleman who spent a long life in collecting, and transcribing where he could not procure possession of the original, whatever might throw any light upon the descent of property, or on the history, language, or manners of our ancestors. He was the intimate friend and correspondent of Burton, Watson, Brooke, Beckwith, and indeed of all that generation of Yorkshire antiquaries which passed away with the late Mr. Beaumont of Whitley Beaumont. Mr. Wilson died in 1783. Cavendish's library was not the best furnished apartment of his magnificent mansion. For the satisfaction of the gentle Bibliomaniac, I shall transcribe the brief catalogue of his books. "Chawcer, Froyssarte Cronicles, a boke of French and English." They were kept in the new parler, where were also the pictor of our sov^reigne lord the kyng, the pyctor of the Frenche kyng and another of the Frenche quene: also 'two other tables, one with towe anticke boys, & the other of a storye of the Byble.' In 'the lyttle parler' was 'a payntyd clothe with the pictor of Kyng Harry the VIII^{th} our sovereygne lord, & kyng Harry the VII^{th} & the VI^{th}, Edward the Forthe & Rychard the Third.'

[24] The authorities for this detail of the employments, rewards, and honours of Sir William Cavendish are to be found in the Biographia and the Peerages.

[25] Life and Times, &c. vol. iii. p. 98.

[26]

[Sidenote: Mary, Countess of Northumberland.]

Though little ceremony and probably as little time was used in patching up these nuptials. As might be expected, they were most unhappy. So we are told on the authority of the earl's own letters in the very laboured account of the Percy family given in the edition of Collins's Peerage, 1779; perhaps the best piece of family history in our language. "Henry the unthrifty," Earl of Northumberland, died at Hackney in the prime of life, about ten or twelve years after he had consented to this marriage. Of this term but a very small part was spent in company of his lady. He lived long enough, however, not only to witness the destruction of all his own happiness, but the sad termination of Anne Boleyn's life. In the admirable account of the Percy family, referred to above, no mention is made of the lady who, on these terms, consented to become Countess of Northumberland, in her long widowhood. She had a valuable grant of abbey lands and tythes, from which, probably, she derived her principal support. One letter of hers has fallen into my hands. It presents her in an amiable position. She is pleading in behalf of a poor man whose cattle had been impounded by one of Lady Cavendish's agents. Its date and place is to the eye Wormhill[27]; but the running hand of that age, when not carefully written, is not to be depended on for representing proper names with perfect exactness, and the place may be Wreshill, which was a house of the Northumberland family. She died in 1572; and on the 17th of May her mortal remains were deposited in the vault made by her father in Sheffield church, where sleep so many of her noble relatives, some of them in monumental honours.

[27] In justice to the amiable author of this essay, who is extremely anxious to be accurate, I think it proper to apprise the reader that the note taken from the former edition of his work at p. 127 must be qualified by what is here stated. In a letter with which I have been favoured, he says, "I have looked again and again at the letter, and the word is certainly (if we may judge from the characters which the lady's pen has formed) _Wormhill_: yet still I think it must have been intended for _Wreshill_, as I have met with nothing else to show that the lady had a house at Wormhill." S. W. S.

[28] Broadgate in Leicestershire. See the Funeral Certificate. They were married on the 20th Aug. 1 Edw. VI., at two o'clock after midnight.

[29] Among the Wilson collection is a list of jewels presented to the Countess of Shrewsbury by the Queen of Scotland.

[30] See "Memoirs of the Peers of England during the Reign of James the First," p. 19. Lodge's "Illustrations," &c. iii. 50-64, and Harl. MS. in Brit. Mus. No. 4836. fol. 325. and 6846. fol. 97.

[31] "Illustrations," &c. Introd. p. 17.

[32]

[Sidenote: Original Letter of Sir William Cavendish.]

To Besse Cavendysh
my wyff.

Good Besse, haveing forgotten to wryght in my letters that you shuld pay Otewell Alayne eight pounds for certayne otys that we have bought of hym ov^r and above x^{li} that I have paid to hym in hand, I hertely pray you for that he is desyrus to receyve the rest at London, to pay hym uppon the sight hereof. You knowe my store and therefore I have appoyntyd hym to have it at yo^r hands. And thus faer you well. From Chattesworth the xiii^{th} of Aprell.

W. C.

[33] Ath. Oxon. vol. i. col. 569. ed. 1691.

[34]

[Sidenote: Original title of the work.]

None of the publishers of this work have given us the original title. I shall here transcribe it as it appears upon the manuscript in the Library of the College of Arms.

Thomas Wolsey, late Cardinall intituled
of S^t Cicile trans Tiberim presbyter and
Lord Chauncellar of England, his lyfe
and deathe, compiled by George
Cavendishe, his gentleman Usher.

[35] Archæologia, vol. xi. p. 50-62.

[36] See page 4.

[37] See Vincent's Suffolk. MS. in Col. Arm. fol. 149, and compare with Morant's Essex, vol. ii. p. 363, and with the account of the Cavendishes in the Peerages.

[38] See page 84.

[39] See p. 100.

[40] Vol. i. p. 106.

[41] Vol. i. p. 122. It is singular enough that in this edition the name of the Cardinal's attendant and biographer, by a slip of the pen, is written _George_. See line 38. It is plain from the connexion that this must have been an unintended blunder into the truth. It was duly corrected in the later editions.

[42] Mr. Grove subsequently (in 1761) met with what he considered "an antient and curious manuscript copy written about one hundred and fifty years ago," and from this he printed an edition in 8vo, with a preface and notes, the advertisement to which bears the above date. It appears to be one of the rarest of English books, and was probably never published: the copy with which I have been favoured by Richard Heber, Esq. M. P. having no title-page. There are other curious tracts in the volume on the subject of Wolsey, having separate titles bearing no bookseller's name, but purporting to be printed _for the Author_ by Dryden Leach, and all in 1761.

S. W. S.

[43] 4to, 1776, p. 116.

The Life of Thomas Wolsey,
sometime Archbishop of Yorke
and Cardinal,

intituled Sanctæ Ceciliæ trans Tiberim,
Presbiter Cardinalis, and L. Chancellor of England.

Written by
George Cavendish, sometime his Gentleman Usher.

------------This Cardinal,
Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly
Was fashion'd to much honour from his cradle.
He was a scholar, and a ripe, and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading:
Lofty, and sour, to them that lov'd him not,
But, to those men that sought him, sweet as summer.
And though he were unsatisfied in getting,
(Which was a sin), yet in bestowing--
He was most princely: Ever witness for him
Ipswich and Oxford! one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and yet so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little:
And, to add greater honours to his age
Than man could give him, he died fearing God.

SHAKSPEARE.

ENGRAVED BY E. SCRIVEN.

AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE.

_London, Published Jan^y. 1, 1825, by Harding, Triphook & Lepard._]

THE

LIFE

CARDINAL WOLSEY.

THE PROLOGUE.

[Meseems it were no wisdom to credit every light tale, blasted abroad by the blasphemous mouth of the rude commonalty. For we daily hear how, with their blasphemous trump, they spread abroad innumerable lies, without either shame or honesty, which _primâ facie_ showeth forth a visage of truth, as though it were a perfect verity and matter indeed, whereas there is nothing more untrue. And amongst the wise sort so it is esteemed, with whom those babblings be of small force and effect.

Forsooth I have read the exclamations of divers worthy and notable authors, made against such false rumours and fond opinions of the fantastical commonalty, who delighteth in nothing more than to hear strange things, and to see new alterations of authorities; rejoicing sometimes in such new fantasies, which afterwards give them more occasion of repentance than of joyfulness. Thus may all men of wisdom and discretion understand the temerous madness of the rude commonalty, and not give to them too hasty credit of every sudden rumour, until the truth be perfectly known by the report of some approved and credible person, that ought to have thereof true intelligence. I have heard and also seen set forth in divers printed books some untrue imaginations, after the death of divers persons, which in their life were of great estimation, that were invented rather to bring their honest names into infamy and perpetual slander of the common multitude, than otherwise.

The occasion therefore that maketh me to rehearse all these things is this; for as much as I intend, God willing, to write here some part of the proceedings of][44] Legate and Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and of his ascending and descending from honorous estate; whereof some part shall be of mine own knowledge, and some of other person's information.

Forsooth this cardinal was my lord and master, whom in his life I served, and so remained with him, after his fall, continually, during the term of all his trouble, until he died; as well in the south as in the north parts, and noted all his demeanor and usage in all that time; as also in his wealthy triumph and glorious estate. And since his death I have heard diverse sundry surmises and imagined tales, made of his proceedings and doings, which I myself have perfectly known to be most untrue; unto the which I could have sufficiently answered according to truth, but, as me seemeth, then it was much better for me to suffer, and dissemble the matter, and the same to remain still as lies, than to reply against their untruth, of whom I might, for my boldness, sooner have kindled a great flame of displeasure, than to quench one spark of their malicious untruth. Therefore I commit the truth to Him who knoweth all things. For, whatsoever any man hath conceived in him when he lived, or since his death, thus much I dare be bold to say, without displeasure to any person, or of affection, that in my judgment I never saw this realm in better order, quietness, and obedience, than it was in the time of his authority and rule, ne justice better ministered with indifferency; as I could evidently prove, if I should not be accused of too much affection, or else that I set forth more than truth. I will therefore here desist to speak any more in his commendation, and proceed farther to his original beginning [and] ascending by fortune's favour to high honours, dignities, promotions, and riches.

_Finis quod G. C._

* * * * *

Truth it is, Cardinal Wolsey, sometime Archbishop of York, was an honest poor man's son[45], born in Ipswich, within the county of Suffolk; and being but a child, was very apt to learning; by means whereof his parents, or his good friends and masters, conveyed him to the University of Oxford, where he prospered so in learning, that, as he told me [in] his own person, he was called the boy-bachellor, forasmuch as he was made Bachellor of Arts at fifteen years of age, which was a rare thing, and seldom seen.

Thus prospering and increasing in learning, [he] was made Fellow of Magdalen College, and after appointed, for his learning, to be schoolmaster there; at which time the Lord Marquess Dorset had three of his sons there at school with him, committing as well unto him their virtuous education, as their instruction and learning. It pleased the said marquess against a Christmas season, to send as well for the schoolmaster as for his children, home to his house, for their recreation in that pleasant and honourable feast. They being then there, my lord their father perceived them to be right well employed in learning, for their time: which contented him so well, that he having a benefice[46] in his gift, being at that time void, gave the same to the schoolmaster, in reward for his diligence, at his departing after Christmas upon his return to the University. And having the presentation thereof [he] repaired to the ordinary for his institution and induction; then being fully furnished of all necessary instruments at the ordinary's hands for his preferment, he made speed without any farther delay to the said benefice to take thereof possession. And being there for that intent, one Sir Amyas Pawlet, knight, dwelling in the country thereabout, took an occasion of displeasure against him, upon what ground I know not[47]: but, sir, by your leave, he was so bold to set the schoolmaster by the feet during his pleasure; the which was afterward neither forgotten nor forgiven. For when the schoolmaster mounted the dignity to be Chancellor of England, he was not oblivious of the old displeasure ministered unto him by master Pawlet, but sent for him, and after many sharp and heinous words, enjoined him to attend upon the council until he were by them dismissed, and not to depart without license, upon an urgent pain and forfeiture: so that he continued within the Middle Temple, the space of five or six years, or more; whose lodging there was in the gate-house next the street, which he reedified very sumptuously, garnishing the same, on the outside thereof, with cardinals' hats and arms, badges and cognisaunces of the cardinal, with divers other devices, in so glorious a sort, that he thought thereby to have appeased his old unkind displeasure.

Now may this be a good example and precedent to men in authority, which will sometimes work their will without wit, to remember in their authority, how authority may decay; and [those] whom they punish of will more than of justice, may after be advanced in the public weal to high dignities and governance, and they based as low, who will then seek the means to be revenged of old wrongs sustained wrongfully before. Who would have thought then, when Sir Amyas Pawlet punished this poor scholar, that ever he should have attained to be Chancellor of England, considering his baseness in every condition. These be wonderful works of God, and fortune. Therefore I would wish all men in authority and dignity to know and fear God in all their triumphs and glory; considering in all their doings, that authorities be not permanent, but may slide and vanish, as princes' pleasures do alter and change.

Then as all living things must of very necessity pay the due debt of nature, which no earthly creature can resist, it chanced my said Lord Marquess to depart out of this present life[48]. After whose death this schoolmaster, considering then with himself to be but a small beneficed man, and to have lost his fellowship in the College (for, as I understand, if a fellow of that college be once promoted to a benefice he shall by the rules of the house be dismissed of his fellowship), and perceiving himself also to be destitute of his singular good lord, thought not to be long unprovided of some other succour or staff, to defend him from all such harms, as he lately sustained.

And in his travail thereabout, he fell in acquaintance with one Sir John Nanphant[49], a very grave and ancient knight, who had a great room[50] in Calais under King Henry the Seventh. This knight he served, and behaved him so discreetly, and justly, that he obtained the especial favour of his said master; insomuch that for his wit, gravity, and just behaviour, he committed all the charge of his office unto his chaplain. And, as I understand, the office was the treasurership of Calais, who was, in consideration of his great age, discharged of his chargeable room, and returned again into England, intending to live more at quiet. And through his instant labour and especial favour his chaplain was promoted to the king's service, and made his chaplain. And when he had once cast anchor in the port of promotion, how he wrought, I shall somewhat declare.

He, having then a just occasion to be in the present sight of the king daily, by reason he attended, and said mass before his grace in his private closet, and that done he spent not the day forth in vain idleness, but gave his attendance upon those whom he thought to bear most rule in the council, and to be most in favour with the king, the which at that time were Doctor Fox, Bishop of Winchester, then secretary and lord privy seal, and also Sir Thomas Lovell, knight, a very sage counsellor, and witty; being master of the king's wards, and constable of the Tower[51].

These ancient and grave counsellors in process of time after often resort, perceived this chaplain to have a very fine wit, and what wisdom was in his head, thought [him] a meet and an apt person to be preferred to witty affairs.

It chanced at a certain season that the king had an urgent occasion to send an ambassador unto the emperor Maximilian[52], who lay at that present in the Low Country of Flanders, not far from Calais. The Bishop of Winchester, and Sir Thomas Lovell, whom the king most highly esteemed, as chief among his counsellors (the king one day counselling and debating with them upon this embassy), saw they had a convenient occasion to prefer the king's chaplain, whose excellent wit, eloquence[53], and learning they highly commended to the king. The king giving ear unto them, and being a prince of an excellent judgment and modesty, commanded [them] to bring his chaplain, whom they so much commended, before his grace's presence. At whose repair [thither] to prove the wit of his chaplain, the king fell in communication with him in matters of weight and gravity: and, perceiving his wit to be very fine, thought him sufficient to be put in authority and trust with this embassy; [and] commanded him thereupon to prepare himself to this enterprise and journey, and for his depeche[54], to repair to his grace and his trusty counsellors aforesaid, of whom he should receive his commission and instructions. By means whereof he had then a due occasion to repair from time to time into the king's presence, who perceived him more and more to be a very wise man, and of a good entendment[55]. And having his depeche, [he] took his leave of the king at Richmond about noon, and so came to London with speed [about four of the clock[56]], where then the barge of Gravesend was ready to launch forth, both with a prosperous tide and wind. Without any farther abode he entered the barge, and so passed forth. His happy speed was such that he arrived at Gravesend within little more than three hours; where he tarried no longer than his post horses were provided; and travelling so speedily with post horses, that he came to Dover the next morning early, whereas the passengers[57] were ready under sail displayed, to sail to Calais. Into which passengers without any farther abode he entered, and sailed forth with them, [so] that he arrived at Calais within three hours, and having there post horses in a readiness, departed incontinent, making such hasty speed, that he was that night with the emperor; who, having understanding of the coming of the King of England's ambassador, would in no wise defer the time, but sent incontinent for him (his affection unto King Henry the Seventh was such, that he rejoiced when he had an occasion to show him pleasure). The ambassador having opportunity, disclosed the sum of his embassy unto the emperor, of whom he required speedy expedition, the which was granted; so that the next day he was clearly dispatched, with all the king's requests fully accomplished. At which time he made no farther tarriance, but with post horses rode incontinent that night toward Calais again, conducted thither with such number of horsemen as the emperor had appointed, and [was] at the opening of the gates there, where the passengers were as ready to return into England as they were before in his advancing; insomuch that he arrived at Dover by ten of the clock before noon; and having post horses in a readiness, came to the court at Richmond that night. Where he taking his rest for that time until the morning, repaired to the king at his first coming out of his grace's bedchamber, toward his closet to hear mass. Whom (when he saw) [he] checked him for that he was not past on his journey. "Sir," quoth he, "if it may stand with your highness' pleasure, I have already been with the emperor, and dispatched your affairs, I trust, to your grace's contentation." And with that delivered unto the king the emperor's letters of credence. The king, being in a great confuse and wonder of his hasty speed with ready furniture of all his proceedings, dissimuled all his imagination and wonder in that matter, and demanded of him, whether he encountered not his pursuivant, the which he sent unto him (supposing him not to be scantly out of London) with letters concerning a very necessary cause, neglected in his commission and instructions, the which the king coveted much to be sped. "Yes, forsooth, Sire," quoth he, "I encountered him yesterday by the way: and, having no understanding by your grace's letters of your pleasure therein, have, notwithstanding, been so bold, upon mine own discretion (perceiving that matter to be very necessary in that behalf) to dispatch the same. And for as much as I have exceeded your grace's commission, I most humbly require your gracious remission and pardon." The king rejoicing inwardly not a little, said again, "We do not only pardon you thereof, but also give you our princely thanks, both for the proceeding therein, and also for your good and speedy exploit[58]," commanding him for that time to take his rest, and to repair again to him after dinner, for the farther relation of his embassy. The king then went to mass; and after at convenient time he went to dinner.

It is not to be doubted but that this ambassador hath been since his return with his great friends, the Bishop of Winchester, and Sir Thomas Lovell, to whom he hath declared the effect of all his speedy progress; nor yet what joy they conceived thereof. And after his departure from the king in the morning, his highness sent for the bishop, and Sir Thomas Lovell; to whom he declared the wonderful expedition of his ambassador, commending therewith his excellent wit, and in especial the invention and advancing of the matter left out of his commission and instructions. The king's words rejoiced these worthy counsellors not a little, for as much as he was of their preferment.

Then when this ambassador remembered the king's commandment, and saw the time draw fast on of his repair before the king and his council, [he] prepared him in a readiness, and resorted unto the place assigned by the king, to declare his embassy. Without all doubt he reported the effect of all his affairs and proceedings so exactly, with such gravity and eloquence that all the council that heard him could do no less but commend him, esteeming his expedition to be almost beyond the capacity of man. The king of his mere motion, and gracious consideration, gave him at that time for his diligent and faithful service, the deanery of Lincoln[59], which at that time was one of the worthiest spiritual promotions that he gave under the degree of a bishoprick. And thus from thenceforward he grew more and more into estimation and authority, and after [was] promoted by the king to be his almoner. Here may all men note the chances of fortune, that followeth some whom she listeth to promote, and even so to some her favour is contrary, though they should travail never so much, with [all the] urgent diligence and painful study, that they could devise or imagine: whereof, for my part, I have tasted of the experience.

Now ye shall understand that all this tale that I have declared of his good expedition in the king's embassy, I received it of his own mouth and report, after his fall, lying at that time in the great park of Richmond, I being then there attending upon him; taking an occasion upon divers communications, to tell me this journey, with all the circumstances, as I have here before rehearsed.

FROM AN ORIGINAL PICTURE BY HOLBEIN.

IN THE COLLECTION OF BARRET BRYDGES ESQ.

AT LEE PRIORY IN KENT.

_London, Published Jan^y. 1, 1825; by Harding, Triphook & Lepard._]

When death (that favoureth none estate, king or keiser) had taken that prudent prince Henry the Seventh out of this present life (on whose soul Jesu have mercy!) who for his inestimable wisdom was noted and called, in every Christian region, the second Solomon, what practices, inventions, and compasses were then used about that young prince, King Henry the Eighth, his only son, and the great provision made for the funerals of the one, and the costly devices for the coronation of the other, with that virtuous Queen Catherine[60], then the king's wife newly married. I omit and leave the circumstances thereof to historiographers of chronicles of princes, the which is no part mine intendment.

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The Life of Cardinal WolseyChapter III: Letter XX (2)

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