The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish

First published:The Negotiations of Thomas Woolsey, The Great Cardinall of England, 1641; Life of Cardinal Wolsey and Metrical Versions from the Original Autograph Manuscript, 1815

Type of work: Biography

Principal Personages:

• Cardinal Thomas Wolsey
• Henry Deane, Archbishop of Canterbury
• Sir Richard Nanfan, the deputy of Calais, Wolsey’s patron
• King Henry VII
• King Henry VIII
• Katherine of Aragon
• Anne Boleyn
• Cardinal Campeggio, the Papal legate in England

Critical Evaluation

George Cavendish was the eldest son of Thomas Cavendish, an officer of the king’s exchequer. He was born about 1500, went to Cambridge University, left without taking a degree, and married in 1524. He entered Cardinal Wolsey’s services about 1522 as his gentleman usher. He left Wolsey’s household after the cardinal’s death in 1530, refused an offer to enter the royal service, and went to live on his family estate in Suffolk until just before his death, about 1561. No evidence of the date of his death exists.

He undertook to write the biography of Wolsey in 1554; he completed it in 1558. His purpose was to give the world the truth about the controversial cardinal. Cavendish, a Roman Catholic, felt the cardinal’s reputation suffered from slander and Protestant distortions of fact. The work remained in manuscript until 1641, when a first edition appeared. The first scholarly edition was produced by Samuel Weller Singer in 1815.

The biography is an eyewitness account and its tone is moralistic. It attempts to show the fall of the great by the turn of fortune’s wheel and the sin of pride. Most of the first half and all of the second half of the book come from the direct experience of the author; other portions come from accounts by the cardinal himself and from Hall’s chronicles. Among the factual errors in the Life are the misnaming of some people, some mistakes in the sequence of events, and certain omissions of the facts of Wolsey’s personal life, such as the failure to mention Wolsey’s noncanonical wife, his son, Thomas Wynter, and his intrigues after his fall. Cavendish never mentions Sir Thomas More, prominent during this period. On the other hand, Cavendish has a Renaissance eye for detail: gorgeous clothing, sumptuous banquets, and scenes of pomp and luxury.

Wolsey, son of a well-to-do butcher, went to Oxford, received his B.A. degree at the age of fifteen, was elected fellow of Magdalen College about 1497, and after graduating M.A. was appointed master of the school adjoining the College. He was ordained a priest at Marlborough in March, 1498.

In 1503, Henry Deane, the Archbishop of Canterbury, died. Wolsey then became chaplain to Sir Richard Nanfan, the deputy of Calais, who entrusted him with his money and affairs and commended him to the service of King Henry VII. In 1507, Sir Richard Nanfan died and Wolsey became the King’s Chaplain and befriended Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester, and Thomas Lovell. In 1508, the king sent him to Scotland to prevent a break between the two countries. In the same year, sent as a special envoy to the Emperor Maximilian, in Flanders, he made the journey there and back with such speed that the king was much impressed. In 1509, King Henry, shortly before his death, made Wolsey Dean of Lincoln.

Under King Henry VIII, Wolsey became very powerful and was responsible for diplomatic intrigue playing France against Spain. In 1512 he accompanied the king in his successful campaign against France. In 1514, he was made Bishop of Lincoln. Later, after the death of Cardinal Bainbridge, he became Archbishop of York. When the marriage of Charles of Castile and King Henry’s daughter Mary was broken off through the duplicity of Maximilian, Wolsey secretly laid the foundations for an alliance with France which resulted in negotiations for the marriage of Mary and the Duke of Orleans. In 1515, Pope Leo X made Wolsey a cardinal. In December of the same year he was appointed Lord Chancellor of England. Wolsey worked hard in the king’s service. Besides his duties as a maker of foreign policy, Wolsey helped in domestic affairs, putting down a riot on “Evily Mayday” and earning the gratitude of merchants and rioters, after he had twenty of the ringleaders executed and the others pardoned. In 1518, on the king’s insistence, he was made Cardinal Campeggio’s associate in England. In July, 1519, secret articles were signed by King Henry, Wolsey, and the French ambassador for the marriage of Princess Mary and the son of the French king and for the surrender of Tournay. A splendid embassy was sent to France. Cavendish describes in detail the magnificent supper and entertainment offered. Wolsey supported the French alliance in opposition to the nobles and Katherine of Aragon, King Henry’s wife, who saw the interests of France opposed to those of her nephew, King Charles V of Spain. Although Wolsey’s handling of foreign affairs was not successful, his downfall did not begin until his involvement in the Anne Boleyn affair. Anne was his enemy from the beginning. Cavendish insists that her attitude was unjust, for Wolsey acted according to the king’s wishes. Anne was sent from France to be one of Queen Katherine’s maids. Henry fell in love with her, as did Lord Percy, sonof the Earl of Northumberland. The king came to know of this affair and asked Wolsey to intervene. Wolsey spoke to Percy of the king’s displeasure, but Percy persisted in his love for Anne. Wolsey then sent for Percy’s father and the affair was broken up. From then on, according to Cavendish, Anne was Wolsey’s enemy.

When the king and Wolsey went to France, Anne used Wolsey’s absence to conspire with his enemies. Wolsey advised the king against marriage with Anne, but headstrong Henry persisted. Wolsey then insisted that the king bring the matter of the divorce before the Council. The case was argued, but the members could come no agreement. Commissions were then sent to various universities, and the king was advised to send all the opinions under various seals to the pope for his advice and judgment. If the pope could not come to any decision, he would be asked to establish in England a judicial court directed by Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio; the king and the queen were to appear before the two legates and be judged. Cavendish comments on the appearance of King Henry and Queen Katherine as “the strangest and newest sight and device that ever was read or heard in any history or chronicle. . . .”

The court was held in Blackfriars, London, where the two cardinals sat in judgment. Cavendish vividly describes the participants in this remarkable drama. When the queen was called, she rose, knelt at King’s Henry’s feet, and pleaded her innocence. If there were any cause against her, she said, she was to be banished. If none, she pleaded to remain queen. Then, committing her case to God, she left. King Henry declared that suspicion of his daughter Mary’s legitimacy had been raised by the King of France because Henry had married his brother Arthur’s wife and that the marriage itself was suspect. The next day the King’s Council declared the marriage void because of the carnal union between Arthur and Katherine, but the queen’s defenders insisted that the marriage with Arthur had not been consummated. The king sent Wolsey to try to persuade the queen to surrender the entire matter into the king’s hands. Queen Katherine refused. All efforts of the court to come to a decision were obstructed, mainly because the pope, a virtual prisoner of the victorious Charles V of Spain, refused to annul Henry’s marriage to Katherine. Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio were unable to come to any decision. The pope, not in a position to antagonize the Spanish, called Henry to Rome for trial, but Henry refused the summons. Soon afterward he banished Katherine and, divorced, married Anne. Cardinal Wolsey fell into disfavor, was divested of all his possessions and gifts, was forced to surrender the Great Seal, and had to go to live at Asher, in such financial straits that he was forced to borrow dishes and cups from friends. At this time Wolsey was indicted for praemunire.

During this period, according to Cavendish, King Henry sent frequent messengers to Wolsey, asking after his health and giving him every assurance of the royal good wishes. Wolsey himself kept assuring the king’s messengers that at no time had he offended his majesty or his laws, but that all his efforts were exerted for the good of king and country. Gradually Wolsey’s retinue was diminished by order of the king. Then, during the Christmas season, Wolsey fell ill and the king sent his own physician, Dr. Butts, to care for him. Dr. Butts assured Wolsey of the king’s good wishes. To remove Wolsey from his proximity to Henry, the King’s Council ordered him to move to York.

Wolsey moved to Richmond. While at Richmond, he interpreted for Cavendish a carved image Cavendish had observed of a cow. Wolsey said the cow denoted a prophecy: when the cow rides the bull, then must the priest beware his head. The cow was King Henry and the bull Anne Boleyn and, with the marriage of Anne and Henry, the prophecy was fulfilled. Wolsey was given money to move on to York. At Cawood Castle, the Earl of Northumberland arrived with a Mr. Walsh. Northumberland led Wolsey to his chamber and there arrested him for high treason. Cavendish, standing outside the door, heard the earl make the arrest. Wolsey refused to obey the warrant without the signed authority of the king. On being assured by Mr. Walsh that he did indeed have the authority of the king, Wolsey agreed to return to London to be tried for treason. On his journey back, Wolsey fell gravely ill. He was so sick that his journey was halted at Leicester Abbey. Here a messenger of the king, a Mr. Kingsley, arrived to demand of Wolsey fifteen hundred pounds which Wolsey supposedly had in his possession. Wolsey, extremely ill, begged leave to be excused and promised to satisfy the king’s demand. But soon after, bitterly bewailing his fate and protesting his diligent and faithful service to his monarch, Wolsey died. Upon his being laid out for burial, they discovered that he wore a hair shirt next to his skin. He was buried in a wooden coffin. Cavendish was afterward called before the king and asked about the fifteen hundred pounds. Cavendish told the king where the money was to be found. King Henry then asked Cavendish to enter his service, but Cavendish refused. Cavendish ended his biography with a comment on the mutability and vanity of human desires and the inconstancy of princely favor.