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 Collection3. 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 moneths since and yet hath 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 6th. and he was installed in it on the 11th, of April 1529.

MS. Lansd. Brit. Mus. 978. fol. 213.

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 that ye have sygnyfied unto hym to my synguler consolacions howe that the Kyngs Hyghnes, 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 maner commyng to the world, ther may be such respect

had to my poore degre, olde age, and longe contynuyd servys, as shal be to the Kyngs hygh honor and your gret prayse and laude, wych undowttydly shal folowe yf ye extende yowr benyvolence 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.

To the rygth honorable and my synguler

goode frende Master Secretary.

LIS
T. CARL EBOR.

LETTER CIV.

Cardinal Wolsey to Dr. Stephen Gardener.

[MS. MUS. ASHMOL. OXON. Orig.]

My owne goode mastyr Secretary aftyr my moste herty commendacons I pray you at the reverens of God to help, that exspedicion be usyd in my presents, the delay wherof so replenyssheth my herte with hevynes, that I can take no reste; nat for any vayne fere, but onely for the miserabli condycion that I am presently yn, and lyclyhod to contynue in the same onles that ye, in whom ys myn assuryd truste, do help and releve me therein; for fyrst contynuyng here in thys mowestea and corrupt eyer, beyng enteryd in to the passyon of the dropsy, cum prostatione appetitus, et continuo insompnus, I cannat lyve; wherfor of necessyte I muste be removyd to summe other dryer eyer and place, wher I may have comodyte of Physycyans. Secondly havyng but Yorke, wych ys now decayd by viij C. by the yeere I can nat tell how to lyve and kepe the poore nombyr of folks wych I nowe have; my howsys ther be in decay, and of every thyng mete for howsold onprovidyd and furnyshyd. I have non apparell for my howsys ther, nor money to bryng me

a moist.

thether, nor to lyve with tyl the propysse a tyme of the year shal come to remove thither. Thes thyngs consyderyd, M: Secretary, must nedys make me in agony and hevynes; myn age therwith and sycknes consyderyd. Alas M Secretary, ye with other my lordys shewyd me that I shuld otherwyse be furnyshyd, and seyn unto. Ye knowe in your lernyng and consyens whether I shuld forfit my spiritualties of Wynchester or no. Alas the qualytes of myn offencys consyderyd, with the gret punisshement and losse of goodes that I have sustignyd, owt to move petyfull hertys. And the moste nobyl Kyng, to whom yf yt wold please yow of your cherytabli goodnes to shew the premyses aftyr your accustomable wysdom and dexteryte, yt ys nat to be dowettyd but hys Hyhnes wold have consyderacon and compassion, aggmentyng my lyvyng, and appoyntyng such thyngs as shuld be convenyent for my furniture; wych to do shalbe to the Kyngs high honer, meryte, and dyscharge of consyens; and to yow gret praysse for the bryngyng of the same to passe for your olde brynger up and lovyng frende. Thys kyndnes exibite from the Kyngs Hyghnes shal prolong my lyff for sum lytyl whyl, thow yt shall nat be long; by the meane wherof hys Grace shal take profygtt, and by my deth non. What ys yt to hys Hyhnes to geve summe convenyent porcion owt of Wynchester and Seynt Albons, hys Grace takyng with my herty good wyl the

a propitious.