ORIGINAL LETTERS, ETC. LETTER CII. Cardinal Wolsey in his distress to Thomas Cromwell. [MS. COTTON. VESP. F. XIII. fol. 76. Orig.] The Letter here presented to the reader was printed some years ago, by the Editor of the present Volumes, in the Archæologia of the Society of Antiquaries. Wolsey, who knew the talents of Cromwell, seems to have placed great reliance on his integrity and affection. Cromwell, according to Cavendish in his life of Wolsey, became a member of the lower House of Parliament in the month of November 1529, within a short time from which the present Letter must have been written. He appears to have protected his master in the Lower House with great dexterity and address. Fox, in his Acts and Monuments, has related an anecdote of Cromwell which may be worth introducing here. It occurred in 1540, at the table of Archbishop Cranmer, when certain guests were making a comparison of the qualities of the two prelates Cranmer and Wolsey. "The Lord Cromwell being somewhat touched to hear the Cardinal's service cast in his teeth," said "that he could not deny but he was servant sometime to Cardinal Wolsey, neither did repent the same, for he received of him both fee, meate, and drinke, and other commodities: but yet he was never so farre in love with him as to have waited on him to Rome if he had been chosen Pope." MYN owne enterly belouyd Cromwel, I beseche yow, as ye loue me and wyl euyr do any thyng for me, re VOL. II. B pare hyther thys day as sone as the Parlement ys brokyn vp, leyng aparte all thyngs for that tyme; for I wold nut onely commynycat thyngs vnto yow wherin for my comfort and relief I wold haue your good, sad, dyscret aduyse and counsell, but also opon the same commytt sertyng thyngs requyryng expedicion to yow, on my behalf to be solycytyd: this, I pray yow therfor, to hast your commyng hyther assafore, with owt omyttyng so to do as ye tendyr my socor, reliff, and comfort, and quyetnes of mynde. And thus fare ye wel: from Asher, in hast, thys Satyrday, in the mornyng, with the rude hande and sorowfull hert of your assuryd louer T. CARLIS EBOR. I haue also serteyn thyngs consernyng yowr sylf wych I am suere ye wolbe glad to here and knowe: fayle not therfor to be here thys nygth, ye may retorne erly in the mornyng ageyn yf nede shul so requyre. Et iterum vale. a M. Agusteyn shewyd me how ye had wryttyn onto me a Lettre wherin ye shuld adu'tyse me of the commyng hyther of the Duke of Norfolke: I assure yow ther cam to my hands no suche Lettre. a Augustinus de Augustinis, or Mr. Augustine as he is more usually called, was the Cardinal's Physician. In the Cottonian Manuscript Titus B. 1. fol. 365. there is a Letter of his, to Thomas Cromwell, in Italian, requiring speedy medical assistance, apparently for Cardinal Wolsey. It is dated Asher, Jan. 19th, 1529-30. LETTER CIII. Cardinal Wolsey to D: Stephen Gardener, afterwards Bishop of Winchester. [MS. LANSDOWNE BRIT. MUS. 1296. art. 12. Orig.] Wolsey, in the fatal reverse of his fortunes was entirely deserted by the Nobility. In his elevation he had treated them with scorn and rudeness; and the consciousness of this added much to his dejection. When the blow of adversity first fell upon him he seems to have believed that no friends were left to him in the world but CROMWELL and GARdener. Skelton has enlarged upon his treatment of the Nobility in his " Why come ye not to Courte:" "The Erle of Northumberland Dare take nothing on hand. Our barons be so bolde, Into a mouse hole they wold Dare not loke out a dur For drede of the maystife cur, "For and this curre do gnar, For all their noble bloude He pluckes them by the hood, And make to bowe the knee But Wolsey carried his hauteur even further than this; as another extract from Skelton will show, respecting the waiting of persons who attended him on business: "My Lord is not at layser. Syr ye must tary a stound Tyl better layser be found; And Syr ye must daunce attendance, And take patient sufferaunce, For my Lords Grace Hath now no time nor space And thus they shal syt, 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 Collection. 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. a 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 |