‘Wolsey says of these articles himself, “whereof a great part be untrue: and those which be true are of such sort, that by the doing thereof no malice or untruth can be arrected unto me, neither to the prince’s person nor to the state.” The rejection of the bill may be justly ascribed to the relentment of the king, for Cromwell would not have dared to oppose it, nor the Commons to reject it, had they not received an intimation that such was the royal pleasure.’
[164] During the visit of the Emperor Charles V. to Henry VIII. “on Monday at nine of the clocke at night, was begun a banquet, which endured till the next morning at three of the clocke, at the which banquet the emperor, the king, and the Queene did wash together, the Duke of Buckingham giving the water, the Duke of Suffolke holding the towel. Next them did washe the Lord Cardinall, the Queene of Fraunce, and the Queene of Arragon. At which banquet the emperor kept the estate, the king sitting on the left hand, next him the French Queene; and on the other side sate the Queene, the Cardinall, and the Queene of Aragon; which banquet was served by the emperor’s owne servants.” Stowe’s Annals, p. 510. edit. 1615. W.
[165] This instrument is published by Fiddes in his Collections, p. 224.
[166] The anguish and anxiety he suffered may be seen by the letters written at this period to his old servants Cromwell and Gardiner; I have placed them in the [Appendix], as a necessary illustration of this affecting picture.
[167] In an extract from a letter to Cromwell, published by Fiddes, the cardinal says: “My fever is somewhat asswaged, and the black humour also, howbeit I am entering into the kalends of a more dangerous disease, which is the dropsy, so that if I am not removed into a dryer air, and that shortly, there is little hope.” And in a letter to Gardiner, which will be found in the Appendix, he repeats his wish to be removed from Asher: "Continuing in this moiste and corrupt ayer, beyng enteryd in the passion of the dropsy, Appetitus et continuo insomnio, I cannot lyve: wherfor of necessyte I must be removed to some dryer ayer and place."
[168] Stuff was the general term for all kind of moveables or baggage. See the instrument of the king’s benefaction to the cardinal after his forfeiture by the premunire, in Rymer’s Fœdera, and in Fiddes’ Collections. The reader will find the Schedule which was affixed to it, in our [Appendix].
[169] “From the old gallery next the king’s lodging, unto the first gatehouse.” Wordsworth’s Edition.
[170] “Of four thousand marks,” say the more recent MSS. and Dr. Wordsworth’s Edit.
[171] Those to whom they were granted appear to have been the Lord Sandys and his son Thomas; Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir Henry Guilford, Sir John Russel, and Sir Henry Norris. This suit to the cardinal seems to have been successfully brought about. Their pensions out of the revenues of the see of Winchester were settled on them for life by Act of Parliament, notwithstanding the just objection in the text. Rot. Parl. clxxxviii. Stat. 22 Hen. VIII. c. 22.
[172] From the Ital. intagliare, to cut, carve, &c.