And after dinner, Master Kingston sent for me into his chamber, and at my being there, said to me, “So it is, that the king hath sent me letters by this gentleman Master Vincent, one of your old companions, who hath been of late in trouble in the Tower of London for money that my lord should have at his last departing from him, which now cannot be found. Wherefore the king, at this gentleman’s request, for the declaration of his truth hath sent him hither with his grace’s letters directed unto me, commanding me by virtue thereof to examine my lord in that behalf, and to have your counsel herein, how it may be done, that he may take it well and in good part. This is the chief cause of my sending for you; therefore I pray you what is your best counsel to use in this matter for the true acquittal of this gentleman?” “Sir,” quoth I, “as touching that matter, my simple advice shall be this, that your own person shall resort unto him and visit him, and in communication break the matter unto him; and if he will not tell the truth, there be that can satisfy the king’s pleasure therein; and in anywise speak nothing of my fellow Vincent. And I would not advise you to tract the time with him; for he is very sick, and I fear me he will not live past to-morrow in the morning.” Then went Master Kingston unto him; and asked first how he did, and so forth proceeded in communication, wherein Master Kingston demanded of him the said money, saying, “that my lord of Northumberland hath found a book at Cawood that reporteth how ye had but late fifteen hundred pounds in ready money, and one penny thereof will not be found, who hath made the king privy by his letters thereof. Wherefore the king hath written unto me, to demand of you if you know where it is become; for it were pity that it should be embezzled from you both. Therefore I shall require you, in the king’s name, to tell me the truth herein, to the intent that I may make just report unto his majesty what answer ye make therein.” With that my lord paused awhile and said, “Ah, good Lord! how much doth it grieve me that the king should think in me such deceit, wherein I should deceive him of any one penny that I have. Rather than I would, Master Kingston, embezzle, or deceive him of a mite, I would it were moult, and put in my mouth;” which words he spake twice or thrice very vehemently. "I have nothing, ne never had (God being my judge), that I esteemed, or had in it any such delight or pleasure, but that I took it for the king’s goods, having but the bare use of the same during my life, and after my death to leave it to the king; wherein he hath but prevented my intent and purpose. And for this money that ye demand of me, I assure you it is none of mine; for I borrowed it of divers of my friends to bury me, and to bestow among my servants, who have taken great pains about me, like true and faithful men. Notwithstanding if it be his pleasure to take this money from me, I must hold me therewith content. Yet I would most humbly beseech his majesty to see them satisfied, of whom I borrowed the same for the discharge of my conscience." “Who be they?” quoth Master Kingston. “That shall I show you,” said my lord. “I borrowed two hundred pounds thereof of Sir John Allen of London; and two hundred pounds of Sir Richard Gresham; and two hundred pounds of the master of the Savoy; and two hundred pounds of Doctor Hickden, dean of my college in Oxford; and two hundred pounds of the treasurer of the church of York; and two hundred pounds of the dean of York; and two hundred pounds of parson Ellis my chaplain; and a hundred pounds of my steward, whose name I have forgotten; trusting that the king will restore them again their money, for it is none of mine.” “Sir,” quoth Master Kingston, “there is no doubt in the king; ye need not to mistrust that, but when the king shall be advertised thereof, to whom I shall make report of your request, that his grace will do as shall become him. But, sir, I pray you, where is this money?” “Master Kingston,” quoth he, "I will not conceal it from the king; I will declare it to you, or I die, by the grace of God. Take a little patience with me, I pray you." “Well, sir, then will I trouble you no more at this time, trusting that ye will show me to-morrow.” “Yea, that I will, Master Kingston, for the money is safe enough, and in an honest man’s keeping; who will not keep one penny from the king.” And then Master Kingston went to his chamber to supper.
Howbeit my lord waxed very sick, most likeliest to die that night, and often swooned, and as me thought drew fast toward his end, until it was four of the clock in the morning, at which time I asked him how he did. “Well,” quoth he, “if I had any meat; I pray you give me some.” “Sir, there is none ready,” said I; “I wis,” quoth he, “ye be the more to blame, for you should have always some meat for me in a readiness, to eat when my stomach serveth me; therefore I pray you get me some; for I intend this day, God willing, to make me strong, to the intent I may occupy myself in confession, and make me ready to God.” “Then, sir,” quoth I, “I will call up the cook to provide some meat for you; and will also, if it be your pleasure, call for Master Palmes, that ye may commune with him, until your meat be ready.” “With a good will,” quoth he. And therewith I went first, and called up the cook, commanding him to prepare some meat for my lord; and then I went to Master Palmes and told him what case my lord was in; willing him to rise, and to resort to him with speed. And then I went to Master Kingston, and gave him warning, that, as I thought, he would not live; advertising him that if he had any thing to say to him, that he should make haste, for he was in great danger. “In good faith,” quoth Master Kingston, “ye be to blame: for ye make him believe that he is sicker, and in more danger than he is.” “Well, sir,” quoth I, “ye shall not say another day but that I gave you warning, as I am bound to do, in discharge of my duty. Therefore, I pray you, whatsoever shall chance, let no negligence be ascribed to me herein; for I assure you his life is very short. Do therefore now as ye think best.” Yet nevertheless he arose, and made him ready, and came to him. After he had eaten of a cullis made of a chicken, a spoonful or two; at the last, quoth he, “Whereof was this cullis made?” “Forsooth, sir,” quoth I, “of a chicken.” “Why,” quoth he, “it is fasting day, and St. Andrew’s Eve.” “What though it be, sir,” quoth Doctor Palmes, “ye be excused by reason of your sickness?” “Yea,” quoth he, “what though? I will eat no more.”
Then was he in confession the space of an hour. And when he had ended his confession, Master Kingston bade him good-morrow (for it was about seven of the clock in the morning); and asked him how he did. “Sir,” quoth he, “I tarry but the will and pleasure of God, to render unto him my simple soul into his divine hands.” “Not yet so, sir,” quoth Master Kingston, “with the grace of God, ye shall live, and do very well; if ye will be of good cheer.” “Master Kingston, my disease is such that I cannot live; I have had some experience in my disease, and thus it is: I have a flux with a continual fever; the nature whereof is this, that if there be no alteration with me of the same within eight days, then must either ensue excoriation of the entrails, or frenzy, or else present death; and the best thereof is death. And as I suppose, this is the eighth day: and if ye see in me no alteration, then is there no remedy (although I may live a day or twaine), but death, which is the best remedy of the three.” “Nay, sir, in good faith,” quoth Master Kingston, “you be in such dolor and pensiveness, doubting that thing that indeed ye need not to fear, which maketh you much worse than ye should be.” “Well, well, Master Kingston,” quoth he, "I see the matter against me how it is framed; but if I had served God as diligently as I have done the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs[195]. Howbeit this is the just reward that I must receive for my worldly diligence and pains that I have had to do him service; only to satisfy his vain pleasure, not regarding my godly duty. Wherefore I pray you, with all my heart, to have me most humbly commended unto his royal majesty; beseeching him in my behalf to call to his most gracious remembrance all matters proceeding between him and me from the beginning of the world unto this day, and the progress of the same: and most chiefly in the weighty matter yet depending; (meaning the matter newly began between him and good Queen Katherine) then shall his conscience declare, whether I have offended him or no. He is sure a prince of a royal courage, and hath a princely heart; and rather than he will either miss or want any part of his will or appetite, he will put the loss of one half of his realm in danger. For I assure you I have often kneeled before him in his privy chamber on my knees, the space of an hour or two, to persuade him from his will and appetite: but I could never bring to pass to dissuade him therefrom. Therefore, Master Kingston, if it chance hereafter you to be one of his privy counsel, as for your wisdom and other qualities ye are meet to be, I warn you to be well advised and assured what matter ye put in his head, for ye shall never put it out again.
“And say furthermore, that I request his grace, in God’s name, that he have a vigilant eye to depress this new pernicious sect of Lutherans[196], that it do not increase within his dominions through his negligence, in such a sort, as that he shall be fain at length to put harness upon his back to subdue them; as the king of Bohemia did, who had good game, to see his rude commons (then infected with Wickliffe’s heresies) to spoil and murder the spiritual men and religious persons of his realm; the which fled to the king and his nobles for succour against their frantic rage; of whom they could get no help of defence or refuge, but [they] laughed them to scorn, having good game at their spoil and consumption, not regarding their duties nor their own defence. And when these erroneous heretics had subdued all the clergy and spiritual persons, taking the spoil of their riches, both of churches, monasteries, and all other spiritual things, having no more to spoil, [they] caught such a courage of their former liberty that then they disdained their prince and sovereign lord with all other noble personages, and the head governors of the country, and began to fall in hand with the temporal lords to slay and spoil them, without pity or mercy, most cruelly. Insomuch that the king and other his nobles were constrained to put harness upon their backs, to resist the ungodly powers of those traitorous heretics, and to defend their lives and liberties, who pitched a field royal against them; in which field these traitors so stoutly encountered, the party of them was so cruel and vehement, that in fine they were victors, and slew the king, the lords, and all the gentlemen of the realm, leaving not one person that bare the name or port of a gentleman alive, or of any person that had any rule or authority in the common weal. By means of which slaughter they have lived ever since in great misery and poverty without a head or governor, living all in common like wild beasts abhorred of all Christian nations. Let this be to him an evident example to avoid the like danger, I pray you. Good Master Kingston, there is no trust in routs, or unlawful assemblies of the common people; for when the riotous multitude be assembled, there is among them no mercy or consideration of their bounden duty; as in the history of King Richard the Second, one of his noble progenitors, which [lived] in that same time of Wickliffe’s seditious opinions. Did not the commons, I pray you, rise against the king and the nobles of the realm of England; whereof some they apprehended, whom they without mercy or justice put to death? and did they not fall to spoiling and robbery, to the intent they might bring all things in common; and at the last, without discretion or reverence, spared not in their rage to take the king’s most royal person out of the Tower of London, and carried him about the city most presumptuously, causing him, for the preservation of his life, to be agreeable to their lewd proclamations? Did not also the traitorous heretic, Sir John Oldcastle, pitch a field against King Henry the Fifth, against whom the king was constrained to encounter in his royal person, to whom God gave the victory? Alas! Master Kingston, if these be not plain precedents, and sufficient persuasions to admonish a prince to be circumspect against the semblable mischief; and if he be so negligent, then will God strike and take from him his power, and diminish his regality, taking from him his prudent counsellors and valiant captains, and leave us in our own hands without his help and aid; and then will ensue mischief upon mischief, inconvenience upon inconvenience, barrenness and scarcity of all things for lack of good order in the commonwealth, to the utter destruction and desolation of this noble realm, from the which mischief God of his tender mercy defend us.
“Master Kingston, farewell. I can no more, but wish all things to have good success. My time draweth on fast. I may not tarry with you. And forget not, I pray you, what I have said and charged you withal: for when I am dead, ye shall peradventure remember my words much better.” And even with these words he began to draw his speech at length, and his tongue to fail; his eyes being set in his head, whose sight failed him. Then we began to put him in remembrance of Christ’s passion; and sent for the abbot of the place to anneal[197] him, who came with all speed, and ministered unto him all the service to the same belonging; and caused also the guard to stand by, both to hear him talk before his death, and also to witness of the same; and incontinent the clock struck eight, at which time he gave up the ghost, and thus departed he this present life[198]. And calling to our remembrance his words, the day before, how he said that at eight of the clock we should lose our master, one of us looking upon an other, supposing that he prophesied of his departure.
Here is the end and fall of pride and arrogancy of such men, exalted by fortune to honours and high dignities; for I assure you, in his time of authority and glory, he was the haughtiest man in all his proceedings that then lived, having more respect to the worldly honour of his person than he had to his spiritual profession; wherein should be all meekness, humility, and charity; the process whereof I leave to them that be learned and seen in divine laws[199].
After that he was thus departed, Master Kingston sent an empost to the king, to advertise him of the death of the late Cardinal of York by one of the guard, that both saw and heard him talk and die. And then Master Kingston calling me unto him and to the abbot, went to consultation for the order of his burial.
After divers communications, it was thought good, that he should be buried the next day following; for Master Kingston would not tarry the return of the empost. And it was further thought good that the mayor of Leicester and his brethren should be sent for, to see him personally dead, in avoiding of false rumours that might hap to say that he was not dead but still living. Then was the mayor and his brethren sent for; and in the mean time the body was taken out of the bed where he lay dead; who had upon him, next his body, a shirt of hair, besides his other shirt, which was of very fine linen Holland cloth; this shirt of hair was unknown to all his servants being continually attending upon him in his bedchamber, except to his chaplain, which was his Ghostly Father; wherein he was buried, and laid in a coffin of boards, having upon his dead corpse all such vestures and ornaments as he was professed in when he was consecrated bishop and archbishop, as mitre, crosses, ring, and pall, with all other things appurtenant to his profession. And lying thus all day in his coffin open and barefaced, that all men might see him lie there dead without feigning; then when the mayor, his brethren, and all other had seen him, lying thus until four or five of the clock at night, he was carried so down into the church with great solemnity by the abbot and convent, with many torches light, singing such service as is done for such funerals.
And being in the church the corpse was set in our lady chapel, with many and divers tapers of wax burning about the hearse, and divers poor men sitting about the same, holding of torches light in their hands, who watched about the dead body all night, whilst the canons sang dirige, and other devout orisons. And about four of the clock in the morning they sang mass. And that done, and the body interred, Master Kingston, with us, being his servants, were present at his said funeral, and offered at his mass. And by that time that all things were finished, and all ceremonies that to such a person were decent and convenient, it was about six of the clock in the morning.
Then prepared we to horseback, being St. Andrew’s Day the Apostle, and so took our journey towards the court[200], being at Hampton Court; where the king then lay. And after we came thither, which was upon St. Nicholas’ Eve, we gave attendance upon the council for our depeche.