whereupon Henry replies,—
“Ha! ’tis he indeed!
Is this the honour they do one another?
’Tis well there’s one above them. Yet, I had thought
They had parted so much honesty among ‘em
(At least good manners) as not thus to suffer
A man of his place and so near our favour,
To dance attendance on their lordships’ pleasures,
And at the door too, like a post with packets,
By Holy Mary! Butts, there’s knavery.
Let them alone, and drawn the curtain close:
We shall hear more anon.”
Henry spoke his mind so freely to the Council, that they one and all shook hands with the Archbishop, and, as Strype says, “Never more durst any man spurn him during King Henry’s life.”
Dr. Butts must have had the best practice of any man of his time; there are several references to him among the State papers at the Record Office, of which the following are a few examples, and indicate that his patients were the aristocracy of the day.
25th May, 1524. Among the funeral expenses of Sir Thomas Lovell, K.G., is this item:—“To John Hewson, riding to Cambridge, to fetch Dr. Buttes when my master was sick, 4s. 8d.”
28th April, 1525. The Duke of Norfolk, writing to Cardinal Wolsey, says that last night at 7 o’clock the Lord Marney was “drawyng the draghts of deth, and Mr. Butts determyned he shuld not lyve after 5 owrys” (hours).
14th October, 1525. A warrant was signed by Wolsey, directed to Sir Andrew Windsor, for delivery to Dr. Butts, who had been appointed physician to my lady Princess, of a livery in blue and green, in damask for himself, and in cloth for his two servants.
17th May, 1528. In a letter from the Duke of Norfolk to Wolsey, the Duke says that Mr. Butts had come to him from the King, without whose aid he thought that he should not have recovered from his sickness.
23rd June, 1528. In a letter from Brian Tuke (to Cardinal Wolsey) he speaks of an infection which had been much about of late, and how the King told him that Mistress Ann Boleyn and my lord Rochford both have had it; what jeopardy they have been in, by the turning in of the sweat before the time; of the endeavour of Mr. Buttes who hath been with them in his return; and finally of their perfect recovery.