Trisection of the Circle.—Has the problem of the trisection of the angle been solved? or, if not, is there any reward for its solution; and what steps should be taken to obtain it?
John Vincent Lyster.
[The problem of the trisection of the angle by aid of the straight line and circle, used as in Euclid, has never been solved—no reward was ever offered for its solution.]
Wolsey's Son.—Can any of your readers give an account of a son of Cardinal Wolsey, whose existence is recorded in a letter from Eustace
Chapuys to the Emperor Charles V., October 25, 1529, in the following words:—
"The cardinal has now retired with a very small train to a place about ten miles hence. A son of his has been sent for from Paris, who was there following his studies, and of whom I have formerly made some mention to your Majesty"—Correspondence of Charles V., p. 291.
Cardinal Beaton had lots of bastards, but I never remember to have seen in any account of Wolsey mention made of natural children.
J. M.
[The existence of a natural son of Cardinal Wolsey is a fact as well ascertained as any other fact of the Cardinal's history, and referred to in the various biographies of him that have appeared. His name was Thomas Winter. In Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, vol. xxxii. pp. 255. and 256. note, reference is made to a Bull of Pope Julius II., dated August, 1508, to be found in Kennet's MSS. in the British Museum, in which he is styled, "dilecti filio Thomæ Wulcy," Rector of Lymington diocese of Bath and Wells, Master of Arts, "pro dispensatione ad tertium incompatibile." This is explained by the passage in Wood's Athenæ Oxon. Fasti, part i. p. 73. (Bliss ed.), relating to him. "This Tho. Winter, who was nephew (or rather nat. son) to Cardinal Tho. Wolsey, had several dignities confer'd upon him before he was of age, by the means of the said Cardinal," viz. the archedeaconry of York, 1523; chancellorship of the church of Sarum; the deanery of Wells, 1525; the provostship of Beverly; and the archdeaconry of Richmond, &c.: on which there is a note by Baker, that "this Tho. Winter is said to have held of the church's goods clearly more than 2000 pds. per an." Wood adds, that about the time of the Cardinal's fall, he gave up all or most of his dignities, keeping only the archdeaconry of York, which he resigned also in 1540. In Grove's Life and Times of Cardinal Wolsey, vol. iv. p. 315., among the "Articles" against the Cardinal, Article XXVII. expressly charges him, "that he took from his son Winter his income of 2,700l. a-year, applied it to his own use, and gave him only 200l. yearly to live on." A reference is made in Sir H. Ellis's Letters Illustrative of English History, 2nd Series, vol. ii. p. 70., to a letter of Edmund Harvel to Dr. Starkey, dated from Venice, April 1535, in which the writer expresses his obligations to Mr. Winter, for his "friendly mynde toward him," and begs him to return his thanks.
In Mr. Galt's Life of Wolsey (Appendix IV. p. 424. of Bogue's edition) will be found a copy of a letter from John Clusy to Cromwell, in relation to a natural daughter of Wolsey's in the nunnery of Shaftesbury.]