Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/155

] the king's old ministers and courtiers. The Duke of Norfolk, with all his military glory, found himself completely eclipsed, and absented himself from Court as much as possible, though he still held the office of Treasurer. Fox, the venerable Bishop of Winchester, who had been the means of introducing Wolsey, found himself superseded by him, and, resigning his office of Keeper of the Privy Seal, retired to his diocese. On taking his leave, the aged minister was bold enough to caution Henry not to make any of his subjects greater than himself, to which the bluff king replied that he knew how to keep all his subjects in order. The resignation of Fox was followed by that of Archbishop Warham, who delivered the Great Seal on the 22nd of December, 1515, resigning his office of Chancellor. Henry immediately handed over the seal to Wolsey, who now stood on the pinnacle of power, almost alone. He was like a great tree which withered up every other tree which came within its shade, and even the kingly power itself seemed centred in his hands. For the next ten years he may be said to have reigned in England, and Henry himself to have been the nominal, and Wolsey the real king. Well might he, in addressing a foreign power, say, "Ego et rex meus," "I and my king."

The state which from this time he assumed was both ecclesiastic and imperial. His dress, his retinue, his establishment, equipage, and attendance were such as no subject over assumed in any country. His person was tall and commanding, his figure portly and majestic; and he arrayed himself in the richest silks and satins, all of the proper cardinal's colour—scarlet, or crimson. His neck and shoulders were clothed with a tippet of costly sables, his robes of dazzling scarlet, his silk gloves of the same colour, his hat the same; and his shoes were one blaze of silver gilt, of pearls and diamonds. To support this grandeur he had an income which was equal to, if it did not surpass, that of the crown. He had a train of 800 persons, many of them knights and gentlemen, and amongst them nine or ten impoverished noblemen; and many of the greatest aristocracy placed their sons in his establishment as the best school for acquiring a proper courtly style, or, more probably, court favour. All his domestics were richly attired, his cook wearing a jerkin of satin or velvet, with a chain of gold round his neck. Whenever he appeared abroad a person of distinction bore his cardinal's hat before him on a cushion. He selected one of the tallest and handsomest priests that he could procure to carry before him a pillar of silver surmounted by a cross, but not contented with this, which he adopted as cardinal, he had another priest, of equal stature and beauty, who carried the ponderous silver cross of York, oven within the diocese of Canterbury, contrary to the established rule and agreement betwixt the prelates of those two sees.

He was the first ecclesiastic in England that indulged himself in wearing silk and gold, and these not merely on his person, but on his saddles and the caparison of his horses. His enormous retinue on all public appearances were mounted on the most splendid steeds, richly ornamented, but he himself, in priestly fashion, rode a mule, with saddle and saddle-cloth of crimson velvet, and with stirrups of silver gilt. Every morning he held a levée after mass, at which he appeared in his complete array of scarlet drapery.

Whilst the great looked on all this grandeur in obsequious but resentful silence, the people settled it in their own minds that the wonderful power of the priest over the fiery nature of the monarch was the effect of sorcery. But Wolsey was no mean or ordinary man. His talents and his consummate address were what influenced the king, who was proud of the magnificence which was at once his creation and his representative; and Wolsey had a grasp, an expanse, and an elevation in his ambition, which had something sublime in them. Though he was in the receipt of enormous revenues, he had no paltry desire to hoard them. He employed them in this august state and mode of living, which he regarded as reflecting honour on the monarch whose chief minister he was, and on the Church in which he hold all but the highest rank. He devoted his funds liberally to the promoting of literature. Ho sent learned men to foreign courts to copy valuable manuscripts which were made accessible by his vast influence. He built Hampton Court Palace, a residence fit only for a monarch, and presented it to Henry as a gift worthy such a subject to such a king. He built a college at Ipswich, his native place, and was in the course of erecting Christ Church at Oxford when his career was so abruptly closed. Besides that, he endowed seven lectureships in Oxford.

With all his haughtiness and overgrown state, he pleased the people by his summary dealings with great offenders, especially with the detested class of public harpies of whom Dudley and Empson had been the chief. That people of small means might obtain justice, he established courts of request, and made other reforms in the administration of the laws. On many occasions, to settle family quarrels, he would offer himself as arbitrator; and in the Court of Chancery, though unacquainted with the quirks and subtleties of law, he decided, on the principle of common sense, to the wonderful satisfaction of clients. So great was the practice brought into his court, that the king, to enable him to get through the business, established four subordinate tribunals, of which that in which the Master of the Rolls still presides is one.

But, on the other hand, Wolsey's towering ambition and self-will led him to commit equal crimes and injustice. No man, or thing, which stood in his way was safe. His domestic domination could brook no rival; the highest and the noblest perished if they offended him; and his foreign policy was dictated entirely by his own private purposes. The primal object of his life was to achieve the Popedom; and as kings or courtiers favoured or opposed his wishes, they experienced his favour or resentment; and so long as his hold on Henry lasted, his frown was war, his smile peace, wherever they fell. Such was Wolsey at this moment; such he continued for a decade of remarkable years. His eye was constantly traversing Europe. In every court and country he had his secret, as well as his avowed, agents. The most hidden movements were quickly revealed to him, and all his machinery was instantly in motion to promote or counteract. In the pursuance of his objects he shamefully abused the confidence of his royal patron,