THE FALL OF THE CARDINAL
In October, 1529, Cardinal Wolsey lost the King’s favour, and fell into
disgrace. He was forced to give up the Great Seal, sign an indenture
acknowledging that he had incurred the guilt of Praemunire, forfeit most
of his lands, possessions, and offices, and retire to his seat at
Esher[142]. His faithful biographer, Cavendish, gives a very touching
account of the Cardinal’s surrender of his goods, his removal from the
scene of his labours, and his enforced living in ‘estraunge
estate[143].’ Few fallen ministers have ever been in a more pitiful
position. To have incurred the ill-will of his master, as he had done,
meant certain ruin in those days; and besides this he had turned the
people against him by the part he had taken in the divorce. Anne Boleyn,
whose influence at the Court was at its height, detested him for his
failure to bring it about; the clergy and common people hated him for
attempting it. The few friends who retained their fidelity to him in his
trouble were prevented from showing it by their consciousness of the
royal and popular displeasure.
As Wolsey’s servant, counsellor, and friend, Cromwell naturally felt the
keenest anxiety lest he should be involved in his master’s ruin. It has
been already shown that his action in suppressing the monasteries had
made him very generally hated; and now that the prop that had supported
him in his difficult and unpopular task was gone, he had great need to
look to himself, if he did not wish to fall with the Cardinal. That he
was perfectly well informed of the position in which he was placed is
proved by a letter which he received from his friend Stephen Vaughan,
written at Antwerp, October 30, 1529, which tells him that he is more
hated for his master’s sake than for anything which he has wrongfully
done to any man[144]. Another letter from his companion in Wolsey’s
service, Sir Thomas Rush, who was employed with him at Ipswich, gave him
further warning of the evil reports that were circulated about him[145].
It is no wonder that he was seriously alarmed.
Modern investigation has made it certain that there is but little
historical foundation for the touching pictures drawn by Cavendish,
Shakespeare, and, at a later day, Froude, which represent Cromwell as
the faithful servant of his fallen master, unselfish, and exclusively
devoted to his interests[146]. There is no reason to think that
Cavendish, whose testimony is most valuable as that of an eye-witness of
the scenes he describes, wilfully distorted the facts, but it is certain
that his directness and simplicity often prevented him from drawing just
conclusions from them, when he had to do with such astute men as Wolsey
and Cromwell. By comparing his story with the events which followed, we
shall see that while Cromwell kept up the appearance of spending all his
time in helping Wolsey in his disgrace, he really was occupied in
serving his own ends, and in regaining the favour he had lost as the
Cardinal’s agent. Though he carefully abstained from doing or saying
anything prejudicial to Wolsey’s cause, for fear of alienating people by
laying himself open to the accusation of faithlessness to his master, he
really did nothing to the Cardinal’s advantage that did not redound, in
an infinitely greater degree, to his own profit and advancement. Let us
follow the letters of Cromwell, the narrative of Cavendish, and the
records of the Parliament of 1529, for our facts, but let us draw our
own conclusions from them.
‘It chanced me upon All-hallowne day,’ says Cavendish, ‘to come into the
Great Chamber at Assher in the morning, to give mine attendance, where I
found Mr. Cromwell leaning in the great windowe with a Primer in his
hand, saying our Lady mattens: which had bine a strange sight in him
afore.--Well, what will you have more? He prayed no more earnestly, than
he distilled teares as fast from his eyes. Whom I saluted and bad
good-morrowe. And with that I perceived his moist chekes, the which he
wiped with his napkine. To whom I saide, “Why, Mr. Cromwell, what
meaneth this dole? Is my lord in any danger that ye doe lament for him?
or is it for any other losse, that ye have sustained by misfortune?”
“Nay,” quoth he, “it is for my unhappy adventure. For I am like to lose
all that I have laboured for, all the daies of my life, for doing of my
master true and diligent service.” “Why Sir,” quoth I, “I trust that you
be too wise to do anything by my lord’s commaundement otherwise than ye
might doe, whereof you ought to be in doubt or daunger for losse of your
goods.” “Well, well,” quoth he, “I cannot tell; but this I see before
mine eyes, that everything is as it is taken; and this I knowe well,
that I am disdained withal for my master’s sake; and yet I am sure there
is no cause, why they should do soe. An evill name once gotten will not
lightly be put away. I never had promotion by my lord to the encrease of
my living. But this much I will saye to you, that I will this
afternoone, when my lord hath dined, ride to London, and to the courte,
when I will either make or marre, or ever I come againe. I will put
myself in prease, to see what they will be able to lay to my charge.”
“Mary,” quoth I, “then in so doing you shall doe wisely, beseeching God
to send you good lucke, as I would myselfe[147].”’
Cromwell performed his promise well. He dined with Wolsey on that
All-hallowne Day, and later helped him to discharge his servants,
causing his chaplains to pay part of the yeomen’s wages, in return for
the benefices and livings which they had received from the Cardinal;
setting an example himself, with unusual liberality, by a contribution
of five pounds to this end. He then desired of Wolsey leave to go to
London, which was granted, and he departed immediately with Ralph
Sadler, his clerk.
No one knew better than Cromwell that the best place for him to ‘make
or marre’ the Cardinal’s fortunes and his own, was in the Parliament
which was to meet November 3 (two days later), and, ‘being in London, he
devised with himself to be one of the burgesses[148].’ He sat as a
member from Taunton, as the records of Parliament attest[149], but there
are very contradictory reports about the way in which he obtained his
seat. According to Cavendish ‘he chaunced to meete with one Sir Thomas
Rush, knighte, a speciall friend of his, whose son was appointed to be a
burgess, of whome he obtained his rome, and so put his fete into the
parliament house.’ This may possibly be true, but it is not the whole
truth, for a letter of November 1, from Sadler to Cromwell, the
genuineness of which it is impossible to doubt, hints at a good deal
more than is to be found in Cavendish’s account, which must have been
made from Cromwell’s own story about his proceedings[150]. This letter
reads as follows:--
‘Wo_ur_shipfull S_ir_ it may please you to be adu_er_tised that a litle
before the receipte of yo_ur_ l_ette_re I cam from the courte where I
spake w_i_t_h_ Mr. Gage and according to your co_m_maundement moved him
to speke vnto my lorde of Norffolk for the burgeses Rowme of the
parlyament on yo_ur_ behalf And he accordingly so dyd w_i_t_h_out delay
lyke a faythfull Frende, wherevppon my saide lorde of Norffolk answered
the saide Mr. Gage that he had spoken w_i_t_h_ the king his highnes and
that his highnes was veray well contented ye should be a Burges So that
ye wolde order yo_ur_self in the saide Rowme according to suche
instructions as the saide Duke of Norff_olk_ shall gyue you from the
king Adu_er_tesing you ferther that the saide Duke in any wise willeth
that ye do speke w_i_t_h_ his grace to morow for th[at] purpose. In
token whereof his grace sent you by mr. Ga[ge] yo_ur_ Ryng w_i_t_h_ the
turques, Whiche I do now sende you by this berer. As touching mr. Russhe
I spake w_i_t_h_ him also at [the] courte if I then had knowen yo_ur_
pleasure I could now haue sent you answere of the same. Howbeit I will
speke w_i_t_h_ him this night god willing and know whether ye shalbe
Burges of Oxforde or not And if ye be not elect there I will then
according to yo_ur_ ferther co_m_maundement repayre vnto Mr. paulet and
requiere him to name you to be one of the Burgeses of one of my lordes
townes of his busshopriche of Wynchester accordingly. S_ir_ me thinketh
it were good, So it may stonde w_i_t_h_ yo_ur_ pleasure, that ye did
repayre hither to morowe assone as ye conuenyently may for to speke with
the Duke of Norff_olk_ by whom ye shall knowe the king his pleasure how
ye shall order yo_ur_self in the parliament house Assuring you that
yo_ur_ Frend_es_ wolde haue you to tary w_i_t_h_ my lorde there as litle
as might be for many considerac_i_ons as Mr. Gage will Shew you who
moche desireth to speke w_i_t_h_ you. the king his grace wilbe to morow
at night at yorke place. Other newes at the courte I here none but
dyu_ers_ of my lorde his s_er_u_au_nt_es_ as Mr. Aluarde Mr. Sayntclere
Mr. Forest, Humfrey lisle Mr. Mores & other ben elect and sworne the
king his s_er_uaunt_es_. Mr. Gifforde & I cam from the courte togither
but when we cam into london he departed from me I knowe not whither.
Newes I inquiered of him but he sayed he knew none other then as I haue
wrytten you here, which Mr. Gage also shewed him. Humblie beseching you,
if it be yo_ur_ pleasure, to make spede hither. And thus I most hertely
beseche o_ur_ lorde god to sende you yo_ur_ hert_es_ Desire and to
induce and bring all yo_ur_ good purposes and affairees to good effecte.
From london in haste this p_re_sent all Saynct_es_ Day at iiij of the
clocke after none by
Your most humble S_er_u_au_nte
RAFE SADLEYER.’
From this letter then it seems probable that Cromwell obtained his seat
in the Parliament of 1529 through the influence of the Duke of Norfolk.
He was keen-sighted enough to see that at Wolsey’s fall all the royal
favour had been transferred to this man and to Gardiner. Both of these
were Wolsey’s enemies, and Cromwell, whose name was coupled everywhere
with that of the Cardinal, saw that to gain influence at Court, it was
necessary at all costs to do away with their hostility, which he must
have incurred as Wolsey’s agent. Thus Cromwell’s first move at the time
of his master’s disgrace was to take steps to get himself into favour
with Norfolk. Cavendish’s account is explained by the fact that Cromwell
would not have been very likely to tell Wolsey how he had gone straight
over to his bitterest enemy, but far more probably sent back to Esher
the incomplete tale about Rush and his son, which the honest and
simple-minded biographer probably never suspected for an instant. One
can hardly doubt that Cromwell would not have been elected to this
Parliament had he not secured the consent of the Cardinal’s worst foe.
He had thus killed two birds with one stone; he had gained his position
in the House of Commons where his influence would be felt, and he had
successfully escaped the odium of the chief person at the Court, which
would have naturally fallen upon him as Wolsey’s servant, and turned it
into at least a temporary friendship.
From the contents of the letter above quoted, we may also suppose that
Cromwell’s doings in the Parliament of 1529 were ‘ordered’ by the King.
The bill of attainder or ‘boke of artikels’ against the Cardinal was the
first business that lay before the House. It had passed the Lords and
was sent down to the Commons, but it was so violent and so false, that
even Henry and Norfolk relented. It had probably been very clearly
hinted to the Parliament that the King did not wish it to pass, and
royal ‘hints’ at this period of English history were generally respected
and obeyed. Cavendish tells us that when Cromwell had obtained his seat
in Parliament, and the attainder was brought forward, he consulted with
Wolsey ‘to know what answer he might make in his behalf; insomuch that
there was nothing alleadged against my lord but that he was ready to
make answer thereto,’ and he inveighed against the bill ‘so discreetly
and with such witty persuasions and depe resons that the same could take
none effect,’ so that ‘at length his honest estimation and earnest
behaviour in his master’s cause grewe so in every man’s opinion, that he
was reputed the most faithful servant to his master of all other,
wherein he was greatly of all men commended[151].’
This is all doubtless true, but whether or not he was alone in the stand
he made against the bill is quite another question. Henry was perfectly
satisfied with humbling the Cardinal to the extent that he had already
done, and did not wish him to suffer any more; in fact the opposition,
consisting of most of the nobles led by Norfolk and Anne Boleyn, were in
constant fear up to the day of Wolsey’s death, lest he should regain the
King’s favour. If Cromwell had gone openly over to the other side at
this juncture, he would have gained nothing, and incurred the odium due
to a deserter. He took the only generous and right side, but in serving
his master he served himself far more[152]. Wolsey, as we have seen, had
made a written confession of all his misdeeds as soon as the first blow
had been struck against him[153]. This confession was produced by
Cromwell, and it gave the proposers of the bill of attainder an excuse
for dropping it. Cromwell supplied the pretext for abandoning a measure
displeasing to the King, and consequently impossible to carry through
this very subservient Parliament; by so doing he gained the praise of a
saviour of his master in his extremity.
This was the first step: the second was to win the favour of other
nobles, while still preserving the appearance of loyally serving his
fallen master. It was scarcely less important than the first, and was
carried through by Cromwell with the greatest rapidity and success. His
method of accomplishing it, however simple, was eminently
characteristic, and merits description.
It has already been shown how thoroughly Cromwell realized the
importance of money as a political force. Though the traditional
reproach of parsimony and stinginess so often cast at Henry VII.[154] is
in great measure unmerited, it is undeniable that his careful financial
management and accurate audits had served to surround his government
with an atmosphere of ostensible frugality. Henry VIII., on the
contrary, delighted in outward splendour and magnificence; his Court
was by far the most brilliant that England had ever beheld, and nobody
could play his part there who was not prepared to lavish vast sums upon
his outfit. But the greater part of the nobles were quite unable to do
this. It had been an important part of the plan of Henry VII. for
establishing a strong kingship to keep all possible rivals of the Crown
in a state of financial dependence. Many items in the State Papers of
his son’s reign bear witness to the complete success of these schemes of
impoverishing the nobility[155]. Only by pawning and selling lands,
estates, goods and chattels could the nobility obtain sufficient sums to
make a good appearance at the brilliant Court of Henry VIII.
Such a state of affairs was a golden opportunity to a man in Cromwell’s
position and of Cromwell’s talents. To Wolsey, whose mind had been
intent on the larger schemes of his foreign policy, the notion of
staving off the hatred of the influential people about the King by gifts
of money, would never have occurred. Cromwell hit upon the scheme in a
moment, as the only sure road to favour at the Court[156]. Now that
Wolsey had surrendered himself almost wholly to the counsels of his
painstaking, watchful, close and wholly unscrupulous adviser, Cromwell
immediately persuaded him to grant annuities to the Court favourites.
The casual reader must not deceive himself into thinking that this was
done at Wolsey’s own suggestion; the measure was too evidently
Cromwellian to leave any room to doubt its originator, and if any
further proof be needed, it is furnished by evidence in the Cardinal’s
papers. In a letter to Cromwell written in December, 1529, Wolsey says,
‘Yf the desspleasure of my lady Anne be [some]what asswagyd, as I praye
God the same maye be, then yt shuld [be devised t]hat by sume convenyent
meane she be further laboryd [for th]ys ys the only helpe and remedy.
All possyble meanes [must be used for] atteynyng of hyr favor ..........
I comyt me to yower wyse handling[157].’ In the same month Cromwell made
out the draft of a grant by Wolsey to George Boleyn, Knight, Viscount
Rochford, son and heir apparent of Thomas Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond,
bestowing on him an annuity of £200 out of the lands of the bishopric of
Winchester, and a similar gift of £200 out of the abbey lands of St.
Albans[158]. Another letter from Wolsey to Cromwell in January, 1530,
says that, according to his servant’s advice, he has had Mr. Norris’s
fee increased from £100 to £200, and would like to have Sir John
Russell’s annuity of £20 made 40 or 50, if Cromwell thinks it
expedient[159].
It is thus clear that these and other similar gifts were bestowed at
Cromwell’s advice and suggestion, and that the inevitable consequence
was that the advantage resulting from them accrued to a far greater
extent to the Cardinal’s agent than to the Cardinal himself. Wolsey, in
his confinement at Esher, was forced to trust himself implicitly to the
shrewd and selfish counsellor, who moved about among those whom it was
most important for him to propitiate, and soon found means to make it
appear that Wolsey’s favours in reality emanated from him. Cromwell’s
selection of those to whom the presents were made seems also to hint
that he was working in his own interest more than in his master’s. He
must have known that the members of the Boleyn party, to whom the
greater part of the grants were made, hated Wolsey himself too
thoroughly to permit them to forget their grudge for the sake of a few
hundred pounds, but the sums bestowed were sufficiently large to make
the recipients of them very friendly to the Cardinal’s agent, who to all
intents and purposes appeared to be the real giver. Hints of all this
must indeed have reached Wolsey’s ears. Though throughout all the period
of the attainder his gratitude, as expressed in his many letters, was,
in view of the real facts, most unnecessarily effusive[160], he later
writes to Cromwell that he hears ‘he has not done him as good offices as
he might, in connexion with his colleges and his archbishopric.’ But
Cromwell had by this time got everything into his own hands, so that
Wolsey was forced to do exactly as he was bidden. Whenever the Cardinal
undertook anything on his own responsibility, without asking his
servant’s advice, it was greatly resented. If Wolsey dared to hint that
Cromwell was not wholly devoted to his interests, the latter sent back a
complaining and half-threatening reply[161]. The Cardinal was even
forced to write a humble apology to his agent for sending Edmund Bonner
on some mission without his advice[162]. The less able Wolsey became to
help himself, the more harsh and imperious was his all-powerful
counsellor. With the whole control of his master’s interests at the
Court in his own hands, it was exceedingly simple for a man of
Cromwell’s peculiar talents to dispose the funds committed to his care
in such ways as tallied best with his own interests, while casual
onlookers simply regarded him as an honest servant of his fallen master;
and Wolsey, unable to learn the true state of affairs at Court, was kept
practically ignorant of his real designs. Cromwell had thus succeeded in
attaining a most enviable position, which was aptly described in a
letter which he received from Stephen Vaughan, who took the opportunity
to congratulate him, and also to warn him against over-confidence in the
following words:--‘A mery semblance of wether often thrustithe men into
the Daungerous sees, not thinking to be sodaynly opprest wythe tempest
when vnwar_es_ they be preuented and brought in great ieop_ar_die. The
Wynd_es_ arn mutable vnsure and will not be caryed in mennys hand_es_ to
blow at a becke. Parell euerywhere followithe men, from the birthe to
the Dethe, And more thretenethe them whiche entreprise Difficult and
vrgent matters, then those whiche only sekethe easy and light matters ye
thoughe they have great apparance of vertue, such is thinstabilitie of
the worlde, wher we find undiq_ue_ miseriam[163].’
A final opportunity was given to Cromwell to ingratiate himself with
King and nobles when Henry took into his hands the revenues of St.
Albans and Winchester, and of the colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. In
this, even honest Cavendish could see that ‘Cromewell perceyved an
occasion given him by time to helpe himselfe.’ The intricacies of the
law of the period were such that annuities and fees out of the revenues
of these colleges, granted by the King, after he had seized them, could
only be good while Wolsey was living, because the King, having obtained
his right to them by Wolsey’s attainder in the praemunire, could not
retain that right after the Cardinal’s death[164]. Thus, to have the
grants secure during the lifetimes of the recipients, ‘there was none
other shifte but to obtaine my lord’s confirmation of their patents.
Then began every man both noble and gentleman who had any patents out of
Winchester and St. Albans to make suite to Mr. Cromwell to solicit their
cause to my lorde to get therin his confirmation, and for his paines
therin bothe worthily to reward him and every man to shewe him such
pleasures as should be at all times in their small powers, whereof they
assured him.... Now began matters to worke to bringe Master Cromwell
into estimation in suche sorte as was muche hereafter to his increase of
dignity; ... and having the ordering and disposition of the landes of
these colleges he had a great occasion of suitors, besides the continual
access to the King, by meanes whereof and through his witty demeanour he
grewe continually into the King’s favour[165].’
It is hard to realize how deeply Wolsey felt the seizure of his two
colleges. They had been the pride and joy of his declining years.
Instead of working earnestly to avert their surrender into the King’s
hands, as a true servant would have done, Cromwell permitted and almost
welcomed it, as a means to give him a chance to further his own ends,
and wrote empty, and, it would seem, almost contemptuous letters of
consolation to the Cardinal, of which that of August 18 is an excellent
example[166]. Instead of going to his master in his sorrow and disgrace,
as Wolsey repeatedly requested him to do, he held himself aloof, and
under the pretext of looking after the Cardinal’s interests at Court,
contrived for his own rise and advancement. It is true that he stood by
Wolsey in the parliamentary crisis in 1529, and that it was largely
through his efforts that Wolsey obtained his temporary pardon in
February, 1530; but when, at the last, the Cardinal’s enemies turned
against him a second time and secured his complete downfall, there is no
record of Cromwell’s saying a word or doing a thing in his behalf. On
November 29, 1530, Wolsey died, shattered and disgraced.
It is very unfortunate that there still exist so few of Cromwell’s
letters during the last two years of Wolsey’s life. There are preserved
at present only twelve letters from him during this period[167], seven
of which are addressed to Wolsey. In none of them does he give evidence
of a sincere desire to serve his master at all costs; the dominant note
of the greater part of them is one of selfish and rather supercilious
advice; of a morality easy and cheap, because the preacher of it
evidently felt himself beyond the possibility of its ever being
applicable in his own case. There is also very little trustworthy
information about the means he employed to introduce himself to the
King, except what has already been mentioned in connexion with Wolsey’s
fall. Foxe asserts that Sir Christopher Hales, Master of the Rolls,
commended him to Henry, and further affirms that Sir John Russell said a
good word for him, in return for Cromwell’s saving his life at Bologna,
so that the latter was enabled to have a private conversation with the
King in Westminster Gardens[168]. Part of this story is obviously false;
Cromwell could not have been at Bologna when Sir John Russell was
(between 1524 and 1528), because he was occupied in England at that
time, as his correspondence shows. To judge from this, little reliance
can be placed on the rest of Foxe’s tale; and there are no contemporary
documents that bear out his statements. Another story, which is perhaps
more probable, is that of Chapuys[169], who states that at Wolsey’s
death Sir John Wallop attacked Cromwell with insults and threats, so
that the latter for protection procured an audience with Henry, whom he
promised to make the richest king that ever was in England. Henry, it
appears, was so struck with this offer, that he immediately made
Cromwell a member of his Council, but told nobody about it for four
months. This tale is in many respects similar to the account contained
in Pole’s Apologia: but the story of the Cardinal does not mention the
quarrel with Wallop, and the report of Chapuys does not say a word about
the plan for the solution of Henry’s ‘grete matier’ by which Cromwell,
according to Pole, completely fascinated the King. All the accounts,
however, seem to agree that by some means he managed to secure an
interview with Henry soon after Wolsey’s death, at which he clinched
everything that he had already gained, and obtained the favour of the
King by one master-stroke. Pole’s story of this interview contains
information which leads us into the thick of Cromwell’s political
career. Before we proceed to examine it in detail a brief chapter must
be devoted to a description of the actors and past events of the great
political drama in which Cromwell was to play a part, and to a further
analysis of his own character and ideals.