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affection to the king, granted very readily * Perhaps the king did recommend Wolsey, but no mention is made of that in his bulls. The king granted the restitution of the temporalities of York before his instalment; for in the writ he is only called the elect archbishop: and it is not expressed that he had the king's nomination. He had Tournay in commendam, but resigned it into the hands of Francis, who for that gave him a pension of 12,000 livres during life: at the same time (July 31, 1518) prince Charles, afterwards Charles the Fifth, gave him a pension of 3000l. It seems he afterwards desired to have it better secured: so in the end of that year (Dec. 16, 1518) prince Charles lodged a pension of 5000 ducats to him, on the bishopric of Pace in Castile. Above a year after that (March 29, 1520), Pope Leo gave him a pension of 2000 ducats out of Palencia, instead of that which was charged on the bishopric of Pace. Besides all this, when Charles the Fifth was in London, he gave him another pension of 9000 crowns, dated the 8th of June, 1522. It seems he had other pensions from France; for, five years after this (Nov. 18, 1525), there was an arrear stated there as due to him, of 121,898 crowns. He had also pensions from other princes of a lower order. The duke of Milan's secretary did, by his master's express order, engage, in the year 1515, to pay Wolsey 10,000 ducats a year; he on his part engaging, that there should be a perpetual friendship settled between the kings of England and France with that duke t.

The French king being a prisoner, his favour was necessary in that distress; so the regent engaged to pay it in seven years' time. But whatever may be in Wolsey's provisions, when the bishopric of Salisbury was given to Cardinal Campegio by a bull (Dec. 2, 1524), mention is expressly made in it of the king's letters interceding humbly for him.

When King Henry wrote his book of the Seven Sacraments, it seems it was first designed to send it over in manuscript: for Wolsey sent one to the king finely dressed, that was to be presented to the pope: and he writes, that he was to send him more, which were to be sent about with the pope's bulls to all princes and universities: one in particular, as he writes, was far more excellent and princely (Collect. No. iii). He also sent with it the choice of certain verses, to be written in the king's own hand, in the book that was to be sent to the pope, and subscribed by him, to be laid up in the archives of the church, to his imRymer, vol. 12.

Rymer, tom. 13, August 5.

mortal glory and memory. The matter was so laid, that the book was presented to the pope on the 10th of October (1521); and the very day after, the bull, giving him the title of Defender of the Faith, bears date: and in a private letter that Pope Leo wrote to him, he runs out into copious strains of flattery, affirming, "that it appeared that the Holy Ghost assisted him in writing it *."

The king was so pleased with the title, that Wolsey directed his letters to him with it on the back, as appears in a letter of his (Collect. No. iv), that sets forth the low state of the affairs of Spain in Italy. It appears it was written (for the year is not added in the date) after that Luther wrote his answer to the king's book, at least after letters came from him on the subject; the original of which he desires might be sent him, that he might send it to the pope and he intended to send copies both of those, and of the king's answers, to the cardinal of Mentz, and to George duke of Saxony,

After the king's interviews both with the emperor and the king of France were over, new quarrels broke out, by which the emperor and Francis engaged in hostilities: but King Henry, pretending to be the umpire of their differences, sent Wolsey over to compose them. He came to Calais in the beginning of August (1521). From Dover he wrote to the king (Collect. No. v), and sent two letters to him, which the king was to write in his own hand to the emperor, and to the lady regent of Flanders, which he desired the king would send to him: for he would move slowly towards him. Thus he took the whole ministry into his own hands, and prepared even the king's secret letters for him. He was with the emperor thirteen days, who gave him a singular reception; for he came a mile out of town to meet him. The town is not named, but it was Bruges; for in one of Erasmus's letters, he mentions his meeting Wolsey in that town, he being then with the emperor. The cardinal returned by the way of Graveling; and from thence, beside the public letter, in which he gave the king an account of his negociation, he wrote a private one to him, with this direction on it, To the kings Graceys own hands only (Collect. No. vi). It seems he had no private conversation with the emperor formerly: "for in this he observes, that for his age he was very wise, and understood his affairs well. He was cold and temperate in speech; but spoke to very good purpose. He reckoned that he would prove a very wise man he thought he was much inclined to truth,

*Ut Spiritum affuisse sanctum appareat.

and to the keeping of his promises: he seemed to be inseparably joined to the king: and was resolved to follow his advice in all his affairs, and to trust the cardinal entirely. He twice or thrice in secret promised to him, by his faith and truth, to abide by this: he promised it also to all the rest of the privy-council that were with the cardinal, in such a manner, that they all believed it came from his heart, without artifice or dissimulation. So Wolsey wrote to the king, that he had reason to bless God, that he was not only the ruler of his own realm, but that now by his wisdom Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Low-countries, should be ruled and governed." Whether the emperor did by his prudent and modest behaviour really impose upon Wolsey, or whether by other secret practices he had so gained him as to oblige him to persuade the king to such a confidence in him, I leave it to the reader to judge.

It passes generally among all the writers of that age, that he aspired to the popedom: and that the emperor then promised him his assistance; in which he failing to him afterwards, Wolsey carried his revenges so far, that all the change of counsels, and even the suit of the divorce, is in a great measure ascribed to it. I went into the stream in my history, and seemed persuaded of it; yet some original letters of Wolsey's, communicated to me by Sir William Cook of Norfolk, which I go next to open, make this very doubtful. The first was upon the news of Pope Hadrian's death, September 14 (Collect. No. vii), upon which he immediately wrote to the king, September 30, "That his absence from Rome was the only obstacle of his advancement to that dignity: there were great factions then at Rome: he protests before God, that he thought himself unfit for it, and that he desired much rather to end his days with the king; yet, remembering that at the last vacation (nine months before) the king was for his being preferred to it, thinking it would be for his service, and supposing that he was still of the same mind, he would prepare such instructions as had been before sent to Pace, dean of St. Paul's, then ambassador at Rome, and send them to him by the next:" with this he also sent him the letters that he had from Rome. The next day (Oct. 1) he sent the letters and instructions, directed to the king's ambassadors (Collect. No. viii), who were the bishop of Bath, Pace, and Haniball, for procuring his preferment; or, that failing, for Cardinal de Medici: these he desired the king to sign and dispatch. And that the emperor might more effectually concur, though, pursuant to the conference he had with the king on that behalf, he verily supposed he had not failed to

advance it, he drew a private letter for the king to write with his own hand to the emperor, putting to it the secret sign and mark that was between them.

:

The dispatch, that upon this he sent to the king's ambassador at Rome, fell into my hands when I was laying out for materials for my second volume *; but though it belonged in the order of time to the first, I thought it would be acceptable to the reader to see it, though not in its proper place. In it, after some very respectful words of Pope Hadrian, which, whether he wrote out of decency only, or that he thought so of him, I cannot determine, "he tells them, that, before the vacancy, both the emperor and the king had great conferences for his advancement, though the emperor's absence makes that he cannot now join with them; yet the regent of the Netherlands, who knows his mind, has expressed an earnest and hearty concurrence for it and by the letters of the Cardinal de Medicis, Sanctorum Quatuor, and Campegio, he saw their affections: he was chiefly determined by the king's earnestness about it, though he could willingly have lived still where he was; his years increasing, and he knew himself unworthy of so high a dignity yet his zeal for the exaltation of the Christian faith, and for the honour and safety of the king and the emperor, made him refer himself to the pleasure of God: and in the king's name he sends them double letters; the first to the Cardinal de Medicis, offering the king's assistance to him; and if it was probable he would carry it, they were to use no other powers: but if he thought he could not carry it, then they were to propose himself to him, and to assure him, if he was chosen, the other should be, as it were, pope they were to let the other cardinals know what his temper was, not austere, but free: he had great things to give, that would be void upon his promotion: he had no friends or relations to raise, and he knew perfectly well the great princes of Christendom, and all their interests and secrets he promises he will be at Rome within three months, if they choose him; and the king seems resolved to go thither with him he did not doubt but, according to the many promises and exhortations of the emperor to him, that his party will join with them.

"The king also ordered them to promise large rewards and promotions, and great sums of money to the cardinals; and though they saw the Cardinal de Medici full of hope, yet they were not to give over their labour for him if they saw any hope of success; but they were to manage that sa

* Vol. II, Collect. Records. No. xlviii.

secretly, that the other may have no suspicion of it." This was dated at Hampton-court the 4th of October.

To this a postscript was added in the cardinal's own hand, to the bishop of Bath: he tells him, "what a great opinion the king had of his policy; and he orders him to spare no reasonable offers, which perhaps might be more regarded than the qualities of the person. The king believed all the imperialists would be with him, if there was faith in the emperor he believed the young men, who for most part were necessitous, would give good ear to fair offers, which shall undoubtedly be performed. The king willeth you neither to spare his authority, nor his good money or substance; so he concludes, praying God to send him good speed." But all this fine train of simony came too late, for it found a pope already chosen.

His next letter upon that subject (Dec. 17) tells the king (Collect. No. ix), "That after great heat in the conclave, the French party was quite abandoned; and the cardinals were fully resolved to choose Cardinal de Medicis or himself that this coming to the knowledge of the city of Rome, they came to the conclave windows, and cried out what danger it would be to choose a person that was absent: so that the cardinals were in such fear, that, though they were principally bent on him, yet, to avoid this danger, they, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (so he writes) did on the 19th of November choose Cardinal de Medicis, who took the name of Clement the Seventh; of which good and fortunate news, the king had great cause to thank Almighty God; since as he was his faithful friend, so by his means he had attained that dignity: and that for his own part he took God to record, that he was much gladder than if it had fallen on his own person. In these letters there is no reflection on the emperor, as having failed in his promise at the former election: nor is that election any way imputed to him, but laid on a casualty ordinary enough in conclaves; and more natural in that time, because Pope Hadrian's severe way had so disgusted the Romans, that no wonder if they broke out into disorders upon the apprehension of another foreigner being like to succeed. If it is suspected, that though Wolsey knew this was a practice of the emperor's, he might disguise it thus from the king, that so he might be less suspected in the revenge that he was meditating, the thing must be left as I find it; only though the emperor afterwards charged Wolsey as acting upon private revenge for missing the popedom, yet he never pretended that he had moved himself in it, or had studied to obtain a promise from him; which would have put that general VOL. III, PART 1.

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