Henry VIII

Chapter V

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KING AND CARDINAL.

For ten years Henry had reigned while first his council, and then Wolsey, governed. Before another decade had passed, Henry was King and Government in one; and nobody in the kingdom counted for much but the King. He stepped at once into Wolsey's place, became his own prime minister, and ruled with a vigour which was assuredly not less than the Cardinal's. Such transformations are not the work of a moment, and Henry's would have been impossible, had he in previous years been so completely the slave of Vanity Fair, as most people thought. In reality, there are indications that beneath the superficial gaiety of his life, Henry was beginning to use his own judgment, form his own conclusions, and take an interest in serious matters. He was only twenty-eight in 1519, and his character was following a normal course of development.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · "Nothing," wrote Giustinian of Wolsey in 1519, "pleases him more than to be called the arbiter of Christendom."[282] Continental statesmen w Note 2 · These brilliant results were achieved with the aid of very moderate military forces and an only respectable navy. They were due partly to th Note 3 · His arrogance does not rest merely on the testimony of personal enemies like the historian, Polydore Vergil, and the poet Skelton, or of chr Note 4 · Pretenders to royal honours seldom acquire the grace of genuine royalty, and the Cardinal pursued with vindictive ferocity those who offende Note 5 · Englishmen fared no better than others at Wolsey's hands. He used the coercive power of the State to revenge his private wrongs as well as t Note 6 · Two years after the agreement with Charles, Ruthal, Bishop of Durham, died, and Wolsey exchanged Bath and Wells for the richer see formerly Note 7 · Repellent as was Wolsey's character in many respects, he was yet the greatest, as he was the last, of the ecclesiastical statesmen who have Note 8 · The Evil May Day riots of 1517 alone disturbed the peace of Wolsey's internal administration; and they were due merely to anti-foreign preju Note 9 · Wolsey's "new law of the Star Chamber," his stern enforcement of the statutes against livery and maintenance, and his spasmodic attempt to r Note 10 · For the time he seemed secure enough. No one could touch a hair of his head so long as he was shielded by Henry's power, and Henry seemed to Note 11 · From the earliest years of his reign Henry had at least two serious preoccupations, the New Learning and his navy. We learn from Erasmus tha Note 12 · His book was finished before 21st May, 1521, when the King wrote to Leo, saying that "ever since he knew Luther's heresy in Germany, he had Note 13 · Proud as he was of his scholastic achievement and its reward at the hands of the Pope, Henry was doing more for the future of England by his Note 14 · It was not long before Henry developed an active participation in serious matters other than theological disputes and naval affairs. It is n Note 15 · Two years later Wolsey was abroad at the conference of Calais, and again Henry's hand in State affairs becomes apparent. Pace, defending him Note 16 · Even in the details of administration, the King was becoming increasingly vigilant. In 1519 he drew up a "remembrance of such things" as he Note 17 · The Cardinal "could not express the joy and comfort with which he noted the King's prudence"; but he can scarcely have viewed Henry's growin Note 18 · But these outbursts were rare and they grew rarer; in 1527 Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, remarks that it was "quite the reverse of the Ki Note 19 · A lesson might also be learnt from a story of Henry and Colet told by Erasmus on Colet's own authority.[374] In 1513 war fever raged in Engl