without a crime, comply with their demand; and therefore, as I am far from believing that those who sit for no other end than to preserve the liberty of the nation, can design any infraction of mine, I declare that I cannot undertake the administration of the government, under the title of King. 1741, Feb. and March, II. Inquiry into the Death of Cardinal Wolsey. THE learned and elegant author of the life of Cardinal Wolsey, Dr. Fiddes, is at all times labouring, whenever it is possible, to exculpate his great man. The doctor is, indeed, a fine and an agreeable writer; but notwithstanding he is so ready with his well tempered mortar to cover defects, yet I think there is one point, very essential to the Cardinal's character, wherein he has scarcely done his hero justice. It is Wolsey's behaviour at the last; when if, according to the popular notion of some, the Cardinal actually poisoned himself, it is very inconsistent with that greatness of mind, for which the Cardinal was so eminent, and which his panegyrist so justly celebrates on other occasions: to be a suicide, at length, argues great pusillanimity; and yet methinks he is but weakly defended by his advocate against an imputation so criminal, and so injurious. I propose, therefore, to canvass this point: and, without any intention of patronising the rest of this author's specious glosses relative to the Cardinal, I shall endeavour, partly by strengthening the doctor's reasoning in some cases, and in others, by offering here and there a new argument, to clear this fact, and as I humbly hope, to place it beyond all doubt for the future. I conceive then, that in strictness we have no other authority for this passage of the Cardinal's life, but that of Mr. Cavendish, afterwards Sir William Cavendish, who was his gentleman usher, and had received particular orders from the king's highness to attend the Cardinal as the chief person about him, and was sworn to that service; * for as to later authors that mention this matter, they all follow Mr. Cavendish, giving such a turn to his words as was most agreeable Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey, p. 138, edit. 1667. 8vo. to their own sentiments: thus Philipot, in his catalogue of the chancellors, says, the Cardinal died, "not without suspicion of poison, which he had prepared for himself, and given to his apothecary to deliver when he called for it." And Baker, in his Chronicle, says, "But whether it were he took it in too great a quantity, or that there was some foul play used, he fell soon after into such a looseness," &c. The former of these authors insinuates, that the Cardinal poisoned himself; and the latter, that he, perhaps, might be poisoned by others, and yet, I dare say, they both of them made use of Mr. Cavendish; insomuch, that the whole weight of the evidence rests solely upon his testimony. But then, on the other hand, it must be confessed that Mr. Cavendish's authority is very great, and abundantly sufficient in this case. His narrative of the life and death of his master must be read it is true with caution, as requir ing some care and discernment; for whilst he relates such incidents as he was not actually privy to, he is liable to the same errors that other biographers are, and consequently has been contradicted upon some points; but in such matters where he was personally present, there is no room to suspect his fidelity, for in them he is a most competent witness, very fair, and very impartial.+ Since then he may be relied upon in such matters as this before us with the utmost implicity, I shall here give you the substance of his narration. * The Cardinal set out from Cawood for London, in the custody of the earl of Northumberland, and Sir Walter Welsh, a gentleman of the king's privy chamber, Mr. Cavendish attending him as his principal servant. They were got as far as the earl of Shrewsbury's, or Sheffield manor, then called Sheffield Lodge, and there the Cardinal staid some days. "It came to pass as he sat one day at dinner, I, being there, perceived his colour divers times to change; I asked him if he was not well, who answered me with a loud voice, I am suddenly taken with a thing at my stomach as cold as a whetstone, and am not well; therefore take up the table, and make a short dinner, and return to me again suddenly. I made but a little stay, but came to him again, where I found him still sitting very ill at ease: he desired me to go to the apothecary, and ask him, if he had any thing would break wind upwards. He told me he had; then I went and shewed the same to my lord, who did command me to give * Dr. Fiddes's Life of Wolsey, passim. Nicholson's Hist. Library, p. 139. him some thereof, and so I did, and it made him break wind exceedingly. Lo, quoth he, you may see it was but wind, for now I thank God I am well eased: and so arose from the table and went to prayers, as he used every day after dinner."* This was the 22d of November, 1529. The Cardinal that afternoon walked about, and seemed to be perfectly recovered; and Sir William Kingston, constable of the tower, coming for him at the instant to take him up to London, he was introduced to him that very afternoon, and the Cardinal said to him, " If I were able and lusty as ever I was to ride, I would go with you; but, alas! I am a diseased man having a flux, (at which time it was apparent that he had poisoned himself) it hath made me very weak," &c. That night when the Cardinal went to bed, "he fell very sick of the lask, which caused him to go to stool from time to time all that night, insomuch that from that time till morning he had 50 stools; and the matter that he voided was very black, which the physicians called adustine, whose opinions were, that he had not above 4 or 5 days to live." However he would have gone with Sir William Kingston the next day, which was Wednesday; but the earl of Shrewsbury advising him to the contrary, they did not set forward till Thursday. He was able to talk with the guard upon the road, (some of whom beforetime had been his servants) and at night he got to Hardwick-hall, in Derbyshire; the next day, which was Friday, he arrived at Nottingham, and on Saturday at Leicester-Abbey; but this last day he was very sick, and was in danger of falling from his mule. He was at his arrival at Leicester so very weak and helpless, that Kingston, who, taking him by the arm, helped him up stairs, said, He never felt so heavy a burthen in all his life. As soon as he was in his chamber he went straight to bed, and never rose out of it after; for on Monday morning Mr. Cavendish thought he began to draw on towards death.|| However he was able to talk with Sir William Kingston a considerable time about a certain business.§ On Tuesday morning, soon after four o'clock, he eat a small matter, and talked voluntarily and very sensibly with Kingston again; after which the usual signs of death began to shew themselves, and about eight o'clock he expired. This is the unexceptionable narrative of Mr. Cavendish; after which, let us hear Dr. Fiddes's representation from * Cavendish, p. 240. + Idem, p. 143, 144. Idem, p. 145. p. 499. "The Cardinal," says he, "was entertained with much kindness and respect by the earl of Shrewsbury, at Sheffield-Park, with whom he stayed a fortnight. Whilst he was there, one day at dinner he complained of a sudden extraordinary coldness at his stomach. If he had any foul play done him, there was more reason to suspect it from those who were charged with the custody of him, than from any attempt that he made upon his own life; his behaviour, from the time of his going into the North, having been confessedly pious, and suitable to his high character and station in the church." Philipot intimates in the passage cited above, that the Cardinal poisoned himself by a medicine prepared beforehand by his own direction; and it is certain that the observation made by Cavendish," at which time it was apparent that he had poisoned himself," was subsequent to the taking of the medicine; but the doctor here insinuates that the potion, or drug, might have been given him in one of the dishes at dinner before ever he took the medicine. But there is no colour of reason for any such supposition as this; for why must foul play be suspected, because a great man was suddenly taken ill? Such incidents as these are common to all, and as the Cardinal had been indisposed before, as I gather from his words to Sir William Kingston, where he tells him that he had a flux upon him, and that it had made him very weak, the meat he eat might the sooner disagree with him, especially if it was improper in this case. But who were they that were charged with the custody of him at this time? I answer, the earl of Shrewsbury; for the earl of Northumberland and Sir Walter Welch, having executed their commission by delivering him into the hands of the earl of Shrewsbury, were both now gone.* But George, earl of Shrewsbury, was a person of great worth and honour, and appears from Cavendish to have been a good friend of the Cardinal's, and incapable of any foul act of this kind. The doctor allows, that the earl treated his guest, or his prisoner, which you will, with much kindness. and respect; he mediated with the king, at the Cardinal's request, that he (the Cardinal) might answer the accusa *Dugdale's Baronetage, p. 283. + Fiddes tells us, the earl assured him, "that God and his friends had wrought for him according to his own desires, that he had more cause to rejoice than lament, or mistrust the matter; and that his enemies were more afraid of him, than he had need to be of his enemies in short, that Sir William Kingston had been sent to do him honour, and to convey him forward to : He afterwards pre tions against him before his enemies.* vented him, out of mere tenderness and regard, from going on his journey the day after he had had that fatiguing night; and it is plain that Mr. Cavendish always looked upon the earl as his master's assured friend. I conclude, it is by no means likely, that the Cardinal should be poisoned by those about him, nor do I think it more probable that he should poison himself: for first, his whole demeanour, as Fiddes observes, was such, as betokened him then to be under the power of very different thoughts from these. Secondly, although I am sensible that poisons were not at this time unknown in England, and that great men formerly would carry with them certain deleterious preparations in order to put an end to life upon an exigence, as is reported of Hannibal and Mithridates, yet nothing of this kind appears in respect to the Cardinal. Fiddes observes in another place, that the Cardinal had no occasion at this juncture to shorten his life; and it is remarkable in the case, that he had taken the medicine before he knew any thing of the arrival of Sir William Kingston, or that he was to be conducted to the tower. And this I think equally material, to wit, that the apothecary who supplied the medicine, was an entire stranger to him, and consequently could not be entrusted by his eminence with a secret of this important nature. The Cardinal in his prosperity, indeed, had a retainer of this kind, but he had no such attendant now; and this person, whoever he was, was either a servant of the earl of Shrewsbury's, or some practitioner in the neighbouring town of Sheffield. Philipot therefore talks wildly, by insinuating that the poison was previously lodged with the apothecary by the Cardinal; for the apothecary here employed was a person of whom the Cardinal had no knowledge. London by such easy journeys as he should command." But in Cavendish all this is said, not by the earl, but by Mr. Cavendish himself; however, it shews, that the removal of the Cardinal to London was at his own request. * Fiddes says, the earl of Shrewsbury had desired that Sir Wm. Kingston might be sent down to conduct the Cardinal to the tower, but that is an inaccuracy; for the earl in his solicitations neither specified Sir Wm. Kingston, nor proposed that the Cardinal should be sent to the tower. + Cavendish, p. 146. Idem, p. 143. "Neither, indeed,” says Fiddes," was there at that time any reasons for his offering violence to himself, but rather many, why, in respect to the circumstances he was then under, he should not be suspected to have had any such design. He not only behaved himself with spirit, and a becoming resolu tion upon this arrest, but continually asserted his innocence, pressed for his trial, and desired nothing more than to see his enemies face to face." § Cavendish, p. 20. |