[Illustration: QUEEN ANNE BOLEYN. ENGRAVED BY E. SCRIVEN, AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE BY HOLBEIN. _London, Published Jan. 1, 1825, by Harding, Triphook & Lepard._] THE LIFE OF CARDINAL WOLSEY. BY GEORGE CAVENDISH, HIS GENTLEMAN USHER. FROM THE ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT. WITH NOTES AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS, BY SAMUEL WELLER SINGER, F.S.A. [Illustration] _SECOND EDITION._ LONDON: PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, FOR HARDING AND LEPARD, PALL MALL EAST. MDCCCXXVII. [Illustration] TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, THIS REVIVAL OF A MOST INTERESTING SPECIMEN OF COTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY, BY HIS COLLATERAL ANCESTOR GEORGE CAVENDISH, IS WITH PERMISSION DEDICATED BY HIS GRACE'S OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANT, S. W. SINGER. PREFACE. Perhaps few periods of English history are more remarkable than that which comprised the fortunes of Wolsey; a period which had to boast the most illustrious potentates who have ever filled the thrones of Europe. The age of Henry was also that of Leo, of Charles, and of Francis:--a period big with political events of singular interest:--the captivity of the French monarch and of the Roman Pontiff,--the sacking of Rome,--the divorce of Queen Katherine,--and the train of circumstances which led the way to the Reformation,--Events in which Wolsey's hand may be often traced, and in some of which he was a principal actor. The record of his life and its vicissitudes,--his humble origin--his towering fortunes, and his sudden fall,--could not well fail of interesting even in ordinary hands:--But he has been extremely fortunate in his biographer. The narrative contained in the following pages, of course, only affords a glance at these events; it is not the work of a professed historiographer, but the production of a simple-hearted and honest eyewitness of what he relates. George Cavendish was the faithful attendant of this princely prelate in his triumphant as well as in his declining fortunes:--One who failed him not in his adversity, but shed over his fallen master the tears of affection, performed for him the last sad offices of humanity, and then in his retirement sat down with honest indignation to vindicate him from slander, and to transmit to future ages a faithful picture of his life, with a sacred regard to truth. It is this circumstance which renders his work so much more interesting than any thing of a similar kind with which I am acquainted. We are here occasionally introduced to the secret recesses of the private life of one of the most distinguished statesmen the world ever saw; of one who not only divided the sway of empire with his monarch, but who governed or influenced the conduct alternately of France and Spain; whose power for a time was almost unlimited, and whose magnificence has never been exceeded.