Thomas Cardinal Wolsey

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Wolsey had been living at Cawood for some months, when he was arrested on a charge of treason by Percy, Earl of Northumberland. According to a State manuscript of the reign of Henry VIII, in March 1530 after all his pomp and prosperity including vast accumulations of wealth, piles of plate, and heaps of cloth-of-gold and costly apparel, Wolsey was reduced to the necessity of obtaining a loan of 1000 marks. This was to carry him to his exile in Yorkshire, while his enemies had, by this date, induced the fickle, selfish, and luxurious King to banish his former favourite.

Of Wolsey's residence at Cawood, we find the following in the manuscript already referred to: it is in the possession of Sir Walter le Trevelyan, Bart., F.S.A., a junior member whose family was one of the chaplains to King Henry. Through him it may have found its way to the venerable seat at Nettlecombe, in the county of Somerset, where this manuscript, relating to domestic expenses and payments, for centuries remained.

The entry is as follows :-

"Item to David Vincent, by the King's warrant, for his charge, being sent to Cawood, in the north contrie, at suche time as the cardenall was sicke."

As the sum charged was a considerable amount in those days, £35. 6s. 8d., we may infer, perhaps, that the messenger, whom Cavendish styles his "fellow Vincent," made some stay there, watching the progress of Wolsey's illness, and sending intelligence to the King, who was more anxious for the death than the life of his victim, in order to seize the remains of his possessions.

It is quite evident that the Cardinal was not, at this period, destitute as was thought, and that he had carried with him a very large quantity of plate, of which the King possessed himself the moment he died.

Among the payments for January, 22 Henry VIII., we read, in the Trevelyan manuscript, that "two persons were employed three entire days in London, weighing the plate from Cawood, late the Cardinalles."

Next page: Arrest by Percy Earl of Northumberland

Castle Cawood - Introduction
1 - Thomas Cardinal Wolsey
2 - Arrest by Percy Earl of Northumberland
3 - Wolsey's Illness and Death

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