Wolsey's Illness and Death
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The above State manuscript shows that Sir William Kingston, Captain of the Guard, was sent to arrest the Cardinal, and that £40 were paid to Kingston in November, 1530, for the expense of the journey, as follows:
"Item, to Sir William Kingston, Knight-captain of the Kings garde, sent to Merle of Shrewsbury with divers of the King's garde, for the conveyance of the Cardinal of Yorke to the Tower of London, in prest for their charges"
The Cardinal was taken ill on the road. The Earl of Shrewsbury encouraged him to hope for recovery, but Wolsey replied, that he could not live, and spoke learnedly about his ailment, dysentery, which he said, within eight days, if there were no change, would necessarily produce "excoriation of the entrails, or delirium, or death."
This was on the eighth day, when he confidently expected his death; and he died after the clock had struck eight, according to his own prediction; "the very hour," says Shakspeare, "himself had foretold would be his last." He had reached Leicester three days previously.
Wolsey's misfortunes, and the conversation of some devout and mortified Carthusians, appear to have awakened the first sense of pure religion in his mind. During his retreat at Cawood, while the King was persecuting him with one refinement of ingenious cruelty after another, he remained calm and composed; and here, for the first time, he seems to have exercised, or even comprehended, the character of a Christian bishop.
He reconciled enemies, he preached, he was humble. But this character did not last. He was preparing to be enthroned at York with a degree of splendour, which though inferior to his predecessors, was clearly sufficient enough to make Henry jealous. The final arrest at Cawood ensued.
