198. Why come ye not to Court?

Wolsey sits as chancellor in the Star Chamber

His cardinal's

hat

and by other courtiers, are well shown in a ranting, abusive poem by the contemporary poet John Skelton. It is called Why come ye not to Court? The answer to the question is to be found, according to Skelton, in the arrogance and overwhelming influence of the lowborn cardinal. Skelton and most of his contemporaries were unable to appreciate the great abilities and far-reaching measures of the great minister.

He is set so hye
In his ierarchy
Of frantycke frenesy
And folysshe fantasy,

That in the Chambre of Starres
All maters there he marres;
Clappyng his rod on the borde,
No man dare speke a worde,
For he hathe all the sayenge,
Without any renayenge.

Some say yes, and some
Syt styll as they were dom:
Thus thwartyng over thom,
He ruleth all the roste

With braggynge and with bost.

Whyles the red hat doth endure,
He maketh himselfe cock sure;
The red hat with his luer
Bryngeth all thynges under cure.

Our barons be so bolde,
Into a mouse hole they wolde
Rynne away and crepe;
Lyke a mayny of shepe,
Dare not loke out at dur

For drede of the mastyve cur,
For drede of the bocher's dogge
Wold wyrry them lyke a hogge.

For and this curre do gnar,
They must stande all a far,

To holde up their hande at the bar.
For all their noble blode

He pluckes them by the hode,
And shakes them by the eare,
And brynges them in suche feare;
He bayteth them lyke a bere,
Lyke an oxe or a bull :

Theyr wyttes, he saith, are dull;
He sayth they have no brayne
Theyr astate to mayntayne;

And maketh them to bow theyr kne
Before his majeste.

Juges of the kynges lawes,

He countys them foles and dawes;
Sergyantes of the coyfe eke,
He sayth they are to seke

In pledynge of theyr case

At the Commune Place,

Or at the Kynges Benche;

He wryngeth them suche a wrenche,
That all our lerned men

Wolsey said to be son of

a butcher of Ipswich

He dictates to the judges of Common

Pleas and

King's Bench

Dare nat set theyr penne

To plete a trew tryall
Within Westmynster hall.

Why come ye not to court?

To whyche court?

To the kynges court,

Or to Hampton Court?
Nay, to the kynges courte :
The kynges courte
Shulde haue the excellence;
But Hampton Court

Wolsey's two London palaces are more visited than the king's court

199. Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn

Hath the preemyence,
And Yorkes Place,
With my lorde's grace,
To whose magnifycence
Is all the conflewence,
Sutys and supplycacyons
Embassades of all nacyons.
Strawe for lawe canon,
Or for the lawe common,
Or for lawe cyvyll!

It shall be as he wyll.

III. THE EARLY STAGES OF THE REFORMATION

The following love letter, written from Henry to Anne Boleyn in May, 1528, may serve to introduce the period of his life when his dispute with the pope about the grant of a divorce transformed the king from an opponent of all forms of the Reformation to an influential advocate of many changes in the earlier organization of the English church.

My Mistress and Friend:

I and my heart put ourselves in your hands, begging you to recommend us to your favor, and not to let absence lessen your affection to us. For it were great pity to increase our pain, which absence alone does sufficiently, and more than I could ever have thought; bringing to my mind a point of astronomy, which is, that the farther the Moors are from us, the farther too is the sun, and yet his heat is the more scorching so it is with our love; we are at a distance from one another, and yet it keeps its fervency, at least on my side. I hope the like on your part, assuring you that the uneasiness of absence is already too severe for me; and when I think of the continuance of that which I must of necessity suffer, it would seem intolerable to me, were it not for the firm hope I have of your unchangeable affection for me; and now, to put you

sometimes in mind of it, and seeing I cannot be present in person with you, I send you the nearest thing to that possible, that is, my picture set in bracelets, with the whole device, which you know already, wishing myself in their place, when it shall please you.

This from the hand of

Your servant and friend,

H., REX.

The court appointed by the pope to examine Henry's claim that his marriage with Catherine had not been lawful, met in London in June, 1529, but no result was reached. The following account is by the chronicler Hall.

The court being thus furnished and ordered, the judges 200. Sitting commanded the crier to proclaim silence; then was the of Cardinals judges' commission, which they had of the pope, published Campeggio Wolsey and and read openly before all the audience there assembled. as a court to That done, the crier called the king, by the name of " King investigate the marriage Henry of England, come into the court," etc. With that the of Henry and king answered and said, "Here, my lords!" Then he called Catherine also the queen, by the name of "Catherine Queen of England, come into the court," etc.; who made no answer to the same, but rose up incontinent out of her chair, where as she sat, and because she could not come directly to the king for the distance which severed them, she took pain to go about unto the king, kneeling down at his feet in the sight of all the court and assembly, to whom she said in effect, in broken English, as followeth :

"Sir," quoth she, "I beseech you for all the loves that hath The queen's been between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice appeal to the king and right; take of me some pity and compassion, for I am a poor woman and a stranger born out of your dominion; I have here no assured friend, and much less impartial counsel; I flee to you as to the head of justice within this realm. Alas! sir, wherein have I offended you, or what occasion of displeasure have I designed against your will and pleasure, intending, as I perceive, to put me from you? I take God

and all the world to witness, that I have been to you a true, humble, and obedient wife, ever conformable to your will and pleasure, that never said nor did anything to the contrary thereof, being always well pleased and contented with all things wherein you had any delight or dalliance, whether it were in little or much, I never grudged in word or countenance, or showed a visage or spark of discontentation. I loved all those whom ye loved only for your sake, whether I had cause or no; and whether they were my friends or my enemies.

This twenty years I have been your true wife or more, and by me ye have had divers children, although it hath pleased God to call them out of this world, which hath been no default in me. And when ye had me at the first, I take God to be my judge, I was a true maid, without touch of man; and whether this be true or no, I put it to your conscience. If there be any just cause by the law that ye can allege against me, either of dishonesty or any other impediment, to banish and put me from you, I am well content to depart to my great shame and dishonor; and if there be none, then here I most lowly beseech you let me remain in my former estate, and receive justice at your hands. The king, your father, who was in the time of his reign of such estimation through the world for his excellent wisdom that he was accounted and called of all men the second Solomon; and my father Ferdinand, king of Spain, who was esteemed to be one of the wittiest princes that reigned in Spain, many years before, were both wise and excellent kings in wisdom and princely behavior. It is not therefore to be doubted but that they elected and gathered as wise counselors about them as to their high discretions was thought meet. Also, as me seemeth, there was in those days as wise, as well learned men, and men of as good judgment as be at this present in both realms, who thought then the marriage between you and me good and lawful.

Therefore it is a wonder to hear what new inventions are now invented against me, that never intended but honesty, and cause me to stand to the order and judgment of this new court, wherein ye may do me much wrong, if ye intend any cruelty; for ye may condemn me for lack of sufficient answer,