Vice-Chamberlain, twelve Gentlemen ushers, daily waiters, &c. Then had he of Gentlemen, cup-bearers, carvers, servers, and waiters, forty persons; of yeomen ushers he had six; of grooms in his chamber, eight; of yeomen of his chamber, he had forty-six daily to attend upon his person; he had also a Priest there, which was his Almoner, to attend upon his table at dinner."

Cavendish enumerates many other persons, who "were daily attendant" upon the Cardinal, “in his house, down-lying and up-rising ;" and then proceeds to describe the sumptuous state in which he always repaired to Westminster Hall, and to the Court at Greenwich. The following summary of Wolsey's manner of living at York Place, cannot be perused without much interest :

"Thus in great honour, triumph, and glory, he reigned a long season, ruling all things within this Realm appertaining unto the King, by his wisdom; and also all other weighty matters of foreign regions, with which the King of this Realm had any occasion to intermeddle. All ambassadors of foreign potentates were always dispatched by his discretion, to whom they had always access for their dispatch. His House was, also, always resorted and furnished with noblemen, gentlemen, and other persons, with going and coming in and out, feasting and banquetting all ambassadors diverse times, and other strangers right nobly.

"And when it pleased the King's Majesty, for his recreation, to repair unto the Cardinal's House, as he did divers times in the year, there wanted no preparations, or goodly furniture, with viands of the finest sort that could be provided for money or friendship. Such pleasures were

there devised for the King's comfort and consolation as might be invented, or by man's wit imagined. The banquets were set forth, with masks and mummeries, in so gorgeous a sort, and costly manner, that it was a heaven to behold. There wanted no dames, or damsels, meet or apt to dance with the maskers, or to garnish the place for the time, with other goodly disports: then was there all kinds of music and harmony set forth, with excellent voices both of men and children.'

Many important Councils were held at York Place whilst Wolsey resided there, and particularly that of the bishops and other learned divines, scholars and casuists, which was summoned by his legantine authority, to consult on the King's scruples in regard to his marriage with Katharine of Arragon. There, also, on Allhallow's-Day, 1527, King Henry and the French Embassy were magnificently banquetted on their return from St. Paul's Cathedral; where the Cardinal, assisted by twenty-four bishops and mitred abbots, had solemnized mass with extraordinary pomp, in confirmation of the treaty for a perpetual peace and amity, which he had himself negociated with Francis the First, at Amiens, in the preceding August.†

* Cavendish's “ Life of Wolsey," pp. 47-49. The author continues his detail by a curious and picturesque description of a Masque, in which the King (Henry VIII.) was the chief actor; and the consequent feast and banquettings of the most superb kinds. For this the reader will refer to Holinshed's "Chronicles," (vol. iii. pp. 763-765: edit. 1808), the full and quaint phraseology of that writer suiting better with the subject, than the terse severity of modern dietion.

+ Cavendish states, that "after the last agnus," the Car

The disgrace of Wolsey was immediately connected with the breaking up of the commission court, which had sat at Blackfriars, in the summer of 1529, on the question of the divorce. The King's chagrin at the avocation to Rome, at the precise moment when he expected a decision in his favour, and his own imperious haughtiness, which had procured him many enemies in the council, were the leading causes of his fall. About the middle of October, in the above year, he was ordered by the King's letters, to deliver up the great seal, and depart for Asher (now Esher), in Surry, a seat belonging to his bishopric of Winchester. Hall states, that "the Cardinal removed out of his house with one crosse, saying that, he would he had never borne more,' meaning that by his crosse, that he bare as legate, whiche degre taking was his confusion."

Before his departure, Wolsey directed that all his plate and costly stores should be laid ready to be delivered up to the King, together with inventories of every article ("for the order of that house was such, as that every officer was charged by indenture with all such parcels as belonged to their office"), and then leaving the whole in charge of his treasurer, Sir William Gas

dinal. "as a firm oath and assurance of this perpetual Peace,” divided the Sacrament between the King and the Grand Master of France, whilst kneeling together at the high altar. The French ambassadors were the Maréschal de Montmorency, Grand Master; the Bishop of Bayonne, the President of Rouen, and Monsieur d'Humiers; their suite consisted of upwards of eighty persons.

coigne, he took his barge at his privy stairs, and so went by water to Putney," on his way to Asher.*

Wolsey had scarcely quitted York Place than it was occupied by the King, who, about the end of November, gave audience there to a deputation of the Lower House of Parliament, which had been reproached by Bishop Fisher with proposing measures "tending to the destruction of the Church," from "a lacke of

"In his Gallery," Cavendish says, "there was set divers tables, whereupon a great number of rich stuffs of silk, in whole pieces, of all colours, as velvet, satin, damask, caffa, taffeta, grograine, sarcenet, &c., and also a thousand pieces of fine Holland cloth.-Furthermore, there was also all the walls of the gallery hanged with cloth of gold and tissue of divers makings, and cloth of silver, likewise, on both the sides, and rich clothes of baudkin, of divers colours. There also hung the richest suits of copes, of his own provision (which he caused to be made for his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich), that ever I saw in England. Then had he two chambers, adjoining to the gallery, the one called the Gilt Chamber, and the other, most commonly, the Council Chamber, wherein were set, in each, two broad and long tables, upon tressels, whereupon was set such a number of plate of all sorts, as were almost incredible. In the Gilt Chamber was set out upon the tables, nothing but all gilt plate; and a cupboard, standing under a window, was furnished all wholly with plate of clean gold, whereof some was set with pearl and rich stones. And in the Council Chamber, was set all white plate and parcel gilt; and under the tables, in both the chambers, were set baskets with old plate, which was not esteemed worthy to be occupied, and books containing the value and weight of every parcel, laid by them, ready to be seen; so also were books set by all manner of stuffs, containing the contents of every thing."-"Life of Wolsey," pp. 182, 184-Singer's edition.

faith."* Shortly afterwards, on the 6th of December, the King advanced the Viscounts Rochford and FitzWalter, and the Lord Hastings, to the Earldoms respectively of Wiltshire, Sussex, and Huntingdon, in this mansion.

In the beginning of 1530, after Wolsey had been condemned in a Premunire, (by which all his property was forfeited to the Crown,) and whilst he yet "lay at Asher," the King required from him a full and entire recognition of his own right, and that of his successors, to York Place. Wolsey was in no condition to dispute the mandate, and therefore gave the recognizance demanded;† yet not without stating that it was neither

On that occasion, on a day when the King was at leisure, Hall says, "Thomas Audeley, the Speaker, and thirtie of the chief of the common house, came to the Kynges presence in his Palace at Westminster, whiche before was called Yorke Place, and there very eloquently declared what a dishonour to the Kyng and the realme, it was to say, that they which were elected for the wysest men of all the Sheres, Cities, and Boroughes within the realme of England, shouide be declared in so noble and open presence to lacke faith;" &c. The King, in consequence of this complaint, required an explanation from the Bishop, who alleged, that his had reference only to the Bohemians, to whom he had alluded in his speech; "which blind answer," continues the chronicler, "pleased the Commons nothing at all." Vide Hall's "Chronicle," pp. 178, 179; 21st. of Hen. VIII.

In this singular instrument, which is printed in the "Collections," appended by Fiddes to his Life of the Cardinal, and which was recorded in the King's Bench and Chancery Courts, at Westminster, respectively, on the 7th and 11th of February, 1530, York Place is stated to consist of one messuage, two gardens, and three acres of land, with appurtenances, in the town of Westminster.