Then the king tooke his seat vnder the cloth of e|state,A new banket vpon the sud|den of 200 dishes. commanding euerie person to sit still as they did before: in came a new banket before the king, and to all the rest throughout all the tables, wherein were serued two hundred diuerse dishes, of costlie deuises and subtilties. Thus passed they foorth the night with banketting, dansing, and other triumphs, to the great comfort of the king, and pleasant regard of the nobilitie there assembled. And thus spent this cardinall his time from daie to daie, and yeare to yeare, in such wealth, ioie, triumph, and glorie, hauing alwaies on his side the kings especiall fa|uour, vntill fortune enuied his prosperitie, and ouerthrew all the foundations of his glorie; which as they were laid vpon sand, so they shroonke and slipt awaie; whereby insued the ruine of his estate, euen to the verie losse of his life, which (as a man of a guiltie conscience, and fearing capitall punishment due by law for his vndutifull demeanour against his souereigne) Edward Hall saith (vpon report) he part|lie procured, willinglie taking so great a quantitie of a strong purgation, as nature was therewith op|pressed, and vnable to digest the same; so that in fine he gaue vp the ghost, and was buried in Leicester abbeie: of whome to saie more I will surceasse, con|cluding onelie with a description which I find of him not impertinent for this place, sith wholie concerning his person.
¶This cardinall (as you may perceiue in this storie) was of a great stomach, Ab. Fl. ex Edw. Hal. Clxxxxiiij. The descrip|tion of the cardinall. for he compted himselfe e|quall with princes, & by craftie suggestion gat into his hands innumerable treasure: he forced little on simonie, and was not pittifull, and stood affectionate in his owne opinion: in open presence he would lie and saie vntruth, and was double both in speach and meaning: he would promise much & performe little: he was vicious of his bodie, & gaue the clergie euill example: he hated sore the citie of London & feared it: it was told him that he should die in the waie to|ward London, wherefore he feared least the com|mons of the citie would arise in riotous maner and so slaie him, yet for all that he died in the waie to|ward London, carrieng more with him out of the world than he brought into it; namelie a winding shéete, besides other necessaries thought méet for a dead man, as christian comelinesse required. This ruine of the cardinall was not so much as once dreampt vpon, when I. Leland the famous antiqua|rie wrote this welwishing octastichon vnto the said Wolseie (being then in the flowre of his glorie, and the pearle of his pride) as hereafter followeth.
Sic tuus Henricus, regum qui gloria, florens,Ad. Tho. Woluesegu archiepiscopum IsurocanumPerpetuo studio te colat, ornet, amet:Sic pia coniung at proceres concordia magnos,Vt iusto belli fulmine Turca ruat: EEBO page image 923sic vastas operum tantorum deniq(ue) molesAbsoluas, summo templa dicata Deo.Sis bonus (o foelix) mihi! tutela CamaenaeDiceris merito praesidiumq(ue) meae.
The king and [...]eene kept a [...]o [...]emne Christmasse [...] GreenwichAfter the cardinall was dead, the king remooued from Hampton court to Gréenwich, where he with quéene Katharine kept a solemne Christmasse, and on the Twelfe night he sat in the hall in his estate, whereas were diuerse enterludes, rich maskes a [...] disports, and after that a great banket. Now after Christmas he came to his manour of Westminster, which before was called Yorke place: for after that the cardinall was attainted in the premunire, & was gone northward, he made a feoffement of the same place to the king and the chapiter of the cathedrall church of Yorke by their writing consserued the same feoffement, & then the king changed the name and called it the king [...] manor of Westminster, and no more Yorke place.