Six Wives (46 page)

    Cambridge left a permanent mark on Gardiner. But, even before his election as Master of Trinity Hall, he had taken a decisive step into the wider world when, in 1524, he was talent-spotted for Wolsey's Household. Wolsey made him his Secretary and, from the beginning, had used him as his own principal agent in the Secret Matter. On 8 June 1527, Gardiner, 'in the Legate's name', had collected the crucial documentation on the Divorce in the form of 'a box containing eleven pieces of evidence about the matrimony of Spain' from the archives of the Treasury. Thereafter he had been Wolsey's only 'help and instrument' in drafting and working up Wolsey's schemes to obtain the Divorce.
⁹

    Thus, to send Gardiner to Henry, as the King was now demanding, was tantamount to Wolsey's handing over the management of the Divorce to Henry. And that, as Wolsey knew, was his own passport to oblivion. So, writing on 11 August, Wolsey refused Henry's request for Gardiner; he also leapt into action.

    But first came the excuses for his delay: he had not wished to weaken his bargaining hand against the French by mentioning the Secret Matter; he had been waiting for news from Rome; he had other 'importable [insupportable] business, both day and night'. But now, he concluded, circumstances had changed, since the Secret Matter was secret no longer. 'I have received out of Flanders', he informed Henry, 'letters from . . . your Grace's agent there, containing that it is come to the [Archduchess] Margaret's knowledge, by secret ways and means . . . that your Grace intendith to be separate and divorced from the Queen.'

    No doubt. But nothing could conceal the fact that the real trigger to Wolsey's action was not the news from Flanders but Henry's demand for Gardiner. Nevertheless, Wolsey's flurry of activity was impressive. And he made sure that Henry knew it. He had approached the Pope, he wrote to the King, for his consent to the scheme for Wolsey to take over the administration of the Church during the Pope's captivity. He was sending him three separate envoys, each with excellent contacts in the Roman Court, that 'if the one expedition fail, the other may take effect'. He would throw money at the problem. He would do anything, in short, he assured Henry, 'which may confer and be beneficial to your Grace's purpose'.
¹⁰

    Henry's reaction was, apparently, sweetness and light. On 17 August the trusty Treasurer Fitzwilliam (whom Knight punningly called Wolsey's 'treasure') informed Wolsey that 'the King is much pleased with Wolsey's letters and likes all that he has done'. But, he continued, he was sure that Wolsey had already been told of all this by Secretary Knight, 'whom [he] esteems a right honest man and a friend to Wolsey'.
¹¹

    Knight's letter (written, in fact, two days later on the 19th) confirmed Fitzwilliam's sunny tone. 'The King', Knight told Wolsey, 'command[ed] me to give unto you his most hearty thanks.' Henry had made his councillors at Court, Norfolk, Suffolk, Rochford and Fitzwilliam, 'privy' only to Wolsey's other letter dealing with general business. But this reply to Wolsey's letter 'concerning the secrets' had been handled by the King alone. And Henry was delighted: since Wolsey's approaches to Rome were all that he wished for, the sending of Gardiner was superfluous. Knight's letter went on to reinforce the picture of his own loyalty to Cardinal Wolsey. He praised Fitzwilliam as another of Wolsey's 'faithful and loving servants'. And he told Wolsey of the ugly rumours spreading at Court about the activities of Wolsey's agents in raising funds for his great educational foundations at Oxford and Ipswich by dissolving a swathe of smaller monasteries. 'I have heard the King and noblemen speak things incredible', Knight confided.
¹²

    The story about the 'things incredible' was true, and shows how far and how quickly the general atmosphere on the Progress had turned against Wolsey. Otherwise, Knight's letter was a tissue of lies. It was designed to lull Wolsey into a false sense of security; it was also intended to disguise Knight's own forthcoming role as Judas.

    Wolsey was not altogether deceived and sent John Clerk, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, to explain more fully to Henry his actions concerning the Divorce. But nothing prepared Wolsey for what was to come.
¹³

* * *

The house party at Beaulieu broke up as planned on 27 August. Most of Henry's guests left Court while the King, with a small entourage, made for Greenwich. Secretary Knight, however, took a different direction. He travelled to London to make arrangements for a lengthy journey: he was to be ambassador to Rome.

    Knight's mission was the final decision of the Beaulieu think-tank: Knight would be Henry's envoy to the Pope, not Wolsey's. He would take his instructions directly from the King, not the minister. And he would do what Henry and Anne wanted – not what Wolsey, in his wisdom, thought they ought to want. For Henry and Anne were weary of Wolsey's delays and tergiversations. Instead, they had decided to try a frontal approach that was stunning in its directness. Knight would ask Clement VII for a dispensation that would free Henry from all impediments to his
immediate
remarriage: it would allow him to marry, even though he was
still
married to Catherine; it would also permit him to marry Anne, even though her sister Mary had been his mistress. And all this would be done without Wolsey's knowledge.

    Some of the Beaulieu deliberations leaked and reached Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in London, by mid-August. 'It is generally believed', he reported home on 16 August, 'that if the King can obtain a divorce he will end by marrying a daughter of Master Bolo [Boleyn] . . . who is now called Milord de Rochafort [Rochford].' But the secret of Knight's mission was well kept – even from Wolsey.
¹⁴

    The letter which Wolsey received from Knight thus came as a bombshell. King Henry, Knight wrote from London on 29 August, had decided to send him to Rome 'for the procuring and setting forth . . . of [the King's] secret matter'. He was about to depart and would see Wolsey shortly in France to receive the minister's own further orders 'concerning such other things as [Wolsey] should think necessary to be sped [in Rome]'. This last went a little way to protecting Wolsey's dignity. But, finally, it was a mere sop.
¹⁵

* * *

Wolsey now stared into the abyss. If Knight's mission went ahead, Wolsey would be rendered redundant; if it succeeded, Anne would be made Queen. And what would happen to him then?

    Knight's letter was delivered to Wolsey at Compiègne on 5 September. Cavendish, who was in attendance on the Cardinal at the time, now becomes an eye-witness of Wolsey's efforts to salvage his career.

    Wolsey 'rose early in the morning about 4 of the clock' to compose his reply to Henry. He then remained glued to his desk for twelve hours. 'All which season', Cavendish noted with amazement, 'my Lord never rose once to piss, nor yet to eat any meat but continually wrote his letters with his own hand, having all this time his night-cap and kerchief on his head.' Towards four in the afternoon he finished writing. But even then he took no refreshment until he had ordered the messenger, 'Christopher [the] Gunner, the King's servant, to prepare him without delay to ride in post in to England with his letters'.
¹⁶

    Wolsey's feat has often been cited by historians as an example of his typical industry and energy. But the context (which those historians have not recognised) was hardly typical: Cardinal Wolsey was writing for his political life.

    Wolsey's messenger was also carefully chosen for his speed and intrepidity. Christopher Morris (to give him his proper name) had been sent as diplomatic courier to Spain in early 1527. Communications had been disrupted by severe floods. But Morris somehow fought through, to the admiration of the ambassador, Dr Edward Lee. 'He wondered', Lee wrote, 'how he escaped the waters, which have done much hurt here.' Perhaps in reward for his efforts, Morris was appointed Chief Gunner in the Tower of London.
¹⁷

    But not even Morris could make the round to England and back in less than five or six days. Wolsey therefore had to wait on tenterhooks, as Cavendish observed, 'expecting the return of Christopher [the] Gunner'. Instead, on the 10th, a much less welcome face appeared: Secretary Knight himself, en route for Rome as he had promised.

    Wolsey was astonished. After all, he had written a letter, a long, brilliant letter to Henry. It was full of knowledge of the world, of Rome and, above all, of the King's own character. How could it have failed to scotch the wild-cat scheme for Knight's mission? It was scarcely possible. Instead, he ordered Knight to delay, confident, as Knight reported confidentially to Henry, that 'by the coming of Christopher Morris I should have been by your Grace countermanded'.

    To pacify Wolsey, and 'for the avoiding of suspicion', Knight did as he was told. Morris duly arrived the next day. But, as Knight knew all along, Morris bore letters ordering Knight to proceed on his mission and Wolsey to assist him. Wolsey was beaten. He first despatched Knight and then made immediate preparations to return to England. Europe, even the Great Matter, could wait; it was his own position at home which now mattered most.
¹⁸

    But his humiliations were not yet over. The original intention, as Fitzwilliam had informed Wolsey back in July, was that Henry would remain 'near Greenwich till Wolsey comes home'. Henry would then have gone to meet Wolsey part way on his journey across Kent and there would have been a loving, public reunion between the King and his trusty minister followed by long conversations in private. This is what had happened on Wolsey's return from his previous mission to France in 1521. But Anne's advent and the events of the Progress of 1527 made sure that there was no repetition. Instead, Henry deliberately moved west, to Richmond. He came to Greenwich for the reception of the French ambassadors, who had arrived for the ratification of the treaties, on 22 September. But he stayed only for a single night before returning to Richmond.

    And it was at Richmond that Wolsey arrived on the 30th. There he had a reception like no other. He immediately sent to Henry to know when he should 'repair to the King's Privy Chamber' for his usual private audience. But Anne was with Henry when the messenger arrived. She was now an acknowledged figure at Court and, according to the Spanish ambassador, presumed to reply to Wolsey's messenger on the King's behalf. 'Where else is the Cardinal to come?' she snapped. 'Tell him that he may come here, where the King is.' Henry confirmed Anne's commands and Wolsey came into the presence of Henry – and of Anne.
¹⁹

    At a stroke, she had established herself as consort in all but name.

* * *

But where did that leave Wolsey? Rumours were already circulating of a conspiracy against him by Norfolk and Rochford, Anne's uncle and father. Meanwhile, Wolsey was fighting back. The Beaulieu think-tank had thought the unthinkable. The Cardinal therefore decided to respond with his own gathering of the great and the good at Hampton Court. And, since those invited were lawyers and canonists, they could be relied on to take a more cautious approach.

    Who would win? The radicals or the conservatives? Anne or Wolsey?

    But perhaps Henry, despite his apparent decisiveness in the summer, was not yet ready to choose.

L
ate in the autumn of 1527 a priest, John Barlow, left the royal palace in haste. He had just had a private audience with the King (and  probably with Anne too) and was carrying further, top-secret instructions for Secretary Knight on his Embassy to Rome.
¹

    Barlow was a striking man. 'He is short, red-haired, very moderate in eating and drinking, and keeps himself to himself, unless he is spoken to', one observer reported. Not the easiest of company, he had few social skills and knew (as he admitted himself) 'neither music nor games of chance'. But he was utterly trustworthy. 'You may assuredly send me whatsoever you will [by him]', Henry told Knight in the letter which Barlow was carrying, 'for he will with diligence bring it me and wisely enough too.' Barlow's qualities, good and bad – his sobriety, his unsociability and his lack of small talk – all point to the singlemindedness of a man with a mission, even a fanatic. And there is no doubt about the object of his devotion: it was Anne Boleyn. Barlow, one of his many enemies later reported (for Anne's was not a popular cause), had 'always belonged to her, had his promotion by her, and had been ambassador for her in divers places beyond sea'.
²

    This was his first such mission. It was also the most important. For if he and Secretary Knight were successful, Henry would be free to marry Anne in a matter of months.

* * *

No one, least of all Knight, underestimated the difficulty of this mission. In particular, Knight was frankly sceptical ('whereof I doubt') that he could persuade the Pope to dispense Henry to marry Anne
before
his marriage with Catherine was formally dissolved. That, as we have seen, had been Henry and Anne's great hope. But, by the time Henry despatched Barlow with Knight's additional instructions, Henry too had come round to Knight's point of view.
³

    For, after his return to England, Wolsey had got his hands on the draft of 'the secret bull' that it had been Knight's mission to obtain. The King was aware of the source of the leak: 'by whose means I know well enough', he wrote darkly. And his irritation was only increased when Wolsey had pointed out the impossibility, even the absurdity, of what Henry was asking. But finally the King had to concede the truth of Wolsey's criticisms: the first draft Bull was indeed 'too much to be required and unreasonable to be granted' and Knight, Henry now ordered, was to pursue it no further.

    Instead, Henry sent him a second draft Bull via Barlow, which would dispense him to marry Anne only
after
his marriage with Catherine was annulled. This second Bull, Henry was convinced, was Wolsey-proof: 'no man', he told Knight, 'doth know [of it] but they which I am sure will never disclose it to no man living for any craft the Cardinal or any other can find'. But, just to make the deception of Wolsey complete, Henry had agreed another, double set of instructions with Wolsey, which, he instructed Knight, he was to ignore.