House Of Treason: The Rise And Fall Of A Tudor Dynasty by Robert Hutchinson

and youth to no purpose’ and he frequently suffered the unpleasant effects of the full force of his niece’s fractious, petulant temper. Later, walking and talking with More in the new Lord Chancellor’s Thames-side garden at Chelsea, Norfolk warned him, in his ‘rough but friendly manner’, of the great personal dangers posed by Henry’s love for Anne Boleyn:
    By the Mass, Master More, it is perilous striving with princes. And therefore, I would wish you somewhat to incline to the king’s pleasure. For, by God’s body, Master More, indignato principis mors est - ‘ the anger of the prince means death’.
    More was totally unmoved by the advice. He told Norfolk:
    Is that all my lord? Then in good faith, the difference between your grace and me is but this: that I shall die today and you tomorrow. 30
    These simple words offended the prickly duke and he stalked off, angry that his worldly-wise counsel had been so casually ignored. But More felt confident and relaxed: after all, did he not have Henry’s personal pledge over the divorce: that he would ‘never, with that matter, molest his [More’s] conscience’?
    Among the many casualties of Wolsey’s downfall was Thomas Cromwell, his ambitious legal adviser. After talking with his stricken master at Esher, he rode hastily to London, to seek a seat in the new House of Commons, due to be sworn in two days later. In times of trouble, any politician calls in favours owed to him and he sent his servant Ralph Sadler to talk to Sir John Gage, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, and an ally of Norfolk’s. After much discussion, the duke graciously let it be known that he had spoken with the king ‘and that his highness was very well contented that [Cromwell] should become a burgess [in Parliament and] should order [himself] according to such instructions as the Duke of Norfolk shall give you from the king’. Cromwell thus became Member of Parliament for Taunton. 31
    So Cromwell rescued his career from the ruin of Wolsey’s downfall and lived to fight another day - and all at Norfolk’s instigation. In the decade that followed, the duke would many times rue that cold night when he unwittingly rescued from the gutter of Tudor political life the man who was to become another powerful enemy.
    Norfolk was, meanwhile, busy preparing the coup de grâce against his fallen enemy; a Bill of Attainder, with forty-six clauses, was down for debate as the first item of business at the opening session of Parliament. For him, settling old scores was always a joy. The Bill, nicknamed the Book of Articles because of its huge bulk, employed virulent language against Wolsey, including the outlandish allegation that he had attempted to infect the king with syphilis. 32 It was passed by the Lords on 1 December and immediately sent down to the Commons for their approval. Here, Norfolk had overreached himself. The Attainder was attacked over its intemperate wording - Cromwell himself argued against it ‘discreetly . . . with such witty persuasions and deep reasons’ 33 - and it was quickly dropped, probably by royal command, before Parliament was prorogued on 17 December. Though the duke failed finally to destroy the Cardinal, at least he had thoroughly blackened his name.
    So the problem of Wolsey’s fate remained undecided. Henry clearly still harboured some sympathy for the broken old man and sent four of his physicians to nurse him through an acute attack of dropsy. 34 Norfolk thoroughly mistrusted his sovereign’s compassion for his fallen minister and was painfully aware that, amid the shifting, uncertain loyalties of Henry’s court, if the Cardinal ever managed to claw his way back to power he, Norfolk, would be the first to end up in the Tower. He therefore devised a plan to neutralise the threat still posed by Wolsey. Simply put, it was ‘out of sight, out of mind’, and after Wolsey’s earlier banishments of Norfolk it had the sweet taste of apposite revenge. The prelate