Wolsey: His Life and Death

Written in the mid-sixteenth century and first printed in 1641, this is an eyewitness life of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey by George Cavendish, his gentleman usher. It follows the rise of a butcher's son to lord chancellor and papal legate: the great household, the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the failed attempt to obtain Henry VIII's divorce, and the fall that sent Wolsey from court toward York and death. Cavendish records ceremonies, meals, and speeches he saw, writing as a loyal servant. The book is a Tudor biography-memoir, not a modern institutional history of church and state.

Bound in blue cloth with a design in gold. Pale blue endleaves. Transparent plastic dust-jacket. Folio Press and J.M. Dent.