The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey (Unabridged‪)‬

Thomas Wolsey was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy. Henry VIII's passion for Anne Boleyn and his consequent rejection of his wife Catherine of Aragon resulted in Henry's push for a wedding annulment. As the king's chief adviser and Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey failed to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine. He fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles. George Cavendish was Cardinal Wolsey's "Gentleman Usher". The intrinsic value of Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey has long been perceived, for it is the sole authentic record of a multitude of events highly important in a particularly interesting section of the history of England. Cavendish has been recognized as the earliest of the great English biographers. He writes with simplicity and vividness, rarely yielding to the rhetoric which governed the ordinary prose of his age. Shakespeare is said to have used this work as the basis for his play "Henry VIII".