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2 | <!DOCTYPE Archive SYSTEM "http://greenstone.org/dtd/Archive/1.0/Archive.dtd">
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3 | <Archive>
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4 | <Section>
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5 | <Description>
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6 | <Metadata name="gsdlsourcefilename">import/englishhistory.net/tudor/priwols1.html</Metadata>
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9 | <Metadata name="FileSize">10182</Metadata>
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10 | <Metadata name="Source">priwols1.html</Metadata>
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11 | <Metadata name="SourceFile">priwols1.html</Metadata>
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12 | <Metadata name="Language">en</Metadata>
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13 | <Metadata name="Encoding">windows_1252</Metadata>
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14 | <Metadata name="Title">Primary Sources: The fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, 1530</Metadata>
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15 | <Metadata name="FileFormat">HTML</Metadata>
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16 | <Metadata name="URL">http://englishhistory.net/tudor/priwols1.html</Metadata>
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17 | <Metadata name="UTF8URL">http://englishhistory.net/tudor/priwols1.html</Metadata>
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18 | <Metadata name="dc.Subject">Tudor period|Others</Metadata>
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19 | <Metadata name="Identifier">HASH642006539ecbdad801b586</Metadata>
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20 | <Metadata name="lastmodified">1391131158</Metadata>
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21 | <Metadata name="lastmodifieddate">20140131</Metadata>
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22 | <Metadata name="oailastmodified">1391131592</Metadata>
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23 | <Metadata name="oailastmodifieddate">20140131</Metadata>
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25 | <Metadata name="gsdlassocfile">1530.gif:image/gif:</Metadata>
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26 | </Description>
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27 | <Content>
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28 |
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29 | <div align="center">
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30 | <center>
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31 | <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4" width="94%">
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32 | <tr>
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33 | <td valign="bottom" colspan="3">
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34 | <p align="center">&nbsp;<br>
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35 | <p align="center">
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36 | <img border="0" src="_httpdocimg_/1530.gif" alt="Primary Sources: 1530: The fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey" width="471" height="76"><p align="center">&nbsp;</td>
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37 | </tr>
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38 | <tr>
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39 | <td></td>
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40 | <td></td>
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41 | <td></td>
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42 | </tr>
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43 | <tr>
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44 | <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size="2">This account
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45 | of Thomas Wolsey's fall from royal favor was written by the Tudor
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46 | chronicler Edward Hall.</font><p><font size="2">Wolsey was born c1473 and
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47 | eventually held the titles Cardinal-Archbishop of York and Lord
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48 | Chancellor.&nbsp; He was famous at Oxford University for taking his degree
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49 | at the age of fifteen; he was intelligent, hard-working, and also very
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50 | fond of pomp and ceremony.</font></p>
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51 | <p><font size="2">He became King Henry VII's chaplain during the last two
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52 | years of his life.&nbsp; Henry VIII appointed him to a minor office upon
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53 | his accession, but Wolsey's only became involved in government affairs in
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54 | 1512.&nbsp; He urged Henry to wage war against the French on behalf of
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55 | Pope Julius II.&nbsp; The war was successful and Henry generously rewarded
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56 | its main proponent and organizer.&nbsp; Wolsey subsequently became the
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57 | king's chief minister from 1515 to 1529.</font></p>
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58 | <p><font size="2">His powerful office and close friendship with Henry
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59 | earned him many enemies, particularly aristocrats who resented his
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60 | usurpation of their traditional influence.&nbsp; They also resented his
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61 | great wealth.&nbsp; Over the years, Wolsey amassed a vast fortune, though
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62 | he did so largely through his church offices.&nbsp; He spent lavishly, but
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63 | he was also charitable and personally financed many diplomatic missions.&nbsp;
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64 | It should be noted that most gentlemen entered government service for
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65 | financial reward; Wolsey was no different.&nbsp; And as the king's chief
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66 | minister, he was expected to entertain foreign dignitaries and maintain a
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67 | suitably impressive lifestyle.&nbsp; His increasingly ostentatious
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68 | displays of wealth did, however, damage both his personal reputation and
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69 | that of the church.</font></p>
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70 | <p><font size="2">Wolsey lacked the genius for administration of his
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71 | protégé and successor, Thomas Cromwell.&nbsp; But he was efficient and
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72 | capable; when he found he could not control Parliament (it met only once
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73 | during his years as chancellor), he simply refused to summon it.&nbsp; He
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74 | was also blamed for the high taxation necessary to support Henry VIII's
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75 | ambitious foreign policy.</font></p>
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76 | <p><font size="2">He maintained the king's favor until he failed to secure
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77 | an annulment of Henry's first marriage.&nbsp; From 1527-1529, as Anne
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78 | Boleyn's influence rose, Wolsey's waned.&nbsp; She disliked the Cardinal
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79 | because of his interference in her earlier engagement to Henry Percy.&nbsp;
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80 | And both she and the king were increasingly impatient with the pope's
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81 | endless prevarication.&nbsp; Torn between his secular and spiritual
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82 | masters, Wolsey chose Henry's side - but it did not matter.&nbsp; On 9
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83 | October 1529, he was indicted for praemunire; he later confessed his
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84 | guilt.&nbsp; Parliament was summoned to indict him on forty-four charges.&nbsp;
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85 | The king kept him from prison but stripped him of many offices and all of
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86 | his power.&nbsp; Wolsey was ordered to retire to his archbishopric of
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87 | York.&nbsp; Indiscreet letters to Rome led to his arrest on 4 November.&nbsp;
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88 | He died on the 24th, while returning to London and, most likely, execution
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89 | at the Tower.</font></p>
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90 | <p><font size="-1">Hall implies that Wolsey committed suicide.&nbsp; He
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91 | did not.&nbsp; He did, however, avoid execution at the Tower which was the
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92 | fate Henry VIII intended for him.</font></p>
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93 | <p><font size="-1">It should be noted that Cromwell defended Wolsey in
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94 | parliament.</font></td>
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95 | <td width="4%"></td>
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96 | <td valign="top" width="48%">
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97 |
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98 | <p>You have heard under the last year how the cardinal of York [Wolsey]
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99 | was attainted in praemunire, and despite that the king had given him the
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100 | bishoprics of York and Winchester, with great possessions, and had licensed
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101 | him to live in his diocese of York.&nbsp; Being thus in his diocese, grudging
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102 | his fall and not remembering the kindness the King showed to him, he wrote
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103 | to the court of Rome and to several other princes letters reproaching the
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104 | king, and as much as he was able stirred them to revenge his case against
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105 | the King and his realm; so much so that various opprobrious words about
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106 | the king were spoken to Dr Edward Kern, the king's orator at Rome, and
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107 | it was said to him that for the cardinal's sake the king's matrimonial
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108 | suit would have the worse speed.&nbsp; The cardinal would also speak fair
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109 | to the people to win their hearts, and always declared that he was unjustly
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110 | and untruly commanded, which fair speaking made many men believe that he
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111 | spoke the truth.&nbsp; And to be held in higher repute by the people he
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112 | determined to be installed or enthroned at York with all possible pomp,
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113 | and caused a throne to be erected in the Cathedral Church of such a height
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114 | and design as was never seen before; and he sent to all the lords, abbots,
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115 | priors, knights, esquires and gentlemen of his diocese to be at his manor
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116 | of Cawood on 6 November, and so to bring him to York with all pomp and
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117 | solemnity.
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118 | <p>The King, who knew of his doings and secret communications, all this
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119 | year pretended to ignore them to see what he would eventually do, until
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120 | he saw his proud heart so highly exalted that he intended to be so triumphantly
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121 | installed without informing the king, even as if in disdain of the king.&nbsp;
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122 | Then the king thought it was not fitting or convenient to let him any longer
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123 | continue in his malicious and proud purposes and attempts.&nbsp; Therefore
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124 | he sent letters to Henry, the sixth earl of Northumberland, willing him
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125 | with all diligence to arrest the cardinal, and to deliver him to the earl
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126 | of Shrewsbury, great steward of the king's household.&nbsp; When the earl
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127 | had seen the letter, with a suitable number of men he came to the manor
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128 | of Cawood on 4 November, and when he was brought to the cardinal in his
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129 | chamber he said to him:&nbsp; "My Lord, I pray you have patience, for here
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130 | I arrest you."&nbsp; "Arrest me," said the cardinal;&nbsp; "Yes," said
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131 | the earl, "I have orders to do so."&nbsp; "You have no such power," said
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132 | the cardinal, "for I am both a cardinal and a peer of the College of Rome,
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133 | and ought not to be arrested by any temporal power, for I am not subject
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134 | to that power, therefore if you arrest me I will withstand it."&nbsp; "Well,"
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135 | said the Earl, "here is the king's commission, and therefore I charge you
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136 | to obey."&nbsp; The Cardinal somewhat remembered himself, and said, "Well,
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137 | my lord, I am content to obey, but although by negligence I fell under
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138 | punishment of the praemunire and lost by law all my lands and goods, yet
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139 | my person was in the king's protection and I was pardoned that offence.&nbsp;
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140 | Therefore I wonder why I now should be arrested, especially considering
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141 | that I am a member of the apostolic See, on whom no temporal man should
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142 | lay violent hands.&nbsp; Well, I see the King lacks good counsel."&nbsp;
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143 | "Well," said the earl, "when I was sworn warden of the marches you yourself
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144 | told me that I might with my staff arrest all men under the degree of king,
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145 | and now I am stronger for I have a commission for what I do as you have
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146 | seen."&nbsp; The cardinal at length obeyed, and was kept in his private
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147 | chamber, and his goods seized and his officers discharged, and his physician,
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148 | Dr Augustine, was also arrested, and brought to the Tower by Sir Walter
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149 | Welshe, one of the king's chamber.&nbsp; On 6 November the cardinal was
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150 | conveyed from Cawood to Sheffield Castle, and there delivered into the
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151 | keeping of the earl of Shrewsbury until the king's pleasure was known.&nbsp;
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152 | About this arrest there was much talk among the common people, and many
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153 | were glad, for surely he was not in favour with the commons.
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154 | <p>When the cardinal was thus arrested the king sent Sir William Kingston
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155 | Knight, captain of the guard and constable of the Tower of London with
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156 | some of the yeomen of the guard to Sheffield, to fetch the cardinal to
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157 | the Tower.&nbsp; When the cardinal saw the captain of the guard he was
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158 | much astonished and shortly became ill, for he foresaw some great trouble,
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159 | and for that reason men said he willingly took so much strong purgative
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160 | that his constitution could not bear it.&nbsp; But Sir William Kingston
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161 | comforted him, and by easy journeys he brought him to the Abbey of Leicester
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162 | on 27 November, where through weakness caused by purgatives and vomiting
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163 | he died the second night following, and is buried in the same Abbey.<p align="center">&nbsp;<p align="center"><a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html">
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164 | <font size="2">to Primary Sources</font></a></td>
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165 | </tr>
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166 | </table>
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167 | </center>
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168 | </div>
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169 |
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171 |
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174 | </Content>
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175 | </Section>
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176 | </Archive>
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