heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE STAFFORDS. 243
Atkyns, in his "
History of Gloucestershire, says His haughty : spirit
" and contemptuous slighting of Wolsey did contribute to his ruin. The
" Duke was presenting the basin after dinner, on his knees, for the King
" to wash his hands, and when the King had done and was turned away,
" the Cardinal sportingly dipped his hand in the basin, whilst the Duke
" was on his knees. The Duke resented it as an affront, and rising up
" poured the water into the Cardinal's shoes, who being nettled at it,
"threatened the Duke to sit on his skirts. The Duke, therefore, next
" day came to Court without skirts to his doublet, and the King demanding
"the reason of it, he told the King that it was to avoid the Cardinal's
" anger, for he had threatened to sit upon his skirts. The Duke had his
"jest, but the Cardinal had his head."
And this denouement was precipitated by a domestic incident.
Finding his tenants clamorous, in Kent, against the exactions of his
steward or surveyor, Charles Knevett, he summarily discharged him, and
wrote to Sir Edward Nevill to procure him another bailiff for Tonbridge.
This so infuriated Knevett, that he divulged certain conversations
respecting the succession to the Crown which he stated to have been held
by his late master and one Hopkins, a Carthusian monk, of Hinton.
These words were repeated to Wolsey, which (Act II. Sc. he i) repeats to
the King himself. Henry was at that time without male heir, and
" Buckingham was the next heir in the Beaufort branch of the Lancastrian
"House if the King
died without issue." Knevett
says:
"First it was usual with him, every day
It would infect his speech, that if the King
Should without issue die, he'll carry
it so
To make his sceptre his."*
And further states, as a proof of his reckless disloyalty
:
"Being at Greenwich
After your Highness had reproved the Duke
About Sir William Blomer,
If,' quoth he, ' I for this had been committed
'
As to the Tower, 1 thought I would have played
The part my father meant to act upon
The usurper Ricliard ;
who being at Salisbury,
Made suit to come in his presence ; which if
granted,
As he made sunblane of his duty, would
Have put his knife into him."
The King exclaims : "He
is attached :
Call him to present trial; if he may
Find mercy in the law, 'tis his; if none,
Let him not seek't of us :
by day and night
He's traitor to the height."
* Act I. Sc. 2.