The Autobiography of Henry VIII_ With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers - Margaret George [38]
Within the privacy of my Retiring Room, I poured out a large cup of wine. (I was free for the moment of the unwelcome ministrations of servers.) Anger and humiliation vied for control within me, both to be eventually replaced by a cold hardness. At length, it was not Fox I wished to punish. He had merely followed orders, remaining obedient to the King to whom he had long ago pledged loyalty. God send me such a servant!
I walked over to Father’s bed. I had stripped his drab hangings from it, replaced his straw mattress with one of down, had soft-woven woollen blankets put on. I had spent his money, destroyed his furniture, broken his marriage negotiations, negated his dowry correspondence, put logs in his barren fireplaces. I had done all this, yet I had not effaced his presence from my life. He was still King in his realm and council.
I flung myself out full length on the bed. What a fool I had been! (Was Father right, then? My mind shrank from that possibility.) So I thought being King was easy? So had it been planned to be, to lull me....
I needed my own men. Or even one man. Someone not a stale remnant from Father’s reign, but entirely mine. Who? I lay staring distractedly at the carved underside of the wooden canopy, seeing cherubs and lover’s knots and hunting parties, but nothing came to my mind.
“Your Grace?” The door had opened quietly. I sat up, angry. I had not given permission....
It was Wolsey. He bore a scroll of some sort.
“Not now,” I muttered, waving him away. I had no wish to read figures. “And I gave express orders I was not to be disturbed!” So I was not obeyed even in my own private quarters.
He bowed. “I know. Yet I was able to persuade your groom ...”
Wolsey. Yes. Wolsey was my man. I was able to persuade your groom. Subtle, golden-tongued Wolsey. Why had I not thought of him? Because I was a little afraid of him, afraid of that awesome efficiency, that inexhaustible energy, coupled with that tireless, amoral mind. Yet I needed f him.
These thoughts flashed through my mind so swiftly that there was no pause before I grunted, “What do you want?”
“To bring you a transcript of what happened after your departure.” He smiled. “ ’Twas quite humorous. I wish there was some way you could have beheld that Frenchman’s discomfiture. Fox said—”
But I was hardly listening, as I observed him critically. How clever to bring me the transcript. And his flattery was subtle. He did not praise my looks, my prowess, did not compare me to Hercules or the like. Rather, he went to the heart of the matter; he knew where I was weakest and sought to shore it up. Yes, Wolsey ...
Wolsey soon took his place on the Privy Council, by my express command. I told Fox and Ruthal and Warham blandly that perhaps they would welcome another cleric to their ranks, to make an even balance with the laymen on the Council. They seemed pleased. The fools.
In spite of my preoccupation with these matters, I did not wish to neglect Katherine. I arranged entertainments for her, so that she might pass her days serenely. In particular, I went out of my way to obtain good musicians for a season at court.
After a lengthy exchange of letters, I had finally acquired a musical coup: Friar Denis Memmo, the organist from St. Mark’s in Venice. It required a great deal of gold (everything did, I was learning) as well as a discreet defrocking and reinstatement as a royal priest in my employ. But it was done, and he had come to England, bringing with him from Venice a magnificent organ. I was anxious to examine it, as I was interested in the art and science of organ construction and how this affected its tone. Now the splendid organ was installed in Greenwich Palace, and Memmo was to perform for the entire court.
Wolsey (now in charge of such minute details as well as weightier ones) had assembled all the chairs from all the privy chambers in the palace, so that everyone could be comfortably seated. He had ordered a table of light refreshments to be laid along one wall, and placed fresh candles all about—large, fine ones which would certainly