The Last Days Of Henry VIII: Conspiracy, Treason And Heresy At The Court Of The Dying Tyrant - Plot & Excerpts
Gardiner himself was shortly to taste the king’s displeasure. Henry had always mistrusted this egotistical but talented churchman and might have ‘used extremity against him’ if his own life had not been rapidly running out. But Henry believed he could always exercise a degree of power over the testy bishop because he possessed secret, and probably damning, information that held the key to Gardiner’s obedience or, more likely, would justify a timely charge of treason against him. Perhaps to reassure himself of that hold, the king several times asked Paget ‘for a certain writing touching the said bishop, commanding him to keep it safe, that he might have it when he called for it’.2 What this weapon was can only be a matter of prurient conjecture, as no such document has yet been discovered. Gardiner was born around 1483 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and subsequently trained as a lawyer. He started his long career in government as secretary to Wolsey, but after the cardinal’s downfall he faithfully served the king up to 1534 in the same capacity and thereafter was employed on important diplomatic missions overseas.
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