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Because the plague was still rampant in London, Henry did not observe the usual Yuletide festivities at the end of 1525, but spent what became known as “the still Christmas” quietly and fearfully at Eltham with very few courtiers in attendance; no one was allowed to “come thither but such as were appointed by name.”1 At Richmond, however, Wolsey, well supplied with the oranges that were said to ward off infection, “kept open household to lords, ladies and all others that would come, with plays and disguisings in most royal manner.”2 Mary remained safe at Ludlow, far from the pestilence.
The threat of plague lasted right into the summer of 1526, and the disease carried off at least two members of Henry’s entourage. After Christmas, Wolsey joined the King at Eltham, where together they drew up the famous Eltham Ordinances—“Articles devised by the King’s Highness, with the advice of his Council, for the establishment of good order and reformation of sundry errors and misuses in his most honourable Household and Chamber.” 3 These Ordinances were aimed at reforming the royal household, saving money, and eliminating waste. As far back as 1519, probably when he was feeling virtuous in the wake of the minions’ expulsion, Henry had communicated to Wolsey his pleasure that his entire household “be put in honourable, substantial and profitable order without any further delay.”4 As with many of his ideas, nothing had been done. Now, prompted by a looming financial crisis caused by the ruinous cost of the war with France, the King and the Cardinal had no choice but to implement drastic changes.
Servants surplus to requirements were pensioned off, and hangers-on summarily ejected; the Yeomen of the Guard were reduced to one hundred, and their court duties shared with the Gentlemen Pensioners, who were now provided with ceremonial battle-axes; tighter controls over expenditure on food and other provisions were imposed; and stricter codes of discipline and new curbs on absenteeism were introduced. Henceforth all members of the household were to be appointed on merit, and those who gave good service would benefit from new channels of promotion.
The Eltham Ordinances not only recognised the Privy Chamber as a household department in its own right but also reformed it, and in these reforms it is possible to ascertain the extent of Henry’s thralldom to Wolsey. The King had been overgenerous in finding posts for his favourites and their clients, all of whom brought their own servants to court with them. The Cardinal now seized his chance to minimise the threat to his authority posed by the one power centre at court over which he lacked influence. Numbers were cut, ostensibly in the interests of economy: the Gentlemen of the Chamber were reduced from twelve to six, Sewers were reduced from forty-five to six, and Grooms of the Chamber from fifteen to four. “Alas, what sorrow and lamentation was made when all these persons should depart the court,” observed Hall.
The Cardinal also took measures to curb the ambitions of the members of the Privy Chamber by decreeing that they render “humble, reverent, secret and lowly service, not pressing His Grace, nor advancing themselves, either in further service than His Grace will assign them unto, or also in suits, or intermeddle of any causes or matters whatsoever they be.” 5 Much to Wolsey’s chagrin, these injunctions would be largely ignored.
Naturally, the first to go were Wolsey’s enemies, among them the Groom of the Stool, Sir William Compton, Sir Francis Bryan, Sir Nicholas Carew, Lord Rochford, and George Boleyn.6 Among the displaced there was burning resentment against the Cardinal, and many were resolved to recover their former positions. Nevertheless, the King had allowed himself to be persuaded that their removal was for the best, although he had insisted on retaining as chief “Nobleman of the Privy Chamber,” without remuneration, his cousin Exeter, who was no friend to the Cardinal. To balance his influence, Wolsey brought in his own adherent, Sir John Russell, an ambitious courtier, soldier, and diplomat, who had begun his career in 1506 as Gentleman Usher to Henry VII. Henry VIII had knighted him during the French campaign of 1513, and thereafter sent him on several embassies to France and Italy. In 1522, during the war with France, Russell had lost an eye at the Battle of Morlaix. Around the time of his appointment to the Privy Chamber, he married and acquired his country seat, the fifteenth-century house known as Chenies in Buckinghamshire.
Compton was replaced as Groom of the Stool and Keeper of the Privy Purse by a man whose neutrality could be relied upon by the Cardinal, the charming and polished Henry Norris, who had become— according to Henry’s own testimony—“the best beloved of the King”7 and was eminently fitted for this most confidential of court posts.
“At the pleasure of His Grace,” Henry’s inward lodgings were to be “reserved secret, without repair of any great multitude.” No person was from henceforth to “presume, attempt or be admitted” to enter “other than such only as His Grace shall from time to time call for,” and strict regulations were brought in to enforce greater formality in the King’s presence and good conduct and discretion on the part of his personal servants, who were to be responsible for his “quiet, rest and comfort, and the preservation of his health.” 8Fifteen members of the Privy Chamber were to be in attendance on their master at any one time: Exeter, the Groom of the Stool, and five other Gentlemen, Sir William Taylor, Sir Thomas Cheney, Sir Anthony Browne, Sir John Russell, and William Carey; two Gentlemen Ushers, Roger Ratcliffe and Anthony Knyvet; four Grooms, William and Urian Brereton, Walter Welch, and John Carey; Penny the barber; and a page, fourteen-year-old Francis Weston, the son of Sir Richard Weston of Sutton Place.9
The Ordinances also recognised the fact that the Privy Council was meeting more and more frequently at court, and decreed that ten councillors must always be in attendance on the King; among those so designated were John Clerk, Bishop of Bath and Wells; Sir Thomas More; and the Dean of the Chapel Royal. Two at least were “to be always present every day in the forenoon, by 10 a.m. at the furthest, and by afternoon by 2 p.m. in the King’s dining chamber, or in such other place as shall fortune to be appointed for the Council chamber.”10
Another of those councillors in regular attendance was Dr. William Knight, who had recently replaced Richard Pace as Secretary to the King. Knight was another of Wolsey’s protégés; he had been educated at Oxford, taken holy orders, and been appointed a royal chaplain in 1515. He had served on various embassies and proved his worth as a versatile man of affairs. Later, the King would appoint him Bishop of Bath and Wells.
Poor Richard Pace’s career was grinding to a rather tragic halt. Wolsey, convinced that Pace was working against him, had seen to it that he was ousted from his post as Secretary and sent to Spain on an arduous diplomatic mission. In 1527, still suspicious of Pace’s loyalty, he had him committed to the Tower. This was all too much for the sensitive Pace, and his mind gave way. On his release in 1530, he retired for good from public life, a broken man.
The implementation of the Eltham Ordinances called for changes among the chief officers of the household. The elderly Earl of Worcester, who had been ailing for some time and was to die in April that year, was replaced as Lord Chamberlain by a man who had long enjoyed the favour of the King, William Sandys, who had been created Lord Sandys of The Vyne in 1523. He was assisted in his duties by the new Treasurer of the Household, Sir William Fitzwilliam, the able naval commander and diplomat, who was elected a Knight of the Garter that year. Meanwhile Wolsey had sacked the former Cofferer, John Shurley, for taking unauthorised leave, and replaced him with Sir Edmund Peckham.
There is no doubt that the Eltham Ordinances achieved much of what they were meant to do, even though many regarded them as “more profitable than honourable,”11 but it is not clear how stringently they were enforced, and there is evidence in royal proclamations that in several respects they were ignored. Certainly the numbers in the Privy Chamber had begun to rise by 1530, when there were nine Gentlemen and twenty officers in total (these numbers rose to eleven and twenty-four respectively by 1532, and steadily increased thereafter).12 The court remained a huge, chaotic establishment that would, over the next few years, be affected by the rule of factions and major changes of policy; only thirteen years would elapse before it was considered necessary to introduce another series of reforms. This all suggests that the Ordinances of 1526 did not go far enough towards stamping out waste and bad practices, and that there was insufficient provision for enforcing them.