ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the expansive, protean boundaries of Wolsey's authority posed a particular challenge for the Henrician discourse of diplomacy, with which his bifurcated identity was uniquely at odds. It describes Gwyn's extensive analysis and he emerged from famously humble origins in the late fifteenth century, ripened as both a cleric and a diplomat in the service of King Henry VII, and took only a few years to establish himself as the most formidable subject in the reign of his young son. Wolsey's entanglement with Henry made engagement with the English exceptionally difficult for foreign parties. It is no wonder, then, that royal inquiry was thought most appropriately sent first of all to the Cardinal, lest he resent the precedence conceded to his Majesty'. Cavendish was Wolsey's gentleman usher, and wrote the first crucial biography of his master years after Wolsey's death, Cavendish resurrects him in this poem.
