George Cavendish (writer)

George Cavendish (1494 – c. 1562), was an English writer, best known as the biographer of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. His "Thomas Wolsey, Late Cardinall, his Lyffe and Deathe" is described by the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" as the "most important single contemporary source for Wolsey's life" which also offers a "detailed picture of early sixteenth-century court life and of political events in the 1520s, particularly the divorce proceedings against Katherine of Aragon."

He was the elder son of Thomas Cavendish (d. 1524), who was a senior financial official, the "clerk of the pipe", in the Court of Exchequer, and his wife, Alice Smith of Padbrook Hall. He was the great-grandson of Sir John Cavendish from whom the Dukes of Devonshire and the Dukes of Newcastle inherited the family name of Cavendish. George was an English courtier and author and the brother of William Cavendish, the third husband of Bess of Hardwick. He was probably born at his father's manor of Cavendish, in Suffolk. Later the familyresided in London, in the parish of St Albans, Wood Street, where Thomas Cavendish died in 1524. Around this time George married Margery Kemp, of Spains Hall, an heiress, and the niece of Sir Thomas More.

Before 1522 he entered the service of Cardinal Wolsey as gentleman-usher, and stayed in his service until Wolsey's death in 1529. During this time he was often divided from his wife, children and estates, as he was in the closest personal attendance on the great man. Cavendish was wholly devoted to Wolsey's interests, and also he saw in this appointment an opportunity to gratify his master-passion, a craving "to see and be acquainted with strangers, in especial with men in honour and authority." He was faithful to his master in disgrace, and showed the courage of the "loyal servitor." It is plain that he enjoyed Wolsey's closest confidence to the end, for after the cardinal's death George Cavendish was called before the privy council and closely examined as to Wolsey's latest acts and words. He gave his evidence so clearly and with so much natural dignity, that he won the applause of the hostile council, and the praise of being "a just and diligent servant." He was not allowed to suffer in pocket by his fidelity to his master, but retired, as it would seem, a wealthy man to his estate of Glemsford, in West Suffolk, in 1530. He was only thirty years of age, but his appetite for being acquainted with strange acts and persons was apparently sated, for we do not hear of his engaging in any more adventures.

It is not to be doubted that Cavendish had taken down notes of Wolsey's conversation and movements, for many years passed before his biography was composed. Between 1554 and 1558, he wrote it out in its final form. It was not, however, possible to publish it in the author's lifetime, but it was widely circulated in MS. Evidently one of these manuscripts fell into William Shakespeare's hands, for that poet made use of it in his "Henry VIII", and Samuel Weller Singer even said that Shakespeare "merely put Cavendish's language into verse."

"Thomas Wolsey, Late Cardinall, his Lyffe and Deathe" was first printed in 1641, in a garbled text, and under the title of "The Negotiations of Thomas Wolsey". The genuine text, from contemporary MSS, was given to the world in 1810. Singer published the first complete edition in 1825: "The Life of Cardinal Wolsey, and Metrical Visions; from the original autograph manuscript". The "metrical visions" were his tragic poems: laments in the voice of ill-fated contemporary figures like Lady Jane Grey. Until the 19th century it was believed that the book was the composition of George Cavendish's younger brother William, the founder of Chatsworth House, who also was attached to Wolsey. Joseph Hunter proved this to be impossible, and definitely asserted the claim of George. The latter is believed to have died at Glemsford before July 1562.

The intrinsic value of Cavendish's "Life of Cardinal Wolsey" has long been perceived, for it is the sole authentic record of a multitudeof events highly important in a particularly interesting section of the history of England. Its importance as a product of biographical literature was first emphasized by Mandell Creighton, who insisted on the claim of Cavendish to be recognized as the earliest of the great English biographers, and an individual writer of charm and originality. He writes with simplicity and vividness, rarely yielding to the rhetoric which governed the ordinary prose of his age.

He also knew Anne Boleyn when she was first a debutante at King Henry's court in 1522. He was adamant that she remained a virgin until her marriage, despite Catholic rumours to the contrary. However, although he attested to her sexual morals, he never forgave her for her hatred of Cardinal Wolsey or her animosity towards the Pope.

References

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* "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography"