82 SIR WILLIAM CAVENDISH — 1557- 



A band of them, near 50,000 strong, marched to the Chief 

 Justice's mansion at Cavendish, which they plundered and 

 burned. The Cliief Justice made his escape, but was taken in 

 a cottage in the neighbourhood. Unmoved by his grey liairs, 

 they carried him in procession to Bury St. Edmunds, as if 

 to open the assizes, and after he had been subjected to a 

 mock trial in the Market Place he was sentenced to death. 

 Jack Straw's Chief Justice magnanimously declaring that 

 in respect of the office of dignity which his Brother Cavendish 

 had so long filled, instead of being hanged he should be 

 beheaded. Thus three of the Chancellors of Cambridge — 

 Chief Justice Cavendish, Sir Thomas More, and the Earl of 

 Essex, for some time the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, have 

 been beheaded. 



Sir William Cavendish was the son of Thomas and Alice 

 Cavendish. There were three sons — George, William, and 

 Thomas. Thomas, the youngest son, was one of the knights 

 of St. John of Jerusalem, and died unmarried. George, the 

 eldest, was seated at Glemsford and Cavendish, in Suffolk. 

 He wrote the interesting biography of Cardinal Wolsey, and was 

 with him at his death at Leicester Abbey. He quotes the last 

 speech of the Cardinal : " Well, well, Master Kingston, if I had 

 served God as diligently as I have done the king, he would not 

 have given me over in my grey hairs." It has been supposed 

 that Shakespeare must have read this biography, for he 

 quotes this sentence almost word for word in his play of 

 Henry VIII. But though written in the reign of Philip 

 and Mary, it could not be published for many years 

 afterwards — not until 1641, on account of the blame which 

 he had laid on the memory of Henry yiH. for his 

 dissolution of the monasteries, and his cruel divorce of Queen 

 Katherine. If Shakespeare read it he must have read it in 

 manuscript. When first published it was put out as the author- 

 ship of his better known brother. Sir William Cavendish. It 

 was only in the year 18 14 that it was rightly assigned to the 

 elder brother, George Cavendish. The grandson of this George, 



