266 mms ot tbe 1buntinG«=3flelb 



disgrace. Wolsey had the knack of endearing to him- 

 self all who had served him. Those who have read his life, 

 written by his gentleman-usher, William Cavendish, will 

 remember how even his jester Patch preferred sharing 

 his old master's fallen fortunes to taking lucrative 

 service under the King, and had to be removed b\' force 

 to the royal palace. William Fitzwilliam had been 

 Treasurer and High Chamberlain to Wolsey when the 

 Cardinal was at the zenith of his power, and he so loved 

 and honoured his old master that he was ready to dare 

 all consequences rather than shut his doors upon the 

 fallen minister, when, in the pathetic guise of 'an old 

 man broken with the storms of state,' he passed on his 

 melancholy journey northwards. And those conse- 

 quences might well have been fatal. For, to beard 

 Bluff Harry in his wrath was to run imminent risk of 

 parting with one's head as well as one's pelf But the 

 much-married monarch had his good points. He could 

 appreciate honesty and loyalty, even though displayed 

 towards an enemy, and Master William Fitzwilliam's 

 sturdy defence of his conduct towards his old friend 

 and master turned out to be the best card he could 

 possibly have played. 



It was this Sir William Fitzwilliam who was the real 

 founder of the great family of the Fitzwilliams. There 

 are legendary Fitzwilliams, of course, who loom mythi- 

 cally and mistily from the days of Edward the Confessor. 

 But the fame and fortunes of the house sprang from this 

 honest, stout-hearted merchant, Alderman of Bread 

 Street Ward, and sometime Sheriff of London, who 

 made his money as a trader in the city, and was so 

 successful as to be able to purchase, first, Gainspark in 

 Essex, and then Milton Manor in Northamptonshire, 



