

PREFACE. 



The manuscript from which the following is transcribed, 

 was written in the early part of James the First's reign ; for 

 Sir George Morton, to whom it is addressed, died A.D. 1611- 

 The writer, John Budden, was son of John Budden, of Oanford, 

 in this county. He entered into Merton College, Oxford, in 1582, 

 and was admitted a Scholar of Trinity College in the same year ; 

 after taking his M.A. degree he was made Header of Philosophy 

 at Magdalen College, and was elected Principal of New Inn in 160 9. 

 His next step was the King's Professorship of Civil Law, and 

 soon after he was made Principal of Broadgate (Pembroke) 

 College, where he died June 11, 1620, aged 54. He published, 

 among other works, " Eeverandiss. Patris ac Domini Johannis 

 Mortoni, Cantuariensis olim Archiep. Magni Anglise Cancellarii, 

 trium Eegum Consiliarii, Yita obitusque," London, 1607. The 

 name of Thomas Budden appears on the county records as holding- 

 a farm, value 60 per annum, in the parish of Hinton Martel, in 

 the reign of Henry the Eighth. Like many of Cardinal Morton's 

 biographers, Budden appears to have drawn largely upon More's 

 Utopia. Historical records, both public and private, were not 

 so accessible to the Historian as they are now ; our national 

 archives were then kept under strict and jealous guardianship. 

 Such biographies as Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Lord 

 Chancellors," Dr. Hook's " Lives of the Archbishops of Canter- 

 bury," and Mr. Mozley's more recent one, " The lives of King 

 Henry VII., Prince Arthur, and Cardinal Morton," had not then 



T , , 



been written. 



