WOLSEY'S HORSEMANSHIP 141 



This no doubt is the reason we read so fre- 

 quently that in the sixteenth century considerable 

 attention was paid to breeding and rearing great 

 horses of Flanders, Friesland, France and Ger- 

 many. 



The majority of our historians seem not to 

 have realised fully that in Thomas Wolsey, after- 

 wards Cardinal Wolsey, we had probably one of 

 the finest horsemen of the period of Henry VII. 

 and Henry VIII. The extreme brilliancy of 

 Wolsey's public career possibly may have caused 

 his lesser accomplishments to be eclipsed or over- 

 looked, for that he possessed minor accomplish- 

 ments is well known. 



It was in Henry VI I. 's reign, and probably 

 about the year 1 500, that Wolsey first had occa- 

 sion to display his horsemanship in rather a pro- 

 minent manner. For we read that "the king, 

 having received a communication from the reign- 

 ing emperor, Maximilian, and being at a loss as 

 to how he should reply to it in the shortest pos- 

 sible time, turned abruptly to Thomas Wolsey to 

 solicit his advice, Wolsey being at that time the 

 king's chaplain ; whereupon Wolsey replied with- 

 out hesitation that if the king would entrust him 

 with a despatch he would deliver it to the emperor 

 with but little delay." 



