together.

[Footnote 674: _Ibid._, iv., 4898.]

[Footnote 675: _Ibid._, iv., 5210, 5255, 5581,
5582.]

[Footnote 676: _Ibid._, iv., 6011.]

[Footnote 677: _Ibid._, 6019.]

[Footnote 678: _L. and P._, iv., 5416.]

[Footnote 679: _Ibid._, iv., 5995. Henry VIII. no
doubt also had his eye on Gustavus in Sweden where
the Vesteraes Recess of 1527 had provided that all
episcopal, capitular and monastic property which
was not absolutely required should be handed over
to the King, and conferred upon him an
ecclesiastical jurisdiction as extensive as that
afterwards conferred upon Henry VIII. (_Cambridge
Modern Hist._, ii., 626).]

Wolsey's ruin was, however, due to more causes than his failure (p. 239)
to get a divorce for the King. It was at bottom the result of the
natural development of Henry's character. Egotism was from the first
his most prominent trait; it was inevitably fostered by the
extravagant adulation paid to Tudor sovereigns, and was further
encouraged by his realisation, first of his own mental powers, and
then of the extent to which he could force his will upon others. He
could never brook a rival in whatever sphere he wished to excel. In
the days of his youth he was absorbed in physical sports, in gorgeous
pageantry and ceremonial; he was content with such exhibitions as
prancing before the ladies between every course in a tourney, or
acting as pilot on board ship, blowing a whistle as loud as a trumpet,
and arrayed in trousers of cloth of gold. Gradually, as time wore on,
the athletic mania wore off, and pursuits, such as architecture, took
the place of physical sports. A generation later, a writer describes
Henry as "the only Phoenix of his time for fine and curious masonry".[680]
From his own original designs York House was transformed into
Whitehall Palace, Nonsuch Palace was built, and extensive alterations
were made at Greenwich and Hampton Court.

[Footnote 680: Harrison, _Description of England_,
in Holinshed, ed. 1577, bk. ii., chap. ix.]

But architecture was only a trifle; Henry's uncontrollable activity
also broke out in political spheres, and the eruption was fatal to