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Richard Nanfan declared unctuously – for the third time and no doubt for the record – that he prayed to God he wouldnot live to see the king’s death, but whatever happened they must ensure that Calais stayed in the hands of ‘my lord prince’. With luck they could ‘destroy all the captains and ringleaders that be of ill and contrary mind’. It should be easy enough to manage the others.
    Flamank then summarizes everything he has so far reported, while insisting that the Nanfans and Norton could all give the king a much better account of the discussion. He undermines his credibility, however, by adding that he has heard both Norton and William Nanfan mention that Sir Hugh Conway had said several times that there would be no more popes in Rome after the present one, and no more kings in Ireland after Henry VII. He finishes by describing a conversation in which the treasurer confided to him how he had suggested to both Sir Richard and Norton that, since it was so difficult to find out what was happening in England, it would be a good idea to employ a reliable man ‘to lie about the court … he may all times send us [news] how the world goeth’. Conway was ready to pay half the cost, ‘for God knoweth how suddenly a change may [be]fall’.
    Without doubt, the report was deliberately biased against Sir Hugh Conway, perhaps an attempt by Flamank and Norton to secure his dismissal. He is portrayed as hopelessly unballanced, to the point of hysteria, while references to his dislike of Lord Daubeney may have been invented to cause bad blood. Conceivably, Sir Richard Nanfan, who made all those carefully noted professions of loyalty, was the document’s real author, even if he did not write it himself.
    What made the report convincing was that during the previous year Sir Richard Guildford had been denounced by another spy as ready to welcome Suffolk. A former controller of the household, Guildford had been with Henry in Brittany and fought for him at Bosworth. Although probably unfounded, the accusation was given just a little substance by his being heavily in debt and facing ruin. The king gave him the benefit of the doubt, however, although in 1505 he had him arrested and sentto Fleet prison for not keeping proper accounts when Master of the Ordnance. Guildford’s career was over. Next year he went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem where he died. Reservations about his loyalty may well have had something to do with his downfall.
    When the reliability of key supporters such as Guildford was in doubt, it is no wonder Henry VII went in fear of Suffolk.
    15. September 1504: A Conversation about the Future
     
1 . LP Hen VII , op. cit ., vol. I, pp. 231–40.

2 . G. Cavendish, Thomas Wolsey, late Cardinal, his Life and Death written by George Cavendish , his Gentleman Usher , London, Folio Society, 1999, p. 33.

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Henry VIII and the White Rose 
     
     

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1535–6: The Lady Mary and the White Rose
     
‘The finger of God in those men’s blood.’
    
     
Reginald Pole, Apologia to Charles V 1
     
    In 1536 during a tournament at Greenwich the king, who had put on weight in recent years, fell heavily from his horse. For several hours he remained unconscious so that there were grave fears for his life. He never jousted again. He also gave up hunting, and instead had deer driven past a stand from where he could shoot them with a bow.
    Earlier falls may have inflicted cumulative brain damage of the type suffered by boxers. Since 1519 his concentration had been hindered by headaches that became increasingly severe, while he was tormented by a sore on his leg, an ulcerated vein or a bone infection. When he ceased to take exercise after his fall, his already gross body swelled to a truly vast size, making himfeel even more ill. It affected his temper, his