This Day in History: 1530-11-09

On 9th November 1530, ex-Cardinal Wolsey (but still Archbishop of York) arrived at the Cluniac Priory in Pontefract from Cawood Castle, accompanied by Henry Percy, 6th the Earl of Northumberland. Wolsey had earlier been stripped of his government office and property, and arrested on a charge of high treason. It was probable that he was intended for execution and was on his way to Sheffield to be given into the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Cavendish notes ‘every thoroughfare was blocked up with a living mass of human beings who…craved his blessing as he rode by them’. He reached Sheffield around the 25th and died at Leicester Abbey on the 29th/ 30th November.