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Show CI-IAPTBR IV. JOliN FITZJA~IER. OF obscure birth, and not brilliant taleuts, Sir John Fitzjames made his fortune by his great goocl hmnor, anu by being at college with Cardinal \Volscy. It i ~ aiu that Fitzjames, who was a Son1erset. hire man, 1-ept up an intimacy with vVolsey when the latter had becorno a village par ~on in that county; and that he was actually in the brawl at the fair when his reverence, having got drunk, was ~et in the tocks by Sir Amya. Paulet. While 1Volsey tried hi. luck in the church, with little hope of promotion, Fitzjamcs wa keeping hi · ternts in the inns of court; but he chiefly distinguished hin1 ·elf on gaudy day·, by dancing before the judges, pln,ying the part of ''Abbot of 1\iisrule," and wearing strange oaths-especially by St. Gillian, hi~ tutelary saint. Ilis agrceaulc tnanner 1nade him popular with the " reauers" and "benchcrs ; " and through their faYor, although very deficient in " moots " an<l '~bolts," he was called to the outer bar. Clients, however, he had none, and he was in deep despair, when his iormer chum having insinuated himself into the good grace:- of the stern and wary old man, Ilenry VII., ancl tho ~e of the gay and licentious youth, IIcnry ·viii.- wa" rapidly nclvancjng to greatness. \Vol ey, while almoner, anu holding . ubordinale offices about the court, took notice of Fitzjames, ad vised him to stick to the profession, anu w·as able to throw SOlUe bu ineSS in his way in the court of Wards anu Liveries - (76) A. D. 1522.] JOIIN FI1'ZJA1IES. 77 "Lofty ancl sour to them that lov'cl him not: But to those men that sought him, sweet as summer." Fitzjames was devotedly of this . econd class, and was even suspected to assist his prrtron in pursuit which urew upon him Queen Catharine's ccn ·ure :- " Of hi. own body he was ill, and gave The clergy ill example." For these or oth r service .. , the carJinal not long after he ,n·ested the great eal fron1 Archbishop \Vareham, and huu all legal patronage conferred upon hi1n, boldly made Fitzjames attorney general, notwithstanding loucl complaints from c01npetitors of his in experience and incapacitY· The only state trial which he had to conduct ' v::ts that of the unfortunate Staffonl, Duke of Buckingham, who, haYing quarrelled with \Vol ·ey, an<l called hi1n a " bntdlCr's cur," wa, prosecuted for high treason befor the lord high chancellor and Court of Peers, on very fri Yolo us ground". Fitzjames had li.Ltle difli culty in procuring a conviction ; anti although the manner in which he pre~.-e(l the ca ·e seems hocking to us, he probably was not considered to hnse excecdeu the line of his duty: and Shakspea.re rnakes l3uckingluun, returning fr01n vV estminster IIall to the 'fower, cxclain1- " I had my trial, Ancl must ncocls say, a nolJlc one; which makes me A lit't le happier than my wretched father. " The result was, at all event , highly ati -f~lctory to Wol..,cy, who, in the beginning of the following year, cr atcJ Fitzjmnes a puisne ju<lge of the Court of ICing's Bench, with a promi e of being raised to be chief ju tice as oon a, thPre should be u vacancy. Sir John Fineux, turned of eighty, was exp0cted 7 * |