Cardinal’s sin ... a son!
QUESTION Did Cardinal Wolsey have a son?
Thomas Wolsey was born about 1473 in Ipswich, and despite humble beginnings — tradition has it that his father was a butcher — he became henry VIII’s lord Chancellor.
made archbishop of york in 1514 and a cardinal in 1515, he was soon in charge of virtually all matters of state.
During his rise to prominence, Wolsey had a sexual relationship [despite the celibacy of the clergy] with a woman by the name of Joan larke, or mistress larke. Joan was born about 1490 and was the daughter of an innkeeper, Peter larke of huntingdonshire.
Joan’s relationship with Wolsey is said to have lasted a decade, but it appears to have ended when Wolsey became archbishop of york.
Wolsey and larke probably had two children together. The first, a son by the name of Thomas Wynter, was born about 1508. Wolsey publicly claimed him as a nephew, but it was widely accepted that he was Wolsey’s son. In a Bull of Pope Julius II dated 1508 he is styled dilecti filio Thomae Wulcy.
The 17th-century historian, anthony Wood, wrote: ‘This Tho. Winter, who was a nephew (or rather nat. son) to Cardinal Tho. Wolsey, had several dignitaries confer’d upon him before he was of age, by the means of said Cardinal.’
Wood adds that after the Cardinal’s fall from grace, Wynter gave up most of his dignitaries, keeping only the archdeaconry of york, which he resigned in 1540.
Wynter resigned as archdeacon of Cornwall and Provost of Beverly in exchange for a pension of £86 per year for the first five years, and diminishing to £30 per year after. Wynter died about 1546.
Wolsey and larke are also thought to have had a daughter named Dorothy who was born about 1512. Dorothy was adopted by a man named John Clancey after her mother lost favour with Wolsey.
later she was placed in the shaftesbury abbey, a popular convent for the daughters of the wealthy, and became a nun. Wolsey married off larke to a man by the name of George legh with whom she had at least four more children.
Don Walters, Derby.
QUESTION Should there be a 13th sign of the zodiac?
The zodiac consists of a narrow band of stars circling the heavens, through which, as seen from earth, the sun appears to move throughout the year.
Think of a fastened dog’s collar with a ping-pong ball in the centre and a marble close to the ball. a line is drawn all the way round the collar in the middle.
The inside of the collar represents the zodiac band, the ball represents the sun, the marble the earth. as the marble rotates around the ball, an observer on earth will view various stars during one rotation, a year long.
During this journey, 13 constellations can be viewed from earth: these are the 13 zodiac constellations — the line drawn on the collar being the sun’s apparent path and the width of the collar contains the 13 constellations.
The 13th is called ophiuchus (formerly serpentarius). It represents a serpent bearer and is associated with the healer, aesculapius. The constellation is found between scorpius and sagittarius.
observers can locate ophiuchus easily at present as the planet saturn will spend august nights in this constellation.
after the moon (and the soon setting Jupiter), saturn is the brightest object currently in the night sky. To its right (west) is the reddish star antares, the red heart of the scorpion (in scorpius).
The sun passes through ophiuchus from December 1 to December 17, so this will be the ‘star sign’ for such birthdays.
It is worth pointing out that the earth ‘wobbles’ slightly as it rotates. This ‘wobbling’ (called ‘precession’) alters the constellation boundaries, so the dates when the sun passes through traditional Zodiac constellations no longer apply.
Why ophiuchus was left out of the original zodiac is not known. It might have been because ancient astrologers wanted to divide the 360 degree path of the sun in a mathematically pleasing way — 12 equal parts, each one of 30 degrees.
Dr Alexander Allen, Dawlish, Devon.
QUESTION Are any traces of the Pictish language left in Scotland?
The Pictish language is much disputed. It is believed to be a variant of the Celtic dialects commonly known as p-Celtic, which was related to the Welsh, Cornish and Breton tongue, although some scholars believe it is more akin to the Basque language.
The Romans first used the name Pictii, meaning ‘the painted people’ or ‘the people of the design’, but we don’t at all know how they referred to themselves.
Remnants of their language live on in scottish place names. The best known and most studied is the element Pit-, as in Pittenweem, Pittodrie, Pitcaple, Pitliver and Pitlochry. more than 300 such names have been identified.
Chief among the other elements is the generic Aber- ‘confluence, river mouth’, as in aberdeen, aberdour, aberarder, abercairny, aberfoyle, which in its scottish distribution is mainly to be found in the same area as Pit- and also in Wales (abergavenny, aberystwyth, aberdare etc).
Tim Clarkson’s book The Picts is a good history of these enigmatic people, though it has little further to add on the subject of their language. Allan Thain, Nairn.