George Cavendish

Born around 1500, George Cavendish was an English courtier and writer best known for The Life of Cardinal Wolsey. He came from a well-connected family and entered Wolsey’s service as gentleman-usher, which gave him a rare, intimate view of one of the most powerful men in Henry VIII’s reign.

After Wolsey’s fall, Cavendish remained closely associated with his former master’s memory. Years later, he wrote the work that made his name: a detailed narrative of Wolsey’s public career, disgrace, and final days. Because Cavendish had known him personally, the book stands out not just as Tudor history but as an early and unusually human piece of English biography.

Some sources give his birth as about 1500, while others suggest the late 1490s. Either way, he is remembered less for a long list of books than for one enduring work that has shaped how later readers imagine Wolsey and the Tudor court.