The duke of Suffolk had also taken offence, that the king, by the cardinal's persuasion, had refused to pay a debt which he had contracted during his residence in France; and he thenceforth affected to live in privacy.

These incidents left Wolsey to enjoy without a rival the whole power and favor of the king; and they put into his hands every kind of authority.

In vain did Fox, before his retirement, warn the king "not to suffer the servant to be greater than his master." Henry replied, "that he well knew how to retain all his subjects in obedience;" but he continued still an unlimited deference in every thing to the directions and counsels of the cardinal.
The public tranquillity was so well established in England, the obedience of the people so entire, the general administration of justice, by the cardinal's means,[**] so exact, that no domestic occurrence happened considerable enough to disturb the repose of the king and his minister: they might even have dispensed with giving any strict attention to foreign affairs, were it possible for men to enjoy any situation in absolute tranquillity, or abstain from projects and enterprises however fruitless and unnecessary.
The will of the late king of Scotland, who left his widow regent of the kingdom, and the vote of the convention of states, which confirmed that destination, had expressly limited her authority to the condition of her remaining unmarried;[***] but, notwithstanding this limitation, a few months after her husband's death, she espoused the earl of Angus, of the name of Douglas, a young nobleman of great family and promising hopes.
Some of the nobility now proposed the electing of Angus to the regency, and recommended this choice as the most likely means of preserving peace with England; but the jealousy of the great families, and the fear of exalting the Douglases, begat opposition to this measure.
* Sir Thomas More.

Stowe, p.

504.
** Erasm.lib.ii.epist.i.