Blackadder vocabulary

cardinal, born at Ipswich, son of a well-to-do grazier and wool-merchant; [...] gained the favour of Henry VII., and was promoted by him for his services to the deanery of Lincoln; this was the first of a series of preferments at the hands of royalty, which secured him one bishopric after another until his revenue accruing therefrom equalled that of the crown itself, [...] it was in the reign of Henry VIII that he rose to power, and to him especially he owed his honours;[...] he refused to sanction his master's marriage with Anne Boleyn, and was driven from power and bereft of all his possessions; finally, [...] he was arrested on a charge of treason, took ill on the way to London, and died at Leicester, with the words on his lips, "Had I but served God as I have served the king, He would not have forsaken me in my grey hairs" (1471-1530).