Thomas North Saw the 1555 Conclave & Put It into Shakespeare's "Henry VIII"

North really did live the plays

The death of Pope Francis, leading to the recent gathering of all the world’s cardinals in a conclave to vote for the new pope, Leo XIV, reminds one of Thomas North’s 1555 embassy to Rome in which he met Pope Paul IV—and got to witness a gathering of Europe’s cardinals in a conclave and a procession of those cardinals marching down a Roman street. These…