The intrinsic value of Cavendish's "Life of Cardinal Wolsey" has long been perceived, for it is the sole authentic record of a multitude of events highly important in a particularly interesting section of the history of England. Its importance as a product of biographical literature was first emphasised by Mandell Creighton, who insisted on the claim of Cavendish to be recognised as the earliest of the great English biographers, and an individual writer of charm and originality. He writes with simplicity and vividness, rarely yielding to the rhetoric which governed the ordinary prose of his age.