Chapter IX (3)

[43] How false were all the parties to each other at this time may be seen in a curious letter from Knight, the King's secretary, to Wolsey (when in France) about this man's going (Ellis' "Original Letters"). "So yt is that Francisco Philip Spaniard hath instantly laboured for license to go into Spain pretendyng cawse and colour of his goyng to be forasmuch as he saiyth he wolde visite his modre which is veari sore syk. The Queen hath both refused to assent unto his going and allso laboured unto the King's Highnesse to empesh the same. The King's Highnesse, knowing grete colusion and dissymulation betwene theym, doth allso dissymule faynyng that Philip's desyre is made upon good grownde and consideration, and hath easyli persuaded the Quene to be content with his goyng." The writer continues that the King had even promised to ransom Felipe if he was captured on his way through France, and desires Wolsey, notwithstanding the man's passport, to have him secretly captured, taking care that the King's share in the plot should never be known. Wolsey in reply says that it shall be done, unless Felipe went to Spain by sea. Probably Katharine guessed her husband's trick, for Felipe must have gone by sea, as he duly arrived at Valladolid and told the Emperor his message.

[44] Blickling Hall, Norfolk, is frequently claimed as her birthplace, and even Ireland has put in its claim for the doubtful honour. The evidence in favour of Hever is, however, the strongest.

[45] Mr. Brewer was strongly of opinion that Anne did not go to France until some years afterwards, and that it was Mary Boleyn who accompanied the Princess in 1514. He also believed that Anne was the younger of the two sisters. There was, of course, some ground for both of these contentions, but the evidence marshalled against them by Mr. Friedmann in an appendix to his "Anne Boleyn" appears to me unanswerable.

[46] "Life of Wolsey." Cavendish was the Cardinal's gentleman usher.

[47] "Life of Wolsey." It was afterwards stated, with much probability of truth, that Anne's _liaison_ with Percy had gone much further than a mere engagement to marry.

[48] Cavendish, Wolsey's usher, tells a story which shows how Katharine regarded the King's flirtation with Anne at this time. Playing at cards with her rival, the Queen noticed that Anne held the King several times. "My lady Anne," she said, "you have good hap ever to stop at a King; but you are like the others, you will have all or none." Contemptuous tolerance by a proud royal lady of a light jade who was scheming to be her husband's mistress, was evidently Katharine's sentiment.

[49] Wolsey to Henry from Compiegne, 5th September 1527. _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2.

[50] Wolsey to Ghinucci and Lee, 5th August 1527. _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2.

[51] Several long speeches stated to have been uttered by her to Henry when he sought her illicit love are given in the Sloane MSS., 2495, in the British Museum, but they are stilted expressions of exalted virtue quite foreign to Anne's character and manner.

[52] Although it was said to have been suggested by Dr. Barlow, Lord Rochford's chaplain.

[53] The dispensation asked for was to permit Henry to marry a woman, even if she stood in the first degree of affinity, "either by reason of licit or illicit connection," provided she was not the widow of his deceased brother. This could only refer to the fact that Mary Boleyn, Anne's sister, had been his mistress, and that Henry desired to provide against all risk of a disputed succession arising out of the invalidity of the proposed marriage. By the canon law previous to 1533 no difference had been made between legitimate and illegitimate intercourse so far as concerned the forbidden degrees of affinity between husband and wife. In that year (1533) when Henry's marriage with Anne had just been celebrated, an Act of Parliament was passed setting forth a list of forbidden degrees for husband and wife, and in this the affinities by reason of illicit intercourse were omitted. In 1536, when Anne was doomed, another Act was passed ordering every man who had married the sister of a former mistress to separate from her and forbidding such marriages in future. Before Henry's marriage with Anne, Sir George Throgmorton mentioned to him the common belief that Henry had carried on a _liaison_ with both the stepmother and the sister of Anne. "_Never with the mother_," replied the King; "nor with the sister either," added Cromwell. But most people will conclude that the King's remark was an admission that Mary Boleyn was his mistress. (Friedmann's "Anne Boleyn," Appendix B.)

[54] It would not be fair to accept as gospel the unsupported assertions of the enemies of Anne with regard to her light behaviour before marriage, though they are numerous and circumstantial, but Wyatt's own story of his snatching a locket from her and wearing it under his doublet, by which Henry's jealousy was aroused, gives us the clue to the meaning of another contemporary statement (_Chronicle of Henry VIII._, edited by the writer), to the effect that Wyatt, who was a great friend of the King, and was one of those accused at the time of Anne's fall, when confronted with Cromwell, privately told him to remind the King of the warning he gave him about Anne before the marriage. Chapuys, also, writing at the time when Anne was in the highest favour (1530), told the Emperor that she had been accused by the Duke of Suffolk of undue familiarity with "a gentleman who on a former occasion had been banished on suspicion." This might apply either to Percy or Wyatt. All authorities agree that her demeanour was not usually modest or decorous.

[55] _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2.

[56] Not content with her Howard descent through her mother, Anne, or rather her father, had caused a bogus pedigree to be drawn up by which the city mercer who had been his grandfather was represented as being of noble Norman blood. The Duchess of Norfolk was scornful and indignant, and gave to Anne "a piece of her mind" on the subject, greatly to Henry's annoyance. (_Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2.)

[57] They took with them a love-letter from the King to Anne which is still extant (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2). He tells her that "they were despatched with as many things to compass our matter as wit could imagine," and he trusts that he and his sweetheart will shortly have their desired end. "This would be more to my heart's ease and quietness of mind than anything in the world.... Keep him (_i.e._ Gardiner) not too long with you, but desire him for your sake to make the more speed; for the sooner we have word of him the sooner shall our matter come to pass. And thus upon trust of your short repair to London I make end of my letter, mine own sweetheart. Written with the hand of him which desireth as much to be yours as you do to have him." Gardiner also took with him Henry's book justifying his view of the invalidity of his marriage. A good description of the Pope's cautious attitude whilst he read this production is contained in Gardiner's letter from Orvieto, 31st March 1528. (_Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 4, part 2.)

[58] Hall tells a curious and circumstantial story that the declaration of war, which led to the confiscation of great quantities of English property in the imperial dominions, was brought about purely by a trick of Wolsey, his intention being to sacrifice Clarencieux Herald, who was sent to Spain with the defiance. Clarencieux, however, learnt of the intention as he passed through Bayonne on his way home, and found means through Nicholas Carew to see the King at Hampton Court before Wolsey knew of his return. When he had shown Henry by the Cardinal's own letters that the grounds for the declaration of war had been invented by the latter, the King burst out angrily: "O Lorde Jesu! he that I trusted moste told me all these things contrary. Well, Clarencieux, I will be no more of so light credence hereafter, for now I see perfectly that I am made to believe the thing that never was done." Hall continues that the King was closeted with Wolsey, from which audience the Cardinal came "not very mery, and after that time the Kyng mistrusted hym ever after." This must have been in April 1528.

[59] For Erasmus' letter see _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2, and for Vives' letter see "Vives Opera," vol. 7.

[60] The Pope was told that there were certain secret reasons which could not be committed to writing why the marriage should be dissolved, the Queen "suffering from certain diseases defying all remedy, for which, as well as other reasons, the King would never again live with her as his wife."

[61] This was written before the death of the courtiers already mentioned.

[62] See the letters on the question of the appointment of the Abbess of Wilton in Fiddes' "Life of Wolsey," and the _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2, &c.

[63] This letter was stated by Sir H. Ellis in his "Original Letters" to be from Katharine and Henry; and many false presumptions with regard to their relations at this time have been founded on the error.

[64] It will be remarked that her statement was limited to the fact that she had remained intact _da lui_, "by him." This might well be true, and yet there might be grounds for Henry's silence in non-confirmation of her public and repeated reiteration of the statement in the course of the proceedings, and for the stress laid by his advocates upon the boyish boast of Arthur related in an earlier chapter. The episode of the young cleric, Diego Fernandez, must not be forgotten in this connection.

[65] The words, often quoted, are given by Hall.

[66] _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2.

[67] Wolsey to Sir Gregory Casale, 1st November 1528. _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2.

[68] Or as Henry himself puts it in his letters to his envoys in Rome, "for him to have two legal wives instead of one," Katharine in a convent and the other by his side.

[69] So desirous was the Papal interest to persuade Katharine to this course that one of the Cardinals in Rome (Salviati) told the Emperor's envoy Mai that she would be very unwise to resist further or she might be poisoned, as the English ambassadors had hinted she would be. Mai's reply was that "the Queen was ready to incur that danger rather than be a bad wife and prejudice her daughter." (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 3.)

[70] Hall's _Chronicle_.

[71] This is Hall's version. Du Bellay, the French ambassador (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2), adds that Henry began to hector at the end of the speech, saying that if any one dared in future to speak of the matter in a way disrespectful to him he would let him know who was master. "There was no head so fine," he said, "that he would not make it fly."

[72] _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 2. "Intended Address of the Legates to the Queen."

[73] This is not surprising, as only a month before she had been reproved and threatened for not being sad enough.

[74] There seems to be no doubt, from a letter written in January 1529 by the Pope to Campeggio, that the copy sent to Katharine from Spain was a forgery, or contained clauses which operated in her favour, but which were not in the original document. It was said that there was no entry of such a brief in the Papal archives, and Katharine herself asserted that the wording of it--alleging the consummation of Arthur's marriage--was unknown to her. The Spaniards explained the absence of any record of the document in the Papal Registry by saying that at the urgent prayer of Isabel the Catholic on her deathbed, the original brief had been sent to her as soon as it was granted. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 3, p. 2278.)

[75] _Ibid._

[76] _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 4, part 3.

[77] _Ibid._ The suspicion against Wolsey at this time arose doubtless from his renewed attempts to obtain the Papacy on Clement's death. These led him to oppose a decision of the divorce except by the ecclesiastical authority.

[78] It was on this occasion that Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, Henry's old friend and brother-in-law, lost patience. "Banging the table before him violently, he shouted: 'By the Mass! now I see that the old saw is true, that there never was Legate or Cardinal that did good in England;' and with that all the temporal lords departed to the King, leaving the Legates sitting looking at each other, sore astonished."--Hall's _Chronicle_, and Cavendish's "Wolsey."

[79] Du Bellay to Montmorency, 22nd October 1529. _Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 4, part 3.

[80] This peremptory order seems to have been precipitated by a peculiarly acrimonious correspondence between Henry and his wife at the end of July. She had been in the habit of sending him private messages under token; and when he and Anne had left Windsor on their hunting tour, Katharine sent to him, as usual, to inquire after his health and to say that, though she had been forbidden to accompany him, she had hoped, at least, that she might have been allowed to bid him good-bye. The King burst into a violent rage. "Tell the Queen," he said to the messenger, "that he did not want any of her good-byes, and had no wish to afford her consolation. He did not care whether she asked after his health or not. She had caused him no end of trouble, and had obstinately refused the reasonable request of his Privy Council. She depended, he knew, upon the Emperor; but she would find that God Almighty was more powerful still. In any case, he wanted no more of her messages." To this angry outburst the Queen must needs write a long, cold, dignified, and utterly tactless letter, which irritated the King still more, and his reply was that of a vulgar bully without a spark of good feeling. "It would be a great deal better," he wrote, "if she spent her time in seeking witnesses to prove her pretended virginity at the time of her marriage with him, than in talking about it to whoever would listen to her, as she was doing. As for sending messages to him, let her stop it, and mind her own business. (Chapuys to the Emperor, 21st July 1531. _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._)

[81] _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, 1531.

[82] Katharine to the Emperor, _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, 28th July 1531.

[83] Foxe.

[84] Chapuys relates in May 1532 that when Henry asked the House of Commons for a grant to fortify the Scottish Border, two members spoke strongly against it. The best guarantee of peace, they said, was to keep friendly with the Emperor. They urged the House to beg the King to return to his lawful wife, and treat her properly, or the whole kingdom would be ruined; since the Emperor was more capable of harming England than any other potentate, and would not fail to avenge his aunt. The House, it is represented, was in favour of this view with the exception of two or three members, and the question of the grant demanded was held in abeyance. Henry, of course, was extremely angry, and sent for the majority, whom he harangued in a long speech, saying that the matter of the divorce was not then before them, but that he was determined to protect them against ecclesiastical encroachment. The leaders of the protest, however, were made to understand they were treading on dangerous ground, and hastened to submit before Henry's threats.--_Spanish Calendar_, vol. 4, 2nd May 1532.

[85] Chapuys to the Emperor, 16th April 1532.--_Spanish Calendar_, vol. 4, 2nd May 1532.

[86] In May 1532 the Nuncio complained to Norfolk of a preacher who in the pulpit had dared to call the Pope a heretic. The Duke replied that he was not surprised, for the man was a Lutheran. If it had not been for the Earl of Wiltshire _and another person_ (evidently Anne) he, Norfolk, would have burnt the man alive, with another like him. It is clear from this that Norfolk was now gravely alarmed at the religious situation created by Anne.

[87] _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, 1st October 1532.

[88] Hall's _Chronicle_, and _The Chronicle of Calais_, Camden Society.

[89] It is often stated to have been celebrated by Dr. Lee, and sometimes even by Cranmer, who appears to have been present.

[90] _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, Chapuys to the Emperor, 9th February 1533.

[91] _Ibid._, 15th February.

[92] Chapuys, writing to Granville on the 23rd February, relates that Anne, "without rhyme or reason, amidst a great company as she came out her chamber, began to say to one whom she loves well, and who was formerly sent away from Court by the King out of jealousy (probably Wyatt), that three days before she had had a furious hankering to eat apples, such as she had never had in her life before; and the King had told her that it was a sign she was pregnant, but she had said that it was nothing of the sort. Then she burst out laughing loudly and returned to her room. Almost all the Court heard what she said and did; and most of those present were much surprised and shocked." (_Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._)

[93] Mountjoy, Katharine's chamberlain, or rather gaoler, immediately afterwards gave the Queen a still harsher message, to the effect that not only was she to be deprived of the regal title, but that the King would not continue to provide for her household. "He would retire her to some private house of her own, there to live on a small allowance, which, I am told, will scarcely be sufficient to cover the expenses of her household for the first quarter of next year." Katharine replied that, so long as she lived, she should call herself Queen. As to beginning housekeeping on her own account, she could not begin so late in life. If her expenses were too heavy the King might take her personal property, and place her where he chose, with a confessor, a physician, an apothecary, and two chamber-maids. If that was too much to ask, and there was nothing for her and her servants to live upon, she would willingly go out into the world and beg for alms for the sake of God. (_Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, 15th April 1533.)

[94] _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, Chapuys to the Emperor, 15th April 1533.

[95] It was shortly after this that Friar George Brown first publicly prayed for the new Queen at Austin Friars.

[96] Chapuys to the Emperor, 27th April and 18th May 1533.

[97] An interesting letter from Cranmer on the subject is in the Harleian MSS., British Museum (Ellis's Letters, vol. 2, series 1).

[98] The Duke of Norfolk was apparently delighted to be absent from his niece's triumph, though the Duchess followed Anne in a carriage. He started the day before to be present at the interview between Francis and the Pope at Nice. He had two extraordinary secret conferences with Chapuys just before he left London, in which he displayed without attempt at concealment his and the King's vivid apprehension that the Emperor would make war upon England. Norfolk went from humble cringing and flattery to desperate threats, praying that Chapuys would do his best to reconcile Katharine to Cranmer's sentence and to prevent war. He praised Katharine to the skies "for her great modesty, prudence, and forbearance during the divorce proceedings, as well as on former occasions, the King having been at all times inclined to amours." Most significant of all was Norfolk's declaration "that he had not been either the originator or promoter of this second marriage, but on the contrary had always been opposed to it, and had tried to dissuade the King therefrom." (_Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 6, part 2, 29th May 1533.)

[99] Norfolk, on the morning of the water pageant, told Chapuys that the King had been very angry to learn that Katharine's barge had been appropriated by Anne, and the arms ignominiously torn off and hacked; and the new Queen's chamberlain had been reprimanded for it, as there were plenty of barges on the river as fit for the purpose as that one. But Anne would bate no jot of her spiteful triumph over her rival; and, as is told in the text, she used Katharine's barge for her progress, in spite of all.

[100] _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._, edited by the present writer, 1889.

[101] _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, Chapuys to the Emperor, 11th and 30th July 1533.

[102] _Chronicle of Henry VIII._, edited by the present writer.

[103] _Chronicle of Henry VIII._ Cranmer, in his letter to Hawkins giving an account of the festivities on this occasion (Harl. MSS., Ellis's Original Letters, vol. 2, series 1), says that after the banquet in the hall of the old palace, "She was conveyed owte of the bake syde of the palice into a barge and, soe unto Yorke Place, where the King's Grace was before her comyng; for this you must ever presuppose that his Grace came allwayes before her secretlye in a barge as well frome Grenewyche to the Tower, as from the Tower to Yorke Place."

[104] Stow gives some curious glimpses of the public detestation of the marriage, and of the boldness of Friar Peto in preaching before the King at Greenwich in condemnation of it; and the letter of the Earl of Derby and Sir Henry Faryngton to Henry (Ellis's Original Letters, vol. 2, series 1) recounts several instances of bold talk in Lancashire on the subject, the most insulting and opprobrious words being used to describe "Nan Bullen the hoore."

[105] Lord Herbert of Cherbury.

[106] _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, 11th July 1533.

[107] Katharine was even more indignant shortly afterwards, when she was informed that of the sum apportioned to her sustenance, only 12,000 crowns a year was to be at her own disposal, the rest, 18,000 crowns, being administered by an agent of the King, who would pay the bills and servants. She was for open rebellion on this point--she would rather beg her bread in the streets, she said, than consent to it--but Chapuys knew that his master did not wish to drive affairs to an extremity just then, and counselled submission and patience. (_Ibid._, 23rd August.)

[108] Chapuys to the Emperor, 30th July 1533.

[109] Chapuys writes a day or two afterwards: "The baptism ceremony was sad and unpleasant as the mother's coronation had been. Neither at Court nor in the city have there been the bonfires, illuminations, and rejoicings usual on such occasions."

[110] Katharine had shortly before complained of the insalubrity of Buckden and its distance from London.

[111] Katharine's appeal that she might not be deprived of the service of her own countrymen is very pathetic. She wrote to the Council: "As to my physician and apothecary, they be my countrymen: the King knoweth them as well as I do. They have continued many years with me and (I thank them) have taken great pains with me, for I am often sickly, as the King's grace doth know right well, and I require their attendance for the preservation of my poor body, that I may live as long as it pleaseth God. They have been faithful and diligent in my service, and also daily do pray that the King's royal estate may long endure. But if they take any other oath to the King and to me (to serve me) than that which they have taken, I shall never trust them again, for in so doing I should live continually in fear of my life with them. Wherefore I trust the King, in his high honour and goodness, and for the great love that hath been between us (which love in me is as faithful to him as ever it was, I take God to record) will not use extremity with me, my request being so reasonable."--_Privy Council Papers_, December 1533.

[112] _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, 27th December 1533.

[113] _Spanish Calendar Henry VIII._, 27th December 1533.

[114] Chapuys to the Emperor, 17th January 1534.

[115] Many instances are given by Chapuys of Anne's bitter spite against Mary about this time. In February 1534 he mentions that Northumberland (Anne's old flame, who had more than once got into trouble about her) had said that she was determined to poison Mary. Some one else had told him that Anne had sent to her aunt, Lady Clare, who was Mary's governess, telling her if the Princess used her title "to give her a good banging like the cursed bastard that she was." Soon afterwards the girl is reported to be nearly destitute of clothes and other necessaries. When Anne visited her daughter at Hatfield in March, she sent for Mary to come and pay her respects to her as Queen. "I know no Queen in England but my mother," was Mary's proud answer: and a few days afterwards Norfolk took away all the girl's jewels, and told her brutally that she was no princess and it was time her pride was abated: and Lady Clare assured her that the King did not care whether she renounced her title or not. Parliament by statute had declared her a bastard, and if she (Lady Clare) were in the King's place she would kick her out of the house. It was said also that the King himself had threatened that Mary should lose her head. There was, no doubt, some truth in all this, but it must not be forgotten that Chapuys, who reports most of it, was Anne's deadly enemy.

[116] Lee's instructions are said to have been "not to press the Queen very hard." It must have been evident that no pressure would suffice.

[117] The Queen wrote to Chapuys soon afterwards saying that the bishops had threatened her with the gibbet. She asked which of them was going to be the hangman, and said that she must ask them to hang her in public, not secretly. Lee's and Tunstall's own account of their proceedings is in the _Calendar of Henry VIII._, 29th May 1534.

[118] This lackey's name is given Bastian Hennyocke in the English State Papers. To him Katharine left L20 in her will. The other Spanish servants with Katharine at the time, besides Francisco Felipe, the Groom of the Chambers, and the Bishop of Llandaff (Fray Jorge de Ateca), were Dr. Miguel de la Sa, Juan Soto, Felipe de Granada, and Antonio Roca.

[119] This narrative is taken from the _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._, edited by the present writer. The author of the Chronicle was a Spanish merchant resident in London, and he was evidently indebted for this description of the scene to his friend and countryman, Francisco Felipe, Katharine's Groom of the Chambers. The account supplements but does not materially contradict the official report of Lee and Tunstall, and Chapuys' account to the Emperor gained from the Queen and her Spanish attendants.

[120] Chapuys to the Emperor, 29th May 1534.

[121] She had written more than one fiery letter to Charles during the previous few months, fervently urging him to strike for the authority of the Church. All considerations of her safety and that of her daughter, she said, were to be put aside. It was the duty of the Emperor to his faith that the march of heresy and iniquity in England should be stayed at any cost, and she exhorted him not to fail. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, February and May 1534.)

[122] Bedingfield and Tyrell were instructed in May 1534 to inform Katharine that the appeal she had made that her Spanish servants should not be penalised for refusing to take the oath to the new Act of Succession had been rejected, but licenses for the Spaniards to stay with their mistress on the old footing were soon afterwards given. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, May 1534.)

[123] The account here given, that of Chapuys himself, is quaintly and minutely confirmed by that of one of the Spanish merchants who accompanied him, Antonio de Guaras, the author of the _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._

[124] See Chapuys' many letters on the subject.

[125] Letters of Stephen Vaughan, Henry's envoy to Germany. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 7, etc.)

[126] Letters of Chapuys in the autumn of 1534. (_Spanish Calendar._)

[127] Chapuys to the Emperor, 2nd May 1536.

[128] Lady Shelton.

[129] The plans for Mary's flight from Eltham and her deportation to the Continent were nearly successful at this time.

[130] Katharine had first met the saintly Friar Forest when she had gone on the famous pilgrimage to Walsingham after the victory of Flodden (October 1513), and on his first imprisonment she and her maid, Elizabeth Hammon, wrote heart-broken letters to him urging him to escape. (_Calendar Henry VIII._)

[131] A vivid picture of the general discontent in England at this time, and the steadfast fidelity of the people to the cause of Katharine and Mary, is given by the French envoy, the Bishop of Tarbes. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, October 1535.)

[132] The suggestion had been tentatively put forward by the English Minister in Flanders three months before.

[133] This is according to Bedingfield's statement, although from Chapuys' letters, in which the chronology is a little confusing, it might possibly be inferred that he arrived at Kimbolton on the 1st January and that Lady Willoughby arrived soon after him. I am inclined to think that the day I have mentioned, however, is the correct one.

[134] In the previous month of November she had written what she called her final appeal to the Emperor through Chapuys. In the most solemn and exalted manner she exhorted her nephew to strike and save her before she and her daughter were done to death by the forthcoming Parliament. This supreme heart-cry having been met as all similar appeals had been by smooth evasions on the part of Charles, Katharine thenceforward lost hope, and resigned herself to her fate.

[135] Before Chapuys left Kimbolton he asked De la Sa if he had any suspicion that the Queen was being poisoned. The Spanish doctor replied that he feared that such was the case, though some slow and cunningly contrived poison must be that employed, as he could not see any signs or appearance of a simple poison. The Queen, he said, had never been well since she had partaken of some Welsh beer. The matter is still greatly in doubt, and there are many suspicious circumstances--the exclusion of De la Sa and the Bishop of Llandaff from the room when the body was opened, and the strenuous efforts to retain both of them in England after Katharine's death; and, above all, the urgent political reasons that Henry had for wishing Katharine to die, since he dared not carry out his threat of having her attainted and taken to the Tower. Such a proceeding would have provoked a rising which would almost certainly have swept him from the throne.

[136] Even this small gold cross with a sacred relic enclosed in it--the jewel itself not being worth, as Chapuys says, more than ten crowns--was demanded of Mary by Cromwell soon afterwards.

[137] This account of Katharine's death is compiled from Chapuys' letters, Bedingfield's letters, and others in the _Spanish_ and _Henry VIII. Calendars_, and from the _Chronicle of Henry VIII._

[138] The letter tells Henry that death draws near to her, and she must remind him for her love's sake to safeguard his soul before the desires of his body, "for which you have cast me into many miseries and yourself into many cares. For my part I do pardon you all, yea I do wish and devoutly pray God that He will also pardon you." She commends her daughter and her maids to him, and concludes, "Lastly, I do vow that mine eyes desire you above all things." Katharine, Queen of England. (Cotton MSS., British Museum, Otho C. x.)

[139] The death of Sir Thomas More greatly increased Anne's unpopularity. It is recorded (More's _Life of More_) that when the news came of the execution the King and Anne sat at play, and Henry ungenerously told her she was the cause of it, and abruptly left the table in anger.

[140] Even the King's fool dared (July 1535) to call her a bawd and her child a bastard.

[141] Chapuys to the Emperor, 24th February 1536.

[142] Chapuys to the Emperor, 29th January 1536.

[143] Probably the following letter, which has been frequently printed:--"My dear friend and mistress. The bearer of these few lines from thy entirely devoted servant will deliver into thy fair hands a token of my true affection for thee, hoping you will keep it for ever in your sincere love for me. Advertising you that there is a ballad made lately of great derision against us, which if it go much abroad and is seen by you I pray you pay no manner of regard to it. I am not at present informed who is the setter forth of this malignant writing, but if he is found he shall be straitly punished for it. For the things ye lacked I have minded my lord to supply them to you as soon as he can buy them. Thus hoping shortly to receive you in these arms I end for the present your own loving servant and Sovereign. H. R."

[144] Chapuys to the Emperor, 1st April 1536.

[145] See p. 264.

[146] It will be recollected that this question of the return of the alienated ecclesiastical property was the principal difficulty when Mary brought England back again into the fold of the Church. Pole and the Churchmen at Rome were for unconditional restitution, which would have made Mary's task an impossible one; the political view which recommended conciliation and a recognition of facts being that urged by Charles and his son Philip, and subsequently adopted. Charles had never shown undue respect for ecclesiastical property in Spain, and had on more than one occasion spoliated the Church for his own purposes.

[147] Chapuys to the Emperor, 6th June 1536. (_Spanish Calendar._)

[148] _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._, ed. Martin Hume. The author was Antonio de Guaras, a Spanish merchant in London, and afterwards Charge d'Affaires. His evidence is to a great extent hearsay, but it truly represented the belief current at the time.

[149] British Museum, Cotton, Otho C. x., and Singer's addition to Cavendish's _Wolsey_.

[150] _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._

[151] It must not be forgotten that the dinner hour was before noon.

[152] _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._

[153] _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._

[154] See letter from Sir W. Kingston, Governor of the Tower, to Cromwell, 3rd May 1536, Cotton MSS., Otho C. x.

[155] _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._

[156] Full account of her behaviour from day to day in the Tower will be found in Kingston's letters to Cromwell, Cotton MSS., Otho C. x., which have been printed in several places, and especially in the _Calendars Henry VIII._

[157] The beautiful letter signed Ann Bullen and addressed to the King with the date of 6th May, in which the writer in dignified language protests innocence and begs for an impartial trial, is well known, having been printed many times. It is, however, of extremely doubtful authenticity; the writing and signature being certainly not that of Anne, and the composition unconvincing, though the letter is said to have been found amongst Cromwell's papers after his arrest. The genuineness of the document being so questionable, I have not thought well to reproduce it here.

[158] Strype's _Cranmer_. Cranmer was at Croydon when Cromwell sent him news of Anne's arrest, with the King's command that he should go to Lambeth and stay there till further orders reached him. This letter was written as soon as he arrived there.

[159] Much appears to have been made of a certain alleged death-bed deposition of Lady Wingfield recently dead, who had been one of Anne's attendants, and as it was asserted, the conniver of her amours. Exactly what Lady Wingfield had confessed is not now known, nor the amount of credence to be given to her declarations. They appear, however, to have principally incriminated Anne with Smeaton, and, on the whole, the balance of probability is that if Anne was guilty at all, which certainly was not proved, as she had no fair trial or defence, it was with Smeaton. The charge that she and Norreys had "imagined" the death of the King is fantastically improbable.

[160] Godwin.

[161] "Je ne veux pas omettre qu'entre autres choses luy fust objecte pour crime que sa soeur la putain avait dit a sa femme (_i.e._ Lady Rochford) que le Roy n'estait habile en cas de soy copuler avec femme, et qu'il navait ni vertu ni puissance." This accusation was handed to Rochford in writing to answer, but to the dismay of the Court he read it out before denying it. (Chapuys to the Emperor, 19th May. _Spanish Calendar._)

[162] Chapuys to Granvelle, 18th May 1536. See also Camden.

[163] Froude says Smeaton was hanged; but the evidence that he was beheaded like the rest is the stronger.

[164] The whole question is exhaustively discussed by Mr. Friedmann in his _Anne Boleyn_, to which I am indebted for several references on the subject.

[165] Lady Kingston, who was present, hastened to send this news secretly to Chapuys, who, bitter enemy as he was to Anne, to do him justice seems to have been shocked at the disregard of legality in the procedure against her.

[166] The curious gossip, Antonio de Guaras, a Spaniard, says that he got into the fortress overnight. Constantine gives also a good account of the execution, varying little from that of Guaras. The Portuguese account used by Lingard and Froude confirms them.

[167] Chapuys to the Emperor, 19th May 1536. (_Spanish Calendar._)

[168] This was Cromwell's version as sent to the English agents in foreign Courts. He speaks of a conspiracy to kill the King which "made them all quake at the danger he was in."

[169] Chapuys to the Emperor, 19th May. (_Spanish Calendar._)

[170] Chapuys to Granvelle, 20th May. (_Spanish Calendar._)

[171] The local story that the marriage took place at Wolf Hall, the seat of the Seymours in Wiltshire, and that a barn now standing on the estate was the scene of the wedding feast, may be dismissed. That festivities would take place there in celebration of the wedding is certain; and on more than one occasion Henry was entertained at Wolf Hall, and probably feasted in the barn itself; but the royal couple were not there on the occasion of their marriage. The romantic account given by Nott in his _Life of Surrey_, of Henry's waiting with straining ears, either in Epping Forest or elsewhere in hunting garb, to hear the signal gun announcing Anne's death before galloping off to be married at Tottenham Church, near Wolf Hall, is equally unsupported, and, indeed, impossible. Henry's private marriage undoubtedly took place, as related in the text, at Hampton Court, and the public ceremony on the 30th May at Whitehall.

[172] Henry's apologists have found decent explanations for his hurry to marry Jane. Mr. Froude pointed to the urgent petition of the Privy Council and the peers that the King would marry at once, and opined that it could hardly be disregarded; and another writer reminds us that if Henry had not married Jane privately on the day he did, 20th May, the ceremony would have had to be postponed--as, in fact, the full ceremony was--until after the Rogation days preceding Whitsuntide. But nothing but callous concupiscence can really explain the unwillingness of Henry to wait even a week before his remarriage.

[173] The Catholics were saying that before Anne's head fell the wax tapers on Katharine's shrine at Peterborough kindled themselves. (John de Ponte's letter to Cromwell, Cotton MSS., Titus B 1, printed by Ellis.)

[174] _Spanish Calendar_, 6th June 1536.

[175] The Parliament of 1536 enacted that all Bulls, Briefs, and Dispensations from Rome should be held void; that every officer, lay or clerical, should take an oath to renounce and resist all authority of the Pope on pain of high treason. In Convocation, Cromwell for the King at the same time introduced a new ecclesiastical constitution, establishing the Scriptures as the basis of faith, as interpreted by the four first Councils of the Church. Three sacraments only were acknowledged--Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist. The use of images and invocation of the saints were regulated and modified, all idolatrous or material worship of them being forbidden. Cromwell at the same period was raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Cromwell, and made Vicar-General of the Church. (Lord Herbert's _Henry VIII._)

[176] They are all in Cotton MSS., Otho x., and have been printed in Hearne's _Sylloge_.

[177] She did her best for her backers during the Pilgrimage of Grace, throwing herself upon her knees before the King and beseeching him to restore the dissolved abbeys. Henry's reply was to bid her get up and not meddle in his affairs--she should bear in mind what happened to her predecessor through having done so. The hint was enough for Jane, who appears to have had no strength of character, and thenceforward, though interesting herself personally for the Princess Mary, she let politics alone. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 12.)

[178] Chapuys to the Emperor. (_Calendar Henry VIII._)

[179] _Hist. MSS. Commission_, Report XII., Appendix iv. vol. 1, Duke of Rutland's Papers.

[180] _Ibid._

[181] The assertion almost invariably made that Bishop Nicholas Sanders, the Jesuit writer, "invented" the story that the Cesarian operation was performed at birth is not true. The facts of this time are to a great extent copied textually by Sanders from the MS. _Cronica de Enrico Otavo_, by Guaras, and the statement is there made as an unsupported rumour only.

[182] Henry's elaborate testamentary directions for the erection and adornment with precious stones of a sumptuous monument to himself and Jane were never carried out.

[183] An account of these confiscations will be found in the _Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 13.

[184] Chastillon Correspondence in _Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 13.

[185] The extraordinary attentions showered upon the elderly French lady, Mme de Montreuil, and her daughter, Mme de Brun, and their large train of attendant ladies, in the autumn of 1538, is an amusing instance of Henry's diplomacy. It has usually been concluded by historians that it was a question of amour or gallantry on Henry's part; but this was not the case. The lady had been the governess of the late Queen Madeleine of Scotland, and was passing through England on her way home. The most elaborate comedy was played by Henry and Cromwell on the occasion. The ladies were treated like princesses. The Lord Mayor and all the authorities on their way to the coast had to banquet them; they were taken sight-seeing and feasting everywhere, and loaded with gifts; and the most ostentatious appearance made of a close intimacy with them, in order to hoodwink the imperial agent into the idea that a French match was under discussion. Henry himself went to Dover to see them, and gave them all presents. But the French and imperial ambassadors were in close touch one with the other, and themselves dined with the ladies at Chelsea; having a good laugh with them at the farce that was being played, which they quite understood. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 13, part 2.)

[186] The terms of the arrangement were the maintenance of the _status quo ante_, but were generally in favour of France, which retained Savoy and some of the Lombard fortresses threatening Milan, that State, the principal bone of contention, being still held by the Emperor's troops; but with a vague understanding that it might be given as a dowry to a princess of the Emperor's house, if she married a French prince. The latter clause was hollow, and never intended to be carried out, as Henry knew.

[187] Her own well-known comment on Henry's proposal was, that if she had two heads one should be at the disposal of his Majesty of England.

[188] Pole had been sent to Spain by the Pope for the purpose of urging the Emperor to execute the decree against England, at least to the extent of stopping commerce with his dominions. Charles saw Pole in Toledo early in March 1539. The Cardinal found the Emperor professedly sympathetic, but evidently not willing to adopt extreme measures of force against Henry. Pole, disappointed, thereupon returned to Papal Avignon instead of going on to France with a similar errand. Nothing is clearer in the correspondence on the subject (_Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 14) than Charles' determination--which was invariable throughout his life--not to allow Churchmen or ecclesiastical polity to guide his state action. Whilst Pole was thus seeking in vain to urge the Catholic powers to overthrow Henry, Wyatt the English ambassador in Spain, poet and gentle wit though he was, was busily plotting the murder of the Cardinal, together with some secret device to raise trouble in Italy and set Charles and Francis by the ears. This was probably the treacherous surrender of Parma and Piacenza to England for France, to the detriment of the Emperor and the Pope--who claimed them.

[189] The influence of this party led by Norfolk and Gardiner, though it sufficed to secure the passage of the Six Articles, did not last long enough to carry them into rigid execution. Cromwell, by arousing Henry's fears that the German confederation would abandon him to his enemies, soon gained the upper hand; and the Saxon envoy Burchardus, writing to Melancthon in the autumn, expressed hopes that the coming of Anne would coincide with the repeal of the Act. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 14, part 2.) The English Protestants blamed Cranmer for what they considered his timid opposition, soon silenced, to the passage of the Bill, and approved of the action of Latimer, who fled rather than assent to it, as did the Bishop of Salisbury. Before the Bill had been passed three months, of its principal promoters Stokesley of London was dead, Gardiner sent away from Court, and Norfolk entirely in the background.

[190] Wotton to the King, 11th August 1539. (_Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 14, p. 2.)

[191] It has been suggested that the Duchess with whom this comparison was instituted was Anne's sister, the Duchess of Saxony, who was quite as beautiful as the Duchess of Milan.

[192] Memorandum in _Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 14, part 2, p. 96.

[193] Marillac to Francis I., 3rd October 1539.

[194] The last passage meant that a union with France or the empire might have led to the putting of the Princess Mary forward as heir after the King's death, as against Prince Edward. The letter with Hertford's truly dreadful spelling is printed by Ellis.

[195] A list of the personages appointed to attend will be found in the _Calendar of Henry VIII._, vol. 14.

[196] As usual, tedious lists of the finery worn on the occasion are given by Hall, and copied by Miss Strickland.

[197] The Duke of Suffolk to Cromwell. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 14).

[198] Deposition of Sir A. Browne. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 14, 2.)

[199] Russell's deposition. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 14, 2.)

[200] Cromwell (after his disgrace) to the King. (Hatfield MSS.)

[201] For descriptions of the pageant see Hall, also _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 15, and _Chronicle of Henry VIII._, edited by the present writer.

[202] Hall.

[203] Cromwell to Henry. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 14.)

[204] Cromwell's statement. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 15, p. 391.)

[205] Wriothesley's deposition. (_Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 15.)

[206] The King got a double grant of four fifteenths and tenths, payable by instalments in four years; a shilling in the pound on all lands, and sixpence in the pound on personal property; aliens paying double; besides the confiscation of the great revenues of the Order of St. John. Such taxation was almost without precedent in England, and certainly added to Cromwell's unpopularity, already very great, owing to the oppressiveness of his religious policy with regard to the religious houses and his personal harshness.

[207] _The Spanish Chronicle Of Henry VIII._, edited by the present writer. In this record, Seymour, Earl of Hertford, is made to take a leading part in the fall of Cromwell in the interests of his nephew the Prince of Wales (Edward VI.), but I can find no official confirmation of this.

[208] Memo. in Gardiner's handwriting, Record Office. (_Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 15.)

[209] She does not appear to have done so, however, until the King had received a letter from the Duke of Cleves, dated 13th July, couched in somewhat indignant terms. She then wrote to her brother that she "had consented to the examination and determination, wherein I had more respect, as beseemed me, to truth than to any worldly affection that might move me to the contrary, and did the rather condescend thereto for that my body remaineth in the integrity which I brought into this realm." She continues that the King has adopted her as a sister and has treated her very liberally, more than she or her brother could well wish. She is well satisfied. The King's friendship for her brother, she says, will not be impaired for this matter unless the fault should be in himself (_i.e._ Cleves). She thinks it necessary to write this, and to say that she intends to live in England, lest for want of true knowledge her brother should take the matter otherwise than he ought. The letter is signed "Anna Duchess, born, of Cleves, Gulik, Geldre and Berg; your loving sister." The English and German drafts are in the Record Office, the former abstracted in _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 15. The King instructed Wotton and Clerk, his envoys at Cleves, to deal with the Duke in the same spirit, holding out hopes of reward if he took the matter quietly, and to assume a haughty tone if he seemed threatening.

[210] Within a week of this--to show how rapid was the change of feeling--Pate wrote to the King and to the Duke of Norfolk saying how that "while Thomas Cromwell ruled, slanders and obloquies of England were common," but that now all was changed. The brother of the Duke of Ferrara had sent to him to say that he was going to visit the King of England, for "the Emperor these years and days past often praised the King's gifts of body and mind, which made him the very image of his Creator." This praise had "engendered such love in the stomach" of Don Francesco d'Este that he could no longer defer his wish to see such a paragon of excellence as Henry, and he rejoices "that so many gentlemen belonging to the Emperor" are doing likewise. This was even before the marriage with Anne was declared invalid. (12th July, _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 15.) Chapuys, the Emperor's ambassador, was again sent to England immediately, and cordial relations were promptly resumed. (_Spanish Calendar_, vol. 6, part 1.)

[211] Richard Hilles, the Protestant merchant, writing to Bullinger in Latin (Zurich Letters, Parker Society), says that for some weeks before the divorce from Anne of Cleves, Henry was captivated by Katharine Howard, whom he calls "a very little girl"; and that he frequently used to cross the Thames from Westminster to Lambeth to visit, both by night and day, the Bishop of Winchester (Gardiner) providing feasts for them in his palace. But at that time Katharine was, Hilles tells us, looked upon simply as Henry's mistress--as indeed she probably was--rather than his future wife.

[212] Hilles to Bullinger (Parker Society, Zurich Letters) gives voice to bitter complaints, and Melancthon wrote (17th August, etc.) praying that God might destroy "this British Nero." (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 15.)