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• XXA:
LIVES OF THE
PRINCESSES OF WALES.
BY
BARBARA CLAY FINCH.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL II.
llontion :
REMINGTON AND CO., New Bond Street, W.
1883.
['All Rights Reserved.']
CONTENTS.
KATHARINE OF ARAGOJNT
(continued.)
CHAPTER IV.
The Princess Mary — Execution of Buckingham — Marriage of Maria cle Eojas— Description of the King — Of the Queen — Her piety — Visit of Charles V. — His betrothal to the Princess Mary — Her education — Katharine's ill-health — Her letter to Wolsey — Henry Fitzroy — Mary sent to Ludlow — First rumours of a divorce — Wolsey's instigation of it — Anne Boleyn — Katharine's letter to Charles V. — Her interview with Henry — Fisher's view of the case — Letter of the Emperor to Katha- rine— Embassy to the Pope — Popularity of the Princess Mary — Behaviour of the Queen . . . . .1
CHAPTER V.
Illness of Anne Boleyn — The King's letters to her — Letter of Erasmus to Katharine — Arrival of Camppggio— Interviews of the Qaeen and Cardinal — Address of the Council to the King — Conversation between the King and Queen — The King's address at Bridewell — Audience of Wolsey and Campeggio with the Queen — Warham and Tunstall question Katharine — The brief of dispensation — Henry's em- bassy to the Pope — Exhibition of the brief to the English am- bassadors— Katharine's letter to Muxetula — Henry's treatment of the Queen — Splendonr of Anne Boleyn — Letter of the Em- peror to Katharine — The Court of Inquiry — The Queen's Speech — Her popularity — Her reception of Wolsey and Cam- peggio— Letters of the English nobles to the Pope — His reply — Adjournment of the Court of Inquiry — Fall of Wolsey — Letter of the Queen — Thomas Cranmer — His embassy to the Pope — Bribery of the French Universities — Christmas at Greenwich — Illness of the Princess Mary . . .34
CHAPTER VI.
Thomas Cromwell — Deputation to the Queen — Her reply — Separa- tion of Henry and Katharine — Her departure from Windsor — Letter to the Princess Mary — Interview of the King and Reginald Pole — Elevation of Anne Boleyn to the peerage — Her
865X2
11
journey with Henry to Calais — Letters of Queen Katharine — Marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn — Cranmer's Court at Dunstable — Katharine's refusal to be present — Her marriage pronounced invalid — Her reception of the announcement — Coronation of Anne Boleyn — Her unpopularity — Sermons of the Friars at Greenwich — The King's Proclamation — Katharine's removal to Bugden — Her heavy sorrow — Her forgiveness of Anne Boleyn — Her letters to her daughter — Birth of Eliza- beth— Interview of Mary and Anne Boleyn — Letter of the French Ambassador — Visit of Lee and Tunstall to Katharine — Her inflexible resolution — -Her letter to the Emperor — Refusal of her servants to take the oath of allegiance — Her wishes re- specting them — Refusal to go to Fotheringay — Removal to Kimbolton —Traces of her residence there . . .84
CHAPTER VII.
Persecution of Father Forrest — Attachment of her servants to Queen Katharine — Illness of the Princess Mary — The bull of excommunication -Queen's letter to the Emperor — Threats of Anne Boleyn — Non-publication of the bull — Letter of Katha- rine to the Pope — Illness of the Queen — Her request to see her daughter — Henry's refusal — His resolve to enforce her sub- mission — Opinion of Katharine's physician — Her renewed entreaty to see her child— Her last letter to the Emperor — Devotion of Lady Willoughby — Queen's message to the Em- peror— Her letter to the King — Her death — Reception of the news at Greenwich — The general sorrow — Letter of the King to Lady Bedyngfeld — Funeral of Queen Katharine — Her will — Her character — Her memory preserved at Kimbolton . . 123
CAROLINE OF ANSPACH.
CHAPTER I.
England in the eighteenth century —Birth of Caroline — Sophia Charlotte — Charlottenburg — Caroline's education — An Im- perial suitor — Her marriage — Her husband — The Electress Sophia — Marriage of the Princess of Hanover — Caroline's children — Herrenhausen — Royal matchmaking — Death of the Electress — Death of Queen Anne — Caroline's arrival in England — Coronation of George I. — Poetical address to the Princess of Wales — Quarrel between the King and his son — Leicester House — Caroline's popularity — Mrs. Howard — Mrs. Clayton — Anecdotes of the Princess of Wales — Buckingham House — Richmond Lodge — Pope at Hampton Court — Hunting in Belsize Park— Birth of Princess Mary— Inoculation of the
Ill
Princesses — Reconciliation of the King and Prince — Caroline and Sir Woolston Dixie — Rudeness of Dean Swift — The King's Cockcrower — Death of Sophia Dorothea — Death of George I. — Reception of the news by George II. — The Queen and Sir Robert Walpole — Caroline's allowance — Her reception of Lady Walpole . . . . . . . .149
CHAPTER II.
•Coronation of George and Caroline — Drury Lane Theatre — Royal Visit to the City — Queen's patronage of authors — Her muni- ficence to Elizabeth Elstob — Frederick Prince of Wales — Thomson's " Sophonisba " — " The Beggars' Opera " — The Duchess of Queensberry — The Queen's Birthday — Horace Walpole — Lord Hervey — Caroline's immense influence — Self- importance of the King — Queen's love for her husband — Mrs. Howard — Mrs. Howard's husband — Caroline Regent — Stephen Duck — Royalty at home — The Duke of Grafton — ■ The Princess Royal — Her ambition — Her betrothal to the Prince of Orange — His appearance— Arrival — Illness — Pre- sents to the Princess — The Royal Marriage — Extraordinary ceremonies — The Drawing-room — Opinion of the Princesses — Departure of the Prince and Princess — Address of the House of Lords to the Queen ...... 180
CHAPTER III.
The Excise Bill — Caroline's great influence — Her support of Walpole — Resignation of Lady Suffolk — Arrival of the Princess of Orange — Her conversation with Lord Hervey — Her wish to remain in England — Her reluctant farewell — King's treatment of the Prince of Wales — Return of the Princess of Orange — Her final departure — Queen's liking for Lord Hervey — Her conversations with him — Her power over the King — Her ill-health — Her endurance — The importance of her life — Her opinion of a second marriage — Departure of the King for Hanover — Caroline appointed Regent — King's extraordinary letters — Lord Hervey's imaginary diary — His drama of Court life — The King's return — His ill-humour — Lord Hervey's account of an evening with the King and Queen — Conversation of the Queen and Sir Robert Walpole — Her remark on the Triple Alliance . . . .219
CHAPTER IV.
Marriage of the Prince of Wales — King's return to Hanover — His prolonged absence — The Queen and Walpole — Her letter to the King — His reply — His return — A stormy voyage — Letter of Princess Amelia — The Queen's birthday — Dissensions between
IV
the King and Prince of Wales — Queen's estrangement from her son — Her illness — Her imprudence — King's >vant of considera- tion— Affection of the Princess Caroline — Queen's injunctions concerning the Prince of Wales — Her state pronounced hope- less— Her superstition regarding Wednesday — Her farewells to her children — Her last gift to the King — His extraordinary conduct — His grief — His irritability — Queen's interview with Sir Robert Walpole — With the Archbishop of Canterbury — Her death — Her funeral — Behaviour of the King — Character of the Queen — Yerses on her death — Her children — Death of the King ........ 247"
AUGUSTA OF SAXE-GOTHA.
CHAPTER I.
Description of Frederick Prince of Wales — Queen Caroline's scheme for his marriage — Lady Diana Spencer — Augusta of Saxe- Gotha — Mission of Lord Delaware — Journey of the Princess — Meeting of Frederick and Augnsta — A royal water-party — Augusta's reception at St. James's — Criticisms upon her — Marriage of the Prince and Princess — Congratulations of the Lord Mayor — Augusta's visit to the Theatre — Her feigned ill- ness— Her visit to the city — Her attendance at the Lutheran Chapel — The Queen's opinion of her — Her childishness — Lady Archibald Hamilton — Extraordinary conduct of the Prince — Danger of the Princess — Birth of the Lady Augusta — Visits of the Queen to the Princess of Wales — Christening of the Royal infant — Removal of the Prince and Princess to Kew — Princess Caroline's opinion of Frederick — Birth of George III. — Birthday of the Prince of Wales — Birth of the Duke of York — Of Princess Elizabeth — Yisit of Frederick to St.. Bartholomew's Fair — Leicester House — Reconciliation of the King and Prince — Birth of the Duke of Gloucester — Of the Duke of Cumberland — Anecdotes of Prince George — Royal theatricals — Princess Elizabeth — Reception of Yertue at Carlton House — Birth of Princess Louisa — Of Prince Frede- rick— His christening — Yisit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Spitalfields — The Princess's birthday . . .281
LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES
OF WALES.
KATHARINE OF AEAGON.
{Continued.) CHAPTER IY.
The Princess Mary — Execution of Buckingham — Marriage of Maria de Rojas — Description of the King — Of the Queen — Her piety — Visit of Charles V. — His betrothal to the Princess Mary — Her education — Katharine's ill-health — Her letter to Wolsey — Henry Fitzroy — Mary sent to Ludlow — First rumours of a divorce — Wolsey's instigation of it — Anne Boleyn — Katharine's letter to Charles V. — Her interview with Henry — Fisher's view of the case — Letter of the Emperor to Katharine — Embassy to the Pope — Popularity of the Princess Mary — Behaviour of the Queen.
During their absence the King and Queen had been kept constantly informed by the Privy Council of the health and general well-being of their precious only daughter. She was a lively, merry child, rosy-cheeked and brown-eyed, and her beauty, vivacity, and healthfulness reconciled the King, ostensibly at least, to his want of male heirs. While her parents were away she was living in royal state at Richmond. Though only four years old, she was required to give audience to three Frenchmen of rank then visiting Eng-
VOL. II. B
2 LIVES OF THE PKINCESSES OF WALES.
land, and the Privy Council sent a minute and highly- laudatory account of her manner of receiving and entertaining them. "After they had been shown everything notable in London, they were conveyed in a barge, by the Lord Berners and the Lord Darcy to Richmond, where they repaired to the Princess, and found her right honourably accom- panied with noble personages, as well spiritual as temporal, and her house and chambers furnished with a proper number of goodly gentlemen and tall yeomen. Her presence-chamber was attended, besides the lady governess and her gentlewomen, by the Duchess of Norfolk and her three daughters, the Lady Margaret, wife to the Lord Herbert, the Lady Gray, Lady Neville, and the Lord John's wife. In the great chamber were many other gentlewomen well apparelled. And when the gentlemen of Prance came into the presence- chamber to the Princess, her grace in such wise showed herself unto them, in welcoming and enter- taining them with most goodly countenance, proper communication, and pleasant pastime in playing on the virginals, that they greatly mar- velled and rejoiced at the same, her tender age considered."
In another letter the Council mentions that they have several times seen the little Princess, " your dearest daughter, who, God be thanked, is in prosperous health and convalescence ; and like as she increaseth in days and years, so doth she in grace and virtue."
When the King and Queen returned she accom- panied them to Greenwich, and remained with them until alter her birthday in the following Pebruary. She received many Christmas gifts, amongst others a pair of silver snuffers from the Duke of Norfolk, and a bush of rosemary
KATHAEINE OF ARAGON. 3
covered with gold spangles, brought her by a poor woman of Greenwich. But the Queen's attention was diverted from this beloved child in the spring of 1521, when the Duke of Buckingham, who had always been a staunch and loyal friend to her, was arrested and executed for treason, mainly through the agency of Cardinal Wolsey. " Then has the butcher's dog pulled down the fairest buck in Christendom," cried Charles V., when he heard the news. Katharine did all she could to save his life, and did not attempt to conceal her opinion of Wolsey's share in his death.
She was a woman of strong attachments, and very faithful to old friends. Her maid of honour, Maria de Rojas, who had attended her on her first coming to England, was loved by her with deep and unshaken affection, which was as warmly returned. " I wish," the Queen had written to her father, before her marriage with Henry, ic to keep Maria near my person, and the girl desires of all things to remain with me."
" She loves Maria more than any living thing," Caroz, the Spanish Ambassador, had written to the Spanish King; and the maid of honour deserved the friendship she had inspired, being in good truth noble and devoted, and loyal to the death. Of noble Spanish blood, the child of the Count of Salinas, the Captain General of Castile, and envoy at the Papal and Imperial Courts, she was not likely to lack suitors; but, like her mistress, she had elected to take England as her home, and wedded for love William Witloughby, Baron Willoughby d'Eresby, the seventh of his line. The union did not last long, and in her widowhood Lady Willoughby left her country seat at Parham, and returned to the Queen, her only child, a daughter, Katharine, having, as an
4 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
heiress, been taken from her care. Of the other ladies who had been with her when she came as Princess of Wales, the Queen now had none remaining with her. Inez de Vargas had married William Blount, fourth Baron Montjoy, the friend of Erasmus. They had fallen in love with each other during the idyllic summer following the royal love-match, and both the King and Queen were well pleased with the marriage. Maria de Salazar had married in Flanders ; and the rest had returned to Spain.
The personal appearance of the King about this time is described by the Venetian Ambassador, Guistinian, in a letter not meant for Henry's eye, and which, therefore, need not be accused of undue praise. " His Majesty is," he says, " about twenty-nine years of age, as handsome as nature could form him, above any other Christian Prince ; handsomer by far than the King of France. He is exceedingly fair, and as well-proportioned as possible. . . . He is an excellent musician and composer, an admirable horseman, and wrestler. He possesses a good knowledge of the French, Latin, and Spanish languages, and is very devout. On the day on which he goes to the chase he hears mass three times, but on the other days as often as five times. He has every day service at the Queen's chamber at vespers and compline. He is uncommonly fond of the chase, and never indulges in this diversion without tiring eight or ten horses. These are stationed at the different places where he purposes to stop. When one is fatigued he mounts another, and by the time he returns home they have all been used. He takes great delight in bowling, and it is the pleasantest sight in the world to see him engaged in this exercise, with his fair skin covered with a beauti-
KATHARINE OF AEAGON. O
fully fine shirt. He plays with the hostages of France, and it is said they sport from 6,000 to 8,000 ducats in a day. Affable and benign, he offends no one. He has often said to the ambassador, he wished that every one was content with his condition, adding, ' We are content with our islands/ "
Of the Queen, Miss Strickland gives some interesting particulars. " In the portrait most commonly recognized as Katharine of Aragon she appears a bowed-down and sorrow-stricken person, spare and slight in figure, and nearly fifty years old. But, even if that latest picture of Holbein really represent Katharine, it must be remembered that she was not near fifty all her life, therefore she ought not to be entirely identified with it, especially as all our early historians, Hall among them (who was present at the Field of Gold), mention her as a handsome woman. Speed calls her { beauteous/ and Sir John Eussell, one of Henry's Privy Council, puts her in imme- diate comparison with the triumphant beauties, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, declaring she was not to be easily paralleled when in her prime. Her portrait, engraved in the first volume of Burnet, from the miniature of Strawberry Hill, is very different from the one usually known ; and there is a fac-simile of it, as a whole-length oil painting, in the gallery at Versailles, though it is called by a different name. This portrait repre- sents her as a very noble-looking lady of thirty ; the face oval, the features very regular, with a sweet, calm look, but somewhat heavy, the fore- head of the most extraordinary height— phrenolo- gists would say with benevolence greatly developed. The oil painting at Versailles has large, dark eyes and a bright brunette complexion. The hood cap
6 LIVES OF THE TEIXCFSSES OF WALES.
of five corners is bordered with rich gems, the black mantilla veil depends from the back of the cap on each side, for she never gave up the costnme of her beloved Spain ; clusters of rubies are linked with strings Ot pearl round her throat and waist, and a corJelicre belts of the same jewels hangs to her feet. Her robe is dark bine velvet, with a graceful train broidered with sable fur ; her sleeves are straight, with ruffles, and slashed at the wrists. Over them are great hanging sleeves of sable fur, of the shape called rebras. She draws up her gown with her right hand; the petticoat is gold-coloured satin, barred with gold. Her figure is stately, bin somewhat colnmn-like and solid. It realized very well the description of an Italian contemporary, who said that her form was ■ ■>>•.-. . . . The routine of Katharine's life was self-denying. Her contemporaries held her in more estimation for her ascetic observances than for her highest practical virtues. She rose in the night to prayers, at conventual hours : she dressed herself lor the day at rive in the morning. Beneath her royal attire she wore the habit of St. Francis of the third order, of which community she was an admitted member. She was used to say that she considered no part of her time so much wasted as that passed in dressing and adorn- ing herself. She tasted on Fridavs and Saturdays, and on the vigils of saints' davs. She confessed at least weekly, and received the Eucharist every Sunday. For two hours after dinner one of her attendants read to her books of devotion. Xot- withstanding this rigorous rule of self-discipline, Katharine delighted in conversation of a lively cast : she often invited Sir Thomas More to her private suppers with the King, and took the utmost pleasure in his society."
KATHAEINE OF ARAGON. 7
Sir Thomas ~Move was not the only thoughtful
and cultivated man who thought well of Katharine. Erasmus had a high opinion of her. He dedicated to her his treatise on " Christian Matrimony/* instanced her as an example to womankind, and asks, in speaking of the King and Queen, "What household is there among the subjects of th-ir realms that can offer an example of such united wedlock ? Where can a wife be found better matched with the best of husbands ? " He was no fair-weather friend ; for after the trouble of her life began, and sycophants and flatterers were deserting her, Erasmus had the courage to call the attention of Henry himself to his wife's virtues. "Your noble wife," he wrote to the King, "spends that time in reading the sacred volume which other Princesses occupy in carls and dice/' Katharine, in her turn, warmly appreciated the scholar ; and would gladly have made him her Latin master hal he continued in England.
Her studies did not prevent her becoming a proficient in needlework, the universal feminine accomplishment in all times and ages.
With stole and with needle she was not to seek, And other practicisings for ladie3 meet For pastimes, as tables, tric-trac, and gleek,* Cards and dice,
writes an old English versifier ; and Taylor, writing in the reign of James L, thus com- memorates her skill : —
I read that in the 7th King Henry's reign, Fair Katharine, daughter to the Castile King,
Came into England with a pompons train
Of Spanish ladies, which she thence did bring.
* Ches3, backgammon, and whist.
8 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
She to the eighth King Henry married was
(And afterwards divorced) when virtuously (Although a Qneen) yet she her days did pass
In working with the needle curiously. As in the Tower, and places more beside,
Her excellent memorials may be seen Whereby the needle's praise is dignified
By her fair ladies and herself a Queen. Thus for her pains, here, her reward is just : Her works proclaim her praise though she be dust.
In the year 1523, Charles V. again visited England. He was brought by the King to Greenwich Palace, where Katharine received him at the hall door, holding by the hand her little daughter, the Princess Mary. Charles bent his knee, and asked her blessing, and was introduced to his little cousin, whom he had come to betroth. Mary was at that time but six years old, but, according to the fashion of those days, she was considered none too young to be solemnly affianced. A solemn treaty of matrimony was signed at "Windsor, whereby the Emperor engaged to marry her when she had completed her twelfth year ; and the visit of her bridegroom-elect, with the accompanying festivities, raised the expen- diture of the little maiden's establishment to £1,139 6s. l^d. Charles wished that his future bride should be sent to Spain to complete her education ; but this her parents would not consent to, though they promised that she should be brought up in all things as a Spaniard. " As to the education of the Princess Mary," said the King, " if the Emperor should search all Christen- dom for a mistress to bring her up, and frame her after the manner of Spain, he could not find one more meet than the Queen's grace, her mother — who coineth of the royal house of Spain, and who, for the affection she beareth to the Emperor, will nurture her, and bring her up to his satisfaction.
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 9
But the noble person of the young Princess is not meet as yet to bear the pains of the sea, nor strong enough to be transplanted into the air of another country."
" The care of Mary's excellent mother," says Miss Strickland, " was now sedulously directed to give her child an education that would render her a fitting companion to the greatest sovereign of modern history, not only in regard to extent of dominions, but in character and attainments. To Dr. Linacre, the learned physician, who had formerly been one of Prince Arthur's, was entrusted the care of the Princess Mary's health, and some part of her instruction in Latin ; the Queen, her mother (as appears by her own written testimony) often examining her translations and reading with her. Linacre died when the Princess was but eight years of age, having first written a Latin grammar for her use. It was dedicated to her, and he speaks with praise of her docility and love of learning, at that tender age. The copy belonging to the Princess is now in the British Museum. Queen Katharine requested Ludovicus Vives, a Spaniard of deep learning, who was called by his contemporaries the second Quin- tillian, to draw up a code of instructions for the education of Mary. He sent a treatise in Latin, dedicated to the Queen, from Bruges, and after- wards came to England, and at Oxford revised and improved it. He thus addresses Katharine of Aragon : — ' Govern by these my monitions Maria, thy daughter, and she will be formed by them ; she will resemble thy domestic example of probity and wisdom, and, except all human expec- tations fail, holy and good will she be by necessity.' Yives points out with exultation the daughters of Sir Thomas More as glorious
10 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
examples of the effects of a learned and virtuous female education. His rules are rigid: lie im- plores that the young Princess may read no idle books of chivalry or romance. He defies and renounces such compositions, in Spanish, as ' Amadis de Gaul,' 6 Tirante, the White/ and others burnt by the curate in ' Don Quixote.' He abjures ' Lancelot du Lac,' ' Paris et Vienne,' c Pierre Provencal,' and ' Margalone and the Fairy Melusina.' In Flemish he denounces 'Florice and Blanche/ and ' Pyramus and Thisbe.' All these, and such as these, he classes as libri pestiferi, corrupting to the morals of females. In their places he desires that the young Princess Mary may read the Gospels, night and morning, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles, selected portions of the Old Testament, and the works of Cyprian, Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose; like- wise Plato, Cicero, Seneca's maxims, Plutarch's Euchiriclion, the Paraphrase of Erasmus, and the Utopia of Sir Thomas More. Among the works of classic poets, he admitted the Pharsalia of Lucan, the tragedies of Seneca, with selected portions of Horace. He deemed cards, dice, and splendid dress as pestiferous as romances. He gave rules for her pronunciation of Greek and Latin, and advised that lessons from these languages should be committed to memory every day, and read over two or three times before the pupil went to bed. He recommended that the Princess should render English into Latin fre- quently, and likewise that she should converse with her preceptor in that language. Her Latin dictionary was to be either Perotti or Colepin. He permitted some stories for her recreation, but they were all to be purely historical, sacred, or classic. He instanced the narrative of JosepK
KATHAKINE OF AEAGON. 11
and his brethren, in the Scriptures ; that of Papyrus in Aulus Gellius, and Lucretia in Livy. The well-known tale of Griselda is the only exception to his general exclusion of fiction, and that perhaps he took for fact. It is a curious coincidence that Griselda was afterwards con- sidered, in England, as the prototype of Queen Katharine."
In 1 523, the health of the Queen began to give way. She had been sorely tried by the death of her infants, and perhaps English air was anything but a restorative to a native of Granada. Her delicacy seemed chronic ; and from 1523 to 1526 she is but rarely mentioned by chroniclers of her Court. She herself believed the end of her life was drawing nigh. Perhaps it would have been better for her, poor soul, if her belief had been true ; if she had died as honoured wife and un- doubted Queen, with no stain resting on her daughter's name. Death would not have seemed to her devout nature so hard to meet as the lonely agony, the stinging humiliations of her later years. In the January of 1524, or 1525, she wrote the following letter to Cardinal Wolsey, touching the wedding of one of her attendants, in which her strong impression of the slight tenure on which she held her life is evident : — ■
"My Lord,
u It hath pleased the King to be so good lord unto me as to speak unto Arundel the heir, for a marriage to be had between him and one of my maids, and upon this I am agreed with him, having a sum of money which, being offered unto him, he shall make her sure jointure, during her life, the which she cannot be sure of without the licence and goodwill of his father being on live
12 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
[alive] . For the which cause I beseech you to be good and gracious lord to the said Arundel, for business which he hath now to do before you, to the intent that he may have time to go to his father, and make me sure of her jointure in this present term time.
" And if this be painful [inconvenient] to you, I pray you, my lord, pardon me, for the uncertainty of my life, and the goodness of my woman, causeth me to make all this haste, trusting that she shall have a good husband and a sure living, and if God would call me the next day after, the surer it shall appear before him, that I intend to help them that be good, and taketh labour doing me service. And so I make an end, recommending me unto you.
" Katharine the Qwene.
" At Ampthill, the xxv day of January."
These years of ill-health did not pass without events occurring which were of necessity of great interest to Katharine. On June 25th, 1525, Henry Fitzroy, the King's illegitimate son by Elizabeth Blount, then a boy of six years old, was created Duke of Richmond with infinite pomp and splendour. " A month afterwards," says M. du Boys, " the King added the dignity of Lord Admiral of England, and afterwards made him large grants of land. . . . The same deed that created the boy Duke of Richmond gave him precedence over all the English nobility, and over the Princess, his sister, herself. This last favour was too significant ; it must have been a severe wound to a mother like Katharine, jealous for the preservation of her daughter's rights to the crown. But it is said that the Queen only mentioned her resentment to three Spanish ladies of her house-
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 13
hold. These ladies had sympathized with her grief; they were accused of having aroused and kept up her resentment, and the King instantly dismissed them from the Court. It was a harsh and cruel proceeding, says the Venetian Ambas- sador, who mentions the fact, but the Queen was obliged to submit patiently." It was about this time she wrote a sad, little note to her nephew, Charles Y. : —
"Most High and Powerful Loed,
" I cannot imagine what may be the cause of your Highness having been so angry, and having so forgotten me that for upwards of two- years I have had no letters [from Spain] , and yet I am sure I deserve not this treatment, for such are my affections and readiness for your High- ness's service, that I deserve a better reward."
This epistle seems to have had little effect on the Emperor, as, in the same year, 1525, he broke his contract with the Princess Mary, and married Isabel of Portugal. It is said that already rumours of a meditated divorce were afloat, and that the Emperor was bitterly angered by such an insult to his aunt ; but it is possible that the English were not very anxious to see their King's only child and heiress married to a great conti- nental power, among whose vast estates England would become a mere appanage. The little lady was treated entirely as the heiress-apparent, created Princess of Wales, and given a splendid establishment ; and, in the autumn of the same year that witnessed the breaking of her betrothal, was taken to Ludlow Castle for residence and education, according to the usual custom of the heirs to the crown — that castle where her mother
14 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
had spent the brief season during which she bore that title which was yet again to be bestowed on her. The Princess bade adieu to her parents at Langley, in Herefordshire, in September, arrived safely at her destination, and was noticed as being " joyous and decorous " in manners. A new set of instructions regarding her education was given to her council, framed, it is apparent, chiefly by the Queen.
" First, above all other things, the Countess of Salisbury, being lady-governess, shall, according to the singular confidence that the King's high- ness hath in her, gives most tender regard to all that concerns the person of the said Princess, her honourable education and training in virtuous demeanour; that is to say, to serve God, from whom all grace and goodness proceedeth. Like- wise, at seasons convenient, to use moderate exer- cise, taking open air in gardens, sweet and whole- some places, and walks (which may conduce unto her health, solace, and comfort), as by the said lady-governess shall be thought most convenient. And likewise to pass her time most seasons at her virginals, or other musical instruments, so that the same be not too much, and without fatigation, or weariness, to attend to her learning of Latin tongue and French. At other season to dance, and among the rest to have good respect to her diet, which is meet to be pure, well prepared, drest, and served with comfortable, joyous, and merry com- munication, in all honourable and virtuous manner. Likewise, the cleanliness and well-wearing of her garments and apparel, both of her chamber and person, so that everything about her be pure, sweet, clean, and wholesome, as to so great a princess doth appertain ; all corruptions, evil airs, and things noisome and unpleasant, to be eschewed."
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 15
" It hath been asserted," says Miss Strickland, " by all contemporaries, that Queen Katharine, at one time of her life, cherished an ardent desire that her daughter Mary should be united in marriage with Reginald Pole, son of the Countess of Salisbury, the noble kinswoman who had con- stantly resided with the young princess. All the biographies of Reginald Pole declare that Mary manifested the greatest partiality to him from her earliest childhood. This might have been ; yet the difference of their ages, Reginald being born in 1500, was too great for any partiality to have subsisted between them, in early life, as lovers. "While there was hope of her daughter becoming the wife of the Emperor, it was not probable that Queen Katharine, who loved her nephew exceed- ingly, could have wished her to marry Reginald Pole. But when Reginald returned to England at the same time that the imperial match was broken off, and appeared in her court, in his twenty-fifth year, possessing the highest cultivation of mind, and the grandest person and features, of that perfect mould of beauty which revived the memory of the heroic Plantagenets, his ancestors, it is possible that the wise Queen, weighing the disad- vantages of wedlock with a foreign monarch, might wish her Mary united to such a protector. The match would have been highly popular among the English, as the national love for the memory of the Plantagenet kings was only equalled by the intense national jealousy of foreign alliances; besides which the personal qualities of Reginald rendered him the pride of his country. He had, however a mistrust of the atmosphere of the English court, as portentous of storm and change ; he reminded his royal relatives that he had been educated for the Church, and withdrew himself into
16 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
the seclusion of the Carthusian Convent of Sion. Here Keginald abstracted himself from the world, by sedulous attention to books, but it was observed that he neither took priest's orders nor monastic vows."
Bat we must turn from the pleasant details of Katharine's love and care for ber precious only child to matters which concerned her as deeply, but which, alas ! were cruelly different to those fond cares of motherhood. Hitherto, in spite of the loss of her children, she had been an excep- tionally happy Queen. Though not immaculate,, Henry had given her but little cause for grief or jealousy, in comparison with the conduct of many other monarchs ; and she had the good fortune to have gained not only his love, but his respect — the first and last woman who ever did so. For nearly twenty years she had been a beloved and honoured wife, a noble and respected queen j her daughter, acknowledged as the heiress of England, was growing into girlhood; her passionately-loved husband was still, to all appearance, kind and loving to her ; when the cloud came down upon her that was to ruin her fame, to break her heart, and, bitterest of all, to taint her daughter's name.
Who first whispered the possibility of a divorce, must always remain a mystery. For the honour of mankind, we must hope that the oft repeated assertion that the King, already captivated by Anne B; leyn's charms, hit on this expedient for removing Katharine, is false ; but whether another version, that Henry, conscience-stricken, con- sulted his confessor, Dr. Longland, and heard from him that his scruples were correct, we can- not tell. " The truth is," says Holinshed, "that whether this doubt was first moved by the Cardinal
KATHARINE OF ARAGON". 17
[Wolsey], or by the said Longland, being the King's confessor, the King was not only brought in doubt, whether it was a lawful marriage or no, but also determined to have the case examined, cleared, and adjudged by learning, law, and suffi- cient authority. The Cardinal verily was put most in blame for this scruple now cast into the King's conscience; for the hate he bare to the Emperor, because he would not grant to him the archbishopric of Toledo, for the which he was a suitor, and therefore he did not only prevent the King of England to join in friendship with the French King, but also sought a divorce betwixt the King and the Queen, that the King might have in marriage the Duchess of Alencon, sister to the French King, and, as some have thought, he travailed in that matter with the French King at Amiens, but the Duchess would not give ear thereto." Probably this was really the com- mencement of the case ; and the King's confession of doubts and misgivings to Longland most likely occurred after the wily Cardinal had first whis- pered his crafty words in his ear. To do Wolsey justice, it is unlikely that any personal grudge against Charles V., such as that mentioned by Holinshed, was the sole cause of his scheming. No doubt, arrogant and ambitious as he was, it rendered him more eager in his movements ; but, in spite of his many faults, he was really loyal and patriotic enough to honestly strive for the welfare of the King and the country, and he seems to have sincerely believed that such a move would be a benefit to both, heedless that it would be doing evil that good might come, and ignorant that it would strike the first blow at his own safety. How, in all likelihood, the beginning was made of that debate which broke the Queen's
VOL. II. c
18 LIVES OF THE PE1NCESSES OF WALES.
heart and shortened her life, Miss Yonge tells in the following words : —
(l Mary Tudor remained the only child of her parents, and her sex was beginning to be felt as a great misfortune. To marry her to a subject would be to aggrandize one family, and make all the others jealous ; and to give her to a foreign prince might lead to England being swamped in some great continental power. Therefore, Car- dinal Wolsey recollected with satisfaction that Queen Katharine's former espousals with Prince Arthur might form a pretext for declaring the marriage with the King as invalid, and thus leaving him free to take another wife, with more hope of male offspring. It was true that the wedding had only been the outward ceremony often performed to bind children together, and that a dispensation had been duly obtained for her wedlock with Henry ; but such dispensations had often been given, and as often set aside when reasons of state made an excuse convenient for patting asunder what God had joined together; and Wolsey expected no scruples from the Pope that could not be overcome by a handsome bribe, while as to the King, he had already shown in- consistency to the Queen by admiration of more than one lady of the court, and was likely to be pleased to be free to marry a younger bride. Little did TYolsey think, when he thus conceived a cruel and godless expedient of state policy, what a stone he set rolling, and how he would be one of the first it would overwhelm ! Meantime the ratification of the Holy League in the early .-pring of 1527, brought two French Ambassadors to England, who proposed that Mary should be married either to King Francis himself or to his second son, Henri, Duke of Orleans, not to the
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 19
Dauphin, because it was the great object to pre- vent England being united with France. All went smoothly, when in the midst the Bishop of Tarbes, without orders from his master, asked Henry and the Cardinal if the Princess's legitimacy was beyond a doubt. There is very little question but that Wolsey thought this was the best way of suggesting his plan to the King. However, he I retended that it was the shock to him that it really was to Henry."
A magnificent entertainment was given to the two French Ambassadors at Greenwich, May 5th, 1527, by way of farewell; first a tournament, where three hundred lances were broken, a supper, and a dance, when the King, Turenne, and tour other gentlemen, were habited as Venetians, and selected each a lady for his partner. Henry chose the lady whose name is inextricably connected with his own — one of the Queen's maids of honour, Anne Boleyn.
It was not the first time he had met her. She had returned from France some five or six vears before, and had had a little romance which, through Wolsey's interference, had been nipped untimely in the bud — a love-affair with Earl Percy, Northumberland's heir. He had been made to break his troth and marry another ; and Anne never forgot or forgave the Cardinal who had marred her early dream. Her father was Sir Thomas Boleyn, her mother Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk; and she was a wonderfully attractive creature, not lovely, but with a fascination more powerful than beauty, and with all her natural gifts refined and heightened by her French education. " She possessed," says Chateaubriant, aa great talent for poetry, and when she sang, like a second
20 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
Orpheus, she would have made bears and "wolves attentive. She likewise danced the English dances, leaping and jumping with infinite grace and agility. Moreover, she invented many new figures and steps, which are yet known by her name, or by those of the gallant partners with whom she danced them. She was well skilled in all games fashionable at Courts. Besides singing like a syren, accompanying herself on the lute, she harped better than King David, and handled cleverly both lute and rebec. She dressed with marvellous taste, and devised new modes, which were followed by the fairest ladies of the French Court, but none wore them with her gracefulness, in which she rivalled Venus." Even her devoted admirer, Wyat, could hardly call her beautiful, though he extolled " her favour, passing sweet and cheerful," and remarked that " in this noble imp, the graces of nature, adorned by gracious education, seemed even at the first to have promised bliss unto her in after times." Saunders gives a picture of her that shows her charms must have been more those of vivacity and grace than actual comeliness. "Anne Boleyn was in stature rather tall and slender, with an oval face, "black hair, and a complexion inclining to sallow ; one of her upper teeth projected a little. She appeared at times to suffer from asthma. On her left hand a sixth finger might be perceived. On her throat there was a protuberance, which Chateaubriant describes as a disagreeably large mole, resembling a strawberry ; this she carefully covered with an ornamented collar band, a fashion which was blindly imitated by the rest of the maids of honour, though they had never before thought of wearing anything of the kind. Her face and figure were in other respects symme-
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 21
trical ; beauty and sprightliness sat on her lips ; in readiness of repartee, skill in the dance, and in playing* on the lute, she was unsurpassed/' The King was said to have met her some time pre- viously at her father's place, Hever Castle, in Kent ; and to have declared she had the wit of an angel; and Wolsey, who thought his admiration one of the passing follies of royalty, was quite ready to give him opportunities of meeting her at his masques and banquets. Anne herself, fond of admiration, excitable, with a dangerous love of •coquetry, and yet with quite enough prudence to refuse any overtures but those which pointed to ring and crown, received the royal attention readily. With all her outward polish, there was a curious lack of true refinement in her nature, which made her willing* to encourage her mis- tress's husband in his pursuit of her. Hep worth Dixon pleads in her behalf that her family had always regarded the Queen's union as illegal, and that she had imbibed their views ; but even if this were so, no really modest woman would have given countenance to attentions which, as she knew, must mean either an insult to herself or a cruel repudiation of the royal lady whom she served. " Your wife I cannot be," she told the King, " both in respect of my unworthiness, and also because you have a Queen. Your mistress I will never be." The speech sounds noble and spirited ; but our admiration is lessened when we find that she still allowed his wooing, and received and answered enthusiastic love-letters, in which she figures as the King's "darling" and u sweet- heart," and he as her " servant and friend." As Miss Strickland says, "it is difficult to imagine any woman of honourable principles receiving and treasuring such letters from a married man."
22 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
Perhaps it was the remembrance of Anne's determined words that made Henry willing to follow Wolsey's lead in consulting his council about what was called " the King's secret matter " — the question of the validity of his marriage. Wolsey was anxious to press on the conclusion of the case, and see his master wedded to Eenee of France ; never dreaming of the possibility of the maid of honour being elevated to the throne. The Cardinal had long kept spies near the Queen's person. "If the Queen," says Tindal, "was inti- mate with any lady, to that person he was familiar in his conversation and liberal in gifts, in order to make her reveal all she said and did. I know one ladv who left the Court, for no other reason than that she would no longer betray her majesty." But, in spite of all his spies, he could never learn how news of " the secret matter " then under debate came to Katharine's ears. Only a clay or two after the banquet at which the fair Boleyn had completed her conquest of the already fasci- nated Henry, the Queen wrote to her nephew the Emperor. " She does not," says M. du Boys, "venture upon the question of the divorce; but her deep mental grief may be perceived."
<c Most High and Powerful Lord,
" I hardly know how to confess the many obligations in which I stand towards your High- ness for the many favours conferred upon me. I hold it to be that your Highness has chosen to show soitow for my death, perceiving that neither my existence nor my services are such as to deserve being recalled to your memory. And yet, trusting in your Highness's innate kindness and virtue, I will, with the help of God, employ my life in the furtherance of those objects which may
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 23
be for your Highness's service, though my abilities be scanty and my powers small.
" As Francisco Poynes, gentleman, and esquire of the household of the King my lord, bearer of this letter, will inform your Highness, I take this opportunity to write and request that he may be credited in whatever he may say in my name ; the said Poynes being a person whom I entirely trust, and to whom I bear much goodwill, and am, besides, under great obligations on account of his many virtues.
" As I fear that my letter may be tedious to your Highness, as written by one inexperienced in these matters, I shall say no more here than try and entreat your Highness to have pity on so much bloodshed and perdition of souls, so costly, and redeemed at such a price ; bearing in mind that this world is perishable and of short duratiou, and the next one eternal. There is urgent need that peace between Christian princes be concluded before God sends down his scourge, which cannot tarry if these quarrels and disagreements continue between Christian princes.
" If, in the expression of these my sentiments, I have given the least offence, I beg your High- ness to pardon me ; my ignorance alone is the cause. God, etc.
u Your good Aunt,
" Cathakike.
" Grannuiche [Greenwich], 10th of May."
Growing more alarmed as time went on, the Queen^ with both her own right and her child's to defend, took prompt measures. She despatched her trusty servant, Francisco Felipo, whose name had been anglicized as Francis Phillipps, into Spain, ostensibly to see his mother, but really to bear
24 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
a letter to her nephew the Emperor. Wolsey heard of her intentions, and did his best to prevent the journey. " He feigns to go," he wrote to the King, « to visit his mother, now sickly and aged ; but your Highness taketh it surely in the right that it is chiefly for disclosing your secret matter to the Emperor, and to devise means and ways how it may be impeached. Wherefore your Highness hath right prudently devised so that his passage into Spain should be letted and stopped; for if the said matter should come to the Emperor's ears, it should be no little hindrance to your grace's particulars ; howbeit, if he pass by sea there can be nothing devised." In spite of Kino; and Cardinal, however, Felipo accomplished his mission, and placed the letter in the Emperor's hands. Charles, indignant at the meditated insult to his aunt, and uneasy also on account of political considerations, wrote at once to his ambassador in London. " It is not our intention to desert her," he said ; " on the contrary, we
mean to do what we can in her behalf
Entreat his Highness to take what we say in good part, as coming from our love, and from our sense of what is best for him and for ourselves; to put an end, as soon as may be, for the honour and service of God, to this affair; and to arrange the matter with as much reserve and secrecy as it demands."
Her nephew was not the only one to whom the Queen appealed. She turned for help to Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, her confessor, and one of her staunchest friends ; and then she re- solved to speak to her husband himself. Perhaps the King had enough of his old tenderness for her left to wish to cause her as little pain as possible; at all events, he made light of the
KATHARINE OF AEAGON. 25
matter to her, and assured her it was but a mere formal inquiry, instituted to set at rest for ever all doubt of Mary's legitimacy; and after what one old chronicler calls " a brief tragedy," she allowed herself to be soothed into tranquility. Wolsey, in a letter to the King", makes some mention of the interview. ce The first night," he writes, " I lodged at Sir John Wiltshire's house, where met me my lord of Canterbury [Warham], with whom, after communication on your grace's secret matter, I showed him that the knowledge thereof is come to the Queen's grace, and how dis- pleasantly she taketh it, and what your Highness hath done for the staying and pacificaiton of her, by declaring to her that your grace hath nothing intended nor done, but only for the searching and trying out of the truth upon occasion given by the doubts moved by the Bishop of Tarbes. And noting his countenance, gesture, and manner, I perceive he is not much altered from his first fashion ; expressly affirming that, however dis- pleasantly the Queen might take it, yet the truth and judgment of the law must have place. He somewhat marvelled how the Queen should come to the knowledge thereof, and by whom, thinking your grace might constrain her to show her informers." Growing more infatuated with Anne Boleyn every day, and, there is little doubt, strongly urged forward in the prosecution of the u secret matter " by his inamorata, Henry resolved on explaining all his real or pretended scruples to Katharine ; perhaps hoping that her scrupulous conscience might be so impressed by his argu- ments that she would consent to a separation with very little trouble. " The King," says M. du Boys, " having virtually separated from the Queen from the date of the 20th or 22nd of June,
26 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
gave her his reasons for this determination by revealing to her for the first time that they had both been in a state of mortal sin all the long years they had lived together. This was, he said, the opinion of many prelates and men learned in the canon law whom he had consulted ; and, therefore, as the continuance of such a life troubled, and even tortured, his conscience, he had taken the unalterable resolution of obtaining* a separation from her, a mensa et tkoro, so she had only to name the place where she would take refuge/'
Mendoza, the imperial ambassador, sent the Emperor an account of this interview, in a despatch written July 13th, 1527. "The Queen, bursting into tears, and being too much agitated to reply, the King said to her, by way of conso- lation, that all should be done for the best, and begged her to keep secrecy upon what he had told her. This the King must have said, as it is generally believed, to inspire her with confidence, and prevent her seeking the redress she is entitled to ; for so great is the attachment that the English bear to the Queen that some demonstra- tion would probably take place in her household. Not that the people of England are ignorant of the King's intentions, for the affair is as notorious as if it had been proclaimed by the public crier, but they cannot believe that he will ever carry so wicked a purpose into effect. However this may be, though people say that such an iniquity cannot be tolerated, he (Mendoza) attaches no faith to such popular asseverations, especially as they have no leader to guide them, and, there- fore, should the King carry out his design, and the suit now commenced go on, the people will most probably content themselves with grumbling."
KATHARINE OF ARAGOX. 27
Hearing that the Queen had sought the counsel of Fisher, Wolsey spoke of the matter to him, and would fain have persuaded him that her cause was hopeless, and her marriage illegal ; but the resolute old Bishop, in no wise daunted by the Cardinal's pride of speech, or haughtiness of demeanour, kept to his own opinion. " On looking into such authorities as lie at hand/' he said, " I find they differ very much ; some holding that the thing is not lawful, others that it is. On full reflection, I see an easy answer to the first, and none at all to the second. It is not, I think, clearly forbidden by the Divine law for a brother to marry the wife of a childless brother; and considering the plenary power given by our Lord to the Pope, who can deny that the Pope can grant a dispensation for any serious cause ? Even if the arguments were balanced, my opinion would be that since it is the Pope's province to clear ambiguous passages of Scripture, his decision rules the question. I have no scruple in asserting that the dispensation lies within the papal power." But Fisher's honest opinion was of little use to Queen Katharine ; for both King and Cardinal were determined the divorce should be right.
In the midst of her distress, the Queen found some comfort in an affectionate and encouraging letter from Charles Y. : —
" Madame and My Aunt,
66 Your letter by Francisco Phs [Phillipps] , bearer of this present, came duly to hand. I have perfectly well understood the verbal message he brought from you respecting the affair [of the divorce], and the reason why you sent him to me. After him came your own physician, Yitoria,
28 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
■with whom I had also a long conversation on the subject. You may well imagine the pain this intelligence caused me, and how much I felt for you. I cannot express it otherwise than by assuring you that, were my own mother con- cerned, I should not experience greater sorrow than in this, your case, for the love and affection which I profess to your serene Highness is cer- tainly of the same kind as that of a son towards his parent.
" I have immediately set about taking the necessary steps for the remedy [of }Tour case], and you may be certain that nothing shall be omitted on my part to help you in your present tribulation. But it seems to me that in the meantime your serene Highness ought not to take this thing so much to heart as to let it impair your bodily health, for, if this is preserved, all other matters will be remedied, with God's help. I beg you to bear in mind this my recommenda- tion, and I have no doubt that in this, as in other matters, your serene Highness will act much better than I could counsel. As I do, however, presume that before the receipt of this my letter you will have heard my intentions through Don Inigo de Mendoza, I shall say no more here than to refer you to my letter to that ambassador, as well as to the message now conveyed by the above- mentioned Francisco, which is, no doubt, what your serene Highness most wishes to know. Most earnestly entreating you to inform me as soon as possible of the course of this affair, that I may do all that is necessary for your protection, as well as of your health, I remain, etc.,
" In the hand of your good nephew,
" Charles.
"Valencia, the 27th of August."
KATHARINE OF AKAGON". 29
In the early part of 1528, the King and Cardinal made another move. " Wolsey sent a learned ecclesiastical lawyer, Stephen Gardiner, with Edward Fox, the King's almoner, to Orvieto, to demand of Pope Clement Y. what was called a decretal bull — namely, a sentence on his own authority that the command in the law of Moses forbidding a man to marry his brother's widow, was, like the great moral law, so binding that the dispensation of Julius II. was null and void, so as to prevent the long delay of the regular trial of the case before the two Cardinals — which, as Henry apprehended, might last far beyond his lifetime. But for one Pope to reverse the formal sanction of another would have been contrary to all precedent, unless there could be proved to have been false evidence laid before the first; and Gardiner could only obtain that the commission to examine should at once be set forth, and empowered to separate the parties if expedient." *
Even had he wished, the Pope would hardly have dared to act more decisively in the matter for fear of offending the Emperor ; but the answer given appeared to satisfy Henry, who requested that Cardinal Campeggio should be joined with Wolsey in the inquiry. This Cardinal held the Bishopric of Salisbury, and the King hoped to easily induce him to give judgment on his side ; and Anne Boleyn showed exultation at once premature and unwomanly. But now Wolsey, who had all along been so eager in the cause, began to hesitate and waver. For the first time he seems to have perceived that, if the divorce were granted, no French Princess, but Anne Boleyn, of whose bitter enmity to himself he was
* C. M Yonge.
30 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
well aware, in spite of the dissimulation she had practised while he seemed a likely person to smooth her way, would become Queen of England. He tried to check the King's eagerness, telling him that it was a matter of conscience, and that, if he honestly thought his marriage valid, he ought not to seek for it to be annulled; but Henry, utterly enthralled by Anne Boleyn's charms, received his speeches with a burst of anger, and Wolsey comprehended on what very slippery ground he stood. To obtain the divorce on which the King had set his heart was the only thing that would secure his safety; and this accordingly he strove to do. " He sent off fresh letters to Rome, beseeching the Pope to save him from ruin by signing the decretal bull, promising to conceal it from everyone but the King. The Pope was very unwilling ; but Gardiner and the other English emissaries harassed him unceasingly, and at last he signed it, giving it, however, to Cardinal Campeggio, with orders never to let it out of his own possession, but to read it to the King and Cardinal and then burn it. The fact seems to have been that Wolsey wanted the bull to set his own conscience at rest ; but after all, it could say no more than that if Katharine had been Arthur's wife she could not be Henry's, and the whole matter turned on whether they had been mere children or really husband and wife."*
Campeggio, although believed by the King to be likely to be favourable to him, was really inclined to the Queen's side, and this view was backed by the strong influence of the Emperor; and thus he delayed his journey to England on various pleas of illness, leaving Henry and Anne in the utmost impatience. While the matter was
* C. M. Yonge.
KATHARINE OP ARAGON. 31
tbus pending, the Queen was treated with all respect and honour ; and her unfortunate daughter was still regarded as the heiress of the kingdom. The King seemed much perplexed with regard to this latter. Until another child was born, she was his only heir ; and he wished to have her looked upon as legitimate, while at the same time he was feverishly anxious to have his marriage with her mother declared null and void. She was very popular with the people, who declared ci that King Henry might marry whom he would, yet they would acknowledge no successor to the crown but the husband of the Lady Mary,"* and expressed their affection for her, and indignation against Wolsey as the originator of the divorce, in lines of more genuine heartiness than poetry : —
Yea, a princess whom to describe
It were hard for an orator; She is bat a child in age, And yet she is both wise and sage —
And beautiful in favour.
Perfectly doth she represent
The singular graces excellent Both of her father and mother.
Howbeit, this disregarding,
The carter of York is meddling For to divorce them asunder.
The following rhymes, celebrating the dancing together of the young princess and her royal sire were probably written not later than this year : —
Ravished I was, that well was me,
0 Lord ! to me so fain, To see that sight that I did see
1 long full sore again.
I saw a king and a princess
Dancing before my face, Most like a god and a goddess,
(I pray Christ save their grace ! )
* Hall.
32 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
This king to see whom we have sung,
His virtnes be right much, But this princess, being so young,
There can be found none such.
Sofacund fair she is to see,
Like to her is none of her age, Withouten grace it cannot be
So young to be so sage.
This king to see with his fair flower,
The mother standing by, It doth me good, yet at this hour,
On them when that think I.
I pray Christ save father and mother,
And this young lady fair, And send her shortly a brother,
To be England's right heir.
It will be seen by this specimen that courtly versifiers of Tudor times possessed fully as much adulatory instinct, if not quite the same amount of poetical polish, as those of our more enlightened
The Queen behaved all through this bitter time of doubt and hesitation, while her husband was writing vehement love-letters to another woman, and striving his utmost to be rid of her, with singular dignity and endurance, and indeed with a meekness hardly to be expected from a daughter of Castile, which made Cavendish liken her to " a very patient Grissel." With her rival she condescended to no reproof or altercation, and is only known once to have made any allusion to Anne Boleyn's position. They were playing cards together, and the Queen addressed her. "My Lady Anne, you have the good hap ever to stop at a king ; but you are like others, you will have all or none." Shakespeare makes Anne speak pity- ingly and gently of the Queen —
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 33
So good a lady that no tongue could ever
Pronounce dishonour of her, — by my life,
She never knew harm-doing; — 0 now, after
So many courses of the same enthroud,
Still growing in a majesty and pomp, — the which
To leave's a thousandfold more bitter, than
'Tis sweet at first to acquire, — after this process,
To give her the avaunt ! it is a pity
Would move a monster.
And Wyat, her poet adorer, mentions that ' t the love she bare ever to the Queen/' made her unwilling to usurp her mistress's place ; but both dramatist and lover flattered the lady by ascribing to her virtues she did not possess ; for in truth Anne seems to have had little heed of aught but the following out of her own ambition.
VOL. II.
CHAPTER V.
Illness of Anne Boleyn — The King's letters to her — Letter of Erasmus to Katharine — Arrival of Campeggio — Interviews of the Queen and Cardinal — Address of the Council to the King — Conversation between the King and Queen — The King's address at Bridewell — Audience of Wolsey and Campeggio with the Queen — Warham and Tunstall question Katharine — The brief of dispensation — Henry's embassy to the Pope — Exhibition of the brief to the English ambas- sadors— Katharine's letter to Muxetula— Henry's treatment of the Queen — Splendour of Anne Boleyn — Letter of the Emperor to Katharine — The court of inquiry — The Queen's speech — Her popularity — Her reception of Wolsey and Campeggio — Letter of the English nobles to the Pope — His reply — Adjournment of the court of inquiry — Fall of Wolsey — Letter of the Queen — Thomas Cranmer — His Embassy to the Pope — Bribery of the French Universities — Christmas at Greenwich — Illness of the Princess Mary.
In the summer the terrible epidemic known as the sweating sickness broke out in England. The Queen and the Princess Mary were with the King at Greenwich for the mayings — mayings, alas, sadly different to the gladsome festivals of Katharine's early wedded life — when it first appeared; but they quickly removed to Titten- hanger, where the King, in a fit of compunction, shared the Queen's devotions, made thirty-nine wills, and turned his attention to the compound- ing of quack medicines. Anne Boleyn had gone to Hever Castle, where both she and her father were attacked by the plague ; and she was for some days in great danger. Henry's pretence was not so profound as to prevent him sending the tenderest of notes to his " entirely beloved," and reminding her that, " wherever he was, he was hers/' and that a the anguish of absence is so great, that it would be intolerable, were it not for the firm
KATHARINE OP ARAGON. 35
liope he has of her indissoluble affection towards him." One can but think a little curiously, as one reads the words, of the equanimity with which he bore the final parting with her, consummated by the headsman's sword.
Campeggio, unwilling as he was, had been obliged to set forth for England; and Anne Boleyn was impatient for tidings of his coming. Henry, no less anxious than she, answered her " reasonable requests " for news. " The legate, which we most desire, arrived at Paris on Sunday or Monday last past, so that I trust by next Mon- day to hear of his arrival at Calais ; and then I trust, within a little while after to enjoy that which I have so long longed for, to God's pleasure and both our comforts. No more to you at this present, mine own darling, for lack of time; but that I would you were in my arms, and I in yours, for I think it long since I kissed you."
With the husband whom, to her unhappiness, she loved as deeply as ever, thus madly pursuing another — with her name and rank questioned, her title of wife doubted, her child looked on as of doubtful birth — Katharine must have sorely needed the consoling words sent her by Erasmus in the previous spring. "It is most rare to find a lady born and reared in courts, who binds her hope on acts of devotion, and finds her solace in the word of God. Would that others, more especially widows, would learn to follow your example ; and not widows only, but unmarried ladies too, for what so good as the service of Christ ? He is the Rock — the spouse of pious souls — and nearer than the nearest human tie. A soul devoted to this Husband is at peace, alike in good and evil times. He knows what is best for all; and is often, kindest when He seems to turn the honey into
36 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
gall. Every one has His cross to bear ; without that cross no sonl can enter into rest ! "
At last, late in the autumn, Campeggio arrived. " Now I hear that Cardinal Campeggio is going to England," wrote the Emperor to his aunt on the 1st of September, "but I am certain, because the Pope writes me so, that nothing will be done to your detriment, and that the whole case will be referred to him at Rome, the Cardinal's secret mission being to advise the King, your husband, to do his duty." As we have seen, Campeggio was averse to a question of divorce ; but he sought to cut the Gordian knot by striving to persuade the Queen to enter a convent, and he exerted him- self to the utmost to induce her to do so at their first interview on October 22nd. It would have been much the shortest way out of the difficulty, and, if she would consent, the King was ready to allow her to retain her rents, pensions, and ornaments, and the title of Queen, and to pro- nounce her daughter heiress of England in the absence of heirs male. But Katharine, with her own honour and her child's rights to defend, though far too dignified to be demonstrative, was firm as adamant. " I know, most reverend lord," she said to the Cardinal, " the sincerity of my own heart. I wish to die in the Holy Faith, and in obedience to God and His Church ; but I desire to state the business to His Holiness. I have heard you would persuade me to enter a religious house ? " Campeggio did his best to enforce that persuasion. " By so doing," he answered, (t your Majesty will satisfy God, preserve your conscience, and sustain the glory of your name. You will avoid public scandal, retain your dowry, and support your daughter's rights." " I enforce these arguments," writes the legate, "by the example
KATHARINE OF ARAGOX. 37
of a Queen of France who did the same, and is still honoured by God and that kingdom. The same arguments were enforced by the Cardinal of York, who begged her to ponder them well, and hoped she would resolve for the best. Then he ven- tured to mention Henry's conscientious scruples to her, to be taken into account. That, since her H igh- ness had already reached the third and last period of natural life, and had spent the first two setting a good example of virtue to the world, she would thus put a seal to all the good actions of her life, and would besides, prevent, by such religious profession, the many and incalculable evils likely to arise from such matrimonial discord."
The Queen, at the conclusion of this exhortation, which must surely have tried her patience to the utmost, at first turned angrily to Wolsey, im- plying that she looked on him as the author of all her misfortunes ; but presently she regained all her wonted calm, and addressed the legate with her accustomed dignity. " She held/' she said, "her husband's conscience and honour in more esteem than anything else in this world, but that as she entertained no scruple at all about her marriage, but considered herself the true and legiti- mate wife of the King her husband, the proposal just made in the name of his Holiness was inadmis- sible. She knew for certain that if his Holiness, instead of listening: to the arguments and susr- gestions of her enemies, had heard what she had to say in her defence, such a proposal would never have been made. She was, however, so dutiful a daughter of the Church that nothing would make her swerve from the path of obedience. So we left her, assuring us that she would make known to our lord (the Pope) the sincerity of her con- science. To this I replied that I had been sent by
38 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
the Pope to hear whatever she chose to explain to me, and I would faithfully report to him my opinion, and by his reply she would learn that I had done my duty sincerely. She concluded the conference by saying she was a lone woman and a stranger, without friend or adviser, and intended to ask the King for councillors, when she would give us audience." The legate was obliged to leave her unconvinced. No argument prevailed with Katharine. With all the dauntlessness and high spirit of her Castilian birth, she would main- tain her own rights and her daughter's to the last.
" Soon after a remarkable incident took place ; the Queen, with the King's permission, requested Campeggio to hear her confess, and the legate thought he ought not to refuse. While Katharine found in this the means of quieting her conscience, her intention was to inform the Cardinal legate, who was to be her judge as well as confessor, of several of the details of her private life that he could not have suspected. She wanted to lay bare her whole soul before him. It was the best way — she saw it instinctively — to gain and keep his con- fidence. At the end she released him from the absolute secrecy that should have enfolded the in- formation of the confessional, and, indeed, formally requested him to communicate it to the sovereign pontiff. The precise information she gave con- cerning her former marriage could leave no doubt upon (Jampeggio's mind as to the nature of her relations with Prince Arthur. At the end of this confidential conference she insisted that everything should be judicially decided, and she assured Campeggio that, if a legal and final decision were given annulling her marriage, and sanctioned by the Pope, she would submit, and look upon herself
KATHARINE OF ARAOON. 39
as free as Henry VHI. himself." * The Cardinal again tried to induce her to enter some convent of St. Clare.
" Never ! " said the Queen ; " I will never do it. I will die as I have lived, in that estate of matri- mony to which God has called me." " The Italian hoped she would relent. Hinting that some of her friends were indiscreet, and that the Council might indite them for conspiracy to imagine the King's death, he tried to frighten her by saying the charge would ruin her, whether she were guilty or not guilty. Death by the axe might be her sentence. Mary would be buried in a convent. Surely she would change her attitude ! ' No,' said Katharine, with a slow and solid emphasis, 6 1 shall never change.' In vain Campeggio pointed out how much her obstinacy would hurt her nephew and disturb the Church. A sense of personal injury buoyed her up. The question should be tried; the world should know her wrongs.
" If judgment passed against her marriage, she would be free, even as the King was free. Change that opinion ? Never ! If the greatest punish- ment were threatened she would never flinch. Were she condemned to be torn limb from limb she would not alter; nay, if after death she could return to life, rather than change, she would pre- fer to die again. So said the Queen." f "I assure you," writes Campeggio, Ci that from all her conversation and discourse, I have always judged her to be a prudent lady, and now more so. But as she can without prejudice, as I have said above, avoid such perils and difficulties, her obstinacy in not accepting this sound counsel does not much please me."
* M. du Boys. t Hepworth Dixon.
40 LIYES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
That Campeggio's warning to the Queen was not given without ample foundation is evident from an address from his obsequious council to the King. " They were informed/' it ran, " of a design to kill the King and the cardinals, in which conspiracy, if it could be proved the Queen had any hand, she must not expect to be spared. That she had not shown either in public, or in the hours of retirement, as much love for the King as she ought ; and, now that the King was very pensive, she manifested great signs of joy, setting all people to dancing and other diversions. This she did out of spite to the King, as it was contrary to her temper and ordinary behaviour. She showed herself much abroad, too, and by civilities and gracious bowing of her head (which was not her. custom formerly), she sought to work upon the affections of the people. From all which the King concluded that she hated him. Therefore, as his council in their consciences thought his life was in danger, they advised him to separate himself from the Queen, both at bed and board, and, above all, to take the Princess Mary from her/'
A few days later Henry himself had another interview with his wife, and told her that " she was not married to him, and that all the priests of England had subscribed a declaration to that effect with their own names. The Pope had con- demned her at Pome, and the legate Campeggio had come for the sole purpose of having the sentence executed." " How/' asked Katharine, " can the Pope condemn me without a hearing? " " The Emperor has answered for you/' said the King, "and consequently the Pope has decided against you." He added, after various other in- correct statements, that he advised her to embrace a religious life voluntarily, as otherwise she would
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 41
be compelled to do so. Tears came into the Queen's eyes. " May God forbid/' she cried, " my being the cause of that being done, which is so much against my soul, my conscience, and my honour ! I know very well that if the judges are impartial, and I am granted a hearing, my cause is gained, for no judge will be found unjust enough to condemn me." She begged that she might be allowed to plead her own cause. " I am quite willing," said the King, "that it should be so. A counsel shall be appointed for your defence, and, moreover, you may send to Flanders for a jurist ; but this must be done forthwith, for the affair ad- mits of no delay."
After twenty years of married life, it was re- markable that the royal conscience should have suddenly grown so tender that any delay in the effort to cast off the faithful wife should be inad- missible. The poor Queen, however, was glad of the concession, and wrote at once to Margaret, Regent of the Netherlands, to provide her with two skilled lawyers.
As Katharine steadily refused to cut the matter short by retiring into a convent, a court of inquiry had perforce to be held. She chose as her coun- sellors Warham, Fisher, Clerk, and Tunstall, and she was also allowed to send for Vives, whom, in happier days, she had consulted concerning the education of her child. He came to her, and undertook to write in defence of her position. But, ere the formal court was opened, Henry held a meeting on his own account. Assembling all his council, nobility, and judges, in the great hall at Bridewell Palace, the King made a long statement to them. " Our trusty and well-beloved subjects," he began, " it is not unknown to you how we have reigned over this realm for nearly twenty years,
42 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
during which time we have so ordered us, thanked be God, that no outward enemy hath oppressed you or taken anything from you; but when we remember that we must die, we think that all our doings in our lifetime are effaced, if we leave you in trouble at the time of our death.5' After this rather hypocritical prelude, in which, be it noticed, all mention of Anne Boleyn is studiously ignored, he proceeded to inform them of his doubts of the validity of his marriage. " If it be adjudged," he hastened to add, "that the Queen is my lawful wife, nothing will be more pleasant or more acceptable to me, both for the clearing of my con- science, and also for the good qualities and con- ditions I know to be in her. For I assure you all, that besides her noble parentage, she is a woman of most gentleness, humility, and buxomness; yea, and of all good qualities pertaining to nobility she is without comparison. So that if I were to many again I would choose her above all women. But if it is determined in judgment that our marriage is against God's law, then shall I sorrow parting from so good a lady and loving companion. These be the sores that vex my mind ! These be the pangs that trouble my conscience, for the declara- tion of which I have assembled you together. And now you may depart." His "well-beloved sub- jects " received this communication in various ways. Some grieved that the King was troubled in his conscience ; some regretted that aught should arise inimical to the Queen ; and some said nothing, probable wondering by what strange com- bination of circumstances so affectionate and conscientious a husband could by any possibility appear as the ardent lover of Anne Boleyn.
A few days later both the cardinal legates, Wolsey and Campeggio, had an audience of the
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 43
Queen at the same palace, and announced to her that the court of inquiry was about to be held.
Katharine answered them in words which, says Hall, " were spoken in French, and written down by Campeggio's secretary, who was present, and then I translated them as well as I could.-"
u Alas ! my lord/' said she, u is it now a ques- tion whether I be the King's lawful wife or no, when I have been married to him almost twenty years and no objection made before ? Divers pre- lates and lords, privy councillors of the King, are yet alive who then adjudged our marriage good and lawful ; and now to say it is detestable is a great marvel to me, especially when I consider what a wise prince the King's father was, and also the natural love and affection my father, King "Ferdinand, bare unto me. I think that neither of our fathers were so unwise and weak in judgment, but they foresaw what would follow our marriage. The King, my father, sent to the Court of Rome, and there obtained a dispensation, that I, being the one brother's wife, might, without scruple of conscience, marry the other brother lawfully, which licence under lead [under leaden seal] I have yet to show, which makes me say and surely believe (as my first marriage was not completed) that my second is good and lawful. But of this trouble," she added, turning to Wolsey, " I may only thank you, my lord of York, because I ever wondered at your pride and vain glory, and abhorred your voluptuous life, and little cared for your presump- tion and tyranny, therefore of malice have you kindled this fire, especially for the great grudge you bear to my nephew the Emperor, whom you hate worse than a scorpion, because he would not gratify your ambition by making you Pope by force ; and therefore have you said, more than once,
44 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
you would trouble him and his friends — and you have kept him true promise ; for of all his wars and vexations, he may thank only you. As for me, his poor aunt and kinswoman, what trouble you put me to by this new-found doubt, God knoweth, to whom I commit my cause."
Towards the end of October, "the Queen," says M. du Boys, " received a strange visit, and had to submit to an interrogatory that she was far from expecting. As the legates, in their last conference with her, had asked for any papers she had in her possession which might be useful in her suit, she had given them a copy of the brief of dispensation [for her marriage with Henry VIII.], the original having been at the time sent to Queen Isabella of Castile. Katharine had received this copy from Mendoza some time before. In the month of October she gave audience to two prelates who had been named as her counsel — Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Tunstall, Bishop of London, with some other persons of distinction. They told her that two questions had been put to them by the other party, and that they were obliged to refer them to her. Thereupon they had to ask her, first, whether she had desired the King's death, and had conspired against his life, so that she might be free, she herself and her daughter, to marry as they pleased ; secondly, whether she had any special reason for not having sooner exhibited the brief of dispensation for her marriage which she had lately placed in the legates' hands, and wished to know how she had procured it.
" The answer was, as to the first question, 'that she could not imagine how such an abominable accusation could come from the King, her lord, for he well knew that she prized his life more than her own, and that therefore there was no need for
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 45
her to answer such a question as that; and re- specting the copy of the brief of dispensation, she had not exhibited it before because she had never imagined that it would be required. As to who had given it to her, she stated that Don Inigo de Mendoza had sent it to her six months ago.'
u When the bishops had gone the Queen sent Mendoza a message to tell him what had passed, and, as she was not sure of the exact date when the copy was given her, she told him what her answer had been, so that, if he were asked, his reply might agree with hers. This shows how prudent Katharine was, cautious, and attentive to the smallest circumstances ; she would not expose a flank in any quarter to her accusers. Mendoza afterwards says :
" 6 The reason why they interrogated the Queen as to whether it was true that she had attempted the King's life, that she and her daughter, the princess, might afterwards many whomsoever they pleased, was solely from the King's impatience to have the separation hastily pronounced by Legate Campeggio before proceedings had been even commenced. Most likely the Queen's enemies could not think of a more gratuitous or false accusation to serve their purpose than to make this King believe that he could not live with her except at the risk of his life. So great, however, are the avarice of the English people and the King's violence, that I am very much afraid witnesses will in the end be found to testify to anything whatsoever. Tour imperial Majesty may judge how difficult the Queen's position is when accused of the very crime which has perhaps been attempted against her, and that in the name of the King, her husband, who must know her innocence.' "
46 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
In the same letter the imperial ambassador ex- presses his fear that Campeggio would be bribed by the King to give judgment in his favour. " For/' he says, " though this King is generally very careful of his money, such is his passionate love for the Lady [Anne] that he will spare nothing to see his wishes accomplished, and will put all his fortune at stake." Henry did indeed offer the Cardinal the bishopric of Durham, but it was promptly declined ; and, for a year after the refusal, the revenues, in all about twenty thousand pounds, were given by the enamoured monarch to Anne Boleyn. The Cardinal was found incorrup- tible, and therefore the objection to the brief pro- duced by the Queen was fastened on with all the greater eagerness.
aWe must first explain," says M. du Boys, " that the terms of the bull of dispensation granted by Julius II. had been held to be quite insufficient, and that Wolsey had contrived a fresh plan of attack on this ground. But the copy of the brief furnished by Katharine upset this plan completely, for the brief had provided for all the omissions of the bull. Neither the Cardinal nor Henry VIII. suspected that this document had been sent into Spain to Ferdinand and Isabella, and that the original was safe in Charles V.'s hands. Then the divines and doctors attendant on the King did not scruple to raise objections against the authen- ticity or fidelity of the copy produced by Katharine. They said that if the brief had really been the work of Julius II. a minute of it must be found on the registers in the Vatican, and the King sent in- structions to his ambassadors to make inquiries for it ; but in addition they said that the Em- peror had only to send the original of the brief, as it was in his possession, to London, and an
KATHABINE OP AEAGON. 47
examination could be made whether it bore the marks of authenticity. Mendoza informed the Emperor of these fresh facts. He said some friends of the Queen were afraid that the last English ambassador sent to Rome in great haste, with his hands full of gold, might be intended to bribe the Cardinal datery [Giberto], and to purloin the register, or to falsify the original brief of dispensation, so as to destroy its force. He says :
" * The Queen has sent me a message to this effect, requesting that I would communicate the intelligence to the Imperial ambassador at Rome. I have complied with her wishes and written to him [Muxetula], not by special messenger, owing to the roads in Italy being, as I am told, inter- cepted by the Venetians, but through a merchant of this place. May my letter reach him in safety, that the Imperial agents near the Pope may be warned against the designs of these people, who, after accusing the poor Queen of attempting the life of her husband, will not certainly scruple to falsify the draft of the dispensation brief, or cause the original register to be conveyed where it will never be found a^ain. As I have said over and over again, had the attested copy arrived [from Spain], or were it to come soon, much mischief might be avoided; but such is the King's im- patience, and the pressure he puts upon those who are conducting this affair, that I am very much afraid, unless at the moment I write the document is already on its way, it will come too late/
"In another place he insists that the original of the brief must be carefully retained and pre- served at Madrid. He thought that Henry VEH. would be capable of making it disappear as soon as he got it into his possession. He suggested
48 LIVES OF THE PEINOESSES OF WALES.
that a new certified copy should be made in Spain in the presence of the ambassadors. Wolsey, on the other hand, wishing to procure the original document at any price, thought it would be a masterpiece of cleverness to get it demanded from Charles V. by the Queen herself. So he managed to indoctrinate her chief advisers, telling them that an inspection of the original of the brief would dissipate all doubts and prove its authenticity, and also that a simple copy would have no weight before a regular tribunal. The Queen's advisers, therefore, prepared a very curious document, published entire by Professor Brewer in his collection. They begun by repeating the arguments suggested by Wolsey, representing to their august client that, if she did not do as she was asked, she ran the risk of having her marriage annulled and her daughter declared illegitimate.
" ' This may easily be done if you write to the Emperor that your counsel has shown you that the original of the brief must be produced. The lacking thereof might be the extreme ruin of your affairs, and no little danger to the inheri- tance of your child. You shall further say you have promised to exhibit the original here within three months; failing which, sentence will pro- bably be given against you. If you do not succeed in this, it will be much to your hindrance, for if we ourselves were judges in this matter, and should lawfully find that where ye might did not do your diligence for the attaining of the said original, surely we would proceed further in that matter as the law would require, tarrying nothing, therefore, as if never any such brief had been spoken of.
"ffIt is desirable also that you should write to the Emperor's ambassador, from whom you had
KATHARINE OF AEAGON. 49
the copy, to support your application. If the Emperor utterly refuses, then the Queen must protest that as it is her own she will sue to the Pope for compulsories, and adopt other remedies as shall be thought convenient ; but she hopes she will not be driven to use such extremities. And to the intent that the King and his counsel shall not think that she intends any frivolous delay, it will be expedient that she declare, in the presence of a notary, that she intends not to use any delay, but will recover it with all diligence, bond fide, and when it is sent it shall be exhibited.''
" This last demand, showing an insulting want of confidence, was no doubt also suggested by Wolsey. We do not know if such a declaration was made by the Queen, according to her counsel's advice, drily enough expressed as may be seen. But what is certain is that she wrote a letter to the Emperor, of the kind the prelates, her ad- visers, wished, desiring him to be satisfied with keeping a certified copy for himself, and sending her the original brief. This letter was entrusted to her chaplain, Thomas Abel, for transmission to her nephew, Charles V. But Abel, in the same parcel and the same conveyance, sent another letter to the Emperor, written by himself, and in- forming his Majesty that, in claiming the original of the brief, the Queen did not express her real desire, but had acted under pressure of a sort of moral violence. He added that she begged him to do everything in his power to have the suit transferred to Eome, for she could expect no justice in England. Lastly, he requested, in the name of the Queen, that the Imperial Ambassador at Rome, Muxetula, should be informed of her real situation, her almost complete want of liberty ; and that he should be requested to tell all
VOL. II. E
50 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
this to the Pope, in explanation of the Queen's silence."
Nor was this the only precaution taken by the Queen's friends. a After Katharine's agent, Philipps, had returned to London, she obtained the King's permission to send an officer of her household, named Montoya, into Spain. She gave him no letter, either in ordinary writing or in cipher. She only sent a verbal message, and Mendoza made him almost learn by heart what he was to say confidentially to the Emperor. Montoya was to enlighten the Emperor as to the moral constraint that Henry VIII. was exercising over the Queen, and repeat to him that no account was to be taken of her last letter, nor of the wish she expressed to be judged in England as soon as possible." *
The English Ambassadors, Gardiner and Fox, had already been sent to Rome to attempt to facilitate the divorce ; but all their efforts seemed unavailing, and Campeggio's mode of procedure was so tardy that Henry suspected he had received private instructions to impede the affair as much as possible — a suspicion that was not ungrounded, as the Pope's secretary had indeed written to the Cardinal, forbidding him to move a step further in the matter without fresh instructions, and telling him " that he was especially to endeavour to make Henry VIII. renounce his plan of divorce, and per- suade him to restore his affection to the Queen." The King, growing impatient, determined to send two fresh ambassadors to the Pope — Vannes and Sir Francis Bryan — "well provided," says Mendoza, (t with false tales and every possible means of cor- ruption ; " and adds that the poor Queen was, as well she might be, " greatly alarmed."
* M. du Boys.
KATHAEINE OF ARAGON. 51
With these Ambassadors were sent a set of instructions, signed by the King himself, which are, perhaps, the most extraordinary specimens of the kind to be met with in history. The Ambassadors were to represent to his Holiness that Charles V. was desirous of becoming master of Italy, to contrast his selfish designs with the devotion and disinterestedness of the English King ; to inquire, with great caution and respect, how it was that the Papal legate was allowed to delay for so long the business of the divorce ; and to call the Pope's attention to the alleged brief of which Katharine spoke. They were also directed to retain the best advocates and canonists to be found in Rome ; a and to learn from them whether, if the Queen can be induced to enter into lax religion, the Pope may, in plenitudine potestatis, dispense with the King to proceed to a second marriage, with legitimation of the children ; and, although it is a thing that the Pope perhaps cannot do in accordance withthe Divine and human laws already written, using his ordinary power, whether he may do it of his mere and absolute power, as a thing in which he may dispense above the law ; what precedents there have been, and how the Roman Court shall define or deter- mine, and what it doth use or may do therein, so that no exception, scruple, or doubt may be here- after alleged in anything that shall be affirmed to be in the Pope's power. Similarly, as the Queen will probably make great difficulty in entering religion or taking the vow of chastity, means of high policy must be used to induce her thereunto ; and, as she will perhaps resolve not to do so unless the King will do the like, the ambassadors must find out from their counsel if, to ensure so great a benefit to the King's succession and realm,
52 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
and to the quiet of his conscience, he takes such a vow, whether the Pope will dispense with him for the said promise or vow, discharging him clearly of the same, and thereupon to proceed, ad secunda vota cum legitimatione prolis, as is aforesaid.
" Furthermore to provide for everything, as well propter conception odium as for the danger that may ensue by continuing in the Queen's company, they shall inquire whether the Pope will dispense with the King to have " duas uxores," making the children of the second marriage legitimate as well as those of the first ; whereof some great reasons and precedents, especially of the Old Testament, appear ! "
" Happily ," says M. du Boys, " Henry, in a kind of postscript, desired Bryan and Vannes not to execute the last part of his instructions until they should have conferred with two fresh Ambas- sadors, who, he said, would soon arrive — Knight, his private secretary, and Dr. Benett. Indeed, in his impatience to end the matter, the King had chosen to add these two diplomatists to the others who had only started a few days sooner. Benett and Knight themselves took with them Dr. Taylor, and as they went through Prance they all waited on Francis I." Their instructions were almost as original as those given to Bryan and Yannes. They were to say " that the King, having his mind fixed on the certainty of eternal life, hath in this case put before his eyes the light and shining brightness of truth, as the best foundation for the tranquillity of his conscience, knowing, as the Apostle says, that there is no good foundation except that which Christ has laid ; and that the King, finding his conscience touched by plain suspicion of the falsity in the
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 53
brief, has recourse to the only fountain of remedy- on earth, the Pope himself. They shall desire him to set aside all vain allegations, and in this matter bring the truth to light ; and, considering the importance of the thing, how many may be touched by it to urge that by consenting to put an end to the cause, as he may do by the plenitude of his power, all suspicions may be removed. They shall also obtain a commission decretal to the legates to pronounce the breve forged. If the Pope will not consent, they shall deliver to his Holiness the other letters of the two legates desiring the avocation of the cause, and a written promise from the Pope to give sentence in the King's favour, on certain grounds of which a summary is sent, e.g., that the Emperor will not send a brief, that the brief is false on the face of it, and that the King is in great perplexity, and his health in danger, etc. But they shall obtain a promise from the Pope before the avo- cation."
Armed with these instructions, the Ambassadors journeyed to Rome, where their first proceedings were " directed against the brief so unexpectedly produced by Katharine. They said they could not understand how the document could have been sent to Ferdinand in Spain, unknown to anyone, while the authentic copy of the bull had been addressed to Henry VII. in England, at his request. What was the use of this double pro- cess ? They were anxious to search the Vatican registers, and did not find a minute of the brief. Besides, they said, that the two documents pur- porting to be written the same day, at the beginning of the year, could not have been signed by Julius II., for the ecclesiastical year of Rome begins on the 25th of December of our common
54 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
calendars, and at that time Julius II. had not become Pope. But this objection proved too much ; for it applied to the bull as well as the brief, and the fact of the bull was not contested. As to Clement VII., in the preparation of a brief, perhaps only a few hours later than the bull itself, he only saw Julius II.'s deliberate intention to confirm, and perhaps explain, the dispensation already given. Besides, he thought he could not decide a point of fact like a forgery in an authentic document in virtue of his infallibility, since that ought to be reserved for doubt in points of doctrine and morality. He said that the Emperor's explanation must be awaited ; for that Prince had sent information to Rome that he was in possession of the original of the brief in ques- tion in Spain, that he would exhibit it to several ambassadors, especially the English, and that, until a formal demand had been made upon the Spanish Government to thus produce it, no accusation of forgery could be brought against King Ferdinand or the Emperor Charles V." *
So little progress did these envoys make, in spite of their elaborate directions, that Gardiner was again sent out to assist them ; and soon after his arrival Clement VII. fell seriously ill, and was for some days in a dangerous condition. "He had hardly become convalescent," says M. du Boys, "when the English agents made their way even to his bedside, and tried to take advantage of his physical weakness to obtain what they wanted from him. But all their threats and prayers were wrecked against the Pope's wisdom and fairness. He said he could not deprive Katharine of the privileges allowed by canon law to every accused person or defendant in any suit.
* M. du Boys.
KATHARINE OF AKAGOtf. 55
That the plenaria potestas did not authorize him to change the true into false, nor the just into the unjust. He was greatly devoted to the King, but could only do him services compatible with reason and equity. His expression was that the King had a good place in his Paternoster, but none in his Credo. All the expedients of the English diplomatists fell impotent, all their hopes failed. Thus Yannes wrote that, even if the Queen were to take the veil, the Pope, having consulted with the most learned canonists at Eome, had declared that, according to their advice, he would have no right to allow the King to contract a second marriage. As to the supposed forgery, Clement wrote himself to Henry VIII. on the 29th of April, 1529, that he could not give a decision on this point till he had heard both sides. The Pope had offered to send a special delegate to Spain to examine the original on the spot, and compare it with the copy, in concert with the English Ambassador. But Gardiner and his colleagues would not consent; time pressed, and an immediate decision was needful. Gardiner did not spare the wretched Pontiff some violent scenes, even while he was writhing with pains that seemed to be the agony of death. Yet Gardiner could get nothing out of that valiant spirit which continually rose above bodily suffer- ing. In vain did he and his colleagues demand the publication of the bull of decretal, containing the original commission, and insist on a promise of ratification of the legate's sentence at Eome, in case of its being unfavourable to the Queen. They had to be contented with further powers from the Cardinals, and as this first pollicitation did not appear sufficient, a second was obtained, more distinct and more extended, under specious
56 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
pretexts. But as the Pope in this document did not renounce the right of receiving an appeal from the adverse party, nor of transferring the cause, if need arose, the Ambassadors' success was very incomplete. One of the number, Bryant, a cousin of Anne Boleyn's, wrote her a letter, disguising a portion of the truth, so as not to discourage her. But in his correspondence with Wolsey he more frankly lamented that the dexterity displayed by Gardiner, Vannes, and Gregory Casale had been useless, and that their efforts, as well as his own, had been thrown away. " On their side Charles V. and his ambassadors did not remain inactive. In order to cut short the arguments of the English agents, the Emperor had proposed to furnish the original brief, the copy of which had been impeached, but to show it to the Pope alone. Gardiner and his colleagues would not take any account of this offer, but it produced a great effect upon the mind of Clement VII. The Emperor, in his letters to his diplo- matic agents, in the beginning of the year 1529, Mendoza in England, and Muxetula and Micer Mai at Pome, had never ceased to stir up their zeal in his Aunt Katharine's cause. In one of these letters, February 5th and 6th, after accus- ing the English ministry and courtiers of per- verting the King Henry's mind by vile artifices and low intrigues, he tells Mendoza that it is necessary to demand that the decision of the divorce case should be transferred to the Apostolic Holy See, even though the Queen, under the influence of fear, and even of violence, should oppose this measure, ' protesting, of course, the nullity of action, and appealing to Rome, and, if necessary, to the next general council, citing and summoning each and every one of them
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 57
individually, and by their own names, to appear at the Court of Rome, or before the said general council, as it may be.' On the 16th of February following, he writes to Muxetula, his ambassador at Rome : ' It is our duty, though the Queen, desirous of avoiding scandal, had not applied for it, to claim in this instance the protection and favour of the Holy See, and to request that the case be tried before his sacred consistory, and the commission given to Cardinal Campeggio revoked. We, therefore, command you to beg his Holiness, in our name, to have the cause brought before his Court, notwithstanding any contrary steps taken by the new English ambas- sadors to prevent a thing so just and reasonable.'
" Meanwhile Micer Mai, the Spanish envoy to the Pontifical Court, had returned with all speed to his post, and had taken several steps there. On March 6th he wrote to his master: 'With regard to the Queen of England's case, he (Mai) hopes that the first brief put for the Pope's signature will be that for the adjudication of the suit at Rome.' This hope was premature ; for though the Pontifical Court and the Cardinals seemed inclined for the transfer of the cause to the Court of Rome, their good intentions were paralysed by the Queen herself not having ex- pressed a wish, although Charles Y. and his agents had acted for her, and in her name. This obstacle was soon to vanish.
" By the 16th of March it is clear that events are drawing on. Cardinal Santa Croce wrote the following letter to the Emperor, and it must have considerably advanced the solution of the question,
u ' To-day, the 6th of March, a packet of letters has been received from the Imperial ambassador
58 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
in England of the 25th of February. There is, inside, one from the Queen to the Pope, closed and sealed, asking him, as it is presumed, to have her case tried here [at Borne] . The Queen having complained that she had no liberty to defend herself in England, it was resolved that she herself should write an autograph letter to the Pope, stating her wishes. That has been done, as it would appear, with great difficulty, and is, most probably, the subject of her missive. The Queen writes to him (Santa Croce), com- manding him to put the letter into the Pope's hands with the greatest possible secrecy, as she does not want anyone to know it. The Pope, however, is not well enough now to treat affairs of this kind. As soon as he recovers, the letter shall be given to him.
" < Rome, 16th of March, 1529.' "
While the Queen was taking this step, her nephew was seeking to strengthen her cause by the exhibition of the brief concerning which there had been so much doubt and suspicion. " The King of England's ambassadors to Charles Y.," Dr. Lee and Ghinucci, Bishop of Worcester, having expressed to Catalayud their desire to see the original brief of dispensation sent by Julius II. to Queen Isabella, his Majesty the Emperor gave orders for the document to be exhibited to them in presence of some notaries nominated for the purpose, and several grandees of Spain. In this solemn meeting, Nicholas Perrenot, Sieur de Granvelle, and the Chancellor of the Empire, explained how the Emperor had done all he could to preserve friendly relations with his ally, the King of England, but that this Prince had cast doubts upon the authenticity
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 59-
of the copy of the brief of dispensation of which Queen Katharine had made use, the original being in the possession of her nephew, Charles Y. Then the Sieur de Granvelle took the docu- ment in his hands, unsealed, opened it, and gave it to the English Ambassadors to read, and to copy if they chose. The Ambassadors, visibly em- barrassed, refused to take cognisance, on the pretext that the question of forgery having been referred to the Pope they did not think themselves authorised to interfere in the question. On the invitation of the Bishop of Osma, and the Bishop of Elma, Nicholas Perrenot read the precious document aloud in presence of the two above- named Bishops, Henry, Count of Nassau, the lord chamberlain of the Emperor, the Count de Pont-de-Vaux, grand-master of the King's house- hold, the Sieur de la Chaux, prefect of the palace, and Louis of Flanders, Sieur de Prael. A minute of this meeting was drawn up in Latin by the notaries, containing a copy of the brief, and the minute was signed by the witnesses present, except the English Ambassadors. This ought to have put an end to the miserable quibbles advanced against the sincerity and fidelity of the copy presented to the legates by Queen Katharine.
"Charles V. himself wrote to Mendoza that the English ambassadors, after the meeting, having asked him to allow them a private examination of the brief he immediately consented. 'And an authentic copy of it made, properly revised, and collated with the original, in order to show that we omit nothing that is likely to preserve the friendship of their King, and that, if he will but attend to the letter of the brief, his scruples will at once vanish/
"Is it credible that the two ambassadors, in
60 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
their official correspondence, still found reasons for suspecting the validity of the original docu- ment ? "
The poor Queen herself, in the midst of her distress, was not unmindful of, or ungrateful for, the exertions displayed by her friends on her behalf. To Muxetula, the Emperor's Ambassador at Rome, who had shown great zeal and vigilance in her cause, she wrote the following gracious and grateful letter : —
" Ambassador, —
u Your letter enclosing papers has come to hand. I thank you very much for the diligence and care you display in my affairs, without my having directly applied to you. Be sure that you will always find a true friend in me to do you any favour within my power. I beg you to continue in future as hitherto, and follow up this cause as it has begun. Let me know what answer his Holiness makes to your representations and petitions on my behalf. I shall feel grateful for this and any other service you may render me, and will not fail to apprise the Emperor, your master, of any further steps taken in my defence. In all other matters you shall give full credence to Don Inigo de Mendoza, the Emperor's ambas- sador at this Court, to whom I am as much indebted as I am to yourself, for the trouble and pains you have taken in my affairs. His letters will inform you of the proceedings.
" Anton Court (Hampton Court), this 25th of January, 1529."
Her grief is sadly indicated in her confidences to Vives, whom we have seen her consulting in happier days regarding the education of her child.
KATHABINE OF AEAGON. 61
ee
The Queen began to open to him — as her countryman — her distress that the man whom she loved more than herself should think of marrying another ; which was the greater grief the more she loved him. The Queen desired him to ask the Imperial ambassador to write to the Emperor to do what was just with the Pope, lest she should be condemned without being heard."
The man whom " she loved more than herself " avenged himself on the wife of whom he was weary for the bands that chafed him. " He would not give her liberty of defence nor power of appeal, which he would not have refused to the least of his subjects. He had sent away the Spanish advocates associated with Katharine's counsel, as being harder to influence than natives of his kingdom. Now he made use of the legates themselves to procure the Queen's submission, persuading them to employ in turn cajolery and menaces. Most odious espial was directed on the details of her private life. Thus, when Henry had abolished the household, and dismissed the court of the Princess Mary, she had returned to her mother. Now Katharine was accused of a habit of savage and morose devotion unseasonable to the youth around her. The Queen, thinking she ought to give her daughter some diversion, so as to prove that her piety was not so narrow, without having anything that could be called an entertainment, let her dance sometimes with her companions. The opportunity was seized for blaming her for this great impropriety. The legates were to tell her that she ought not to amuse herself while the King was sad and pensive, on account of all that was going on. And what was Henry about? He was going, no doubt,
62 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
without much publicity, it is true, to lighten his sorrow and cheer his pensiveness by Anne Boleyn's side, in her fine apartments at Green- wich. That was not all ! He caused reproaches to be made to Katharine on account of the acclamations in her favour that met her when she showed herself in London, and the dislike of the people to Wolsey and the King himself. He pretended to see in it proofs of a secret conspiracy against the whole English government ! " *
While Katharine was thus harassed, calum- niated, and neglected, the Lady Anne was already experiencing the foretastes of her future triumph. " Greater court is now paid to her," writes Du Eellay, the French Ambassador, " every day than has been to the Queen a long time. I* see they mean to accustom the people by degrees to endure her, so that when the great blow comes it may not be thought strange. However, the people remain quite hardened, and I think they would do more if they had more power ; but great order is continually taken."
What agony this divorce was costing Katharine it is, perhaps, difficult to realize. " Let it be borne in mind," says Reed, "that when she came to England, betrothed to the heir of England's throne, she brought, as the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, not only her splendid dowry, but the pride of the proudest monarchy in Europe. She came from the palace that had lately rejoiced in those wondrous achievements by which the spaces of Christendom were enlarged ; for in one and the same year did Ferdinand and Isabella remove from the soil of Spain the long-enduring dynasty of the Saracens, and send forth Columbus to search the dark waters of the west. For near
* M. du Boys.
KATHARINE OF ABAGON. 63
twenty years was this proud Castilian woman Queen of England, the honoured wife of Henry VIII." Imagine such a character, with all the lofty pride, the stately dignity of her race, with all the love for husband and child of an intensely- deep and tender nature, suddenly confronted with the prospect of disgrace, repudiation, ruin ; threatened with separation from her daughter; and knowing, with what keen anguish it is almost impossible to describe, that he of whom she had written that " she loved him more deeply than she loved herself," was eager and anxious to be rid of her, and was impatiently awaiting the hour that should leave him free to wed her rival — her own maid of honour ! Be it always re- membered that, whatever view may now be taken of her marriage, Katharine herself believed, from the bottom of her heart, that she was the King's true wife and Queen ; and that she upheld her rights, and fought out her cause so fearlessly, with the strongest consciousness that in so doing she was following the plain dictates of duty. We have all heard, as Reed tells us, " of Constance wildly clamouring for her son's royal claim, and of Margaret of Anjou indomitably warring for her son's inheritance; but the noblest matron of them all is Queen Katharine, in whom are seen all the feelings of the wife, the mother, and the Queen — the pride of birth and of place — the con- sciousness of irreproachable purity — the anguish of the bitterest wrong — all sinking down with something of placid piety into the most piteous dejection."
The spring of 1529 was now well advanced, but in those days communication between Italy and England was what would seem to us intolerably slow, and Katharine had heard little of the pro-
64 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
ceedings at Bome. " It is true she must have received a letter from her nephew, Charles V., dated April 23rd, and concluding thus : ' As a case of this sort must be referred to our Most Holy Father in his Holy Apostolic See, we have earnestly requested him not to allow it to be tried elsewhere than at his Court, inasmuch as your honour, and that of all our relatives and friends, is deeply concerned in the issue. You may be sure, most Serene Queen, and our dearest and most beloved aunt and sister, that I shall not fail in what I consider to be my duty.' But it is not known whether this letter had reached the Queen in the month of May. Certainly she did not know that the protests and petitions mentioned by Charles Y. had been made ; and lastly, Mendoza, who had always been her faithful support, and kept up her communications with Spain and Rome, being greatly injured in health by the English climate, had persuaded the Emperor to recall him, in order to save his life. The loss of this able and devoted adviser left a great void for the unhappy Katharine." *
She went again to see Campeggio, and he once more entreated her to take the veil, thus showing that he had not as yet learned the opinion of the Roman canonists, which declared, that even were she to do so the King could not legally re-marry. But the Queen was inflexible. " Her Christian devotion, her gentle humility, were not inconsistent with an impregnable Spanish tenacity and unbending royal pride ; sbe never would voluntarily have yielded her place to the clever manceuvrer who wished to usurp her rights as wife and Queen. She did not understand this inversion of any idea of justice
* JI. du Boys.
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 65
and turn of the cards to make the King's mistress a legitimate wife, and his legitimate wife a concubine. And so Campeggio, after his con- ference with the Queen, could not help praising her sincerity, her firmness, and greatness of soul." *
Meanwhile, proceedings in the matter of the divorce went on. " In the great hall of the palace at Blackfriars," says Miss Strickland, " was pre- pared a solemn court ; the two legates, Wolsey and Campezzio, had each a chair of cloth of gold placed before a table, covered with rich tapestry. On the right of the court was a canopy, under which was a chair and cushions of tissue for the King*, and on the left a rich chair for the Queen. It was not till the 28th of May, 1529, that the court summoned the royal parties. The King answered the two proctors ; the Queen entered, attended by four bishops and a great train of ladies, and, making an obeisance with much reverence to the legates, appealed from them, as prejudiced and incompetent judges, to the Court of Rome; she then departed. The court sat every week, and heard arguments on both sides, but seemed as far off as ever from coming to any de- cision. At last the King and Queen were cited by Dr. Sampson to attend the court in person on the 18th of June." Both obeyed the summons. The court was full. There sat the two Cardinals as judges ; Archbishop Warham and all the bishops except Fisher and Standish, were on the bench ; Gardiner was chief clerk ; and behind the bar stood the advocates and proctors — Sampson, Bell, and Tregonell, on the King's side ; Fisher, Standish, and Ridley, on the Queen's. Silence was ordered, the Pope's commission read, and the
* M. du Boys. VOL. II. F
66 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
crier raised his voice. " Henry, King of England, come into the court \" " Here, my lords ! " answered the King. " Katharine, Queen of England, come into the court ! '* The Queen did not speak ; " but rose up incontinent out of her chair, where she sat, and because she could not come directly to the King for the distance which severed them, she took pain to go about unto the King, kneeling down at his feet in the sight of all the court and assembly, to whom she said in effect, in broken English, as followeth : * " ' Sir, I beseech you for all the loves that hath been between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice and right, take of me some pity and compassion, for I am a poor woman and a stranger born out of your dominion, I have here no assured friend, and much less indifferent counsel; I flee to you as to the head of justice within this realm. Alas ! sir, wherein have I offended you, or what occasion of displeasure ? Have I designed against your will and pleasure ; intending (as I perceive) to put me from you? I take God and all the world to witness, that T have been to you a true humble and obedient wife, ever comformable to your will and pleasure, that never said or did any- thing to the contrary thereof, being always well pleased and contented with all things wherein you had any delight or dalliance, whether it were in little or much ; I never grudged in word or coun- tenance, or showed a visage or spark of discon- tentation. I loved all those whom you loved only for }^our sake, whether I had cause or no ; and whether they were my friends or my enemies. This twenty years I have been your true wife or more, and by me ye have had divers children, although it hath pleased God to call them out of
* Cavendish's Life of Wolsey.
KATHARINE OF AEAGON. 67
the world, which hath been no default in me. And when ye had me at the first, I take God to be my judge, I was a true maid ; and whether it be true or no, I put it to your conscience. If there be any just cause by the law that ye can allege against me, either of dishonesty or any other impediment to banish and put me from you, I am well content to depart to my great shame and dishonour; and if there be none, then here I most lowly beseech you let me remain in my former estate, and receive justice at your hinds. The king your father was in the time of his raign of such estimation through the world for his excellent wisdom, that he was accounted and called of all men the second Solomon ; and my father Ferdinand, King of Spain, who was esteemed to be one of the wittiest princes that reigned in Spain, many years before, were both wise and excellent kings in wisdom and princely behaviour. It is not therefore to be doubted, but that they elected and gathered as wise counsellors about them as to their hi^h discre- tions was thought meet. Also, as me seemeth, there was in those days as wise, as well learned men, and men of as good judgment as be at this present in both realms, who thought then the marriage between you and me good and lawful. Therefore it is a wonder to hear what new inventions are now invented against me, that never intended but honesty. And cause me to stand to the order and judgment of this new court, wherein ye may do me much wrong, if ye intend any cruelty ; for ye may condemn me for lack of sufficient answer, having no indifferent counsel, but such as be assigned me, with whose wisdom and learning I am not acquainted. Ye must consider that they cannot be iudifferent
68 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
counsellors for my part which are your subjects, and taken out of your own council before, wherein they be made privy, and dare not, for your displeasure, disobey your will and intent, being once made privy thereto. Therefore I most humbly require you, in the way of charity, and for the love of God, who is the just judge, to spare me the extremity of this new court, until I may be advertised what way and order my friends in Spain will advise me to take. And if ye will not extend to me so much indifferent favour, your pleasure then be fulfilled, and to God I commit my cause ! ' "
As the Queen finished, she rose from her kneeling posture. All thought she was return- ing to her seat, but, making a low courtesy to the -King, she took the arm of her receiver- general, Griffith, and left the court. "Recall her Highness/' said the King. " Katharine, Queen of England, come into court," commanded the crier.
"Madam/' said Griffith, " you are called." " 1 hear it," she answered, " but on — on — go you on — for this is no court wherein I can have justice."
Then the King, forgetting apparently, or thinking it wiser to ignore, the murderous imaginings of which he had allowed his council, unrebuked, to accuse his wife, spoke of her in terms of high eulogy to the judges and bishops assembled. " As the Queen is gone," he said, "I will, in her absence, declare unto you all, my lords here presently assembled, she hath been to me as true, as obedient, and as conformable a wife as I could in my fantasy desire. She hath all the virtuous qualities that ought to be in a woman of her dignity ! " Cardinal Wolsey
KATHARINE OF ARAGOX. 69
" ever watching1 for a sign of change, and think- ing that his hour was come, made haste to get himself excused, asserting that he had never been a mover in this great affair/'* Henry, in an elaborate speech, declared that his first doubts had been excited, not by Wolsey, bat by the Bishop of Tarbes, at the negociations for his daughter's marriage. " I moved this matter first," added the King, " to you, my Lord of Lincoln, my ghostly father ; and, forasmuch as you then were in some doubt to give me counsel, moved me to ask farther counsel of all of you, my lords " — an assertion curiously at variance with the emphatic statement of Lon gland, that Henr}* had been continually urging him upon the sub- ject; but the Tudor nature could readily adapt awkward facts to its own liking — " wherein I moved you first, my Lord of Canterbury, asking your license (as you were our Metropolitan) to put this matter in question ; and so I did of all of }Tou, my lords, to the which you have all granted by writing under vour seals." Warhain and most of the other bishops admitted it ; but Fisher declared he had never signed.
" Here is your hand and seal," said Henry.
66 It is a forgery," said Fisher.
Warham declared Fisher had permitted him to sign it for him ; but Fisher firmly denied it, asking — " If he wished it to be done, why could he not have done it himself?" and the King, losing all his scanty patience, dissolved the court, and from that day looked on his old tutor as his enemy.
Katharine's popularity was manifest, when, on this memorable 18th of June, she set forth from Baynard's Castle to Blackfriars. " The women as
* Hepworth Dixon.
70 LIVES Or THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
she passed encouraged her, and shouted to her to care for nothing. 'If the matter was to be decided bj the women, the King would lose the battle,' says Du Bellay, with some spirit, and then he adds ironically, c She recommended herself to these good prayers, with other Spanish tricks.' " *
The female part of the nation was indeed so entirely with her, and the unpopularity of Anne Boleyn so great, that on one occasion, when the latter was on a pleasure expedition in the country, a mob of women assailed her, and she escaped with difficulty from personal violence.
On June 25 th the Queen was again summoned before the court, but she refused to appear, though she sent in an appeal to the Pope, signed with her own hand on every page. She was pronounced contumacious, and the trial went on till July, when, following the Roman custom, the legates declared they must cease to sit till October. " At this delay," says Miss Strickland, "Anne Boleyn so worked upon the feelings of her lover that he was in an agony of impatience. He sent for Wolsey, to consult with him on the best means of bringing the Queen to comply with his wishes. Wolsey remained an hour with the King, hearing him storm in all the fury of unbridled passion. At last Wolsey returned to his barge ; the Bishop of Carlisle, who was waiting in it at Blackfriars Stairs, observed, ' that it was warm weather.' ' Yea, my lord,' said Wolsey, 6 and if you had been chafed as I have been, you would say it was hot.' "
Both Wolsey and Campeggio were ordered to repair to Bridewell Palace early the next morn- ing, in order to try and persuade the Queen to settle the matter by retiring into a convent. They
* M. Du Boys.
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 71
went, and Katharine, who was at work with her ladies, came to them in the presence chamber with a skein of red silk round her neck. With stately courtesy she thanked them for coming", and said, (i She would give them a hearing, though she imagined they came on business which required much deliberation, and a brain stronger than hers."
fi You see," she added, pointing to the silk, "my employment; in this way I pass my time with my maids, who are indeed none of the ablest councillors, yet have I no other in England ; and Spain, where there are those on whom I could rely, is, God knoweth, far off."
" If it please your grace/' said Cardinal Wolsey, "to go into your privy chamber, we will show you the cause of our coming."
" My lord," answered the Queen, " if you have anything to say, speak it openly before all these folks ; for I fear nothing that ye can say or allege against me, but that I would all the world should both hear and see it ; therefore I pray you speak your minds openly."
Wolsey began to address her in Latin.
" Pray, good my lord," said Katharine, " speak to me in English, for I can, thank God, speak and understand English, though I do know some Latin."
" Forsooth then," said the Cardinal, " Madam, if it please your grace, we come both to know your mind, how ye be disposed to do in this matter between the King and you, and also to declare secretly our opinions and our counsel unto you, which we have intended of very zeal and obedience that we bear to your grace."
Poor Katharine ! she had learnt to be cautious of such " zeal and obedience " as was now offered,
72 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
and her answer was at once dignified and prudent. " My lords, I thank you then of your good wills ; but to make answer to your request I cannot so suddenly, for 1 was set among my maidens at work, thinking full little of any such matter, wherein there needeth a longer deliberation, and a better head than mine, to make answer to so noble wise men as ye be ; I had need of good counsel in this case, which toucheth me so near ; and for any counsel or friendship that I can find in England, [they] are nothing to my purpose or profit. Think you, I pray you, my lords, will any Englishman counsel or be friendly unto me against the King's pleasure, they being his subjects ? Nay forsooth, my lords ! and for my counsel in whom I do intend to put my trust be not here ; they being in Spain, in my native country. Alas, my lords ! I am a poor woman lacking both wit and understanding sufficiently to answer such ap- proved wise men as ye be both, in so weighty a matter. I pray you to extend your good and in- different minds in your authority unto me, for I am a simple woman, destitute and barren of friendship and counsel here in a foreign region ; and as for your counsel, I w7ill not refuse, but be glad to hear."
" And with that," says Cavendish, " she took my lord by the hand and led him into her privy chamber with the other cardinal ; where they were in long communication ; we, in the other chamber, might sometime hear the Queen speak very loud, but what it was we could not understand. The communication ended, the cardinals departed and went directly to the King, making to him relation of their talk with the Queen ; and after resorted home to their houses to supper."
" When the King of England saw," says M. du
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 73
Boys, " public opinion arising' in favour of Katharine, and the zeal of the legates entrusted with the trial declining- more and more, he per- ceived that he must make some sort of diversion, and give his suit a colour of material interest. So he tried to attach the English nobility to his cause, and induced them to take a kind of initia- tive in the matter by a direct address to the sove- reign pontiff. Doubts having been raised as to the illegitimacy of the Princess Mary, even though these doubts were ill-founded, pretenders to the crown would make them an excuse to exalt their claims over those of a young girl incapable from her sex of defending her own. Then there would be the spectacle of a renewal of civil war, like those which had seen the Houses of York and Lancaster in arms, and had caused English blood to flow in torrents during the fifteenth century. Henry, his ministers, and all his friends or favourites, dexterously put forward these considera- tions, and managed to get the nobles of the king- dom, or a certain number of them, to write a letter to the Pope, entreating him to give their sovereign satisfaction by declaring the nullity of his former marriage, so that he might contract a second, and have an heir male, whose rights should be incontestable. Policy does not always agree with justice, and it prompted a number of lords spiritual and temporal to write a letter to the sovereign pontiff, of which this is the sub- stance. They said that not only the King but the whole realm of England were complaining of the interminable delays that had arisen in the decision of an affair that was in the highest degree interesting to the whole conntry. His Holiness had received incontestable services from the Eng- lish government, and really ought to give a
74 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
favourable hearing to their prayers, and remedy their grievances, as he could not be ignorant of them. That the most learned universities of Europe had examined the question of the validity of the King's marriage, and are said to have found that Henry VIII. had reason to require a declaration of nullity; 'therefore all England beseeches His Holiness to give his sanction to this general opinion that the voiding of this marriage would be equitable and advantageous. This would be the only means of ensuring the peace of Eng- land and preventing the horrors of civil war, into which it would certainly again fall, if the King were to die without male offspring; and therefore supplication is made to His Holiness to enable him to have hopes. Having always considered the sovereign pontiff as our father, we beseech him to look upon us as his children, and not to abandon us. If His Holiness should indefinitely defer to grant our request, we shall take too long a delay as a refusal, and shall, in consequence, find ourselves obliged to seek a remedy else- where, and perhaps come to some melancholy extremity, to our great regret ; but finally a sick man seeks comfort wherever he thinks he can find it.' The date of this letter is July 13th, 1529. It is signed by Cardinal Wolsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, two marquisses, thirty earls, four bishops, twenty- five barons, twenty-two abbots, and twelve members of the House of Commons.
" The 29th September following, Clement VII. made a calm and dignified reply to this petition. He said he forgave the English lords the harsh language they had used in the end of their letter, and attributed the improper expressions to their affection for their King. He begged them, as a
KATHARINE OF ARAGOtf. 75>
fond father, not to think of seeking remedies elsewhere than in the bosom of the church. He pointed out to them that it is not the physician's fault when the sick man is impatient, and will do nothing he dislikes ; that, if Henry VIII. had the opinion of some doctors and some universities on his side, the Queen could appeal to the law of God, and high authorities found in the writings of learned divines ; that Europe would not under- stand that a marriage could be disputed which had been contracted and completed so many years ago on a dispensation from the Pope, asked for by two great kings, and after the birth of several children. He said he had no greater wish than to gratify the King as far as he could, without violating the most sacred claims of justice ; and he did not think that, as the King was so pious, he would approve of the letter of these lords. The King expressed great discontent at this letter, though the Pope had taken pains to speak with the greatest kindness of him personally."
In October the legates resumed their sitting, and Henry pressed impatiently for judgment. Then, in Hep worth Dixon's graphic language, " Oompeggio threw aside his mask. c T will give no judgment in this cause until I have made rela- tion to the Pope of our proceedings. Wherefore I adjourn the Court.' Every one stood amazed, and Suffolk gave the wouder and the fury voice. With lofty mien and flashing eye he strode into the centre of the group, and cried, ' It was never merry in England while we had cardinals among us ! ' Wolsey retorted sharply, ' Sir ! of all men within this realm you have least cause to be offended with cardinals ; for if I, a simple car- dinal, had not been, you should have had at this moment no head on your shoulders.' Henry left
76 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
the court abruptly while the peers and prelates looked into each others' faces for a sigfn. All felt that something great and striking had occurred, but few conceived the greatness of that hour. The revolution had commenced."
A fortnight later it was generally known that on the previous 18th of July the Pope had trans- ferred the suit to Rome by a Bull of Revocation ; and Anne Boleyn's chance of queenship seemed by such an edict gravely lessened. Neither she nor the King, however, gave up hope ; and if poor Katharine trusted that she might now retain her crown, she knew well that she had lost her husband's love for ever.
The next great event was the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, for whom none were sorry. The great nobles hated him as a pretentious upstart ; and Anne Boleyn and her followers were glad to have so great an obstacle removed, while the common people had disliked him for his extortions and his advocacy of the divorce — the cause of Katharine being generally popular, especially with the women, who universally espoused her claims. She was still recognised as Queen; and Henry permitted her to accompany him on a royal pro- gress to the More, a manor in Hertfordshire, and Grafton in Northamptonshire — the place where Wolsey had his last interview with his master. " The Bishop of Bayonne," says Miss Strickland, "in his letters, affirms, that there was no apparent diminution of affection between the Kinsf and Queen; and though they were accompanied by Anne Boleyn, the Queen showed no marks of jealousy or anger against her." Henry still treated his wife with outward deference, and she never sullied her dignity with useless recrimina- tion. "They pay each other the best attentions,"
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 77
wrote the Italian Scarpinello, " and his Highness makes her many compliments in the Spanish fashion. Peace appears to reign, as though there had never been a question in dispute between them. Katharine affirms with warmth that everything her lord, the King, has done, has been inspired by true and holy doubt, and not by preference for another love." In spite of her haughty Castilian blood, the poor Queen was a very woman ; and resolutely closed her eyes, with pathetic obstinacy, to all the flaws and errors of her love.
Katharine had a strong impression that if once a papal confirmation of her marriage was issued, all idea of the divorce would at once drop. For this confirmation she wrote in impassioned language to her Roman agent, Dr. Ortiz, in the following letter, which is translated from the original Spanish : —
" Doctor — I have had much pleasure and com- fort from the letters, seeing that thou tellest me of the good and evil which is passing where thou art ; and I know full well the pains thou art at, and the affection and £Ood will thou hast for the s:ood of this business, and the manner in which thou dost recommend it to His Holiness, so that he may do justice and with brevity, taking it into his conscience which is the best road and most certain for those who have to fill that holy seat. And in all and everything that may be done by His Holi- ness, such as thou dost see them, I do not, how- ever, perceive any other road but that of recom- mending to God, and I pray to Him that He may remedy the evils of which this kingdom and Christendom through this business seems to have no end. I fear that God's vicar on earth does not
78 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
wish to remedy them. I do not know what to think of His Holiness ; but on this side, the heretics who are in the Christian world, seeing that this cause, as it is in suspense, gives room that there should be more suspense ; and he being the head and protector of the Church, he wishes the Church to have a great fall. I cannot do more, as I have written to His Holiness, than to inform him of the truth, and have represented to him the evils I see if tliev follow the course of not bringing to an end this cause, and procure that there shall be an end to it through the means which appear to me the proper ones. And if these are of no avail, I will complain to God because here on the earth in His ministers there is no faith and charity, for His mercy will not abandon me. I entreat thee to endeavour to con- tinue the same course as thou hast done hereto- fore. I have seen a copy of the brief which His Holiness has issued, and I have shown it to learned persons, and they have told me that the medicine which is to cure this wound must be stronger, and that the remedy is the sentence, and anything else will bring anger and little profit for a few clays only. God give thee much health. 14th of April [1530]. To His Holiness communicate what I have written to thee in this letter.
" (Signed) Catherine."
" To Dr. Ortiz in Rome."
While poor Katharine was thus passionately pleading her cause with the Pope, Henry was planning how he could rid himself of her for ever. After Wolsey's fall, he chose to have none but laymen in his council, thinking they would stand less in awe of the Pontiff; and while the Queen was writing her letter, the King was resolved
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 79
to send a last appeal to Rome. The man appointed to plead the royal cause was Thomas Cranmer.
That name, so familiar to our ears, had not then long been known. Two years before, in 1528, he was a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and had fled from there with two of his pupils, when the sweating sickness broke out. They took refuge at Waltham ; and, it being the time when the King and Queen were at Tittenhanger, the royal suite had been scattered up and down the neighbourhood. Dr. Stephen Gardiner and Dr. Fox, the King's secretary and almoner, found quarters in the house where Cranmer was living ; and the conversation in the evening turned on the universal subject of the King's divorce.
iC Cranmer, who had a peculiarly clear legal mind, said the point was this : — The Pope had the power to dispense with the laws of the Church, but not with the laws of God. Was marriage with a brother's widow contrary to the law of God ? That was a question for universities and canonists. If so, had Arthur and Katharine been really husband and wife ? Fox and Gardiner carried the report to the King, who was delighted. ' Who is this Dr. Cranmer ? ' he cried. 'Where is he ? Is he still at Waltham ? Marry, I will speak to him ! Let him be sent for out of hand. This man, I trow, has got the right sow by the ear/ Cranmer was brought to the court, made to write out his argument, and appointed one of the royal chaplains. The King asked him if he would undertake to maintain his argument at Rome; and he answered that he would. In the meantime he defended his treatise both in Oxford and Cam- bridge, and won over several distinguished men to his view of the question/'*
* C. M. Yonge.
80 LIVES OF THE PKLNCESSES OF WALES.
The time for sending Cranmer to lay his argu- ments before the Pope seemed now to have arrived. Charles V. was at Bologna for his double corona- tion as Emperor of the West and King of Lom- bardy ; and both he and the Pope were dwelling under the same roof. The King formed an em- bassy to proceed thither, of which Cranmer was one member, and at the head of which was the father of Anne Boleyn, lately advanced to the dignity of Earl of "Wiltshire, who was empowered to make a full explanation to Charles of the King's demand, " adding hints of his power and bribes up to £300,000, if the Emperor's consent could be gained."* Many objected that Lord Wiltshire was not a fit person for the post allotted him ; but Henry overruled the difficulty by saying no other man had so strong an interest in the cause; and the embassy set forth, and found themselves graciously received by the Pope, but unable to gain any advantage ; and the Emperor was quite as impenetrable, and not gracious at all.
" Stop, sir," he said, as Lord Wiltshire began to address him. "Allow your colleagues to speak — you are a party concerned."
" I am here," Wiltshire replied, " not in the name of my child, but in that of my sovereign. If your Majesty agrees to what I ask, my master will rejoice ; if not, your disapproval will not pre- vent the King of England demanding and receiving justice."
He ventured to add the proposal of Henry to restore Katharine's marriage portion if the divorce were pronounced; but the answer was haughty and decisive.
" I am no merchant to sell the honour of my
* CM. Yonge.
KATHAKINE OF ARAGON. 81
aunt ; " and judging nothing was to be gained by further delay, the Earl returned to England. "Cranmer visited Rome, and then travelled through Germany, trying to interest the reform- ing Princes in his master's cause ; but Luther saw no charms in the l defender of the faith,' who only wanted to get rid of his lawful wife, and he gained no sympathy. Luther even wrote to Barnes, the royal agent, that he had rather let the King have two wives at once than get rid of his lawful one. The universities of Germanv were
m
still less willing to decide in the Kind's favour. Much was hoped from the fourteen universities of Erance. Indeed, Henry had the assurance to write Francois T. to interfere in his favour ; but the King of France replied that he could not offend the Emperor, while his sons were still in his power, nor could they be released till he had paid 2,000,000 crowns to the Emperor, and redeemed for them the lily of gold which Maximilian had pawned for Henry VII. This made Henry forgive the debt, make a present to him of the pledge, and lend a large sum, for which consideration the Count of Montmorency canvassed the doctors of the university of Paris one by one; and though the consciences of the majority were against it, dexterous management obtained a decision in the King's favour. A few of the others were also won over, and Oxford and Cambridge were subservient, so that Henry had outward justification, though every one knew how dishonestly it had been obtained. Armed with these decisions, such as they were, Henry applied again to the Pope, but with no better success ; indeed, Clement had gathered courage to make what was tantamount to a refusal to meddle any more with the matter, and a representation that if he were afraid of a dis-
VOL. II. G
82 LIVES OF THE PEINCESSES OF WALES.
puted succession this was no means of prevent- ing it."*
The whole of this year of 1530 the Queen had the company of her daughter. Threats had, as we have seen, been already held out, of separating them if Katharine continued " contumacious/' but as yet these had not been carried into effect. Henry's disappointment on finding himself still bound at the end of the year was keen. ci The King sore lamented his chance," says Hall; "he made no mirth or pastime, as he was wont to do, yet he dined with and resorted to the Queen as accustomed ; he ministered nothing of her estate, and much loved and cherished their daughter, the Lady Mary." Christmas was passed by the royal pair at Greenwich, and the usual gaieties of masques and banquets went on as usual, Katharine being treated with all the deference due to her rank. Great efforts were made to induce her to withdraw her appeal to Rome, but in vain. The Queen steadily refused to retreat an inch from the position she had taken up. Perhaps, if there had been only herself to think of, she might have sur- rendered, though her high spirit, and her keen consciousness of her rights, would have rendered it doubtful e? en then; but with her child's name to defend, she was inflexible. She refused to give up in any way her station of Queen. She insisted on accompanying the King wherever he went; and even when Mary fell ill away from her, and she longed to go and nurse her, she would not do so, for fear advantage should be taken of her absence to prevent her return. She entreated that her daughter might be brought to her. " If you desire it," said Henry, " you can go to her, and stay with her." But Katharine knew with whom
* C. M. Yonge.
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 83
she had to deal too well to acquiesce. " Neither for my daughter, nor for any person in the world, will I separate from you, or lodge in any other house than that in which you live/' She had done all she could for her own honour and her daughter's ; she had bent her pride to follow her husband to his own apartments, and beseech him to give up the hope of a divorce — in vain ; but she would never
Make herself so guilty To give up willingly that noble title,
which she believed with all her heart was rightly hers; and she was resolved to fight on to the last.
Nothing but death Should e'er divorce her dignities.
CHAPTEE VI.
Thomas Cromwell — Deputation to the Queen — Her reply — Separation of Henry and Katharine — Her departure from Windsor — Letter to the Princess Mary — Interview of the King and Reginald Pole — Elevation of Anne Boleyn to the peerage — Her journey with Henry to Calais — Letters of Queen Katharine — Marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn — Cranmer's court at Dunstable — Katharine's refusal to be present — Her marriage pronounced invalid — Her reception of the announcement — Coronation of Anne Boleyn — Her unpopularity — Sermons of the Friars at Greenwich — The King's Proclamation — Katharine's removal to Bugden — Her heavy sorrow — Her forgiveness of Anne Boleyn — Her letter to her daughter — Birth of Elizabeth — Interview of Mary and Anne Boleyn — Letter of the French Ambassador — Visit of Lee and Tunstall to Katharine — Her inflexible resolution — Her letter to the Emperor — Refusal of her servants to take the oath of allegiance — Her wishes respecting them — Refusal to go to Fotheringay — Removal to Kimbolton — Traces of her residence there.
The year 1531 opened gloomily for Henry and Anne "Boleyn. For nearly five years the lady had been waiting for the crown — for nearly five years the King had been waiting with eager impatience to offer it to her ; and the looked-for day seemed as far off as ever. But suddenly a new actor appeared in the ever-shifting Tudor drama, whose coming opened the way summarily to the attainment of the royal wishes.
This new comer, Thomas Cromwell, was a man of lowest origin. " Born in Putney, son of a smith and ale-wife, he had been much abroad in early life ; at Antwerp in the days of Philip and Juan a ; at Rome in the da}Ts of Julius II. He bad borne a pike in the Italian wars, and written letters in the rooms of a Venetian trader. Watch- ing in his tent he got the New Testament by
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 85
heart, and riding in the saddle he conned the lessons of Machiavelli's Prince. On marrying he had won the notice of Russell, and entered the service of Wolsey, acting as the Cardinal's secretary, and collecting many facts about those priories and convents which his master meant to spoil. When Wolsey' s household staff was carried to the King, Cromwell went with it; and the King perceiving in him a man of fertile brain and ready fingers, kept him near his side."* He it was who now suggested an expedient which Henry was only to glad to adopt. " Nothing was to be done with the Pope. Why should not Eenry be his own Pope ? England was a monster now with two heads, King and Pope. Cut off one, and let the KiDg be alone. Had not the German Protes- tants renounced Eome. Henry might do the same, not in faith, but in power."f The advice was not unpalatable to the imperious Tudor, with whom it was an imperative necessity that he should always have his own way; but, before going all the length that Cromwell advised, he sent a deputation to the Queen at Greenwich, entreating her to quiet both his conscience and her own by submitting the case to four English bishops and four nobles. Katharine received the deputation in her chamber, and heard this mess- age. Then she made her reply.
" God grant the King a quiet conscience ! This, my lord, shall be your answer : I am his wife ; law- fully married to him by order of Holy Church ; and so I will abide until the Court of Rome, which was privy to the beginning, shall have made an end."
But the King was tired of waiting for a decree from Rome. He took the law into his own hands. He and Katharine were both staying at
* Hep-worth Dixon. f C. M. Yonge.
86 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
Windsor Castle after the feast of Trinity ; and on the 14th of June he departed, leaving her there alone. From the despatches of Chapuys, the Imperial Ambassador who had replaced Mendoza, we learn the details of the time. " The Queen/' he writes to Charles Y. on the 17th of July, " com- plained of not being allowed to speak with her husband at his departure, as it would have been a consolation at least to bid him adieu; and Henry sent her a bitter answer, after taking counsel with the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner, that he was very much offended at her for causing him to be cited personally to Rome, and for refusing a reasonable offer he had made her by his council to allow the cause to be decided by some other tribunal."
On the 31st Chapuys reports that Anne Boleyn "goes along with the King to the chase; and the Queen, who used to follow, has been commanded by the King to stay at Windsor." On the 19th of August the poor Queen was still at the Castle. " The Princess is now with her," says Chapuys. " They amuse themselves by hunting, and visiting the royal houses around Windsor." But the final crash was soon to come. " The King," writes the Ambassador, on September 10th, i( under pretence of hunting about Windsor, has ordered the Queen to dislodge, and retire to More, a house belonging to St. Alban's, and the Princess to Richmond." u Go where I may," said the forsaken Queen, " I am his wife, and for him will I pray."
She never saw either husband or child again. Henry, anxious to be rid of her at any cost, had not been ostensibly ungenerous in his provision for her. All the manors settled on her by Prince Arthur were hers, and a list of other places to which she might retire was drawn up; but in
KATHAKINE OF AEAGON. 87
reality the clioice of her residence rested entirely with the King, as we find from a remark of Chapuys' some months later, that " the Queen is exceedingly sorry the King has refused her certain houses to which she wished to retire, and has com- manded her to go to one of the worst in England."
From More she wrote to inform the Pope how she had been expelled from her husband's home ; and from thence removed to Ampthill, near Woburn.
" An utter silence," says Miss Strickland, " is maintained, alike in public history, and in state documents, regarding that agonizing moment when the Princess Mary was reft from the arms of her unfortunate mother, to behold her no more. No witness had told the parting, no pen has described it; but sad and dolorous it certainly was to the hapless girl, even to the destruction of health. In the same month that Henry VIII. and Queen Katharine finally parted, Mary had been ill, for a payment is made by her father, to Dr. Bartelot, of £20 in reward for giving her his attendance." The forsaken Queen yearned after her daughter; but, in the following letter, written at this time, she had sufficient self-forgetfulness and render consideration to say nothing that would add to the grief of the lonely and desolate girl. She had hitherto taught Mary Latin herself, with occasional help ; and she was anxious that the Princess should continue her studies with her new tutor, Dr. Featherstone, hoping perhaps that they would divert her mind from sadder thoughts.
" Daughter,
" I pray you, think not that forgetfulness has caused me to keep Charles so long here, and answered not your good letter, in the which I perceive ye would know how I do. I am in that
88 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
case that the absence of the King and you troubleth me. My health is metely good ; and I trust in God that He who sent it me doth it to the best, and will shortly turn all to come with good effect. And in the meantime, I am very glad to hear from you, specially when they shew me that ye be well amended. I pray God to continue it to His pleasure.
" As for writing in Latin, I am glad that ye shall change from me to Maister Federston ; for that shall do you much good to learn from him to write right, but yet sometimes I would be glad when ye do write to Maister Federston of your enditing, when he hath read it that I may see it; for it shall be a great comfort to me to see you keep your Latin, and fair writing, and all. And so I pray to recommend me to my Lady of Salisbury.
" At Woburn, this Friday night.
"Katharine the Qwene."
iC The last part of this letter," says M. du Boys, Ci betrays the pupil of Peter Martyr, the distinguished classical scholar who had attracted the attention of Erasmus in his youth. It is beautiful to see how this persecuted Queen is able to control the expression of her sorrow and personal anxiety thus to watch from a distance over her daughter's welfare, and procure for her a solid education which offers so many resources and consolations in all occurrences of life."
The desolate Queen was not left wholly un- defended. Begin aid Pole, on whom the King wished to confer the See of York, wrote a letter so strongly worded against the divorce that the King sent for him to the great gallery in White- hall Palace to explain himself. He trembled and shed tears, but held to his words, and would not see the King's specious arguments. Henry left
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 89
him in fierce anger, and Reginald returned to Italy, and heard no more of the Bishopric of York. Katharine appears to have returned to More after sojourning at Ampthill, as we find that she ad- dressed a letter from thence to her nephew, on the 15th of December. Soon after Pope Clement sent a private message to the King, warning him to put away " one Anna," and take back his lawful wife and Queen ; but the King took no notice of the admonition, unless the appropriation of the An- nates, or first fruits, hitherto always paid to the Pope, to his own private use, and the commanding the Queen to remove to a house further off, and with much worse accommodation, could be so called.
On the 1st of September, 1532, Anne Boleyn, robed in crimson velvet and ermine, was brought into the State apartment at Windsor Castle, and solemnly created Marchioness of Pembroke by the King, with a pension of £1,000 a year — no insignificant sum in those days — wherewith to maintain her dignity. When Henry met Francois I. at Calais in October, she accompanied him ; and on Sunday evening, October 28th, danced before both sovereigns, u in masking apparel, of strange fashion, made of cloth of gold, slashed with crimson tinsel satin puffed with cloth of silver, and knit with laces of gold."* What Queen Katharine's feelings were concerning this event can best be gathered from a letter, written by her to the Emperor, of September 18th : —
" Most High and Mighty Lord,
" Although your Majesty is occupied with your own affairs, and with your preparations against the Turk, I cannot, nevertheless, refrain from troubling you with mine, which perhaps in
* Hall.
90 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
substance and in the sight of God are of equal importance. Yonr Majesty knows well that God hears those who do Him service, and no greater service can be done than to procure an end in this business. It does not concern only ourselves — it concerns equally all who fear God. None can measure the woes which will fall on Christen- dom if his Holiness will not act in it, and act promptly. The signs are all around us in new printed books, full of lies and dishonesty — in the resolution to proceed with the cause here in England — in the interview of these two Princes, where the King, my lord, is covering himself with infamy through the companion which he takes with him. The country is full of terror and scandal ; any evil may be looked for if nothing be done, and inasmuch as our only hope is in God's mercy, and in the favour of your Majesty, for the discharge of my conscience, I must let you know the strait in which I am placed.
" I implore your Highness, for the service of God, that you urge his Holiness to be prompt in bringing the cause to a conclusion. The longer the delay the harder the remedy will be.
" The particulars of what is passing here are so shocking, so outrageous against Almighty God, they touch so nearly the honour of my lord and husband, that for the love I bear him, and for the good that I desire for him, I would not have your Highness know of them from me. Your ambas- sador will inform you of all."
Meanwhile, Anne felt that now her success was nearly certain, her end well-nigh attained ; and the dancing and dressing, which became every day more gorgeous, was only the outward ex- pression of her inward satisfaction.
KATHAEINE OF ABAGOtf. 91
While her rival was thus further bewitching the King, Katharine, who had been at " the Bishop of Ely's house, seventeen miles from London,"* was at (i Arforde Castel," as she wrote Hertford Castle, from whence she sent the following letter in Spanish to her nephew the Emperor, to whom she always clung with affection and deference as the child of her sister, and the head of her house : —
" Most High axd Most Powerful Lord,
" God knows how much pleasure and comfort I have had in knowing of the victory which in Hungary and in other parts over the enemy of our faith your Majesty has had, and likewise the going of yoar Majesty to Bologna to see his Holiness to arrange as to what is to be done in future. I hold this for certain that these things are of God, and not made and directed by human means, as our Lord in His mercy, by the hand of your Highness, has wished to do so much good to all the Christian world. God has enlightened you, so that you should see his Holiness on which account all this kingdom and myself have hopes, certain it was with the grace of God that his Holiness may stav the second Turk, which is the business of the King, my lord, and my own. I call him second Tark because the ills, an end not being made by his Holiness to this cause in time, there has followed, and still follows each day, great and such bad examples that I do not know which is the worst, this busi- ness or that of the Turk.
"I have suffered much pain in importuning your Majesty so many times with this m itter, for I am sure you desire the same ending of it as I do ; but seeing so much ill, which the tardiness-
* Chapuys.
92 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OE WALES.
occasions to this my suffering life with so little quietude, and the time to make an end (of the business) so expedient, it appears that God in His bounty has wished that his Holiness and your Majesty should meet to cause so great a good that I am forced to be so importunate. For the love of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, I supplicate your Highness, since that by the good works ye do, God will shed on thee signal mercies and benefits each day that you are occupied in doing this good so signal, before you part from his Holiness, because in any other my remedy will remain with God, and I shall enter into another purgatory, from which I do not hope to leave until it shall please Him, in the absence of your Highness, recollect when at another time he pronounced in that same city, and also what was done. I certify that your Majesty being present or absent, it is all the same, that here it is known the truth, and thus losing the ho2?e of those who persuade my King and lord to make this a perpetual case, all will be at an end. And believe me, your Highness, that there is no one who knows this better than I do ; and thus I end, hoping good news for her who is most affectionate to your Majesty, and supplicating and praying to our Lord that He may give you the health that your good work merits, and grace to bring the enemy of our faith to the true con- version, repentance, and glory of your royal estate. Such is my prayer.
" Arforde, 5th November.
" The humble Aunt of your Majesty, " and your servant,
" Catharina."
Inscribed, " To the most high and most power- ful Emperor and King, my lord and nephew/'
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 93
Two other Spanish letters written by Katharine about this time are extant ; the first, to the Grand Commander of Leon, dated from " Viche- farfil," which probably stands for Bishop's Hat- field :—
u Especial Friend,
" For the good and benefit that God has done to all Christendom by the hands of your sovereign in delivering it from the enemy of our faith, we all see the obligation under which we are to continue to do good works ; and thou knowest that a greater thou canst not do than to procure from his Majesty that he may lose no opportunity in that his Holiness makes an end and termination of the business of the King, my lord, and mine, the which has brought and will bring so much evil to all Christendom for all the time it may be pending. And because I know how good a friend thou art to me in doing me kind acts, I return to pray most affectionately now that God who has been pleased to bring this cause of such high merits, that you will not forget me, but continue by the love you have of me, and what you have done, and be thou certain that thou hast in me a good friend to do for thee what may be in my power.
" Vichefarfil, 6th of November.
"Through want of quietude of heart, I have not power in my hand to write all that I would have wished, that if the remedy of his Majesty now fails me when he was with the Pope to make an end of my business, I am now unassisted, so now let God in His mercy do with me as seemeth fit, which is what I desire.
" (Signed) Catharina/'
94 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
The second letter is to the Emperor, written after hearing of the meeting of Francois and Henry at Calais : —
" Most High and Most Powerful Lord,
" After having written the letter which your Majesty will see, a friend of mine informed me that it was very certain that the King, my lord, and the King of France in these interviews have determined to obtain [their wishes] from his Holiness through the Cardinals they send there, and because I am certain that your ambassador will make known to your Highness what he observes in this matter. I do not wish to give you. more trouble with my letters in reference to those of the said ambassador. And returning to supplicate in regard to the contents of the letter I have written to your Majesty, and what you are to do for me, and know that the thunder of this land does not cost lightning except to wound me by the will of God.
" I pray that you see fit to make the effort, for it is just that his Holiness, for already the whole world knows well the necessity that something should be done, and it was represented that he (his Holiness) would not impede the good that from your Majesty this kingdom, and I hope for. And that the letters go safely and in time, I send by this post, by which I hope through our Lord to have so good a reply that it will comfort my life. Our Lord help the royal estate of your Majesty, and guard and increase your State.
<k Hertford Castle, the 11th of November, 1532. " The humble Aunt of your Majesty,
" (Signed) Catharina."
Inscribed, u To the most high and powerful lord the Emperor and King, my nephew."
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 95
Meanwhile, Henry had resolved to wait no longer for any decree of Pope or Cardinal. He had appointed Cranmer to the See of Canterbury, vacant by the death of "Warham; but before the new Archbishop could return from Germany, Dr. Rowland Lee was called to say mass in a garret chamber at Whitehall, on St. Paul's day, January 25th, 1533, and was there commanded by the King to wed him to Lady Anne, who was present with one lady in her train. This lady, Anne Savage, with two grooms of the chamber, Norreys and Heneage, were the only witnesses of the rite which gave Anne Boleyn the rank and crown for which she had waited and hungered so long. Immediately afterwards, Cromwell " obtained an Act of Parliament, reaffirming the old one, which forbade appeals from being carried out of the kingdom, thus closing up Katharine's appeal to Rome. Then Convocation was shown the opinion that Montmorency had elicited from the University of Paris, and called on to say whether the Pope could grant a dispensation to marry his brother's widow. Only three Bishops at first gave answer on the King's side, and thirty-six Abbots. But when the further question came on whether Katharine had been Arthur's wife or not, two more Bishops came over to the King's party, the clergy had as a body declared their assent, and there was nothing to do but to pronounce sentence." *
Accordingly the new Archbishop, accompanied by four Bishops, established his court at a priory of black canons at Dunstable, six miles from Ampthill, where the repudiated Queen was then residing. She was served with a citation to appear before him on Saturday, the 10th of May.
* C. M. Yonge.
96 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
" The bearers of the summons," says Frouder " were Sir Francis Bryan (an unfortunate choice, for he was cousin of the new queen, and insolent in his manner and bearing), Sir Thomas Gage, and Lord Yaux. She received them like herself with imperial sorrow. They delivered their mes- sage ; she announced that she refused utterly to acknowledge the competency of the tribunal before which she was called ; the court was a mockery ^ the Archbishop a shadow. She would neither appear before him in person, nor commission any one to appear on her behalf." She was accord- ingly pronounced contumacious, and on the day after Ascension Day, May 23rd, 1533, Cranmer, in the Lady Chapel at Dunstable Priory, solemnly declared that the marriage had never been good, and that both Henry and Katharine were free to marry again !
The tidings were brought to Katharine by Lord Montjoy, her former page, on July 3rd. How she received them is told in the messenger's account, published among the State Papers of Henry YIIL, under William IV's commission. " She com- manded her chamberlain should bring into her privy chamber as many of her servants as he could inform of her wishes ; ' for/ she said, ' she thought it a long season since she saw them.' Her grace was then lying upon her pallet, because she had pricked her foot with a pin, so that she might not well stand or go, and also sore annoyed with a cough. Perceiving that many of her ser- vants were there assembled, who might hear what should be said, she then demanded, ' Whether we had our charge to say by mouth or by writing ? ' We said ( Both ; ' but as soon as we began to de- clare and read that the articles were addressed to the princess dowager, she made exception to that
KATHARINE OF ARAGON.
97
name, saying, she was 6 not princess dowager, but the queen, and, withal, the King's true wife; had "been crowned and anointed queen, and had by the King lawful issue, wherefore the name of queen she would vindicate, and so call herself during her lifetime.' "
By the King's orders, a bribe of increased income was offered if she would resign her rank, but she treated all such offers with royal scorn. Then they warned her that, " if she retained the name of queen, she would (for a vain desire and appetite of glory) provoke the King's highness, not only against her whole household to their hindrance and undoing, but be an occasion, that the King should withdraw his fatherly love from her honourable and dearest daughter, the lady princess Mary, which ought to move her, if no other cause did."
But Katharine's lofty resolution was unshaken. " As to any vain glory, it was not that she desired the name of a queen, but only for the discharge of her conscience to declare herself the King's true wife, and not his harlot, for the last twenty-four years. As to the princess, her daughter, she was the King's true child, and as God had given her unto them, so, for her part, she would render her again to the King, as his daughter, to do with her as should stand with his pleasure, trusting to God that she would prove an honest woman, and that neither for her daughter, her servants, her possessions, or any worldly adversity, or the King's displeasure, that might ensue, she would yield in this cause to put her soul in danger ; and that, they should not be feared, that have power to kill the body, but He only that have power over the soul."
The commissioners left her that day, but re-
VOL. II. H
98 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
turned again on the morrow, only to find her as inflexible as ever. " She exerted her queenly authority," says Miss Strickland, " by command- ing the minutes of this conference to be brought to her, and drew her pen through the words ' princess dowager ' wherever they occurred. The paper still remains in our national archives with the alterations made by her agitated hand. She demanded a copy that she might translate it into Spanish ; and the scene concluded with her pro- testations, that she would ' never relinquish the name of queen/" "1 would rather be a poor beggar's wife," she cried, "and be sure of heaven, than queen of all the world, and stand in doubt thereof by reason of my own conceit. I stick not so for vain glory, but because I know myself the King's true wife — and while you call me the King's subject, I was his subject while he took me for his wife. But if he take me not for his wife, I came not into this realm as merchan- dise, nor to be married to any merchant ; nor do I continue in the same but as his lawful wife, and not as a subject to live under his dominion other- wise. I have always demeaned myself well and truly towards the King — and if it can be proved that either in writing to the Pope or any other, I have either stirred or procured anything against his Grace, or have been the means to any person to make any motion which might be prejudicial to his Grace or to his realm, I am content to suffer for it. I have done England little good, and I should be sorry to do it any harm. But if I should agree to your motions and persuasions, I should slander myself, and confess to have been the King's harlot for twenty-four years. The cause, I cannot tell by what subtle means, has been determined here within the King's realm,
KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 99
before a man of his own making, the Bishop of Canterbury, no person indifferent I think in that behalf; and for the indifference of the place, I think the place had been more indifferent to have been judged in hell; for uo truth can be suffered here, whereas the devils themselves I suppose do tremble to see the truth in this cause so sore oppressed."
"The implicit obedience Henry's agents paid Katharine, even when they came to dispute her title, proved how completely she was versed in the science of command. Her servants had been summoned by Montjoy to take an oath to serve her, but as Princess of Wales, which she forbade them to do ; therefore many left her service, and she was waited upon by a very few, whom the King excused from the oath."*
Meanwhile Anne Boleyn was tasting all the sweets of that queenship just wrested from Katharine. On the 19th of May she was brought with much rejoicing from Greenwich up the Thames to the Tower, " conducted thither in state by the Lord Mayor and the City Companies, with one of those splendid exhibitions upon the water which, in the days when the silver Thames deserved its name, and the sun could shine down upon it out of the summer sky, were spectacles scarcely rivalled in gorgeousness by the world- famous wedding of the Adriatic. "f On the 3 1 st she made the progress through the city customary to all queens on the coronation eve, amid pomp and splendour such as had never been surpassed — through streets draped in scarlet and crimson, cloth of gold and velvet; past pageants which rivalled each other in gorgeous compliment to the queen ; surrounded by knights and ladies, and
* Strickland. t Froude.
100 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
with, a guard in coats of beaten gold. In the midst of all this magnificence, a white chariot approached, " drawn by two palfreys in white damask, which swept the ground, a golden canopy borne above it making music with silver bells : and in the chariot sat the observed of all observers, the beautiful occasion of all this glittering homage — Fortune's plaything of the hour, the Queen of England — Queen at last, borne along upon the waves of this sea of glory, breath- ing the perfumed incense of greatness which she had risked her fair name, her delicacy, her honour, her self respect to win : and she had won it/'*
The following day, Whit Sunday, June 1st, she was solemnly crowned with all state and splendour in Westminster Abbey, the crown of St. Edward and then the crown made for her being set upon her head, her train borne by the Duchess of Nor- folk, and all the noble ladies of the kingdom fol- lowing her in scarlet velvet and ermine. " Did anything of remorse," asks Froude, (t any pang of painful recollection, pierce at that moment the incense of glory which she was inhaling? Did any vision flit across her of a sad mourning figure, which once had stood where she was standing, now desolate, neglected, sinking into the darkening twilight of a life cut short by sorrow ? Who can tell ? At such a time, that figure would have weighed heavily upon a noble mind, and a wise mind would have been taught by the thought of it, that although life be fleeting as a dream, it is long enough to experience strange vicissitudes of fortune. But Anne Boleyn was not noble and was not wise, too probably she felt nothing but the delicious, all-absorbing, all-in-
* Froude.
KATHAEINE OF ARAGON. 101
toxicating present; and if that plain suffering face presented itself to her memory at all, we may fear that it was rather as a foil to her own sur- passing loveliness. Two years later she was able to exult over Katharine's death ; she is not likely to have thought of her with gentler feelings in the first flush and glow of triumph."
In spite of the grace and fascination of the new Queen, and the splendour which marked her coro- nation, the marriage was very unpopular with the lower classes. " We'll have no Nan Bullen ! Nan Bullen shall not be our Queen ! " was the common cry ; and in Wales a rising took place in favour of the repudiated Queen. Even the House of Commons were partizans of Katharine, and presented a petition to the King, moved by a member called Terns, that he would take Queen Katharine home. Sir Thomas More, who was invited to be present at the coronation, and to whom twenty pounds had been sent to provide himself with a suit for the occasion, refused to appear ; and Reginald Pole wrote indignantly of the " sorceress " and " Jezebel," as he politely termed Anne. On the 11th of July, Clement VII., published a decree commanding Henry to separate from Anne before September, and take back Katharine, on pain of excommunication if he dis- obeyed. At Greenwich, Peto, a Friar of the Order of Observants, preaching before the royal pair, boldly denounced their crime, threatened them with awful judgments, compared the King to Ahab, and finished by declaring that " like that accursed Israelitish king, his blood would be licked by dogs." Wonderful to relate, Henry listened in silence, and let the friar go ; but the next Sunday a certain Dr. Curwen preached, and reviled Peto. " Another friar, named Elstow, de-
102 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
fended Peto in his absence, and called Curwen a lying prophet. Both friars were brought before the Council, and Cromwell told them they ought to be tied up in a sack, and thrown into the Thames. Elstow smiled and said, ' Such threats may move those clad in purple and fine linen. We know the way to heaven by water as well as by land, and care not which way we go.' The two friars were banished, their house broken up, and Curwen shortly after made a Bishop. Other sermons took the same course, and the other Bishops actually forbade all preaching for a time, and Cranmer, issuing new licenses to preach, forbade anything to be said on this question."*
" On one hot midsummer Sunday in this year 1533," says Froude, "the people gathering to church in every parish through the English coun- ties read, nailed upon the doors, a paper signed Henry P., setting forth that the Lady Katharine of Spain, heretofore called Queen of England, was not to be called by that title any more, but was to be called Princess Dowager, and so to be held and esteemed." The proclamation, we may suppose, was read with varying comments. Of the reception of it in the northern counties the follow- ing information was forwarded to the Crown. The Earl of Derby, lord lieutenant of Yorkshire, wrote to inform the Council that he had arrested a certain "lewd and naughty priest," James Har- rison by name, on the charge of having spoken unfitting and slanderous words of his Highness and the Queen's Grace. He had taken the examinations of several witnesses, which he had sent with his letter, and which were to the follow- ing effect : —
" Richard Clark deposeth that the said James
* C. M. Yonge.
KATHARINE OF AEAGON. 108
Harrison, reading the proclamation, said that Queen Katharine was Queen, Nan Bullen should not be Queen, nor the King should be no King but on his bearing'.
" William Dalton deposeth that in his hearing the above-named James said, 1 1 will take none for Queen but Queen Katharine. Who the devil made Nan Bullen Queen ? I will never take her for Queen,' and he, the said William, answered, ' Hold thy peace ; thou wot'st not what thou sayest. But that thou art a priest I should punish thee, that others should take example.' "
In this summer Katharine moved from Ampthill to Buglen, now Buckden, which belonged to the Bishop of Lincoln — " a forest lodge standing on the Great North Road, four miles from Hunting- don— a spacious edifice of brick, with gardens, ponds, and orchards, nestling in the shadow of an ancient church." * Here, writes Dr. Harpsfield, " Queen Katharine spent her solitary life in much prayer, great alms, and abstinence ; and when she was not this way occupied, then was she, and her gentlewomen, working with their own hands something wrought in needlework, costly and arti- ficially, which she intended, to the honour of God, to bestow on some of the churches. There was, in the said house of Bugden, a chamber with a window that had a prospect into the chapel, out of the which she might hear divine service. In this chamber she enclosed herself, sequestered from all other company, a great part of the night and day, and upon her knees used to pray at the same window, leaning upon the stones of the same. There were some of her gentlewomen who curiously marked all her doings, and reported that oftentimes they found the said stones where her
* Hepworth Dixon.
104 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
head had reclined wet as though a shower had rained upon them. It was credibly said that at the time of her prayer she removed the cushions that ordinarily lay in the same window, and that the said stones were imbrued with the tears of her devout eyes, when she prayed for strength to subdue the agonies of wronged affections." Strength was won both for endurance and for- giveness, and she learned to pardon even the prime cause of her miseries, the usurper of her name and place. "I have credibly heard/' says the just-quoted authority, " that, at a time of her sorest troubles, one of her gentlewomen began to curse Anne Boleyn. The Queen dried her stream- ing eyes, and said earnestly, ' Hold your peace ! Curse not — curse her not, but rather pray for her, for even now is the time fast coming when you shall have reason to pity her, and lament her case.' And so it chanced indeed."
The following letter from Katharine to her daughter Mar}^ was probably written from Bugden during this summer — apparently in August : —
" Daughter, I heard such tidings this day, that I do perceive (if it be true) the time is very near when Almighty God will provide for you, and I am very glad of it ; for I trust that he doth handle you with a good love. I beseech you to agree to his pleasure with a merry [cheerful] heart, and be you sure that without fail he will not suffer you to perish if you beware to offend him.
" I pray God that you, good daughter, offer yourself to him. If any pangs come over you, shrive yourself, first make you clean ; take heed of his commandments, and keep them as near, as he will give you grace to do, for there are you sure armed.
KATHARINE OP ABAGON. 105
" And if this lady do come to you as it is spoken, if she do bring you a letter from the King, I am sure in the self same letter }tou will "be commanded what to do. Answer with very few words, obe}Ting the King your father in everything — save only that you will not offend God, and lose your soul, and go no further with learning and disputation in the matter. And wheresoever, and in whatever company you shall come, obey the King's commandments, speak few words, and meddle nothing.
" I will send you two books in Latin ; one shall be, De Yita Christi, with the declarations of the gospels ; and the other the Epistles of St. Jerome, that he did write to Paula and Eustochium, and in them, I trust, you will see good things.
" Sometimes, for your recreation, use your virginals or lute, if you have any. But one thing specially I desire you, for the love you owe to God and unto me, to keep your heart with a chaste mind, and your person from all ill and wanton company, not thinking or desiring of any husband, for Christ's passion ; neither determine yourself to any manner of living, until this troublesome time be past. For I do make you sure you shall see a very good end, and better than you can desire.
" I would God, good daughter, that you did know with how good a heart I write this letter unto you. I never did one with a better, for I perceive very well that God loveth you. I be- seech him, of his goodness, to continue it.
" 1 think it best you keep your keys yourself, for whosoever it is [that is, whosoever keeps her keys] shall be done as shall please them.
" And now you shall begin, and by likelihood I shall follow. I set not a rush by it, for when
106 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OE WALES.
they have done the "utmost they can, then I am sure of amendment.
" I pray you recommend me unto my good lady of Salisbury, and pray her to have a good heart, for we never come to the kingdom of heaven but by troubles. Daughter, wheresoever you come, take no pain to send to me, for, if I may, I will send to you.
" By your loving mother,
"Katharine the Quene."
" Hitherto," says Miss Strickland, " this letter has been deemed a mystery. It is evidently written with conflicting feelings, under the pressure of present calamity, but with the excite- ment of recently awakened hope of better days. The Queen has privately heard of some great, but undeclared, benefit to her daughter, which she hints at to cheer her. Meantime she expects that a lady is to summon Mary by a letter from the King, and that she is shortly to be introduced into trying scenes, where the divorce will be dis- cussed, and her opinions demanded. On these points, she disinterestedly and generously exhorts her not to controvert her father's will. The Queen expects her daughter to be surrounded by dissipated company, where temptations will sedu- lously be brought to assail her, against which she guards her. She likewise anticipates that enemies will be near her, and warns her to keep the keys herself, dreading the surreptitious introduction of dangerous papers into her escritoire. Lady Salisbury is still Mary's protectress, but that venerable lady is in trouble, and looking darkly forward to the future. The kind Queen sends her a message of Christian consolation, the effi- ciency of which she had fully tried. All that has.
KATHAKINE OF AftAGON. 107
been considered mysterious in the letter of Queen Katharine vanishes before the fact preserved in the pages of the Italian Pollino, who declares that Mary was present at Greenwich Palace, and in the chamber of Anne Boleyn, when Elizabeth was born. Setting aside the religions principles of the historian, the simple fact that Mary was there is highly probable. Till some days subse- quent to the birth of Elizabeth, Henry did not disinherit his eldest daughter, lest, if anything fatal had happened to Queen Anne and her infant, he might have been left without legitimate off- spring of any kind. It is very likely that the laws of England required then, as now, that the presumptive heir of the kingdom should be present at the expected birth of an heir apparent to the crown. If Katharine of Aragon's letter be read with this light cast on it, how plain does it appear. The good mother endeavoured to fortify her daughter's mind for the difficult situation in which she would find herself, in the chamber of Anne Boleyn, at the birth of the rival heir. Then the beneficial change in Mary's pros- pects, hinted at by her mother, has reference to the recent decree of the Pope (soon after made public), who in July, 1533, had annulled the marriage of Henry VIII. with Anne Boleyn, and forbade them to live together under pain of excom- munication— a sentence which likewise illegiti- mated their offspring, and confirmed Mary in her royal station — this sentence was published in September, as near as possible to the birth of Elizabeth, and secret intelligence of this measure had evidently been given to Katharine of Aragon when she wrote to Mary. She knew that the de- cision of Rome had previously settled all such controversies, and it was natural enough that
108 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
she should expect the same result would take place."
The child, at whose birth Mary was present, was christened with much pomp by the name of the King's mother, and created Princess of Wales in Mary's stead; and the disinherited elder sister was domiciled with the baby heiress at Hatfield Lodge. A bitterer lot can hardly be imagined than that of the poor young princess, deprived of her rank, forced to see another in her place, keenly conscious of her mother's wrongs, and of the unjust elevation of that mother's rival. Anne came occasionally to see her child, and during one of her visits tried, with questionable wisdom and good feeling, to induce Mary to recognize her queenly rank.
"Treat me as Queen," she said. "Submit your- self to the King, and I will do my best to reconcile you to his Grace, and see that things are made more pleasant for you."
Mary was a Tudor, and her answer was as imperious as any utterance of King Hal himself : —
" Madam, I know no other Queen in this realm than my lady, my mother. If you will tell the King, my father, what I say, you will oblige me." She had all the courage of her race, and an absorbing devotion to her mother. "And while Katharine of Aragon lived, Mary of England would have suffered martyrdom rather than make a con- cession against the interest and dignity of that adored parent."*"
How great was the popularity of the disinherited young princess and her repudiated mother with the English people, may be gathered from the following letter, addressed by the French Am- bassador, M. D'Inteville, to Cardinal Tournon, and written apparently in the autumn of 1533.
# Strickland.
KATHARINE OP AEAGON". 109
a
The project for tlie marriage of the Princess Mary," says Froude, "-with the Dauphin, had been revived by the Catholic party ; and a private arrangement, of which this marriage was to form the connecting-link, was contemplated between the Ultramontanes in France, the Pope, and the Emperor/'
" My Lord,
" Yon will be so good as to tell the Most Christian King that the Emperor's Ambassador has communicated with the old Queen. The Emperor sends a message to her and to her daughter, that he will not return to Spain till he has seen them restored to their rights.
" The people are so much attached to the said ladies that they will rise in rebellion, and join any prince who will undertake their quarrel. You probably know from other quarters the intensity of this feeling. It is shared by all classes, high and low, and penetrates even into the royal house- hold.
"The nation is in marvellous discontent. Every one but the relations of the present Queen is indignant on the ladies' account. Some fear the overthrow of religion ; others fear war and injury to trade. Up to this time, the cloth, hides, wool, lead, and other merchandise of England have found markets in Flanders, Spain, and Italy ; now it is thought navigation will be so dangerous that English merchants must equip their ships for war if they trade to foreign countries ; and besides the risk of losing all to the enemy, the expense of the armament will swallow the profits of the voyage. In like manner, the Emperor's subjects and the Pope's subjects will not be able to trade with England. The coasts will be blockaded by the
110 LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF WALES.
ships of the Emperor and his allies ; and at this moment men's fears are aggravated by the un- seasonable weather throughout the summer, and the failure of the crops. There is not corn enough for half the ordinary consumption.
" The common people, foreseeing these incon- veniences, are so violent against the Queen, that they say a thousand shameful things of her, and of all who have supported her in her intrigues. On them is cast the odium of all the calamities anticipated from the year.
" When the war comes, no one doubts that the people will rebel as much from the fear of the dangers which I have mentioned, as