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11 | <title>Secondary Sources: The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon, by JA Froude:
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12 | Chapter Two</title>
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37 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
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38 | <p align="center"> </p>
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39 | <p align="center"><b><font size="7">The Divorce of<br>Catherine of Aragon</font></b><br>
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40 | <font size="5">by
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41 | JA Froude, 1891</font></p>
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42 | <p align="center">
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43 | <img border="0" src="aragon-new1.jpg" alt="miniature portrait of Katharine of Aragon by Lucas Horenbout" width="325" height="321"></td>
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44 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
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45 | </tr>
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46 | </table>
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47 | <blockquote>
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48 | <blockquote>
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49 | <font face="Times New Roman">
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50 | </font><font face="Times New Roman">
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51 | <div align="left">
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52 | <b><font size="4">CHAPTER TWO</font></b></div>
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53 | <blockquote>
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54 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="4">Mission of Wolsey to Paris --
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55 | Visits Bishop Fisher on the way -- Anxieties of the Emperor -- Letter of
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56 | the Emperor to Henry VIII. -Large offers to Wolsey -- Address of the
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57 | French Cardinals to the Pope -- Anne Boleyn chosen by Henry to succeed
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58 | Catherine -- Surprise and displeasure of Wolsey -- Fresh attempts of the
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59 | Emperor to bribe him -- Wolsey forced to continue to advocate the divorce
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60 | -Mission of Dr. Knight to Rome -- The Pope at Orvieto -- The King applies
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61 | for a dispensation to make a second marriage -- Language of the
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62 | dispensation demanded -- Inferences drawn from it -- Alleged intrigue
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63 | between the King and Mary Boleyn. </font></p>
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64 | </blockquote>
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65 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">IT was believed at the time --
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66 | and it was the tradition afterwards -- that Wolsey, in his mission to Paris,
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67 | intended to replace Catherine by a French princess, the more surely to
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68 | commit Francis to the support of Henry in the divorce, and to strengthen the
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69 | new alliance. Nothing can be inherently more likely. The ostensible reason,
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70 | however, was to do away with any difficulties which might have been
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71 | suggested by the objection of the Bishop of Tarbes to the legitimacy of the
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72 | Princess Mary. If illegitimate, she would be no fitting bride for the Duke
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73 | of Orleans. But she had been born <i>bonâ fide parentum.</i> There was no
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74 | intention of infringing her prospective rights or of altering her present
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75 | position. Her rank and title were to be secured to her in amplest measure.
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76 | </font></p>
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77 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The Cardinal went upon his
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78 | journey with the splendour attaching to his office and befitting a churchman
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79 | who was aspiring to be the spiritual president of the two kingdoms. On his
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80 | way to the coast he visited two prelates whose support to his policy was
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81 | important. Archbishop Warham had been cold about the divorce, if not openly
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82 | hostile. Wolsey found him "not much changed from his first fashion," but
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83 | admitting that, although it might be unpleasant to the Queen, truth and
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84 | justice must prevail. Bishop Fisher was a more difficult subject. He had
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85 | spoken in the Legate's court in Catherine's favour. It was from him, as the
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86 | King supposed, that Catherine herself had learnt what was impending over
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87 | her. Wolsey called at his palace as he passed through Rochester. He asked
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88 | the Bishop plainly if he had been in communication with the Queen. The
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89 | Bishop, after some hesitation, confessed that the Queen had sought his
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90 | advice, and said that he had declined to give an opinion without the King's
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91 | command. Before Wolsey left London, at a last interview at York Place, the
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92 | King had directed him to explain "the whole matter" to the Bishop. He went
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93 | through the entire history, mentioned the words of the Bishop of Tarbes, and
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94 | discussed the question which had risen upon it, on account of which he had
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95 | been sent into France. Finally, he described the extreme violence with which
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96 | Catherine had received the intelligence. </font></p>
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97 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The Bishop greatly blamed the
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98 | conduct of the Queen, and said he thought that if he might speak to her he
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99 | might bring her to submission. He agreed, or seemed to agree, that the
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100 | marriage had been irregular, though he did not himself think that it could
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101 | now be broken. Others of the bishops, he thought, agreed with him; but he
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102 | was satisfied that the King meant nothing against the laws of God, and would
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103 | be fully justified in submitting his misgivings to the Pope.</font></p>
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104 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Mendoza's and the Queen's
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105 | letters had meanwhile been despatched to Spain, to add to the anxieties
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106 | which were overwhelming the Emperor. Nothing could have been less welcome at
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107 | such a juncture than a family quarrel with his uncle of England, whose
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108 | friendship he was still hoping to retain. The bird that he had caged at Rome
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109 | was no convenient prisoner. The capture of Rome had not been ordered by
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110 | himself, though politically he was obliged to maintain it. The time did not
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111 | suit for the ambitious Church reforms of Lope de Soria. Peace would have to
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112 | be made with the Pope on some moderate conditions. His own Spain was hardly
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113 | quieted after the revolt of the <i>Comunidades.</i> Half Germany was in
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114 | avowed apostasy from the Church of Rome. The Turks were overrunning Hungary,
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115 | and sweeping the Mediterranean with their pirate fleets, and the passionate
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116 | and restless Francis was watching his opportunity to revenge Pavia and
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117 | attack his captor in the Low Countries and in Italy. The great Emperor was
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118 | moderate, cautious, prudent to a fault. In a calmer season he might have
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119 | been tempted to take the Church in hand; and none understood better the
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120 | condition into which it had fallen. But he was wise enough to know that if a
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121 | reform of the Papacy was undertaken at all it must be undertaken with the
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122 | joint consent of the other Christian princes, and all his present efforts
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123 | were directed to peace. He was Catherine's natural guardian. Her position in
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124 | England had been hitherto a political security for Henry's friendship. It
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125 | was his duty and his interest to defend her, and he meant to do it; not,
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126 | however, by sending roving expeditions to land in Cornwall and raise a civil
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127 | war; all means were to be tried before that; to attempt such a thing, he
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128 | well knew, would throw Europe into a blaze. The letters found him at
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129 | Valladolid. He replied, of course, that he was shocked at a proceeding so
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130 | unlooked for and so scandalous, but he charged Mendoza to be moderate and to
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131 | confine himself to remonstrance. He wrote himself to Henry --
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132 | confidentially, as from friend to friend, and ciphering his letter with his
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133 | own hand. He was unable to believe, he said, that Henry could contemplate
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134 | seriously bringing his domestic discomforts before the world. Even supposing
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135 | the marriage illegitimate -- even supposing that the Pope had no power to
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136 | dispense in such cases -- "it would be better and more honourable to keep
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137 | the matter secret, and to work out a remedy." He bade Mendoza remind the
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138 | King that to question the dispensing power affected the position of other
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139 | princes besides his own; that to touch the legitimacy of his daughter would
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140 | increase the difficulties with the succession, and not remove them. He
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141 | implored the King "to keep the matter secret, as he would do himself."
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142 | Meanwhile, he told Mendoza, for Catherine's comfort, that he had written to
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143 | demand a mild brief from the Pope to stop the scandal. He had requested him,
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144 | as Catherine had suggested, to revoke Wolsey's powers, or at least to
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145 | command that neither he nor any English Court should try the case. If heard
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146 | at all it must be heard before his Holiness and the Sacred College. But he
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147 | could not part with the hope that he might still bring Wolsey to his own and
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148 | the Queen's side. A council of Cardinals was to meet at Avignon to consider
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149 | the Pope's captivity. The Cardinal of England was expected to attend.
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150 | Charles himself might go to Perpignan. Wolsey might meet him there, discuss
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151 | the state of Europe, and settle the King's secret affair at the same time.</font></p>
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152 | </font>
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153 | <font face="Times New Roman" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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154 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Should
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155 | this be impossible, he charged Mendoza once more to leave no stone unturned
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156 | to recover Wolsey's friendship. "In our name," he said, "you will make him
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157 | the following offers: -- </font></p>
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158 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">1. The
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159 | payment of all arrears on his several pensions, amounting to 9,000 ducats
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160 | annually. </font></p>
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161 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">2. Six
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162 | thousand additional ducats annually until such a time as a bishoprick or
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163 | other ecclesiastical endowment of the same revenue becomes vacant in our
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164 | kingdom. </font></p>
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165 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">3. The
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166 | Duke, who is to have Milan, to give him a Marquisate in that Duchy, with an
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167 | annual rent of 12,000 ducats, or 15,000 if the smaller sum be not enough;
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168 | the said Marquisate to be held by the Cardinal during his life, and to pass
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169 | after him to any heir whom he shall appoint.</font></p>
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170 | <font face="Times New Roman">
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171 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">As if this was not sufficient,
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172 | the Emperor' paid a yet further tribute to the supposed all-powerful
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173 | Cardinal. He wrote himself to him as to his "good friend." He said that if
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174 | there was anything in his dominions which the Cardinal wished to possess he
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175 | had only to name it, as he considered Wolsey the best friend that he had in
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176 | the world.</font></p>
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177 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">For the ministers of great
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178 | countries deliberately to sell themselves to foreign princes was the custom
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179 | of the age. The measure of public virtue which such a custom indicates was
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180 | not exalted; and among the changes introduced by the Reformation the
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181 | abolition or suspension of it was not the least beneficial. Thomas Cromwell,
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182 | when he came to power, set the example of refusal, and corruption of public
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183 | men on a scale so scandalously enormous was no more heard of. </font></p>
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184 | </font>
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185 | </font><font face="Times New Roman">
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186 | <p>Gold, however, had flowed in upon Wolsey in such enormous streams and
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187 | from so many sources that the Emperor's munificence and attention failed to
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188 | tempt him. On reaching Paris he found Francis bent upon war, and willing to
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189 | promise anything for Henry's assistance. The belief at the French Court was
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190 | that the Emperor, hearing that the Churches of England and France meant to
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191 | decline from their obedience to the Roman Communion, would carry the Pope to
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192 | Spain; that Clement would probably be poisoned there, and the Apostolic See
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193 | would be established permanently in the Peninsula. Wolsey himself wrote
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194 | this, and believed it, or desired Henry to believe it, proving the extreme
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195 | uncertainty among the best-informed of contemporary politicians as to the
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196 | probable issue of the capture of Rome. The French Cardinals drew and sent an
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197 | address to the Pope, intimating that as long as he was in confinement they
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198 | could accept no act of his as lawful, and would not obey it. Wolsey signed
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199 | at the head of them. The Cardinals Salviati, Bourbon, Lorraine, and the
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200 | Chancellor Cardinal of Sens, signed after him. The first stroke in the game
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201 | had been won by Wolsey. Had the Pope recalled his powers as legate, an
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202 | immediate schism might have followed. But a more fatal blow had been
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203 | prepared for him by his master in England. Trusting to the Cardinal's
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204 | promises that the Pope would make no difficulty about the divorce, Henry had
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205 | considered himself at liberty to choose a successor to Catherine. He had
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206 | suffered once in having allowed politics to select a wife for him. This time
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207 | he intended to be guided by his own inclination. When Elizabeth afterwards
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208 | wished to marry Leicester, Lord Sussex said she had better fix after her own
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209 | liking; there would be the better chance of the heir that her realm was
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210 | looking for. Her father fixed also after his liking in selecting Elizabeth's
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211 | mother. </p>
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212 | </font>
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213 | <font face="Times New Roman" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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214 | <font face="Times New Roman">
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215 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Anne Boleyn was the second
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216 | daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, a Norfolk knight of ancient blood, and
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217 | himself a person of some distinction in the public service. Lady Boleyn was
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218 | a Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. Anne was born in 1507, and by
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219 | birth and connection was early introduced into the court. When a girl she
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220 | was taken to Paris to be educated. In 1522 she was brought back to England,
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221 | became a lady-in-waiting, and, being a witty, brilliant young woman,
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222 | attracted and encouraged the attentions of the fashionable cavaliers of the
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223 | day. Wyatt, the poet, was among her adorers, and the young Percy, afterwards
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224 | Earl of Northumberland. It was alleged afterwards that between her and Percy
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225 | there had been a secret marriage which had been actually consummated. That
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226 | she had been involved in some dangerous intrigue or other she herself
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227 | subsequently confessed. But she was attractive, she was witty; she drew
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228 | Henry's fancy, and the fancy became an ardent passion. Now, for the first
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229 | time, in Wolsey's absence, the Lady Anne's name appears in connection with
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230 | the divorce. On the 16th of August Mendoza informed Charles, as a matter of
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231 | general belief, that if the suit for the divorce was successful the King
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232 | would marry a daughter of Master Boleyn, whom the Emperor would remember as
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233 | once ambassador at the Imperial court. There is no direct evidence that
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234 | before Wolsey had left England the King had seriously thought of Anne at
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235 | all. Catherine could have had no suspicion of it, or her jealous indignation
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236 | would have made itself heard. The Spanish Ambassador spoke of it as a new
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237 | feature in the case. </font></p>
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238 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The Boleyns were Wolsey's
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239 | enemies, and belonged to the growing faction most hostile to the Church. The
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240 | news as it came upon him was utterly distasteful. (1) Anne in turn hated
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241 | Wolsey, as he probably knew that she would, and she compelled him to stoop
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242 | to the disgrace of suing for her favour. The inference is reasonable,
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243 | therefore, that the King took the step which in the event was to produce
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244 | such momentous consequences when the Cardinal was not at hand to dissuade
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245 | him. He was not encouraged even by her own family. Her father, as will be
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246 | seen hereafter, was from the first opposed to his daughter's advancement. He
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247 | probably knew her character too well. But Henry, when he had taken an idea
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248 | into his head, was not to be moved from it. The lady was not beautiful: she
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249 | was rather short than tall, her complexion was dark, her neck long, her
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250 | mouth broad, her figure not particularly good. The fascinating features were
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251 | her long flowing brown hair, a pair of effective dark eyes, and a boldness
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252 | of character which might have put him on his guard, and did not. </font></p>
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253 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The immediate effect was to
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254 | cool Wolsey's ardour for the divorce. His mission in France, which opened so
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255 | splendidly, eventuated in little. The French cardinals held no meeting at
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256 | Avignon. They had signed the address to Clement, but they had not made the
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257 | Cardinal of York into their patriarch. Rouen was not added to his other
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258 | preferments. Could he but have proposed a marriage for his sovereign with
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259 | the Princess of Alencon, all might have been different, but it had fared
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260 | with him as it fared with the Earl of Warwick, whom Henry's grandfather had
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261 | sent to France to woo a bride for him, and in his absence married Elizabeth
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262 | Grey. He perhaps regretted the munificent offers of the Emperor which he had
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263 | hastily rejected, and he returned to England in the autumn to feel the
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264 | consequences of the change in his situation. Mr. Brewer labours in vain to
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265 | prove that Wolsey was unfavourable to the divorce from the beginning.
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266 | Catherine believed that he was the instigator of it. Mendoza was of the same
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267 | opinion. Unquestionably he promoted it with all his power, and made it a
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268 | part of a great policy. To maintain that he was acting thus against his
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269 | conscience and to please the King is more dishonouring to him than to
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270 | suppose that he was either the originator or the willing instrument. All,
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271 | however, was altered when Anne Boleyn came upon the stage, and she made
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272 | haste to make him feel the change. "The Legate has returned from France,"
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273 | wrote Mendoza on the 26th of October. He went to visit the King at Richmond,
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274 | and sent to ask where he could see him. The King was in his chamber. It
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275 | happened that the lady, who seemed to entertain no great affection for the
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276 | Cardinal, was in the room with the King, and before the latter could answer
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277 | the message she said for him, "Where else is the Cardinal to come? Tell him
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278 | he may come here where the King is." The Legate felt that such treatment
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279 | boded no good to him, but concealed his resentment. "The cause," said
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280 | Mendoza, "is supposed to be that the said lady bears the Legate a grudge,
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281 | for other reasons, and because she has discovered that during his visit to
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282 | France the Legate proposed to have an alliance for the King found in that
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283 | country." Wolsey persuaded Mendoza that the French marriage had been a
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284 | fiction, but at once he began to endeavour to undo his work, and prevent the
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285 | dissolution of the marriage with Catherine. He tried to procure an
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286 | unfavourable opinion from the English Bishops before legal proceedings were
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287 | commenced. Mendoza, however, doubted his stability if the King persisted in
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288 | his purpose, and advised that a papal decision on the case should be
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289 | procured and forwarded as soon as possible.</font></p>
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290 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The Pope's captivity, however,
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291 | would destroy the value of any judgment which he might give while he
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292 | continued in durance. The Emperor, encouraged by the intimation that Wolsey
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293 | was wavering, reverted to his previous hope. In a special memorandum of
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294 | measures to be taken, the most important, notwithstanding the refusal of the
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295 | previous offers, was still thought to be to "bribe the Cardinal." He must
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296 | instantly be paid the arrears of his pensions out of the revenues of the
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297 | sees of Palencia and Badajoz. If there was not money enough in the treasury,
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298 | a further and larger pension of twelve or fourteen thousand crowns was to be
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299 | given to him out of some rich bishopric in Castile. The Emperor admitted
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300 | that he had promised the Cortes to appoint no more foreigners to Spanish
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301 | sees, but such a promise could not be held binding, being in violation of
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302 | the liberties of the Church. Every one would see that it was for the good of
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303 | the kingdom. </font></p>
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304 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The renewed offer was doubtless
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305 | conveyed to Wolsey, but he probably found that he had gone too deep to
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306 | retire. If he made such an effort as Mendoza relates, he must have speedily
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307 | discovered that it would be useless. He had encouraged the King in a belief
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308 | that the divorce would be granted by the Pope as a matter of course, and the
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309 | King, having made up his own mind, was not to be moved from it. If Wolsey
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310 | now drew back, the certain inference would be that he had accepted an
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311 | imperial bribe. There was no resource, therefore, but to go on. </font></p>
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312 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">While Wolsey had been
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313 | hesitating, the King had, unknown to him, sent his secretary, Dr. Knight, to
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314 | Rome with directions to obtain access if possible to the Pope, and procure
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315 | the dispensation which had been already applied for to enable him to marry a
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316 | second time without the formalities of a judgment. Such an expedient would
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317 | be convenient in many ways. It would leave Catherine's position unaffected
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318 | and the legitimacy of the Princess Mary unimpugned. Knight went. He found
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319 | that without a passport he could not even enter the city, still less be
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320 | allowed an interview. "With ten thousand crowns he could not bribe his way
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321 | into St. Angelo." He contrived, however, to have a letter introduced, which
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322 | the Pope answered by telling Knight to wait in some quiet place. He (the
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323 | Pope) would "there send him all the King's requests in as ample a form as
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324 | they were desired." Knight trusted in a short time "to have in his custody
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325 | as much, perfect, sped, and under lead, as his Highness had long time
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326 | desired."</font></p>
|
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327 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Knight was too sanguine. The
|
---|
328 | Emperor, finding the Pope's detention as a prisoner embarrassing, allowed
|
---|
329 | him, on the 9th of December, to escape to Orvieto, where he was apparently
|
---|
330 | at liberty; but he was only in a larger cage, all his territories being
|
---|
331 | occupied by Imperial troops, and he himself watched by the General of the
|
---|
332 | Observants, and warned at his peril to grant nothing to Catherine's
|
---|
333 | prejudice. Henry's Secretary followed him, saw him, and obtained something
|
---|
334 | which on examination proved to be worthless. The negotiations were left
|
---|
335 | again in Wolsey's hands, and were pressed with all the eagerness of a
|
---|
336 | desperate man. </font></p>
|
---|
337 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Pope Clement had ceased to be a
|
---|
338 | free agent. He did not look to the rights of the case. He would gladly have
|
---|
339 | pleased Henry could he have pleased him without displeasing Charles. The
|
---|
340 | case itself was peculiar, and opinions differed on the rights and wrongs of
|
---|
341 | it. The reader must be from time to time reminded that, as the law of
|
---|
342 | England has stood ever since, a marriage with a brother's widow was not a
|
---|
343 | marriage. As the law of the Church then stood, it was not a marriage unless
|
---|
344 | permitted by the Pope; and according to the same law of England the Pope
|
---|
345 | neither has, nor ever had, any authority to dispense with the law. Therefore
|
---|
346 | Henry, on the abstract contention, was in the right. He had married
|
---|
347 | Catherine under an error. The problem was to untie the knot with as little
|
---|
348 | suffering to either as the nature of the case permitted. That the
|
---|
349 | negotiations were full of inconsistencies, evasions, and contradictions, was
|
---|
350 | natural and inevitable. To cut the knot without untying it was the only
|
---|
351 | direct course, but that all means were exhausted before the application of
|
---|
352 | so violent a remedy was rather a credit than a reproach. </font></p>
|
---|
353 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The first inconsistency was in
|
---|
354 | the King. He did not regard his marriage as valid; therefore he thought
|
---|
355 | himself at liberty to marry again; but he did not wish to illegitimatise his
|
---|
356 | daughter or degrade Catherine. He disputed the validity of the dispensation
|
---|
357 | of Julius II.; yet he required a dispensation from Clement which was equally
|
---|
358 | questionable to enable him to take a second wife. The management of the case
|
---|
359 | having reverted to Wolsey, fresh instructions were sent to Sir Gregory
|
---|
360 | Casalis, the regular English agent at the Papal court, to wait on Clement.
|
---|
361 | Casalis was "bid consider how much the affair concerned the relief of the
|
---|
362 | King's conscience, the safety of his soul, the preservation of his life, the
|
---|
363 | continuation of his succession, the welfare and repose of all his subjects
|
---|
364 | now and hereafter." The Pope at Orvieto was personally accessible. Casalis
|
---|
365 | was to represent to him the many difficulties which had arisen in connection
|
---|
366 | with the marriage, and the certainty of civil war in England should the King
|
---|
367 | die leaving the succession no better provided for. He was, therefore, to
|
---|
368 | request the Pope to grant a commission to Wolsey to hear the case and to
|
---|
369 | decide it, and (perhaps as an alternative) to sign a dispensation, a draft
|
---|
370 | of which Wolsey enclosed. The language of the dispensation was peculiar.
|
---|
371 | Wolsey explained it by saying that "the King, remembering by the example of
|
---|
372 | past times what false claims [to the crown] had been put forward, to avoid
|
---|
373 | all colour or pretext of the same, desired this of the Pope as absolutely
|
---|
374 | necessary." If these two requests were conceded, Henry undertook on his part
|
---|
375 | to require the Emperor to set the Pope at liberty, or to declare war against
|
---|
376 | him if he refused. </font></p>
|
---|
377 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">A dispensation, which was to
|
---|
378 | evade the real point at issue, yet to convey to the King a power to take
|
---|
379 | another wife, was a novelty in itself and likely to be carefully worded. It
|
---|
380 | has given occasion among modern historians to important inferences
|
---|
381 | disgraceful to everyone concerned. The sinister meaning supposed to be
|
---|
382 | obvious to modern critics could not have been concealed from the Pope
|
---|
383 | himself. Here, therefore, follow the words which have been fastened on as
|
---|
384 | for ever fatal to the intelligence and character of Henry and his Ministers.
|
---|
385 | </font></p>
|
---|
386 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The Pope, after reviewing the
|
---|
387 | later history of England, the distractions caused by rival claimants of the
|
---|
388 | crown, after admitting the necessity of guarding against the designs of the
|
---|
389 | ambitious, and empowering Henry to marry again, was made to address the King
|
---|
390 | in these words: -- </font></p>
|
---|
391 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">"In order to take away all
|
---|
392 | occasion from evil doers, we do in the plenitude of our power hereby suspend
|
---|
393 | <i>hâc vice</i> all canons forbidding marriage in the fourth degree, also
|
---|
394 | all canons <i>de impedimento public honestatis</i> preventing marriage in
|
---|
395 | consequence of clandestine espousals, further all canons relating to
|
---|
396 | precontracts clandestinely made but not consummated, also all canons
|
---|
397 | affecting impediments created by affinity rising <i>ex illicito coitu,</i>
|
---|
398 | in any degree even in the first, so far as the marriage to be contracted by
|
---|
399 | you, the petitioner, can be objected to or in any wise be impugned by the
|
---|
400 | same. Further, to avoid canonical objections on the side of the woman by
|
---|
401 | reason of former contract clandestinely made, or impediment of public
|
---|
402 | honesty or justice arising from such clandestine contract, or of any
|
---|
403 | affinity contracted in any degree even the first, <i>ex illicito coitu:</i>
|
---|
404 | and in the event that it has proceeded beyond the second or third degrees of
|
---|
405 | consanguinity, whereby otherwise you, the petitioner, would not be allowed
|
---|
406 | by the canons to contract marriage, we hereby license you to take such woman
|
---|
407 | for wife, and suffer you and the woman to marry free from all ecclesiastical
|
---|
408 | objections and censures." </font></p>
|
---|
409 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The explanation given by Wolsey
|
---|
410 | of the wording of this document is that it was intended to preclude any
|
---|
411 | objections which might be raised to the prejudice of the offspring of a
|
---|
412 | marriage in itself irregular. It was therefore made as comprehensive as
|
---|
413 | possible. Dr. Lingard, followed by Mr. Brewer, and other writers see in it a
|
---|
414 | transparent personal application to the situation in which Henry intended to
|
---|
415 | place himself in making a wife of Anne Boleyn. Two years subsequent to the
|
---|
416 | period when this dispensation was asked for, when the question of the
|
---|
417 | divorce had developed into a battle between England and the Papacy, and the
|
---|
418 | passions of Catholics and Reformers were boiling over in recrimination and
|
---|
419 | invective, the King's plea that he was parting from Catherine out of
|
---|
420 | conscience was met by stories set floating in society that the King himself
|
---|
421 | had previously intrigued with the mother and sister of the lady whom he
|
---|
422 | intended to marry; precisely the same obstacle existed, therefore, to his
|
---|
423 | marriage with Anne, being further aggravated by incest. No attempt was ever
|
---|
424 | made to prove these charges; no particulars were given of time or place. No
|
---|
425 | witnesses were produced, nor other evidence, though to prove them would have
|
---|
426 | been of infinite importance. Queen Catherine, who if any one must have known
|
---|
427 | it if the accusation was true, never alludes to Mary Boleyn in the fiercest
|
---|
428 | of her denunciations. It was heard of only in the conversation of
|
---|
429 | disaffected priests or secret visitors to the Spanish Ambassador, and was
|
---|
430 | made public only in the manifesto of Reginald Pole, which accompanied Paul
|
---|
431 | III.'s Bull for Henry's deposition. Even this authority, which was not much
|
---|
432 | in itself, is made less by the fact that in the first draft of "Pole's
|
---|
433 | Book," sent to England to be examined in 1535, the story is not mentioned.
|
---|
434 | Evidently, therefore, Pole had not then heard of it or did not believe it.
|
---|
435 | The guilt with the mother is now abandoned as too monstrous. The guilt with
|
---|
436 | the sister is peremptorily insisted on, and the words of the dispensation
|
---|
437 | are appealed to as no longer leaving room for doubt. To what else, it is
|
---|
438 | asked, can such extraordinary expressions refer unless to some disgraceful
|
---|
439 | personal <i>liaison?</i> </font></p>
|
---|
440 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The uninstructed who draw
|
---|
441 | inferences of fact from the verbiage of legal documents will discover often
|
---|
442 | what are called "mare's nests." I will request the reader to consider what
|
---|
443 | this supposition involves. The dispensation would have to be copied into the
|
---|
444 | Roman registers, subject to the inspection of the acutest canon lawyers in
|
---|
445 | the world. If the meaning is so clear to us, it must have been clear to
|
---|
446 | them. We are, therefore, to believe that Henry, when demanding to be
|
---|
447 | separated from Catherine, as an escape from mortal sin, for the relief of
|
---|
448 | his conscience and the surety of his succession, was gratuitously putting
|
---|
449 | the Pope in possession of a secret which had only to be published to
|
---|
450 | extinguish him and his plea in an outburst of scorn and laughter. </font>
|
---|
451 | </p>
|
---|
452 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">There was no need for such an
|
---|
453 | acknowledgment, for the intrigue could not be proved. It could not be
|
---|
454 | required for the legitimation of the children that were to be born; for a
|
---|
455 | man of Wolsey's ability must have known that no dispensation would be held
|
---|
456 | valid that was granted after so preposterous a confidence. It was as if a
|
---|
457 | man putting in a claim for some great property, before the case came on for
|
---|
458 | trial privately informed both judge and jury that it was based on forgery.
|
---|
459 | </font></p>
|
---|
460 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">We are called on to explain
|
---|
461 | further, why, when all Europe was shaken by the controversy, no hint is to
|
---|
462 | be found in any public document of a fact which, if true, would be decisive;
|
---|
463 | and yet more extraordinary, why the Pope and the Curia, when driven to bay
|
---|
464 | in all the exasperation of a furious controversy, left a weapon unused which
|
---|
465 | would have assured them an easy victory. Wolsey was not a fool. Is it
|
---|
466 | conceivable that he would have composed a document so fatal and have drawn
|
---|
467 | the Pope's pointed attention to it? My credulity does not extend so far. We
|
---|
468 | cannot prove a negative; we cannot prove that Henry had not intrigued with
|
---|
469 | Mary Boleyn, or with all the ladies of his court. But the language of the
|
---|
470 | dispensation cannot be adduced as an evidence of it, unless King, Pope, and
|
---|
471 | all the interested world had parted with their senses. </font></p>
|
---|
472 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">As to the story itself, there
|
---|
473 | is no ground for distinguishing between the mother and the daughter. When it
|
---|
474 | was first set circulating both were named together. The mother only has been
|
---|
475 | dropped, lest the improbability should seem too violent for belief. That
|
---|
476 | Mary Boleyn had been the King's mistress before or after her own marriage is
|
---|
477 | now asserted as an ascertained fact by respectable historians -- a fact
|
---|
478 | sufficient, can it be proved, to cover with infamy for ever the English
|
---|
479 | separation from Rome, King, Ministers, Parliaments, Bishops, and every one
|
---|
480 | concerned with it. The effectiveness of the weapon commends it to Catholic
|
---|
481 | controversialists. I have only to repeat that the evidence for the charge is
|
---|
482 | nothing but the floating gossip of Catholic society, never heard of, never
|
---|
483 | whispered, till the second stage of the quarrel, when it had developed into
|
---|
484 | a passionate contest; never even then alleged in a form in which it could be
|
---|
485 | met and answered. It could not have been hid from Queen Catherine if it was
|
---|
486 | known to Reginald Pole. We have many letters of Catherine, eloquent on the
|
---|
487 | story of her wrongs; letters to the Emperor, letters to the Pope; yet no
|
---|
488 | word of Mary Boleyn. What reason can be given save that it was a legend
|
---|
489 | which grew out of the temper of the time? Nothing could be more plausible
|
---|
490 | than to meet the King's plea of conscience with an allegation which made it
|
---|
491 | ridiculous. But in the public pleadings of a cause which was discussed in
|
---|
492 | every capital in Europe by the keenest lawyers and diplomatists of the age,
|
---|
493 | an accusation which, if maintained, would have been absolutely decisive, is
|
---|
494 | never alluded to in any public document till the question had passed beyond
|
---|
495 | the stage of discussion. The silence of all responsible persons is
|
---|
496 | sufficient proof of its nature. It was a mere floating calumny, born of wind
|
---|
497 | and malice. </font></p>
|
---|
498 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Mr. Brewer does indeed imagine
|
---|
499 | that he has discovered what he describes as a tacit confession on Henry's
|
---|
500 | part. When the Act of Appeals was before the House of Commons which ended
|
---|
501 | the papal jurisdiction in England, a small knot of Opposition members used
|
---|
502 | to meet privately to deliberate how to oppose it. Among these one of the
|
---|
503 | most active was Sir George Throgmorton, a man who afterwards, with his
|
---|
504 | brother Michael, made himself useful to Cromwell and played with both
|
---|
505 | parties, but was then against the divorce and against all the measures which
|
---|
506 | grew out of it. Throgmorton, according to his own account, had been admitted
|
---|
507 | to an interview with the King and Cromwell. In 1537, after the Pilgrimage of
|
---|
508 | Grace, while the ashes of the rebellion were still smouldering, after
|
---|
509 | Michael Throgmorton had betrayed Cromwell's confidence and gone over to
|
---|
510 | Reginald Pole, Sir George was reported to have used certain expressions to
|
---|
511 | Sir Thomas Dyngley and to two other gentlemen, which he was called on by the
|
---|
512 | Council to explain. The letter to the King in which he replied is still
|
---|
513 | extant. He said that he had been sent for by the King after a speech on the
|
---|
514 | Act of Appeals, "and that he saw his Grace's conscience was troubled about
|
---|
515 | having married his brother's wife." He professed to have said to Dyngley
|
---|
516 | that he had told the King that if he did marry Queen Anne his conscience
|
---|
517 | would be more troubled at length, for it was thought he had meddled both
|
---|
518 | with the mother and the sister; that his Grace said: "Never with the
|
---|
519 | mother," and my Lord Privy Seal (Cromwell), standing by, said, "nor with the
|
---|
520 | sister neither, so put that out of your mind." Mr. Brewer construes this
|
---|
521 | into an admission of the King that Mary Boleyn had been his mistress, and
|
---|
522 | omits, of course, by inadvertence, that Throgmorton, being asked why he had
|
---|
523 | told this story to Dyngley, answered that "he spake it only out of
|
---|
524 | vainglory, to show he was one that durst speak for the Commonwealth."
|
---|
525 | Nothing is more common than for "vainglorious" men, when admitted to
|
---|
526 | conversations with kings, to make the most of what they said themselves, and
|
---|
527 | to report not very accurately what was said to them. Had the conversation
|
---|
528 | been authentic, Throgmorton would naturally have appealed to Cromwell's
|
---|
529 | recollection. But Mr. Brewer accepts the version of a confessed boaster as
|
---|
530 | if it was a complete and trustworthy account of what had actually passed. He
|
---|
531 | does not ask himself whether if the King or Cromwell had given their version
|
---|
532 | it might not have borne another complexion. Henry was not a safe person to
|
---|
533 | take liberties with. Is it likely that if one of his subjects, who was
|
---|
534 | actively opposing him in Parliament, had taxed him with an enormous crime,
|
---|
535 | he would have made a confession which Throgmorton had only to repeat in the
|
---|
536 | House of Commons to ruin him and his cause? Mr. Brewer should have added
|
---|
537 | also that the authority which he gave for the story was no better than
|
---|
538 | Father Peto, afterwards Cardinal Peto, as bitter an enemy of the Reformation
|
---|
539 | as Pole himself. Most serious of all, Mr. Brewer omits to mention that
|
---|
540 | Throgmorton was submitted afterwards to a severe cross-examination before a
|
---|
541 | Committee of Council, the effect of which, if he had spoken truly, could
|
---|
542 | only be to establish the authenticity of a disgraceful charge.</font></p>
|
---|
543 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The last evidence alleged is
|
---|
544 | the confession made by Anne Boleyn, after her condemnation, of some mystery
|
---|
545 | which had invalidated her marriage with the King and had been made the
|
---|
546 | ground of an Act of Parliament. The confession was not published, and
|
---|
547 | Catholic opinion concluded, and concludes still, that it must have been the
|
---|
548 | Mary Boleyn intrigue. Catholic opinion does not pause to inquire whether
|
---|
549 | Anne could have been said to confess an offence of the King and her sister.
|
---|
550 | The cross-examination of Throgmorton turns the conjecture into an absurdity.
|
---|
551 | When asked, in 1537, whom he ever heard say such a thing, he would have had
|
---|
552 | but to appeal to the proceedings in Parliament in the year immediately
|
---|
553 | preceding. </font></p>
|
---|
554 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Is it likely finally that if
|
---|
555 | Throgmorton's examination proves what Mr. Brewer thinks it proves, a record
|
---|
556 | of it would have been preserved among the official State Papers? </font></p>
|
---|
557 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">If all the stories current
|
---|
558 | about Henry VIII. were to be discussed with as much detail as I have allowed
|
---|
559 | to this, the world would not contain the books which should be written. An
|
---|
560 | Irish lawyer told me in my youth to believe nothing which I heard in that
|
---|
561 | country which had not been sifted in a court of justice, and only half of
|
---|
562 | that. Legend is as the air invulnerable, and blows aimed at it, if not
|
---|
563 | "malicious mockery" are waste of effort. Charges of scandalous immorality
|
---|
564 | are precious to controversialists, for if they are disproved ever so
|
---|
565 | completely the stain adheres. </font></p>
|
---|
566 | </font><hr><font face="Times New Roman">
|
---|
567 | <p align="left"><b>Notes:</b> 1.
|
---|
568 | </font>
|
---|
569 | <font face="Times New Roman" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
|
---|
570 | <font face="Times New Roman">
|
---|
571 | The date of Henry's resolution to marry Anne is of some consequence, since
|
---|
572 | the general assumption is that it was the origin of the divorce. Rumour, of
|
---|
573 | course, said so afterwards, but there is no evidence for it. The early
|
---|
574 | love-letters written by the King to her are assigned by Mr. Brewer to the
|
---|
575 | midsummer of 1527. But they are undated, and therefore the period assigned
|
---|
576 | to them is conjecture merely.</p>
|
---|
577 | </font>
|
---|
578 | <p align="left"><font size="2">From <i>The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon:
|
---|
579 | The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry
|
---|
580 | VIII</i> by J.A. Froude. Published in New York by C. Scribner's Sons,
|
---|
581 | 1891.</font></p>
|
---|
582 | </blockquote>
|
---|
583 | </blockquote>
|
---|
584 |
|
---|
585 | <p align="center"><font size="2">
|
---|
586 | <a href="froudethree.html">to Chapter Three</a></font></p>
|
---|
587 | <p align="center"><a href="secondary.html">
|
---|
588 | <font size="2">to Secondary Sources</font></a></p>
|
---|
589 | <p align="center">
|
---|
590 | <a href="monarchs/aragon.html"><font size="2">to
|
---|
591 | Katharine of Aragon website</font></a></p>
|
---|
592 | </font>
|
---|
593 | </font>
|
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594 | <blockquote>
|
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595 | <blockquote>
|
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596 | <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
|
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597 | <font face="Times New Roman">
|
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598 | </font><font style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
|
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599 | </font>
|
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600 | <p class="3text" align="left"> </p>
|
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601 | </font>
|
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602 | </blockquote>
|
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603 | </blockquote>
|
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604 |
|
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605 | </body>
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606 |
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