History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume V Part 37

[651] Le Grand, Hist. du divorce, Preuves, p. 186.

[652] Instigator et auctor concilii existimibatur (Pole, Apology). He was furious mad, and imagined this divorcement between the king and the queen (Tyndale's Works, i. p. 465). See also Sanderus, 7 and 9; Polyd. Virg. p. 685; Meteren, Hist. of the Low Countries, p. 20; Pallavicini, Conc. Trident, i, p. 203, etc. A contrary a.s.sertion of Wolsey's has been adduced against these authorities in the _Pamphleteer_, No. 42, p. 336; but a slight acquaintance with his history soon teaches us that veracity was the least of his virtues.

[653] Le Grand, Hist. du divorce, Preuves, p. 65, 69.

Wolsey's design was a strange one, and difficult of execution, but not impossible. Henry was living apparently on the best terms with Catherine; on more than one occasion Erasmus had spoken of the royal family of England as the pattern of the domestic virtues. But the most ardent of Henry's desires was not satisfied; he had no son; those whom the queen had borne him had died in their infancy, and Mary alone survived. The deaths of these little children, at all times so heart-rending, were particularly so in the palace of Greenwich. It appeared to Catherine that the shade of the last Plantagenet, immolated on her marriage altar, came forth to seize one after another the heirs she gave to the throne of England, and to carry them away to his tomb. The queen shed tears almost unceasingly, and implored the divine mercy, while the king cursed his unhappy fate. The people seemed to share in the royal sorrow; and men of learning and piety (Longland was among their number)[654] declared against the validity of the marriage. They said that "the papal dispensations had no force when in opposition to the law of G.o.d." Yet hitherto Henry had rejected every idea of a divorce.[655]

[654] Jampridem conjugium regium, veluti infirmum. Polyd. Virg. p.

685.

[655] That matrimony which the king at first seemed not disposed to annul. Strype, i, p. 135.

The times had changed since 1509. The king had loved Catherine: her reserve, mildness, and dignity, had charmed him. Greedy of pleasure and applause, he was delighted to see his wife content to be the quiet witness of his joys and of his triumphs. But gradually the queen had grown older, her Spanish gravity had increased, her devout practices were multiplied, and her infirmities, become more frequent, had left the king no hope of having a son. From that hour, even while continuing to praise her virtues, Henry grew cold towards her person, and his love by degrees changed into repugnance. And then he thought that the death of his children might be a sign of G.o.d's anger. This idea had taken hold of him, and induced him to occupy apartments separate from the queen's.[656]

[656] Burnet. vol. i. p. 20 (London, 1841.) Letter from Grynaeus to Bucer. Strype, i, p. 135.

[Sidenote: WOLSEY'S FIRST STEPS.]

Wolsey judged the moment favourable for beginning the attack. It was in the latter months of 1526, when calling Longland, the king's confessor, to him, and concealing his princ.i.p.al motive, he said: "You know his majesty's anguish. The stability of his crown and his everlasting salvation seem to be compromised alike. To whom can I unbosom myself, if not to you, who must know the inmost secrets of his soul?" The two bishops resolved to awaken Henry to the perils incurred by his union with Catherine;[657] but Longland insisted that Wolsey should take the first steps.

[657] Quamprimum regi patefaciendum. (Polyd. Virg. p. 685.) That forthwith it should be declared to the king.

The cardinal waited upon the king, and reminded him of his scruples before the betrothal; he exaggerated those entertained by the nation, and speaking with unusual warmth, he entreated the king to remain no longer in such danger:[658] "The holiness of your life and the legitimacy of your succession are at stake." "My good father," said Henry, "you would do well to consider the weight of the stone that you have undertaken to move.[659] The queen is a woman of such exemplary life that I have no motive for separating from her."

[658] Vehementer orat ne se patiatur in tanto versari discrimine.

(Ibid.) He earnestly begged him not to suffer himself to be exposed to such hazard.

[659] Bone pater, vide bene quale saxum suo loco jacens movere coneris. Ibid.

The cardinal did not consider himself beaten; three days later he appeared before the king accompanied by the bishop of Lincoln. "Most mighty prince," said the confessor, who felt bold enough to speak after the cardinal, "you cannot, like Herod, have your brother's wife.[660] I exhort and conjure you, as having the care of your soul,[661] to submit the matter to competent judges." Henry consented, and perhaps not unwillingly.

[660] Like another Herodes. More's Life, p. 129.

[661] Ipse cui de salute animae tuae cura est, _hortor_, _rogo_, _persuadeo_. Polyd. Virg. p. 686.

[Sidenote: WOLSEY PROPOSES MARGARET.]

It was not enough for Wolsey to separate Henry from the emperor; he must, for greater security, unite him to Francis I. The King of England shall repudiate the aunt of Charles V, and then marry the sister of the French king. Proud of the success he had obtained in the first part of his plan, Wolsey entered upon the second. "There is a princess," he told the king, "whose birth, graces, and talents charm all Europe. Margaret of Valois, sister of King Francis, is superior to all of her s.e.x, and no one is worthier of your alliance."[662] Henry made answer that it was a serious matter, requiring deliberate examination. Wolsey, however, placed in the king's hands a portrait of Margaret, and it has been imagined that he even privily caused her sentiments to be sounded. Be that as it may, the sister of Francis I having learnt that she was pointed at as the future queen of England, rebelled at the idea of taking from an innocent woman a crown she had worn so n.o.bly. "The French king's sister knows too much of Christ to consent unto such wickedness," said Tyndale.[663] Margaret of Valois replied: "Let me hear no more of a marriage that can be effected only at the expense of Catherine of Aragon's happiness and life."[664] The woman who was destined in future years to fill the throne of England was then residing at Margaret's court. Shortly after this, on the 24th of January 1527, the sister of Francis I, married Henry d'Albret, king of Navarre.

[662] Mulier praeter caeteras digna matrimonio tuo. Polyd. Virg p. 686.

[663] Works (ed. Russell), vol. i. p. 464.

[664] Princeps illa, mulier optima, noluerit quicquam audire de nuptiis, quae nuptiae non possunt conjungi sine miserabili Catharinae casu atque adeo interitu. (Polyd. Virg. p. 687.) That princess, a most n.o.ble woman, would not listen to any proposal for an alliance which could not be made without involving Catherine in ruin and death.

Henry VIII, desirous of information with regard to his favourite's suggestion, commissioned Fox, his almoner, Pace, dean of St. Paul's, and Wakefield, professor of Hebrew at Oxford, to study the pa.s.sages of Leviticus and Deuteronomy which related to marriage with a brother's wife. Wakefield, who had no wish to commit himself, asked whether Henry was _for_ or _against_ the divorce.[665] Pace replied to this servile hebraist that the king wanted nothing but the truth.

[665] Utrum staret ad te an contra te? Le Grand, Preuves, p. 2.

But who would take the first public step in an undertaking so hazardous? Every one shrank back; the terrible emperor alarmed them all. It was a French bishop that hazarded the step; bishops meet us at every turn in this affair of the divorce, with which bishops have so violently reproached the Reformation. Henry, desirous of excusing Wolsey, pretended afterwards that the objections of the French prelate had preceded those of Longland and the cardinal. In February 1527, Francis I, had sent an emba.s.sy to London, at the head of which was Gabriel de Grammont, bishop of Tarbes, with the intention to procure the hand of Mary of England. Henry's ministers having inquired whether the engagements of Francis with the queen dowager of Portugal did not oppose the commission with which the French bishop was charged, the latter answered: "I will ask you in turn what has been done to remove the impediments which opposed the marriage of which the Princess Mary is issue."[666] They laid before the amba.s.sador the dispensation of Julius II, which he returned, saying, that the bull was not _sufficient_, seeing that such a marriage was forbidden _jure divino_,[667] and he added: "Have you English a different gospel from ours?"[668]

[666] What had been here provided for taking away the impediment of that marriage. (State Papers, i. p. 199.) Le Grand (vol. i. p. 17.) discredits the objections of the bishop of Tarbes; but this letter from Wolsey to Henry VIII establishes them incontrovertibly. And besides, Du Bellay, in a letter afterwards quoted by Le Grand himself, states the matter still more strongly than Wolsey.

[667] Wherewith the pope could not dispense, _nisi ex urgentissima causa_. Wolsey to Henry VIII, dated 8th July. State Papers, vol. i, p.

199.

[668] Anglos, qui tuo imperio subsunt, hoc idem evangelium colere quod nos colimus. (Sanders, 12.) The English, who are under thy rule, follow the same gospel that we follow.

[Sidenote: HENRY'S UNEASINESS.]

The king, when he heard these words (as he informs us himself), was filled with fear and horror.[669] Three of the most respected bishops of Christendom united to accuse him of incest! He began to speak of it to certain individuals: "The scruples of my conscience have been terribly increased (he said) since the bishop spoke of this matter before my council in exceedingly plain words."[670] There is no reason to believe that these _terrible_ troubles of which the king speaks were a mere invention on his part. A disputed succession might again plunge England into civil war. Even if no pretenders should spring up, might they not see a rival house, a French prince for instance, wedded to Henry's daughter, reigning over England? The king, in his anxiety, had recourse to his favourite author, Thomas Aquinas, and this _angel of the schools_ declared his marriage unlawful. Henry next opened the Bible, and found this threat against the man who took his brother's wife: "He shall be _childless_!" The denunciation increased his trouble, for he had no heir. In the midst of this darkness a new perspective opened before him. His conscience might be unbound; his desire to have a younger wife might be gratified; he might have a son!... The king resolved to lay the matter before a commission of lawyers, and this commission soon wrote volumes.[671]

[669] Quae oratio quanto metu ac horrore animum nostrum turbaverit.

(Which speech has troubled our mind with much fear and horror.) Henry's speech to the Lord Mayor and common council, at his palace of Bridewell, 8th November 1528. (Hall, p. 754; Wilkins, Concil. iii. p.

714.)

[670] Du Bellay's letter in Le Grand. Preuves, p. 218.

[671] So as the books excresc.u.n.t in magna volumina. Wolsey to Henry VIII. State Papers, vol. i, p. 200.

[Sidenote: CATHERINE'S ALARM.]

During all this time Catherine, suspecting no evil, was occupied in her devotions. Her heart, bruised by the death of her children and by the king's coldness, sought consolation in prayer both privately and in the royal chapel. She would rise at midnight and kneel down upon the cold stones, and never missed any of the canonical services. But one day (probably in May or June 1527) some officious person informed her of the rumours circulating in the city and at court. Bursting with anger and alarm, and all in tears, she hastened to the king, and addressed him with the bitterest complaints.[672] Henry was content to calm her by vague a.s.surances; but the unfeeling Wolsey, troubling himself still less than his master about Catherine's emotion, called it, with a smile, "a short tragedy."

[672] The queen hath broken with your grace thereof. State Papers, vol. i. p. 200.

The offended wife lost no time: it was necessary that the emperor should be informed promptly, surely, and accurately of this unprecedented insult. A letter would be insufficient, even were it not intercepted. Catherine therefore determined to send her servant Francis Philip, a Spaniard, to her nephew; and to conceal the object of his journey, they proceeded, after the _tragedy_, to play a _comedy_ in the Spanish style. "My mother is sick and desires to see me," said Philip. Catherine begged the king to refuse her servant's prayer; and Henry, divining the stratagem, resolved to employ trick against trick.[673] "Philip's request is very proper," he made answer; and Catherine, _from regard to her husband_, consented to his departure. Henry meantime had given orders that, "notwithstanding any safe conduct, the said Philip should be arrested and detained at Calais, in such a manner, however, that no one should know whence the stoppage proceeded."

[673] The king's highness knowing great collusion and dissimulation between them, doth also dissemble. Knight to Wolsey. Ibid. p. 215.

It was to no purpose that the queen indulged in a culpable dissimulation; a poisoned arrow had pierced her heart, and her words, her manners, her complaints, her tears, the numerous messages she sent, now to one and now to another, betrayed the secret which the king wished still to conceal.[674] Her friends blamed her for this publicity; men wondered what Charles would say when he heard of his aunt's distress; they feared that peace would be broken; but Catherine, whose heart was "rent in twain," was not to be moved by diplomatic considerations. Her sorrow did not check Henry; with the two motives which made him eager for a divorce--the scruples of his conscience and the desire of an heir--was now combined a third still more forcible. A woman was about to play an important part in the destinies of England.

[674] By her behaviour, manner, words, and messages sent to diverse, hath published, divulged, etc. Ibid. p. 280.

CHAPTER VI.

Anne Boleyn appointed Maid of Honour to Catherine--Lord Percy becomes attached to her--Wolsey separates them--Anne enters Margaret's Household--Siege of Rome; Cromwell--Wolsey's Intercession for the Popedom--He demands the Hand of Renee of France for Henry--Failure--Anne re-appears at Court--Repels the king's Advances--Henry's Letter--He resolves to accelerate the Divorce--Two Motives which induce Anne to refuse the Crown--Wolsey's Opposition.

[Sidenote: ANNE BOLEYN AND LORD PERCY.]

Anne Boleyn, who had been placed by her father at the court of France, had returned to England with Sir Thomas, then amba.s.sador at Paris, at the time that an English army made an incursion into Normandy (1522.) It would appear that she was presented to the queen about this period, and appointed one of Catherine's maids of honour. The following year was a memorable one to her from her first sorrow.

Among the young n.o.blemen in the cardinal's household was Lord Percy, eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland. While Wolsey was closeted with the king, Percy was accustomed to resort to the queen's apartments, where he pa.s.sed the time among her ladies. He soon felt a sincere pa.s.sion for Anne, and the young maid of honour, who had been cold to the addresses of the gentlemen at the court of Francis, replied to the affections of the heir of Northumberland. The two young people already indulged in day-dreams of a quiet, elegant, and happy life in their n.o.ble castles of the north; but such dreams were fated to be of short duration.