The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts They Played in History Part 11

We have seen how, entirely in consequence of the unexpected difficulties raised by the Papacy to the first divorce, he adopted the bold advice of Cranmer and Cromwell to defy the Pope on that particular point. The opposition of the Pope was a purely political one, forced upon him by the Emperor for reasons of State, in order to prevent a coalition between England and France; and there were several occasions when, if the Pope had been left to himself, he would have found a solution that would have kept England in the orthodox fold. But for the persistence of the opposition Henry would never have taken the first step that led to the Reformation.

Having taken it, each other step onward was the almost inevitable consequence of the first, having regard to the peculiar character of the King. It has been the main business of this book to trace in what respect the policy that ended in the great religious schism was reflected or influenced by the matrimonial adventures of the King, who has gone down to history as the most married monarch of modern times. We have seen that, although, with the exception of Katharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, each for a short time, the direct influence of Henry's wives upon events was small, each one represented, and coincided in point of time with, a change in the ruling forces around the King. We have seen that the libidinous tendency of the monarch was utilised by the rival parties, as were all other elements that might help them, to forward the opportunity by which a person to some extent dependent upon them might be placed at the side of the King as his wife; and when for the purpose it was necessary to remove the wife in possession first, we have witnessed the process by which it was effected.

The story from this point of view has not been told before in its entirety, and as the whole panorama unrolls before us, we mark curiously the regular degeneration of Henry's character, as the only checks upon his action were removed, and he progressively defied traditional authority and established standards of conduct without disaster to himself. The power of the Church to censure or punish him, and the fear of personal reprobation by the world, were the influences that, had they retained their force over him to the end, would probably have kept Henry to all appearance a good man. But when he found, probably to his own surprise, that the jealous divisions of the Catholic powers on the Continent made defiance of the Church in his case unpunishable, and that crafty advisers and servile Parliaments could give to his deeds, however violent and cruel, the sanction of Holy Writ and the law of the land, there was no power on earth to hold in check the devil in the breast of Henry Tudor; and the man who began a vain, brilliant sensualist, with the feelings of a gentleman, ended a repulsive, bloodstained monster, the more dangerous because his evil was always held to be good by himself and those around him.

In his own eyes he was a deeply wronged and ill-used man when Katharine of Aragon refused to surrender her position as his wife after twenty years of wedlock, and appealed to forces outside England to aid her in supporting her claim. It was a rebellious, a cruel, and a wicked thing for her and her friends to stand in the way of his tender conscience, and of his laudable and natural desire to be succeeded on the throne by a son of his own. Similarly, it seemed very hard upon him that all Europe, and most of his own country, should be threateningly against him for the sake of Anne Boleyn, for whom he had already sacrificed and suffered so much, and particularly as she was shrewish and had brought him no son. He really was a most ill-used man, and it was a providential instance of divine justice that Cromwell, in the nick of time, when the situation had become unendurable and Jane Seymour's prudish charms were most elusive, should fortunately discover that Anne was unworthy to be Henry's wife, and Cranmer should decide that she never _had_ been his wife. It was not his fault, moreover, that Anne of Cleves' physical qualities had repelled him.

A wicked and ungenerous trick had been played upon him. His trustful ingenuousness had been betrayed by flatterers at the instance of a knavish minister, who, not content with bringing him a large unsympathetic Dutch vrow for a wife, had pledged him to an alliance with a lot of insignificant va.s.sal princes in rebellion against the greater sovereigns who were his own peers. It was a just decree of heaven that the righteous wisdom of Gardiner and Norfolk should enable it to be demonstrated clearly that the good King had once more been deceived, and that Anne, and the policy she stood for, could be repudiated at the same time without opprobrium or wrongdoing. Again, how relentless was the persecution of the powers of evil against the obese invalid of fifty who married in ignorance of her immoral past a light-lived beauty of seventeen, and was undeceived when her frivolity began to pall upon him by those whose political and religious views might benefit by the disgrace of the party that had placed Katharine Howard by the King's side as his wife. That the girl Queen should lose her head for lack of virtue before her marriage and lack of prudence after it, was, of course, quite just, and in accordance with the law of the land--for all that Henry did was strictly legal--but it was a heartrending thing that the good husband should suffer the distress of having once believed in so unworthy a wife. Still Katharine Howard was not sacrificed in vain, for, although the Catholic policy she represented suffered no check, for reasons set forth in earlier pages, the King's sad bereavement left him in the matrimonial market and enhanced his price as an ally, for much of the future depended upon the wife and the party that should be in possession when the King died. As we have seen, the Protestants, or rather the anti-Catholics, won the last trick; and Somerset's predominance meant that the Reformation in England should not be one of form alone but of substance.

The life of Katharine Parr after Henry's death hardly enters into the plan of this book; but a few lines may be devoted to it, and to her pitiable end. The instant rise of the Protector Somerset on the death of Henry brought with it a corresponding increase in the importance of his brother Sir Thomas, then Lord Seymour of Sudeley, who was certainly no less ambitious than his brother, and probably of much stronger character. For a time all went well between the brothers, Thomas being created Lord Admiral, to the annoyance of Dudley--now Earl of Warwick--who had held the office, and receiving great grants of forfeited estates and other wealth.

But soon the evident attempts of Lord Seymour to rival his elder brother, and perhaps to supplant him, aroused the jealousy of Somerset, or more likely of his quarrelsome and haughty wife.

Some love pa.s.sages, we have seen, took place between Seymour and Katharine Parr before her marriage with the King, so that it need not be ascribed to ambition that the lover should once more cast his eyes upon the royal widow before the weeds for the King had been cast aside.[264] Katharine, with a large dower that has already been mentioned, lived alternately in her two mansion-houses at Chelsea and Hanworth; and to her care was consigned the Lady Elizabeth, then a girl of fourteen. As early as the beginning of May 1547, Seymour had visited the widowed Queen at Chelsea with his tale of love. Katharine was now thirty-four years of age, and having married in succession three old men, might fairly be ent.i.tled to contract a fourth marriage to please herself. There was no more manly or handsome figure in England than that of Seymour, with his stately stature, his sonorous voice, and his fine brown beard; and in his quiet meetings with the Queen in her pretty riverside garden at Chelsea, he appears to have found no difficulty in persuading Katharine of the sincerity of his love.

For a time the engagement was kept secret; but watchful eyes were around the Queen, especially those of her own kin, and the following letter, written by Seymour to her on the 17th May, shows that her sister, Lady Herbert, at least, had wind from Katharine of what was going on: "After my humble commendations of your Highness. Yester night I supped at my brother Herbert's, of whom, for your sake besydes my nown, I receved good cheyre.

And after the same I received from your Highness by my sister Herbert[265]

your commendations, which were more welcome than they were sent. And after the same she (Lady Herbert) waded further with me touching my being with your Highness at Chelsey, which I denied; but that, indeed, I went by the garden as I went to the Bishop of London's howse; and at this point I stood with her for a time, till at last she told me further tokens that made me change colour; and she, like a false wench, took me with the maner. Then, remembering what she was, and knowing how well ye trusted her, I examined her whether these things came from your Highness and by that knew it to be true; for the which I render unto your Highness my most umbell and harty thanks: for by her company (in default of yours) I shall shorten the weeks in these parts, which heretofore were three days longer in every of them than they were under the planets at Chelsey. Besydes this commoditye I may ascertain (_i.e._ inform) your Highness by her how I do proceed in my matter...." Seymour goes on to say that he has not yet dared to try his strength until he is fully in favour, this having reference apparently to his intention of begging his brother to permit the marriage, and then he proceeds: "If I knew by what means I might gratify your Highness for your goodness to me at our last being together, I should not be slack to declare mine to you again, and the intent that I will be more bound to your Highness, I do make my request that, yf it be nott painfull to your Highness, that once in three days I may receve three lynes in a letter from you; and as many lynes and letters more as shall seem good to your Highness. Also I shall ombeley desyr your Highness to geve me one of your small pictures yf ye hav one left, who with his silence shall give me occasion to think on the friendly cheere I shall have when my sawght (suit?) shall be at an end. 12 o'clock in the night this Tewsday the 17th May 1547. From him whom ye have bound to honour, love, and in all lawful thynges...o...b..y.--T. SEYMOUR."

The Queen had evidently pledged her troth to her lover at the previous meeting; and it would appear that when Katharine had promised to write to him but once a fortnight her impatience, as much as his, could ill suffer so long a silence. Either in answer to the above letter, or another similar one, Katharine wrote: "My Lord, I send you my most humble and hearty commendations, being desirous to know how ye have done since I saw you. I pray ye be not offended with me in that I send sooner to you than I said I would, for my promise was but once a fortnight. Howbeit, the time is well abbreviated, by what means I know not, except weeks be shorter at Chelsey than in other places. My Lord, your brother hath deferred answering such requests as I made to him till his coming hither, which he sayeth shall be immediately after the term. This is not the first promise I have received of his coming, and yet unperformed. I think my lady (_i.e._ the d.u.c.h.ess of Somerset) hath taught him that lesson, for it is her custom to promise many comings to her friends and to perform none. I trust in greater matters she is more circ.u.mspect."[266] Then follows a curious loving postscript, which shows that Katharine's fancy for Seymour was no new pa.s.sion. "I would not have you think that this, mine honest good will toward you, proceeds from any sudden motion of pa.s.sion; for, as truly as G.o.d is G.o.d, my mind was fully bent the other time I was at liberty to marry you before any man I know. Howbeit, G.o.d withstood my will therein most vehemently for a time, and through His grace and goodness made that possible which seemed to me most impossible: that was, made me renounce utterly mine own will, and follow His most willingly. It were long to write all the process of this matter. If I live I shall declare it to you myself. I can say nothing; but as my lady of Suffolk saith: 'G.o.d is a marvellous man.'--KATHERYN THE QUENE."[267]

The course of true love did not run smoothly. Somerset, and especially his wife, did not like the idea of his younger brother's elevation to higher influence by his marrying the Queen-Dowager; and the Protector proved unwilling to grant his consent to the marriage. Katharine evidently resented this, and was inclined to use her great influence with the young King himself over his elder uncle's head. When Seymour was in doubt how to approach his brother about it, Katharine wrote spiritedly: "The denial of your request shall make his folly more manifest to the world, which will more grieve me than the want of his speaking. I would not wish you to importune for his goodwill if it come not frankly at first. It shall be sufficient once to require it, and then to cease. I would desire you might obtain the King's letters in your favour, and also the aid and furtherance of the most notable of the Council, such as ye shall think convenient, which thing being obtained shall be no small shame to your brother and sister in case they do not the like." In the same letter Katharine rather playfully dallies with her lover's request that she will abridge the period of waiting from two years to two months, and then she concludes in a way which proves if nothing else did how deeply she was in love with Seymour. "When it shall pleasure you to repair hither (Chelsea) ye must take some pains to come early in the morning, so that ye may be gone again by seven o'clock; and thus I suppose ye may come without being suspect. I pray ye let me have knowledge overnight at what hour ye will come, that your portress (_i.e._ Katharine herself) may wait at the gate to the fields for you."

It was not two years, or even two months, that the impatient lovers waited: for they must have been married before the last day in May 1547, four months after Henry's death. Katharine's suggestion that the boy King himself should be enlisted on their side, was adopted; and he was induced to press Seymour's suit to his father's widow, as if he were the promoter of it. When the secret marriage was known to Somerset, he expressed the greatest indignation and anger at it; and a system of petty persecution of Katharine began. Her jewels, of which the King had left her the use during her life, were withheld from her; her jointure estates were dealt with by Somerset regardless of her wishes and protests; and her every appearance at Court led to a squabble with the Protector's wife as to the precedence to be accorded to her. On one occasion it is stated that this question of precedence led in the Chapel Royal to a personal encounter between Katharine and proud Ann Stanhope.

Nor was Katharine's life at home with her gallant, empty-headed, turbulent husband, cloudless. The Princess Elizabeth lived with them; and though she was but a girl, Seymour began before many months of married life to act suspiciously with her. The manners of the time were free; and Seymour might perhaps innocently romp suggestively, as he did, sometimes alone and sometimes in his wife's presence, with the young Princess as she lay in bed; but when Katharine, entering a chamber suddenly once, found young Elizabeth embraced in her husband's arms, there was a domestic explosion which led to the departure of the girl from the Chelsea household.[268]

Katharine was pregnant at the time; and Elizabeth's letter to her on her leaving Chelsea shows that although, for the sake of prudence, the girl was sent away, there was no great unkindness between her and her stepmother in consequence. She says that she was chary of her thanks when leaving, because "I was replete with sorrow to depart from your Highness, especially leaving you undoubtful of health, and, albeit I answered little, I weighed more deeper when you said you would warn me of all the evils that you should hear of me."

When the poor lady's time drew near, she wrote a hopeful yet pathetic letter to her husband, who was already involving himself in the ambitious schemes that brought his head to the block. Both she and her husband in their letters antic.i.p.ated the birth of their child with a frankness of detail which make the doc.u.ments unfitted for reproduction here; and it is evident that, though they were now often separated, this looked-for son was to be a new pledge to bind them together for the future. In June 1548 Seymour took his wife to Sudeley Castle for her confinement; and from there carried on, through his agents with the King, his secret plots to supersede his brother Somerset as Protector of the realm. He and his wife were surrounded by a retinue so large, as of itself to const.i.tute a menace to the Protector; but Katharine's royal t.i.tle gave a pretext for so large a household, and this and her personal influence secured whilst she lived her husband's safety from attack by his brother.

At length, on the 30th August, Katharine's child was born, a daughter, and at first all went well. Even Somerset, angry and distrustful as he was, was infected by his brother's joy, and sent congratulations. But on the fourth day the mother became excited, and wandered somewhat; saying that she thought she would die, and that she was not being well treated. "Those who are about me do not care for me, but stand laughing at my grief," she complained to her friend Lady Tyrwhitt. This was evidently directed against Seymour, who stood by. "Why, sweetheart," he said, "I would you no hurt." "No, my Lord," replied Katharine, "I think so; but," she whispered, "you have given me many shrewd taunts." This seems to have troubled Seymour, and he suggested to Lady Tyrwhitt that he should lie on the bed by the Queen's side and try to calm her; but his efforts were without effect, for she continued excitedly to say that she had not been properly dealt with. These facts, related and magnified by attendants, and coupled with Seymour's desire to marry Elizabeth as soon as his wife died, gave rise to a pretty general opinion that Katharine was either poisoned or otherwise ill treated. But there are many circ.u.mstances that point in the contrary direction, and there can be no reasonable doubt now, that although in her inmost mind she had begun to distrust her husband, and the anxiety so caused may have contributed to her illness, she died (on the 5th September) of ordinary puerperal fever.

She was buried in great state in the chapel at Sudeley Castle, and her remains, which have been examined and described several times, add their testimony to the belief that the unfortunate Queen died a natural death.

The death of Katharine Parr, the last, and least politically important, of Henry's six wives, took place, so far as English history is concerned, on the day that heralded the death of her royal husband. From the moment that Somerset and his wife sat in the seats of the mighty there was no room for the exercise of political influence by the Queen-Dowager; and these latter pages telling of her fourth marriage, this time for love, form but a human postscript to a political history.

Footnotes:

[1] _Spanish Calendar_, vol. 1.

[2] The second marriage, by proxy, of Arthur and Katharine eventually took place at the chapel of the royal manor of Bewdley on the 19th May 1499, and the young Prince appears to have performed his part of the ceremony with much decorum: "Saying in a loud, clear voice to Dr. Puebla, who represented the bride, that he was much rejoiced to contract an indissoluble marriage with Katharine, Princess of Wales, not only in obedience to the Pope and King Henry, but also from his deep and sincere love for the said Princess, his wife."--_Spanish Calendar_, vol. 1.

[3] Hall's _Chronicle_.

[4] Leland's _Collectanea_.

[5] Hall's _Chronicle_.

[6] _Spanish Calendar_, vol. 1.

[7] The Spanish agent believed that Henry would have preferred that Katharine had not accompanied Arthur to Wales, but for his desire to force her to use her valuables, so that he might obtain their equivalent in money. Both Dona Elvira and Bishop Ayala told Henry that they considered that it would be well that the young couple should be separated and not live together for a time, as Arthur was so young. But Puebla and the Princess's chaplain, Alexander (Fitzgerald), had apparently said to the King that the bride's parents did not wish the Princess to be separated from her husband on any account. Dona Elvira's opinion on the matter a.s.sumes importance from her subsequent declaration soon after Arthur's death that she knew the marriage had not been consummated.

[8] _Spanish Calendar_, vol. 1, 271.

[9] There is in the Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid (I. 325) a Spanish doc.u.ment, apparently a contemporary translation of the report sent to Henry from Valencia by the three agents he sent thither in 1505 to report upon the appearance of the two widowed Queens of Naples resident there.

James Braybrooke, John Stile, and Francis Marsin express an extremely free, but favourable, opinion of the charms of the younger queen, aged twenty-seven. Katharine appears to have given letters of recommendation to the envoys. The Spanish version of the doc.u.ment varies but little from the printed English copy in the Calendar. The date of it is not given, but it must have been written in the late autumn of 1505. Henry was evidently anxious for the match, though he said that he would not marry the lady for all the treasures in the world if she turned out to be ugly. The Queen of Naples, however, would not allow a portrait to be taken of her, and decidedly objected to the match. The various phases of Henry's own matrimonial intrigues cannot be dealt with in this book, but it appears certain that if he could have allied himself to Spain by marrying the Queen of Naples, he would have broken his son's betrothal with Katharine, and have married him to one of the young princesses of France, a master-stroke which would have bound him to all the princ.i.p.al political factors in Europe.

[10] _Spanish Calendar_, vol. 1, p. 309.

[11] She insisted--in accord with Ferdinand and Isabel--that Katharine should live in great seclusion as a widow until the second marriage actually took place, and Katharine appears to have done so at this time, though not very willingly. Some of her friends seem to have incited her to enjoy more freedom, but a tight hand was kept upon her, until events made her her own mistress, when, as will be seen in a subsequent page, she quite lost her head for a time, and committed what at least were the gravest indiscretions. (See _Spanish Calendar_, vol. 1 and Supplement.)

[12] The protest is dated 24th June 1505, when Henry was fourteen.

[13] Margaret absolutely refused to marry Henry, and a subst.i.tute was found in the betrothal of young Charles, the eldest son of Philip, to Henry's younger daughter, Mary Tudor, afterwards Queen of France and d.u.c.h.ess of Suffolk.

[14] _Spanish Calendar_, vol. 1, 386.

[15] This letter is dated in March 1507, and is a most characteristic epistle. Ferdinand in it professes the deepest love for his daughter and sympathy for her unhappiness. He had had the money all ready to send, he a.s.sures her, but King Philip had stopped it; and she must keep friendly with King Henry, never allowing any question to be raised as to the binding nature of her marriage with his son. As to the King's marriage with Juana, the proposal must be kept very secret or Juana will do something to prevent it; but if she ever marry again it shall be with no one else but Henry. Whether Ferdinand ever meant in any case to sell his distraught daughter to Henry may be doubted; but the proposal offered a good opportunity of gaining a fresh hold upon the King of England.

[16] Puebla says that Henry had bought very cheaply the jewels of the deposed Kings of Naples and had great stores of them. He would only take Katharine's at a very low price.

[17] _Spanish Calendar_, vol. 1, 409, 15th April 1507.

[18] The letters relating to this curious affair were for some years kept secret by the authorities at Simancas; but were eventually printed in the Supplement to vols. 2 and 3 of the _Spanish Calendar_.

[19] _Calendar Henry VIII._, 26th July 1509.

[20] It is doubtful if he was ever present at an engagement, and he hurried home from Boulogne as soon as hard fighting seemed to the fore.

His fear of contagion and sickness was exhibited in most undignified fas.h.i.+on on several occasions.

[21] _Calendar Henry VIII._, 23rd September 1513.

[22] Katharine to Wolsey, 13th August 1513. _Calendar Henry VIII._

[23] _Venetian Calendar_, vol. 2, 7th October 1513.

[24] _Venetian Calendar_, vol. 2.

[25] Lippomano from Rome, 1st September. _Venetian Calendar_, vol. 2.

[26] _Calendar Henry VIII._, 31st December 1514.

[27] See Giustiani's letters in the _Venetian Calendars_ of the date.

[28] See the letters of Henry's secretary, Richard Pace, in the _Calendar of Henry VIII._, vol. 2.

[29] The Emperor's fleet was sighted off Plymouth on the 23rd May 1520.

[30] In the _Rutland Papers_ (Camden Society), Hall's _Chronicle_, and Camden's _Annales_ full and interesting details will be found.