The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts They Played in History Part 15

[174] _Spanish Calendar_, 6th June 1536.

[175] The Parliament of 1536 enacted that all Bulls, Briefs, and Dispensations from Rome should be held void; that every officer, lay or clerical, should take an oath to renounce and resist all authority of the Pope on pain of high treason. In Convocation, Cromwell for the King at the same time introduced a new ecclesiastical const.i.tution, establis.h.i.+ng the Scriptures as the basis of faith, as interpreted by the four first Councils of the Church. Three sacraments only were acknowledged--Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist. The use of images and invocation of the saints were regulated and modified, all idolatrous or material wors.h.i.+p of them being forbidden. Cromwell at the same period was raised to the peerage under the t.i.tle of Baron Cromwell, and made Vicar-General of the Church.

(Lord Herbert's _Henry VIII._)

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

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

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

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

[180] _Ibid._

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

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

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

Calendar_, vol. 13.

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

[185] The extraordinary attentions showered upon the elderly French lady, Mme de Montreuil, and her daughter, Mme de Brun, and their large train of attendant ladies, in the autumn of 1538, is an amusing instance of Henry's diplomacy. It has usually been concluded by historians that it was a question of amour or gallantry on Henry's part; but this was not the case.

The lady had been the governess of the late Queen Madeleine of Scotland, and was pa.s.sing through England on her way home. The most elaborate comedy was played by Henry and Cromwell on the occasion. The ladies were treated like princesses. The Lord Mayor and all the authorities on their way to the coast had to banquet them; they were taken sight-seeing and feasting everywhere, and loaded with gifts; and the most ostentatious appearance made of a close intimacy with them, in order to hoodwink the imperial agent into the idea that a French match was under discussion. Henry himself went to Dover to see them, and gave them all presents. But the French and imperial amba.s.sadors were in close touch one with the other, and themselves dined with the ladies at Chelsea; having a good laugh with them at the farce that was being played, which they quite understood.

(_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 13, part 2.)

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

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

[188] Pole had been sent to Spain by the Pope for the purpose of urging the Emperor to execute the decree against England, at least to the extent of stopping commerce with his dominions. Charles saw Pole in Toledo early in March 1539. The Cardinal found the Emperor professedly sympathetic, but evidently not willing to adopt extreme measures of force against Henry.

Pole, disappointed, thereupon returned to Papal Avignon instead of going on to France with a similar errand. Nothing is clearer in the correspondence on the subject (_Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 14) than Charles' determination--which was invariable throughout his life--not to allow Churchmen or ecclesiastical polity to guide his state action. Whilst Pole was thus seeking in vain to urge the Catholic powers to overthrow Henry, Wyatt the English amba.s.sador in Spain, poet and gentle wit though he was, was busily plotting the murder of the Cardinal, together with some secret device to raise trouble in Italy and set Charles and Francis by the ears. This was probably the treacherous surrender of Parma and Piacenza to England for France, to the detriment of the Emperor and the Pope--who claimed them.

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

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

14, p. 2.)

[191] It has been suggested that the d.u.c.h.ess with whom this comparison was inst.i.tuted was Anne's sister, the d.u.c.h.ess of Saxony, who was quite as beautiful as the d.u.c.h.ess of Milan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[202] Hall.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Calendar_, vol. 15.)

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

[210] Within a week of this--to show how rapid was the change of feeling--Pate wrote to the King and to the Duke of Norfolk saying how that "while Thomas Cromwell ruled, slanders and obloquies of England were common," but that now all was changed. The brother of the Duke of Ferrara had sent to him to say that he was going to visit the King of England, for "the Emperor these years and days past often praised the King's gifts of body and mind, which made him the very image of his Creator." This praise had "engendered such love in the stomach" of Don Francesco d'Este that he could no longer defer his wish to see such a paragon of excellence as Henry, and he rejoices "that so many gentlemen belonging to the Emperor"

are doing likewise. This was even before the marriage with Anne was declared invalid. (12th July, _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 15.) Chapuys, the Emperor's amba.s.sador, was again sent to England immediately, and cordial relations were promptly resumed. (_Spanish Calendar_, vol. 6, part 1.)

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

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

[213] There is in the British Museum (Stowe MS. 559) a list of the jewels and other things given by Henry to Katharine at the marriage and subsequently. The inventory was made at the time of her attainder, when she was deprived of everything. The jewels appear to have been very numerous and rich: one square or stomacher, given on New Year's Day 1540, containing 33 diamonds, 60 rubies, and a border of pearls. Another gift at Christmas the same year was "two laces containing 26 fair table diamonds and 158 fair pearls, with a rope of fair large pearls, 200 pearls."

Magnificent jewels of all sorts are to be counted by the dozen in this list, comparing strangely with the meagre list of Katharine of Aragon's treasures. One curious item in Katharine's list is "a book of gold enamelled, wherein is a clock, upon every side of which book is three diamonds, a little man standing upon one of them, four turquoises and three rubies with a little chain of gold enamelled blue hanging to it."

This book, together with "a purse of gold enamelled red containing eight diamonds set in goldsmith's work," was taken by the King himself when poor Katharine fell, and another splendid jewelled pomander containing a clock was taken by him for Princess Mary.

[214] He had on the same morning taken the Sacrament, it being All Souls'

Day, and had directed his confessor, the Bishop of Lincoln, to offer up a prayer of thanks with him "for the good life he (Henry) led, and hoped to lead with his wife." (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 16, p. 615.)

[215] _Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 16, p. 48, September 1540. This was a year before he made his statement to Cranmer. The hatred expressed to the King's new Catholic policy by Lascelles proves him to have been a fit instrument for the delation and ruin of Katharine.

[216] They are all in the Record Office, and are summarised in the _Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 16.

[217] Lady Rochford, who seems to have been a most abandoned woman, was the widow of Anne Boleyn's brother, who had been beheaded at the time of his sister's fall.