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leyn it was no hard thing to engage Francis into any thing that looked like gallantry; for he had writ to her a letter in his own hand, which Montmorency had sent over. interview of the two kings, a perpetual friendship was vowed between them and King Henry afterwards reproached Francis for kissing the pope's foot at Marseilles, which he affirms, he promised not to do; nor to proceed to marry his son to the pope's niece, until he gave the king of England full satisfaction; and added, that he promised, that if the pope did proceed to final censures against Henry, he would likewise withdraw himself from his obedience; and that both the kings would join in an appeal to a general council.

Soon after that the king returned from this interview, he married Anne Boleyn; but so secretly, that none were present at it but her father and mother, and her brother, with the duke of Norfolk. It went generally among our historians, that Cranmer was present at the marriage; and I reported it so in my History: but Mr. Strype saw a letter of Cranmer's to Hawkins, then the king's ambassador at the emperor's court; in which he writes, "notwithstanding it hath been reported throughout a great part of the realm, that I married her, which was plainly false; for I myself knew not thereof a fortnight after it was done and many other things he reported of me, which be mere lies and tales." In the same letter, he says it was about St. Paul's day. This confirms Stow's relation. But to write with the impartial freedom of an historian: it seems, the day of the marriage was given out wrong on design. The account that Cranmer gives of it cannot be called in question. But Queen Elizabeth was born, not as I put it, on the 7th, but as Cranmer writes in another letter to Hawkins, on the 13th or 14th of September: so there not being full eight months between the marriage and birth, which would have opened a scene of raillery to the court of Rome, it seems the day of the marriage was then said to be in November. And in a matter that was so secretly managed, it was no hard thing to oblige those who were in the secret to silence. This seems to be the only way to reconcile Cranmer's letter to the reports commonly given out of the day of the marriage.

The news of this was soon carried to Rome*. Cardinal Ghinnuccius wrote to the king, "that he had a long conversation with the pope, when the news was first brought thither. The pope resolved to take no notice of it; but he did not know how he should be able to resist the instances

* Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 14.

that the emperor would make. He considered well the effects that his censures would probably have. He saw, the emperor intended to put things past reconciliation; but it was not reasonable for the pope to pass censures, when it did not appear how they could be executed. He could not do any thing prejudicial to the king, unless he resolved to lay out a vast sum of money; which he believed he would not do, the success being so doubtful. And he concludes, that they might depend upon it, that the emperor could not easily bring the pope to pass those censures that he desired."

At this time, the third breve was published against the king on the 13th of November: but, it seems, it was for some time suppressed; for it has a second date added to it, of the 23d of December in the year 1532: "in which, after a long expostulation upon his taking Anne as his wife, and his putting away the queen, while the suit was yet depending; the pope exhorts him to bring back the queen, and to put Anne away, within a month after this was brought to him; otherwise he excommunicates both him and Anne: but the execution of this was suspended. Soon after this (1531), Benet wrote a letter to the king, all in cipher; but the deciphering is interlined. He writes, "the pope did approve the king's cause as just and good; and did it in a manner more openly. For that reason, he did not deliver the severe letter that the king wrote upon this breve, lest that should too much provoke him. The emperor was then at Bologna, and pressed for the speedy calling a general council; and, among other reasons, he gave the proceeding against the king for one. The king's ambassadors urged the decree of the council of Nice, that the bishops of the province should settle all things that belong to it; so by this, he said, the pope might put the matter out of his hands. But the pope

would not hear of that. He writes further, that an old and famous man, who died lately, had left his opinion in writing, for the king's cause, with his nephew, who was in high favour with the pope. The emperor was taking pains to engage him in his interests, and had offered him a bishopric of 6000 ducats a year, likely soon to be void. The king's ambassadors had promised him, on the other hand, a great sum from the king: they, upon that, ask orders about it speedily, lest too long a delay might alienate him from the king,'

There is also a long letter, but without a date, written by one who was born in Rome, but was employed to solicit the king's cause. He told the pope, and was willing to declare it to all the cardinals in the consistory, "that if they pro

ceeded further in the king's cause, it would prove fatal to the see. They had already lost the Hungarians, with a great part of Germany; and would they now venture to lose England, and perhaps France with it? The king thought his marriage with Queen Anne was firm and holy, and was resolved to prosecute his cause in that court no more. The king said, he was satisfied in his own conscience; but yet, if the pope would judge for his present marriage, both he and his ministers said, it would be agreeable to him."

The cardinals of France pressed the king of France* to use all endeavours to bring King Henry with him to the interview at Marseilles, or one fully empowered to put an end to the matter of the divorce. Langey was sent to propose it to King Henry; but that king told him, since he saw such a train of dissimulation in the pope's proceedings, and delays upon delays, that had quite disgusted him. He had now obtained a sentence in England of the nullity of his marriage, in which he acquiesced: and upon that he was married, though secretly. He was resolved to keep it secret till he saw what effects the interview had: if the pope would not do him justice, he would deliver the nation from that servitude.

He had obtained the judgment of some universities + concerning the citation to Rome (June 22, 1531). The university of Orleans gave their opinion, that he was not bound to appear at Rome, neither in person nor by proxy; and that the citation was null; but that there ought to be a delegation of judges in the place where the cause lay (June 14, 1531). Many advocates in the court of parliament of Paris gave their opinions to the same purpose (August 19, 1531). The canonists in Paris thought that the king could not be cited to go to Rome; but that judges ought to be sent to determine the matter in some safe place.

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King Henry wrote to his ambassadors with the king of France, to divert him from the interview with the pope, as a thing too much to the pope's honourt. And whereas the king of France wrote, that his chief design in it was to serve the king he wrote upon it, that he was so sure of his nobility and commons, that he had no apprehension of any thing the pope could do. He therefore desired him to write to the cardinals of Tournon and Grandimont, and to his ambassadors at Rome, to press the admitting the excusator's plea ; for that was a point in which all princes were concerned.

King Francis pretended, that the breaking off the project of the interview could not be done it had now gone too far, ↑ Rymer, MS.

* Langey, p. 317, 338.

+ Rymer.

and his honour was engaged. He was very sorry that the excusator's plea was rejected; yet he did not despair but that all things might be yet set right; which made him still more earnest for the interview. And he was confident, if the king would come to the meeting, all would be happily made up but since he saw no hope of prevailing with the king for that, he desired that the duke of Norfolk might be sent over, with some learned persons, who should see the good offices he would do.

The duke of Norfolk was sent over upon this, and he found the king of France at Montpelier, in the end of August, but told him, that, upon the last sentence that was given at Rome, the king looked on the pope as his enemy, and he would resent his usage of him by all possible methods. He studied to divert the interview, otherwise he said he must return immediately. King Francis answered, that the sentence was not definitive; but though he could not break the interview that was concerted by King Henry's own consent, he promised he would espouse the king's affair as his own. He pressed the duke of Norfolk so earnestly to go along with him, that once he seemed convinced that it might be of good use in the king's cause, and a memorial was given him of the method of settling it: he upon this sent the Lord Rochford to the king, to see if he would change the orders he had given him; and he stayed only a few days after he had dispatched him. But he said his orders for his return were positive; if a change of orders should come, he would quickly return; if not, he would get some learned men to be sent, to see what might be devised at Marseilles.

The king of France wrote to his ambassador with King Henry, that if the duke of Norfolk could have been allowed to go with him to Marseilles, much might have been done : and he sent with that a part of the cardinal of Tournon's last letter to him of the 17th of August, in which he wrote, "that he had spoke fully to the pope, as the king had ordered him, about the king of England's affair: the pope complained that King Henry had not only proceeded to marry, contrary to the breve he had received, but that he was still publishing laws in contempt of his see; and that Cranmer had pronounced the sentence of divorce as legate. This gave the cardinals such distaste, that they would have been highly offended with the pope, if he had done nothing upon it: he therefore advised the king to carry the duke of Norfolk with him to Marseilles for if King Henry would but seem to repair the steps he had made in the attentates, as they called them, and do that which might save the pope's honour, he assured him, such was his love to him, that for

his sake he would do all that was desired, with all his heart. But he feared expedients would not be readily found, if the duke of Norfolk went not to Marseilles."

The king of France sent such messages to King Henry by, the duke of Norfolk, and such compliments to Queen Anne, as highly pleased them: for his ambassador wrote to himthat, since the duke of Norfolk's coming, King Henry expressed his confidence and friendship for him in a very particular manner: King Henry had asked him, if he had no order to stand godfather in the king of France's name, in case the queen should be delivered of a son. He answered, he had none, but he would write to the king upon the subject. The duke of Norfolk said, he had spoke to the king of France about it; who agreed to it, that either the ambassador, or some other sent express, should do it. The child's name was to be Edward or Henry (but the birth proving a daughter, this went no further). He adds in his letter, that Gardiner, then bishop of Winchester, was sent to Marseilles. The king of France sent from Arles, on the 17th of September, an order for the christening.

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But now the next scene is at Marseilles; where, after the ceremonies were over, the king of France set himself, as he writes, with great zeal to bring the pope to be easy in the king's matter he protested he minded no business of his own, till he should see what could be done in the matter of the king's divorce. The pope said, he left the process at Rome ; so that nothing could be done in it*. The French ambassador wrote to his master, that King Henry charged him with this, that he himself brought over instructions, with promises that Francis would not proceed to the marriage of his son, until the king's matter was done: the ambassador denied this, and offered to show his instructions, that it might appear that no such article was in them. King Henry insisted that the French king had promised it both to himself and to the queen; and if he failed him in this, he could depend no more on his friendship. When the ambassador told the duke of Norfolk how uneasy this would be to the king of France, who had the king's concerns so much at heart, and that all the interest that he could gain in the pope would be employed in the king's service; for if he should break with the pope, that must throw him entirely into the emperor's hands: the duke of Norfolk confessed all that was true; but said, that the king's head was so embroiled with this matter, that he trusted no living man, and that both he and the queen suspected himself.

Mel. Hist. p. 142.

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