all the activity of their spies, neither Henry nor Wolsey could ever tell. That she took prompt measures in this exigence is apparent in a curious series of letters from Wolsey to the king, dated from July 1 to 19th, 1527. From them may be gathered that the queen despatched her faithful servant, Francis Phillipps, to Spain, to consult her nephew; but Wolsey took care to have him intercepted. "He feigns to go," says Wolsey, "to visit his mother, now sickly and aged; but your highness taketh it surely in the right, that it is chiefly for disclosing your secret matter' to the emperor, and to devise means and ways how it may be impeached. Wherefore your highness hath right prudently devised, so that his passage into Spain should be letted and stopped; for if the said matter should come to the emperor's ears, it should be no little hindrance to your grace's particulars: howbeit, if he pass by sea, there can be nothing devised."

While the king and his minister were thus employed circumventing, by base underhand expedients, the friendless queen's natural right to consult her relative, she made no mystery of her resolution to appeal to legal means of defending her cause. She laid her case before her confessor, bishop Fisher, and retained him as her counsel, in case the ecclesiastical inquiry should take place. After these requisite precautions, she discussed the whole matter with her husband: her manner of doing so is thus described by the pen of Wolsey in one of his letters at this epoch, written during his journey to Dover, when he went on an embassy to France :-"The first night," says he, "I lodged at sir John Wiltshire's house, where met me my lord of Canterbury, [archbishop Warham,] with whom, after communication on your grace's secret matter, I showed him that the knowledge thereof is come to the queen's grace, and how displeasantly she taketh it; and what your highness hath done for the staying and pacification of her, by declaring to her that your grace hath nothing intended or done, but only for the searching and trying out the truth upon occasion given by the doubts moved by the bishop of Tarbes. And noting his countenance, gesture, and manner,

1 The divorce.

I perceive he is not much altered from his first fashion;' expressly affirming that, however displeasantly the queen might take it, yet the truth and judgment of the law must have place. . . . . . He," adds Wolsey, "somewhat marvelled how the queen should come to the knowledge thereof, and by whom, thinking your grace might constrain her to show her informers." Thus, from the best authority, it is plainly evident that Henry soothed the poor queen by hypocritical dissimulation, persuading her that the scruple of the bishop of Tarbes was the sole cause of the point being mooted, and that the ecclesiastical inquiry respecting the validity of her marriage was only instituted that it might never be questioned to the prejudice of their child. With such plausible explana tion, Katharine, after a "short tragedy," rested tolerably well satisfied, and waited patiently for the good result promised by the king. To her rival (who was now well known at court to be such) she behaved with invariable sweetness. Once only she gave her an intimation that she was aware of her ambitions views. The queen was playing at cards with Anne Boleyn, when she thus addressed her: "My lady Anne, you have the good hap ever to stop at a king; but you are like others, you will have all or none." By this gentle reproach queen Katharine, in some degree, vindicates the honour of her rival, intimating that Anne Boleyn would be the king's wife or nothing to him. Cavendish, who records this pretty anecdote, likewise bears witness that the queen at this trying crisis "behaved like a very patient Grissel."

While matters remained in this state at court, a dismal pestilence broke out in the metropolis, and several of the royal household dying suddenly, the king, who had made such pathetic harangues regarding the pains he had in his conscience arising from his marriage with the queen, was now seized with a true fit of compunction. Its symptoms were

1 Warham had from the first opposed the marriage in council. He was the most formidable of the opponents of Katharine because he was consistent throughout, and therefore it may be considered his opinion was a sincere one.

2 Hall gives the date of this temporary return to Katharine (the particulars of which he dare not mention), by saying the pestilence broke out May 1528; it continued through June.

3 Ellis' Letters, first Series; vol. i. p. 286.

indicated by his sending Anne Boleyn home to her friends, and returning to the company and conversation of his queen, and sharing in her devout exercises. His recreations, during this quarantine, were compounding with his physician, Dr. Butts, spasmodic plasters, ointments, decoctions, and lotions. The recipe for one of these precious compositions was made public, for the benefit of England, under the name of "the king's own plaster." Moreover the king made thirty-nine wills; and confessed his sins every day. Henry's penitence was precisely of the same nature as that described in some oft-quoted lines relative to his sable majesty "when sick:" the pest abated, the king's jovial spirits returned; he wrote love-letters perpetually to his beautiful favourite, and huffed away his wife. The cardinal-legate Campeggio having arrived to hold the court of inquiry regarding the validity of his marriage, he was once more elate with hope of long life and a new bridal. The representations of Wolsey to the pope had raised the idea at Rome, that it was the wish of Katharine to retire from the world and devote herself to a religious life, leaving Henry at liberty to form a second marriage. There is little doubt that, from Katharine's ascetic habits, the king and his minister imagined she could be easily induced to take this step, from which, however, her duties as a mother wholly debarred her. Henry had not anticipated the slightest difficulty in the divorce, in fact he was encouraged by more than one recent example. His sister the queen of Scotland had divorced her second husband the earl of Angus, and taken to herself a third spouse, whom she was afterwards anxious to dismiss for a fourth. Louis the XII. had previously discharged his wife, Jane of Valois, with little trouble.

When the legate Campeggio arrived in England in the autumn of 1628, Katharine, in an interview with him, became aware of the false impression the pontiff had received of her intentions. She immediately adopted a course of conduct which proved that she had no intention of religious profession; and this elicited a burst of vindictive fury from Henry, who at once threw aside the hypocritical mask he had worn, and permitted all the malice of his nature to blaze out in

hideous colours. His obsequious council' "were informed," they said, "of a design to kill the king and the cardinal, in which conspiracy, if it could be proved the queen had any hand, she must not expect to be spared. That she had not shown, either in public or in the hours of retirement, as much love for the king as she ought; and now that the king was very pensive, she manifested great signs of joy, setting all people to dancing and other diversions. This she did out of spite to the king, as it was contrary to her temper and ordinary behaviour. She showed herself much abroad, too, and by civilities and gracious bowing of her head, (which was not her custom formerly,) she sought to work upon the affections of the people. From all which the king concluded that she hated him. Therefore, as his council in their consciences thought his life was in danger, they advised him to separate himself from the queen, both at bed and board, and above all to take the princess Mary from her." To this paper, which is still in existence, there is appended a Latin note in the hand-writing of Wolsey, purporting "that the queen was a fool to resist the king's will; that her offspring had not received the blessing of heaven; and that an abstract of the pope's original bull of dispensation, which she had sent for from Spain, was a forgery." This order of council was laid before the queen with the intention of frightening her into a convent. One sting the malice of her persecutors had inserted bitterer than death, the separation from her child. But Katharine was not intimidated; the only effect it had was, that Wolsey heard her speak her mind on the subject of his conduct the first opportunity that occurred; and this came shortly.

2

On Sunday afternoon, the 8th of November, 1528, the king convoked all his nobility, judges, and council in the great room of his palace at Bridewell, and made a speech, which Hall declares he heard, and recorded as much "as his wit would bear away." "If it be adjudged," said Henry, "that the queen is my lawful wife, nothing will be more pleasant or 'Burnet, vol. i. p. 69.

Either by accident or design, the original instrument was not forthcoming in 3 Hall, p. 754.

Tngland.

more acceptable to me, both for the clearing of my conscience, and also for the good qualities and conditions I know to be in her. For I assure you all that, besides her Loble parentage, she is a woman of most gentleness, humility, and buxomness; yea, and of all good qualities pertaining to nobility she is without comparison. So that if I were to marry again, I would choose her above all women. But if it is determined in judgment that our marriage is against God's law, then shall I sorrow parting from so good a lady and loving companion. These be the sores that vex my mind; these be the pangs that trouble my conscience, for the declaration of which I have assembled you together; and now you may depart." It was a strange sight to witness the effect this oration had upon the hearers: some sighed and said nothing; others were sorry to hear that the king was so troubled in his conscience; while many, who wished well to the queen, were grieved that the matter was thus far publicly opened.

Soon after the two cardinal-legates, Wolsey and Campeggio, requested an interview of the queen at the same palace, to announce that they were about to hold a court of inquiry regarding her marriage. "Alas! my lords," answered the queen,' "is it now a question whether I be the king's lawful wife or no, when I have been married to him almost twenty years, and no objection made before? Divers prelates and lords, privy councillors of the king, are yet alive, who then adjudged our marriage good and lawful; and now to say it is detestable is a great marvel to me, especially when I consider what a wise prince the king's father was, and also the natural affection my father, king Ferdinand, bare unto me. I think that neither of our fathers were so unwise and weak in judgment but they foresaw what would follow our marriage. The king, my father, sent to the court of Rome, and there obtained a dispensation that I, being the one brother's wife, might without scruple of conscience marry the other brother lawfully, which licence, under lead [under leaden seal], I have

1 " These words," said Hall, (p. 756,) "were spoken in French, and written down by Campeggio's secretary, who was present, and then I translated them as well as I could."