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of what is styled "force of character" in Henry's second Queen, even though the period of her ascendency was so transient; but her influence over him alone, can never account for this uproar. For this reason, and with the statements of both foes and friends before us, a few particulars may be hazarded; some of which have hitherto escaped notice.

Anne Boleyn, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn of Blickling, in Norfolk, was born at the family seat, about the year 1501. Of her mother, the daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, and afterwards Duke of Norfolk, she was bereaved by a fever in 1512. In August 1514, when Louis XII. of France was betrothed to Mary the youngest sister of Henry VIII., Lady Anne, then about fourteen years of age, was appointed her fourth maid of honour. There is a letter extant to her father, in French, and in prospect of this appointment, promising to do her utmost in the service of her royal Mistress. 38 Proceeding to France in the autumn of 1514, she remained till the death of Louis soon after, on the 1st of January 1515. Instead, however, of returning with her mistress, then married to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, she was retained in the court and service of Claude, the daughter of Louis, and consort of Francis I., an amiable woman, who revived and promoted the moral restraints of the court, following the example of her mother, Anne of Brittany. Her maids of honour were diligently occupied in embroidery, or similar pursuits, and the society of gentlemen was not admitted. Here, however, Anne had the advantage of being associated with a lady far better known-Margaret of Valois, the Duchess of Alençon, afterwards Queen of Navarre. Hence Lord Herbert, generally so correct as an historian, informs us that "Anne had been received into a place of much honour, first with Queen Claude, and then with the Duchess of Alençon, where she staid till some difference grew between our King and Francis," or till the spring of 1522. To any one at all acquainted with what had taken place in Paris by this moment, or from the year 1518 to 1522, it must be evident that Anne could not have existed in such interesting and profitable society, without seeing and hearing far more than she could have done in England, whether she had been influenced by it at that time or not. Paris, especially in 1520, was far a-head of London. In 1521, indeed, the writings of Luther were condemned alike in both cities, but London had no such men to show as Lefevre, Briçonnet, and Farel, nor England any such woman as Margaret of Valois.

38 Turner, who, with other historians, has supposed the birth of Anne to be in 1507, perplexed by the style of this letter, as not that of a child, ascribes it to the year 1527, when Anne was about to enter the household of Queen Catherine of England. But, independently of its being a letter bearing on a French court, it is in perfect harmony with a young lady in her teens, going from under her father's eye. Turner agrees in sending Anne to France in 1514; but would a child of six or seven years have been sent as maid of honour, and actually named, as she was, in Mary's retinue?

After being introduced into the royal household of Henry, as maid of honour to Queen Catherine, an attachment which had been formed between Anne and Percy, the future Earl of Northumberland, was imperatively and with great cruelty broken up, at the instigation of the King; at least, it has always been taken for granted that it was at his instigation. But be this as it may, Wolsey was the agent, and the natural consequence, on the part of both, was an unbroken jealousy of the Cardinal ever after. Percy was dismissed the court, and Anne also withdrew to Hever Castle, a favourite residence of her father, thirty miles distant in Kent.39 As the daughter of Sir Thomas certainly did not appear in public, or at court, till May 1527, there remain four years to be filled up. Injuriously dismissed, she not only discovered a persevering sense of the affront, but, according to the shrewd supposition of Burnet, again returned to France. One of Anne's latest biographers40 has no doubt that farther research will verify Burnet's statement, while both agree with Turner in assigning to her a residence with Margaret, till her marriage with Henry D' Albret, King of Navarre. This took place on the 24th of January 1527, when Anne returned with her father to England, early in that year. That her father, who had been created Viscount Rochford in 1525, was abundantly ambitious of his daughter's advancement, as well as his own, has been made very evident; and he it was who first led her into such critical circumstances, by promoting her return to court once more, where she attended on Queen Catherine. The question of Henry's divorce from his unimpeachable wife, with whom he had lived so long, being once moved; this young woman was then exposed to all the sophistry of Gardiner and Fox, but above all, to that of Cranmer, who wrote his book in her father's house, and had free access to her day by day. Lending an ear to the doctrine of the day, could not save Anne from personal responsibility, any more than it could those men who laboured to promote it. At the same time all the advances of the King, previously to a certain period, ought to have been regarded as deeply insulting. That he met with a decided and notable repulse on his first approach, has been recorded by Anne's bitterest enemies;41 but for her yielding to any alliance by marriage, at least before the day that Cranmer took it upon him, not to pronounce a divorce, which he never did, but to declare the union itself null and void, or at an end; for her subsequent carriage towards the Queen Dowager and her daughter Mary, she was personally responsible-and let her be blamed. Nothing of all this, however, and though it had been ten times greater, would ever have been so severely censured, had Anne Boleyn,

39 Percy was married to a daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, about 1524, in consequence of a previous contract between that nobleman, and the Earl his father. The father dying in 1527, it was the same man whom Wolsey had once so thwarted, who, with Sir W. Walshe, was sent by Henry to apprehend him in 1530.

40 Agnes Strickland.

41 Sloane MS., no. 2495.

after she came to the throne, only lent her influence in favour of "the old learning." Here it was that, in the estimation of leading men in power, she had erred so grievously. Here lay her sin unpardonable. There were certain palpable steps never to be forgiven, and which, in the eye of the timid and time-serving, had shown more of generous zeal, than worldly prudence. These have been too slightly explained hitherto, though a brief digression might have explained them.

Let any one peruse the account recently given of Margaret of Valois, by Merle D'Aubigné, from manuscripts of the time, and he can scarcely fail to conclude, that the early and intimate acquaintance of Anne Boleyn with such a character, must have had some beneficial effect upon her.42 But be this as it might, at all events, we have already seen

42 It was creditable to the Earl of Wiltshire, while yet Lord Rochford, as well as his daughter, that society with such a princess was preferred and prized; for many historians agree in allowing to her this privilege, and Anne could not fail to have enjoyed benefit from it, ultimately. Margaret of Valois was an ardent reader of the Scriptures, and every day perused a portion of them, or rather twice a day. She has described this habit so beautifully herself, in the preface to her tales, that we must present it in her own words, since they are so very appropriate to these pages.

"You ask me, my children, to do a very difficult thing--to invent a diversion that will drive away your ennuis. I have been seeking all my life to effect this, but I have found only one remedy, which is, reading the Holy Scriptures. In perusing them, my mind experiences its true and perfect joy; and from this pleasure of the mind, proceed the repose and health of the body. If you desire me to tell you what I do, to be so gay and so well, at my advanced age; it is because as soon as I get up, I read these sacred books. There I see and contemplate the will of God, who sent his Son to us on earth, to preach that Holy Word; and to announce the sweet tidings, that he promises to pardon our sins and extinguish our debts, by giving us his Son, who loved us, and who suffered and died for our sakes. This idea so delights me, that I take up the Psalms, and sing them with my heart; and pronounce with my tongue, as humbly as possible, the fine hymns with which the Holy Spirit inspired David, and the sacred authors. The pleasure I receive from this exercise, so transports me, that I consider all the evils that may happen to me in the day, to be real blessings; for I place Him in my heart, by faith, who endured more misery for me. Before I sup, I retire in the same manner, to give my soul a congenial lesson. At night, I review all that I have done in the day; I implore pardon for my faults; I thank my God for his favours; and I lie down in his love, in his fear, and in his peace, my soul being free from every worldly anxiety. Lo! my dear children, what has, for a long while, made me so happy. I have sought every where else, but have found nothing but this, so solid and so satisfying-and if you will give an hour every morning to such reading, and say your prayers devoutly during the mass, you will perceive in this solitude those charms which will attend you in every city. Indeed, whoever knows God, will find the most beautiful things in Him; but without Him what is there that will not become offensive and disagreeable? You must believe what I say, if you wish to have a safe and pleasant life."

Between the Courts of France and England there were several points of resemblance at this period, so far as these two females were concerned, and in consequence of which, the Queen of Navarre must have felt deeply the death of one, whom she had known so well. Ever since the infatuated alliance of Francis I., in 1533, with Rome, Queen Margaret had well known what it was to be suspected, opposed, and hated, for her opinions. Montmorency, the Premier, had told the King that if he wished to exterminate heresy, he must begin with his own Court, and, especially, with his sister, the Queen of Navarre. Her table, however, was still the resort of those who loved the Scriptures, and there, in 1536, sat Lefevre, their translator into French, at the advanced age of one hundred, who died next year. There, the last end of the murdered Queen of England must have been canvassed, and duly appreciated. Indeed, it is rather a singular coincidence, that for the earliest account, as well as many of the most important particulars, we are indebted not to any English, but to two French authorities, who were in London at the moment, and saw or heard what they described. The first of these, "Histoire de Anne Boleyn, par un Contemporain," a metrical narrative, too, is dated at London so early as the 2d of June, or only fourteen days after her death, and a week before Latimer preached to the Bishops. The other, by Crispin, Lord of Milherve, was preserved by Meterin, the Dutch ConsulGeneral, in his "Histoire de Pays Bass, 1618." Burnet, and all subsequent historians, have

that, as early as 1529, Anne had possessed at least one publication of Tyndale-" The Obedience of a Christian man." It was a species of writing for which her previous acquaintance with Margaret had fully prepared her; and had she proceeded no farther, the offence would have been passed over. This, however, happened before she was Queen of England. Afterwards she went much farther, and to such extent that all she had said or done before was as nothing.

There were two men especially, who, through her influence, at last became Bishops, and the unprecedented circumstances of their accession, constituted mortal offence. Their appointments were already noticed last year; but, in justice to the Queen, they come before us again. No other than two Italians, nay Roman Cardinals, were deprived of both office and revenue, before these men could be so advanced. At such a time, so far as money was concerned, it might have been said, "Let them go, but woe to the men who shall be put in their places.' ."43 This, however, was not all. These two successors had been long peculiarly obnoxious to the gentlemen of " the old learning." The first had been marked as a transgressor from the days of Wolsey; and the second, as early as 1530, had incurred the wrath of Nix, the old Bishop of Norwich, to such a degree, that he said, in slaying Bilney, he was "afraid that he had slain Abel and saved Cain alive." But far worse than this, the first of these men had incurred the wrath of no less than Stokesly, the reigning Bishop of London, and lay under his censure. He had not only examined and molested him in 1532, but, by the 3d of October 1533, inhibited him from preaching within the diocese of London. This, however, with all his quaintness, it will be now acknowledged, was the noblest character then living in all England,—the only man who ever boldly, and without evasion, spoke the truth to Henry VIII., and was afterwards no less faithful to Anne Boleyn. We need not name HUGH LATIMER. But who could be expected now to interpose in his favour? It was no other than the Queen; and if her achievement in rescuing him from the fangs of Stokesly and his fellows, was to be followed by any farther mark of her personal regard, she could not fail to incur most virulent hatred. Even thus far, however, she had already made way for the cautious and timid Primate; and this becomes the more observable, as it is about the first time that we hear of Cranmer doing any thing in advance. He followed in the wake of Latimer

been indebted to it; and it is from this source that we derive the final address of Anne to Henry's "Lords triers." It is, finally, to a third native of France, and he a disciple of "the old learning" still, we owe the following information. "Many English gentlemen have assured me, that Henry VIII., on his death-bed, greatly repented of the offences he had committed, and, among other things, of the injury and crime committed against Anne de Boleyn, falsely overcome and accused by the charges against her."-Thevet. Though too credulous as a biographer, the simplest mind," says Turner, "must have known, whether its ears did or did not hear, what many had mentioned to them:" and, certainly, if Henry did repent of any thing at all, such conduct could not fail to meet him on his death-bed.

43 Cardinal Ghinucci, Bishop of Worcester, and Cardinal Campeggio, Bishop of Salisbury.

and the Queen. Accordingly, by the autumn of 1534, Cranmer had not only befriended Latimer, but, in the face of Stokesly's ire, he had actually"licensed divers to preach within the province of Canterbury, at his instance and request," and this, of course, embraced London.44 Next year, however, Anne proceeded much farther. By the 10th of February, the same man was preaching before the King and Queen, and upon all the following Wednesdays in Lent; 45 till at last, through the same influence, by September, Latimer, as Bishop of Worcester, occupied the place from which Cardinal Ghinucci had been expelled. Thus, the last Italian non-resident Bishop over Tyndale's native soil, from whence so many thousand pounds had been drained for half a century, being gone; it was altogether a deed so notable, that it must have been resented not only in England, but especially at Rome; and much more so, if the second man to whom we have referred, was also to be so advanced. This was Nicholas Shaxton, a most miserable contrast, indeed, to Latimer, though not at present, nor for years after. Nix of Norwich, his sworn enemy, was yet alive; and yet this man, by May 1534, was the Queen's almoner; and in February following, he succeeded in the See of Salisbury to Cardinal Campeggio.46

The Queen's decided encouragement of Latimer, was, of itself, sufficient to have sealed her doom, with the opposite party. She had entreated him to point out whatever was amiss in her conduct; and notwithstanding all the calumny which has been heaped upon her, let that conduct now be farther observed; for there were other offences, so called, of not less magnitude. By her letter to Crumwell, in May 1534, she had openly and officially avowed her approbation of the Scriptures having been imported into England; which no official man had yet dared to do, and against which Wolsey and the Bishops had been fighting all along. In short, her approbation of the Scriptures having been circulated in the vulgar tongue-her recent vindication of Mr. Harman, their zealous importer-her pointed request that he should be restored to all his forfeited privileges, as a merchant in Antwerp-her growing estimation in the eyes of the people; "for her ordinary," says one of the oldest

44 Harleian Manuscript, No. 6148, fol. 41.

45 Cranmer, quite in character, cautioned him, to "be very circumspect, to overpass and omit all manner of speech, either apertly or suspiciously sounding against any special man's facts, acts, manners, or sayings"-and to "stand no longer in the pulpit than an hour, or an hour and a half, at the most-lest the King and the Queen wax weary at the beginning," or have "small delight to the end." It is not likely that Latimer could ever adjust himself so nicely before any audience, or that he ever would. These sermons must have been great literary curiosities, at such a time; but though we know nothing of them, we shall see whether Latimer remembered this trimming, when he came to preach before Cranmer himself, and his brethren on the bench, in the memorable Convocation of this year, 1536.

46 In the preamble to the bill of deprivation, it is stated, that £3000 annually had gone direct to Rome, from these two Sees. Worcester, however, as it included the whole of Gloucestershire, must have been of most value, though we shall still rate it at only £1500. Since the year 1484, as already explained, the district had been given up to Italian absentee Prelates; so that, in the fifty preceding years, here was £75,000, which had gone to Italy. It may be remembered, that this was equal to more than a million sterling of the present day, and yet the calculation, most probably, is far too moderate.

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