History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume II Part 21

[165] The proclamation ordering that Catherine should be called not queen, but Princess Dowager.

[166] Catherine de Medici.

[167] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p.

493.

[168] Sir John Hacket, writing from Ghent on the 6th of September, describes as the general impression that the Pope's "trust was to a.s.sure his alliance on both sides." "He trusts to bring about that his Majesty the French king and he shall become and remain in good, fast, and sure alliance together; and so ensuring that they three (the Pope, Francis, and Charles V.) shall be able to reform and set good order in the rest of Christendom. But whether his Unhappiness's--I mean his Holiness's--intention, is set for the welfare and utility of Christendom, or for his own insincerity and singular purpose, I remit that to G.o.d and to them that know more of the world than I do."--Hacket to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 506.

[169] John the Magnanimous, son of John the Steadfast, and nephew of the Elector Frederick, Luther's first protector.

[170] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. pp. 499-501.

[171] Princeps Elector ducit se imparem ut Regiae Celsitudinis vel aliorum regum oratores ea lege in aula sua degerent; vereturque ne ob id apud Caesaream majestatem unic.u.m ejus Dominum et alios male audiret, possetque sinistre tale inst.i.tutum interpretari.--Reply of the Elector: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 503.

[172] Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 509.

[173] I consider the man, with other two--that is to say, the Landgrave von Hesse and the Duke of Lunenberg--to be the chief and princ.i.p.al defenders and maintainers of the Lutheran sect: who considering the same with no small difficulty to be defended, as well against the emperor and the bishops of Germany, his nigh and shrewd neighbours, as against the most opinion of all Christian men, feareth to raise any other new matter whereby they should take a larger and peradventure a better occasion to revenge the same. The King's Highness seeketh to have intelligence with them, as they conjecture to have them confederate with him; yea, and that against the emperor, if he would anything pretend against the king.--Here is the thing which I think feareth the duke.--Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol VII. pp. 509, 510.

[174] Hall, p. 805.

[175] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 512.

[176] The Duke of Albany, during the minority of James V., had headed the party in Scotland most opposed to the English. He expelled the queen-mother, Margaret, sister of Henry; he seized the persons of the two young princes, whom he shut up in Stirling, where the younger brother died under suspicion of foul play (_Despatches of Giustiniani_, Vol. I. p. 157); and subsequently, in his genius for intrigue, he gained over the queen dowager herself in a manner which touched her honour.--Lord Thomas Dacre to Queen Margaret: Ellis, second series, Vol.

I. p. 279.

[177] Ex his tamen, qui haec a Pontifice, audierunt, intelligo regem vehementissime instare, ut vestrae majestatis expectationi satisfiat Pontifex.--Peter Vannes to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p.

518.

[178] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 520.

[179] Hoc dico quod video inter regem et pontificem conjunctissime et amicissime hic agi.--Vannes to Cromwell: Ibid.

[180] Vannes to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. pp. 522-3.

[181] Burnet, _Collectanea_, p. 436.

[182] Letter of the King of France: Legrand, Vol. III. Reply of Henry: Foxe, Vol. V. p. 110.

[183] Commission of the Bishop of Paris: Legrand, Vol. III.; Burnet, Vol. III. p. 128; Foxe, Vol. V. p. 106-111. The commission of the Bishop of Bayonne is not explicit on the extent to which the pope had bound himself with respect to the sentence. Yet either in some other despatch, or verbally through the Bishop, Francis certainly informed Henry that the Pope had promised that sentence should be given in his favour. We shall find Henry a.s.suming this in his reply; and the Archbishop of York declared to Catherine that the pope "said at Ma.r.s.eilles, that if his Grace would send a proxy thither he would give sentence for his Highness against her, because that he knew his cause to be good and just."--_State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 421.

[184] MS. Bibl. Imper. Paris.--_The Pilgrim_, pp. 97, 98. Cf. Foxe, Vol.

V. p. 110.

[185] I hear of a number of Gelders which be lately reared; and the opinion of the people here is that they shall go into England. All men there speak evil of England, and threaten it in their foolish manner.--Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 511.

[186] Rymer, Vol. VI. part 2, p. 189.

[187] Parties were so divided in England that lookers-on who reported any one sentiment as general there, reported in fact by their own wishes and sympathies. D'Inteville, the French amba.s.sador, a strong Catholic, declares the feeling to have been against the revolt. Chastillon, on the other hand, writing at the same time from the same place (for he had returned from France, and was present with d'Inteville at the last interview), says, "The King has made up his mind to a complete separation from Rome and the lords and the majority of the people go along with him."--Chastillon to the Bishop of Paris: _The Pilgrim_, p.

99.

[188] Strype, _Eccles. Memor._, Vol. I. p. 224.

[189] Instructions to the Earls of Oxford, Ess.e.x, and Suss.e.x, to remonstrate with the Lady Mary: _Rolls House MS._

[190] Instructions to the Earls of Oxford, Ess.e.x, and Suss.e.x, to remonstrate with the Lady Mary: _Rolls House MS._

[191] On the 15th of November, Queen Catherine wrote to the Emperor and after congratulating him on his successes against the Turks, she continued,

"And as our Lord in his mercy has worked so great a good for Christendom by your Highness's hands, so has he enlightened also his Holiness; and I and all this realm have now a sure hope that, with the grace of G.o.d, his Holiness will slay this second Turk, this affair between the King my Lord and me. Second Turk, I call it, from the misfortunes which, through his Holiness's long delay, have grown out of it, and are now so vast and of so ill example that I know not whether this or the Turk be the worst.

Sorry am I to have been compelled to importune your Majesty so often in this matter, for sure I am you do not need my pressing. But I see delay to be so calamitous, my own life is so unquiet and so painful, and the opportunity to make an end now so convenient, that it seems as if G.o.d of his goodness had brought his Holiness and your Majesty together to bring about so great a good. I am forced to be importunate, and I implore your Highness for the pa.s.sion of our Lord Jesus Christ, that in return for the signal benefits which G.o.d each day is heaping on you, you will accomplish for me this great blessing, and bring his Holiness to a decision. Let him remember what he promised you at Bologna. The truth here is known, and he will thus destroy the hopes of those who persuade the King my Lord that he will never pa.s.s judgment."--Queen Catherine to Charles V.: _MS. Simancas_, November 15, 1533.

[192] Letter to the King, giving an account of certain Friars Observants who had been about the Princess Dowager: _Rolls House MS._

[193] We remember the Northern prophecy, "In England shall be slain the decorate Rose in his mother's belly," which the monks of Furness interpreted as meaning that "the King's Grace should die by the hands of priests."--Vol. I. cap. 4.

[194] Statutes of the Realm, 25 Henry VIII. cap. 12. State Papers relating to Elizabeth Barton: _Rolls House MS._ Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, to Cromwell: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 20.

[195] Thus Cromwell writes to Fisher: "My Lord, [the outward evidences that she was speaking truth] moved you not to give credence to her, but only the very matter whereupon she made her false prophecies, to which matter ye were so affected--as ye be noted to be on all matters which ye once enter into--that nothing could come amiss that made for that purpose."--_Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 30.

[196] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._

[197] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._

[198] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent.

[199] 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

[200] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._ 25 Hen.

VIII. cap. 12. The "many" n.o.bles are not more particularly designated in the official papers. It was not desirable to mention names when the offence was to be pa.s.sed over.

[201] Report of the Commissioners--Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._

[202] Goold, says the Act of the Nun's attainder, travelled to Bugden, "to animate the said Lady Princess to make commotion in the realm against our sovereign lord; surmitting that the said Nun should hear by revelation of G.o.d that the said Lady Catherine should prosper and do well, and that her issue, the Lady Mary, should prosper and reign in the realm."--25 Henry VIII. cap. 13.

[203] Report of the Proceedings of the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._

[204] MS. Bibliot. Imper., Paris. The letter is undated, it was apparently written in the autumn of 1533.

[205] Il a des nouvelles amours. In a paper at Simancas, containing Nuevas de Inglaterra, written about this time, is a similar account of the dislike of Anne and her family, as well as of the king's altered feelings towards her. Dicano anchora che la Anna e mal voluta degli Si di Inghilterra si per la sua superbia, si anche per l'insolentia e mali portamenti che fanno nel regno li fratelli e parenti di Anna; e che per questo il Re non la porta la affezione que soleva per che il Re festeggia una altra Donna della quale se mostra esser inamorato, e molti Si di Inghilterra lo ajutano nel seguir el preditto amor per deviar questo Re dalla pratica di Anna.

[206] Hall.

[207] "I, dame Elizabeth Barton," she said, "do confess that I, most miserable and wretched person, have been the original of all this mischief, and by my falsehood I have deceived all these persons (the monks who were her accomplices), and many more; whereby I have most grievously offended Almighty G.o.d, and my most n.o.ble sovereign the King's Grace. Wherefore I humbly, and with heart most sorrowful, desire you to pray to Almighty G.o.d for my miserable sins, and make supplication for me to my sovereign for his gracious mercy and pardon."--Confession of Elizabeth Barton: _Rolls House MS._

[208] Papers relating to Elizabeth Barton: _Rolls House MS._

[209] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 415.