Volume II Part 49 (1/2)

[539] Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. I.; and see Appendix, p. 241, et seq.

[540] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 452

[541] Lord Herbert, p. 188.

[542] Lord Herbert, p. 188. It will have been observed, that neither in this letter, nor in the other authentic papers connected with her death, is there any allusion to Cardinal Pole's famous story, that being on her deathbed, Queen Catherine prayed the king to allow her to see her daughter for the last time, and that the request was refused. Pole was not in England at the time. He drew his information from Catholic rumour, as vindictive as it was credulous; and in the many letters from members of the privy council to him which we possess, his narrative is treated as throughout a mere wild collection of fables. I require some better evidence to persuade me that this story is any truer than the rest, when we know that Catherine allowed the king to hear that she was dying, not from herself, but from a foreign amba.s.sador; and that such a request could have been made in the few days which intervened between this intimation and her death, without some traces of it appearing in the close account which we possess of her language and actions during those days, is in a high degree unlikely.

[543] See Lingard, Vol. V. p. 30. Hall says: ”Queen Anne wore yellow for mourning.”

[544] The directions for the funeral are printed in Lingard Vol. V., Appendix, p. 267.

[545] It ought not to be necessary to say that her will was respected--Lord Herbert, p. 188; but the king's conduct to Catherine of Arragon has provoked suspicion even where suspicion is unjust; and much mistaken declamation has been wasted in connexion with this matter upon an offence wholly imaginary.

In making her bequests, Catherine continued to regard herself as the king's wife, in which capacity she professed to have no power to dispose of her property. She left her legacies in the form of a pet.i.tion to her husband. She had named no executors; and being in the eyes of the law ”a sole woman,” the administration lapsed in consequence to the nearest of kin, the emperor. Some embarra.s.sment was thus created, and the attorney-general was obliged to evade the difficulty by a legal artifice, before the king could take possession, and give effect to the bequests.--See Strype's _Memor._, Vol. I., Appendix, pp. 252-255. Miss Strickland's valuable volumes are so generally read, that I venture to ask her to reconsider the pa.s.sage which she has written on this subject.

The king's offences against Catherine require no unnecessary exaggeration.

[546] See Vol. I. pp. 175, 176.

[547] Foxe speaks very strongly on this point. In Ellis's Letters we find many detailed instances, and indeed in all contemporary authorities.

[548] Cranmer's Letter to the King: Burnet, Vol. I. p. 323.

[549] More's _Life of More_; and see Chap. IX.

[550] Il Re de Inghilterra haveva fatto venire in la Corte sua il majordomo de la Regina et mostrava esserse mitigato alquanto. La causa della mitigation procede del buon negotiar ha fatto et fa la Catolica Mata con lo Ambaxiatore del Re de Inghilterra con persuadirle con buoni paroli et pregeri che debbia rest.i.tuir la Regina in la antigua dignita.

Dicano anch.o.r.e che la Anna e mal voluta degli Si di Inghilterra si per la sua superbia, si anche per l'insolentia et mali portementi che fanno nel regno li fratelli e parenti di Anna e che per questo il Re non la porta la affezione que soleva.--”Nuevas de Inglaterra”: _MS. Archives of Simancas._

[551] Il Re festeggia una altra donna della quale se mostra esser inamorato; e molti Si di Inghilterra lo ajutano nel seguir el preditto amore per desviar questo Re de la pratica di Anna.--_Ibid._

[552] Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 87.

[553] _Pilgrim_, p. 117.

[554] _Le Laboureur_, I. 405: quoted in Lingard, Vol. V. p. 30.

[555] Quoy qu'il en soit l'on me luy peult faire grand tort quand cires l'on a repute pour meschante. Car ce a este des longtemps son stile.--The Regent Mary to Ferdinand: _MS. Brussels._

[556] Later writers point to the ladies of the court, but report could not agree upon any single person: and _nothing_ is really known.

[557] Baga de Secretis, pouch 8: Appendix II. to the _Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records_.

[558] Cranmer to the King: Burnet, Vol. I. p. 322.

[559] I must draw particular attention to this. Parliament had been just dissolved, and a fresh body of untried men were called together for no other purpose than to take cognizance of the supposed discovery.--See the Speech of the Lord Chancellor: _Lords' Journals_, p. 84. If the accusations were intentionally forged by the king, to go out of the way to court so needless publicity was an act most strange and most incomprehensible.

[560] Constantyne says, Smeton was arrested first on Sat.u.r.day evening, at Stepney; but he seems inconsistent with himself. See his Memorial, _Archaeologia_, Vol. XXIII. p. 63.

[561] His name repeatedly occurs in ”the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII.”

[562] Five years later, after the shameful behaviour of Catherine Howard, the duke wrote to the king of ”_the abominable deeds done by two of my nieces against your Highness_;” which he said have ”brought me into the greatest perplexity that ever poor wretch was in, fearing that your Majesty, having so often and by so many of my kyn been thus falsely and traitorously handled, might not only conceive a displeasure in your heart against me and all other of that kyn, but also in manner abhor to hear speak of any of the same.”--Norfolk to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 721.