Not a thought outside these was allowed to obtrude, for fear some error should creep in and cause untold complications, as it might well do, for the Cardinal was in communication with so many different people, both in France and Germany, that a slip of the pen might lead to unheard-of disasters. Here, in one of these confidential letters, he was writing to a lady in France, asking her to use her influence that the Lady Anne Boleyn, who had lately come to Court with her father, might be invited to return to the Court of France with as little delay as possible, and to further this the writer (Cardinal Wolsey) would do all in his power to bring about an honourable peace as soon as possible.
Miles knew well enough that his master had always opposed the war with France, and laboured incessantly to maintain the peace both with France and Germany; and he often felt, when he heard his master decried, that if people only knew as much about State secrets as he did, they would see that the King they adored was responsible for the waste and extravagance that made taxation necessary, and for which the Chancellor was blamed, he choosing to stand between the King and the people for all purposes, and to willingly take the blame that belonged of right to Henry.
But Miles rubbed his eyes in astonishment when he read that Mistress Anne Boleyn was likely to cause grave trouble with the King and Court if she could not speedily be transferred to the Court of France again. Of course he knew the young lady from hearing her talked of by most of the young men who were in attendance upon the King. Full half-a-dozen were in love with the gay, sprightly girl, who knew so well how to use her Irish black eyes and raven locks, that half the Court were in love with her, or fancied they were.
The most favoured of the lady herself was Lord Percy, a son of the Duke of Northumberland. That much Miles had learned since he had come to Greenwich, but what he did not know was that the King was so jealous of young Lord Percy that he had actually told Wolsey he must try and get this intrusive lover out of the way for him, as he was enamoured of the Lady Anne himself!
Knowing all the difficulties of playing such a game as the King desired, it was not wonderful that Wolsey should feel depressed, for this was altogether a new element in the game of statecraft; and if Anne Boleyn could be sent back to France it would leave his hands so much more free to manipulate the other strings that he held, more especially now that he had become convinced that the reform of the Church must be the next step in his policy if England was even to hold her own in the councils of Europe.
It was hard to frame and follow a policy in these transitional times. A little time back, society as a whole was a much more simple thing. As the Pope was the spiritual head of the Church—receiving his authority and power from God, and handing it to the cardinals, and the cardinals to the bishops and other dignitaries—so there had been a corresponding State hierarchy, at the head of which was the Holy Roman Emperor, as he was called. To the Emperor all the sovereigns of Europe owed titular obedience, although it was of a somewhat shadowy kind, the kings receiving their power from the will of the Emperor, and granting it in turn to the feudal lords, who, in their turn, granted it to the people on condition of certain service rendered. But this old-fashioned feudal system was fast breaking up. Henry and the King of France had both put themselves forward for election as Emperor; and now that Charles of Spain had been chosen because he could bribe the electors more heavily than his rivals, there seemed an end of the old orderly handing down of power in the State, and who could tell how soon the same influence would be at work in the Church?
There was Luther clamouring in Germany, and the best men among the clergy in England were demanding reform of abuses of the Church. The Cardinal had thought by getting himself elected Pope he could effect these reforms in the Church without endangering the Papacy, and at the same time secure for England more substantial power in the councils of Europe.
But twice he had been disappointed of the tiara, and the chance was not likely to recur again, so he must bend all his energies to the reform of the Church, which his position as Cardinal Legate gave him, and to effect this he did not want to be bothered with the lovesick ravings of the King about Anne Boleyn, for whom he felt a profound contempt, if not actual dislike, she having already come between him and the King on more than one occasion.
It might be possible by-and-bye to set aside the King's marriage with his brother's widow, for Queen Catherine had evidently ceased to charm the King, much as he loved her at first. This, perhaps, would have been a small matter if the royal couple had a family of healthy sons and daughters, but the Queen's sons all died in a most mysterious fashion as soon as they were born. Wolsey was quite aware of the anxiety of the nation that there should speedily be an heir to the throne, about whose title there could be no dispute. At the present time there was only the Lady Mary,—a rather sad-looking girl,—who was being carefully educated it is true, but whoever heard of a woman ruling this turbulent English nation?
The idea was preposterous; and once again Wolsey wished, as many another had, that he could hear of a rosy, healthy boy being born to the King and Queen. It would set men's hearts at rest, and they would turn to their trade or their farm with confidence that their labour would not be wasted in another civil war. But, with no heir-apparent to the crown, there were a dozen doors where sedition and treachery might creep in; and Wolsey decided that unless Queen Catherine should present the King with a son, likely to live, the question of the legality of their marriage must be enquired into; and then, if possible, another wife chosen for the King without delay. Wolsey had almost made up his mind who this should be, but it was not the Lady Anne Boleyn. No! no! the lady must bring dynastic power in securing a lasting peace with France; and it might be in restoring the French crown to an English king; and for this purpose he had fixed his hope on the sister of the French king, the Lady Margaret of Valois, whose portrait he had had sent over from Paris that he might judge whether she was likely to prove a suitable partner for his master.