THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE.
1527-1533.
Mary’s whole life was clouded, with the first whisper of the King’s “secret matter”. Until then the Princess had been surrounded with all the charm of greatness, without any of its disadvantages, for she had been so wisely educated, that she remained unspoiled by the adulation of courtiers, or by the enthusiasm with which the nation regarded her. Her delight was in study, in music, in almsgiving, in the bestowal of gifts, and in the society of her parents, both of whom were remarkable for talents above the average.[64] She had been too young to be greatly affected by the various schemes for her disposal in marriage, although she had taken her betrothal to the Emperor seriously; but her trials began when she was old enough to appreciate their meaning, and when she might reasonably have expected to realise some of the seductive prospects held before her eyes from her cradle. There was no element of romance in her character; her mental endowments were essentially of a practical nature, and she lacked almost entirely the gifts necessary to adapt them to a changing world. Nearly all her life long the times were out of joint, and she knew no other way to set them right, but that of uncompromising opposition. But she possessed in an eminent degree the virtues of her limitations; her whole conduct was moulded on examples which she had been taught to reverence as her conscience, and consistent to a fault, she saw little evil in the old order, little good in the new. Ardently affectionate, a loyal friend and bountiful mistress, she was keenly sensitive to every act of fidelity. According to the contemporary chronicle already quoted,[65] “she was so bred as she hated evil, knew no foul or unclean speeches, which when her lord father understood, he would not believe it, but would try it once by Sir Francis Brian, being at a mask in the court; and finding it to be true notwithstanding, perceiving her to be prudent, and of a princely spirit, did ever after more honour her”.
But the fatal shadow of Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, had fallen on the throne, and the king’s infatuation for her was to sweep both his wife and his daughter into a vortex of misery from which there was no escape for one of them but death. Whether Wolsey first insinuated the doubt as to the validity of the king’s marriage, in order to pander to Henry’s wandering fancies, or whether Henry himself, carried away by his passion for Anne Boleyn, evolved the idea of a possible flaw in his union with Katharine, matters little. The question was soon entangled in a mass of chicanery, and whichever of the two may have been the first to strike the match, it was clear to Wolsey, that his fortunes depended henceforth on his keeping the flame alive. The subject had been mooted as far back as 1525, and the first mention of the coming divorce, of which we have any record, is contained in a letter from Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, to Wolsey. Referring to some other business, Warham says, “it will be better not to proceed further, till this great matter of the King’s grace be ended”.[66] Again in 1526, after a long interval in which the subject seems to have been dropped, the Bishop of Bath and Wells remarked to the Cardinal of York, “there will be great difficulty circa istud benedictum divortium”.[67]
The sack of Rome by the Imperialists, and the Pope’s captivity delayed the investigation of the cause by the papal courts to which it had been referred, but in 1527, Henry’s “scruples” for having married his brother’s widow began to be talked of as the King’s “great,” “secret” or “private matter”.[68] Possibly, when Henry first began to study the Scriptures, and the writers of antiquity in search of arguments to support his “scruples,” he may not yet have fallen in love with Anne, or at least Wolsey did not know that he had. When he did set his mind on marrying her, it did not seem probable that his fancy would outlive the necessary delays and preliminaries of a divorce, even if it could be obtained, or that the ambition of the Boleyns would be equal to the influence of the Cardinal. But during Wolsey’s absence in France, the whole subject assumed a point and a piquancy hitherto undreamed of. Wolsey had not fostered Henry’s desires in order to further his marriage with the grand-daughter of a wealthy merchant. He himself aimed at nothing short of the Papacy, and he thought that by negotiating a brilliant marriage with a princess of France, he could make for himself a convenient stepping-stone thereto, far more secure than that which Mary’s marriage would afford. As the candidate of two powerful monarchs, he would practically control the next conclave; but the Boleyns could do nothing for him. He had yet to learn that Anne was strong enough to work his ruin.
Before his departure for his embassy to France, he had, in collusion with the King, held a secret legatine court, together with Archbishop Warham, and had cited Henry to appear, and answer the charge of having lived unlawfully for eighteen years with his brother’s widow. A second sitting of the court was held on the 20th May, and a third on the 31st.
Thus were the proceedings opened, but Henry, fearing that the authority of the two archbishops might not be weighty enough to bring the affair to a crisis, proposed that the question, whether a man might marry his late brother’s wife, should be submitted to the most learned bishops in England, counting on their subserviency to obtain the answer he wished. But the bishops were less amenable than he expected. Most of them replied that with a papal dispensation such a marriage would be perfectly valid.
All this time, Henry imagined that his secret had been kept; but Katharine was well aware of what was pending. On the 22nd June he broached the subject to her, telling her that he had been living in mortal sin, and that henceforth he would abstain from her company. He asked her to remove to some place at a distance from the court. Katharine, greatly agitated, burst into tears, and would neither admit the reasonableness of his doubts nor agree to live apart from him. In the actual state of affairs, Henry could do no more, and for a time nothing was changed. Anne was almost constantly at court, and the divorce was now openly spoken of, but was extremely unpopular. No one believed in Henry’s scruples, but Anne played her part with tact, and her power increased daily. To give some colour to the proceedings, Henry and Wolsey had trumped up an ingenious story. They declared that during the treaty for Mary’s marriage with Francis or the Duke of Orleans, the Bishop of Tarbes had expressed a doubt as to her legitimacy.[69] This story was made to do duty in England, but no trace of the Bishop of Tarbes having made such a remark is to be found in France, nor was any use made of the pretext in the subsequent trial at Rome.[70] It is in distinct contradiction with the well-known fact that the bishop was in favour of the marriage, and did all he could to bring it about. Moreover, during all the long and tedious discussions between the two kings at that time, not a word transpired, even when Wolsey went to France, of Henry’s intention to repudiate Katharine, not a doubt was expressed of Mary’s legitimacy. Henry always alluded to his daughter at that time as heiress to the throne. But on Wolsey’s return, matters at once assumed a different aspect. Elated with the success of his embassy, the Cardinal of York seemed to have the world at his feet. He had all but married Mary to the King of France, who was in need of nothing more than of England’s friendship. As soon as this union was accomplished, Henry’s marriage might be successfully broken, and a new one negotiated with a daughter of France, when two grateful monarchs would hold the triple crown over his expectant head. But now all this choice fabric of his dreams was imperilled by the clashing ambition of a woman, even then lightly spoken of. Anne, knowing that he would be her bitterest foe, obtained to be present at his first audience with the King, and shortly after, Henry told him that he intended to marry her. Seeing that arguments, entreaties and warnings were futile, Wolsey turned round and paid court to the rising star. But Anne never forgave his opposition, and never trusted him. She taunted Henry with his bondage to the Cardinal, and did not rest till she had stirred up strife between them, on the subject of the nomination of an Abbess of Wilton. The quarrel was patched up, but it proved to be the rift within the lute, that was to make harmony impossible, and to lead on to his fall.
Meanwhile, Mary was still in ignorance of the events that were to influence all her future. Her education went on without interruption, and in the summer of 1528, Katharine, who, in spite of overwhelming anxieties, had room in her mind for solicitude regarding her daughter’s studies, wrote to Ludovicus Vives to express a wish that he would come and teach the Princess Latin, during the following winter. He consented, and returned to England on the 1st October, “to please the King and Queen”. By this time Katharine was in dire need of help, advice and consolation. “She told him how deeply she was afflicted about the controversy concerning her marriage; and, thinking him well read in matters of moral, began to open out to him as her countryman, on the subject of her grief.”[71] Vives prudently replied that “her sorrows were a proof that she was dear to God, for that thus He was accustomed to chasten His own”. But he proved himself a true friend to the Queen, and took occasion to write to Henry, begging him to consider the danger of his course in incurring the enmity of the Emperor. If his object was to have a son, he might choose a suitable person to marry his daughter. If he were to take another wife, there was no certainty that she would bear him a son, or that a son would live. A new marriage would leave the succession doubtful, and afford grounds for civil war. He was, he said, moved to write by his duty to the King, love to England, where he was so kindly received, and anxiety for the peace of Christendom.[72]