Katharine had, in truth, need of patience. Anne grew daily more overbearing, and it was hardly to be expected that the Queen’s sense of humour should be equal to the grotesque littleness, with which the favourite exulted over her enemies. In a hapless moment she showed her contempt for them by the device, Ainsi sera, groigne qui groigne, which she caused to be embroidered on her servants’ liveries, but learned to her mortification that she had unwittingly adopted the motto of her bitter enemies, the princes of the house of Burgundy. In England, the friends of the Queen cried: “Groigne qui groigne et vive Bourgoigne!” The liveries, being thus covered with ridicule, had to be discarded, and on Christmas Day, her servants appeared in their old doublets.[73]
In October 1528, the papal legate, Cardinal Campeggio arrived in London. The Pope had charged him with the mission to do his utmost to restore mutual affection between the King and Queen, and failing this result, to open a court of inquiry, in conjunction with Wolsey.
But it was clear that no reconciliation would be possible. Henry was infatuated with Anne; and as for the legatine court, the two judges were at cross purposes, Wolsey aiming at nothing but a verdict against the marriage, while Campeggio was determined that justice should be done. His policy was to counteract the haste with which the proceedings were hurried forward, “with great strides always faster than a trot,” and in this he succeeded so well, that the legates being pressed to give sentence in the King’s favour by the 22nd July, Campeggio declared, that if Wolsey agreed with him, he was willing to pronounce sentence, otherwise it would not be pronounced. The cause was then removed to Rome, to be tried before the Court of the Rota, and it being apparent that Wolsey possessed neither weight nor credit with the Pope, his fall became imminent. Anne had not schemed in vain, and his disgrace filled her with exultation, although her cause was in no way benefited by it.
We are greatly indebted for the history of the Queen and the Princess Mary, during the next few years, to the interesting despatches of the imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, who arrived in England in August 1529. He was a native of Switzerland, aged about thirty, of distinguished, and even courtly manners, eloquent, quick-witted and trustworthy. Charles V. had been so much impressed with his sagacity that he sent him as ambassador, first to Francis I., then to Henry VIII., both enemies who required judicious handling. Full of minute details, his letters cannot be said to present either a wholly impartial, or still less a one-sided view of passing events. Chapuys was an avowed friend of the unhappy Queen and of her daughter, but as the accredited envoy of Charles V. he would not be likely to furnish him with false statements, or garbled facts, and although his natural bias leads him to write with eulogy of the Queen and the Princess, and with acrimony of their enemies, he would not have been the diplomatist he proved himself to be had he misled Charles as to the details of the tragedy that was being played before his eyes. He was a shrewd observer, tactful and discreet, so that he never compromised his position at court by showing too much zeal. He contrived to give Henry and Cromwell the impression that he was acting solely as the Emperor’s diplomatic agent, and thus was at first allowed to communicate freely with Katharine and Mary, and was often able to render them important service.
In transcribing portions of these letters, Dr. Gairdner’s excellent translations of the original documents in the Vienna archives, and the versions of Don Pasquale de Gayangos have been used. Mr. Rawdon Brown’s transcripts from the Venetian archives are still important, and later on, of even greater interest.
The condition in which Chapuys found the English Court was unique. Henry continued to treat Katharine with outward decency; they still sometimes dined together in public, and occasionally hunted in each other’s company. But Anne was never far off, and when at court, was treated with as much ceremony as the Queen herself. Mary was seldom allowed to visit her parents, probably because of Anne’s intense dislike to her. The favourite was, perhaps not unnaturally, less jealous of the wife whom Henry had ceased to care for, than of the daughter whom he was supposed to idolise. Both at Hampton Court and Windsor there was ample accommodation for the Queen, and the mistress as well; but at York Place, Whitehall, which Henry had seized on Wolsey’s fall, there was no suitable apartment for Katharine; and Anne was always best pleased to be there, for then Henry left his wife at Greenwich. But the court was seldom in London, and Anne agitated incessantly that she might be banished.[74]
In March 1531, Mary was allowed to visit her mother; but in April she had an illness, and wrote to the King that no medicine would do her so much good as to see him and the Queen, and desired his permission to come to them both at Greenwich. “This,” said Chapuys, “has been refused, to gratify the Lady, who hates her as much as the Queen, or more so, chiefly because she sees the King has some affection for her. Of late, when the King praised her in the Lady’s presence, the latter was very angry, and began to vituperate the Princess very strangely. She becomes more arrogant every day, using words and authority towards the King, of which he has several times complained to the Duke of Norfolk, saying that she was not like the Queen, who had never in her life used ill words to him.”[75]
On the 14th May, he writes: “The King, dining the other day with the Queen, as is usual in most festivals, began to speak of the Turk, and the truce concluded with your Majesty, praising your puissance, contrary to his wont. Afterwards, proceeding to speak of the Princess, he accused the Queen of cruelty, because she had not made her physician reside continually with her; and so the dinner passed off amicably. Next day, when the Queen, in consequence of these gracious speeches, asked the King to allow the Princess to see them, he rebuffed her very rudely, and said she might go and see the Princess if she wished, and also stop there. The Queen graciously replied, that she would not leave him for her daughter, nor for any one else in the world, and there the matter stopped.”
Worried at the opposition which he encountered in his efforts to get rid of Katharine, Henry told the Duke of Norfolk that it would have been a great blessing if this marriage had never been made, but on second thoughts, he added, “nevertheless, this would have been a great pity, since of it there had come such a pearl as the Princess, who was one of the most beautiful and virtuous ladies of the world”.[76]
In 1530, Mary was still called Princess of Wales, and until the autumn of the following year, her father kept up an appearance of civility towards her mother, visiting her in her apartments every three days. At last, however, he left her at Windsor, and went away hunting with Anne. Katharine sent to inquire after his health, and he replied by an angry letter, forbidding her to write to him. To add to the insult, there was no address on the letter, “probably,” says Chapuys, “because a change of name was contemplated; but the Princess is with her, and this will make her forget her grief for the absence of the King. They amuse themselves by hunting, and visiting the royal houses round Windsor, expecting some good news from Rome.”[77]