[103] Chronicle of Henry VIII. Cranmer, in his letter to Hawkins giving an account of the festivities on this occasion (Harl. MSS., Ellis’s Original Letters, vol. 2, series 1), says that after the banquet in the hall of the old palace, “She was conveyed owte of the bake syde of the palice into a barge and, soe unto Yorke Place, where the King’s Grace was before her comyng; for this you must ever presuppose that his Grace came allwayes before her secretlye in a barge as well frome Grenewyche to the Tower, as from the Tower to Yorke Place.”
[104] Stow gives some curious glimpses of the public detestation of the marriage, and of the boldness of Friar Peto in preaching before the King at Greenwich in condemnation of it; and the letter of the Earl of Derby and Sir Henry Faryngton to Henry (Ellis’s Original Letters, vol. 2, series 1) recounts several instances of bold talk in Lancashire on the subject, the most insulting and opprobrious words being used to describe “Nan Bullen the hoore.”
[105] Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
[106] Spanish Calendar Henry VIII., 11th July 1533.
[107] Katharine was even more indignant shortly afterwards, when she was informed that of the sum apportioned to her sustenance, only 12,000 crowns a year was to be at her own disposal, the rest, 18,000 crowns, being administered by an agent of the King, who would pay the bills and servants. She was for open rebellion on this point—she would rather beg her bread in the streets, she said, than consent to it—but Chapuys knew that his master did not wish to drive affairs to an extremity just then, and counselled submission and patience. (Ibid., 23rd August.)
[108] Chapuys to the Emperor, 30th July 1533.
[109] Chapuys writes a day or two afterwards: “The baptism ceremony was sad and unpleasant as the mother’s coronation had been. Neither at Court nor in the city have there been the bonfires, illuminations, and rejoicings usual on such occasions.”
[110] Katharine had shortly before complained of the insalubrity of Buckden and its distance from London.
[111] Katharine’s appeal that she might not be deprived of the service of her own countrymen is very pathetic. She wrote to the Council: “As to my physician and apothecary, they be my countrymen: the King knoweth them as well as I do. They have continued many years with me and (I thank them) have taken great pains with me, for I am often sickly, as the King’s grace doth know right well, and I require their attendance for the preservation of my poor body, that I may live as long as it pleaseth God. They have been faithful and diligent in my service, and also daily do pray that the King’s royal estate may long endure. But if they take any other oath to the King and to me (to serve me) than that which they have taken, I shall never trust them again, for in so doing I should live continually in fear of my life with them. Wherefore I trust the King, in his high honour and goodness, and for the great love that hath been between us (which love in me is as faithful to him as ever it was, I take God to record) will not use extremity with me, my request being so reasonable.”—Privy Council Papers, December 1533.
[112] Spanish Calendar Henry VIII., 27th December 1533.