[113] Spanish Calendar Henry VIII., 27th December 1533.
[114] Chapuys to the Emperor, 17th January 1534.
[115] Many instances are given by Chapuys of Anne’s bitter spite against Mary about this time. In February 1534 he mentions that Northumberland (Anne’s old flame, who had more than once got into trouble about her) had said that she was determined to poison Mary. Some one else had told him that Anne had sent to her aunt, Lady Clare, who was Mary’s governess, telling her if the Princess used her title “to give her a good banging like the cursed bastard that she was.” Soon afterwards the girl is reported to be nearly destitute of clothes and other necessaries. When Anne visited her daughter at Hatfield in March, she sent for Mary to come and pay her respects to her as Queen. “I know no Queen in England but my mother,” was Mary’s proud answer: and a few days afterwards Norfolk took away all the girl’s jewels, and told her brutally that she was no princess and it was time her pride was abated: and Lady Clare assured her that the King did not care whether she renounced her title or not. Parliament by statute had declared her a bastard, and if she (Lady Clare) were in the King’s place she would kick her out of the house. It was said also that the King himself had threatened that Mary should lose her head. There was, no doubt, some truth in all this, but it must not be forgotten that Chapuys, who reports most of it, was Anne’s deadly enemy.
[116] Lee’s instructions are said to have been “not to press the Queen very hard.” It must have been evident that no pressure would suffice.
[117] The Queen wrote to Chapuys soon afterwards saying that the bishops had threatened her with the gibbet. She asked which of them was going to be the hangman, and said that she must ask them to hang her in public, not secretly. Lee’s and Tunstall’s own account of their proceedings is in the Calendar of Henry VIII., 29th May 1534.
[118] This lackey’s name is given Bastian Hennyocke in the English State Papers. To him Katharine left £20 in her will. The other Spanish servants with Katharine at the time, besides Francisco Felipe, the Groom of the Chambers, and the Bishop of Llandaff (Fray Jorge de Ateca), were Dr. Miguel de la Sá, Juan Soto, Felipe de Granada, and Antonio Roca.
[119] This narrative is taken from the Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII., edited by the present writer. The author of the Chronicle was a Spanish merchant resident in London, and he was evidently indebted for this description of the scene to his friend and countryman, Francisco Felipe, Katharine’s Groom of the Chambers. The account supplements but does not materially contradict the official report of Lee and Tunstall, and Chapuys’ account to the Emperor gained from the Queen and her Spanish attendants.
[120] Chapuys to the Emperor, 29th May 1534.
[121] She had written more than one fiery letter to Charles during the previous few months, fervently urging him to strike for the authority of the Church. All considerations of her safety and that of her daughter, she said, were to be put aside. It was the duty of the Emperor to his faith that the march of heresy and iniquity in England should be stayed at any cost, and she exhorted him not to fail. (Calendar Henry VIII., February and May 1534.)
[122] Bedingfield and Tyrell were instructed in May 1534 to inform Katharine that the appeal she had made that her Spanish servants should not be penalised for refusing to take the oath to the new Act of Succession had been rejected, but licenses for the Spaniards to stay with their mistress on the old footing were soon afterwards given. (Calendar Henry VIII., May 1534.)