[540] Cal. vi. 64, 92.
[541] Cal. v. 1545.
[542] Cal. vi. 110.
[543] Cal. vi. 465.
[544] Cal. vi. 508. Cromwell often begged to be excused from a promised interview on the plea of illness. Cf. Cal. vii. 959. Though it is certain that he suffered at times from violent attacks of ague, it is doubtful if it was always his ill-health which prevented him from fulfilling his engagements to the Imperial ambassador.
[545] Cal. vi. 918; viii. 263, 327, 355, 948; ix. 594.
[546] Cal. vi. 614, 641.
[547] Ranke, Popes, vol. i. p. 77.
[548] Cal. vi. 1426, 1427.
[549] Mr. Friedmann (Anne Boleyn, vol. i. pp. 225, 250 ff.) believes that this break with France was due to the influence of Cromwell, who had urged the King to strike out an independent policy as regards the Pope. M. Bapst (Deux Gentilshommes, pp. 97, 113), on the other hand, thinks that the King’s minister originally favoured the French alliance, and adhered to it until 1535. Neither writer produces any very conclusive evidence in support of his theory: but Mr. Friedmann’s view is certainly, on the face of it, the more plausible. It may be too much to say that it was by Cromwell’s advice that Francis was insulted at Marseilles, but it is certain that the King’s minister evinced a decided preference for an Imperial alliance long before the year 1535. Cf. Froude, The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon, p. 308.