[719] Cal. xv. 822.
[720] Cal. xv. 825.
[721] Letters, 349, 350.
[722] Foxe, vol. ii. p. 433. If this story be true, the interest which the King evinced in Cromwell’s letter is to be explained rather by his anxiety concerning his divorce, than by his sympathy for his fallen minister. Certainly there is no reason to think the closing scene of the ‘Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell,’ in which a reprieve is brought from the King by Ralph Sadler after Cromwell’s head had fallen, has any foundation in fact.
[723] Cal. xv. 898.
[724] It is somewhat significant to note that in this case Henry had practically acknowledged facts considered by the canonists as ‘sufficient proof’ of consummation in the case of Arthur and Katherine, and that the King had been glad to accept as such at the time of the trial of his first divorce. This is merely one of those suspiciously convenient changes of opinion one encounters so often in dealing with the personal history of Henry VIII. Cf. Burnet, vol. i. pp. 163–164.
[725] Cal. xv. 825.
[726] Lords’ Journal, pp. 154, 155.
[727] Cal. xv. 899, 901, 953. Part of Anne’s income was derived from the manor of Canbery, previously owned by Cromwell, and at his attainder confiscated to the use of the Crown. Rymer, vol. xiv. p. 713.
[728] State Papers, vol. viii. p. 421.