presumption that the repudiation of Catherine was not then in contemplation.

Ferdinand died Jan. 1516, and was succeeded by his grandson Charles, the fifth of that name. The first public exception to the lawfulness of Henry's marriage seems to have originated with Charles himself. By the 4th article of the treaty of Windsor, so denominated from having been signed there in 1522, (Charles being in England that year) it was stipulated that the Emperor should espouse the Princess Mary, when marriageable. Pending this treaty, the Scots (December, 1524) solicited Mary for the consort of their King, but Charles interposing, asserted a prior claim;-(Herbert p. 63) a proof that he then considered this article in force, and that the objection of illegitimate birth, which he urged some years after, was not the real cause.

The battle of Pavia (February 1525) was fatal to the French;' their King was taken prisoner; the politics of Europe were thereby changed, and Francis became the future ally of England.

In March an embassy was sent from England to Spain,2 in which the completion of the 4th article of the treaty of Windsor above-mentioned, was demanded; when Charles' council raised objections to the incestuous birth of Mary (Hall 149)-excuses were made for preferring Isabella, the Infanta of Portugal, whom Charles espoused early in the following year; and our historians remark, that he could not be greatly scandalized by Henry's other name than Earl of Chester and Flint. Edward III. first used the ceremony of creation by letters patent and investiture, which has since continued; and for want of which, Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, however in their turns they may have been called Princes and Princesses of Wales, were not truly such.

These which were so created, either by parliamentary writ or special charter, are these that follow- -Among these, the first after 1504 was Henry Tuther, Duke of York, the second son of Henry VII., afterwards King Henry VIII.; after him was Henry Frederick Stuart, eldest son of James the I., monarch of Great Britain, 1610. (Wright's edition, 8vo. 1773.)

This reverse produced that league of which Henry, in vain, was solicited to be the protector; it was dignified by the name of Holy, because the Pope was at the head of it. Original correspondence relating to this confederacy and the previous steps to it, are to be found among the "Lettere di Principi," and comprise great part of the first and second volumes of that collection; those between Charles and Clement, in which they mutually develop their own characters, are very interesting. The Papal nuntii in England were, Ugo di Gambara, his prothonotary, and Giovanni Battista Sanga, one of his secretaries; their commission is dated September 18th, 1526.-(Acta Regia, p. 382.) There are several letters addressed to them while they were in this country.-Ibid.

2 Sir Francis Pointz, Knight, also was, on the 10th of this month delegated to Spain, where Dr. Edward Lee, and Hierome, Bishop of Worcester, (lately come from Rome) were residents on the part of our King.— (Herbert, p. 83.)

divorce, since to evade a solemn engagement no longer his interest to observe, he married his own niece.

On the 5th of May, 1527, Rome was captured by the Imperialists, and the Pope imprisoned in the Castle of St. Angelo ;' and Charles himself, alarmed by a measure which struck the Christian world with horror, addressed the Princes of Europe, with the vain hope of exculpating himself in their opinion. On the 4th of July following, Wolsey, as ambassador to France," crossed the channel with a splendid train. He was met at Amiens by Francis, who received him with marks of the highest

Charles had frequently expressed an inclination to transport the Pope into Spain; but the fear of giving new offence to all Christendom, and filling his own subjects with horror, obliged him to forego that satisfaction. (Robertson, Charles V. v. iii. p. 8.) That Charles conceived such a plan appears from an extract of a letter written by himself, dated August 3, 1527. (Lettere di Principi, T. i. p. 111.) The merit he assumed, of setting the Pope at liberty, while he was yet a prisoner, is expressed in the Appendix, No. 8.

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2 Supposed to have been contrived by the Reforming party, to remove the Cardinal to a distance from the King. My Lord had with him such of the lordes and bishoppes, and other worthy persons as were not of the council or conspiracy." (Cavendish, p. 380.) His principal attendants are detailed in Grove, (V. iv. p. 131.) "After the Kings delivery out of the Emperors bondage, and his sons received in hostage for the Emperors and the King, our sovereigne lordes security of all such demands and requests as should be demanded of the French King, as well by the Emperor as our sovereigne lorde, the cardinall lamenting the French Kings calamity; and the Popes great adversity, who yet remained in the castle Angell, either as a prisoner or else for his defence against his enemies, travailed all that he could with the King and his council to take some order for the quietness of them bothe. At laste as ye have hearde here before, how divers of the great estates and lordes of the council with my Lady Anne lay but in await to espy a convenient time and occasion to take the cardinall in a brake, they thought it now a necessary time to cause him to take upon him the Kings commission to travell beyond the seas in this matter, and by his high wit to compass a perfect peace among these great princes and potentates. Their intent was none other, but, if they might, to get him from the King out of the realme; then might they sufficiently adventure by the help of their chief mistress, to deprave him unto the kings highness, and so in his absence to bring him in displeasure with the king, or at least to be of less estimation." These intrigues, in which the Cardinal bore so large a part, did not redound to the glory of his country. Our merry neighbours even then bad begun to make our diplomatic inferiority the subject of their sport and ridicule. William Tindall, in his Practice of Popish Prelates, referring to these events, tells us, "The Frenchmen of late dayes made a play or disguising at Paris, in which the Emperor daunced with the Pope and the French King, and weried them, the King of England sitting on a hye bench, and looking on. And when it was asked why he daunced not, it was answered, that he sate there, but to pay the minstrels their wages only: as who should say, wee paid for all men's dauncing." (Tindall's Works, p. 375. A.O. 1572. Cavendish's Life of Wolsey and note. Eccles. Biography, V. i. p. 379.)

distinction. Among the articles to be discussed, were, a projected union between Francis, or his second son the Duke of Orleans, with the Princess Mary; and on the best means of restoring the Pope to liberty. He also dispatched a messenger to Rome, with a consolatory letter to the Pope, which is inserted in the Appendix (No. 9.)

The "King's question," as it was called, was now becoming the prevailing topic, and divided the Papal and Reforming party; (though it must be supposed that one of such great importance had been long privately discussed by all ranks of people) and to such a degree of intemperance were their feelings excited, that the interposition and remonstrances of the Sovereign occasionally became necessary to compose them. Henry, far from checking the investigation, undertook to study the case himself; yet, such was his self-possession, that while he condescended to invite the most able divines and canonists to engage in the discussion, he de

1 Hall gives it as one of the objects of this embassy, that Henry should marry Margaret the Duchess of Alençon, at Calais, this summer: an error which has been adopted by successive historians (Rapin excepted) down to Hume and Henry. This lady had been for eight months married to Henry D'Albert, the titular King of Navarre, (Du Tillet An. 1526) and is identified by Cavendish as his queen, in the regal train which met Wolsey at Amiens, in his present embassy. This personage, the beloved sister of Francis, and grandmother of Henry IV. distinguished for her address and ability, and more estimable for the affection she bore her brother, was repeatedly an authoress, and her poetry procured her the appellation of the Tenth Muse. Her works contain a strange mixture of piety and profaneness. She is now best remembered by the "Heptameron," a collection of tales which are much in the taste of Boccaccio, and are not deficient in the objectionable turn of that author. There is a spirited letter of her's to Pope Adrian VI. in the "Lettere di Principi," T. ii. p. 32. It is difficult to ascertain whether this historical error above alluded to owes its origin to Hall's love of gossipry, or to the malice of Polydore Virgil, who never lost an opportunity of vilifying the Cardinal, from whose justice or resentment he had been a year imprisoned. He falsely charges him with having been the first cause of estranging Henry's affections from Catherine, and of proposing the Duchess of Alençon as her successor; at that time ætate et virtute quam florentissima, though her age might not insure the genial bed" which Herbert, quoting from him, promises. Polydore Virgil farther asserts, that when the Cardinal made the proposal to the lady, she, from motives of humanity to Catherine, rejected it in these words:"noluerit quicquam audire de nuptiis, quæ nuptiæ non possent conjungi sine miserabili Catherinæ casu atque adeo interitu.” (P. V. Opera, 1. 27. p. 686. Basil. 1570.) She is thus pourtrayed by Thuanus:-" Fœmina omnibus ingenii et animi dotibus exculta: quæ tamen apud ecclesiasticos male audiebat; quod fratris in Lutheranos," &c. (l. 6. s. 8. p. 209. Londini, 1733.)

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That Henry's scruples were not infused into him either by Wolsey, or by Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, there is satisfactory proof. At the opening of the legantine court, the Cardinal makes this appeal to his sovereign :-" Sir, I most humbly require your Highness to declare before

clared, that he was "not much used to call in aid the judgment of other learned men."-Tunstall, Burnet's Collections, V. i. No. 11.

Unalterably bent on suing for the divorce, and conceiving the Pope alone competent to grant it, he, in a few weeks after the departure of Wolsey, dispatched Dr. Wm. Knight, secretary of state, to Rome, in hopes of obtaining this object of his solicitude.

all this audience, whether I have bine the chiefe and first mover of this matter unto your Majesty, or no; for I am greatly suspected of all men herein." My Lord Cardinall," quoth the King, "I can well excuse you in this matter. Mary (quoth he) ye have bine rather against me in the attempting hereof, than a setter forth, or mover of the same. The speciall cause that moved me unto this matter was a certain scrupulosity that pricked my conscience upon certain wordes spoken at a time by the Bishop of Bayon, the French ambassador, who had bine hither sent upon a debating of a marriage to be concluded betweene the Princesse our daughter the Lady Mary, and the Duke of Orleaunce, seconde son to the King of Fraunce. And upon the consultation and determination of the same, he desired respite to advertise the King his master thereof, whether our daughter Mary should be legitimate, in respect of this my marriage with this woman, being sometimes my brother's wife. Which wordes once conceived in the secrete bottom of my conscience engendered such a scrupulous doubt that my conscience was incontinently accombered, vexed and disquieted; whereby I thought myself to be in great danger of God's indignation. After 1 perceived my conscience so doubtfull, I moved it in confession to you, my Lord of Lincolne, then my ghostly father. And for as much as then you yourself were in some doubt, you moved me to ask counsell of all you my Lordes; whereupon I moved it to you my Lorde of Canterbury, first to have your licence-to put this matter in question." (Cavendish, p. 128.) "From these concurrent testimonies it should appear, that the charge which has been often urged against Wolsey, that it was through his intrigues that Longland first suggested his scruples to the King, is unfounded."-(The Editor's note on the foregoing quotation.). The justificatory declaration of Henry is perhaps alluded to in the dying words of Wolsey, as expressed to Kingston: "He is a prince of royall courage, and hath a princely harte; and rather than he will miss or want any parte of his will or pleasure, he will endanger the losse of one half of his realme. For I do assure you, I have often kneeled before him, the space sometimes of three houres to persuade him from his will and appetite: but I could never dissuade him therefrom." (Cavendish's Ecclesiast. Biography, V. i. p. 543.)

Collier, in his Ecclesiastical History, V. ii. p. 52. and Fiddes, in the Life of Wolsey, p. 444, assign very strong reasons against the possibility of Cranmer's being the first to suggest the expedient of resorting to the universities for a solution of the grand question in the divorce. The universities, in fact, had been consulted on that point, before the date of his interview with the King at Waltham, (i. e. after the dissolving of the legantine court), and Wolsey, it seems, was the first adviser of that measure. It is worthy of remark, that the writer of the life of Bishop Fisher, (who calls himself Thos. Bailey, D.D.) affirms, that the article opened and maintained by Cranmer, at this meeting with the courtiers, was that of the King's supremacy. P. 69, &c. edit. 3. (Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, V. iii. p. 437.)

He was commanded to have an interview with Wolsey, who was still in France, and to confer with him on the proper means of liberating the Pontiff. Though his journey was conducted as privately as possible, the vigilance of the Emperor was not to be eluded; he had discovered the intention of Henry, and when his secretary reached Rome, he found the Pope a prisoner' in the castle of St. Angelo, and so strictly guarded by Hernando de Alarson, the Spanish commandant, that an audience was not to be obtained, nor any intercourse allowed, but through the intervention of the Cardinal Pisani. Much time was of course lost by this secondary negociation. Wolsey marking the slow progress of the transaction, wrote (December 5, 1527) to Gregorio Casali, Henry's agent at the Papal court, to join in solicitation with Knight, in urging the Pope to expedite the completion of the King's request. His letter was expressed in strong though respectful terms; his Holiness was solicited to appoint commissioners and invest them with provisional authority for hearing, and determining the cause in England;-to grant, on certain conditions, a dispensation for the King to take another wife, with a solicitation not to revoke these acts. Four days after the departure of Wolsey's messenger from England, the Pope recovered his liberty, and retired or escaped to Orvieto.3 On the arrival of these dis

The memorable sack of Rome by the troops of Charles V. which Gibbon (c. 31. p. 323.) affirms to have been "more destructive than the ravages of the Barbarians, whom Alaric had led from the banks of the Danube," is admirably described by Robertson. (Charles V. vol. ii. p. 283.) "But the account which most truly deserves the name of authentic and original, is a little book intitled, "Il Sacco di Roma," composed within less than a month after the assault, by Lodovico the brother (nephew) of the historian Francesco Guicciardini.”—(Gibbon ibid.) The description of this awful calamity is also left us by Francesco Berni, who was in the city, and robbed of his property. (Mazzuchelli gli scrittori d'Italia.) (Appendix 16.)

2 Royal divorces were, in that age, not uncommon; and when both parties were agreed, or one compelled to assent, were obtained from the Pope without much difficulty. In 1490, Beatrice of Naples and Queen Dowager of Hungary, had been married to Ladislaus, son of Casimir, King of Poland, and who by virtue of that union became King of Hungary; this marriage ten years afterwards was dissolved by Alexander VI. Lewis XII. of France, when Duke of Orleans, had married to Jean of France, sister to his predecessor Charles VIII. was divorced, after being ten years joined in wedlock. Pope Clement VIII. dissolved the marriage of Henry IV, with Margaret of Valois.

3 "The progress of the Confederates made it now necessary either to set the Pope at liberty, or to remove him to some place of confinement more secure than the Castle of St. Angelo. Many considerations induced Charles to prefer the former, particularly his want of the money requisite as well for recruiting his army, as for paying off the vast arrears due to it. No resource therefore remained but setting his Holiness at liberty; previously, however, extorting from him, by way of ransom, a sum sufficient