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21 - Henry VIIIs Wives Their Impact on History by Martin A. S. Hume · Henry VIIIs Wives Their Impact on History

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty of the Wives of Henry the Eighth and
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  Speaker 1: the parts they played in History by Martin Hume. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Fifteen thirty six
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  Speaker 1: through fifteen forty Plot and counterplot Jane Seymour and Anne
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  Speaker 1: of Cleves, Part two, at length, the day long yearned
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  Speaker 1: and prayed for by Henry came. Jane had for some
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  Speaker 1: months lived in the strictest quietude, and prayers and masses
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  Speaker 1: for her safe delivery were offered in the churches for
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  Speaker 1: weeks before in September she had traveled slowly to Hampton Court,
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  Speaker 1: and on the twelfth October fifteen thirty seven, a healthy
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  Speaker 1: son was born to her and Henry. The joy of
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  Speaker 1: the king was great beyond words. The gross sensualist, old
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  Speaker 1: beyond his years, had in vain hoped through all his
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  Speaker 1: sturdy youth for a boy who, beyond reproach, might bear
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  Speaker 1: his regal name. He had flouted Christendom and defied the
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  Speaker 1: greatest powers on earth in order to marry a woman
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  Speaker 1: who might bear him a man child. When she failed
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  Speaker 1: to do so, he had coldly stood aside, whilst his
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  Speaker 1: instruments defamed her and did her to death. And now,
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  Speaker 1: at last, in his declining years, his prayer was answered,
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  Speaker 1: and the House of Tudor was secure upon the future
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  Speaker 1: throne of England. Bonfires blazed and joy bells rang throughout
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  Speaker 1: the land. Feasts of unexampled bounteousness coarsely brought home to
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  Speaker 1: the lieges the blessing that had come to save the
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  Speaker 1: country from the calamity of a disputed succession. The Seymour
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  Speaker 1: brothers at once became, next to the King and his son,
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  Speaker 1: the most important personages in England, the elder Edward being
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  Speaker 1: created Earl of Hertford, and both receiving great additional grants
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  Speaker 1: of monastic LANs. In the general jubilation at the birth,
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  Speaker 1: the interests of the mother were forgotten. No attempt appears
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  Speaker 1: to have been made to save her from the excitement
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  Speaker 1: that surrounded her, and on the very day of her delivery,
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  Speaker 1: she signed an official letter quote Jane the Queen unquote
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  Speaker 1: to Cromwell, directing him to communicate to the Privy Council
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  Speaker 1: the joyful news. The most sumptuous royal christening ever seen
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  Speaker 1: was in bustling preparation in and about her sick chamber,
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  Speaker 1: and that no circumstance of state should be lacking. The
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  Speaker 1: mother herself, only four days after the birth, was forced
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  Speaker 1: to take part in the exhausting ceremony in the chapel
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  Speaker 1: at Hampton Court, newly decorated like the splendid banqueting hall adjoining,
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  Speaker 1: where the initials of Jane carved in stone with those
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  Speaker 1: of the King, and her arms and device on glowing
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  Speaker 1: glass and gilded scutcheon still perpetuate her fleeting presence. The
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  Speaker 1: christening ceremony was held by torchlight late in the chill
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  Speaker 1: autumn evening through the long drafty corridors, preceded by braying
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  Speaker 1: trumpets and followed by rustling crowds of elated courtiers. The
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  Speaker 1: sick woman was carried on her stately palate, covered with
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  Speaker 1: heavy robes of crimson, velvet and ermine, under a golden canopy,
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  Speaker 1: supported by the four greatest nobles in the land, next
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  Speaker 1: to Norfolk, who was one of the godfathers, the Marchioness
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  Speaker 1: of Exeitor or the infant in her arms to the
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  Speaker 1: scene of the ceremony, and the Princess Mary, fiercely avid
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  Speaker 1: of love as she ever was held the Prince at
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  Speaker 1: the font Suffolk arundel and doomed Exeter, with a host
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  Speaker 1: of other magnates stood around, whilst one towering, handsome figure
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  Speaker 1: with a long brown beard, carried aloft in his arms,
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  Speaker 1: the tiny fair girl child of Anne, the Lady Elizabeth,
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  Speaker 1: holding in her dainty hands the holy Chrism. It was
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  Speaker 1: Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, looked at askance by the rest,
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  Speaker 1: as a new man, but already overlapping them all as
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  Speaker 1: the uncle of the infant prince. During the todaeum and
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  Speaker 1: the long pompous ceremony of the baptism, the mother lay
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  Speaker 1: flushed and excited upon her couch, whilst the proud father,
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  Speaker 1: his broad beaming with pride, sat by her side, holding
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  Speaker 1: her hand. It was hard upon midnight when the Queen
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  Speaker 1: gave her blessing to her child and was carried back
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  Speaker 1: to her chamber with more trumpet blasts and noisy gratulation.
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  Speaker 1: The next day, as was to be expected, she was
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  Speaker 1: in a high fever, so ill that she was confessed
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  Speaker 1: and received extreme unction. But she rallied and seemed somewhat
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  Speaker 1: amended for the next few days, though ominous rumors were
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  Speaker 1: rife in London that her life had purposely been jeopardized
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  Speaker 1: in order to save that of the child at birth.
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  Speaker 1: They were not true, but they give the measure of
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  Speaker 1: the public estimate of Henry's character, and have been made
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  Speaker 1: the most of by Sanders, Rivadeneira and the other Jesuit historians.
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  Speaker 1: On the twenty third October, the Queenan fell gravely ill again,
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  Speaker 1: and in the night was thought to be dying. Henry
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  Speaker 1: had intended to ride to esher that day, but Quote
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  Speaker 1: could not find it in his heart end Quote to go,
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  Speaker 1: and the next night, the twenty fourth October, Jane Seymour
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  Speaker 1: died a sacrifice to improper treatment, and heartlessly exacted ceremonial
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  Speaker 1: Henry had not been married long enough to her to
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  Speaker 1: have become tired of her, and her somewhat lethargic placidity
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  Speaker 1: had suited him. She had moreover borne him the long
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  Speaker 1: looked for sun, and his grief for her loss was
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  Speaker 1: profound and no doubt sincere. Much as he hated signs
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  Speaker 1: of mortality, he wore black mourning for her for three
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  Speaker 1: months and shut himself up at Windsor, away from the
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  Speaker 1: world and above all, away from the corpse of his
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  Speaker 1: dead wife for a fortnight, Jane's body, embalmed, lay in
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  Speaker 1: the presence chamber at Hampton Court for a week. Blazing
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  Speaker 1: tapers surrounded the great hearse, and masses went on from
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  Speaker 1: dawn to midday in the chamber all night long. The
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  Speaker 1: Queen's ladies, with Princess Mary, watched before the bier until
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  Speaker 1: the end of the month, when that catafalque had been
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  Speaker 1: erected in the chapel for the former lying in state.
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  Speaker 1: On the twelfth November, with the greatest possible pomp, the
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  Speaker 1: funeral procession bore the dead queen to Windsor for burial
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  Speaker 1: in a grave in Saint George's Chapel, destined to receive
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  Speaker 1: the remains of Henry as well as that of his
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  Speaker 1: third wife, the mother of his son. The writers of
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  Speaker 1: the time, following the lead of Henry and his courtiers,
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  Speaker 1: never mentioned their grief for the queen without promptly suggesting
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  Speaker 1: that it was more than counterbalanced by their joy at
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  Speaker 1: the birth of her son, who from his first appearance
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  Speaker 1: in the world was hailed as a paragon of beauty
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  Speaker 1: and perfection. Thanksgivings for the boon of a male heir
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  Speaker 1: to the king lended their sounds of jubilation with the
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  Speaker 1: droning of the masses for the mother's soul, and the
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  Speaker 1: flare of the bonfires died down into the flickering tapers
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  Speaker 1: that dimly lit the funerals. Even Henry himself, in writing
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  Speaker 1: to give the news of his son's birth, confessed that
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  Speaker 1: his joy at the event had far exceeded his grief
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  Speaker 1: for Jane's death. So far as the Catholic party that
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  Speaker 1: had promoted it was concerned, the marriage with Jane had
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  Speaker 1: been a failure. The pilgrimage of grace had been drowned
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  Speaker 1: in the blood of ruthless slaughter, and partly because of
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  Speaker 1: Mary's scruples and fears, partly because they themselves had been
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  Speaker 1: gorged with the plunder of the church. Nearly all the
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  Speaker 1: great nobles stood aside and raised no voice, whilst Cromwell
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  Speaker 1: and his master still worked havoc on the religious houses,
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  Speaker 1: regardless of Jane's timid intercession. Boxley, Walsingham and even the
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  Speaker 1: Sacred Shrine of Canterbury yielded their relics and images venerated
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  Speaker 1: for centuries to be scorned and destroyed, whilst the vast
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  Speaker 1: accumulated treasures of gold and gems that enriched them went
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  Speaker 1: to fill the coffers of the king and their lands
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  Speaker 1: to bribe his favorites throughout England. The work of confiscation
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  Speaker 1: was carried on now with a zeal which only greed
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  Speaker 1: for the resultant prophet can't explain the attacks upon superstition
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  Speaker 1: in the church by those in authority naturally aroused a
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  Speaker 1: feeling of greater freedom of thought amongst the mass of
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  Speaker 1: the people. The establishment of an open Bible in English
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  Speaker 1: in every church for the perusal of the parishioners do is. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: most of the doctrinal changes were to Cranmer encouraged men
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  Speaker 1: to think to some extent for themselves, but though for
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  Speaker 1: purposes to which reference will be made presently. Henry willingly
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  Speaker 1: concurred in Cranmer's reforming tendencies and Cromwell's anti ecclesiastical plans
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  Speaker 1: for providing him with abundant money. He would allow no
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  Speaker 1: departure from Orthodoxy as he understood it. His love for
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  Speaker 1: theological controversy and his undoubted ability and learning in that
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  Speaker 1: direction enabled him to enforce his views with apparently unanswerable arguments,
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  Speaker 1: especially as he was able and quite ready to close
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  Speaker 1: the dispute with an obstinate antagonist by prescribing the stake
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  Speaker 1: and the gibbet, either to those who repudiated his spiritual
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  Speaker 1: supremacy or to those who, like the Anabaptists, questioned the
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  Speaker 1: efficacy of a sacrament which he had adopted. For Henry,
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  Speaker 1: it was to a great extent a matter of pride
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  Speaker 1: and self esteem now to show to his own subjects
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  Speaker 1: and the world that he was absolutely supreme and infallible,
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  Speaker 1: and this feeling, unquestionably had greatly influenced the progress effected
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  Speaker 1: by the Reformation and emancipation from Rome made after the
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  Speaker 1: disappointing marriage with Jane Seymour. But there was also policy
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  Speaker 1: in Henry's present action. Throughout the years fifteen thirty six
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  Speaker 1: and fifteen thirty seven, Francis and the Emperor had continued
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  Speaker 1: at war, but by the close of the latter year
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  Speaker 1: it was evident that both combatants were exhausted and would
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  Speaker 1: shortly make up their differences. The papal excommunication of Henry
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  Speaker 1: and his realm was now in full force, making rebellion
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  Speaker 1: against the king a laudable act for all good Catholics,
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  Speaker 1: and any agreement between the two great continental sovereigns in
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  Speaker 1: union with Rome voted ill for England and its king.
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  Speaker 1: There were others too, to whom such a combination voted ill.
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  Speaker 1: The alliance between France and the Infidel Turk to attack
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  Speaker 1: the Christian Emperor had aroused intense indignation amongst Catholics throughout
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  Speaker 1: the world against Francis and the Pope. Utilizing this feeling,
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  Speaker 1: strove hard to persuade both Christian sovereigns to cease their
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  Speaker 1: fratricidal struggle and to recognize that the real enemy to
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  Speaker 1: be feared and destroy Royd was Lutheranism or heresy in
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  Speaker 1: their midst During the Emperor's absence and the war, Protestantism
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  Speaker 1: in Germany had advanced with giant strides. The princes had
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  Speaker 1: boldly refused to recognize any conciliatory council of the Church
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  Speaker 1: under the control of the Pope, and the pressure used
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  Speaker 1: by the Emperor to compel them to do so aroused
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  Speaker 1: the suspicion that the day was fast approaching when Lutheranism
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  Speaker 1: would have to fight for its life against the imperial
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  Speaker 1: suzerin of Germany. Already the forces were gathering. George of Saxony,
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  Speaker 1: the enemy of Luther, was hurrying to the Grave, and Henry,
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  Speaker 1: his brother and heir, was a strong Protestant. Philip of
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  Speaker 1: Hesse had two years before thrown down the Gauge and
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  Speaker 1: had taken by force from the Emperor the territory of Wurttemborg,
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  Speaker 1: and had restored the Protestant Duke alwarch Charles's brother Ferdinand,
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  Speaker 1: who ruled the Empire, clamored as loudly as did Mary
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  Speaker 1: of Hungary and Flanders and Eleanor of Austria in France,
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  Speaker 1: for a peace between the two champions of Christendom, the
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  Speaker 1: repudiation by France of the Turkish Alliance, and a concentration
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  Speaker 1: of the Catholic forces in the world before it was
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  Speaker 1: too late to crush the hydra of heresy which threatened
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  Speaker 1: them all. It was natural in the circumstances that the
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  Speaker 1: enemies of the papacy should be drawn together a fellow
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  Speaker 1: feeling makes us wondrous kind and a common danger through
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  Speaker 1: Henry of England and Philip of Hesse together. Henry was
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  Speaker 1: no Lutheran, and did not pretend to be. He had
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  Speaker 1: been drawn into the Reformation by the process that we
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  Speaker 1: have followed, in which interested advisers had worked upon his
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  Speaker 1: passions and self esteem. But he had gone too far
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  Speaker 1: in defiance of Rome now to turn back, and was
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  Speaker 1: forced to look to his own safety by such policy
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  Speaker 1: as was possible to him. For several months after Jane
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  Speaker 1: Seymour's death, the envoys of the German Protestants were in
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  Speaker 1: England in close negotiation with Henry and Cromwell. In order
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  Speaker 1: that a close league should be made, it was necessary
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  Speaker 1: that some common doctrinal standpoint should be agreed upon, and
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  Speaker 1: infinite theological discussions took place to bring this about. Henry
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  Speaker 1: would not give way on any principal point, and the
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  Speaker 1: Protestant ambassadors went home again without a formal understanding. But
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  Speaker 1: though Henry remained as he intended to do thus unpledged,
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  Speaker 1: it was good policy for him to impress upon the Germans,
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  Speaker 1: by his ruthless suppression of the monastery and his prohibition
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  Speaker 1: of the ancient superstitions, that he was the enemy of
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  Speaker 1: their enemy, and that if he was attacked for heresy,
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  Speaker 1: it would be incumbent upon the Lutherans to be on
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  Speaker 1: his side, even against their own suzerin This was not, however,
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  Speaker 1: the only move made by Henry against the threatening danger
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  Speaker 1: of a joint attack of the Catholic powers. He had
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  Speaker 1: hardly thrown off his mourning for Jane before he turned
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  Speaker 1: his hand to the old game of dividing his rivals.
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  Speaker 1: His bluff was as audacious and brilliant as usual to
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  Speaker 1: the Imperial and French ambassadors. In turn, he boasted that
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  Speaker 1: either of their masters would prefer his friendship and alliance
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  Speaker 1: to that of the other, and brightly convinced that he
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  Speaker 1: would really be more likely to gain latitudinarian Francis than Charles,
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  Speaker 1: he proposed in the spring of fifteen thirty eight that
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  Speaker 1: he should marry a French princess. As the two great
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  Speaker 1: Catholic sovereigns drew closer together, though still nominally at war
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  Speaker 1: in Italy, Henry became indeed quite an eager wooer. His friend,
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  Speaker 1: Sir Francis Bryan, was sent to Paris secretly to forward
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  Speaker 1: his suit, and obtained a portrait of the Duke of
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  Speaker 1: Guiesu's second daughter, the sister of the King of Scotland's bride,
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  Speaker 1: Mary of Lorraine, with which Henry confessed himself quite smitten.
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  Speaker 1: He had before this, only three months after Jane's death,
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  Speaker 1: made a desperate attempt to prevail upon Francis to let
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  Speaker 1: him have Mary of Lorraine herself, though she was already
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  Speaker 1: betrothed to the King of Scots, his nephew. But this
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  Speaker 1: had been positively and even indignantly refused. Even the younger
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  Speaker 1: daughter of Gyeese, beautiful as she was, did not quite
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  Speaker 1: satisfy his vanity. Both he and his agent Brian, who
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  Speaker 1: was a fit representative for him, disgusted Francis by suggesting
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  Speaker 1: that three other French princesses should be taken to Calais
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  Speaker 1: by the Queen of Navarre, Francis's sister, in order that
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  Speaker 1: they might be paraded before the King of England for
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  Speaker 1: his selection. Quote like Hackney's end quote, as was said
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  Speaker 1: at the time, he thought that the angry repudiation of
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  Speaker 1: such an insulting proposal was most unreasonable. Quote how can
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  Speaker 1: I choose a wife by deputy, he asked, I must
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  Speaker 1: depend upon my own eyes end quote. Besides, he added,
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  Speaker 1: he must hear them sing and see how they comported themselves. Perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: suggested the French ambassador sarcastically, he would like to go
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  Speaker 1: further and test the ladies in other ways, as the
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  Speaker 1: knights of King Arthur used to do. Henry colored at this,
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  Speaker 1: but wantingly replied that he could if he pleased Mary
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  Speaker 1: into the Imperial house, but he would not marry at
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  Speaker 1: all unless he was quite sure that his new relation
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  Speaker 1: would prefer his alliance to all others. When at length
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  Speaker 1: in June the Truce of Nice was signed, and soon
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  Speaker 1: afterwards the fraternal meeting and close community between Francis and
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  Speaker 1: Charles was effected at Egmont, Henry began to get seriously alarmed.
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  Speaker 1: His matrimonial offers, to his surprise, were treated very coolly.
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  Speaker 1: All his attempts to breed dissension between the Imperial and
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  Speaker 1: French ambassadors, who were now hand in glove, were laughed at,
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  Speaker 1: and the intimate confidence and friendship between his two Catholic
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: rivals seemed at last to bring disaster to Henry's very doors,
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  Speaker 1: for it was not concealed that the first blow to
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  Speaker 1: be struck by the Catholic confederacy was to be upon
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  Speaker 1: the schismatic heretic who ruled England with Francis. There was
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  Speaker 1: no more to be done, for Henry and Brian, by
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  Speaker 1: their want of delicacy, had between them deeply wounded all
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  Speaker 1: the possible French brides and their families. But at least
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  Speaker 1: Henry hoped that sufficient show of friendship with Charles might
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  Speaker 1: be simulated to arouse Francis's jealousy of his new ally.
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  Speaker 1: Henry therefore began to sneer at the patch of friendship,
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  Speaker 1: as he called it. And how about Milan, he asked
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the French ambassador, knowing that that was the still rankling sore,
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  Speaker 1: And soon he began to boast more openly that he
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  Speaker 1: himself might have Milan by the session of it as
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  Speaker 1: a dower to Dom Luis of Portugal on his marriage
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  Speaker 1: with the Princess Mary, whilst Henry himself married the young
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  Speaker 1: widowed Duchess of Milan, Charles's niece, Christina of Denmark, that clever,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: quick witted woman whose humorous face lives forever on the
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  Speaker 1: canvas of Holbein in the English National Gallery. There had
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: been a Spanish ambassador, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, in England
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  Speaker 1: since the spring of fifteen thirty seven to negotiate the
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Portuguese marriage of the Princess Mary, but the eternal questions
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  Speaker 1: of dowry, security and the legitimacy of the princess had
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  Speaker 1: made all negotiations so far abortive. Now they were taken
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: up more strongly by means of Wyatt at Madrid and
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: by special envoys to Mary of Hungary and Flanders. It
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: was all buckler play, as the imperial agents, and Charles
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  Speaker 1: himself soon found out. Henry and Cromwell knew perfectly well
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  Speaker 1: that no stable alliance with the Emperor was possible then
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  Speaker 1: unless their religious policy was changed, and they had gone
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  Speaker 1: too far to change it without humiliation, if not destruction.
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  Speaker 1: To Henry, the real object of the negotiations being simply
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: to obtain some sort of promise about the Session of
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  Speaker 1: Milan by which Francis might be detached from the imperial alliance.
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  Speaker 1: But it was unsuccessful, and for once the two great
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  Speaker 1: antagonists held together for a time against all Lutheranism and heresy.
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  Speaker 1: Then Henry and Cromwell had to look anxiously for support
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  Speaker 1: and alliances elsewhere. To the King, it was a repugnant
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  Speaker 1: and humiliating necessity. He had puffed himself into the belief
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  Speaker 1: that he was the most potent and infallible of sovereigns,
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  Speaker 1: and he found himself for the first time scorned by
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  Speaker 1: all those he had reason to fear. He the embodiment
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  Speaker 1: of the idea of regal omnipotence, would be forced to
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  Speaker 1: make common cause with those who, like the German Protestants,
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  Speaker 1: stood for resistance to supreme authority, with usurpers like Christian
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the third of Denmark and trading democracies like Lubeck, with
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  Speaker 1: much hesitation and dislike. Therefore, he listened whilst Cromwell urged
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  Speaker 1: the inevitable policy upon him, which led him farther and
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  Speaker 1: farther away from the inner circle of potentates to which
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  Speaker 1: he and his father had gained entrance. In the course
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: of the events related in the first chapters of this book,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Cromwell's arguments would probably have been unavailing but for the
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: opportune discovery, in the usual fortuitous Cromwell fashion, of a
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: dangerous aristocratic conspiracy against Henry himself. Cardinal Pole had been
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: entrusted with the papal excommunication and everywhere impressed upon English
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Catholics the duty of obeying their spiritual father by deposing
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  Speaker 1: the king. Whether anything in the form of a regular
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: conspiracy to do this existed in England is extremely doubtful,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: But the Cardinal had naturally written to his relatives in England,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: especially to his brother Geoffrey, and perhaps to his mother,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: the Countess of Salisbury, a princess of the blood, Royal
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: of York. First, Jeoffrey was seized and carried to the tower,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and some sort of incriminating admission drawn from him by
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: threats of torture, though so far as can be gathered,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: nothing but the repetition of disa affected conversations. It was enough, however,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: for Cromwell's purpose when he needed it, and the fatal
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: net was cast over Pohle's elder brother, Lord Montague, the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Marquess of Exeter, allied to the Royal House, the Master
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: of the Horse, Sir Nicholas Carew, Sir Edward Neville, and
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: half a score of other high gentlemen known to be
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: faithful to the old Cause, all to be unjustly sacrificed
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: on the scaffold to the fears of Henry and the
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: political exigencies of Cromwell. Even the women and children of
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the supposed sympathizers with the papacy were not spared, and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the aged Countess of Salisbury with her grandson, and the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Marchioness of Exeter with her son were imprisoned with many
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: humbler ones. The defenses of the Kingdom on the coast
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: and towards Scotland were rapidly made ready to resist the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: tack from abroad, which indeed looked imminent. And when the
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: noble and Conservative party had been sufficiently cowed by the
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: sight of the blood of the highest of its members,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: when the reign of terror over the land had made
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: all men so dumb and fearsome that none dared say
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: to him nay, Cromwell felt himself strong enough to endeavor
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: to draw England into the league of Protestant princes and
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: defy the Catholic world. The position for Henry personally was
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: an extraordinary one. He had gradually drifted into a position
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: of independence from Rome, but he still professed to be
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: a strict Catholic In other respects. His Primate Cranmer and
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: several other of his bishops, whose ecclesiastical status was unrecognized
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: by the Pope, were unquestionably and not unnaturally Protestant in
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: their sympathies. Whilst Cromwell was simply a politician who cared
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: nothing for creeds and faiths except as ancillary to state policy.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Francis and even on occasion Charles himself, made little of
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the taking church property for lay purposes when he needed it.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: He had more than once been the ally of the
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: infidel against Catholic princes, and his religious belief was notoriously lax,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: and yet he remained quote the eldest son of the
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: church end quote. Charles had struggled successfully against the papal
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: pretensions to control the temporalities of the Spanish Church. His
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: troops had sacked Rome and imprisoned the Pope, and his
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: ministers for years had bullied pontiffs and scolded them as
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: if they were airing schoolboys. Excommunication had fallen upon him
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and his and as hard things had been said of
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: him in Rome as of Henry, and yet he was
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the champion of Catholic Christendom. The conclusion is obvious that
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: henry sin towards the papacy was not primarily the spoliation
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: of the church, the repudiation of Catherine, or even the
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: assumption of control over the temporalities, but that he had
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: arrogated to himself the spiritual headship in his realm. In
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: most other respects, he was as good a Catholic as Charles,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: and a much better one than Francis. And yet under
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: stress of circumstances, he was forced into common cause with
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the growing party of reform in Europe, whose separation from
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the Church was profoundly doctrinal and arose from entirely different
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: motives from those of Henry. The danger that threatened England
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: at the time early fifteen thirty nine was not really
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: quite so serious as it seemed. For close as the
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: alliance between Charles and France was old, jealousies were not dead,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and a joint war against England would have revived them,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: whilst the papal plan of treating England commercially as outside
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: the pale of civilization would have ruined Charles's subject and
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: was impracticable. But in any case, the peril was real
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: to Henry and Cromwell, and under the stress of it
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: they were driven into the attempted policy of a Protestant confederacy.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: At the end of January fifteen thirty nine, Christopher Mont
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: was sent to Germany with the first overtures. He carried
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: letters of credence to Philip of hess and Hans Frederick
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: of Saxony, with the ostensible object of asking whether they
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: had come to any conclusion respecting the theological disputations held
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: in the previous year between their envoys and the English
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: bishops to establish a common doctrinal basis. This, of course,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: was a mere pretext, the real object of the mission
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: being to discover to what extent Henry could depend upon
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the German Protestant princes if he were attacked by their
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: suzerin the Emperor. A private instruction was given to mont
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: by Cromwell to remind one of the Saxon ministers who
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: had come to England of a former conversation about a
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: possible marriage between the young Duke of Cleves and the
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Princess Mary, and he was to take the opportunity of
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: finding out all he could about the quote beauty and qualities, shape,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: stature and complexion end quote of the elder of the
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: two unmarried daughters of the old Duke of Cleves, whose
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: eldest daughter, Sibylla, had married Hans Frederick of Saxony himself
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and was as bold a Protestant as he was. At
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: the same time, approaches were made to Christian the third
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: of Denmark, who had joined the Evangelical League, and gradually
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the forces against the papacy were to be knitted together.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: An excuse also was found to send English envoys to
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Cleaves itself to offer an alliance in the matter of
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the Duchy of Gueldrus, which the Duke of Cleves had
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: just seized without the Emperor's connivance or consent. Carne and Wotton.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: The envoys were also to offer the hand of the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Princess Mary to the young Duke, and cautiously to hint
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: at a marriage between his sister Anne and Henry if
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: conditions were favorable, and like mont in Saxony, were to
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: close the ranks of Protestantism around the threatened Henry, from
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: whose court both the Imperial and French ambassadors had now
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: been withdrawn. End of Section twenty