III quence of ill-treatment which Catherine had received CHAP from Henry on the occasion of a quarrel between himself and his father-in-law, Ferdinand.* Stowe and Hollinshed both refer to the birth of this child, but no official documents remain respecting it, nor any further record: neither have we anything but Peter Martyr's rumour for the story of the ill-treatment, which one may wish to disbelieve, but which seems only too likely to be true. Princess In 1515 it is supposed that a similar event again Birth of disappointed the King and the nation: but on Mary February 18, 1516, a daughter was born, who lived to grow up. She was christened by the name of Mary two days afterwards, Cardinal Wolsey being her godfather." ד Another daughter was born on November 10, 1518, The after long and anxious public expectation in the hope seventh Queen's of a prince. How the event was looked forward to in child this case is shown by the State Papers, and probably they only indicate the feeling on former occasions. "It is secretly said," wrote Pace to Wolsey, on April 12, 1518, "that the Queen is with child." The Venetian ambassador wrote to the Doge, on June 6, 1518, that a report has prevailed for some time of the Queen's pregnancy, "an event most earnestly desired by the whole kingdom," and the report has been confirmed to him by a trustworthy person. The King himself wrote privately to Wolsey, in July, "I trust the Queen, my wife, be with child."" A few days afterwards a Te Deum was ordered to be anxiously 2 CHAP Sung in St. Paul's to celebrate the auspicious event,1 III and so much interest was felt in the matter, even abroad, that his ambassador at Rome wrote to Henry, A prince on August 27, that the Pope had inquired if such was looked for the case, and he had replied in the affirmative. The Venetian ambassador was always forward with intelligence, and in his despatch of October 25, he writes that the Queen is near her delivery, which is most anxiously looked for, and prays that she may have a son :3 but on November 10, he communicates to his Government the fact that "This night the Queen was delivered of a daughter, to the vexation of as many as know it." Why there was so much public anxiety and so great disappointment, is shown by his succeeding words, in which he says, "The entire nation. looked for a prince," and if the event had occurred before the betrothal of the Princess Mary to the Dauphin of France, the latter would probably have been stopped. A prince would have secured an English succession, but the betrothal of Mary to a French prince seemed to place the kingdom in danger of being handed over to its ancient enemy, "the sole fear of this kingdom being that it may pass into the power of the French King through this marriage." The king her Thus ended all hopes of a son of Catherine sucforsakes ceeding to the Crown of England, and there can be no doubt that the disappointment was a bitter one both to the King and the nation. Henceforth she was only the state partner of his throne, for he ceased to consort with her, and carried his affections to another quarter. To what extent there really had been any previous 1 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., i. 2. 2 Ibid., 4398. • Ibid., 4529. 4 It had taken place on October 5th, five weeks before. 5 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., 4568. III nection Elizabeth alienation from Catherine on the part of her husband, CHAP we have no evidence, although he seems to have acquired libertine habits some years before. Balthasar, the French ambassador, writing home in 1515, "He is a youngling, cares for nothing but girls and hunting, and wastes his father's patrimony. But we have his own words in proof that about this time he forsook the Queen altogether, putting upon her the greatest indignity that a husband could." The settled character of his alienation is shown by the intimacy which now arose between the King and Elizabeth Blunt, afterwards the wife of Sir Gilbert Talbois. His conThis lady belonged to a very anciently ennobled with Lady family; being the daughter of Sir John Blunt, and Talbois Catherine, third daughter of Sir Thomas Peshall; the former of whom was closely related to the great Lord Mountjoy, and like him, a direct descendant of Sir Walter Blunt of Rock and Sodington [1272-1315], in the reigns of Edward I. and II. Her dishonourable connection with the King resulted, sometime in the year 1519, in the birth of a son, who a.d. 1519 was christened Henry Fitz-Roy, and created Earl of Nottingham, and Duke of Richmond and Somerset on June 17, 1526. Lord Herbert says that this youth "was equally like to both parents," his mother Henry Fitz-Roy "being thought, for her rare ornaments of nature and education, to be the beauty and mistress piece of the time."8 He became the bosom friend of the brave and polished Earl of Surrey, who lamented his 6 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., 1105. 7 "The King declared to Simon Grinous" (as the latter writes to Bucer, September 10, 1531) "that for seven years he had abstained from the Queen." It is observable that in the year 1524 Wolsey published a bull (in his capacity as Legate) III father's successor CHAP death as if he had lost a brother. It is alleged by several writers of the period that the King intended Intended to appoint this son heir to the crown at a time when he had no legitimate male issue: and all accounts of him speak so highly of his capacities and disposition, as to indicate that, but for his illegitimacy, he would have been quite worthy of the position thus destined for him by his father." No records show how long Elizabeth Blunt retained her hold upon the King's affections: but it is singular to observe that she survived all the King's six wives, married Sir Gilbert Talbois (who died in 1530), and after the King's death married Lord Clinton, who was subsequently created Earl of Lincoln by Queen Elizabeth.1 And 9 This assertion is founded on a clause in the Act of Succession passed a few months before the young Duke's death. It enacted "That for lack of lawful heirs of the King's body to be procreated or begotten, as is afore limited by this Act, it shall and may be lawful for him to confer the same on any such person or persons, in possession and remainder, as should please his Highness, and according to such estate, and after such manner, form, fashion, order, and condition as should be expressed, declared, named, and limited, in his said letters patent or by his last will the Crown to be enjoyed by such person or persons so to be nominated & appointed in as large & ample a manner as if such person or persons had been his Highness' lawful heirs to the imperial Crown of this realm." [28 Hen. VIII. c. 7.] The King conferred the highest honours he could on Henry FitzRoy, short of making him Prince of Wales, and this latter title seems to have been forestalled by the creation of Mary Princess of Wales in 1518. [Burnet, i. 76.] He was made Earl Marshal, Knight of the Garter, and Lord High Admiral. He was also married, by the King's own management, to Mary, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, the highest match to be found among the subjects of the Crown. This marriage took place in 1533, and the Duke died, at the age of seventeen, on July 22, 1536. His widow was recognised as Duchess of Richmond, and had a dower from the Crown for her second marriage. Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 84, 226; Ellis' Orig. Letters, II. cxx.; State Papers, i. 577. 1 Queen Elizabeth was born about the time of the Duke of Richmond's marriage, Cranmer mentioning both events together in the letter referred to in the previous notes. The Duke being in such high favour with his father, and being all but made heir to the Crown, it is scarcely likely but that his mother was also; and it is possible that her name was given to the infant princess just born; though, of course, it must be remembered that Elizabeth was the name of the III for however short a time her actual association with CHAP the King may have continued, one can see that the influence of a young, well-born, well-educated, clever, and beautiful woman such as she was, must have tended much to draw him away more entirely from the Queen. causes of alienation from year alien only Catherine For the time had now arrived when the discrep- Other ancy of age between Henry and Catherine was the King's beginning to grow very conspicuous. In the 1518 the one was thirty-five and the other twenty-seven years of age. Under the best of circumstances such a difference tells greatly; but in this case Catherine was older even than her years, for her health was much broken, and she had been seven times a mother under circumstances of peculiar trial. Her beauty had faded away, her sprightly buoyancy had gone, and she had become, as her daughter Mary became afterwards, somewhat austere in her religious practices. Had her husband been eight years older than herself, with the cares of state upon him, all this would have been of little consequence, as the fervour of youthful passion would have diminished, and the Queen was still a person to be loved and esteemed in a very high degree. But Henry was now at the full tide of life as regarded his passions, and under their influence as a nature such as his was likely to be. The Venetian ambas- Contemsador describes the kind of man he was a few years scription of before, writing home to his court in 1515 a glowing Henry description of the King's general physique :— That child's two grandmothers. leyn, daughter of Thomas Blunt, porary de VIII.'s person |