JII CHAP For on June 27, 1505-the eve of his fourteenth birthday-the young Prince signed a long protestation before Fox, Bishop of Winchester, that he did not intend to confirm the contract made in his minority.* This formal protest indicates nothing as to the feelformal pro- ings of Henry himself, and being attested by Bishop test against Ruthal (among others), the Secretary of State, it is signed by plainly a document prepared in obedience to the wish Who causes a it to be his son of the King, and not at the desire of a lad only fourteen years of age.5 As soon as he was likely to have any feelings on the subject, Henry showed what was the nature of them by marrying his betrothed. His father dying, Henry VIII. came to the throne on April 21, 1509. There was then some further discussion respecting the lawfulness of his marriage, but of this discussion only a single trace, a letter of King Ferdinand to his ambassador, remains. The Spanish King endeavoured to refute some scruples of his daughter, and was apparently successful, for the marriage was celebrated, within six weeks of the old king's death, on June 3, 1509. Henry was at this time eighteen, and Catherine twenty-six years of age. The mar. But from the records remaining in Henry's own handHenry at writing, it is evident he loved Catherine very heartfirst happy ily in the early days of their wedded life, and that no trace of reluctance or aversion appeared at that time. Three weeks after the wedding he wrote to his fatherin-law, saying that the love he bore to Catherine was so riage with .. Ea propter, Ego Henricus Walliæ Princeps prædictus, jam proximus pubertati existens, et annos pubertatis attingens, Protestor, quod non intendo eundem prætensum contractum per quæcunque per me dicta seu dicenda, facta aut facienda, in aliquo approbare, validare, seu ratum habere. .... Protestorq. quod per nul lum dictum, factum, actum. . . volo aut intendo in præfatum contractum matrimonialem, aut in dictam Dominam Catherinam tanquam Sponsam aut Uxorem meam consentire." So Bishop Fox affirmed in 1527. Herbert's Hen. VIII., p. 274. Bergenroth's Calend. Simanc. Rec ii. 8. 7 III great, that if he were free he should still choose her CHAP for his wife in preference to all others. And on the next day he writes in a similar strain to Margaret of Savoy, singularly enough nullifying the words of the protest just quoted, by adding, that as it was his father's wish he should marry Catherine, so he had no desire to disobey now that he was of full age.R And although there was so great a difference in the Reasons ages of Henry and Catherine, the latter seems to why it was likely to be have been very attractive at this time, and well so calculated to win the affection of her young husband, brought up as he had been. She had good talents, and was highly educated, so that Erasmus wrote of her in 1518, that she was a miracle of learning. Perhaps her beauty was not of the most dazzling kind, yet a correspondent of Margaret of Savoy writes that she had "a very beautiful complexion," which by no means indicates plainness; and then, testifies the same writer, "she has a lively and gracious disposition," a buoyancy of spirits which doubtless forsook her in the troublous days of her later life. Her love for Henry was most tender from first to last. "With his health and life," she writes to Wolsey in 1513, "nothing can come amiss to me without them, I see no manner of good thing shall fall afterwards." During the King's absence from her, she begs Wolsey to write to her often about him, and her own letters to Henry are gentle, affectionate, and spirited. In short, her affection for him seems to have been very deeply rooted: "Her, that loves him with that excellence That angels love good men with."10 7 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., i.338. * Ibid., 224. In this letter Henry states that the marriage took place on June 11, and the coronation on St. John Baptist's 9 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., i. 5203, III CHAP Nor could any ill-treatment alienate her heart from him, for her touching words as she was dying were, "Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things." "1 When the shadows first life, it is not hard to see. began to fall on this sunny They had not long been married before the natural results of a discrepancy of age on the wrong side began to show themselves. Catherine's In the spring of 1510, when an heir to the throne was expected, there happened instead the first of those disappointments which so evidently preyed on Henry's mind, first child "Her male issue Or died where they were made, or shortly after This world had air'd them." 2 Her second A few months later the hopes of an heir were revived by the birth of a son, on January 1, 1511. Great rejoicings accompanied his birth, a state household was appointed for him, and in documents appointing the officers belonging to it, he is already called Henry, Prince of Wales. But these preparations for the future gathered round a poor sickly infant, who did not live to be two months old. He died on February 22, 1511, and the last touching record of him is a warrant assigning an annuity of £20, from Easter of that year, to Elizabeth Pointes, "late nurse unto our dearest son the Prince." Ier third In November 1513, another prince was born, who and fourth died immediately. In December 1514, there was a premature birth of another son, still-born, to the great grief, the Venetian ambassador writes, of the whole nation. If a letter of Peter Martyr (dated December 31, 1514) is to be believed, this occurred in conse 1 Herbert's Hen. VIII., p. 432. 2 Hen. VIII., Act ii. Scene 4. 3 Lingard, iv. 290. 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. 6 Queen's Another daughter was born on November 10, 1518, The after long and anxious public expectation in the hope seventh 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 4 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., i. 5718. 5 Giustiniani's Despatches, i. 81. 6 He was also godfather to Frances, daughter of Suffolk and 8 anxiously 3 CHAP sung in St. Paul's to celebrate the auspicious event,' 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: 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 forsakes ber Thus ended all hopes of a son of Catherine succeeding 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. Ibid., 4398. It had taken place on October 5th, five weeks before. Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., 4568. |