Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/163

Rh. She was well known to the learned, and wrote many excellent treatises on history. F. C. had been carried over to France by the king's sister, when espoused to Lewis XII. of France; and the graces of her mind, no less than the beauties of her person, had distinguished her even in that polished court. The time at which she returned to England is not certainly known; but it appears to have been after the king had entertained doubts concerning the lawfulness of his marriage. She became maid of honour to Catherine, and immediately caught the roving eye of Henry: but, as her virtue and modesty left him no other hope, he resolved to raise her to the throne, which her accomplishments, both natural and acquired, seemed equally fitted to adorn.

But many bars were yet in his way, particularly the divorce from Catherine, and a revocation of the bull which had been granted for his marriage with her, before he could marry Anne. The pope, however, empowered Campeggio and Wolsey, his two legates in England, to try the validity of the former union; but just when Henry, who was only more violently bent on his object for the difficulties in his way, was anxiously expecting a sentence in his favour, Campeggio prorogued the court, and the pope, at the intercession of the emperor, nephew to Catherine, revoked the cause to Rome.