Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/176

162 they have all been used. He takes great delight in bowling, and it is the pleasantest sight in the world to see him engaged in this exercise, with his fair skin covered with a beautiful fine shirt. He plays with the hostages of France, and it is said they sport from 6,000 to 8,000 ducats a day. Affable and benign, he offends no one. He has often said to the ambassador he wished that every one was content with his condition, adding, 'We are content with our islands.'"

These certainly were the halcyon days of Henry and his Court. How little could any one see in the jolly monarch the furious despot of after years! But Henry was at this period as devout as he was jovial. Catherine, who was now about thirty-five, was of a serious and religious cast, thoughtful and amiable. She was a comely woman in her prime, unlike Spanish ladies in general, with auburn hair and a fair complexion, generally dressing richly, often in dark blue velvet, with the hood of five corners, bordered with rich gems, a chain of pearls clustered with rubies round her neck, and a cordelier belt of the same jewels round her waist, hanging to her feet. Unlike her robustious husband, she was by no means fond of field sports, but rather of working embroidery with her maids of honour, and holding serious conversation with such men as Sir Thomas More, who now comes into notice, and the learned Erasmus, who passed some time in England about this period, and who said of her that she spent that time in reading the sacred volume which other princesses occupied in cards and dice. On the throne she led the life of a religious devotee. She rose to prayers in the night at the same hours as the inmates of convents; she dressed for the day at five in the morning, and beneath her royal raiment she wore the habit of St. Francis, being a member of the third order of his community. She fasted on Fridays and Saturdays, and on the vigils of saints' days. She confessed at least once a week, and received the eucharist every Sunday. For two hours after dinner one of her attendants read to her books of devotion.



Such was the Court of England—such the king and queen—at the time of the emperor's visit. Such a mixture of prosperity, of worldly enjoyment, and religious solemnity seemed little to bode the scenes and manners which afterwards prevailed there. Erasmus was so struck by it that he declared that the royal residence ought rather to be called the Court of the Muses than a palace; and he asked, "What household is there, among the subjects of their realms, that can offer an example of such united wedlock? Where can a wife be found better matched with the best of husbands?"

But even now, beneath this fair surface, the elements of mischief and trouble were at work. With all the king's religious practices, the licentiousness of his nature was beginning to emerge to the light. Already, while on his campaign in France, Henry had formed a liaison with the wife of Sir Gilbert Tailbois, who, after her husband's