Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/303

 Catherine king left the room not a little disconcerted, and at supper Chapuys was informed Anne Boleyn said to him reproachfully, 'Did I not tell you that whenever you disputed with the queen she was sure to have the upper hand?,'

For a time Henry still treated Catherine as his queen. She went with him to Woodstock, and from that in September to Grafton in Northamptonshire, where Cardinal Campeggio took his leave of him, and where Wolsey was admitted at the same time to his last interview. But in February 1530 Catherine's treatment had become visibly worse. The king absented himself much from her company, and left her at Richmond while he was dallying with Anne Boleyn in London. It was at this time he began consulting the universities, applying first to Cambridge and Oxford, then to Paris and other foreign seats of learning; but still he kept company with Catherine to some extent, and even took her out hunting with him. In August or the beginning of September she fell ill of a fever, probably brought on by alarm at the king's increasing recklessness. She kept Christmas with him at Greenwich; but in January following (1531) she suffered much anxiety lest something should be done to her prejudice in the parliament which then met. Nothing, however, was said, and Henry allowed and even advised her to summon counsel to her aid at Richmond. He did this, as Chapuys believed, in order to discover whether she had not secretly received a brief from Rome in her favour. For it would appear that about this time Henry, or at least his ministers, really thought the game a desperate one. A brief was expected from Rome which would have ordered Henry to dismiss Anne Boleyn from the court, and it was the general belief that he would be obliged to comply. But the brief when it came was feeble and ineffective, so that the king was encouraged to persevere, and the clergy were forced to acknowledge him as supreme head of the church of England. This, of course, involved the consequence that the decision of a Roman tribunal could not be acknowledged in an English matrimonial cause.

Catherine saw that her only hope lay in procuring a speedy sentence from Rome in her favour, and she wrote urgently to that effect to the emperor on 5 April. Henry's conduct towards her varied from day to day. One day when she dined with him he spoke in unwonted terms of the power of the emperor, and afterwards, changing the subject, told her she had not been kind to her daughter Mary, because she had not made her physician reside with her continually. Altogether he showed himself so gracious on this occasion that next day Catherine asked him to allow the princess to see them; but Henry answered with a rude rebuff, telling her she might go and see the princess if she wished, and also stop with her. The queen replied in gentle tone that she would not leave him for her own daughter or any one else in the world. But things now were coming to a climax. The king was using every art to delay the cause at Rome while refusing to put in any appearance, except by allowing an 'excusator' to plead for him that he was not bound to appear there at all. On 31 May upwards of thirty privy councillors, headed by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, waited on Catherine by the king's command to remonstrate with her, and urged that she ought to consent to have the matter tried elsewhere than in Rome by judges above suspicion. According to Hall, they actually suggested a tribunal of four prelates and four temporal lords of England, which, of course, was what was wanted; but by the very full report of the interview sent by Chapuys to the emperor it does not appear that they proposed anything so definite. Catherine completely met every one of their jesuitical arguments, and fully justified her resolution to abide entirely by the decision of the pope.

Shortly after this the court removed from Greenwich to Windsor, and there,on 14 July, Henry finally left his wife, never to see her again. He removed to Woodstock without even bidding her adieu, but left orders that she was to remain at Windsor. Deserted by her husband, she complained bitterly of the pope's neglect. But the weakness of the pope inspired Henry with greater boldness. He had got the opinion of the university of Orleans and of some Parisian lawyers also that he could not be compelled to appear at Rome; while Anne Boleyn, who accompanied him wherever he went, spoke confidently of the prospect of being married to him within three or four months at least. In August the king again sent notice to Catherine that he was coming to hunt about Windsor, and that she must dislodge thence and go to the Moor in Hertfordshire. The Princess Mary was ordered at the same time to leave her mother and go to Richmond. Two months later another deputation of the king's council was sent to the queen with the same object as before; but she refused more firmly than ever, saying, now that she knew him to be influenced only by passion, she would not desist from demanding justice where alone it could be obtained.

She was now absolutely without a friend