Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/492

472 sake of the male heirs which he so passionately desired; while, again, he combined with much refinement and cultivation an absence of reserve on certain subjects, which is startling even in the midst of the plain speech of the sixteenth century. It was not that he was loose or careless in act or word; but there was a business-like habit of proceeding about him which penetrated through all his words and actions, and may have made him as a husband one of the most intolerable that ever vexed and fretted the soul of woman.

A small share of the misdemeanour of Catherine Howard, however, can be laid to the charge of the King. Every day brought to light some fresh scandal. It soon appeared that the old Duchess of Norfolk, Lord William Howard, the Countess of Bridgewater, and many other members of the family, had been acquainted with her misconduct as a girl, and had nevertheless permitted the marriage to go forward, and had even furthered and encouraged it.

The misfortune was trebled in weight; and it was trebly necessary to act in the matter with entire openness, owing to so many questionable antecedents. No disgrace, however shameful, could be concealed. Circulars, detailed and explicit, were sent to the foreign ambassadors, and to the English ministers in Paris, Brussels, and Spain. The writs went out for a Parliament, to meet in January, and in the mean time, on the 12th of November, 'His Majesty's councillors of all sorts, spiritual and temporal,' were assembled, 'with the judges and learned men of the council,' when 'the