Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/72

 rich and built great palaces, Whitehall and Hampton Court, with money given by the king.

In his dealings with the courts of Spain and France, Wolsey sought to gratify his own ambition. At this time Charles V., Emperor of Germany and King of Spain, was the strongest ruler in Europe. He was the nephew of Henry’s queen, Katharine, and Wolsey hoped through his influence to become Pope. For this reason, he for a time kept Henry on the side of Charles in his contests with Francis I. of France, for the chief power in Europe. Wolsey, however, was not appointed Pope, and then he encouraged Henry to make friends with Francis against Charles. This displeased the English people, for Charles was the ruler of Flanders, and they did not want their trade with that country injured.

8. Fall of Wolsey.—In the meantime, Henry, who had been married eighteen years, grew tired of Katharine and wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, a young and beautiful maid of honour at the court. Henry pretended to think he had done wrong in marrying his brother's widow, and found in this an explanation why all his children had died in infancy except the Princess Mary. He now asked the Pope to grant him a divorce from Katharine, and expected his request would be granted, as he had written in defence of the Roman Catholic religion against the German reformer, Luther, and had received from the Pope the title, ‘‘Defender of the Faith,” a title still borne by the monarchs of England. The Pope sent Cardinal Campeggio to England to inquire into the matter, and he tried to persuade Katharine to go into a nunnery. This Katharine would not do, but stood firm for her own rights and those of her child. Wolsey and Campeggio heard Katharine’s plea for justice and mercy, but came to no decision. The case was left in the hands of the Pope, who called upon Henry to go to Rome, and there have the case decided. Henry knew what the decision would be and he refused to go to Rome. Wolsey was known to favour a marriage between the King and a French princess, and Anne Boleyn found no difficulty in persuading Henry that the reason why the divorce was not granted was his hostility. Seeing Henry’s change of feeling, Wolsey made haste to win his favour by giving him his palaces and by retiring to York. Sir Thomas More now became Chancellor. But Wolsey’s enemies were active,