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56 She was of a good family in England; Henry VIIIth was in love with her sister and her mother, and it has been even suspected by some, that she was his daughter; she came to France with Henry VII's sister, who married Louis XIIth; that princess, who was full of youth and gallantry, left the court of France with great reluctance after her husband's death; but Anne Bullen, who had the same inclinations as her mistress, could not prevail with herself to go away; the late king was in love with her, and she continued maid of honour to queen Claude; that queen died, and Margaretta, the king's sister, duchess of Alenson, and since queen of Navarre, whose story you know, took her into her service, where she imbibed the principles of the new religion; she returned afterwards to England, and there charmed all the world. She had the manners of France, which please in all countries; she sung well, she danced finely; she was a maid of honour to queen Catherine, and Henry VIIIth fell desperately in love with her.

Cardinal Wolsey, his favourite and first minister, being dissatisfied with the emperor for not having favoured his pretensions to the Papacy, in order to revenge himself of him, contrived an alliance between France and the king his master; he put it into the head of Henry VIIIth, that his marriage with the emperor's aunt was null, and advised him to marry the duchess of Alenson, whose husband was just dead; Anne Bullen, who was not without ambition, considered queen Catherine's divorce as a means that would bring her to the crown; she began to give the king of England impressions of the Lutheran religion, and engaged the late king to favour at Rome Henry VIIIth's divorce, in hopes of his marrying the duchess of Alenson; cardinal Wolsey, that he might have an opportunity of treating this affair, procured himself to be sent to France upon other pretences; but his master was so far from permitting him to propose this