Page:The Queens of England.djvu/293

 KATHARINE OF ARRAGON. 253 it is probable that, seeing the too great freedom of behavior in which Henry was prone to indulge, Katharine might have deemed it necessary to oppose a check to it, by the maintenance of a grave and queen-like dignity in her own person. The death of the king's grandmother followed in five days after his coronation ; and a plague, which broke out at Calais, and which soon reached London, also marked that year. Neither events made any very serious impression on Henry, who, bent on the pursuit of pleasure, sought it wherever it tempted him. Per- haps the gravity of his queen might have sometimes served as a tacit reproach to him in the midst of his masquings and boy- like pastimes. If so, it is to his credit, that although naturally impatient of aught that even resembled constraint, he for many years of their union never violated toward Katharine the rules imposed by good-breeding and knightly courtesy to a lady ; nay more, he showed a decided preference to her society. Kath- arine, likewise, observed an invariable gentleness and affection toward Henry, never letting it be seen that she disapproved his too great indulgence in those undignified pleasures to which he was so addicted — a rare proof of wisdom and tact on her part. On the 1st of January, 151 1, the queen gave birth to a son, whose death at the close of February following destroyed the joy which his advent had occasioned. The grief of Katharine was long and deep ; and Henry, although greatly disappointed at the loss of his son, neglected no means of consoling the bereaved mother. To cheer the queen,- he got up a variety of sports and pageants. In the midst of these, the people broke in upon the revelers, and stripped the king and courtiers, the ladies included, of their jewels, and even of their rich dresses. The king was stripped to his doublet and drawers ; but he treated it only as a jest, and he and his nobles sat down to supper in great merriment in their despoiled condition. The death of the young prince was soon after followed by the break- ing out of a war with France, when Henry had the mortification of discovering that his brother-in-law, the King of Scotland, secretly sided with that country against him. This war had been instigated by Pope Julius the Second, with whom Henry and Ferdinand had formed a league to take arms and attack France, Henry lured by the hope of recovering his own rights in that kingdom, much more than by the desire of maintaining the authority of the pope. Another motive for engaging in