Page:The Queens of England.djvu/315

 KATHARINE OF ARRAGON. 275 Boulogne. Anne Boleyn, lately created Marchioness of Pem- broke, and now always with the king, accompanied him. Dur- ing this meeting, Francis advised Henry to marry Anne Boleyn without waiting for the dispensation of the pope; an advice said to have been speedily adopted, as a private marriage be- tween Henry and Anne was alleged to have taken place at Calais. It was not until 1533, that the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn was declared; this measure being rendered abso- lutely necessary by her pregnancy. On the 20th of May, 1533, Katharine was cited to appear at Dunstable, the town nearest to her abode; and having refused to obey the summons, a sentence was pronounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the 23d of the same month, declaring her marriage with Henry null and void, as being contrary to the divine law. On the 28th of the same month another sentence confirmed the marriage between Henry and Anne Boleyn; and on the 1st of June Anne was crowned. A law was enacted depriving Katharine of the power to appeal, and the pope of that of punishing the contumacy of Henry. Katharine would, however, never resign the title of queen, though Henry strictly commanded that it should no longer be accorded her, and that she should only be recognized as princess-dowager and widow of Prince Arthur. The queen was at Greenwich when the king sent to announce his determin- ation on this head. She only replied, "God grant my husband a quiet conscience, and I mean to abide by no decision but that of Rome." The king, full of fury at this reply, accompanied the queen to Windsor, and there abruptly left her, leaving peremp- tory orders, that she should depart from thence before his re- turn. She withdrew, saying, "Go where I may, I am his wife, and for him I will pray." She then betook herself to More, in Hertfordshire. From that time she never saw again either the king or her child. But although the proud spirit of the injured Katharine quailed not under the wrongs and indignities offered to her, her physical force, less vigorous than her moral, gave way, and she sickened and drooped. She pined to behold her daughter again, and writhed in greater agony at knowing that her beloved Mary's rights were passed over in the succession to give way to the offspring of Anne Boleyn than she had done for the injuries and insults heaped on herself. Her let- ters to the Princess Mary at this time are no less full of tender- ness than of good sense.