Page:The Queens of England.djvu/370

 330 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. with the king, is proved by her kinsman, the poet Throckmor- ton. By her influence a persecution of Sir George Throckmor- ton, by Cromwell, Henry the Eighth's secretary, was put an end to, and Cromwell's own fall precipitated. This fact, which shows her influence with the king, took place in 1540, nine years before her marriage with him. She, herself, came in for some of the spoils of Cromwell's estate, — amongst others, the manor of Wimbledon. She at first met the king's advances with more of distrust and alarm than with gratified ambition. The fate of most of her predecessors must have served as an awful warning to any woman selected by Henry to replace them ; for, however conscious of her own purity, the well-known caprice of that self-willed tyrant, and the unhesitating cruelty with which he obeyed its impulses, could not fail to make her tremble at placing her destiny in his power. Fear, in Katharine's case, was aided by her affection for another, in opposing the suit of him who was more accustomed to command than to sue. This reluctance on her part only served to increase the ardor of Henry, who plied his suit so successfully, that Katharine at length assented to become his bride, ere the period prescribed by etiquette for her mourning for Lord Latimer had expired. What became of Sir Thomas Seymour while Henry wooed and won his intended wife, history does not inform us. Too experienced a courtier to risk offending his royal master, and brother-in-law, by disputing the hand of Katharine, he probably now wished to conceal that he had ever sought it, and nothing during the king's life leads to a supposition that he believed any attachment between his queen and brother-in-law had ever existed. The nuptials of Henry with Katharine were solemnized in July, 1543, at Hampton Court, with all befitting state, in the presence of the daughters of Henry, and several of the lords and ladies most esteemed by and connected with the sovereign and his bride. Among these was the Earl of Hertford, the sight of whom must have reminded Katharine of her broken vows to his absent brother, if ambition had not at last wholly triumphed over more tender feelings. This, the sixth marriage contracted by Henry, excited no dissatisfaction in his sub- jects, and no envy or dislike towards the object of his choice. It seemed to be well understood that it had not been achieved by any aspirings or intrigues on the part of Katharine, whose