is said to have invented several new dances-Cavendish in his 'Life of Wolsey,' says: 'And so far was this lady from any thought of marrying the king, that she had consented to marry the Lord Piercy, the Earl of Northumberland's eldest son, whom his father, by a strange compliance with the cardinal's vanity, had placed in his Court, and made him one of his servants.' In Cardinal Wolsey's establishment were a number of young lords, for whom a separate table was kept. These young men received education while giving their services as pages, etc. The custom was at least as old as the time of Henry III. It seems to have been the custom even for the sons of dukes to be bred as pages with bishops. The number of souls in Wolsey's household was probably five hundred.

When the Cardinal attended Court the Lord Percy would then resort for his pastime into the queen's chamber, and was more conversant with Anne Boleyn than with any other of the queen's maidens. So at last they came to some sort of an understanding, almost amounting to an engagement. Wherewith the king was much offended, and could no longer hide his secret affection.

I

The Lord Cardinal, being secretly instructed, did then attack Lord Percy on the matter, and before the servants of his chamber said to him: 'I marvel not a little of thy peevish folly, that thou wouldest tangle and ensnare thyself with a foolish girl yonder in the Court. mean Anne Boleyn. Dost thou not consider the estate that God hath called thee unto in this world? For after the death of thy noble father thou art most like to inherit and possess one of the worthiest earldoms in this realm. Therefore it had been most meet and convenient for thee to have sued for the consent of thy father in that behalf, and also to have made the king's highness privy thereto. Now, behold what ye have done thro' your wilfulness. Neither the king nor your father will be agreeable. I will send for your father, and he shall either break this unadvised contract or disinherit thee for ever. The king's majesty himself will complain to thy father or thee. He intended to have preferred Anne Boleyn unto another person with whom the king hath travelled already, and being almost at a point with the same person, altho' she knoweth it not, yet hath the king conveyed the matter in such

sort that she, upon the king's motion, will be, I doubt not, right glad agreeable to the same.'*

'Sir,' quoth the Lord Percy (all weeping), 'I knew nothing of the king's pleasure therein, for whose displeasure I am very sorry. I considered that I was of good years, and thought myself sufficient to provide me of a convenient wife, where'er my fancy served me best, not doubting but that my lord my father would have been right well persuaded. And though she be a simple maid, and having but a knight to her father, yet is she descended of right noble parentage. As by her mother, she is high of the Norfolk blood, and of her father's side lineally descended of the Earls of Ormond. Why should I then, sir, be anything scrupulous to match with her? Therefore I now humbly require your grace of your especial favour herein, and also to entreat the King's most royal majesty most lowly on my behalf for his princely benevolence in this matter, the which I cannot deny or forsake.'

'Lo, sirs,' quoth the Cardinal, 'ye may see what conformity and wisdom is in this wilful boy's head. I thought you would have relented and submitted yourself to the king's will.' 'Sir, so I would,' quoth the Lord Percy, but in this matter I have gone so far before many so worthy witnesses that I know not how to avoid myself, nor to discharge my conscience.'

'Why, thinkest thou,' quoth the Cardinal, 'that the king and I know not what we have to do in as weighty a matter as this? I see in thee no submission.' 'Forsooth, my lord,' quoth the Lord Percy, if it please your grace, I will submit myself wholly unto the king's majesty and your grace in this matter, my consciencet being discharged of the * Oh, Cardinal, how you lie !

+ It is somewhat odd that the Lord William de Percy, distinguished by the addition of Alsgernons (the same as aux Moustaches), whence his posterity frequently assumed the name of Algernon, was also noted for attending to conscience, as appears by the following. The Lord William de Percy took to wife a young lady of Saxon descent, whom the Norman writers call Emma de Port. This Emma having been possessed of Semar, near Scarborough, and of other lands, which the Conqueror bestowed on William de Percy for his good service, 'he wedded hyr, that was very heire to them, in discharging of his conscience.' The author of the 'History of Whitby Abbey' thinks, upon good reason, that this lady was daughter of Gospatrick, the great Saxon Earl of Northumberland, and that almost all the estates in Yorkshire granted

weighty burden of my pre-contract.' 'Well then,' quoth the Cardinal, 'I will send for your father out of the north parts; and meantime I charge thee that thou resort not to her company, as thou intendest to avoid the king's high indignation.'

Then was the Earl of Northumberland sent for in all haste in the king's name. And when he came had a long conference with the Cardinal. And after their long talk my Lord Cardinal called for a cup of wine, and drinking together they brake up, and so departed the earl, upon whom we were commanded to wait to convey him to his servants. And in his going away, when he came to the gallery's end, he sat him down upon a form that stood there for the waiters. And being set, called his son, the Lord Percy, unto him and said: 'Son, thou hast always been a proud, presumptuous, disdainful, and a very unthrift waster, and even so hast thou now declared thyself. Therefore what joy, what comfort, what pleasure or solace should I conceive in thee, that thus, without discretion and advisement, hast misused thyself, having no manner of regard to me, thy natural father, ne, in especial, to thy sovereign lord, to whom all honest and loyal subjects bear faithful and humble obedience, ne yet to the wealth of thy own estate, but hast so unadvisedly ensured thyself to her for whom thou hast purchased thee the king's displeasure, intolerable for any subject to sustain. But that his grace of his mere wisdom doth consider the lightness of thy head and wilful qualities of thy person, his displeasure and indignation were sufficient to cast me and all my posterity into utter subversion and dissolution, but he being my especial and singular good lord, favourable prince, and my Lord Cardinal, my good lord hath and doth clearly excuse me in thy lewd fact, and doth rather lament thy lightness than malign the same, and hath devised an order to be taken for thee. I do

by the Conqueror to William de Percy had been part of that earl's possessions whose daughter he married, and had interest and generosity enough to save her father's life when he, with other Saxon lords, made an effort to shake off the Norman yoke in 1069. Emma, who appears to have survived her husband, and certainly did not accompany him in his Crusade, was herself a benefactress to Whitby Abbey, and at her death was there interred in the Chapter House, before the Abbot's seat.-Collins' 'Peerage.'

assure thee, if thou dost not amend thy prodigality thou wilt be the last earl of our house. For of thy natural inclination thou art disposed to be wasteful, prodigal, and to consume all that thy progenitors have with great travail gathered together and kept with honour. I intend to dispose my succession that ye shall consume thereof but a little. For I do not purpose, I assure thee, to make thee mine heir, for praise be to God, I have more choice of boys who, I trust, will prove themselves much better, and use them more like unto nobility, among whom I will choose and take the best and most likeliest to succeed me.

'Now, masters and good gentlemen,' quoth he to us, 'it may be your chances hereafter, when I am dead, to see the proof of these things that I have spoken to my son prove as true as I have spoken them. Yet in the mean season I desire you all to be his friends, and to tell him his fault when he doth amiss, wherein ye shall show yourselves to be much his friends.' And said to his son thus: 'Go your ways, and attend upon my lord's grace, your master, and see that you do your duty.'* And so departed and went his way down through the hall into his barge.

Then after long debating and consultation upon the Lord Percy's assurance, it was devised that the same should be infringed and dissolved, and that the Lord Percy should marry with one of the Earl of Shrewsbury's daughters. As he did after, by means whereof the former contract was clearly undone. [This was the Lady Mary Talbot, daughter to George, Earl of Shrewsbury, by whom he had no issue. But little ceremony, and probably as little time, was used in patching up these nuptials. As might be expected, they were most unhappy. Collins says, in his 'Peerage': 'Henry, the unthrifty Earl of Northumberland, died at Hackney in the prime of life about ten or twelve years after he had consented to this marriage. Of this term but a very small portion was spent in company of his lady. His countess sequestered herself from the world at Wormhill or Wreshill, on the banks of the Derbyshire Wye, amidst some of the sublimest scenery of the Peak.'+] Wherewith Mistress Anne Boleyn was greatly offended, saying

*He says nothing of his son being engaged previously to Lady Mary Talbot, as some say he was.

+ This is probably an error as to its situation.

that if it ever lay in her power, she would work the Cardinal as much displeasure as she did indeed after. But it was the king's device. And when the queen played at cards with Mistress Anne they had a certain game wherein dealing, the king and queen meeting, they stopped, and the young lady's hap was much to stop at a king. Which the queen noting, said to her playfully, 'My Lady Anne, you have good hap to stop at a king, but you are like others, you will have all or none.'

It is probably to the time when the earl rebuked his son that we should attribute a letter which appears to bear on the matters between Lord Percy and Anne Boleyn, but which letter has no signature, and is probably addressed to a Mr. Melton, as a disguised name for Arundel, or some other friend of the young lord.

'This shall be to advertise you that Mistress Anne is changed from that she was at when we three were last together. Wherefore pray you there be no devvil's sakke, but according to the truth ever justify, as ye shall make answer before God; and do not suffer her in my absence to be married to any other man. I must go to my master, wheresoever he be, for my lord privy seal desireth much to speak with me, whom, if I should speak with in my master's absence, it would cause me to lose my head; and yet I know myself as true a man to my prince as liveth, whom (as my friend informeth me) I have offended grievously in my words. No more to you, but to have me commended unto Mistress Anne, and bid her remember her promise, which none can loose, but God only, to whom I shall daily during my life commend her.'

After the Lord Percy's marriage to Lady Mary Talbot he would appear to have regained his father's favour, as he writes that my dearest son and heir shall lie and be abyding at my castell of Alnwycke, for defence of the borders adjoining upon the Scots.' To which duty he would appear to have been re-appointed after his father's death.

To return to Mistress Anne and her family. Her father, Sir Thomas Boleyn, was made Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond in right of his mother, and was sent by the king about his divorce from Katharine to Italy, where he signalised himself at Bologna by refusing to kiss the pope's