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Wolsey only waited for a favourable opportunity to quarrel with Charles, and with this the emperor soon furnished him. By the treaty of Windsor, on the 21st of June, 1522, Charles had promised to marry the Princess Mary of England; but she was two young. The emperor was now twenty-six, and his subjects, apprehensive that his death might leave Spain without

to Jean Le Maire de Belges, who in 1509 called himself "a stipendiary historiographer of the Lord Archduke and the Princess." Le Maire addressed several pieces of poetry to his benefactress, and among them are two couched in sentiments breathing a higher passion than that of gratitude. The poet thus speaks to Margaret:

"Vous savez bien que les dieux qui tous voyent
Tel bien mondain, tel heur donné n'avoient
Que de plus grand ne jouict oncques âme.
Vous cognoissez que pour maitresse et dame
J'avois acquis par dessus mes mérites
La fleur des fleurs, le choix des Marguerites..
Bien peus'en faut que celui se maudie
Que me donna et grace et melodie,
Et trop m'aprit et dictiers et chansons
Dont autresfois tu aimois les doux sons..
Tu me baisois et disois mon ami,

Si cuidois-je etre un dieu plus q'a demi,
Et! qui dirai-je autres grands privautès.

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This piece was signed Le Maire de Belges par son amant vert. The epitaph written by the poet himself was couched in a similar strain:

Sous ce tombel cher et facheux conclave Git l'amant vert noble et fidelle esclave Dont le haut cœur de pur amour pur ivre Ne peut soffrir perdre sa femme et vivre. These epistles appeared in 1510. Who was this green lover? the poet, as most of the critics who have examined the works of Le Maire believe. But in the middle of the XVIII. century, an anonymous letter was addressed to the Abbé Gouget alleging that the pretended Amunt Vert was no other than a green parroquet, an excessively rare bird in France and the Netherlands, at the commencement of the XVI. century. The Abbè Gouget was convinced of his mistake, and decided that the Amant Vert was a bird, a native of Ethiopia, which had been given to the Archduke Sigismund of Austria, uncle of Maximilian, who had presented it to Mary of Burgundy, the wife of his nephew. On her death the parrot came into the possession of her daughter, who kept it for a long time as a pet bird. On Margaret's leaving for Germany it is supposed that the favourite pined away from grief at losing his mistress. What is exceedingly curious is, that the Abbé Salier in an article on the life and works of Jean Le Maire de Belges, inserted in the XIII. volume of the "Mèmoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres," feels no hesitation in accusing the poet of having entertained sentiments of love for the princess.

an heir, urged him to marry ; so that Charles found himself compelled to beg the King of England to free him from his engagement with his daughter. This was certainly one of the most cruel blows Henry had yet received, and he at first refused his consent; but on the 6th of July, he signed a commission annulling the matrimonial clause of the treaty of Windsor.(a)

We can perceive the new position in which the battle of Pavia had placed Charles, who now felt no fear in calling Wolsey a passionate man, when before he was wont to style him his father and friend. The friendship between Henry and Charles was severed. The change of the English policy at this period was not the dictate of generous compassion for the captive monarch, but a dread that the emperor, having became too powerful, might possibly aspire to universal dominion. Henry and his minister wished to be reconeiled with the conquered prince through motives of interest.

The interviews with the monk, Margaret's secret agent, became more frequent. The interest felt by the court for the royal prisoner was no longer concealed at Greenwich. Henry offered himself as a mediator between Charles V. and the King of France. He would burst the captive's chains asunder without his losing any portion of his dominions. The emperor wanted money, and the King of England would bargain for the price of his ransom. Charles

was accordingly informed of the arrangement while on a visit to Henry at Greenwich, and negotiations were commenced between the English cabinet and Louise, who entered into the matter, as Wolsey had imagined she would, with all the ardour of a fond and doting mother, promising all that was asked of her.

On the 1st of September, 1525, a heraldat-arms announced that peace had been concluded between the high and puissant Kings of France and England.(b) By the treaty of the 20th of August, signed at Moore Castle, France consented to pay

(a) MSS. Vesp., C. III., p. 67. (b) Hall. Turner.

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Henry 2,000,000 crowns, at six months' instalments of 50,000 crowns ;-to grant him, after the payment of this debt, an annuity of 100,000 crowns for the term of his natural life;-to assure to Mary, Duchess of Suffolk, sister of Henry and Dowager Queen of France, the enjoyment of her dowry for the future, and to discharge the arrears in half-yearly instalments of 5,000 crowns;-to pay the cardinal in the course of seven years, and at stated periods, 30,000 crowns, as a compensation for the see of Tournay, and 100,000 crowns besides, as a mark of gratitude for the services which he had rendered to the royal family.(a) Skelton no longer remarks that the "butcher's son" wished to betray his country. In truth, his object was to ruin France, since he could not dismember her.

England, ever wont to deceive her allies, took every necessary precaution against being herself deceived. Never was there a () MSS. Cal., D. IX., pp. 67, 78.

period at which princes more abused the holy gospels than at the epoch which we are now describing. It was on the inspired volume that France must lay her hand when swearing to guard the treaty she had just made. Margaret swore that she would maintain the convention during Francis's captivity. Francis swore, at Madrid, to fulfil all its clauses. Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Rheims, swore in their turn to observe it, under pain of the confiscation of their domains, to make Francis observe it as far as they could, and for accomplishment of that purpose, to adopt every means in their power.(b) But at the same moment, the Procureur and the Avocat Général of the Parliament of Paris, entered a protest on a private register against the treaty; so that Francis, once at liberty, might on this protest refuse to fulfil his engagements.(0)

(b) The Ratification is dated 27 Dec., 1525. (c) Lingard.

CHAPTER XVI.

ANNE BOLEYN 1523-27.

Birth and family of Anne Boleyn.-Her childhood.-Selected as Maid of Honour to accompany Mary, sister of Henry VIII., when she went to France.-Anne in the service of Queen Claude, and Margaret, Duchess of Alençon.-Her character. She returns to England.—Her intention of marrying Sir Thomas Percy.-Henry falls in love with her, and conceives the design of separating from Katharine of Arragon.-The King's pretended remorse. He imparts his scruples to Wolsey. -The conduct of the Minister.-Katharine of Arragon.

THE reader, doubtless, recollects Anne Boleyn, who, by a royal whim, accompanied the Princess Mary, sister of Henry VIII., to France in 1514, as one of her maids of honour, when she left England to marry Louis XII. It was in one of those fits of caprice, to which he was most subject, that Henry sacrificed the happiness of a sister of sixteen, who was herself in love with

Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and one of the handsomest courtiers of his day; however, the mutual love of the youthful couple had no effect on the monarch, who, by giving Mary's hand to Louis XII., had avenged himself on Ferdinand of Arragon, who had presumed to enter into a treaty with France without first consulting him. Mary was, therefore, in the eye of her brother, a

pledge of reconciliation with a rival power, and, as it were, a challenge to the crafty policy of Ferdinand.(a)

The family of Boleyn, Bullen, or Boulen, as it is spelled either way, was of French origin.(b) Geoffrey Boleyn had married the daughter of Lord de Hoo and Hastings, and was, in 1424, the head of a company of merchants, and, during the wars of the Two Roses, sheriff of the city. His courage and honesty, "for he wielded the sword as well as the mercer's yard,"(c) obtained for him, in 1457, the dignity of Lord Mayor.

Geoffrey amassed great

of

wealth in commerce, and gave £1000 at his death to the poor of the city of London.(d) He left two beautiful manors to his heirs, Blickling Hall, in Norfolk, which he had bought of Sir John Fastolf, and Hever Castle, in Kent, which the Cobhams had sold him. His son, William Boleyn, retired from business and frequented the court, and, thanks to his good fortune, was made Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Richard III.(e) Thomas, son of Sir William Boleyn, and father of Anne, distinguished himself in the time Henry VII. in the expedition against the insurgents of Cornwall. He had married Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of Surrey, (f) (afterwards created Duke of Norfolk,) then governor of Norwich Castle.(8) Created knight at the commencement of Henry's reign, and shortly afterwards nominated ambassador to France, Sir Thomas Boleyn never ceased to be a favourite. The people, who are always inclined to account for what they cannot understand, believed that Sir Thomas was indebted for the attention of his sovereign to the influence of Lady Boleyn, and scarcely had the grave closed over the remains of one who had been the belle of

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all the court balls, (h) than it was bruited abroad that Anne was the fruit of an adulterous connexion between the Earl of Surrey's daughter and Henry, Prince of Wales.(i)

(h) The Lady Boleyn was one of the reigning beauties of the court of Katharine of Arragon, and took a leading part in all the masks and royal pageantry which marked the smiling commencement of the reign of Henry. -Miss Strickland, IV., 152.

(i) Sanders was the first in his "De Schismate Anglicana," (published in 1585,) to declare that Anne Boleyn was the natural Sanders says daughter of Henry VIII. that he advances this fact on the authority of Rastal, the author of a life of Sir Thomas More, which has never been published.(Le Grand Histoire du Divorce de Henry VIII.) Sanderus has been refuted in the Anti-Sanderus, printed at Cambridge in 1593. Burnet in his "History of the Reformation," only repeats the arguments employed by the writer of the Anti-Sanderus. "Henry was only fourteen, (being born on 18th June, 1491,) at the birth of Anne Boleyn; now it is highly improbable that a boy of that age would have corrupted the wife of another man, when his brother, although two years older than himself, was deemed incapable of consummating his own marriage." The physiological argument and conclusion thence arrived at, from the sickly constitution of Prince Arthur, seems to us of very little consequence. If Anne, as some historians believe, was born in 1507, the Prince of Wales would have been sixteen, and not fourteen at the time of her birth. Henry's age is even now the most powerful reason adduced to prove that no connexion could have possibly existed between a woman of thirty and a child of sixteen. "Henry VIII," says Miss Agnes Strickland, was a boy under the care of his tutor at the period of Anne's birth, even if that event took place in the year 1507, the date given by Camden." Those who wrote in the reign of Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, well understood the necessity of dates in a question of such importance, as Lord Herbert says that Anne was born in 1501. M. Laly-Tollendal ("Biographie Universelle,") is of opinion that she was born in 1499 or 1500, because it is proved that Anne Boleyn was one of the maids of honour that accompanied Mary of England into France in 1514, and it is highly improbable that a child of seven years of age would have been appointed maid of honour to a queen about to establish herself in a foreign country. M. Crapelet, in his "Notice sur Anne Boleyn,' thus replies to Laly-Tollendal : "What makes it highly probable that Anne Boleyn was but -seven years of age when she accompanied Queen Mary to France, is, that the King of England sent his sister under the care of the Duke of Norfolk, grandfather to Anne Boleyn, and that her father Sir Thomas Boleyn, (whose

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Anne's early years were spent at Blickling with her mother, her sister Mary, her brother George, and Sir Thomas Wyatt, the melancholy poet, who, though he was yet very young, seemed deeply enamoured with the damsel in whose innocent amusements he shared.(a) More than once had they played together under those lovely oaks, the ornament of Blickling, and which were at that time about 200 or 300 years old.(b) Anne, at her mother's death, in 1512,(c) removed to Hever Castle, where she had, as her governess, a lady of the name of Simonette, who taught her music, sewing, embroidery, and English and French.(d) She corresponded with her father in both languages, and she indited the following epistle to Sir Thomas Boleyn, on hearing of her appointment as Maid of Honour to Queen Mary :

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son George was already one of the royal pages,) followed her as ambassador to France. It is moreover worthy of notice, that the marriage of Henry VIII. with Anne Boleyn occurred in 1532, and that by placing her birth in 1500, she would have completed her thirtysecond year, and can we possibly believe that Henry VIII., (a man of such strong passions,) who was himself forty, would have fallen in love with a woman of thirty-two?"— (Notice Historique.) Miss Strickland is of a different opinion to either Camden, Sir George Twysden, or M. Crapelet. She says that Anne was born in 1500 or 1501, being at a loss to understand how a child of seven, who would herself be in want of a nurse, could have been a maid of honour to Mary. The most convincing argument in our humble opinion against Sander's accusation of incest is the silence of Reginald Pole.

(a) Miss Strickland, IV., 153. (b) Miss Strickland, ib.

(c) Howard's Memorial, by Mr. Howard, of Corby. Lady Boleyn was buried in the church of Lambeth, but the chapel where her remains were interred was destroyed in the Revolution of 1640.

(d) Miss Strickland, IV., 154.

que je poure moussr. Je vous suplye descusser sy ma lettre et male escripte car je vous assure que le et ettografié de mon attandement sule la ou les aultres ne sont faits que escript de ma main et Simmonet me dit la lettre, mais demeure afan je ai fy moy meme de peur que lon ne saces sanon que je vous mande et je vous pry que la loumire de votre vue net libertte de separre la voullonte qu dites aves de me edere car hile me samble quettes ascure on..la ou vous poves sy vous plet me vere declarasion de vre paroile et de moy soues sertene que miara seoffice de peres ne dingratitude qu sut en passer ne et fasera mon avecsion queste ede libere de vivre autante sainte que vous plera me commander et vous prommes que mon amour et fondue par ung si grant formette que la nara james pouvre de sane mettre recommande bine humblemantre a diminuer et feres fin a mon pourpon a pre vre bonne grace et scripte a Uevre de. Vretreshumble et tresobiessante fille,

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"ANNA DE BOULAN."(e) This letter was never written by a child of seven years of age. Anne must have been ten; and Henry, not being more than twelve at her birth, could not have been, as Sanders wishes to prove, her father.

At Boulogne, where Mary, Queen of Louis XII. landed in 1514, that bevy of young women who formed her cortège, were, with the exception of Anne Boleyn, who accompanied the royal bride to Abbeville,(f) ordered to return to England. We are acquainted with Mary's history ;—a widow after three months' marriage, longing, while yet wearing weeds, for the handsome Suffolk, whom, thanks to the intervention of Wolsey, by overcoming her brother's obstinacy, she at last married. Mary, on sailing for England, recommended her maid of honour to the notice of Claude, Queen of Francis I. These maids of honour had no regular service to discharge. They accompanied their royal mistress to all public ceremonies, court festivities, church, balls, tournaments, where they

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endeavoured to show off their beauty to the greatest advantage. Brantôme makes mention more than once of this feminine squadron attendant on the Queens of France, and, inclining as a chronicler to malevolence, even speaks lightly of their virtue. We can well imagine that in so gallant a court as that of Francis I., the character of these guards in petticoats must have incurred great risk; and unhappily ridicule, instead of scandal, ensued, when any of Claude's attendants fell from the path of virtue. It was, to use the language of the age, a pardonable weakness, which called rather for pity than censure. One alone was pure from even a shade of suspicion, and that was Claude, who, like Katharine of Arragon, was an ornament to her sex and station. (a)

It is no easy matter to say whether Anne was able to resist the entreaties of Francis's courtiers; but it is an indubitable fact, that she was spoken as lightly of as her companions, and Francis used to boast of having had his share of the young maiden's favours.(b) We are not astonished either at the gallant monarch's triumph or indiscretion, but only at the epithet which he employs to designate his mistress.(c)

It is uncertain how long Anne remained with Margaret, Duchess of Alençon, who was called the tenth Muse and fourth Grace,

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Even if we reject the accusation of incest, of which M. Genin accuses Francis and the mother of Jeanne d'Albret, founded, solely on an ascetical expression occurring in a letter which he cannot or will not underderstand, still we must regret that so youthful and lovely a girl as Anne Boleyn should have been introduced into the world by a princess of so light a character as Margaret, Duchess of Alençon. At Paris, amid the brilliant and charming women who attended her court, the duchess was wont to read her favourite author Boccacio aloud, or to recite some love scene in language a little too light for our age. We are informed by one of her panegyrists,(f) that Anne did all in her power to attain the French cast of countenance, which afterwards attracted the attention of the English court; but we also think that her soul must have been tainted by coming into contact with the debauched gentlemen, irreligious priests, and effeminate poets, who made Margaret's court their favourite rendezvous. Had they in such an assembly only read the stanzas, entitled "Le Miroir de l'áme pécheresse,"(g) we might have. feared for her faith; but they also read the Italian poets, and therefore we have every reason to tremble for her innocence.

Several portraits of Anne Boleyn are still in existence by Hans Holbein or his pupils, and are to be seen at Windsor, Hampton Court, Oxford, Genoa, Rome, Florence, and Paris; and the beauty of the young English maiden can be even now perceived, though after the lapse of three centuries. Sanders gives her no flattering portrait, for he says, "She was a brunette,(h)

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