New Intrigues
Henry Howard was dead; and now one would have thought the king might
be satisfied and quiet, and that sleep would no longer flee from his
eyelids, since Henry Howard, his great rival, had closed his eyes
forever; since Henry Howard was no longer there, to steal away his
crown, to fill the world with the glory of his deeds, to dim the genius
of the king by his own fame as a poet.
But the king was still dis
The cause of this was that his work was only just half done. Henry
Howard's father, the Duke of Norfolk, still lived. The cause of this
was, that the king was always obliged to think of this powerful rival;
and these thoughts chased sleep from his eyelids. His soul was sick of
the Howards; therefore his body suffered such terrible pains. If the
Duke of Norfolk would close his eyes in death, then would the king
also be able to close his again in refreshing sleep! But this court of
peers--and only by such a court could the duke be judged--this court of
peers was so slow and deliberate! It worked far less rapidly, and
was not near so serviceable, as the Parliament which had so quickly
condemned Henry Howard. Why must the old Howard bear a ducal title? Why
was he not like his son, only an earl, so that the obedient Parliament
might condemn him?
That was the king's inextinguishable grief, his gnawing pain, which made
him raving with fury and heated his blood, and thereby increased the
pains of his body.
He raved and roared with impatience. Through the halls of his palace
resounded his savage vituperation. It made every one tremble and quake,
for no one was sure that it was not he that was to fall that day
a victim to the king's fury. No one could know whether the king's
ever-increasing thirst for blood would not that day doom him.
With the most jealous strictness the king, from his sick-couch, watched
over his royal dignity; and the least fault against that might arouse
his wrath and bloodthirstiness. Woe to those who wanted still to
maintain that the pope was the head of the Church! Woe to those who
ventured to call God the only Lord of the Church, and honored not the
king as the Church's holy protector! The one, like the other, were
traitors and sinners, and he had Protestants and Roman Catholics alike
executed, however near they stood to his own person, and however closely
he was otherwise bound to them.
Whoever, therefore, could avoid it, kept himself far from the dreaded
person of the king; and whoever was constrained by duty to be near him,
trembled for his life, and commended his soul to God.
There were only four persons who did not fear the king, and who seemed
to be safe from his destroying wrath. There was the queen, who nursed
him with devoted attention, and John Heywood, who with untiring zeal
sustained Catharine in her difficult task, and who still sometimes
succeeded in winning a smile from the king. There were, furthermore,
Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and Earl Douglas.
Lady Jane Douglas was dead. The king had therefore forgiven her father,
and again shown himself gracious and friendly to the deeply-bowed
earl. Besides, it was such an agreeable and refreshing feeling to the
suffering king to have some one about him who suffered yet more than he
himself! It comforted him to know that there could be agonies yet more
horrible than those pains of the body under which he languished. Earl
Douglas suffered these agonies; and the king saw with a kind of delight
how his hair turned daily more gray, and his features became more
relaxed and feeble. Douglas was younger than the king, and yet how
old and gray his face was beside the king's well-fed and blooming
countenance!
Could the king have seen the bottom of his soul, he would have had less
sympathy with Earl Douglas's sorrow.
He considered him only as a tender father mourning the death of his
only child. He did not suspect that it was less the father that Jane's
painful death had smitten, than the ambitious man, the fanatical Roman
Catholic, the enthusiastic disciple of Loyola, who with dismay saw
all his plans frustrated, and the moment drawing nigh when he would be
divested of that power and consideration which he enjoyed in the secret
league of the disciples of Jesus. With him, therefore, it was less the
daughter, for whom he mourned, than the king's seventh wife. And that
Catharine wore the crown, and not his daughter--not Jane Douglas--his it
was that he could never forgive the queen.
He wanted to take vengeance on the queen for Jane's death; he wanted to
punish Catharine for his frustrated hopes, for his desires that she
had trampled upon. But Earl Douglas durst not himself venture to make
another attempt to prejudice the king's mind against his consort. Henry
had interdicted him from it under the penalty of his wrath. With words
of threatening, he had warned him from such an attempt; and Earl Douglas
very well knew that King Henry was inflexible in his determination,
when the matter under consideration was the execution of a threatened
punishment, Yet what Douglas durst not venture, that Gardiner could
venture--Gardiner, who, thanks to the capriciousness of the sick king,
had for the few days past enjoyed again the royal favor so unreservedly
that the noble Archbishop Cranmer had received orders to leave the court
and retire to his episcopal residence at Lambeth.
Catharine had seen him depart with anxious forebodings; for Cranmer had
ever been her friend and her support. His mild and serene countenance
had ever been to her like a star of peace in the midst of this
tempest-tossed and passion-lashed court life; and his gentle and noble
words had always fallen like a soothing balm on her poor trembling
heart.
She felt that with his departure she lost her noblest support, her
strengthening aid, and that she was now surrounded only by enemies and
opponents. True, she still had John Heywood, the faithful friend, the
indefatigable servant; but since Gardiner had exercised his sinister
influence over the king's mind, John Heywood durst scarcely risk himself
in Henry's presence. True, she had also Thomas Seymour, her lover;
but she knew and felt that she was everywhere surrounded by spies and
eavesdroppers, and that now it required nothing more than an interview
with Thomas Seymour--a few tender words--perchance even only a look full
of mutual understanding and love, in order to send him and her to the
scaffold.
She trembled not for herself, but for her lover. That made her cautious
and thoughtful. That gave her courage never to show Thomas Seymour
other than a cold, serious face; never to meet him otherwise than in the
circle of her court; never to smile on him; never to give him her hand.
She was, however, certain of her future. She knew that a day would come
on which the king's death would deliver her from her burdensome grandeur
and her painful royal crown; when she should be free--free to give her
hand to the man whom alone on earth she loved, and to become his wife.
She waited for that day, as the prisoner does for the hour of his
release; but like him she knew that a premature attempt to escape from
her dungeon would bring her only ruin and death, and not freedom.
She must be patient and wait. She must give up all personal intercourse
with her lover; and even his letters John Heywood could bring her but
very seldom, and only with the greatest caution. How often already had
not John Heywood conjured her to give up this correspondence also! how
often had he not with tears in his eyes besought her to renounce this
love, which might one day be her ruin and her death! Catharine laughed
at his gloomy forebodings, and opposed to his dark prophecies a bravery
reliant on the future, the joyous courage of her love.
She would not die, for happiness and love were awaiting her; she would
not renounce happiness and love, for the sake of which she could endure
this life in other respects--this life of peril, of resignation, of
enmity, and of hatred.
But she wanted to live in order to be happy hereafter. This thought made
her brave and resolute; it gave her courage to defy her enemies with
serene brow and smiling lip; it enabled her to sit with bright eye and
rosy cheeks at the side of her dreaded and severe husband, and, with
cheerful wit and inexhaustible good-humor, jest away the frown from his
brow, and vexation from his soul.
But just because she could do this, she was a dangerous antagonist to
Douglas and Gardiner. Just on that account, it was to be their highest
effort to destroy this beautiful young woman, who durst defy them and
weaken their influence with the king. If they could but succeed in
rendering the king's mind more and more gloomy; if they could but
completely fill him again with fanatical religious zeal; then, and then
only, could they hope to attain their end; which end was this: to bring
back the king as a contrite, penitent, and humble son of the only saving
mother Church, and to make him again, from a proud, vain, and imperious
prince, an obedient and submissive son of the pope.
The king was to renounce this vain and blasphemous arrogance of wishing
to be himself head of his Church. He was to turn away from the spirit of
novelty and heresy, and again become a faithful and devout Catholic.
But in order that they might attain this end, Catharine must be removed
from him; he must no longer behold her rosy and beautiful face, and no
longer allow himself to be diverted by her sensible discourse and her
keen wit.
"We shall not be able to overthrow the queen," said Earl Douglas to
Gardiner, as the two stood in the king's anteroom, and as Catharine's
cheerful chit-chat and the king's merry laugh came pealing to them
from the adjoining room. "No, no, Gardiner, she is too powerful and too
crafty. The king loves her very much; and she is such an agreeable and
refreshing recreation to him."
"Just on that account we must withdraw her from him," said Gardiner,
with a dark frown. "He must turn away his heart from this earthly love;
and after we shall have mortified this love in him, this savage and
arrogant man will return to us and to God, contrite and humble." But we
shall not be able to mortify it, friend. It is so ardent and selfish a
love.
"So much the greater will be the triumph, if our holy admonitions are
successful in touching his heart, Douglas. It is true he will suffer
very much if he is obliged to give up this woman. But he needs precisely
this suffering in order to become contrite and penitent. His mind must
first be entirely darkened, so that we can illuminate it with the light
of faith. He must first be rendered perfectly isolated and comfortless
in order to bring him back to the holy communion of the Church, and to,
find him again accessible to the consolations of that faith which alone
can save."
"Ah," sighed Douglas, "I fear that this will be a useless struggle. The
king is so vain of his self-constituted high-priesthood!"
"But he is such a weak man, and such a great sinner!" said Gardiner,
with a cold smile. "He trembles so much at death and God's judgment,
and our holy mother the Church can give him absolution, and by her
holy sacraments render death easy to him. He is a wicked sinner and has
stings of conscience. This it is that will bring him back again to the
bosom of the Catholic Church."
"But when will that come to pass? The king is sick, and any day may put
an end to his life. Woe to us, if he die before he has given the power
into our hands, and nominated us his executors! Woe to us, if the queen
is appointed regent, and the king selects the Seymours as her ministers!
Oh, my wise and pious father, the work that you wish to do must be done
soon, or it must remain forever unaccomplished."
"It shall be done this very day," said Gardiner, solemnly; and bending
down closer to the earl's ear, he continued: "we have lulled the queen
into assurance and self-confidence, and by this means she shall be
ruined this very day. She relies so strongly on her power over the
king's disposition, that she often summons up courage even to contradict
him, and to set her own will in opposition to his. That shall be her
ruin this very day! For mark well, earl; the king is now again like a
tiger that has been long fasting. He thirsts for blood! The queen has
an aversion to human blood, and she is horrified when she hears of
executions. So we must manage that these opposing inclinations may come
into contact, and contend with each other."
"Oh, I understand now," whispered Douglas; "and I bow in reverence
before the wisdom of your highness. You will let them both contend with
their own weapons."
"I will point out a welcome prey to his appetite for blood, and give her
silly compassion an opportunity to contend with the king for his prey.
Do you not think, earl, that this will be an amusing spectacle, and one
refreshing to the heart, to see how the tiger and dove struggle with
each other? And I tell you the tiger thirsts so much for blood! Blood is
the only balm that he applies to his aching limbs, and by which alone
he imagines that he can restore peace and courage to his tortured
conscience and his dread of death. Ah, ha! we have told him that, with
each new execution of a heretic, one of his great sins would be blotted
out, and that the blood of the Calvinists serves to wash out of his
account-book some of his evil deeds. He would be so glad to be able to
appear pure and guiltless before the tribunal of his God! Therefore
he needs very much heretical blood. But hark--the hour strikes which
summons me to the royal chamber! There has been enough of the queen's
laughing and chit-chat. We will now endeavor to banish the smile forever
from her face. She is a heretic; and it is a pious work, well pleasing
to God, if we plunge her headlong into ruin!"
"May God be with your highness, and assist you by His grace, that you
may accomplish this sublime work!"
"God will be with us, my son, since for Him it is that we labor and
harass ourselves. To His honor and praise we bring these misbelieving
heretics to the stake, and make the air re-echo with the agonizing
shrieks of those who are racked and tortured. That is music well
pleasing to God; and the angels in heaven will triumph and be glad when
the heretical and infidel Queen Catharine also has to strike up this
music of the damned. Now I go to the holy labor of love and godly wrath.
Pray for me, my son, that I may succeed. Remain here in the anteroom,
and await my call; perhaps we shall need you. Pray for us, and with us.
Ah, we still owe this heretical queen a grudge for Anne Askew. To-day
we will pay her. Then she accused us, to-day we will accuse her, and God
and His host of saints and angels are with us."
And the pious and godly priest crossed himself, and with head humbly
bowed and a soft smile about his thin, bloodless lips, strode through
the hall in order to betake himself to the king's chamber.
More
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Brother And Sister
Lightly on the tips of her toes the duchess stole toward her brother, who did not yet observe her. The thick Turkish carpet made her steps inaudible. She already stood behind the earl, and he had not yet noticed her. Now she bent over his shoul... Chess-play
It was many days since the king had been as well as he was to-day. For a long time he had not enjoyed such refreshing sleep as on the day when he signed the warrant for the queen's imprisonment. But he thought nothing at all about it. Sleep seemed... Choosing A Confessor
It was in the year 1543. King Henry the Eighth of England that day once more pronounced himself the happiest and most enviable man in his kingdom, for to-day he was once more a bridegroom, and Catharine Parr, the youthful widow of Baron Latimer, h... Father And Daughter
Both now kept silent for a long time. Lord Douglas had leaned back on the ottoman, and, respiring heavily, seemed to breathe a little from the exertion of his long discourse. But while he rested, his large, piercing eyes were constantly turned to ... Gammer Gueton's Needle
Slowly and lost in gloomy thought, John Heywood walked toward his lodgings. These lodgings were situated in the second or inner court of the vast palace of Whitehall, in that wing of the castle which contained the apartments of all the higher offi... Henry Howard Earl Of Surrey
The great court festival, so long expected, was at last to take place today. Knights and lords were preparing for the tournament; poets and scholars for the feast of the poets. For the witty and brave king wished to unite the two in this festival ... Henry The Eighth And His Wives
The calm of night had now succeeded to the tempest of the day, and after so much bustle, festivity, and rejoicing, deep quiet now reigned in the palace of Whitehall, and throughout London. The happy subjects of King Henry might, without danger, re... Intrigues
For a few days past the king's gout had grown worse, and, to his wrath and grief, it confined him as a prisoner to his rolling chair. The king was, therefore, very naturally gloomy and dejected, and hurled the lightnings of his wrath on all thos... John Heywood
After so much care and excitement, the king needed an hour of recreation and amusement. Since the fair young queen was seeking these far away in the chase, and amid the beauties of Nature, Henry must, no doubt, be content to seek them for himself,... King By The Wrath Of God
"Who dares interrupt us?" cried the king, as with headlong step he returned to the chamber--"who dares speak of mercy?" "I dare!" said a young lady, who, pale, with distorted features, in frightful agitation, now hastened to the king and prostra... King Henry The Eighth
Catharine was not deceived. The doors were opened, and on the threshold appeared the lord marshal, with his golden mace. "His majesty the king!" whispered he, in his grave, solemn manner, which filled Catharine with secret dread, as though he we... Lady Jane
All was quiet in the palace of Whitehall. Even the servants on guard in the vestibule of the king's bedchamber had been a long time slumbering, for the king had been snoring for several hours; and this majestical sound was, to the dwellers in the ... Le Roi Est Mort Vive La Reine!
King Henry lay a-dying. That life full of sin, full of blood and crime, full of treachery and cunning, full of hypocrisy and sanctimonious cruelty--that life was at last lived out. That hand, which had signed so many death-warrants, was now clutch... Le Roi S'ennuit
King Henry was alone in his study. He had spent a few hours in writing on a devout and edifying book, which he was preparing for his subjects, and which, in virtue of his dignity as supreme lord of the Church, he designed to commend to their readi... Lendemain
The great levee was over. Sitting beside the king on the throne, Catharine had received the congratulations of her court; and the king's smiling look, and the tender words which, in undertone, he now and then addressed to the queen, had manifested... Letter Eighteenth To Anne Boleyn
To inform you what joy it is to me to understand of your conformableness with reason, and of the suppressing of your inutile and vain thoughts with the bridle of reason. I assure you all the good in this world could not counterpoise for my satisfa... Letter Eighth Anne Boleyn To Wolsey
MY LORD, in my most humblest wise that my heart can think, I desire you to pardon me that I am so bold to trouble you with my simple and rude writing, esteeming it to proceed from her that is much desirous to know that your grace does well, as I p... Letter Eleventh To Anne Boleyn
The cause of my writing at this time, good sweetheart, is only to understand of your good health and prosperity; whereof to know I would be as glad as in manner mine own, praying God that (an it be His pleasure) to send us shortly together, for I ... Letter Fifteenth To Anne Boleyn
MINE own SWEETHEART, this shall be to advertise you of the great elengeness that I find here since your departing; for, I ensure you methinketh the time longer since your departing now last, than I was wont to do a whole fortnight. I think your ki... Letter Fifth To Anne Boleyn
For a present so beautiful that nothing could be more so (considering the whole of it), I thank you most cordially, not only on account of the fine diamond and the ship in which the solitary damsel is tossed about, but chiefly for the fine interpr... Letter First To Anne Boleyn
On turning over in my mind the contents of your last letters, I have put myself into great agony, not knowing how to interpret them, whether to my disadvantage, as you show in some places, or to my advantage, as I understand them in some others, b... Letter Fourteenth To Anne Boleyn
DARLING, I heartily recommend me to you, ascertaining you that I am not a little perplexed with such things as your brother shall on my part declare unto you, to whom I pray you give full credence, for it were too long to write. In my last letters... Letter Fourth To Anne Boleyn
MY MISTRESS & FRIEND, my heart and I surrender ourselves into your hands, beseeching you to hold us commended to your favour, and that by absence your affection to us may not be lessened: for it were a great pity to increase our pain, of which abs... Letter Ninth To Anne Boleyn
There came to me suddenly in the night the most afflicting news that could have arrived. The first, to hear of the sickness of my mistress, whom I esteem more than all the world, and whose health I desire as I do my own, so that I would gladly bea... Letter Second To Anne Boleyn
Though it is not fitting for a gentleman to take his lady in the place of a servant, yet, complying with your desire, I willingly grant it you, if thereby you can find yourself less uncomfortable in the place chosen by yourself, than you have been... Letter Seventeenth To Anne Boleyn
The reasonable request of your last letter, with the pleasure also that I take to know them true, causeth me to send you these news. The legate which we most desire arrived at Paris on Sunday or Monday last past, so that I trust by the next Monday... Letter Seventh To Anne Boleyn
DARLING, these shall be only to advertise you that this bearer and his fellow be despatched with as many things to compass our matter, and to bring it to pass as our wits could imagine or devise; which brought to pass, as I trust, by their diligen... Letter Sixteenth To Anne Boleyn
DARLING, Though I have scant leisure, yet, remembering my promise, I thought it convenient to certify you briefly in what case our affairs stand. As touching a lodging for you, we have got one by my lord cardinal's means, the like whereof could no... Letter Sixth To Anne Boleyn
TO MY MISTRESS. Because the time seems very long since I heard concerning your health and you, the great affection I have for you has induced me to send you this bearer, to be better informed of your health and pleasure, and because, since my part... Letter Tenth To Anne Boleyn
The uneasiness my doubts about your health gave me, disturbed and alarmed me exceedingly, and I should not have had any quiet without hearing certain tidings. But now, since you have as yet felt nothing, I hope, and am assured that it will spare y... Letter Third To Anne Boleyn
Although, my Mistress, it has not pleased you to remember the promise you made me when I was last with you--that is, to hear good news from you, and to have an answer to my last letter; yet it seems to me that it belongs to a true servant (seeing ... Letter Thirteenth To Anne Boleyn
The approach of the time for which I have so long waited rejoices me so much, that it seems almost to have come already. However, the entire accomplishment cannot be till the two persons meet, which meeting is more desired by me than anything in t... Letter Twelfth To Anne Boleyn
Since your last letters, mine own darling, Walter Welshe, Master Browne, Thos. Care, Grion of Brearton, and John Coke, the apothecary, be fallen of the sweat in this house, and, thanked be God, all well recovered, so that as yet the plague is not ... Loyola's General
She rushed to the window and gazed after him till he had disappeared, then she uttered a deep cry of anguish, and, wholly overcome by her agony, she sank down on her knees weeping and wailing, wringing her hands, and raising them to God. But ju... New Intrigues
Henry Howard was dead; and now one would have thought the king might be satisfied and quiet, and that sleep would no longer flee from his eyelids, since Henry Howard, his great rival, had closed his eyes forever; since Henry Howard was no longer t... Postscript By Henry Viii
The writer of this letter would not cease, till she had caused me likewise to set my hand, desiring you, though it be short, to take it in good part. I ensure you that there is neither of us but greatly desireth to see you, and are joyous to hear ... Princess Elizabeth
The king sleeps. Let him sleep! He is old and infirm, and God has severely punished the restless tyrant with a vacillating, ever-disquieted, never-satisfied spirit, while He bound his body and made the spirit prisoner of the body; while He made th... Revenge
Miss Holland, the beautiful and much-admired mistress of the Duke of Norfolk, was alone in her magnificently adorned boudoir. It was the hour when ordinarily the duke was wont to be with her; for this reason she was charmingly attired, and had wra... The Accusation
In vain had the king hoped to master his pains, or at least to forget them, while he tried to sleep. Sleep had fled from the king's couch; and as he now sat in his rolling-chair, sad, weary, and harassed with pain, he thought, with gloomy spite, t... The Acknowledgment
The Princess Elizabeth was sitting in her room, melancholy and absorbed in thought. Her eyes were red with weeping; and she pressed her hand on her heart, as if she would repress its cry of anguish. With a disconsolate, perplexed look she gazed ... The Catastrophe
After days of secret torture and hidden tears, after nights of sobbing anguish and wailing sorrow, Catharine had at last attained to inward peace; she had at last taken a firm and decisive resolution. The king was sick unto death; and however mu... The Confidant
The queen was just ascending the steps of the great public staircase, and she greeted John Heywood with a friendly smile. "My lady," said he aloud, "I have a few words in private to say to you, in the name of his majesty." "Words in private!"... The Declaration
Thomas Seymour returned to Catharine. She still lay there with closed eyes, pale and motionless. He gazed on her long and steadily; his eyes drank in, in long draughts, the sight of this beautiful and noble woman, and he forgot at that moment t... The Feast Of Death
For a long time the king had not appeared in such good spirits as on this festive evening. For a long time he had not been so completely the tender husband, the good-natured companion, the cheerful bon-vivant. The pains of his leg seemed to have... The Intercession
"And now, Kate," said the king, when all had withdrawn, and he was again alone with her, "now let us forget everything, save that we love each other." He embraced her and with ardor pressed her to his breast. Wearied to death, she bowed her hea... The King And The Priest
"God bless and preserve your majesty!" said Gardiner as he entered, to the king, who just then was sitting with the queen at the chess-board. With frowning brow and compressed lips he looked over the game, which stood unfavorable for him, and thre... The King's Fool
Two years had passed away since the king's marriage, and still Catharine Parr had always kept in favor with her husband; still her enemies were foiled in their attempts to ruin her, and raise the seventh queen to the throne. Catharine had ever ... The Prisoner
Still all was calm and quiet in the palace of Whitehall. Nothing was stirring, and nobody had heard how Lady Jane Douglas left her chamber and glided down the corridor. No one has heard it, and no eye is awake, and none sees what is now taking ... The Queen
From the niche in which John Heywood had hid himself he could survey the entire corridor and all the doors opening into it--could see everything and hear everything without being himself seen, for the projecting pilaster completely shaded him. ... The Queen And Her Friend
At last this long day of ceremonies and festivities drew near its close, and Catharine might soon hope to be, for the time, relieved from this endless presenting and smiling, from this ever-renewed homage. At her husband's side she had shown her... The Queen's Friend
Earl Douglas, Gardiner, and Wriothesley, had accompanied the king into his cabinet. At last the great blow was to be struck, and the plan of the three enemies of the queen, so long matured and well-considered, was to be at length put in executi... The Queen's Rosette
The golden gallery, in which the tourney of the poets was to take place, presented to-day a truly enchanting and fairy-like aspect. Mirrors of gigantic size, set in broad gilt frames, ornamented with the moat perfect carved work, covered the walls... The Queen's Toilet
The festivities of the day are concluded, and the gallant knights and champions, who have to-day broken a lance for the honor of their ladies, may rest from their victories upon their laurels. The tournament of arms was over, and the tournament of... The Ride
It was a wondrous morning. The dew still lay on the grass of the meadows, over which they had just ridden to reach the thicket of the forest, in whose trees resounded the melodious voices of blithe birds. Then they rode along the banks of a babbli... The Rivals
At the very moment when the king was pronouncing, in a voice almost exultant, Anne Askew's sentence of death, one of the king's cavaliers appeared on the threshold of the royal chamber and advanced toward the king. He was a young man of noble a... Undeceived
Parliament, which had not for a long time now ventured to offer any further opposition to the king's will--Parliament had acquiesced in his decree. It had accused Earl Surrey of high treason; and, on the sole testimony of his mother and his sister...