. Pole was
not in England at the time. He drew his information from Catholic
rumour, as vindictive as it was credulous; and in the many letters from
members of the privy council to him which we possess, his narrative is
treated as throughout a mere wild collection of fables. I require some
better evidence to persuade me that this story is any truer than the
rest, when we know that Catherine allowed the king to hear that she was
dying, not from herself, but from a foreign ambassador; and that such a
request could have been made in the few days which intervened between
this intimation and her death, without some traces of it appearing in
the close account which we possess of her language and actions during
those days, is in a high degree unlikely.

[543] See Lingard, Vol. V. p. 30. Hall says: "Queen Anne wore yellow for
mourning."

[544] The directions for the funeral are printed in Lingard Vol. V.,
Appendix, p. 267.

[545] It ought not to be necessary to say that her will was
respected--Lord Herbert, p. 188; but the king's conduct to Catherine of
Arragon has provoked suspicion even where suspicion is unjust; and much
mistaken declamation has been wasted in connexion with this matter upon
an offence wholly imaginary.

In making her bequests, Catherine continued to regard herself as the
king's wife, in which capacity she professed to have no power to dispose
of her property. She left her legacies in the form of a petition to her
husband. She had named no executors; and being in the eyes of the law "a
sole woman," the administration lapsed in consequence to the nearest of
kin, the emperor. Some embarrassment was thus created, and the
attorney-general was obliged to evade the difficulty by a legal
artifice, before the king could take possession, and give effect to the
bequests.--See Strype's _Memor._, Vol. I., Appendix, pp. 252-255. Miss
Strickland's valuable volumes are so generally read, that I venture to
ask her to reconsider the passage which she has written on this subject.
The king's offences against Catherine require no unnecessary
exaggeration.

[546] See Vol. I. pp. 175, 176.

[547] Foxe speaks very strongly on this point. In Ellis's Letters we
find many detailed instances, and indeed in all contemporary
authorities.

[548] Cranmer's Letter to the King: Burnet, Vol. I. p. 323.

[549] More's _Life of More_; and see Chap. IX.

[550] Il Re de Inghilterra haveva fatto venire in la Corte sua il
majordomo de