16). In Sept., 1534, Henry was reported to be
in love with another lady (_ibid._, vii., 1193,
1257). Probably this was Jane Seymour, as the
lady's kindness to the Princess Mary--a marked
characteristic of Queen Jane--is noted by Chapuys.
This intrigue, we are told, was furthered by many
lords with the object of separating the King from
Anne Boleyn, who was disliked by the lords on
account of her pride and that of her kinsmen and
brothers (_ibid._, vii., 1279). Henry's behaviour
to the Princess was becoming quite benevolent, and
Chapuys begins to speak of his "amiable and cordial
nature" (_ibid._, vii., 1297).]

[Footnote 963: In 1533 Anne had accused her uncle
of having too much intercourse with Chapuys and of
maintaining the Princess Mary's title to the throne
(_L. and P._, vi., 1125).]

[Footnote 964: _Ibid._, x., 902, 910, 919. The
Regent Mary of the Netherlands writes: "That the
vengeance might be executed by the Emperor's
subjects, he sent for the executioner of St. Omer,
as there were none in England good enough"
(_ibid._, x., 965). It is perhaps well to be
reminded that even at this date there were more
practised executioners in the Netherlands than in
England.]

Two days before Anne's death her marriage with Henry had been declared
invalid by a court of ecclesiastical lawyers with Cranmer at its head.
The grounds of the sentence are not stated, but there may have been
two--the alleged precontract with the Earl of Northumberland, which
the Earl denied on oath and on the sacrament, and the previous
affinity between Anne and Henry arising from the King's relations with
Mary Boleyn. The latter seems the more probable. Henry had obtained of
Clement VII. a dispensation from this disability; but the Pope's
power to dispense had since been repudiated, while the canonical (p. 345)
objection remained and was given statutory authority in this very
year.[965] The effects of this piece of wanton injustice were among
the troubles which Henry bequeathed to