t she might have
been condemned on insufficient evidence, was generally popular; for
her arrogance and that of her family made them hated, and they were
regarded as the cause of the King's persecution of Catherine, of Mary,
and of those who maintained their cause. Abroad the effect was still
more striking. The moment Henry heard of Catherine's death, he added a
postscript to Cromwell's despatch to the English ambassadors in
France, bidding them to take a higher tone with Francis, for all cause
of difference had been removed between him and Charles V.[976] The
Emperor secretly believed that his aunt had been poisoned,[977] but
that private grief was not to affect his public policy; and Charles,
Francis, and even the Pope, became more or less eager competitors (p. 350)
for Henry's favour. The bull of deprivation, which had been drawn up
and signed, became a dead letter, and every one was anxious to disavow
his share in its promotion. Charles obtained the suspension of its
publication, made a merit of that service to Henry, and tried to
represent that it was Francis who, with his eyes on the English crown,
had extorted the bull from the Pope.[978] Paul III. himself used words
to the English envoy at Rome, which might be interpreted as an apology
for having made Fisher a cardinal and having denounced his and More's
execution.[979]

[Footnote 976: _L. and P._, x., 54.]

[Footnote 977: _Ibid._, x., 230.]

[Footnote 978: _L. and P._, x., 887.]

[Footnote 979: _Ibid._, x., 977.]

Henry had been driven by fear of Charles in the previous year to make
further advances than he relished towards union with the German
princes; but the Lutherans could not be persuaded to adopt Henry's
views of the mass and of his marriage with Catherine; and now he was
glad to substitute an understanding with the Emperor for intrigues
with the Emperor's subjects.[980] Cromwell and the council were,
indeed, a little too eager to welcome Chapuys' professions of friendship
and to entertain his demands for help against Francis. Henry allowed
them to go on for a time; but Cromwell was never in Wolsey's position,
and the King was not inclined to repeat his own and the Cardinal's
errors of 1521. He had suffered enough from the prostration of France
and the predominance of Charles; and he was anxious now that neither
should be supreme. So, when the imperial ambassador came expect