Duke of Norfolk, and now on loan at the National
Gallery, must have been painted by Holbein
afterwards.]

[Footnote 1033: It may have crystallised from some
such rumour as is reported in _L. and P._, XIV.,
ii., 141. "Marry," says George Constantyne, "she
sayeth that the King's Majesty was in so little
space rid of the Queens that she dare not trust his
Council, though she durst trust his Majesty; for
her council suspecteth that her great-aunt was
poisoned, that the second was innocently put to
death, and the third lost for lack of keeping in
her childbed." Constantyne added that he was not
sure whether this was Christina's answer or Anne of
Cleves'.]

The Emperor and the French King had not been deluded by English (p. 372)
intrigues, nor prevented from coming together by Henry's desire to
keep them apart. Charles, Francis, and Paul III. met at Nice in June,
1538, and there the Pope negotiated a ten years' truce. Henceforth
they were to consider their interests identical, and their ambassadors
in England compared notes in order to defeat more effectively Henry's
skilful diplomacy.[1034] The moment seemed ripe for the execution of
the long-cherished project for a descent upon England. Its King had
just added to his long list of offences against the Church by despoiling
the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury and burning the bones of the
saint. The saint was even said to have been put on his trial in
mockery, declared contumacious, and condemned as a traitor.[1035] If
the canonised bones of martyrs could be treated thus, who would, for
the future, pay respect to the Church or tribute at its shrines? At
Rome a party, of which Pole was the most zealous, proclaimed that the
real Turk was Henry, and that all Christian princes should unite to
sweep him from the face of God's earth, which his presence had too
long defiled. Considering the effect of Christian leagues against the
Ottoman, the English Turk was probably not dismayed. But Paul III. and
Pole were determined to do their worst. The Pope resolved to publish
the bull of deprivation, which had been drawn up in August, 1535,
though its execution had hitherto been suspended owing to papal (p. 373)
hopes of