i., App. Nos. 94-102.]

[Footnote 1065: Burnet, iv., 373.]

This policy once adopted, the task of selecting a bride was easy. As
early as 1530[1066] the old Duke of Cleves had suggested some (p. 383)
marriage alliance between his own and the royal family of England. He
was closely allied to the Elector of Saxony, who had married Sibylla,
the Duke of Cleves' daughter; and the young Duke, who was soon to
succeed his father, had also claims to the Duchy of Guelders. Guelders
was a thorn in the side of the Emperor; it stood to the Netherlands in
much the same relation as Scotland stood to England, and when there
was war between Charles and Francis Guelders had always been one of
the most useful pawns in the French King's hands. Hence an alliance
between the German princes, the King of Denmark, who had joined their
political and religious union, Guelders and England would have
seriously threatened the Emperor's hold on his Dutch dominions.[1067]
This was the step which Henry was induced to take, when he realised
that Charles's friendship with France remained unbroken, and that the
Emperor had made up his mind to visit Paris. Hints of a marriage
between Henry and Anne of Cleves[1068] were thrown out early in 1539;
the only difficulty, which subsequently proved very convenient, was
that the lady had been promised to the son of the Duke of (p. 384)
Lorraine. The objection was waived on the ground that Anne herself had
not given her consent; in view of the advantages of the match and of
the Duke's financial straits, Henry agreed to forgo a dowry; and, on
the 6th of October, the treaty of marriage was signed.[1069]

[Footnote 1066: _L. and P._, iv., 6364.]

[Footnote 1067: See the present writer in
_Cambridge Modern History_, ii., 236, 237. The Duke
of Cleves was not a Lutheran or a Protestant, as is
generally assumed. He had established a curious
Erasmian compromise between Protestantism and Roman
Catholicism, which bears some resemblance to the
ecclesiastical policy pursued by Henry VIII., and
by the Elector Joachim II. of Brandenburg; and the
marriage of Anne with Henry did not imply so great
a change in ecclesiastical policy as has usually
been supposed. The objecti