deceived in the matter it was by Cromwell's
unfortunate assurances. As a matter of fact Anne
was at least as good looking as Jane Seymour, and
Henry's taste in the matter of feminine beauty was
not of a very high order. Bishop Stubbs even
suggests that their appearance was "if not a
justification, at least a colourable reason for
understanding the readiness with which he put them
away" (_Lectures_, 1887, p. 284).]

[Footnote 1071: _L. and P._, XIV., i., 552.]

[Footnote 1072: _Ibid._, XIV., ii., 33.]

[Footnote 1073: _L. and P._, XIV., ii., 664, 674,
677, 726, 732, 753, 754, 769.]

[Footnote 1074: Hall, _Chronicle_, p. 836.]

Such was, in reality, the result of his failure to act on the
principle laid down by himself to the French ambassador two years
before. He had then declared that the choice of a wife was too
delicate a matter to be left to a deputy, and that he must see and
know a lady some time before he made up his mind to marry her. Anne of
Cleves had been selected by Cromwell, and the lady, whose beauty was,
according to Cromwell, in every one's mouth, seemed to Henry no better
than "a Flanders mare".[1075] The day after the interview at Rochester
he told Cromwell that Anne was "nothing so well as she was spoken of,"
and that, "if he had known before as much as he knew then, she should
not have come within his realm". He demanded of his Vicegerent what
remedy he had to suggest, and Cromwell had none. Next day Cranmer,
Norfolk, Suffolk, Southampton and Tunstall were called in with (p. 386)
no better result. "Is there none other remedy," repeated Henry, "but
that I must needs, against my will, put my neck in the yoke?"[1076]
Apparently there was none. The Emperor was being feted in Paris; to
repudiate the marriage would throw the Duke of Cleves into the arms of
the allied sovereigns, alienate the German princes, and leave Henry
without a friend among the powers of Christendom. So he made up his
mind to put his neck in the yoke and to marry "the Flanders mare".

[Footnote 1075: Burnet, i., 434. The phrase appears
to have no extant contemporary authority, but
Burnet is not, as a rule, imaginative,