ssumption that that release would be
forthcoming; and actuated by this conscientious scruple, he had
refrained from consummating the match. To give verisimilitude to this
last statement, he added the further detail that he found his bride
personally repugnant. He therefore sought from "our" Church a
declaration of nullity. Anne was prudently ready to submit to its
decision; and, through Convocation, Henry's Church, which in his view
existed mainly to transact his ecclesiastical business, declared, on
the 7th of July, that the marriage was null and void.[1096] Anne
received a handsome endowment of four thousand pounds a year in lands,
was given two country residences, and lived on amicable terms with
Henry[1097] and his successors till 1558, when she died and was buried
in Westminster Abbey.

[Footnote 1096: For the canonical reasons on which
this decision was based, see the present writer's
_Cranmer_, pp. 140, 141.]

[Footnote 1097: "She is," writes Marillac in
August, "as joyous as ever, and wears new dresses
every day" (xv., 976; _cf._ Wriothesley
_Chronicle_, i., 120).]

Henry's neck was freed from the matrimonial yoke and the German (p. 396)
entanglement. The news was promptly sent to Charles, who remarked that
Henry would always find him his loving brother and most cordial
friend.[1098] At Antwerp it was said that the King had alienated the
Germans, but gained the Emperor and France in their stead.[1099]
Luther declared that "Junker Harry meant to be God and to do as
pleased himself";[1100] and Melancthon, previously so ready to find
excuses, now denounced the English King as a Nero, and expressed a
wish that God would put it into the mind of some bold man to
assassinate him.[1101] Francis sighed when he heard the news,
foreseeing a future alliance against him,[1102] but the Emperor's
secretary believed that God was bringing good out of all these
things.[1103]

[Footnote 1098: _L. and P._, xv., 863.]

[Footnote 1099: _Ibid._, xv., 932.]

[Footnote 1100: _Ibid._, xvi., 106.]

[Footnote 1101: _Ibid._, xvi., Introd., p. ii. n.]

[Footnote 1102: _Ibid._, xv., 870.]

[Footnote 1103: _Ibid._, xv., 951.]

CHAPTER XV.