nt he heard rumours of Henry VII.'s death,
Ferdinand sent warning to his envoy in England that Louis of France
and others would seek by all possible means to break off the match.[81]
To further it, he would withdraw his objections to the union of Charles
and Mary; and a few days later he wrote again to remove any scruples
Henry might entertain about marrying his deceased brother's wife;
while to Catherine herself he declared with brutal frankness that she
would get no other husband than Henry.[82] All his paternal anxiety
might have been spared. Long before Ferdinand's persuasions could
reach Henry's ears, he had made up his mind to consummate the marriage.
He would not, he wrote to Margaret of Savoy,[83] disobey his father's
commands, reinforced as they were by the dispensation of the Pope and
by the friendship between the two families contracted by his sister
Mary's betrothal to Catherine's nephew Charles. There were other
reasons besides those he alleged. A council trained by Henry VII. was
loth to lose the gold of Catherine's dower; it was of the utmost
importance to strengthen at once the royal line; and a full-blooded
youth of Henry's temperament was not likely to repel a comely (p. 046)
wife ready to his hand, when the dictates of his father's policy no
longer stood between them. So on 11th June, barely a month after Henry
VII.'s obsequies, the marriage, big with destinies, of Henry VIII. and
Catherine of Aragon was privately solemnised by Archbishop Warham "in
the Queen's closet" at Greenwich.[84] On the same day the commission
of claims was appointed for the King's and Queen's coronation. A week
then sufficed for its business, and on Sunday, 24th June, the Abbey
was the scene of a second State function within three months. Its
splendour and display were emblematic of the coming reign. Warham
placed the crown on the King's head; the people cried, "Yea, yea!" in
a loud voice when asked if they would have Henry as King; Sir Robert
Dymock performed the office of champion; and a banquet, jousts and
tourneys concluded the ceremonies.

[Footnote 81: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 3.]

[Footnote 82: _Ibid._, ii., 8, 15.]

[Footnote 83: _L. and P._, i., 224.]

[Footnote 84: _L. and P._, iv., 5774.]

* * * * *

Though he had wedded a wife and been crowned a king, Henry was as yet
little more than a boy. A powerful mind