reated only as
princess dowager of Wales; and all means were employed to make her
acquiesce in that determination. But she continued obstinate in
maintaining the validity of her marriage; and she would admit no person
to her presence who did not approach her with the accustomed ceremonial.
Henry, forgetting his wonted generosity towards her, employed menaces
against such of her servants as complied with her commands in this
particular; but was never able to make her relinquish her title and
pretensions.[***]

* Heylin, p. 6.

** Burnet, vol. i, p. 134.

*** Herbert, p. 326. Burnet, vol. i. p. 132.

When intelligence was conveyed to Rome of these transactions, so
injurious to the authority and reputation of the holy see, the conclave
was in a rage, and all the cardinals of the imperial faction urged the
pope to proceed to a definitive sentence, and to dart his spiritual
thunders against Henry. But Clement proceeded no further than to declare
the nullity of Cranmer's sentence, as well as that of Henry's second
marriage; threatening him with excommunication, if before the first
of November ensuing he did not replace every thing in the condition in
which it formerly stood.[*] An event had happened from which the
pontiff expected a more amicable conclusion of the difference, and which
hindered him from carrying matters to extremity against the king.

The pope had claims upon the duchy of Ferrara for the sovereignty of
Reggio and Modena;[**] and having submitted his pretensions to the
arbitration of the emperor, he was surprised to find a sentence
pronounced against him. Enraged at this disappointment, he hearkened to
proposals of amity from Francis; and when that monarch made overtures of
marrying the duke of Orleans, his second son, to Catharine of Medicis,
niece of the pope, Clement gladly embraced an alliance by which his
family was so much honored. An interview was even appointed between the
pope and French king at Marseilles; and Francis, as a common friend,
there employed his good offices in mediating an accommodation between
his new ally and the king of England.

* Le Grand, vol. iii. p. 566.

** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 133. Guicciard.

Had this connection of France with the court of Rome taken place a few
years sooner, there had been little difficulty in adjusting the quarrel
with Henry. The king's request was an ordinary one; and the same plenary
power of the pope which had granted a d