e innocent mother answerable for the misfortune.[*]
But the chief means which Anne's enemies employed to inflame the king
against her, was his jealousy.

* Burnet, vol. i. p. 196.

Anne, though she appears to have been entirely innocent, and even
virtuous in her conduct, had a certain gayety, if not levity of
character which threw her off her guard, and made her less circumspect
than her situation required. Her education in France rendered her the
more prone to those freedoms; and it was with difficulty she conformed
herself to that strict ceremonial practised in the court of England.
More vain than haughty, she was pleased to see the influence of
her beauty on all around her; and she indulged herself in an easy
familiarity with persons who were formerly her equals, and who might
then have pretended to her friendship and good graces. Henry's dignity
was offended with these popular manners; and though the lover had been
entirely blind, the husband possessed but too quick discernment
and penetration. III instruments interposed, and put a malignant
interpretation on the harmless liberties of the queen: the viscountess
of Rocheford, in particular, who was married to the queen's brother, but
who lived on bad terms with her sister-in-law, insinuated the most cruel
suspicions into the king's mind; and as she was a woman of a profligate
character, she paid no regard either to truth or humanity in those
calumnies which she suggested. She pretended that her own husband was
engaged in a criminal correspondence with his sister; and not content
with this imputation, she poisoned every action of the queen's, and
represented each instance of favor, which she conferred on any one, as
a token of affection. Henry Norris, groom of the stole, Weston and
Brereton, gentlemen of the king's chamber, together with Mark Smeton,
groom of the chamber, were observed to possess much of the queen's
friendship; and they served her with a zeal and attachment, which,
though chiefly derived from gratitude, might not improbably be seasoned
with some mixture of tenderness for so amiable a princess. The king's
jealousy laid hold of the slightest circumstance; and finding no
particular object on which it could fasten, it vented itself equally on
every one that came within the verge of its fury.

Had Henry's jealousy been derived from love, though it might on a sudden
have proceeded to the most violent extremities, it would have been
subject to many r