reduced to poverty by misfortunes. He
immediately sent for him, reminded him of their ancient friendship, and
by his grateful assistance reinstated him in his former prosperity and
opulence.[*]

The measures for divorcing Henry from Anne of Cleves were carried on at
the same time with the bill of attainder against Cromwell. The house of
peers, in conjunction with the commons, applied to the king by petition,
desiring that he would allow his marriage to be examined; and orders
were immediately given to lay the matter before the convocation. Anne
had formerly been contracted by her father to the duke of Lorraine, but
she, as well as the duke, were at that time under age, and the contract
had been afterwards annulled by consent of both parties.

The king, however, pleaded this precontract as a ground of divorce; and
he added two reasons more, which may seem a little extraordinary; that,
when he espoused Anne he had not inwardly given his consent, and that he
had not thought proper to consummate the marriage. The convocation was
satisfied with these reasons, and solemnly annulled the marriage
between the king and queen: the parliament ratified the decision of the
clergy;[**] [16] and the sentence was soon after notified to the
princess.

Anne was blest with a happy insensibility of temper, ever in the points
which the most nearly affect her sex; and the king's aversion towards
her, as well as his prosecution of the divorce, had never given her the
least uneasiness. She willingly hearkened to terms of accommodation with
him; and when he offered to adopt her as his sister, to give her place
next the queen and his own daughter, and to make a settlement of three
thousand pounds a year upon her; she accepted of the conditions, and
gave her consent to the divorce.[***] She even wrote to her brother,
(for her father was now dead,) that she had been very well used in
England, and desired him to live on good terms with the king. The only
instance of pride which she betrayed was, that she refused to return to
her own country after the affront which she had received; and she lived
and died in England.

* Burnet, vol. i. p. 172.

** See note P, at the end of the volume.

*** Herbert, p. 458 459.

Notwithstanding Anne's moderation, this incident produced a great
coldness between the king and the German princes; but as the situation
of Europe was now much altered, Henry was the more indifferent about
their resentm