nuptials with the baby
bridegroom. That the heir of France should marry the heiress of England
was a danger to the balance of Europe, and especially a blow to Spain. It
was, moreover, not a match which England could regard with equanimity; for
a French King Consort would have been repugnant to the whole nation, and
Henry could never have meant to conclude the marriage finally, unless the
expected heir was born. But alas! for human hopes. On the night of 10th
November 1518, Katharine was delivered of a daughter, "to the vexation of
as many as knew it," and King and nation mourned together, now that, after
all, a Frenchman might reign over England.

To Katharine this last disappointment was bitter indeed. Her husband,
wounded and irritated, first in his pride, and now in his national
interests, avoided her; her own country and kin had lost the English tie
that meant so much to them, and she herself, in poor health and waning
attractions, could only mourn her misfortunes, and cling more closely than
ever to her one darling child, Mary, for the new undesired infant girl had
died as soon as it was born. The ceaseless round of masking, mummery, and
dancing, which so much captivated Henry, went on without abatement, and
Katharine perforce had to take her part in it; but all the King's
tenderness was now shown not to his wife but to his little daughter, whom
he carried about in his arms and praised inordinately.[27] So frivolous
and familiar indeed had Henry's behaviour grown that his Council took
fright, and, under the thin veil of complaints against the behaviour of
his boon companions, Carew, Peachy, Wingfield, and Brian, who were
banished from Court, they took Henry himself seriously to task. The four
French hostages, held for the payment of the war indemnity, were also
feasted and entertained so familiarly by Henry, under Wolsey's influence,
as to cause deep discontent to the lieges, who had always looked upon
France as an enemy, and knew that the unpopular Cardinal's overwhelming
display was paid for by French bribes. At one such entertainment
Katharine was made to act as hostess at her dower-house of Havering in
Essex, where, in the summer of 1519, we are told that, "for their
welcomyng she purveyed all thynges in the most liberalist manner; and
especially she made to the Kyng suche a sumpteous banket that he thanked
her hartely, and the strangers gave it great praise." Later in the same
year Katharine was present at a gr