urse expenses of the
period show how openly Anne was acknowledged as being Henry's actual
consort. Not only did she accompany the King everywhere on his excursions
and progresses, and partake of the receptions offered to him by local
authorities and nobles,[81] but large sums of money were paid out of the
King's treasury for the gorgeous garb in which she loved to appear. Purple
velvet at half a guinea a yard, costly furs and linen, bows and arrows,
liveries for her servants, and all sorts of fine gear were bought for
Anne. The Lord Mayor of London, in June 1530, sent her a present of
cherries, and the bearer got a reward of 6s. 8d. Soon after Anne's
greyhounds killed a cow, and the Privy Purse had to pay the damage, 10s.
In November, 19-3/4 yards of crimson satin at 15s. a yard had to be paid
for to make Lady Anne a robe, and L8, 8s. for budge skins was paid soon
afterwards. When Christmas came and card-playing was in season, my Lady
Anne must have playing money, L20 all in groats; and when she lost, as she
did pretty heavily, her losings had to be paid by the treasurer, though
her winnings she kept for herself. No less than a hundred pounds was given
to her as a New Year's gift in 1531. A few weeks afterwards, a farm at
Greenwich was bought for her for L66; and her writing-desk had to be
adorned with latten and gold at a great cost. As the year 1531 advanced
and Katharine's cause became more desperate, the extravagance of her rival
grew; and when in the autumn of that year the Queen was finally banished
from Court, Anne's bills for dressmaker's finery amounted to extravagant
proportions.

The position was rendered the more bitter for Katharine when she
recognised that the Pope, in a fright now at Henry's defiance, was trying
to meet him half way, and was listening to the suggestion of referring the
question to a tribunal at Cambray or elsewhere; whilst the Emperor himself
was only anxious to get the cause settled somehow without an open affront
to his house or necessary cause for quarrel with Henry.[82] And yet,
withal, the divorce did not seem to make headway in England itself. As we
have seen, the common people were strongly against it: the clergy,
trembling, as well they might, for their privileges between the Pope and
the King, were naturally as a body in favour of the ecclesiastical view;
and many of Henry and Anne's clerical instruments, such as Dr. Bennet in
Rome and Dr. Sampson at Vienna, were secretly working