Lutheranism, moreover, had
begun to grate upon the tender conscience of her husband under the
prompting of the Catholic party; although she scrupulously followed the
English ritual, and later became a professed Catholic; and to all these
reasons which now made Henry doubly anxious for prompt release, was added
another more powerful than any. One of Anne's maids of honour was a very
beautiful girl of about eighteen, Katharine, the orphan daughter of Lord
Edmund Howard, brother of the Duke of Norfolk, and consequently first
cousin of Anne Boleyn. During the first months of his unsatisfying union
with Anne, Henry's eyes must have been cast covetously upon Katharine; for
in April 1540 she received a grant from him of a certain felon's property,
and in the following month twenty-three quilts of quilted sarsnet were
given to her out of the royal wardrobe. When Cromwell was still awaiting
his fate in the Tower, and whispers were rife of what was intended against
the Queen, Marillac the observant French ambassador wrote in cipher to
his master, telling him that there was another lady in the case; and a
week afterwards (6th July) he amplified his hints by saying that, either
for that reason or some other, Anne had been sent to Richmond, on the
false pretence that plague had appeared in London, and that Henry, very
far from joining her there, as he had promised, had not left London, and
was about to make a progress in another direction. Marillac rightly says
that "if there had been any suspicion of plague, the King would not stay
for any affair, however great, as he is the most timid person that could
be in such a case."

The true reason why Anne was sent away was Henry's invariable cowardice,
that made him afraid to face a person whom he was wronging. Gardiner had
promptly done what Cromwell had been ruined for not doing, and had
submitted to the King within a few days of the arrest of his rival a
complete plan by which Anne might be repudiated.[208] First certain
ecclesiastics, under oath of secrecy, were to be asked for their opinion
as to the best way to proceed, and the Council was thereupon to discuss
and settle the procedure in accordance: the question of the previous
contract and its repudiation was to be examined; the manner in which the
Queen herself was to be approached was to be arranged, and evidence from
every one to whom the King had spoken at the time as to his lack of
consent and consummation was to be collected.