ting.
Sunday was devoted to the lords of his Council and courtiers, Monday to
the men of the law, Tuesday to the ladies, who all slept at the Court. The
King himself did nothing but go from room to room ordering and arranging
the lodgings to be prepared for these ladies, and he made them great and
hearty cheer, without showing special affection for any particular one.
Indeed, unless Parliament prays him to take another wife, he will not be
in a hurry to do so, I think. Besides, there are few, if any, ladies now
at Court who would aspire to such an honour; for by a new Act just passed,
any lady that the King may marry, if she be a subject, is bound, on pain
of death, to declare any charge of misconduct that can be brought against
her; and all who know or suspect anything against her must declare it
within twenty days, on pain of perpetual imprisonment and confiscation."
Henry, with five unsuccessful matrimonial adventures to his account, might
well pause before taking another plunge; though, from the extract printed
above, it was evident that he had no desire to put himself out of the way
of temptation. The only course upon which he seemed quite determined was
to resist all the blandishments of the Protestants, the German Lutherans,
and the French to take back Anne of Cleves, who, we are told, had waxed
half as beautiful again as she was since she had begun her jolly life of
liberty and beneficence, away from so difficult a husband as Henry.

CHAPTER IX

1542-1547

KATHARINE PARR--THE PROTESTANTS WIN THE LAST TRICK

The disappearance of Katharine Howard and the temporary eclipse of Norfolk
caused no check to the progress of the Catholic cause in England. When
Gardiner was with the Emperor in the summer of 1541 he had been able to
make in Henry's name an agreement by which neither monarch should treat
anything to the other's disadvantage for the next ten months; and as war
loomed nearer between Charles and Francis, the chances of a more durable
and binding treaty being made between the former and Henry improved. When
Gardiner had hinted at it in Germany, both Charles and Granvelle had
suggested that the submission of Henry to the Pope would be a necessary
preliminary. But the Emperor's brother, Ferdinand, was in close grips with
the Turk in Hungary, and getting the worst of it; Francis was again in
negotiation with the infidel, and French intrigue in Italy was busy. Henry
therefore found that the Emperor's tone