emony but had
himself given the bride away; so that it may fairly be concluded that he,
at least, was not discontented with the match. Wriothesley, his obedient
creature, moreover, must have been voicing the general feeling of
Catholics when he wrote to the Duke of Suffolk in the North his eulogy of
the bride a few days after the wedding. "The King's Majesty was mareid
onne Thursdaye last to my ladye Latimor, a woman, in my judgment, for
vertewe, wisdomme and gentilnesse, most meite for his Highnesse: and sure
I am his Mat{e} had never a wife more agreable to his harte than she is.
Our Lorde sende them long lyf and moche joy togethir."[238] Both the
King's daughters had been at the wedding, Mary receiving from Katharine a
handsome present as bride's-maid; but Henry had the decency not to bid the
presence of Anne of Cleves. She is represented as being somewhat disgusted
at the turn of events. Her friends, and perhaps she herself, had never
lost the hope that if the Protestant influence became paramount, Henry
might take her back. But the imperial alliance had made England an enemy
of her brother of Cleves, whose territory the Emperor's troops were
harrying with fire and sword; and her position in England was a most
difficult one. "She would," says Chapuys, "prefer to be with her mother,
if with nothing but the clothes on her back, rather than be here now,
having specially taken great grief and despair at the King's espousal of
his new wife, who is not nearly so good-looking as she is, besides that
there is no hope of her (Katharine) having issue, seeing that she had none
by her two former husbands."[239]

As we have seen, Katharine had all her life belonged to the Catholic
party, of which the northern nobles were the leaders, and doubtless this
fact had secured for her marriage the ready acquiescence of Gardiner and
his friends, especially when coupled with the attachment known to exist
between the bride and the Princess Mary. But Katharine had studied hard,
and was devoted to the "new learning," which had suddenly become
fashionable for high-born ladies. The Latin classics, the writings of
Erasmus, of Juan Luis Vives, and others were the daily solace of the few
ladies in England who had at this time been seized with the new craze of
culture, Katharine, the King's daughters, his grand-nieces the Greys, and
the daughters of Sir Anthony Cook, being especially versed in classics,
languages, philosophy, and theology. The "new