ti statum in controversiam vocasset ejusque
heredes regno atque vita privasset illatum est."-WILKINS'S _Concilia_, vol.
iii. p. 714. Richard claimed the crown on the ground that a precontract
rendered his brother's marriage invalid, and Henry VII. tacitly allowed the
same doubt to continue. The language of the 22nd of the 25th of Hen. VIII.
is so clear as to require no additional elucidation; but another distinct
evidence of the belief of the time upon the subject is in one of the papers
laid before Pope Clement.

"Constat, in ipso regno quam plurima gravissima bella saepe exorta,
confingentes ex justis et legitimis nuptiis quorundam Angliae regum
procreatos illegitimos fore propter aliquod consangunitatis vel affinitatis
confictum impedimentum et propterea inhabiles esse ad regni
successionem."--_Rolls House MS._; WILKINS'S _Concilia_, vol. iii. p. 707.

[109] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24.

[110] _Appendix 2 to the Third Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public
Records_, p. 241.

[111] _Sadler Papers_, vol. iii. p. 323.

[112] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24.

[113] _Four Years at the Court of Henry the Eighth_, vol. ii. pp. 315-16.

[114] Sir Charles Brandon, created Duke of Suffolk, and married to Mary
Tudor, widow of Louis XII.

[115] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24.

[116] The treaty was in progress from Dec. 24, 1526, to March 2, 1527 [LORD
HERBERT, pp. 80, 81], and during this time the difficulty was raised. The
earliest intimation which I find of an intended divorce was in June, 1527,
at which time Wolsey was privately consulting the bishops.--_State Papers_
vol. i. p. 189.

[117] It was for some time delayed; and the papal agent was instructed to
inform Ferdinand that a marriage which was at variance a jure et
laudabilibus moribus could not be permitted nisi maturo consilio et
necessitatis causa.--Minute of a brief of Julius the Second, dated March
13, 1504, _Rolls House MS_.

[118] LORD HERBERT, p. 114.

[119] LORD HERBERT, p. 117, Kennett's edition. The act itself is printed in
BURNET'S _Collectanea_, vol. iv. (Nares' edition) pp. 5, 6. It is dated
June 27, 1505. Dr. Lingard endeavours to explain away the renunciation as a
form. The language of Moryson, however, leaves no doubt either of its
causes or its meaning. "Non multo post sponsalia contrahuntur," he says,
"Henrico plus minus tredecim annos jam nato. Sed rerum non recte inceptarum
successus infelicior homines non prorsus oscitantes plerumque docet quid
recte gestum qui