e
marriage with the king was declared to have been null and void from the
beginning, and on the 23rd of May, the archbishop sent to London the
welcome news that the long matter was at an end.[433]

It was over;--over at last; yet so over, that the conclusion could but
appear to the losing party a fresh injustice. To those who were concerned
in bringing it to pass, to the king himself, to the nation, to Europe, to
every one who heard of it at the time, it must have appeared, as it appears
now to us who read the story of it, if a necessity, yet a most unwelcome
and unsatisfying one. That the king remained uneasy is evident from the
efforts which he continued to make, or which he allowed to be made,
notwithstanding the brief of the 23rd of December, to gain the sanction of
the pope. That the nation was uneasy, we should not require the evidence of
history to tell us. "There was much murmuring in England," says Hall, "and
it was thought by the unwise that the Bishop of Rome would curse all
Englishmen; that the emperor and he would destroy all the people." And
those who had no such fears, and whose judgment in the main approved of
what had been done, were scandalised at the presentation to them at the
instant of the publication of the divorce, of a new queen, four months
advanced in pregnancy. This also was a misfortune which had arisen out of
the chain of duplicities, a fresh accident swelling a complication which
was already sufficiently entangled. It had been occasioned by steps which
at the moment at which they were ventured, prudence seemed to justify; but
we the more regret it, because, in comparison with the interests which were
at issue, the few months of additional delay were infinitely unimportant.

Nevertheless, we have reason to be thankful that the thing, well or ill,
was over; seven years of endurance were enough for the English nation, and
may be supposed to have gained even for Henry a character for patience. In
some way, too, it is needless to say, the thing must have ended. The life
of none of us is long enough to allow us to squander so large a section of
it struggling in the meshes of a law-suit; and although there may be a
difference of opinion on the wisdom of having first entered upon ground of
such a kind, few thinking persons can suggest any other method in which
either the nation or the king could have extricated themselves. Meanwhile,
it was resolved that such spots and blemishes as hung about the t