n and prevarication by which the whole question is
obscured, and to seek by the magnet of common sense to find the needle of
truth in this vast bundle of hay.

The situation was complicated. In those days it was generally supposed
that no woman could succeed to the throne, and a male successor was
regarded as a political necessity. Charles V., too, was plotting to depose
Henry and to proclaim James V. as ruler of England, or Mary, who was to be
married to an English noble for this purpose.

_The Succession_

The Duke of Buckingham was the most formidable possible heir to the
throne, were the King to die without male heirs. His execution took place
in 1521. Desperate men take desperate remedies. Now, in 1519, Henry had a
natural son by Elizabeth Blount, sister of Lord Mountjoy. This boy Henry
contemplated placing on the throne, so causing considerable uneasiness to
the Queen. In 1525 he was created Duke of Richmond. Shortly after he was
made Lord High Admiral of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. It was
suggested that he should marry a royal Princess. Another suggestion was
that he should marry his half-sister, an arrangement which seems to have
commended itself to the Pope, on condition that Henry abandoned his
divorce from Queen Katharine! But this was not to be, and Mary was
betrothed to the French prince. An heir must be obtained somehow, and the
divorce, therefore, took more and more tangible shape. A marriage with
Anne Boleyn was the next move. To attain this object, Henry applied
himself with his accustomed energy. His conscience walked hand in hand
with expediency.

To Rome, Henry sent many embassies and to the Universities of Christendom
much gold, in order to persuade them to yield to the dictates of his
conscience. His passion for marriage lines in his amours was one of
Henry's most distinguishing qualities.

In 1527 an union between Francis I. and the Princess Mary was set on foot.
Here the question of Mary's legitimacy was debated, and this gave Henry
another excuse for regarding the divorce as necessary.

As the modern historian might aptly say: "Here was a pretty kettle of
fish."

There can be little doubt that as a man of God, Wolsey strongly
disapproved of the divorce, but as the King's Chancellor he felt himself
bound to urge his case to the best of his ability. He was in fact the
advocate--the devil's advocate--under protest. One cannot imagine a more
terrible position for a man of consc