believe that Parliament would assent. Parliament,
she thought, had never yet heard the truth. She directed Chapuys to apply
for permission to appear at the bar of the House of Lords and speak for
her and the Princess.

After the failure of the Nuncio with Convocation Chapuys had little hope
that he would be listened to; but Catherine insisted on his making the
attempt, since a refusal, she thought, would be construed into an
admission of her right.

The Ambassador wrote to the Council. They desired to know what he proposed
to say, and he was allowed a private interview with the Duke of Norfolk.
He told the Duke that he wished merely to give a history of the divorce
case and would say nothing to irritate. The Duke said he would speak to
the King; but the Emperor, considering all that the King had done for him,
had not treated him well; they would sooner he had gone to war at once
than crossed and thwarted them at so many turns. Chapuys protested that
war had never been thought of, and it was arranged that he should see the
King and himself present his request. Before he entered the presence
Norfolk warned him to be careful of his words, as he was to speak on
matters so odious and unpleasing that all the sugars and sauces in the
world could not make them palatable. The King, however, was gracious.
Chapuys boldly entered on the treatment of the Queen and Princess. He had
heard, he said, that the subject was to be laid before Parliament, and he
desired to present his remonstrances to the Lords and Commons themselves.

The King replied civilly that, as Chapuys must be aware, his first
marriage had been judicially declared null; the Lady Catherine, therefore,
could not any longer be called queen, nor the Lady Mary his legitimate
daughter. As to Chapuys's request, it was not the custom in England for
strangers to speak in Parliament.

Chapuys urged that the Archbishop's sentence was worth no more than the
Bishop of Bath's sentence illegitimatising the children of Edward IV.
Parliament would, no doubt, vote as the King pleased; but, as to custom,
no such occasion had ever arisen before, and Parliament was not competent
to decide questions which belonged only to spiritual judges. The Princess
was indisputably legitimate, as at the time of her birth no doubt existed
on the lawfulness of her mother's marriage.

This was a sound argument, and Henry seemed to admit the force of it. But
he said that neither pope nor princes had