Council--Neutrality of England in
the war between France and the Empire.

Human nature is said to be the same in all ages and countries. Manners, if
it be so, signally vary. Among us, when a wife dies, some decent interval
is allowed before her successor is spoken of. The execution for adultery
of a Queen about whom all Europe had been so long and so keenly agitated
might have been expected to be followed by a pause. No pause, however,
ensued after the fall of Anne Boleyn. If Henry had been the most
interesting and popular of contemporary princes, there could not have been
greater anxiety to secure his vacant hand. Had he been the most pious of
Churchmen, the Pope could not have made greater haste to approach him with
offers of friendship. There was no waiting even for the result of the
trial. No sooner was it known that Anne had been committed to the Tower
for adultery than the result was anticipated as a certainty. It was
assumed as a matter of course that the King would instantly look for
another wife, and Francis and the Emperor lost not a moment in trying each
to be beforehand with the other. M. d'Inteville had come over to
intercede for Sir Francis Weston, but he brought a commission to treat for
a marriage between Henry and a French princess. To this overture the King
replied at once that it could not be, and, according to Chapuys, added
ungraciously, and perhaps with disgust, that he had experienced already
the effects of French education.[429] The words, perhaps, were used to
Cromwell, and not to the French Ambassador; but Chapuys was hardly less
surprised when Cromwell, in reporting them, coolly added that the King
could not marry out of the realm, because, if a French princess
misconducted herself, they could not punish her as they had punished the
last.[430] The Ambassador did not understand irony, and was naturally
startled, for he had received instructions to make a similar application
on behalf of his own master. Charles was eager to secure the prize, and,
anticipating Anne's fate, he despatched a courier to Chapuys on hearing of
her arrest, with orders to seize the opportunity. "If Hannaert's news be
true," he wrote on the 15th of May, the day of the trial at Westminster,
"the King, now that God has permitted this woman's damnable life to be
discovered, may be more inclined to treat with us, and there may be a
better foundation for an arrangement in favour of the Princess. But you
must use all your skil