at all, would in
future be born to him. It is possible--I do not say more--that Anne,
feeling that her own precarious position could only be made secure if she
became the mother of a prince, had turned for assistance in despair at her
disappointments to the gentlemen by whom she was surrounded. As an
hypothesis, this is less intolerable than to suppose her another
Messalina. In every instance of alleged offence the solicitation is said
to have proceeded from herself, and to have been only yielded to after an
interval of time.

[414] "Au grand despit de Cromwell et d'aucungs autres qui ne vouldroient
en cest endroit s'engendroit suspicion qui pourroit prejudiquer a la
lignee que le dict Roy pretend avoir."--_MSS. Vienna._

[415] Chapuys to Charles V., May 19, 1536.--_MSS. Vienna_; _Spanish
Calendar_, vol. v. part 2, pp. 122 et seq. In one or two instances my
translation will be found to differ slightly from that of S{r} Gayangas.

[416] Chapuys to Charles V., May 19.--_Spanish Calendar_, vol. v. part 2,
p. 128.

[417] _History of England_, vol. ii. p. 483.

[418] _Wriothesley's Chronicle_ (Camden Society's Publications), vol. i.
p. 39.

[419] Constantine's Memorial.--_Archaeologia_, vol. xxiii. pp. 63-66.

[420] _Calendar, Foreign and Domestic_, June 2, vol. x. p. 430.

[421] _Ibid._ p. 431.

[422] Kingston to Cromwell, May 16, 1536.--_Calendar, Foreign and
Domestic_, vol. x. p. 371.

[423] 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 7.

[424] Chapuys to Granvelle, May 19, 1536.--_Calendar, Foreign and
Domestic_, vol. x. p. 380.

[425] _Wriothesley's Chronicle_, vol. i. pp. 40, 41.

[426] Chapuys's words are worth preserving. He was mistaken in his account
of the Statute. It did not declare Mary legitimate, and it left Henry
power to name his own successor should his marriage with Jane Seymour
prove unfruitful. So great an error shows the looseness with which he
welcomed any story which fell in with his wishes. He says: "Le statut
declairant la Princesse legitime heretiere, la fille de la Concubine, a
este revoque, et elle declaire bastarde, non point comme fille de M.
Norris, comme se pouvoit plus honnestement dire, mais pour avoir este la
marriage entre la dicte Concubine et le dict Roy illegitime a cause qu'il
avoit cogneu charnellement la soeur de la dicte Concubine: pour laquelle
cause l'Archevesque de Canterburi, ung ou deux jours avant que la dicte
Concubine fut executee, donna et prefera la sentence de divorce, de quoy,