Chapter VII
Reading edition
THE ORIGIN OF THE DIVORCE.[489]
There is written her fair neck round about Noli me tangere; for Cæsar's I am And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · Footnote 489: It is impossible to avoid the term "divorce," although neither from Henry VIII.'s nor from the Pope's point of view was there Note 2 · Matrimonial discords have, from the days of Helen of Troy, been the fruitful source of public calamities; and one of the most decisive eventNote 3 · So good a papalist as the young King, however, would hardly allow theoretical doubts of the general powers of the Pope to outweigh the practNote 4 · Domestic griefs were now embittered by political resentments. Ferdinand valued his daughter mainly as a political emissary; he had formally Note 5 · But the death of Louis XII. (January, 1515) and the consequent loosening of the Anglo-French alliance made Henry and Ferdinand again politicNote 6 · The child was the last born of Catherine. For some years Henry went on hoping against every probability that he might still have male issue Note 7 · Queen Catherine, too, had scruples of conscience about the marriage, though of a different sort. When she first heard of Henry's intention tNote 8 · Conscience, however, often moves men in directions indicated by other than conscientious motives, and, of the other motives which influencedNote 9 · The objection to female sovereigns was grounded not so much on male disbelief in their personal qualifications, as upon the inevitable conseNote 10 · These rival pretensions began to be heard as soon as it became evident that Henry VIII. would have no male heirs by Catherine of Aragon. In Note 11 · Buckingham's execution is one of the symptoms that, as early as 1521, the failure of his issue had made Henry nervous and susceptible about Note 12 · The conception of this violent expedient is mainly of interest as illustrating the supreme importance attached to the question of providing Note 13 · The gross immorality so freely imputed to Henry seems to have as little foundation as the theory that his sole object in seeking the divorceNote 14 · The Boleyns were wealthy merchants of London, of which one of them had been Lord-Mayor, but Anne's mother was of noble blood, being daughterNote 15 · None of these projects advanced any farther, possibly because they conflicted with the relations developing between Anne and the King himselNote 16 · But, for any definite documentary evidence to the contrary, it might be urged that Henry's passion for Anne was subsequent to the commencemeNote 17 · The secret of her fascination over Henry was a puzzle to observers. "Madame Anne," wrote a Venetian, "is not one of the handsomest women in Note 18 · It is otherwise with her rival, Queen Catherine, the third of the principal characters involved in the divorce. If Henry's motives were not Note 19 · So Henry VIII. convinced himself that the dispensation granted by Julius II. was null and void, that he had never been married to Catherine,