Note 41 — Chapter III

It is not at all improbable that this, the generally received version of what we should call the affaire Mortimer, is incorrect. Cokayne says she married, after her separation from Brandon, a gentleman named Downes—the Baronagium calls him Horn. In this case she was already out of court, and the action of Brandon and Wolsey for a papal absolute nullification of the former’s marriage was to make the position of the queen-duchess and her children entirely unassailable. (See the Baronagium Angl.; also, Brooke’s Catalogue, p. 141.) The third marriage of Lady Mortimer seems to have been overlooked by historians. Had Lady Mortimer’s marriage with Brandon been confirmed by the pope, both she and Brandon would have been liable to the charge of bigamy, and the succession to the throne claimed by the daughter of the queen-duchess by Brandon would have been ipso facto invalid.