's pleasure may be herein known.
And with this I make an end, praying God to send you home
shortly; for without this, no joy here can be
accomplished--and for the same I pray. And now go to our
Lady at Walsyngham, that I promised so long ago to see.

At Woburn, the 16th day of September, (1513.)

I send your Grace herein a bill, found in a Scottishman's
purse, of such things as the French king sent to the said
king of Scots, to make war against you, beseeching you to
send Mathew hither as soon as this messenger cometh with
tidings of your Grace.

Your humble wife and true servant,

KATHERINE.[99]

The legality of the king's marriage with Katherine remained undisputed
till 1527. In the course of that year, Anna Bullen first appeared at
court, and was appointed maid of honor to the queen; and then, and not
till then, did Henry's union with his brother's wife "creep too near his
conscience." In the following year, he sent special messengers to Rome,
with secret instructions: they were required to discover (among other
"hard questions") whether, if the queen entered a religious life, the
king might have the Pope's dispensation to marry again; and whether if
the king (for the better inducing the queen thereto) would enter himself
into a religious life, the Pope would dispense with the king's vow, and
leave her there?

Poor Katherine! we are not surprised to read that when she understood
what was intended against her, "she labored with all those passions
which jealousy of the king's affection, sense of her own honor, and the
legitimation of her daughter, could produce, laying in conclusion the
whole fault on the Cardinal." It is elsewhere said, that Wolsey bore the
queen ill-will, in consequence of her reflecting with some severity on
his haughty temper, and very unclerical life.

The proceedings were pending for nearly six years, and one of the causes
of this long delay, in spite of Henry's impatient and despotic
character, is worth noting. The old Chronicle tells us, that though the
men generally, and more particularly the priests and the nobles sided
with Henry in this matter, yet all the ladies of England were against
it. They justly felt that the honor and welfare of no woman was secure
if, after twenty years of union, she might be thus deprived of all her
rights as a wife; the clamor became so loud and general, that the king
was obliged to yi