he evil had since become much
worse. Farmers, having discovered that wool growing was more
profitable than the raising of grain, had turned their fields into
sheep pastures; so that a shepherd with his dog now took the place of
several families of laborers.

This change brought multitudes of poor people to the verge of
starvation; and as the monasteries no longer existed to hold out a
helping hand, the whole realm was overrun with beggars and thieves.
Bishop Latimer, a noted preacher of that day, declared that if every
farmer should raise two acres of hemp, it would not make rope enough
to hang them all. Henry, however, set to work with characteristic
vigor and made away, it is said, with great numbers, but without
materially abating the evil (S403).

355. Execution of Anne Boleyn; Marriage with Jane Seymour (1536).

Less than three years after her coronation, the new Queen, Anne Boleyn
(SS343, 349), for whom Henry had "turned England and Europe upside
down," was accused of unfaithfulness. She was sent a prisoner to the
Tower. A short time after, her head rolled in the dust, the light of
its beauty gone out forever.

The next morning Henry married Jane Seymour, Anne's maid of honor.
Parliament passed an act of approval, declaring that it was all done
"of the King's most excellent goodness." It also declared Henry's two
previous marriages, with Catharine and with Anne Boleyn, void, and
affirmed that their children, the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, were
not lawfully the King's daughters. A later act of Parliament gave
Henry the extraordinary power of naming his successor to the crown.[1]
A year afterwards Henry's new Queen died, leaving an infant son,
Edward. She was no sooner gone than the King began looking about for
some one to take her place.

[1] By his last will he made Mary and Elizabeth heirs to the crown in
case all male and female issue by himself or his son Edward failed
(S361). Henry's eldest sister, Margaret (see No. 3 in Genealogical
Table on page 207), was passed by entirely. But long after Henry's
death, Parliament set his will aside (1603) and made James I (a
descendent of Margaret) King of England.

356. More Marriages (1540).

Thomas Cromwell, the King's trusted adviser (S351), succeeded in
persuading his master to agree to marry Anne of Cleves, a German
Protestant Princess. Henry had never seen her, but her portrait
represented her as a woman of surpassing beauty.

When Anne reac