tnote 493: _L. and P._, iv., 5774 [6].]

[Footnote 494: _Ibid._, iv., 5376.]

So good a papalist as the young King, however, would hardly allow
theoretical doubts of the general powers of the Pope to outweigh the
practical advantages of a marriage in his own particular case; and it
is safe to assume that his confidence in its validity would have
remained unshaken, but for extraneous circumstances of a definite and
urgent nature. On the 31st of January, 1510, seven months after his
marriage with Catherine, she gave birth to her first child; it was a
daughter, and was still-born.[495] On the 27th of May following (p. 175)
she told her father that the event was considered in England to be of
evil omen, but that Henry took it cheerfully, and she thanked God for
having given her such a husband. "The King," wrote Catherine's
confessor, "adores her, and her highness him." Less than eight months
later, on the 1st of January, 1511, she was delivered of her first-born
son.[496] A tourney was held to celebrate the joyous event, and the
heralds received a handsome largess at the christening. The child was
named Henry, styled Prince of Wales, and given a serjeant-at-arms on
the 14th, and a clerk of the signet on the 19th of February. Three
days later he was dead; he was buried at the cost of some ten thousand
pounds in Westminster Abbey. The rejoicings were turned to grief,
which, aggravated by successive disappointments, bore with cumulative
force on the mind of the King and his people. In September, 1513, the
Venetian ambassador announced the birth of another son,[497] who was
either still-born, or died immediately afterwards. In June, 1514,
there is again a reference to the christening of the "King's new
son,"[498] but he, too, was no sooner christened than dead.

[Footnote 495: _D.N.B._, ix., 292, gives this date.
Catherine herself, writing on 27th May, 1510, says
that "some _days_ before she had been delivered of
a still-born daughter" (_Sp. Cal._, ii., 43). On
1st November, 1509, Henry informed Ferdinand that
Catherine was pregnant, and the child had quickened
(_ibid._, ii., 23).]

[Footnote 496: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 95-96; _L. and
P._, vol. i., 1491, 1495, 1513, Pref., p. lxxiii.;
ii., 4692.]

[Fo