the Duke of Richmond it is difficult to understand why their existence
should have been so effectually concealed when such publicity was
given their brother. The King is said to have had ten mistresses in
1528, but the statement is based on a misrepresentation of the only
document adduced in its support.[529] It is a list of New Year's (p. 186)
presents,[530] which runs "To thirty-three noble ladies" such and such
gifts, then "to ten mistresses" other gifts; it is doubtful if the
word then bore its modern sinister signification; in this particular
instance it merely means "gentlewomen," and differentiates them from
the noble ladies. Henry's morals, indeed, compare not unfavourably
with those of other sovereigns. His standard was neither higher nor
lower than that of Charles V., who was at this time negotiating a
marriage between his natural daughter and the Pope's nephew; it was
not lower than those of James II., of William III., or of the first
two Georges; it was infinitely higher than the standard of Francis I.,
of Charles II., or even of Henry of Navarre and Louis XIV.

[Footnote 528: _L. and P._, vi., 241.]

[Footnote 529: E.L. Taunton, _Wolsey_, 1902, p.
173, where the words are erroneously given as "To
the King's ten mistresses"; "the King's" is an
interpolation.]

[Footnote 530: _L. and P._, iv., 3748.]

The gross immorality so freely imputed to Henry seems to have as
little foundation as the theory that his sole object in seeking the
divorce from Catherine and separation from Rome was the gratification
of his passion for Anne Boleyn. If that had been the case, there would
be no adequate explanation of the persistence with which he pursued
the divorce. He was "studying the matter so diligently," Campeggio
says, "that I believe in this case he knows more than a great
theologian and jurist"; he was so convinced of the justice of his
cause "that an angel descending from heaven would be unable to
persuade him otherwise".[531] He sent embassy after embassy to Rome;
he risked the enmity of Catholic Europe; he defied the authority of
the vicar of Christ; and lavished vast sums to obtain verdicts in his
favour from most of the universities in Christendom. It is not (p. 187)
credible that all this energy was expended merely to satisfy a sensual
passion, which could be satisfied without a murmur from