than that of any other of Henry's
Queens; and her importance is mainly due to the fact that she bore to
Henry his only legitimate son.

[Footnote 969: _Ibid._ x., 915, 926, 993, 1000.
There is a persistent fable that they were married
on the day or the day after Anne's execution; Dr.
Gairdner says it is repeated "in all histories".]

[Footnote 970: See _Wilts Archaeol. Mag._, vols xv.,
xvi., documents printed from the _Longleat MSS._]

[Footnote 971: _L. and P._, x., 245.]

[Footnote 972: Luther, _Briefe_, v., 22; _L. and
P._, xi., 475.]

[Footnote 973: Strype, _Eccl. Memorials_, I., ii.,
304.]

[Footnote 974: _L. and P._, x., 901.]

The disgrace of Anne Boleyn necessitated the summons of a fresh
Parliament to put the succession to the crown on yet another basis.
The Long Parliament had been dissolved on 14th April; another was
called to meet on the 8th of June. The eighteen acts passed during its
six weeks' session illustrate the parallel development of the (p. 348)
Reformation and of the royal autocracy. The Act of Succession made
Anne's daughter, Elizabeth, a bastard, without declaring Catherine's
daughter, Mary, legitimate, and settled the crown on Henry's
prospective issue by Jane. A unique clause empowered the King to
dispose of the crown at will, should he have no issue by his present
Queen.[975] Probably he intended it, in that case, for the Duke of
Richmond; but the Duke's days were numbered, and four days after the
dissolution of Parliament he breathed his last. The royal prerogative
was extended by a statute enabling a king, when he reached the age of
twenty-four, to repeal by proclamation any act passed during his
minority; and the royal caste was further exalted by a statute making
it high treason for any one to marry a king's daughter, legitimate or
not, his sister, his niece, or his aunt on the father's side, without
royal licence. The reform of clerical abuses was advanced by an act to
prevent non-residence, and by another to obviate the delay in
instituting to benefices practised by bishops with a view to (p. 349)
keeping the tithes of the vacant benefice in their own hands. The
breach with Rome was widened still further by a statute, declaring all
who extolle