prestige of the supreme Pontiff still
stood in the world, there were yet cases in which canonists and
theologians doubted as to his dispensing power; men could not possibly
have forgotten that, when Richard III wished to marry his niece
Elizabeth, a number of doctors disapproved of such a marriage, even if
the Pope should sanction it. At any rate Henry VII instigated, or at
least did not oppose, his son's solemnly entering a protest, after the
marriage ceremony between him and Catharine was performed, against its
validity (on the ground of his being too young), the evening before he
entered his fifteenth year, in the presence of the Bishop of
Winchester, his father's chief Secretary of State. Hence all remained
undecided. Catharine lived on in England: her dowry did not need to be
given up; the general influence of the political union was saved; it
could however be dissolved at any moment, and there was therefore no
quarrel on this account with France, whence from time to time
proposals proceeded for a marriage in the opposite interest. The
prince kept himself quite free, to make use of the dispensation or
not.

For the King himself too, whose wife died in 1503, many negociations
were entered into on both sides. The French offered him a lady of the
house of Angouleme; he preferred Maximilian's daughter, Margaret of
Austria, not indeed for her personal qualities, however praiseworthy
they might be; he stipulated after his usual fashion for the surrender
of the fugitive Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who was regarded
as the chief representative of the house of York, and (as once
previously in France) had at that time found a refuge in the
Netherlands. Philip, who after the death of his mother-in-law wished
to take possession of his wife's kingdoms in Spain, was on his voyage
from Flanders driven by a storm on the English coasts: he was Henry's
guest at Windsor, Richmond, and London. Here then the King's marriage
with Philip's sister was concerted, and with it the surrender of
Suffolk. Philip strove long against this: when he yielded, he at least
got a promise that Henry VII would spare the life of the earl, whom he
accused of treason. He kept his word: the prisoner was not executed
till after his death.

Margaret had no inclination to wed herself with the harsh and
self-seeking King, who was growing old: he himself, when Philip
shortly after his arrival in Castile was snatched away by an early
death, formed the id