Utopian" dreams for politics and society, felt that a friend had
come to the throne in the young Henry VIII.

Spain had become great through a union of the rival Kingdoms Castile
and Aragon; so a marriage with the Princess Katharine, daughter of
Ferdinand and Isabella, had been arranged for the young Prince Henry,
who had quietly accepted for his Queen his brother's widow, six years
his senior.

France under Francis I. had risen into a state no less imposing than
Spain, and {74} Henry began to be stirred with an ambition, to take
part in the drama of events going on upon the greater stage, across the
Channel. The old dream of French conquest returned. Francis I. and
Charles V. of Germany had commenced their struggle for supremacy in
Europe. Henry's ambition was fostered by their vying with each other
to secure his friendship. He was soon launched in a deep game of
diplomacy, in which three intriguing Sovereigns were striving each to
outwit the others.

What Henry lacked in experience and craft was supplied by his
Chancellor Wolsey, whose private and personal ambition to reach the
Papal Chair was dexterously mingled with the royal game. The game was
dazzling and absorbing, but it was unexpectedly interrupted; and the
golden dreams of Erasmus and More, of a slow and orderly development in
England through an expanding intelligence, were rudely shaken.

Martin Luther audaciously nailed on the door of the Church at
Wittenberg a protest against the selling of papal indulgences, and the
pent-up hopes, griefs and despair of {75} centuries burst into a storm
which shook Europe to its centre.

Since England had joined in the great game of European politics, she
had advanced from being a third-rate power to the front rank among
nations; so it was with great satisfaction that Catholic Europe heard
Henry VIII. denounce the new Reformation, which had swiftly assumed
alarming proportions.

But a woman's eyes were to change all this. As Henry looked into the
fair face of Anne Boleyn, his conscience began to be stirred over his
marriage with his brother's widow, Katharine. He confided his scruples
to Wolsey, who promised to use his efforts with the Pope to secure a
divorce from Katharine. But this lady was aunt to Charles V., the
great Champion of the Church in its fight with Protestantism. It would
never do to alienate him. So the divorce was refused.

Henry VIII. was not as flexible and amiable now as the youth of
e