nterest of great events, the King ceased to
take a busy part in foreign politics, and gave himself to hunting and
sport. Among the fairest and gayest ladies of his court stood Anne
Boleyn. She was sprung of a merchant family which had but lately risen
to distinction through two great marriages, that of her grandfather with
the heiress of the earls of Ormond, and that of her father, Sir Thomas
Boleyn, with a sister of the Duke of Norfolk.

It was probably through his kinship with the Duke, who was now lord
treasurer and high in the King's confidence, that Boleyn was employed
throughout Henry's reign in state business, and his diplomatic abilities
had secured his appointment as envoy both to France and to the Emperor.
His son, George Boleyn, a man of culture and a poet, was among the group
of young courtiers in whose society Henry took most pleasure. Anne was
his youngest daughter; born in 1507, she was still but a girl of sixteen
when the outbreak of war drew her from a stay in France to the English
court. Her beauty was small, but her bright eyes, her flowing hair, her
gayety and wit soon won favor with the King, and only a month after her
return in 1522 the grant of honors to her father marked her influence
over Henry.

Fresh gifts in the following years showed that the favor continued; but
in 1524 a new color was given to this intimacy by a resolve on the
King's part to break his marriage with the Queen. Catharine had now
reached middle age; her personal charms had departed. The death of every
child save Mary may have woke scruples as to the lawfulness of a
marriage on which a curse seemed to rest; the need of a male heir for
public security may have deepened this impression. But whatever were the
grounds of his action we find Henry from this moment pressing the Roman
see to grant him a divorce.

It is probable that the matter was already mooted in 1525, a year which
saw new proof of Anne's influence in the elevation of Sir Thomas Boleyn
to the baronage as Lord Rochford. It is certain that it was the object
of secret negotiation with the Pope in 1526. No sovereign stood higher
in the favor of Rome than Henry, whose alliance had ever been ready in
its distress and who was even now prompt with aid in money. But
Clement's consent to his wish meant a break with the Emperor,
Catharine's nephew; and the exhaustion of France, the weakness of the
league in which the lesser Italian states strove to maintain their
independen