urn of Katharine as the King's lawful
spouse, with all the consequences that such a change would entail, and
this Henry's pride, as well as his inclinations, would never permit. Now
that Katharine was dead, Anne was doomed to speedy ruin by one
instrumentality or another, and before many weeks the cruel truth came
home to her.

Katharine was buried not in such a convent as she had wished, for Henry
said there was not one in England, but in Peterborough Cathedral, within
fifteen miles of Kimbolton. The honours paid to her corpse were those of a
Dowager Princess of Wales, but the country folk who bordered the miry
tracks through which the procession ploughed paid to the dead Katharine in
her funeral litter the honours they had paid her in her life. Parliament,
far away in London, might order them to swear allegiance to Nan Bullen as
Queen, and to her daughter as heiress of England; King Harry on his throne
might threaten them, as he did, with stake and gibbet if they dared to
disobey; but, though they bowed the head and mumbled such oaths as were
dictated to them, Katharine to them had always been Queen Consort of
England, and Mary her daughter was no bastard, but true Princess of Wales,
whatever King and Parliament might say.

All people and all interests were, as if instinctively, shrinking away
from Anne.[139] Her uncle Norfolk had quarrelled with her and retired from
Court; the French were now almost as inimical as the imperialists; and
even the time-serving courtiers turned from the waning favourite. She was
no longer young, and her ill temper and many anxieties had marred her good
looks. Her gaiety and lightness of manner had to a great extent fled; and
sedate occupations, reading, needlework, charity, and devotion occupied
most of her time. "Oh for a son!" was all the unhappy woman could sigh in
her misery; for that, she knew, was the only thing that could save her,
now that Katharine was dead and Anne might be repudiated by her husband
without the need for taking back his first discarded wife.[140] Hope
existed again that the prayed-for son might come into the world, and at
the first prospect of it Anne made an attempt to utilise the influence it
gave her by cajoling or crushing Mary into submission to the King's will.
The girl was desolate at her mother's death; but she had her mother's
proud spirit, and her answers to Anne's approaches were as cold and
haughty as before. "The concubine (writes Chapuys, 21st Janu