eted her, as, besides being naturally of a kind and amiable disposition
and much inclined to peace, she would strive to prevent his (Henry's)
taking part in a foreign war, if only out of the fear of being separated
from him."[174]

But all these fine hopes were rapidly banished. Jane never possessed or
attempted to exercise any political influence on her husband. She smiled
sweetly and in a non-committal way upon the Princess Mary, and upon the
imperialist and moderate Catholic party that had hoped to make the new
Queen their instrument; but Cromwell's was still the strong mind that
swayed the King. He had obtained renewed control over his master by
ridding him of Anne; and had, at all events, prevented England from being
drawn into a coalition with France against the Emperor; but he had no
intention, even if it had been possible, of going to the other extreme and
binding his country to go to war against France to please the Emperor.
Henry's self-will and vanity, as well as his greed, also stood in the way
of a complete submission to the Papacy, and those who had brought Jane
Seymour in, hoping that her advent would mean a return to the same
position as that previous to Anne's rise, now found that they had been
over sanguine. Charles and Francis were left to fight out their great duel
alone in Italy and Provence, to the general discomfiture of the imperial
cause; and, instead of hastening to humble himself at the feet of Paul
III., as the pontiff had fondly expected, Henry summoned Parliament, and
gave stronger statutory sanction than ever to his ecclesiastical
independence of Rome.[175] Anne's condemnation and Elizabeth's bastardy
were obediently confirmed by the Legislature, and the entire freedom of
the English Church from Rome reasserted.

But the question of the succession was that which aroused the strongest
feeling, and its settlement the keenest disappointment. Now that Anne's
offspring was disinherited, Princess Mary and her friends naturally
expected that she, with the help of the new Queen, would once more enter
into the enjoyment of her birthright. Eagerly Mary wrote to Cromwell
bespeaking his aid, which she had been led to expect that he would give;
and by his intercession she was allowed to send her humble petition to her
father, praying for leave to see him. Her letters are all couched in terms
of cringing humility, praying forgiveness for past offences, and promising
to be a truly dutiful daughter in fut