oceedings. She was known to have been a giddy, neglected
girl before her marriage, having been brought up by her grandmother, the
Dowager-Duchess of Norfolk, without the slightest regard for her welfare
or the high rank of her family; and her confidants in a particularly
dissolute Court were many and untrustworthy. The King, naturally, was the
last person to hear the malicious tittle-tattle of jealous waiting-maids
and idle pages about the Queen; and though his wife's want of reserve and
dignity often displeased him, he lived usually upon affectionate terms
with her. There was other loose talk, also, going on to the effect that on
one of the visits of Anne of Cleves to Hampton Court after Henry's
marriage with Katharine, the King and his repudiated wife had made up
their differences, with the consequence that Anne was pregnant by him. It
was not true; though later it gave much trouble both to Henry and Anne,
but it lent further support to the suggestions that were already being
made that the King would dismiss Katharine and take Anne back again. The
air was full of such rumours, some prompted, as we shall see, by personal
malice, others evidently by the opponents of Gardiner's policy, which was
leading England to a war with France and a close alliance with the
imperial champion of Catholicism.

On the 2nd November, Henry, still in distress about the health of his son,
attended Mass, as usual, in the chapel at Hampton Court,[214] and as he
came out Cranmer prayed for a private interview with him. The archbishop
had for many months been in the background, for Gardiner would brook no
competition; but Cranmer was personally a favourite with the
King,--Cromwell said once that Henry would forgive him anything,--and when
they were alone Cranmer put him in possession of a shameful story that a
few days before had been told to him, which he had carefully put into
writing; and, after grave discussion with the Earl of Hertford (Seymour)
and the Lord Chancellor (Audley), had determined to hand to the King. The
conjunction of Cranmer, Seymour, and Audley, as the trio that thought it
their duty to open Henry's eyes to the suspicions cast upon his wife, is
significant. They were all of them in sympathy with the reformed religion,
and against the Norfolk and Gardiner policy; and it is difficult to escape
from the conclusion that, however true may have been the statements as to
Katharine's behaviour, and there is no doubt that she was gui