A good
deal of their riches he kept for himself, and two new bishoprics were
endowed from their spoils, but most of them were bestowed on the
courtiers. The king, however, did not at all intend to change the
teaching of the Church, and whenever a person was detected in teaching
any thing contrary to her doctrines, as they were at the time
understood, he was tried by a court of clergymen and lawyers before
the bishop, and, if convicted, was--according to the cruel custom of
those times--burnt to death at a stake in the market place of the
next town.
Meantime, the new queen, Anne Boleyn, whom the king had married
privately in May, 1533, had not prospered. She had one little
daughter, named Elizabeth, and a son, who died; and then the king
began to admire one of her ladies, named Jane Seymour. Seeing this
Anne's enemies either invented stories against her, or made the worst
of some foolish, unlady-like, and unqueen-like things she had said
and done, so that the king thought she wished for his death. She was
accused of high treason, sentenced to death, and beheaded: thus
paying a heavy price for the harm she had done good Queen Katharine.
The king, directly after, married Jane Seymour; but she lived only a
very short time, dying immediately after the christening of her first
son, who was named Edward.
Then the king was persuaded by Lord Crumwell to marry a foreign
princess called Anne of Cleves. A great painter was sent to bring her
picture, and made her very beautiful in it; but when she arrived, she
proved to be not only plain-featured but large and clumsy, and the
king could not bear the sight of her, and said they had sent him a
great Flanders mare by way of queen.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113