Six months of peace and happiness were enjoyed by the royal couple, Henry seldom leaving the side of his young wife, nor permitting any of his councillors to interrupt his pleasures. Katharine felt her power and forgot what had been the fate of her predecessors. She was soon to be reminded, however, for the realm had become divided into two parties--the Catholic and Protestant, and both were strong. The Reformers fondly hoped that Anne of Cleves might be restored to her former position, and regarded Katharine in the same unfavorable light as Anne Boleyn had been looked upon by the Catholics. At last, in the spring, came a crisis in the shape of an insurrection by the Catholics in Yorkshire, headed by Sir {425} [Illustration: 0429] {427}John Neville. Henry thought Cardinal Pole was the cause of it, and so took his revenge by ordering the execution of the Countess of Salisbury, Pole's mother, who had been in the Tower for more than a year: When the aged lady heard of it she refused to lay her head upon the block, saying, "So should traitors do, but I am none, and if you will have my head you must win it as you can." Thereupon the brutal ruffian who acted as executioner dragged her by her hoary locks, and "slovenly butchered the woman in whose veins flowed the noblest blood of England." For the purpose of ascertaining the exact state of affairs in Yorkshire, King Henry set out with his wife for that place early in July, 1541, leaving Cranmer, Audley, and Seymour, three Protestant adherents, among his councillors at home. At Yorkshire the royal couple were met by two hundred gentlemen in velvet coats, with four thousand yeomen, who knelt while one of their number offered nine hundred pounds. At another place three hundred ecclesiastics presented six hundred pounds, and so on until Henry found himself much richer than when he started on his journey. Queen Katharine saw more of the pomp of royalty at this time than she had done during the whole year before, for the wealthy aristocracy in every part of the country vied with each other in the grandeur of their entertainments given in honor of the royal couple. Katharine had been married little more than a year when Francis Derham returned to England, and she committed the error of appointing him as her private secretary. As soon as the king heard of the relation that had existed between this man and his wife previous to her marriage his jealousy was aroused, and the Protestant statesmen took good care to encourage every suspicion that entered their monarch's head. Meanwhile poor little Katharine was {428}entirely unconscious of the storm that was gathering about her.