beheaded as they are, but will be dragged along like an ignoble person, and afterwards hanged and quartered. A few days will show, especially as they have resolved to empty the Tower at this Parliament, which finishes with this month.”[242] Cromwell’s tone of indignation, real or pretended, changed to one of the humblest entreaty for mercy as soon as he was lodged in the Tower. His letters to the King were contemptible. Henry replied to them by ordering him to write an account of all he knew about his marriage with Anne of Cleves, and having had ample experience of his ex-minister’s complaisance in his matrimonial affairs, he was justified in thinking that Cromwell would not stick at trifles now. The result was a detailed story of the whole matter, with the very words that had passed between himself and the King, the day after the marriage, most of which is unfit to print.[243] But nothing that he could write or say availed to save him; the axe that he had so long held over the heads of the nation fell at last on his own head, the only favour granted to him being the manner of his death, for he had been condemned to be hanged. According to the proceedings which he had himself instituted, he was attainted in Parliament in his absence, and convicted without a hearing. Hated by every member of the Council, feared throughout the realm, disliked and suspected abroad, he was regretted by none. Cranmer who had been his only friend, styling him, “Mine own entirely beloved Cromwell,” did as he had done on Anne Boleyn’s arrest, and wrote to Henry that he stood amazed and grieved, but was glad as a loyal subject, that Cromwell’s treasons had been discovered![244] The nation once more breathed freely, and even on the continent considerable relief was felt. The Constable of France said that “every honest man was much bound to God and Henry, that Christendom should be dispatched of such a ribald who thought to have my lady Mary in marriage”; and the Portuguese ambassador in France was heard to say that Henry was like to have made Cromwell a duke, and then have given him his daughter, as he had given his sister to the Duke of Suffolk, and that therefore Cromwell did his best to break every marriage proposed for her. He swore he could not remember who first told him, “but the bruit was common among ambassadors two years past”.[245] Meanwhile, the new Queen had been sent to Richmond, ostensibly to be out of reach of the plague, and it was given out that Henry would follow her there in a few days. But proceedings for a divorce had been already instituted in Parliament, and in an incredibly short space of time her marriage with the King was declared null, by reason of her pre-contract with the son of the Duke of Lorraine. She was endowed with lands, to the value of £4,000 annually, with two houses to live in, one at Richmond, the other at Bletchingly.