The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts They Played in History
David Hume · en
was well enow; but I saw many caps on heads and heard but few
tongues."[103]
The next day, Sunday, Anne was crowned by Cranmer with full ceremony in
Westminster Abbey, and for days thereafter banqueting, tilting, and the
usual roystering went on; and the great-granddaughter of Alderman Boleyn
felt that at last she was Queen indeed. Henry, too, had had his way, and
again could hope that a son born in wedlock might perpetuate the name of
Tudor on the throne of England. But he was in deadly fear, for the
prospect was black all around him. Public indignation in England grew
apace[104] at the religious changes and at the prospect of war; but what
most aroused Henry's alarm was the sudden coldness of France, and the
probability of a great Catholic coalition against him. Norfolk and Lord
Rochford with a stately train had gone to join in the interview between
Francis and the Pope, in the hope that the joint presence of France and
England might force Clement to recognise accomplished facts in order to
avoid the secession of England from the Church. Although it suited Francis
to promote the antagonism between Henry and the Emperor by keeping the
divorce proceedings dragging on in Rome, it did not suit him for England
to defy the Papacy by means of Cranmer's sentence, and so to change the
balance of power in Europe by driving Henry into permanent union with
German Protestants whilst Francis was forced to side with the Emperor on
religious grounds. So long as Henry remained undivorced and unmarried
anything might happen. He might sate of his mistress and tire of the
struggle against Rome, or be driven by fear of war to take a conciliatory
course, and in any of these cases he must needs pay for France's aid; but
now that his divorce and remarriage were as valid as a duly authorised
Archbishop could make them, the utility of Anne as an aid to French
foreign policy disappeared. The actual marriage therefore deprived her of
the sympathies of the French party in the English Court, which had
hitherto sided with her, and the effects were immediately seen in the
attitude of Francis.