[218] In the Record Office, abstracted (much condensed) in _Henry VIII. Calendar_, vol. 16. For the purposes of this book I have used the original manuscripts. [219] In the curious and detailed but in many respects unveracious account of the affair given in the _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._, edited by the present writer, it is distinctly stated that Culpeper made his confession on the threat of the rack in the Tower. He is made in this account to say that he was deeply in love with Katharine before her marriage, and had fallen ill with grief when she became Henry's wife. She had taken pity upon him, and had arranged a meeting at Richmond, which had been betrayed to Hertford by one of Katharine's servants. The writer of the _Chronicle_ (Guaras), who had good sources of information and was a close observer, did not believe that any guilty act had been committed by Katharine after her marriage. [220] Record Office, State Papers, 1, 721. The Duke had gone to demand of his stepmother Derham's box of papers. He found that she had already overhauled them and destroyed many of them. In his conversation with her, she admitted that she knew Katharine was immoral before marriage. [221] The Commissioners included Michael Dormer, Lord Mayor, Lord Chancellor Audley, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, with the Lords of the Council and judges. Norfolk, in order to show his zeal and freedom from complicity, jeered and laughed as the examination of the prisoners proceeded. For a similar reason he brought his son, the Earl of Surrey, to the trial: and it was noted that both the Queen's brothers and those of Culpeper rode about the city unconcernedly, in order to prove that they had no sympathy with the accused. As soon as the trial was over, however, Norfolk retired to Kenninghall, some said by the King's orders, and rumours were rife that not only was he in disgrace, but that danger to him portended. We shall see that his fate was deferred for a time, as Henry needed his military aid in the coming wars with Scotland and France, and he was the only soldier of experience and authority in England.