Page:The Queens of England.djvu/338

298 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. Queen, after the sentence of divorce, which greatly enraged Henry, must have been the cause of Anne's satisfaction at her death, for then she felt she was indeed the sole queen in England. Nevertheless, it was unwise, as well as unfeeling, to betray pleasure on such an occasion. She dreamt not how soon she would follow to the grave her whose death had gratified her ! and perhaps her joy disgusted Henry, who is said to have shed tears when he perused Katharine's last letter to him. The consideration and respect shown to Anne by the German reformers, as was proved by the princes of that country, who offered to declare Henry the head and protector of the Smalcalde League, excited the jealousy of the king. He had sought Anne as the toy of his lighter hours, the mistress of his pleasures ; and when he found that she aspired to a higher sphere of action, his tenderness for her soon diminished. He wished her to have no title to admiration, save that reflected from being his queen, and was vexed that the influence she had acquired over him should be so well known, and redound more to her credit than his own.- Again Anne gave hopes of becoming a mother, and Henry's tenderness seemed once more to revive, when, unhappily for her, a new beauty caught his eye, and captivated his fickle heart. Nevertheless, he still retained the mask of affection for his queen, and probably might never have destroyed her, had she not one day surprised him bestowing on her rival, Jane Seymour, those caresses which she believed he lavished only on herself, while the lady received them with a docility which went far to prove to the jealous queen that a perfectly good understanding must have been for some time established between the lovers. Rage and jealousy amounting almost to frenzy, took possession of the tortured brain of Anne, and the effect of these violent passions produced the premature birth of a dead son, and led to the imminent danger of her life. The disappointment of Henry at this event could only be equaled by his anger, and with the selfishness which ever characterized him, he upbraided his suffering wife with a harshness which drew from her the reproach that his infidelity and unkindness had been the cause. Stung by this reproof, he uttered an oath that she should have no other son by him, and left her terrified at the consequence of her own natural but unwise recrimination. The death of Katharine but a short time previously to the