Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/493

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1541.]

SOLWAY MOSS.

473

lord chancellor declared unto them the abominable demeanour of the Queen, that the world might know that which had been hitherto done to have a just ground and foundation.'^[1]

The offending lady herself was removed to Sion House, where she was confined to three rooms, and, with Lady Rochford, waited for the judgment of Parliament upon her.^[2] Derham and Culpeper were left to the ordinary course of justice. On the ist of December they were tried in the Guildhall before a special com-

↑ Friends of the Queen had attempted to discover that she had been 'precontracted with Derham,' in which case she, like Anne Boleyn, would never have been lawfully married to the King, and might thus escape conviction for high treason. The King would not hear of the excuse, or allow it to be mentioned. Cranmer was directed to assemble the ladies and gentlemen of the royal household and tell them what had happened, 'foreseeing always,' the council wrote to him, 'that you make not mention of any precontract; but, omitting that, to set forth such matters as might engrieve and confound the misdemeanour, and, as truth doth indeed truly bear, declare and set forth the King's Majesty's goodness, most unworthy to be troubled with any such mischance.'—The Council to Cranmer: State Papers, vol. i. p. 693.
↑ Chapuys, the Imperialist ambassador, who might have been expected to be favourable to the Queen, betrays no interest in her fate. Nor does he affect to believe in the innocence of a person who fully admitted her own guilt. 'The Queen,' he wrote, on the 29th of January, to Charles, 'is still at Syon, very cheerful and more plump and pretty than ever: she is as careful about her dress, she is as imperious and wilful, as at the time when she was with the King; notwithstanding that she expects to be put to death, that she confesses that she has well deserved it, and asks for no favour except that the execution shall be secret and not under the eyes of the world. Perhaps, if the King does not mean to marry again, he may show mercy to her; or if he find that he can divorce her on the plea of adultery, he may take another thus. The question, I am told, has been already debated among the learned theologians, although, so far, there is no appearance that the King thinks of any further marriage or of any other woman.'

[1] Friends of the Queen had attempted to discover that she had been 'precontracted with Derham,' in which case she, like Anne Boleyn, would never have been lawfully married to the King, and might thus escape conviction for high treason. The King would not hear of the excuse, or allow it to be mentioned. Cranmer was directed to assemble the ladies and gentlemen of the royal household and tell them what had happened, 'foreseeing always,' the council wrote to him, 'that you make not mention of any precontract; but, omitting that, to set forth such matters as might engrieve and confound the misdemeanour, and, as truth doth indeed truly bear, declare and set forth the King's Majesty's goodness, most unworthy to be troubled with any such mischance.'—The Council to Cranmer: State Papers, vol. i. p. 693.

[2] Chapuys, the Imperialist ambassador, who might have been expected to be favourable to the Queen, betrays no interest in her fate. Nor does he affect to believe in the innocence of a person who fully admitted her own guilt. 'The Queen,' he wrote, on the 29th of January, to Charles, 'is still at Syon, very cheerful and more plump and pretty than ever: she is as careful about her dress, she is as imperious and wilful, as at the time when she was with the King; notwithstanding that she expects to be put to death, that she confesses that she has well deserved it, and asks for no favour except that the execution shall be secret and not under the eyes of the world. Perhaps, if the King does not mean to marry again, he may show mercy to her; or if he find that he can divorce her on the plea of adultery, he may take another thus. The question, I am told, has been already debated among the learned theologians, although, so far, there is no appearance that the King thinks of any further marriage or of any other woman.'

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