can make intelligible the feelings with which the news were received. The Crown had an undoubted heir. The succession was sure. The King, who was supposed to be under a curse which refused him male posterity, was relieved from the ban. Providence had borne witness for him, and had rewarded his policy. No revolution need be looked for on his death. The Catholics could not hope for their 'jolly stirring.' The anti-Papal leaders need not dread the stake for their wages. The insurrection was crushed. A prince was born. England was saved. These were the terms which many a heart repeated to itself. The Marchioness of Dorset wrote to Henry that she had received the most joyful news that came to England these many years; for the which she and all his Grace's subjects gave thanks to Almighty God, for that He had remembered his Grace and all his subjects with a prince to the comfort, universal weal, and quietness of the realm.[1] Latimer, in a letter to Cromwell, was still more emphatic. 'There is no less rejoicing,' he said, 'for the birth of our prince, whom we hungered for so long, than there was, I trow, inter vicinos, at the birth of John the Baptist. God give us grace to yield due thanks to our Lord God, the God of England. For verily He hath shewed Himself the God of England; or rather an English God, if we will consider and ponder his proceedings with us. He hath overcome our illness with His exceeding goodness, so that we are now more compelled to serve Him and pro-
- ↑ State Papers, vol. i. p. 570.
