of the bed-chamber had heard Henry say he would "rather beg from door to door than forsake her;"[1] on the other hand, Anne acknowledged afterwards that his love had not been returned, and she could hardly have failed to let him see it. Could she be the mother of a prince she was safe, but on this she might well think her security depended. All Henry's male children, except the Duke of Richmond, had died at the birth or in infancy; and words which she let fall to her sister-in-law, Lady Rochford, implied a suspicion that the fault was in the King.[2] It is not without significance that in the subsequent indictment of Sir Henry Norris it was alleged that on the 6th of October, 1533, less than a month after Anne's confinement, she solicited Norris to have criminal intercourse with her, and that on the 12th the act was committed. But to this subject I shall return hereafter.
Anyway, the King made the best of his misfortune. If the first adventure had failed, a second might be more successful. The unwelcome daughter was christened amidst general indifference, without either bonfires or rejoicings. She was proclaimed Princess, and the title was taken away from her sister Mary. Chapuys, after what Cromwell had said to him, trusted naturally that the King's mind would be affected by his disappointment. They met again. Chapuys urged that it would be easier to set things straight than at an earlier stage. The King, being of a proud
- ↑ Chapuys to Charles V., Nov. 3, 1533.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. part 2, p. 842.
- ↑ The King's infirmities were not a secret. In 1533, upon Elizabeth's birth, a Señor de Gambaro, who was an intimate friend of the Duke of Norfolk, wrote at Rome for Cifuentes a curious account of the situation and prospects of things in England. Among other observations he says: "The [expected] child will be weak, owing to his father's condition " Avisos de las Cosas de Inglaterra dados por Sr. de Gambaro en Roma.—Calendar, Foreign and Domestic, vol. vi. p. 683.
