1536.]
EXECUTION OF ANNE BOLEYN.
371
sorry that such faults can be proved by the Queen, as I heard of their relation.'[1]
If we may believe, as I suppose we may, that Cranmer was a man of sound understanding, and of not less than ordinary probity, this letter is of the greatest value; it shows the impression which was made upon a sensible person by the first rumours of the discovery; it shows also the Archbishop's opinion of the King's character, with the effect upon his own mind of the evidence which the chancellor, at the King's command, had laid before him.
We return to the prisoners in the Tower. Mark Smeton, who had confessed his guilt, was ironed.[2] The other gentlemen, not in consideration of their silence, but of their rank, were treated more leniently. To the Queen, with an object which may be variously interpreted, Friday, May 5.Henry wrote the Friday succeeding her arrest, holding out hopes of forgiveness if she would be honest and open with him. Persons who assume that the whole transaction was the scheme of a wicked husband to dispose of a wife of whom he was weary, will believe that he was practising upon her terror to obtain his freedom by a lighter crime- ↑ Printed in Burnet, vol. i. p. 322 et seq.
- ↑ 'Mark is the worst cherished of any man in the house, for he wears irons.'—Kingston to Cromwell. Later writers have assured themselves that Smeton's confession was extorted from him by promises of pardon. Why, then, was the Government so impolitic as to treat him with especial harshness so early in the transaction? When he found himself 'ironed,' he must have been assured that faith would not be kept with him; and he had abundant time to withdraw what he had said.
