book 1, chapter 12 What the Queen Wrote to the Pope, What His Holiness Decreed, and Certain Private Matters That Came to Pass in This Affair1
Queen Catherine did not know for certain that ambassadors had been dis- patched to Rome, but she suspected it, and so she implored His Holiness not to permit the question of her marriage to be judged in England, for that would make the king judge in his own suit.2 At the same time, she wrote to her nephew the emperor of Wolsey’s schemes and the king’s obsession, and affectionately begged him not to abandon her in this predicament and humili- ation, which had been brought upon her by his enemies and solely because she was his aunt.3 The emperor ordered his ambassador at Rome to protest to the pope in his name, both about the ambassadors sent by King Henry, who had handled so a serious matter relating to the queen without her knowledge, and about the judges His Holiness had appointed without hearing her out.4
1 Sander, De origine ac progressu, 40–48. 2 Catherine expressed these concerns to the imperial ambassador to England, Iñigo de Men- doza (1476–1536), who informed the emperor: “The Queen wrote yesterday to say she had heard that this new Legate brought powers and mandates very detrimental to her and to her rights, which powers, she says, have been obtained from the Pope under false pretences, it having been represented to him that in this present case there was no fear of causing scandal, because all the kingdom was in favour of the divorce, and the Queen herself consented to it.” csps, 3.2:562. 3 November 24, 1528, for example, saw an importunate Catherine writing to her nephew to “beg Your Highness to pardon me for being thus importunate, but the truth and justice of my case, and the great injury done unto me by delaying a judgment that must needs turn out in my favour, compel me again to trouble Your Highness upon a point which you must have at heart as much as myself; but knowing, as I do, that, after God, no one but Your Majesty can remedy my troubles, I must needs use with Your Highness the office of the Samaritan with Jesus Christ.” Ibid., 4.2:593. 4 On October 9, 1528, Charles wrote to Mendoza, “We consider that the most efficient way of assisting and protecting the Queen, our good aunt, is for us to prevent, by all possible means, the trial of her case coming on in England, and to oppose any mandates of the Pope to par- ticular persons.” The emperor added that he had drafted several protests to be sent to the pope. Furthermore, the new imperial ambassador to Rome, dispatched the same month, had express instructions “to assist and help in whatever may be undertaken or done in behalf of our beloved aunt, Queen Katharine of England.” Ibid., 4.2:563, 566.
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Though he clearly perceived the misfortunes that could follow from this, he could not fail to support his aunt and defend her against King Henry,5 even when he contemplated what might well befall England—how all the obsequi- ous, desperate, and soulless men, who sought to gratify the king for their own interests, would be honored and appointed to posts and offices, while all good and wise men who for fear of God alone inclined to the truth and the queen’s right would be dispossessed, dismissed, and persecuted. The supreme pontiff, perceiving that King Henry’s excuses were false, dis- patched four letters to Cardinal Campeggio by various routes and with all pos- sible speed, ordering him to proceed along his path as slowly as possible; once in England, first to attempt to reconcile the king to the queen; and, if he could not, to persuade the queen to enter some convent;6 and, if this too could not be accomplished, at least to give no sentence in the king’s favor without new, explicit instructions from Rome.7 He added, “Hoc summum et maximum sit tibi mandatum—This you are commanded above all.” And in other letters written from Viterbo, he clearly states that if he were acting only for himself in the matter, he would happily run any risk for King Henry, but as it was he could not satisfy him without an affront to justice and a public scandal in Christendom.8
5 As Charles explained to Mendoza, “We could not but stand up in this case for the defence of the Queen’s honour, she (Katharine) being our most beloved aunt, and our mother’s own sister.” Ibid., 3.2:483. 6 In December 1528, Giovanni Battista Sanga (d.1532), Clement’s secretary and confidant, wrote to Campeggio that “It would greatly please the Pope if the Queen could be induced to enter some religion, because, although this course would be portentous and unusual, he could more readily entertain the idea, as it would involve the injury of only one person.” lp, 4:5072. 7 Numerous letters from Sanga and Jacopo Salviati (1461–1533), one of Clement’s closest advis- ers, dogged Campeggio as he made his way to England. On September 11, for example, Sanga wrote to Lorenzo Campeggio, “As soon as you can do so without scandalising the [French] king, proceed on your journey to England, and there do your utmost to restore mutual affection between the King and Queen. You are not to pro- nounce any opinion without a new and express commission hence.” Ibid., 4:4721. Less than a week after his earlier missive (September 16), Sanga sent Campeggio another letter, in which he reiterated: “I am ashamed of repeating the same thing so many times, especially as you were well informed of the Pope’s mind on your departure; but every day stronger reasons are discovered which compel the Pope to remind you that you are to act cautiously, and to use your utmost skill and address in diverting the King from his present desire, and restoring him to his former love towards the Queen. Should you find this impos- sible, you are not to pronounce in any manner without a new and express commission from hence.” Ibid., 4:4737. 8 As Sanga wrote to Campeggio on September 16, 1528, “If in satisfying his Majesty the Pope would incur merely personal danger, his love and obligations to the King are so great that he