Government, on the validity of the Papal dispensation granted by Julius the Second, to legalize the marriage from which she was sprung. The abortive marriage scheme perished in its birth, but the doubt which had been raised could not perish with it. Doubt on such a subject once mooted might not be left unresolved, even if the raising it thus publicly had not itself destroyed the frail chance of an undisputed succession. If the relations of Henry with Queen Catherine had been of a cordial kind, it is possible that he would have been contented with resentment; that he would have refused to reconsider a question which touched his honour and his conscience; and, united with Parliament, would have endeavoured to bear down all difficulties with a high hand. This at least he might have himself attempted. Whether the Parliament, with so precarious a future before them, would have consented, is less easy to say. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the interests of the nation pointed out another road, which Henry had no unwillingness to enter.
On the death of Prince Arthur, five months after his marriage, Henry VII. and the father of the princess alike desired that the bond between their families thus broken should be re-united; and, as soon as it became clear that Catherine had not been left pregnant (a point which, tacitly at least, she allowed to be considered uncertain at the time of her husband's decease), it was proposed that she should be transferred, with the inheritance of the crown, to the new heir. A dispensation
