him as his wife; and continued with fixed purpose and immovable countenance[1] to share his table and his bed long after she was aware of his dislike for her.
If the validity of so unfortunate a connection had never been questioned, or if no national interests had been dependent on the continuance or the abolition of it, these discomforts were not too great to have been endured in silence. They may or they may not have been stimulated by any latent inclination on the part of the King for another woman. The name of Anne Boleyn appears early in connection with the King's restiveness; and even if the King was largely influenced by personal feeling, when we remember the tenor of his early life we need not think that he would have been unequal to the restraint which ordinary persons in similar circumstances are able to impose on their caprices. The legates spoke no more than the truth when they wrote to the Pope, saying that 'it was mere madness to suppose that the King would act as he was doing merely out of dislike of the Queen, or out of inclination for another person; he was not a man whom harsh manners and an unpleasant disposition (duri mores et injucunda comuetudo) could so far provoke; nor could any sane man believe him to be so infirm of character that sensual allurements would have led him to dissolve a connection in which he had passed the flower of youth without stain or blemish, and in which he had borne himself in his trial so reverently and honour-
- ↑ Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne, Legrand, vol. iii.
