78 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



and in the defeat of her intrepid, manlike firmness, 

 by the pitiless determination of the King. 



Few can read of the scene in the monastery at 

 Blackfriars on the iSth of June, 1529, without being 

 touched by the pathetic dignity of Katherine, 

 pleading for her love, her. child, and her broken 

 life. 



It was Thomas Cranmer who finally ridded the 

 King of his distasteful wife. Meeting Fox and 

 Gardiner, who were discussing the divorce, 

 Cranmer suggested an appeal to the universities of 

 Christendom. The idea pleased Henry, though it 

 was discovered on putting it to the test that the 

 whole of Europe, Protestant and Catholic alike, was 

 absolutely against the King. Cranmer's willingness 

 to prove otherwise stood him in good stead, gaining 

 him later the see of Canterbury ; and once he was 

 Primate the Lady Ann felt there would be small 

 doubt as to her being Queen of England. Insult 

 upon insult was heaped upon Katherine ; her house- 

 hold was reduced to that of an ordinary person, her 

 arms were removed from Westminster Hall ; yet her 

 amazing husband wrote exhorting her to be "quiet 

 and merry " ! From Ampthill Katherine was 

 summoned to appear at the Primate's Court at 

 Dunstable a command to which she was deaf. In 

 May, Cranmer declared her marriage null and void, 

 and Ann's valid, though it had taken place four 

 months before Katherine's marriage was annulled. 



