Paw ten in the Reign of Henry VII I. 115 



Henry was content to wed her — but when 

 he found her fo inferior to the miniature, 

 the ftorm which really fhould have been di- 

 refted at the painter, burll on the minifler ; 

 and Cromwell loft his head, becaufe Anne 

 was ^ Flanders mare, not a Venus, as Hol- 

 bein had reprefented her. 



Little more occurs memorable of this 

 great painter, but that in 1538, the city of 

 Bafil, on the increafe of his fame, beftowed 

 an annuity of fifty florins on him for two 

 years, hoping, fays my author, that it would 

 induce him to return to his country, to his 

 wife and his children. How large foever 

 that falary might feem in the eyes of frugal 

 Swifs citizens, it is plain it did not weigh 

 with Holbein againft the opulence of the 

 court of England. He remained here 'till 

 his death, which was occafioned by the 

 plague in the year 1554, in the fifty- 

 fixth year of his age. Some accounts 

 make him die in the fpot where is now 

 the paper-office ; but that is not likely, 

 as that very place had been king Hen- 

 ry's private ftudy, and was then appointed 

 for the reception of the letters and papers 

 Mt by that prince and of other public pa- 

 pers. Vertue thought, if he died in the 

 H 2 precin(^s 



