So the King set out for York Place in high spirits.

As he stepped from his barge he studied the Palace and thought how grand it looked. It was the town residence of the Archbishops of York and thus it had passed into Wolsey’s possession; but the Cardinal had added a magnificence to it which it had not possessed before, and although it may have lacked the grandeur of Hampton Court it was a very fine palace. Henry’s eyes smouldered a little as he surveyed it. Hampton Court was now his, yet he felt a little resentful that a subject should possess such a residence as that of York Place.

He was slightly mollified when he entered and was received by the Cardinal who exchanged with him a secret look which was meant to imply that the stage was set and in a very short time they would have achieved their desire.

At the end of a hall on a dais Wolsey took his place beside William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Among those gathered in the hall were John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, who was said to be one of the wisest and saintliest men in England, Dr. Bell who was to be the King’s Counsel, and Dr. Wolman who was to state the case against Henry’s marriage.

Dr. Wolman opened the proceedings against the King.

“Henry, King of England, you are called to this archiepiscopal court to answer a charge of living in sin with your brother’s wife…”

Henry listened with the shocked appearance of a man who, in his innocence, has been caught up in a sinful intrigue, and when Wolman had stated the case against the King’s marriage Dr. Bell rose to speak for him.

His Grace had, it was well known, married his brother’s widow, but it was said that the marriage of Prince Arthur and the Infanta Katharine had never been consummated. The reigning King, Henry VII, had expressed his desire that this consummation should not take place on account of the bridegroom’s youth and delicate state of health. And when he died, six months after the marriage, Katharine had stayed in England and in the year 1509 had married their sovereign lord. A dispensation had been received from Pope Julius II, and it was the defense’s case that the King had married in good faith and that it had not occurred to him that his marriage could be anything but legal. Then the Bishop of Tarbes had made a suggestion, and it became clear that this was the result of some pernicious rumor he had heard. It was the King’s desire to stand by the finding of this court, but he was going to ask them to say that his marriage to Katharine of Aragon was a legal one.

Henry’s eyes narrowed as he studied Dr. Bell, but Wolsey had assured him that they could trust Bell. He must put the King’s case in such a manner that it would appear to be a case for the defense. But Bell would know how to act when the moment came.

Wolman was on his feet; he did not think the marriage could have remained unconsummated during the six months the married pair lived together. It would be remembered that they travelled to Ludlow with their own Court and there made merry together. If the marriage had been consummated then, Katharine of Aragon had been the wife of the King’s brother in actual fact, and Wolman maintained that the marriage was illegal.

When it was Henry’s turn to speak he did so with apparent sincerity, for he had convinced himself that it was solely because he wished to stand unsullied in the eyes of God and his subjects that he was glad the matter had been brought to light.

“I can but rejoice that this matter has been brought into the light of day,” he told the court. “Lately it has much troubled my conscience. I could not understand why our prayers should be unanswered. The Queen’s persistent ill health has been a matter of great concern to me, and I trust you learned gentlemen will unravel this delicate matter that I may peacefully return to my wife or—which will cause me much sorrow—declare that our marriage was no marriage and our union must end without delay.”

William Warham listened intently. He lacked the guile of Wolsey and he was coming to the end of an arduous life. He was in his seventies and often it seemed to those about him that he was failing. He was simple enough to believe that the reason for this enquiry was the fact that the Bishop of Tarbes had raised the question of the Princess’s legitimacy. He was anxious to give the matter his most careful attention with the hope that he might lead the members of this court to come to the right conclusion.

The details of the King’s marriage were discussed at length; Katharine’s arrival in England was recalled, followed by her marriage to Arthur which had lasted only six months.

“If that marriage was consummated,” said Warham, “then the Queen has most certainly been the wife of Prince Arthur, and the King could be said to have taken his brother’s wife.”

“Which,” sighed the King, “according to the Holy Word is an unclean thing. Such unions shall be childless, says the Bible. And behold a son has been denied me.”

“But there was a dispensation from the Pope,” put in the Bishop of Rochester. “I think Your Grace should not reproach yourself.”

“The Pope would have been under the impression that the marriage had not been consummated, when he granted the dispensation,” said Wolman. “If it could be proved that the marriage had been consummated, then clearly there could be no marriage between the King and Katharine of Aragon.”

“I think,” persisted Rochester gently, “that the King should suppress his qualms, for there seems little doubt that his marriage is a good one and that the Bull, which legalized it, was sufficient to do so.”

Henry studied John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, from beneath lowered lids. He found it hard to hide his animosity. A curse on these saintly men who expressed their opinions with freedom even before their rulers. Fisher was the Queen’s confessor and clearly her partisan. Wolsey should not have included the man in this court. It was folly to have done so.

Warham was weak and growing simple in his old age. Warham could be handled. But the King was not sure of Fisher.

By God, he thought, I’ll have him in the Tower, beloved of the people though he may be, if he dares to stand out against me.

“My lords,” Wolsey was saying, “I beg of you to come to a quick decision in this case, for the matter is grievous to the King. His Grace is perplexed. If you decide that his union is unlawful, remember it will be necessary for him to part from the Lady Katharine at once, and this will afford him great sorrow for, though he be not in truth her husband, he has a husband’s affection for her.”

Warham’s gentle gray eyes were sad. He was thinking of the Queen who would be deeply disturbed if she knew what was happening at York Place.

Henry was now on his feet telling the court how devoted he was to his wife, how there was no other motive in his heart but the desire to free himself from a sinful union that he might live in peace with God. Katharine had been his wife for eighteen years, and he had found in her all he had hoped to find in a wife.

“Save in one thing!” His voice thundered. “And that, gentlemen, is this matter which is of the utmost importance to my kingdom. Our marriage has not been as fruitful as we wished. We have but one daughter. Again and again it seemed that my wife would produce the son for whom we prayed each night and day; but we were disappointed. It is not until now—when the Bishop of Tarbes comes to my kingdom with his revealing enquiry—that I see the divine pattern of these continual misfortunes. Ah, gentlemen, if you decide that my marriage is no marriage, if I must part with her…whom I love dearly and have always regarded as my wife…then your King will be the most unhappy of men. For the Lady Katharine is of such virtue, such gentleness and humility, possessed of all the qualities pertaining to nobility; and if I were to marry again—and it were not a sin to marry her—she is the woman I would choose above all others.”

As he spoke he seemed to see a vital young face laughing at him, mocking him. There was more than a trace of mockery in Anne. It was part of her witchery and it enslaved him.

He found himself answering her in his thoughts: Well, ’tis for our future. Were I to tell these Bishops of my need for you, they would never understand. Poor old fellows, what could they know of what is between us two!

But the mood passed quickly, and in a few moments he was believing all he said. The little mouth, which had grown slack as he thought of Anne, tightened and became prim. I should never have thought of casting off Katharine but for the continued gnawing of my conscience, he told himself; and he immediately believed it. Katharine was the woman he had insisted on marrying eighteen years ago; it was not because her body had grown shapeless, her hair lacked lustre, and that she provoked no physical desire in him that he would be rid of her. It had nothing to do with the most fascinating woman he had ever known, who still kept aloof and would not submit to him, yet maddened him with her promises of what would be his if she were his wife. No, he told himself sternly, Anne was apart from this. He loved Anne with every pulse of his body; his unsatisfied desire was becoming more than he could endure; and since he had discovered that no other woman would suffice in her place, he was making secret plans now to give Anne what she wanted. (By God, she asks a high price for herself, a crown no less. But worth it, my beauty!) Yet, he assured himself, but for the demands of conscience he would never have questioned his marriage to Katharine. It was solely because he feared he was living in sin, and must quickly cease to do so, that he was here before his bishops and lawyers this day.