“Of personage he was one of the goodliest men that lived in his time; being high of stature, in manner more than a man, and proportionable in all his members unto that height; of countenance he was most amiable; courteous and benign in gesture unto all persons and specially unto strangers; seldom or never offended with anything; and of so constant a nature in himself that I believe few can say that ever he changed his cheer for any novelty how contrary or sudden so ever it were.  Prudent he was in council and forecasting; most liberal in rewarding his faithful servants, and even unto his enemies, as it behoveth a prince to be.  He was learned in all sciences, and had the gift of many tongues.  He was a perfect theologian, a good philosopher, and a strong man at arms, a jeweller, a perfect builder as well of fortresses as of pleasant palaces, and from one to another there was no necessary kind of knowledge, from a king’s degree to a carter’s, but he had an honest sight in it.”—­The Pilgrim p. 78.

[177] Exposition of the Commandments, set forth by Royal authority, 1536.  This treatise was drawn up by the bishops, and submitted to, and revised by, the king.

[178] SAGUDINO’S Summary.  Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII. vol. ii.  P. 75.

[179] “The truth is, when I married my wife, I had but fifty pounds to live on for me and my wife so long as my father lived, and yet she brought me forth every year a child.”—­Earl of Wiltshire to Cromwell:  ELLIS, third series, vol. iii. pp. 22, 3.

[180] BURNET, vol. i. p. 69.

[181] Thomas Allen to the Earl of Shrewsbury:  LODGE’S Illustrations, vol. i. p. 20.

[182] Earl of Northumberland to Cromwell:  printed by LORD HERBERT and by BURNET.

[183] 28 Hen.  VIII. cap. 7.

[184] Since these words were written, I have discovered among the Archives of Simancas what may perhaps be some clue to the mystery, in an epitome of a letter written to Charles V. from London in May, 1536:—–­

“His Majesty has letters from England of the 11th of May, with certain news that the paramour of the King of England, who called herself queen, has been thrown into the Tower of London for adultery.  The partner of her guilt was an organist of the Privy Chamber, who is in the Tower as well.  An officer of the King’s wardrobe has been arrested also for the same offence with her, and one of her brothers for having been privy to her offences without revealing them.  They say, too, that if the adultery had not been discovered, the King was determined to put her away, having been informed by competent witnesses that she was married and had consummated her marriage nine years before, with the Earl of Northumberland.”

[185] ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 131.

[186] Wyatt’s Memorials, printed in Singer’s CAVENDISH, p. 420.

[187] ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 132.