THE COURT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.
CHAPTER I. 1533 TO 1563 36
Birth of Elizabeth.—Circumstances attending the marriage of her parents. Public entry of Anne Boleyn into London.-Pageants exhibited. Baptism of Elizabeth.-Eminent persons present.-Proposal of marriage between Elizabeth and a French prince.-Progress of the reformation.-Henry persecutes both parties.-Death of Catherine of Arogan.-Disgrace of Anne Boleyn.-Her death.—Confesses an obstacle to her marriage.—Particulars on this subject.-Elizabeth declared illegitimate.—Letter of lady Bryan respecting her.—The king marries Jane Seymour.
ON the 7th of Sept. 1533, at the royal palace of Greenwich in Kent was born, under circumstances as peculiar as her after-life proved eventful and illustrious, ELIZABETH daughter of king Henry VIII. and his queen Anne Boleyn.
Henry had for years been obstructed by delays and difficulties equally grievous to the impetuous temper of the man and the despotic habits of the prince, in the execution of his favourite project of repudiating, on the plea of their too near alliance, a wife who had· ceased to find favour in his sight, and substituting on her throne the youthful beauty who had captivated his imagination. At length his passion and his impatience had attained a pitch capable of bearing down every obstacle. With that contempt of decorum which he displayed so remarkably in some former, and many later transactions of his life, he caused his private marriage with Anne Boleyn to precede the sentence of divorce which he had resolved that his clergy should pronounce against Catherine of Aragon; and no sooner had this judicial ceremony taken place, than the new queen was openly exhibited as such in the face of the court and the nation.
An unusual ostentation of magnificence appears to have attended the celebration of these august nuptials. The fondness of the king for