Many important events had occurred in the wide interval thus suffered
to elapse. Wolsey had long since sunk under his reverses - for he never
regained the royal favour after his dismissal--and had expired at
Leicester Abbey, on the 26th November 1530.
But the sufferings of Catherine of Arragon were prolonged up to the
commencement of the year under consideration. After the divorce and
the elevation of Anne Boleyn to the throne in her stead, she withdrew to
Kimbolten Castle, where she dwelt in the greatest retirement, under the
style of the Princess Dowager. Finding her end approaching, she sent a
humble message to the king, imploring him to allow her one last
interview with her daughter, that she might bestow her blessing upon
her; but the request was refused.
A touching letter, however, which she wrote to the king on her death-
bed, moved him to tears; and having ejaculated a few expressions of
his sense of her many noble qualities, he retired to his closet to indulge
his grief in secret. Solemn obsequies were ordered to be performed at
Windsor and Greenwich on the day of her interment, and the king and
the whole of his retinue put on mourning for her.
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