012) Henry's son; and now their ambassador wrote triumphantly that there remained in England not a doubtful drop of royal blood.[26] There were no more pretenders, and for the rest of Henry's reign England enjoyed such peace as it had not known for nearly a century.

The end which Henry had sought by fair means and foul was attained, and there was no practical alternative to his children in the succession to the English throne.
[Footnote 24: Perkin was the first of Lady Catherine Gordon's four husbands; her second was James Strangways, gentleman-usher to Henry VIII., her third Sir Matthew Cradock (d.

1531), and her fourth Christopher Ashton, also gentleman-usher; she died in 1537 and was buried in Fyfield Church (_L.

and P._, ii., 3512).] [Footnote 25: See the present writer in _Dict.

Nat.
Biog._, lxiii., 172.] [Footnote 26: _Sp.