had urged as an excuse for delaying the marriage, were merely a cloak for political reasons; but scruples of conscience are dangerous playthings, and the pretence of Henry VII.
became, through the death of his children, a terrible reality to Henry VIII.
[Footnote 507: _L.

and P._, iii., 432.] [Footnote 508: Du Bellay to Montmorenci, 1st Nov., 1528, _L.

and P._, iv., 4899.] Queen Catherine, too, had scruples of conscience about the marriage, though of a different sort.

When she first heard of Henry's intention to seek a divorce, she is reported to have said that "she had (p.

179) not offended, but it was a judgment of God, for that her former marriage was made in blood"; the price of it had been the head of the innocent Earl of Warwick, demanded by Ferdinand of Aragon.[509] Nor was she alone in this feeling.