The most dissolute of English kings was content, and more than content, with one wife.

On the other hand, Froude does at least give a clue when he suggests that these frequent marriages were political moves.

A female sovereign reigning in her own right had never been known in England, and up to the birth of Jane Seymour's son Edward the whole kingdom passionately desired that there should be a Prince of Wales.

Edward himself was but a sickly child, and was not expected to live even for the short span of his actual career.

Credulous indeed must they be who maintain the innocence either of Anne Boleyn or of Katharine Howard, and there seems small use in holding with the learned Father Gasquet that Anne was not guilty of the offences imputed to her, but had done something too bad to be mentioned on a trial for incest.