Henry immediately after the tragedy married Jane, daughter of Sir John Seymour.  The indecent haste is usually considered conclusive of the cause of Anne Boleyn’s ruin.  On December 12, 1537, a prince, so long and passionately hoped for, was born; but a sad calamity followed, for the queen took cold, and died on October 24.

In 1539 monastic life came to an end in England.  The great monasteries were dissolved; the abbey lands were distributed partly amongst the old nobility and partly amongst the chapters of six new bishoprics.  On January 6, 1540, was solemnised the marriage of Henry with Anne, daughter of the Duke of Cleves, and sister-in-law of the Elector of Saxony.  This event was brought about by the negotiations of Cromwell.  The king was deeply displeased with the ungainly appearance of his bride when he met her on her landing, but retreat was impossible.  Though Henry was personally kind to the new queen, the marriage made him wretched.

Cromwell’s enemies speedily hatched a conspiracy against the great statesman.  He was arrested on a charge of high treason, was accused of corruption and heresy, of gaining wealth by bribery and extortion, and, in spite of Cranmer’s efforts to save him, passed to the scaffold on July 28, 1540.  For eight years Cromwell, who had been ennobled as Earl of Essex, was supreme with king, parliament, and convocation, and the nation, in the ferment of revolution, was absolutely controlled by him.

Convocation had already dissolved the marriage of Henry and Anne, setting both free to contract and consummate other marriages without objection or delay.  The queen had placidly given her consent.  Handsome settlements were made on her in the shape of estates for her maintenance producing nearly three thousand a year.  In August of the same year the King married, without delay of circumstance, Catherine, daughter of Lord Edmond Howard.  Brief, indeed, was her reign.  In November, 1541, she was charged with unfaithfulness to her marriage vows.  The king was overwhelmed.  Some dreadful spirit pursued his married life, tainting it with infamy.

Two gentlemen confessed their guilty connection with the queen.  They were hanged at Tyburn, and the queen and Lady Rochford, who had been her confidential companion, suffered within the Tower.  Once more the king ventured into marriage.  Catherine, widow of Lord Latimer, his last choice, was selected, not in the interest of politics or religion, but by his own personal judgment; and this time he found the peace which he desired.

The great event of 1542 was the signal victory of the English over a Scottish army of ten thousand men at Solway Moss.  King James of Scotland had undertaken, at the instigation of the pope and of the King of France to attack the English as heretics.  The Scottish clergy were ready to proclaim a pilgrimage of grace.  But the English borderers, though only shepherds and agriculturists, as soon as they mounted their horses, were instantly the finest light cavalry in Europe.  They so disastrously defeated the Scots that all the latter either perished in the morass by the Solway, or were captured.