After that wretched confrontation, in which in agony of mind Mary gave no ground, the King angrily prepared legal proceedings which might have led to her death for treason. Maybe there was a good-cop/bad-cop strategy here, but Cromwell made a point of telling Chapuys that he recognized that ‘the almost excessive love and affection’ of Henry’s subjects for Mary had become much more obvious after Anne’s fall. He realized what a catastrophe the execution of the King’s daughter would be for the monarchy, far outclassing the destruction of More and Fisher.19 His own continued position was now
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