Thus each of the two alliances with which Henry had sought to fortify himself against France and Spain had rendered the other worthless. The King probably bitterly regretted that his matrimonial difficulties had led him to stray so far from the policy which he originally intended to pursue. Had he been able to secure his desired position as neutral and pretended mediator between France and Spain, he could have relied on this eminently advantageous situation alone to secure safety for England abroad, without troubling himself about any outside alliance. But to attain this position was impossible, as we have seen, until he became reconciled to Charles, and reconciliation with Charles was out of the question as long as Katherine remained subjected to such indignity. Here lay the key to the whole situation. The treatment of the divorced Queen was the sole hindrance to a cordial relation between Spain and England, and consequently to the final application of the policy which Henry so ardently desired. But there could be no hope of an alleviation of her sufferings, for the King and Cromwell were by this time irrevocably committed to a brutal attitude towards Katherine and her daughter by the course of events since the first trial of the divorce. The inference was obvious. As long as Katherine lived, a reconciliation with Charles, with all its attendant benefits, was impossible: her death alone could pave the way for it. That these thoughts had already taken shape at least in Cromwell’s mind is proved by a hint which the King’s minister dropped in Chapuys’ presence in August, 1534, to the effect that the death of the Queen and Princess would remove all occasion for a quarrel between their masters[565].