Transcriber's note: Obvious printer errors have been repaired, but
spelling has not been standardized.
Text printed in bold in the original text has been marked =like this=.
_ROMANTIC HISTORY_
MARY TUDOR, QUEEN OF FRANCE
ROMANTIC HISTORY
TWO ENGLISH QUEENS AND
PHILIP. MARTIN HUME, M.A.
THE FIRST GOVERNESS OF THE
NETHERLANDS. ELEANOR E.
TREMAYNE.
MARGARET OF AUSTRIA. ELEANOR
E. TREMAYNE.
THE NINE DAYS' QUEEN. RICHARD
DAVEY.
THE GREAT INFANTA. L. KLINGENSTEIN.
ISABEL, SOVEREIGN OF THE
NETHERLANDS. L. KLINGENSTEIN.
MARY TUDOR, QUEEN OF
FRANCE. MARY CROOM BROWN.
[Illustration: MARY TUDOR, DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK, AND HER HUSBAND
CHARLES BRANDON, DUKE OF SUFFOLK
FROM THE PAINTING BY JEAN DE MABUSE IN THE POSSESSION OF THE EARL
OF YARBOROUGH]
MARY TUDOR
QUEEN OF FRANCE
BY
MARY CROOM BROWN
WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS
METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
_First Published in 1911_
PREFACE
Anyone who writes the life of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII., must
owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs Everett Green, who first drove a wedge
through the mass of documents dealing with the subject. Since that date,
however, new evidence has come to light and fresh readings of mutilated
documents have been possible. Here and there a detail has been verified,
nothing in itself, but when fitted in suggesting a new meaning to the
whole; for this romantic history, dealing as it does with personal
detail, is a very jig-saw puzzle. The date of the princess's birth, now
at last definitely ascertained, is one of these details; the fact that
in France she was twice married to Charles Brandon is another; and, to
give a third instance, the detailed evidence shows that in the question
of the dismissal of her English train from the French Court, Mary was as
much sinner as sinned against. But after all is said, the difference
between a book written fifty years ago, and one of to-day lies not so
much in the matter newly discovered, as in the method of handling the
same documents, and in the present incorrigible habit of valuing
personality above ceremony, in this case looking for the woman in the
princess and finding her. So while fifty years ago Princess Mary "penned
many epistles," now she writes letters; then "she was advanced to
maternal honours," now her first child is born. It all means the same
thing set to differing measures. We jig along: they walked solemnly.
My thanks are due in no small measure to Miss A. M. Allen and to Mr P.
C. Allen for their careful and friendly help, and to the Librarian of
Exeter College and the officials of the Record Office for their
courtesy.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
CHILDHOOD AND BETROTHAL TO CHARLES OF CASTILE 1
CHAPTER II
EUROPEAN COMPLICATIONS 25
CHAPTER III
A CAMPAIGN AND A COURTSHIP 48
CHAPTER IV
THE DUCHESS REPUDIATES HER SUITOR AND THE PRINCESS
BREAKS HER CONTRACT 72
CHAPTER V
BETROTHAL TO LOUIS XII. OF FRANCE 93
CHAPTER VI
QUEEN OF FRANCE 119
CHAPTER VII
THE ENGLISHMEN IN PARIS 139
CHAPTER VIII
THE WHITE QUEEN AND THE DUKE. THE SECRET
MARRIAGE 148
CHAPTER IX
CONFESSION AND PENANCE 173
CHAPTER X
THE LOVERS COME HOME 200
CHAPTER XI
AFTERWARDS 219
APPENDIX 253
INDEX 277
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MARY TUDOR, DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK, AND HER HUSBAND
CHARLES BRANDON, DUKE OF SUFFOLK _Frontispiece_
From the Painting by Jean de Mabuse, in the possession
of the Earl of Yarborough
FACING PAGE
ELIZABETH OF YORK 4
From the Painting in the National Portrait Gallery (Flemish
School)
HENRY VII. 14
From the Painting in the National Portrait Gallery (Flemish
School)
MAXIMILIAN, EMPEROR OF GERMANY 36
From the Painting by Albrecht Dürer at Vienna. (_Photo, F.
Hanfstaengl_)
MARGARET, DUCHESS OF SAVOY 66
From the Window in the Chapel of the Virgin in the Church of
Brou
MARGARET, COUNTESS OF RICHMOND 74
Painter unknown, National Portrait Gallery
CHARLES, PRINCE OF CASTILE 90
From the Painting in the Louvre (Flemish School)
LOUIS XII. 102
Engraved by A. Berthold, from his Tomb in S. Denis
FRANCIS I. 144
From the Painting in the Louvre (French School)
HENRY VIII. 154
Painter unknown, National Portrait Gallery
CARDINAL WOLSEY 192
Painter unknown, National Portrait Gallery
MARGARET TUDOR, QUEEN OF SCOTS 230
National Portrait Gallery
REFERENCES
L. and P. H. VII. and R. III. = Letters and Papers, Henry VII. and
Richard III.
L. and P. H. VIII. = Calendar of Letters and Papers,
Foreign and Domestic, of the
Reign of Henry VIII.
C. S. P. Venice = Calendar of Venetian State Papers.
C. S. P. Spain = Calendar of Spanish State Papers.
Calig = Cottonian MSS., Caligula, B.M.
Galba. = " " Galba, "
Vitell. = " " Vitellius, "
Vesp. = " " Vespasian, "
R.O. = Public Record Office.
MARY TUDOR, QUEEN OF FRANCE
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD AND BETROTHAL TO CHARLES OF CASTILE
To write the full life of Mary Tudor, second daughter of Henry VII., is
to attempt the impossible, for the term usually implies a consecutive
story from the gate of birth to that of death. We do know now the dates
written over both these gates, but while her early days are shrouded by
lack of information, her later years are equally indistinct. For less
than a couple of years Mary Tudor lives and moves before us, and only
this watch and vision is clear. From October 1514 to May 1516 she
reveals herself, and fortunately with greater distinctness than she
could possibly have done in a chronicle of orderly days with their
circling duties and small joys and sorrows. To most ordinary men and
women there comes one great moment in life, the third act of the play,
to which all the previous scenes have been leading, and it is during
Mary's great moment, when her nature was keyed to its highest pitch,
that we are able to see her clearest. Before it arrives and after it has
passed one desires, and desires in vain, the chronicle of those smaller
joys and sorrows, but it is not to be found, and as we cannot have the
life let us make the most of the episode.
The date of Mary's birth has at last been fixed as the 18th March 1495.
The day and the month have hitherto been a matter of uncertain
conjecture, and the year has been given as 1496 on the strength of a
privy seal of Henry VII. which runs as follows: "de Termino Paschæ anno
xi. regis nunc: Anne Skeron nutrici dominæ Mariæ ls. pro quarterio unius
anni finiti ad festum Sancti Johannis Baptistsæ ultim.; Johannæ Colyng,
Fredeswidæ Puttenham, Marjeriæ Gower, Johannæ Cace, Avisæ Skidmore et
Alicæ Bywymble cuilibet earum xxxiijs. iiijd, pro attendenciis suis
nutrici ducis Eboracencis et sororum suarum per medium annum ad finem
predictum." So that Anne Skeron had only completed three months' service
at midsummer when the other nurses and attendants had completed six. Now
the xi. year of Henry VII. lies between August 22, 1495, and August 21,
1496, so that this midsummer falls before Easter 1496, the date of the
document, for it is "ad festum Sancti Johannis Baptistæ _ultim_." Hence
the quarter's wage then due must have begun in March 1495, not in March
1496 as Mrs Green[1] and, following her, Dr Gairdner argues. That it was
1495 is supported, in a somewhat weak-kneed fashion, by the fact that in
the beginning of 1499[2] Henry refused to give his daughter in marriage
to the Duke of Milan because she was only three years old, and by her
brother's statement in his letter to Leo X. announcing the repudiation
of the Castilian marriage contract in 1514, that she was married in
December 1508 at the age of about thirteen (cum vix annum tertium
decimum attigisset).[3] Henry VII.'s love of accuracy makes his
statement that Mary was three years old and not four at the beginning of
1499 worth having, and, as Dr Gairdner says, his son had no reason to
deceive the Pope in 1514. His sister had then been safely married to an
old man, and there was no necessity to keep up a fiction about her age.
But evidence of unassailable authority is to be found in the Calendar
prefixed to Queen Elizabeth of York's Psalter in the Library of Exeter
College, Oxford, where the date of Mary's birth is given as 18th March
1495. The only question which now arises is, Did the writer who inserted
the dates for the Queen in the Calendar use the January or the March
year? But remembering the date of the privy seal already quoted, and the
fact that the new fashion of reckoning the year as beginning in January
was already in use in private documents, it is only reasonable to
conclude that the writer, whoever he may have been, had adopted the
modern calendar.
[1] "Lives of the Princesses of England," vol. v. p. 2.
[2] C.S.P. Venice, i. 790.
[3] L. and P. H. VIII., i. 5319, Harl. 3462, 142. b.
The difficulty of determining the age of the princess is partly due to
the fact that when Mary was growing up and developing rapidly into a
young woman, Charles of Castile, nearly five years younger, remained a
child in appearance. The Flemish Council said she was too old for him,
and sought to break off the match, and in 1514, to answer the gibe that
Charles wanted a wife and not a mother, her age seems to have been
officially announced as sixteen, while as a matter of fact she was
nineteen. No wonder in these days of early marriages (her sister
Margaret was packed off to Scotland when she was just over fifteen, and
her father had been born before her grandmother's fourteenth birthday)
she felt as though she had _coiffé Ste Catherine_, and the fiction of
her age grew easily.
The childhood of Mary passed in obscurity; new frocks, a few doctor's
bills, a papal pardon, are the few indications of her existence. Once
only do we see her, as a child of four, in the winter of 1499, playing
in the great hall at Eltham,[4] when Lord Mountjoy brought Erasmus to
see Prince Henry there. When she emerges into clearer light, she shows
herself to be of little mental originality but of strong passions, and
it will be interesting to describe, so far as is possible, the qualities
she may have inherited from her father and her mother. Henry VIII.,
Queen Margaret of Scotland, Queen Mary of France, all had these violent
qualities which are miscalled Tudor, for they really belong to the house
of York.
[4] Knight's "Life of Erasmus," p. 69.
[Illustration: ELIZABETH OF YORK
FROM THE PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY (FLEMISH
SCHOOL)]
Her mother, Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV., had been rescued
from the arms of her uncle, Richard III., to be thrust into those of
Henry of Richmond. She was a rather short woman, inclined to embonpoint,
with deep breasts. She possessed a happy, pleasure-loving temperament,
was very charitable, deeply attached to her sisters, Katharine, Countess
of Devon, and the lady Bridget of York; religious in the outward sense
of the word. That is to say, that while she took many journeys for
pleasure in the summer, she did her pilgrimages vicariously by means of
her servants.[5] Her portrait in the National Portrait Gallery is not
that of an intellectual woman, it is, rather, a childish face with great
comeliness. She had ruddy hair and brown eyes, which she bequeathed to
none of her surviving children, who all had the pale blue eyes,
looking grey in certain lights, of their father. She was beloved by the
Londoners because she was the daughter of her father, and no doubt this
means that she had his easy manner, and possibly, like him, was "among
mean persons more familiar than his degree, dignity or majesty
required."[6] She had no influence in Court nor with her husband. All
the feminine influence there was centred in her mother-in-law, the Lady
Margaret, Countess of Richmond, with whose orderly, ceremony-loving
nature Elizabeth must ever have been secretly at feud. Henry believed
there was no woman to equal his mother, and the "King's lady mother"
regulated the whole Court in personal matters with a despotic hand.
Ceremony was to her the breath of her nostrils, and, where she was,
nothing moved but to slow and stately music. Elizabeth, on the other
hand, loved flowers and gardens, music and disguisings and picnics,[7]
and she passed on her delight in these things to her children, while she
did not "like" her position of subjection; but that there was open
revolt we cannot tell. There is a pathetic hearsay picture of her as the
comforter of her husband on the death of Prince Arthur in 1502, which
shows her gentle nature and soft, comforting manner. (Again, these were
passed on to Queen Mary and Henry VIII.) Henry was absolutely broken
down by the news, and she hid her own sorrow at the sight of his grief
till the first agony of his was passed. But when she went back to her
own room, "natural and motherly remembrance of that great loss smote her
so sorrowful to the heart, that those that were about her were fain to
send for the King to comfort her." This account the writer acknowledges
to be at second hand, but whether her reported words be the self-same
that she uttered or not, yet the fact remains that in spite of Lady
Margaret, Henry turned to his wife for comfort in his great grief.
Possibly Lady Margaret grudged the Queen her easy popularity, for she
was as beloved as Henry was disliked. "She is a very noble woman,"
writes the Spanish agent, and suggests that his master and mistress
should show her a little love.
[5] Exchequer Accounts, T.R., Misc. Books 210. Record Office.
[6] Hall's "Chronicle," ed. 1809, p. 341.
[7] Exchequer Accounts, T.R., Misc. Books 210. _passim_.
Henry's picture has been drawn by Hall. "He was a man of body but leane
and spare, albeit mighty and strong therewith, of personage and stature
somewhat higher than the mean sort of men be, of a wonderful beauty and
fair complexion, of countenance merry and smiling, especially in his
communication, his eyes grey, his teeth single and hair thin, of wit in
all things quick and prompt, of a princely stomach and haute courage. In
great perils, doubtful affairs and matters of weighty importance,
supernatural and in manner divine, for such things as he went about he
did them advisedly and not without great deliberation and breathing....
Besides this, he was sober, moderate, honest, affable, courteous,
bounteous, so much abhoring pride and arrogancy that he was ever sharp
and quick to them which were noted and spotted with the crime....
Although his mother were never so wise (as she was both witty and wise),
yet her will was bridled and her doynges restrayned. And this regiment
he said he kept to thentent yt he worthely might be called a King,
whose office is to rule and not to be ruled of other."[8]
[8] Hall's "Chronicle," ed. 1809, p. 504.
De Puebla, the Spanish ambassador, found that when he was angry Henry's
speech was full of venom, and that the words came from his mouth like
vipers and he indulged in every kind of passion. Add to this another
Spaniard's estimate of the King. In 1498 Pedro d'Ayala wrote to
Ferdinand of Aragon. Henry "is disliked, but the Queen is beloved
because she is powerless. They [the people] love the Prince as much as
themselves, because he is the grandchild of his grandfather.... The King
looks old for his years, but young for the sorrowful life he has led.
One of the reasons why he leads a good (_i.e._ sober) life is that he
has been brought up abroad. He would like to govern England in the
French fashion, but he cannot. He is subject to his Council, but has
already shaken off some and has got rid of some part of this subjection.
Those who have received the greatest favours from him are the most
discontented. He knows all that. The King has the greatest desire to
employ foreigners in his service. He cannot do so, for the envy of the
English is diabolical, and I think without equal. He likes to be much
spoken of and to be highly appreciated by the whole world. He fails in
this, because he is not a great man. Although he professes many virtues,
his love of money is too great. He spends all the time he is not in
public or in his council in writing the accounts of his expenses with
his own hand.... The King is much influenced by his mother and his
followers in affairs of personal interest and in others. The Queen, as
is generally the case, does not like it."[9] The same writer puts down
the fact that Henry was more intelligent than his courtiers to his not
being a pure Englishman.
[9] C. S. P. Spain, p. 210.
From another source[10] Henry's impatience with unsupported accusations
is emphasized. "Ye would be ware how that ye brake to him in such
matters, for he would take it to be said of envy, ill-will and malice,"
and he would send "sharp writing again that he would have proof of this
matter." Further, the King was superstitious, and d'Ayala hints that
this is his Welsh blood: "in Wales there are many who tell fortunes." In
1499 he was warned by a priest that his life would be in great danger
for a year, and he aged in consequence twenty years in two weeks, and
grew "very devout and heard a sermon every day during Lent, and has
continued his devotions for the rest of the day."
[10] L. and P. R. III. and H. VII., i. 231.
The whole Court was devout in the same sense, and while one Spaniard
says that "when one sees and knows the manners and the way of life of
this people in this island, we cannot deny the grave inconveniences of
the Princess's (Katharine) coming to England before she is of age ...
before she has learnt to appreciate fully our habits of life,"[11]
another complains that it is impossible in Lent to get a piece of meat
in the Court kitchen.[12] And the two complaints illustrate well what
was and what was not to be found in the Court.
[11] C. S. P. Spain, i. 210.
[12] _Ibid._, i. 603.
The nursery of the royal children was at Eltham, and there Mary probably
remained till she was of fit age to appear in public. During her first
two years the "Norcery" was under the care of Mistress Elizabeth
Denton,[13] of whom Henry and Mary were genuinely fond,[14] and when she
became one of the Queen's gentlewomen, her place was taken by Mistress
Anne Crowmer.[15] The children consisted of Henry, Duke of York, the
ladies Margaret and Mary, and later on of Lord Edmund, who died a baby
in 1500. Arthur, Prince of Wales, who was nine years older than Mary,
had been emancipated from women's care, and had his own household.
Babyhood in these days was not prolonged, and before Mary was two years
old she was dressed like a woman of twenty in kirtles of black silk and
velvet edged with ermine and mink, and provided with ribbons for lacing
and for girdles,[16] while next spring (8th April 1497)[17] she was
playing about in black velvet edged with tawny tinsel, or in black satin
edged with velvet and a kirtle of black damask; the gowns, poor child,
already stiff with buckram. Her smocks were made of fine linen. The
usual channel by which Mary got all her clothes was an order to the
keeper of the Great Wardrobe at the Tower minutely describing the
articles to be delivered, signed at the top by her father. The same year
(16th November 1497)[18] she was given 3 pairs of hosen, 8 pairs single
soled shoes and 4 pairs of double. In July 1499 [19] she was put into
colours, and presented with a green velvet gown edged with purple tinsel
satin, and a blue velvet gown edged with crimson velvet, both stiffened
with buckram, a kirtle of tawny satin edged with black velvet lined with
blue cloth in the upper body, and another of black satin lined with
black cloth in the upper body, 2 pairs knit hosen and linen smocks.
Sheets, blankets, carpets, stools, basins, all chamber furnishings came
from the Great Wardrobe, and were not to be had without a personal order
from the King. No doubt her grandmother ordered such clothing for her
grandchildren as she considered proper, and only once is there evidence
that Queen Elizabeth took any interest in Mary's clothes: that was when
she paid for the making of a black gown for her just after the death of
Prince Arthur.[20] What emotions may underlie that bare entry in the
Queen's private accounts we can only conjecture.
[13] Wardrobe Accounts, Exc. K.R., Bundle 414 (8).
[14] L. and P. H. VIII., i. 217, and other entries.
[15] Wardrobe Accounts, Exc. T.R., Misc. Books 209.
[16] Wardrobe Accounts, Exc. K.R., Bundle 414 (8).
[17] _Ibid._
[18] Wardrobe Accounts, Exc. T.R., Misc. Books 209.
[19] _Ibid._
[20] Exc. T.R., Misc. Books 210.
The education necessary for a young lady was to learn to sing and to
dance, to play the lute and other instruments, and to order her
discourse wisely. Very much what it was fifty years ago. Henry admired
French manners more than any other, and wanted his children to be
conversant with them. So with Mary he placed Mademoiselle Jane
Popincourt, a child of about her own age, and we may conjecture that the
large wardrobe provided in March 1498 for "a French maiden"[21] was for
her. She had almost the same clothes as the princess, and was called her
attendant, and Mary herself says they were brought up together. If
Henry's idea was that his daughter should learn to speak French in her
childhood, he was disappointed. Probably Jane learnt to speak English,
but when Mary's marriage drew near in 1512, she had to have a special
schoolmaster to coach her in the language, and this in spite of the fact
that in Henry VII.'s court French was the usual tongue. Beyond reading
and writing (spelling, alas for the record searcher, was not _taught_),
singing, dancing, and embroidering, Mary's education did not go, and we
have only to look at the portrait of her father to realize that he was
one of those men who pray, "d'une mule qui brait et d'une fille qui
parle latin, délivrez-nous, seigneur." His mother's benefactions to
learning at the universities go no way to prove that she believed in it
for women, as in fact she did not, and the result was that neither Mary
nor her elder sister attained to the intellectual poise which is so
remarkable in their descendants, Lady Jane Grey and Queen Mary Stuart.
[21] _Ibid._,209.
So the two girls lived at Eltham, made habitable by their grandfather,
and went in and out under his device (the rose en soleil) on the
doorway,[22] and afterwards at Baynard's Castle, Westminster Palace,
Richmond, Windsor, Greenwich, wherever the Court was, going from one
place to another by river in the Queen's great barge with its white and
green awnings and 21 rowers in livery, and taking two days to get from
Greenwich to Richmond.[23] Once out of the nursery they were with their
mother's ladies, and with their aunts, the Lady Katharine Courteney,
Countess of Devon, and the Lady Bridget of York, who, after the Queen's
death, became a nun.[24] They knew Lady Katharine Gordon, the
unfortunate widow of Perkin Warbeck, whose position at Court must have
been a curious one; she was one of the Queen's ladies. Among the others
were Lady Anne Howard, Lady Elizabeth Stafford, Lady Alyanore Verney,
daughter of Sir Geoffrey Pole, whose husband, Sir Rauf, became
chamberlain to Mary as Princess of Castile, and whose daughter-in-law,
Dorothy, was one of her ladies. Dame Joan Guildford, sister of Sir
Nicholas Vaux of Calais, and protégé of the Countess of Richmond, whose
husband was controller of the household; Anne Weston, of the same
Westons as Francis, who came to so tragic an end in the Boleyn
catastrophe; Anne Browne, who went through so much misery before Charles
Brandon married her; Eleanor Jones represented Wales, beloved of Henry
and his mother; and the two Baptistes, Elizabeth and Françoise, were
French waiting-maids.[25]
[22] Drake's "Hundred of Blackheath," p. 186.
[23] Exc. T.R., Misc. Books 210, Book of the Household of Queen
Elizabeth.
[24] _Ibid._
[25] Exc. T.R., Misc. Books 210, Book of the Household of Queen
Elizabeth.
When Mary was six years old her father attained his ambition, and the
alliance with Spain, for which he had wrought so hard since 1488,
constantly handicapped by conspiracies and rebellions, was affirmed by
the marriage, in November 1501, of Katharine of Aragon and Arthur of
Wales. Mary and her sister had new gowns for the occasion. Margaret,
because she was six years older than Mary, and was about to be betrothed
to James IV. of Scotland, and had to look her best in the presence of
the Scots Commissioners, had her first gown of cloth of gold: "tawnay
cloth of gold tissue trimmed with ermine backs and furred within with
ermine wombes." She had another of purple velvet, made very long, with
tabard sleeves furred with the same, two new hoods made in the French
fashion, one of crimson and one of black velvet, two kirtles, one of
tawny, one of russet satin, two pairs of sleeves, one of crimson satin
and one of white cloth of gold of damask lined with blue sarcenet.
Margaret's joy can be easily read in the light of her later open
pleasure in fine clothes, for when in Scotland, despoiled of all by the
Duke of Albany, and too ill to move, she had the new gowns sent by her
brother brought in to her room time and again, so that she might admire
them. Mary had no cloth of gold. She had two gowns, one of russet velvet
trimmed with ermine backs and furred within with miniver, and another of
crimson velvet with tabard sleeves trimmed with the same; a kirtle of
tawny satin with a pair of green satin sleeves. The whole Court got new
clothes, and on the day of the marriage the King's henchmen in their
crimson cloaks, bordered with black satin,[26] the Duke of York's
followers in yellow and blue, with the guard in the King's own livery of
white and green, and the minstrels and "trompettes" with their
banner-hung instruments also dressed in the King's colours, the King and
the Queen and their children in cloth of gold or tawny satin and ermine,
must have made a fine sight as the procession passed along the blue
cloth laid down from the bishop's palace to the cathedral door.[27]
[26] Wardrobe Accounts, Exc. T.R., Bundle 415 (10).
[27] _Ibid._
But in a few months cloth of gold was exchanged for black satin, for
Arthur died in Wales on 2nd April 1502, though in November, when Mary
received her half-yearly supply of clothes, she was given a crimson
velvet kirtle, possibly in anticipation of Margaret's marriage with the
King of Scots on 25th January 1503. At the same time Elizabeth Langton,
wardrobe maid, received linen for smocks, rails (nightgowns) and night
kerchiefs for the princess and for Jane Popincourt.[28] This is the
first time _rails_ are mentioned in the list. Did small children go to
their "naked bed'? The Queen was going to have another child, and about
three weeks after Margaret's marriage she died in child-birth in the
Tower (11th February). Her French nurse[29] had not been a success after
all. She is reported to have comforted Henry on Arthur's death with the
promise of more children, saying God had given them so many "and we are
both young enough, and God is where he was." Her child was a daughter,
named Catherine, who only lived a few days.
[28] _Ibid._
[29] Exc. T.R., Misc. Books 210, Book of the Household of Queen
Elizabeth.
[Illustration: HENRY VII
FROM THE PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY (FLEMISH
SCHOOL)]
At once the atmosphere of the Court changed, and from now on it lived in
a bustle of match-making, for father, son and daughter were all in the
market. First there was Katharine of Aragon, whose destiny was so
uncertain. The Spanish alliance brought Henry the European position that
he coveted, and he neither wanted to risk losing it by restoring the
Princess to her parents, or to lose the chance of widening his sphere of
influence by binding Henry of York to marry her. However, the main thing
for the moment was to hold on to Spain, so in July 1503 a dispensation
for Katharine's marriage with her husband's brother was applied for. It
only arrived in Spain in November 1504, when Isabella of Castile lay on
her death-bed. It comforted the Queen, who had been horrified at Henry's
interim proposal to marry the Princess himself. The death of Isabella
(who is always called Elizabeth in England) and the question of the
succession to Castile opened wider plans to Henry's imagination.
Already, in 1500, Henry had had an interview with Philip of Burgundy in
St Peter's Church, outside Calais, and Mary's marriage with Philip's
son, Charles, Duke of Luxemburg, then four months old, had been mooted,
as well as the Duke of York's to a Flemish princess. Then, in 1505,
Henry thought of marrying Margaret of Angoulême, or her mother, Louise
of Savoy, and suggested that Mary should marry the Dauphin.[30] Henry,
in his underhand way, also said she was asked in marriage by the son of
the King of Portugal,[31] but this is doubtful. But the King in 1506
finally concentrated his ambitions on Flanders and Castile, and in
1506 fortune came to him from the sea. Philip of Burgundy and his wife
Joanna, now King and Queen of Castile, were on their way to take
possession of their new kingdom to Ferdinand of Aragon's despite, when
they were storm-driven into Weymouth harbour. Hall says that Philip had
been so battered about and seasick that he insisted on landing, though
his councillors warned him that if he once put his foot on shore,
courtesy and perhaps force would demand a longer visit. And so it turned
out, for Henry sent him a cordial invitation to visit him at Windsor,
and thither went Philip, followed later by Joanna, who showed no haste
to meet her sister Katharine. This is the occasion on which we see the
Princess Mary dancing and playing the lute before Philip in the King's
dining-room at Windsor. "And when the King heard that the King of
Castile was coming [from his appartments in the Castle] he went to the
door of the great chamber and there received him.... And so both
together went through that chamber, the King's dining chamber, and from
thence to an inner chamber where was my lady Princess and my lady Mary,
the King's daughter, and divers other ladies. And after the King of
Castile had kissed them and communed with them, and communed a while
with the King and ladies all, they came into the King's dining chamber,
where danced my lady Princess and a Spanish lady with her in Spanish
array, and after she had danced two or three dances she left; and then
danced my lady Mary and an English lady with her: and ever and anon the
lady Princess desired the King of Castile to dance, which, after he had
excused himself once or twice, answered that he was a mariner; 'but
yet,' said he, 'you would cause me to dance,' and so he danced not, but
communed still with the King. And after that my lady Mary had danced two
or three dances, she went and sat by my lady Princess on the end of the
carpet which was under the cloth of estate and near where the King and
the King of Castile stood. And then danced one of the strange lords and
a lady of England. That done, my Lady Mary played on the lute, and after
upon the claregulls, who played very well, and she was of all folks
there greatly praised that in her youth in everything she behaved
herself so very well."[32]
[30] L. and P. R. III. and H. VII., ii. 147.
[31] _Ibid._
[32] Vesp. C., xii. 239. b., quoted in Green's "Lives of the
Princesses of England," v. 4.
The upshot of this visit was a contract of marriage between Mary and
Charles, and between Henry VII. and Philip's sister, the Duchess of
Savoy, not long a widow for the second time, provided the lady
consented. The lady would not consent, and Jehan le Sauvage, President
of Flanders, wrote to Maximilian, her father, the King of the Romans,
that though he had laboured daily with her for a full month, she still
decidedly refused.[33] Again and again Maximilian, in need of money and
help against the Duke of Gueldres, pressed his daughter to consent, if
only to amuse the King of England with promises, but she always answered
"that although an obedient daughter she will never agree to so
unreasonable a marriage."[34] So Henry was fain in the end to be content
with the marriage of Philip's son Charles, Duke of Luxemburg, to his
daughter Mary.
[33] C. S. P. Spain, i. 476.
[34] _Ibid._, 480.
September 1506 saw Henry's horizon suddenly widen. Philip of Castile
died in that month. Henry would marry his widow Joanna and control
Castile. Fortune this time favoured Ferdinand, who had been none too
well pleased by the marriage projects; Joanna went mad, and though Henry
said he did not mind that, seeing that she could still bear children, it
gave Ferdinand an excuse for delaying negotiations. Mad or sane, Henry
wanted to marry her, and de Puebla, the Spanish agent in England,
suggested that marriage with such a man as Henry would restore her to
sanity.[35] Margaret of Savoy[36] had obeyed her father in "amusing"
Henry, and the King played off one marriage against the other, telling
Ferdinand that he must decide soon about Joanna, for Margaret of Savoy
was waiting to marry him,[37] while to Margaret he said that there were
so many other great and honourable matches daily offered to him on all
sides[38] that he could hardly choose which to have. It is true Margaret
of Savoy had come to the Netherlands, but not as the prospective wife of
the King of England waiting to cross the channel at his nod. She had
been appointed Governess of the Netherlands and guardian to her nephew
Charles, Prince of Castile. By her means a treaty was concluded in 1507
with England, and the marriage of the children was to have taken place
at once, but Henry's illness prevented it. France, Spain and Austria
were to meet at Cambrai in December 1508 for the adjustment of their
claims in Italy, and Henry, in pursuance of his policy, tried hard, by
means of Wolsey, to get the Bishop of Gurk, Maximilian's secretary, to
help him to weaken Aragon by detaching France from him, so that
Ferdinand, who was maintaining himself in a usurped Castile by French
support, would find it impossible to continue to hold the kingdom.
Henry's desires had no weight at Cambrai, and England, having no stake
in Italy, was ignored. But on December 16, 1508, the marriage between
Charles of Castile and Mary of England was celebrated at Richmond.
[35] C. S. P. Spain, i. 511.
[36] _Ibid._, 547.
[37] _Ibid._, 513.
[38] _Ibid._, 491.
While these events were passing, Mary, to judge by her clothes, was
growing up. They became more elaborate. Her mourning for her mother did
not last long, for in June 1503 (three months after Elizabeth's death)
she was wearing a gown of blue cloth edged with black velvet, and
another of the same colour lined with miniver and edged with ermine. Her
kirtle was of blue damask bordered with black velvet, and her bonnets
were of "ermines powdered" and black velvet. She tied her hair with
tawny silk ribbon. Her stockings were white, and she was now allowed 300
pins. Jane Popincourt's allowance was practically the same; she, too,
had a blue gown edged with black velvet, white stockings, shoes, gloves,
and pins. In the autumn Mary had 1000 pins. Her allowance comes to two
gowns, kirtles, bonnets, etc., in the half year--not excessive for a
princess.[39]
[39] Wardrobe Accounts, Exc. K.R., Bundle 415 (10).
Henry VII. did not go in for unnecessary magnificence, and Mary's
trousseau, seeing she was to remain in her father's court at his charge,
was a very modest one. Her wedding gown was of tawny cloth of gold of
tissue with wide sleeves, lined with ermine, and trimmed with the same
down the front and round the foot, and with an ermine collar. Henry
ordered for her 1600 powderings from his own store--that is, the little
black tails which turn miniver into ermine. Her other gowns were of
purple tinsel furred with black shanks (coarse sheep's skin), of black
damask furred with the same, of crimson velvet "purfled with purfull"
(border) of crimson cloth of gold of damask, and lined with black
sarcenet, two kirtles, a scarlet petticoat, two pairs of slippers, six
pairs of hose and a pair of night-buskins (bed-socks); "a chamber stool
of tymber," a basin of tin to wash her head in, a new bowl of "tre" to
make lye in and baskets to carry the said basins in. All which details
indicate that she was to have a separate establishment. Thriftiness
comes in, and she was given a pair of sheets to cover up her gowns
with.[40]
[40] Wardrobe Accounts, Exc. K.R., Bundle 416 (7).
She was a pretty, fair-haired child, with her father's beautiful
complexion, small for her age and looking younger than she was. She had
good manners and moved gracefully. By December 17 she was word-perfect
in her part of the ceremony, which was more than the Prince's proxy was,
and had been thoroughly well coached in her demeanour. The marriage was
to take place at Richmond, in what had been Queen Elizabeth's room,
called Mary's for the moment. There on that Sunday morning the Flemish
ambassador, Lord de Berghes, who was to be Charles' proxy, the Governor
of Bresse, Dr Sploncke, and Jehan le Sauvage, President of Flanders,
with the Flemish nobles who had come to see the show, met the English
Court. They waited, first for the King, who soon came in from the next
room and engaged the ambassadors in pleasant and courteous conversation,
and then for Mary, who did not keep them waiting long. Preceded by the
Princess of Wales and her ladies, she entered and went to the high
place prepared for her, and there stood alone under the golden cloth of
estate. The ceremony began by speeches from the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the President of Flanders, and these ended, with "due reverence in
most humble maner shewed and doon by the said Lord Barges with most
effectuous recommendacion made on the behalf of the Prynce of Castile,
he then, takynge my sayd lady by the hande and eftsones declaryng
thauctoritie geven unto him to contract matrymony with hir for and in
the name of the sayde yonge Prynce, rehersed and uttred at the
informacion of the sayd president the wordes of parfect matrymonye _per
verba de presenti_ whiche were before substantially devysed, put in
writyng, and by the said lorde Barges then spoken and uttred, lyke as
the said president redde theym to hym. And that doon, the hands
withdrawen and dysclosed as the maner is, the Kynge's sayd daughter,
eftsones takyng the sayd Lord Barges by the hande, with mooste sadde and
pryncely countenance, havynge noo maner of persone to reherse the wordes
of matrymonye to hir uttred, spake parfittely and distinctly in the
frensche tonge by a long circumstance the wordes of matrymonye for hir
partie, which by reason of the rehersall of his commission were veraye
longe. Howbeit she spake the same without any basshing of countenance,
stoppe or interrupcion therin in any behalfe; which thynge caused
dyverse and many, as wel nobles as other, then beying present and
herynge the same, not oonly to mervayle but also in suche wyse to
rejoyse that for extreme contente and gladnes the terys passed out of
theyr ies.
"After prolacion and utterance of which wordes ye sayd lord Barges, as
procuratour to the sayde yonge Prynce, for corroboracion and
confirmation of the sayde contract, not oonly subscrybed wrytyng
conteignynge the wordes of matrymonye by hym uttred, lyke as my forsayed
ladye dyde also for her partie, but also the sayd lorde in reverent
maner kyssed the sayd ladye Marye and put a Ryng of Gold on hir finger,
and in wyttenesse and testymonye of the sayd contract there were two
notaries there beynge present requyred on both parties to make
instruments upon the same. And all the lordes, ladyes and nobles heryng
and seying the premysses then and there were desyred to bere wytnesse
thereunto."[41] The ambassadors brought with them jewels for Mary; one
from Emperor Maximilian containing an orient ruby and a large and fair
diamond garnished with large pearls; another from the young prince, a K
for Karolus garnished with diamonds and pearls engraved with these
words,--"Maria optimam partem elegit quae non auferetur ab ea": and a
third from the Duchess of Savoy, a goodly balas (ruby) garnished with
pearls. The ambassadors also carried a prim little letter from Charles
to his "wife" with the date left blank, and on December 18, it was sent
to Mary.
[41] Pynson's Tract: "The solempnities and triumphs doon and made
at the spousells of the King's daughter," printed by the
Roxburghe Club.
Donee MSS., No. 198, Bodleian Library.
Carmeliani Carmen, Grenville Library, B.M.
"Ma bonne campaigne, Le plus cordialement que je puis a vo[tre] bonne
grace me recommander. J'ai charge le sre de Bergh[es] et autres mes
ambassadeurs ordonnez pardeca vous deviser [la] disposition de ma
personne et de mes affaires, vous priant l[es] vouloir croire et par eux
me faire savoir de votre sante [et] bonnes nouvelles qui est la chose
que plus je desire [que] sect le benoit filz de dieu auquel je prie ma
bonne comp[aigne] vous donner par sa grace ce que desirez.
"A Malines xviii [in a different hand] jour de decembre.
Vre bon mary,
CHARLES."[42]
[42] MS. Galba B. iii. fol. 109.
The marriage was regarded by the Burgundian party in Flanders as a
bulwark against France, and an enthusiastic poet sang--
Reveillez vous cueurs endormis
Qui des Anglois estes amys
Chantons Dame Maria.
La Thoisan d'or et les pourpris
Des Chasteaulx, Aigles et des litz
Joyra Dame Maria.
Marie fille du vray litz
Henry septiesme Roy de pris
Prince sur tous les Princes,
Delyvreia de grans ennuys
Tout Flandres de ses ennemys,
Remontant les Eglises.
And so on through eight stanzas, the chorus being the opening one.
Henry did not long enjoy his triumph, and the last months of his life,
secure now in the marriage with Castile, he spent in increasing the
discomfort and misery in which he had kept the Princess of Wales for the
last six years. He again postponed her marriage with Henry, and
Katharine wrote in despair to her father that "it was impossible for her
to endure any longer what she has gone through and is still suffering
from the unkindness of Henry, especially since he has disposed of his
daughter in marriage to the Prince of Castile, and therefore imagines he
has no longer any need[43] of" Ferdinand. Henry died on April 21, 1509,
and by his will, dated at Canterbury, April 10, Mary is provided for as
follows: "And whereas we for the dot and marriage of our said daughter,
over and above the cost of her traduction into the parties of Flanders,
and furnishing of plate, and other her arrayments for her person, jewels
and garnishings for her chamber, which will extend to no little sum nor
charge, must pay and content to the said prince of Spain the sum of
fifty thousand pounds in ready money at certain dates expressed in the
said treaty.... And in case it so fortune, as God defend, that the said
marriage by the death of the said Prince of Castile, or by any other
chance or fortune whatsoever it be, take not effect, but utterly
dissolve and break, or that our said daughter be not married by us in
our life, nor after the same have sufficient provision for her dot and
marriage by the said three Estates, we then wol that our said daughter
may have for her marriage fifty thousand pounds payable of our goods....
So and in none otherwise that in her said marriage she be ruled and
ordered by the advice and consent of our said son the Prince, his
council and our said Executors; and so that she be married to some noble
Prince out of this our Realm."
[43] C. S. P. Spain, i. 603.
After her father's death Mary's life went on in much the same way as
before, only to a faster note, for her brother was young, and her
grandmother, the only check on the new fashions, died within a year of
Henry. As the time fixed for the consummation of her marriage
approached she was given a schoolmaster in the French tongue. It is to
be presumed that it was only in the year 1512[44] that John Palsgrave
became her master, for up to that date there is no mention of a
schoolmaster in the accounts. Moreover, Palsgrave, in his book
'Lesclarcissement de la lange Francoyse,' says that it was Henry VIII.
who commissioned him "to instruct the right excellent princess your most
dear and entirely beloved sister, queen Mary dowager of France, in the
French tongue." Palsgrave writes himself down as "Natyf de Londres and
gradue de Paris," and he produced in 1530 the first French grammar for
Englishmen. Henry had had as French master Giles Du Wys, called his
luter in 1501,[45] and he had a "clear and perfect sight" in the
language, but Mary had only had Jane Popincourt. Still, she must have
known a little French, for, as has been seen, she had been able to
recite her marriage contract in that language without a stammer. But
much was to happen before Mary crossed the sea to speak the French she
learnt from Master John Palsgrave.
[44] Book of King's payments, Exc. T.R., 215, f. 223; L. and P.
H. VIII., ii. (part ii.), p. 1459.
[45] Wardrobe Accounts, Exc. K.R., Bundle 415 (10).