Chapter VII: The Desire of All Eyes (2)

In December 1540, Henry married Katharine Howard, grand-daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, whose reputation was already so bad, that it is impossible to believe him to have been ignorant of it. She complained to Henry of not being treated by Mary with the same respect as she had shown to the two preceding Queens. An attempt was made about the same time to remove from the Princess’s household two of her maidservants, a petty piece of persecution which it was thought came from the new Queen’s hostility. Some means of conciliation was however found, and the two maids were allowed to remain, but this was not the only trouble of the kind, for Chapuys, writing to the Queen of Hungary, says that Mary is well in health, “though exceedingly distressed and sad, at the death of one of her damsels, who has actually died of grief at having been removed from her service by the King’s order”. Nevertheless, Mary had been too well schooled in adversity to indulge in resentment, and she sent Katharine a New Year’s present, with which Henry was much pleased, as well as with her present to him, and sent her messenger back to her with two magnificent gifts from himself and the Queen. She still contrived to hold herself aloof from the court, but the deposed Queen Anne seems to have had no such scruple, and Marillac gives a description of her New Year’s visit to the King and her rival, which is too amusing to be passed over. In a letter to Francis he says:—

“Sire, to omit nothing that may be written about this country, Madame Anne, sister of the Duke of Cleves formerly Queen of England, passed the recent festivities at Richmond, four miles from Hampton Court, to which place, the King and also the Queen sent her on the first day of the year rich presents of clothes, plate and jewels, valued at six or seven thousand crowns. And on the second day, she was summoned to appear at Hampton Court, where she was very honourably conducted by several of the nobility, and being arrived, this king received her very graciously as did also the queen, with whom she remained nearly the whole afternoon. They danced together, and seemed so happy that neither did the new queen appear to be jealous or afraid that the other had come to raise the siege, as it was rumoured, nor did the said lady of Cleves show any sign of discontent at seeing her rival in her place. Moreover, Sire, if it please you to hear the end of this farce, that evening and the next, the two ladies supped at the King’s table together, although the lady of Cleves sat a little backward in a corner, where the Princess of England, Madame Mary is wont to be; and the following day, the said lady of Cleves returned with the same escort to Richmond, where she is visited by all the personages of the court, which makes people think that she is about to be reinstated in her former position.”[247]

In May, Henry and Katharine went to visit Prince Edward at Mary’s request, “but chiefly,” says Chapuys, “at the intercession of the Queen herself”. Henry gave Mary on this occasion full permission to reside at court, “and the Queen,” Chapuys adds, “has countenanced it with a good grace”. Mary had therefore no choice but to spend the next few months with her new stepmother, keeping outwardly on good terms with her, and presenting a strange contrast to her surroundings. When at last it suited Henry to have his eyes opened to Katharine’s outrageously loose conduct, his indignation, or that which passed for such, knew no bounds. During her trial, the palace at Hampton Court, where she was imprisoned, was so strictly guarded that none but certain officers could enter or leave it. Mary was sent away, and her father announced that he was heart-broken at the Queen’s immorality and perfidy. Anne of Cleves was thought by Chapuys to rejoice greatly at Katharine’s fall, but her execution caused little comment throughout the country. Either the people were indifferent to her fate, or they had become accustomed to the disgrace of Queens consorts.

But for Mary there seemed no escape from tragedies. The block was never long absent from her life, which was often passed under its very shadow. When, in May 1541, the Countess of Salisbury was beheaded, under peculiarly aggravated circumstances, her goddaughter, on whose behalf she indirectly suffered, might well walk in terror. The axe had never before come so near Mary’s own head. Fear for her safety was universal. The Emperor shared the common apprehension, and was anxious to protect his cousin by seeming to be on especially good terms with her father. Chapuys therefore advised him no longer to address Henry as uncle, for the title only served to reopen old sores, and for the same reason, he thought it better to give up the word princess in addressing Mary. The King having now a son, it might be dropped without any loss of dignity, as it really implied heiress to the Crown, a title to which she had no longer any right.[248]

But the constant anxiety in which she lived, resulted, as often before, in a serious illness. Illness however was sometimes her best friend, for when she was in danger of death Henry would perhaps remember that she was the idolised child of his youth, connected with his happier days, and would hasten to show her that kindness and affection which always helped to restore her to health. It was not until she appeared to be _in extremis_ that he could be roused to any degree of interest, whereas Chapuys was ever ready with sympathy. Thus on the 7th April 1542, he says that Mary had sent to him three or four days ago, to thank him for certain letters which he had written to her during her illness, saying that they had acted “as a most health-restoring cordial to her”. And he ends, “To say the truth, I did my very best to comfort and cheer her in the midst of her ailments”. But she was still far from recovery, and on the 22nd he writes to the Queen of Hungary, “The Princess has not improved in health of late; on the contrary, she has occasionally been in danger of her life. I pray and beseech God to grant her more consolation and pleasure than she has hitherto enjoyed.” Marillac also informed Francis of the extremely critical state in which she lay. However, at the end of the month, Chapuys reported her convalescence, with the news that Henry was taking great care of her, and that “with God’s help and good diet,” it was hoped that she would shortly be well. From this time onwards, till her father’s death, Mary’s lot improved, a fact that may have been owing to the King’s marriage with Katharine Parr, who had a great regard for the desolate girl. In September, we find that “the King has just been entertaining and feasting the Princess, beyond measure, presenting her with certain rings and jewels”. She was recalled to Hampton Court for the Christmas festivities, and was “triumphantly attended, and accompanied on her passage through London”. Henry received her kindly and “spoke the most gracious and amiable words that a father could address to his daughter”.[249] On New Year’s Day, he presented her with more rings, silver plate and jewels, among which were two rubies of inestimable value. In the course of the year, Chapuys tells the Emperor that “the King continues to treat her kindly, and has made her stay with the new Queen, who behaves affectionately towards her. As to Anne Boleyn’s daughter, the King has sent her back to stay with the Prince his son.”

Mary and Katharine had many tastes in common, and were excellent companions. Both were fond of study, though in an unequal degree, for to Mary it had been her only resource and consolation, in the midst of her fiercest trials. Friendships she had cultivated, as far as they were allowed to her, but books had been her constant refuge, and the taste for them once formed never forsook her. The New Learning had found in her an apt pupil, and she had eagerly welcomed the works of Erasmus, as they flowed from his facile and ever industrious pen. His _Paraphrase on the New Testament_ had been printed in the year of her birth. It formed a part of her education, and was the basis on which her piety was founded. In later years, she translated a portion of it—“The Paraphrase on the Gospel of St. John”—into English. Udal gave it to the world with a translation of the whole work, which he dedicated to Katharine Parr. In his preface he says:—

“And in this behalf, like as to your highness, most noble Queen Catherine, for causing these paraphrases of the most famous clerk and most godly writer, Erasmus of Rotterdam, to be translated into our vulgar language, England can never be able to render thanks sufficient; so may it never be able, as her deserts require, enough to praise and magnify the most noble, the most virtuous, the most witty, and the most studious Lady Mary’s grace, daughter of the late most puissant and victorious King Henry the Eighth, etc., it may never be able I say, enough to praise and magnify her grace for taking such great study, pain and travail in translating this paraphrase of the said Erasmus upon the Gospel of St. John, at your highness’ special contemplation, as a number of right well-learned men both would have made courtesy at, and also would have brought to worse frame in the doing.”

The book was published after Henry’s death, but a letter from Katharine to Mary, and belonging to the year 1544, is interesting as showing how much of it was really Mary’s own work, and the arguments employed by the Queen to persuade her to acknowledge the fact of her authorship publicly.

“Although most noble and dearest Lady, there are many reasons
that easily induce my writing to you at this time, yet nothing so
greatly moves me thereto as my concern for your health, which as I
hope is very good, so am I greatly desirous to be assured thereof.
Wherefore I despatch to you this messenger, who will be (I judge)
most acceptable to you, not only from his skill in music, in
which you, I am well aware take as much delight as myself, but
also because having long sojourned with me, he can give the most
certain information of my whole estate and health. And in truth, I
have had it in my mind before this, to have made a journey to you,
and salute you in person; but all things do not correspond with
my will. Now however, I hope this winter, and that ere long, that
being nearer, we shall meet, than which, I assure you, nothing
can be to me more agreeable, and more to my heart’s desire. Now
since, as I have heard, the finishing touch (as far as translation
is concerned) is given by Mallet to Erasmus’s work upon John, and
nought now remains, but that proper care and vigilance should be
taken in revising, I entreat you to send over to me this very
excellent and useful work, now amended by Mallet, or some of
your people, that it may be committed to the press in due time;
and farther to signify whether you wish it to go forth to the
world (most auspiciously) under your name, or as the production
of an unknown writer. To which work you will in my opinion do a
real injury, if you refuse to let it go down to posterity under
the auspices of your own name, since you have undertaken so much
labour in accurately translating it for the great good of the
public, and would have undertaken still greater (as is well known)
if the health of your body had permitted. And since all the world
knows that you have toiled and laboured much in this business,
I do not see why you should repudiate that praise which all men
justly confer on you. However, I leave this whole matter to your
discretion, and whatsoever resolution you may adopt, that will
meet my fullest approbation. For the purse which you have sent me
as a present, I return you great thanks. I pray God, the greatest
and best of beings that He deign to bless you uninterruptedly with
true and unalloyed happiness. May you long fare well in him.

“From Hennworth, 20th September.

“Most devotedly and lovingly yours,

“CATHERINE THE QUEEN K.P.”[250]

During the remaining three years of her father’s life, Mary was allowed to lead her own quiet, studious life in peace. She was held in very great consideration both at home and abroad; ambassadors were instructed after receiving their first audience of the King to visit “the most serene Queen Katharine Parr and the most illustrious Princess, the King’s daughter”.

Negotiations for her marriage still continued, but were nothing more than tactics of war to mislead the enemy, so long as the purpose served. Duke Philip of Bavaria had taken leave of her in January 1540, believing that he was soon to return and claim his bride. The Emperor considered the matter settled, and deep sympathy was felt for her at his court in Brussels. Granvelle thought, however, that the marriage must be suffered, provided she was made to consent to nothing against her religion, and he sent over yet another form of protestation to be used at the ceremony. In England it was even reported that she was already married to the Duke; and all these various comments were exactly what Henry wished to call forth, without pledging himself irrevocably, or having the least intention of concluding the treaty. While Mary was sadly resigned to her fate, and all Europe was pitying her, Henry was merely trifling with the German Protestants for political reasons. But the trifling was of a very solemn sort, and as late as 1546, a treaty was drawn up but never signed, between the Duke of Bavaria and the Lady Mary, in which it was provided that “the Duke shall transport the Lady within three months, the King to give the Duke 12,000 florins, in hands towards her transporting”.[251] It was also enacted that her dowry was to consist of 40,000 florins in gold, 20,000 to be paid on the day of her marriage, the rest at Frankfort a year later.

But yet another aspirant, the Duke of Holstein, came forward, and Henry played him off against Duke Philip, as he had played Philip off against the Emperor and Francis I., and his son, without of course any definite result.

At the age of twenty-eight Mary was still admired, although bad health, and trouble of mind had left their marks on a face, the beauty of which had been praised in such lavish terms. In 1544 the secretary of the Duke of Najera merely said of her, “The Princess Mary has a pleasing countenance and person. The dress she wore was a petticoat of cloth of gold and gown of violet-coloured three-piled velvet, with a head-dress of many rich stones.” It was in this year that she sat to the now unknown painter, for the portrait which has passed into the National Portrait Gallery. The somewhat hard outlines of the picture betoken a hand far less skilful than that of Holbein, who painted her earlier, or that of Sir Antonio More and Lucas Van Heere, who painted her later portraits. It will be observed that the style of dress resembles that of the more pleasing Oxford portrait, which must have been executed about the same time.

Henry’s various machinations were cut short by death, and Mary’s troubles were henceforth to take an entirely different form.

_Walker & Cockerell, Photographers, London._

THE PRINCESS MARY AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-EIGHT.

From the original painting in the National Portrait Gallery.]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 218: Francis told Marillac, his ambassador in England, that as the Dauphin had no children, it would be a great pleasure to him to see his son Orleans marry Lady Mary of England, and he was to inquire of her physician whether all she had suffered would not prevent her bearing children (Gairdner, _Cal._, xvi., 1186).]

[Footnote 219: _Correspondance Politique de MM. de Castillon et de Marillac, ambassadeurs de France en Angleterre_, p. 349.]

[Footnote 220: P. 63. The _Household Book of Queen Mary_ mentions (pp. 119, 126 and 184) the names of Mabel and Elizabeth Sydney.]

[Footnote 221: Cotton MS. Otho C. x., f. 282. Printed in _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies_, by M. A. E. Wood (afterwards Green), vol. iii., p. 13.]

[Footnote 222: Smith MS. lxviii., f. 15, Bodleian Library. Printed in _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies_, vol. iii., p. 15.]

[Footnote 223: Don Diego and Chapuys to Charles V., 31st August 1538, Vienna Archives.]

[Footnote 224: Gairdner, _Cal._, xiii., pt. i., 647.]

[Footnote 225: Cotton MS. Titus B. i., 465, Brit. Mus.]

[Footnote 226: Cotton MS. Otho C. x., f. 277, Brit. Mus. Printed in Hearne’s _Sylloge_, 135.]

[Footnote 227: Cromwell’s Memorial of Instructions to his friend Christopher Mount. Cotton MS. Vit. B. xxi., f. 159, Brit. Mus.]

[Footnote 228: Cotton MS. Vit. B. xxi., f. 86, 18th March 1539.]

[Footnote 229: _Correspondance Politique de M. de Marillac_, p. 275.]

[Footnote 230: Gairdner, _Cal._, xiv., pt. i., 980.]

[Footnote 231: Gairdner, _Cal._, xiv., pt. ii., 212.]

[Footnote 232: Cotton MS. Titus B. i., 489, Brit. Mus.]

[Footnote 233: Gairdner, _Cal._, xvi., 897, Chapuys to the Queen of Hungary, 10th June 1541.]

[Footnote 234: There is a draft of a treaty in the British Museum between Henry VIII. and Philip Count Palatine, and Duke of Bavaria, for a marriage between him and the Lady Mary. In this treaty she is declared incapable by the laws and statutes of the realm of claiming any succession or title by right of inheritance.]

[Footnote 235: Smith MS. xlvii., fol. 31-2. Hearne’s _Sylloge_, p. 149.]

[Footnote 236: Smith MS. lxviii., fol. 17. Printed in _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies_, vol. iii., p. 89.]

[Footnote 237: _Correspondance Politique_, p. 148.]

[Footnote 238: _Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary_, p. 176.]

[Footnote 239: Cotton MS. Titus B. i., 409.]

[Footnote 240: Cromwell to Henry VIII., Hatfield MS.]

[Footnote 241: _Correspondance Politique de Castillon et de Marillac_, p. 189.]

[Footnote 242: _Correspondance Politique de Castillon et de Marillac_, p. 193.]

[Footnote 243: The whole account is to be found in Gairdner’s _Calendar of State Papers of the year 1540_.]

[Footnote 244: _Cranmer’s Works_, p. 401.]

[Footnote 245: Wallop and Carne to Henry VIII., State Papers, viii., 376 and 387, Record Office.]

[Footnote 246: Cotton MS. Vesp. F. xiii., art. 223, fol. 202. Printed in _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies_, vol. ii., p. 320.]

[Footnote 247: _Correspondance Politique_, p. 258.]

[Footnote 248: Gayangos, _Cal._, vol. vi., pt. ii., p. 16.]

[Footnote 249: Gayangos, _Cal._, vol. vi., pt. ii., p. 190.]

[Footnote 250: Cotton MS. Vesp. F. iii., art. 35, fol. 29.]

[Footnote 251: State Papers, Henry VIII., box CC., i., Record Office.]