“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.
THE PRINCESS MARY AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-EIGHT.
From the original painting in the National Portrait Gallery.
FOOTNOTES:
[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).
[219] Correspondance Politique de MM. de Castillon et de Marillac, ambassadeurs de France en Angleterre, p. 349.
[220] P. 63. The Household Book of Queen Mary mentions (pp. 119, 126 and 184) the names of Mabel and Elizabeth Sydney.
[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.
[222] Smith MS. lxviii., f. 15, Bodleian Library. Printed in Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, vol. iii., p. 15.
[223] Don Diego and Chapuys to Charles V., 31st August 1538, Vienna Archives.
[224] Gairdner, Cal., xiii., pt. i., 647.
[225] Cotton MS. Titus B. i., 465, Brit. Mus.
[226] Cotton MS. Otho C. x., f. 277, Brit. Mus. Printed in Hearne’s Sylloge, 135.
[227] Cromwell’s Memorial of Instructions to his friend Christopher Mount. Cotton MS. Vit. B. xxi., f. 159, Brit. Mus.
[228] Cotton MS. Vit. B. xxi., f. 86, 18th March 1539.
[229] Correspondance Politique de M. de Marillac, p. 275.
[230] Gairdner, Cal., xiv., pt. i., 980.
[231] Gairdner, Cal., xiv., pt. ii., 212.
[232] Cotton MS. Titus B. i., 489, Brit. Mus.
[233] Gairdner, Cal., xvi., 897, Chapuys to the Queen of Hungary, 10th June 1541.
[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.
[235] Smith MS. xlvii., fol. 31-2. Hearne’s Sylloge, p. 149.
[236] Smith MS. lxviii., fol. 17. Printed in Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, vol. iii., p. 89.
[237] Correspondance Politique, p. 148.
[238] Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, p. 176.
[239] Cotton MS. Titus B. i., 409.
[240] Cromwell to Henry VIII., Hatfield MS.
[241] Correspondance Politique de Castillon et de Marillac, p. 189.
[242] Correspondance Politique de Castillon et de Marillac, p. 193.
[243] The whole account is to be found in Gairdner’s Calendar of State Papers of the year 1540.
[244] Cranmer’s Works, p. 401.
[245] Wallop and Carne to Henry VIII., State Papers, viii., 376 and 387, Record Office.
[246] Cotton MS. Vesp. F. xiii., art. 223, fol. 202. Printed in Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, vol. ii., p. 320.
[247] Correspondance Politique, p. 258.
[248] Gayangos, Cal., vol. vi., pt. ii., p. 16.
[249] Gayangos, Cal., vol. vi., pt. ii., p. 190.
[250] Cotton MS. Vesp. F. iii., art. 35, fol. 29.
[251] State Papers, Henry VIII., box CC., i., Record Office.