“Soo considering what personages in Christendom be mete for Him, amonges the rest there be two in Fraunce, that may be thought on, thone is the Frenche Kinges doughter (Margaret, afterwards Duchess of Savoy), whiche, as it is said, is not the metest, the other is Madame de Longevile, whom they say the King of Scottes dothe desire. Of whose conditions and qualities in every pointe His Majeste desireth you both, with all your dexterite and good meanes, to enquire; and likewise in what pointe and termes the said King of Scottes standeth towards either of them; whiche His Highnes is soo desirous to knowe, His Graces desire therin to be nevertheles in any wise kept secret to your selfes.”

The details of the careful search which was made throughout France for a suitable successor to Jane Seymour are to be found in the very entertaining letters written by Louis de Perreau, Sieur de Castillon, the French ambassador in London, to Francis I and his Grand Master, Anne de Montmorency. The negotiations necessitated the despatch of numerous envoys and messengers, and the painting of four or five portraits; and there is very good evidence for the belief that two or three of these were painted by Holbein, for which purpose he made at least two journeys—to Le Havre in June 1538, and to Joinville and Nancy at the end of the following August.

In the first instance, Henry’s inclinations were very strongly set upon Marie of Lorraine, the eldest daughter of Claude, Duke of Guise, and the young widow of Charles d’Orléans, Duke of Longueville, although she had been promised to James V of Scotland before Jane Seymour’s death. Henry knew quite well that this arrangement had been made, but he would not listen to the names of other ladies which were suggested to him, and maintained with great pertinacity to Castillon that the match with Scotland had not yet been settled, and that Madame de Longueville had not herself agreed to it. “He is so amorous of Madame de Longueville,” wrote Castillon to Francis, on December 30, 1537, “that he cannot refrain from coming back upon it.” “I asked him,” he goes on, “who caused him to be more inclined to her than to others, and he said Wallop was so loud in her praises that nothing could exceed them. Moreover, he said that he was big in person, and had need of a big wife—that your daughter was too young for him, and as to Madame de Vendosme, he would not take the King of Scots’ leavings!”[289]

Either in December 1537 or early in the following January, Henry sent over Peter Mewtas, of the Privy Chamber, to see the Duchess secretly, and to find out from her whether she considered herself bound to James; and as a result of this mission he appears to have convinced himself that, whatever Francis I might have arranged, the lady herself and her parents were attracted by his offer, considering an alliance with so powerful a sovereign to be preferred to one with the “beggarly and stupid King of Scots,” as Henry termed his nephew to Castillon. There was a political attraction, also, about the proposal, from Henry’s point of view, for if he succeeded in taking James’s bride from him it would tend to alienate the Scots from France.

Formal articles of marriage, however, between the lady and James V were drawn up in January; but in spite of this Henry stuck to his point, and about the 1st of February Peter Mewtas was again despatched by Cromwell to find out definitely if she were still free, and also to obtain her portrait. The instructions given him need not be quoted here. They concluded by saying that if he perceived any towardness in the lady, he was, if possible, to get and bring with him “her picture truly made and like unto her.”[290]

Mewtas’ mission proved fruitless, and he was back in London some time before the 6th March. There is no evidence to show that he succeeded in obtaining a portrait of Madame de Longueville, or that he took Holbein or any other painter with him for that purpose. The Duchess seems to have been in Normandy, possibly at Longueville or Le Havre, and it may have been left to Mewtas to obtain the services of some local French painter, if such an one were to be procured. It is more likely, however, that a painter would be taken over for the purpose, though this was not mentioned in the instructions, as it was in the case of Hoby’s mission to Brussels. If any one were taken, it may have been Holbein, who was known personally to Mewtas, for among the Windsor drawings there is one of the latter’s wife.[291] This, however, is mere conjecture, and there is no evidence, either in writing or in the shape of a drawing, to show that Holbein took the portrait of this particular duchess; indeed, the fact of his journey to the Netherlands seems to point to the contrary, for Mewtas only returned to England from France early in March, so that if Holbein had accompanied him, he would have had to start off again without a moment’s delay with Hoby in order to reach Brussels as he did on the 10th of the same month. It was, of course, possible for him to have made both journeys, but the interval between the two was so short that extreme expedition would have been necessary.

There was, however, a French painter, Pierre Quesnel, who may possibly have been attached to Madame de Longueville’s court at the time of Mewtas’ visit; in any case, he accompanied her to Edinburgh two months later, and entered the service of James V. He came of a family of portrait painters, and also practised historical painting. His works are now unknown, but he returned to France in 1557, and designed a painted window for the Augustins of Paris. He had three sons, François, Nicolas, and Jacques. François,[292] who was born in Holyrood about 1543 and died in 1619, was a portrait-painter of exceptional ability, as may be seen from the fine portrait of “Mary Ann Walker” belonging to Lord Spencer at Althorp Park, of which an excellent reproduction in colour has been issued by the Medici Society in their National Portrait Series. It is signed “F. Q.” in monogram, and dated 1572. This picture was brought from France about one hundred years ago, and was obtained from a descendant of the lady’s family. In this connection it may be suggested that the double portrait of “James V and Marie of Lorraine,”[293] in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Hardwick, may possibly have been, in its original state, the production of the elder Quesnel’s brush.[294] It must be noted, in conclusion, that there is no record in the English State Papers of the result of Mewtas’ mission, and so it is doubtful if Henry VIII ever possessed a portrait of the lady, whether by Quesnel, or Holbein, or any other painter, such as Hornebolt, in the King’s pay.

Marie was married to the King of Scots on the 9th May, thus putting a final end to Henry’s plans in that direction. In her place, Francis offered him, through Castillon, the choice of any other lady in his kingdom. He was told that “she had a sister as beautiful and as graceful, clever and well-fitted to please and obey him as any other.” This remark bore fruit, and the next morning the King sent Sir John Russell, a member of his Privy Council, to make further inquiries. Castillon told the latter that France was a warren of honourable ladies, from which Henry might choose, and that Louise of Guise was the very counterpart of Madame de Longueville. He had not seen her for a long time, but had heard her esteemed above any other lady in the kingdom. Russell then asked Castillon “to find some way that Francis (to show it was not as a refusal that he could not have Madame de Longueville, but because she was promised beforehand) should offer him her sister, and say something of it to M. Briant (Sir Francis Brian, Master of the Toils, then ambassador to France), who would then send her portrait.”[295] “Probably,” added Castillon, in writing to Francis, “he is troubled that it must be known that his great instance made for the one is so suddenly changed for the other.” Francis sent word in reply (May 25) that he would very willingly conclude a match with Henry and Louise of Guise; and on the 31st of the same month Castillon wrote to the Grand Master, Montmorency, urging greater expedition in the matter. “If he (Henry) is to marry in France,” he said, “three or four must be put forward, but let them be of the best and such as Montmorency shall advise as well to M. Brian as in letters from the King to Castillon, who should also have portraits of these put forward.”[296]

The narrative may be broken off here to note that Holbein, who remained in London throughout April and May, engaged, among other things, upon the full-length portrait of the Duchess of Milan, received, on the 29th of the latter month, the grant of a royal licence to export “600 tuns of beer.” It runs as follows: “Hans Holbeyn, the King’s servant. Licence to buy and export 600 tuns of beer. Del. Westminster, 29th May 30 Hen. VIII.”[297] The painter was evidently prepared, when the opportunity arose, to engage in small commercial speculations in order to augment his income, as was the case with more than one of his brother artists attached to Henry’s court. Thus, in April 1531, Luke Hornebolt received a licence to export 400 quarters of barley,[298] and Anthony Toto, “the King’s painter,” was granted one in April 1541,[299] exactly similar to Holbein’s, for the exporting of 600 tuns of beer. Again, Alard Plumier, “the King’s jeweller,” in March 1542,[300] obtained grants for importing 400 tuns of Toulouse woad and Gascon wine, and exporting 400 tuns of beer; while, as already mentioned, Holbein’s friend and compatriot, Niklaus Kratzer, the King’s astronomer, received a very similar licence in October 1527.[301]

Henry rose promptly to the bait of Louise of Guise as a wife in place of her elder sister, now unattainable, and as usual no time was wasted. On the 3rd of June he despatched Philip Hoby and a painter to Havre to obtain the lady’s portrait. This we learn from a letter of Castillon’s to Montmorency, dated June 4th, describing an interview between the Duke of Norfolk and the ambassador’s “secretaire a cachetter” respecting the suggested marriage, which concludes with the following passage: “Finally he (Norfolk) said that yesterday he (Henry) despatched the gentleman, who wanted to go to see” (“vouloit aller”; Kaulek reads “souloit”) “Madame de Longueville, to Hâvre de Grâce to see Mademoiselle de Guyse; for a Scotchman has come hither who has said he wonders at the King of Scots taking a widow rather than a young girl, her sister, the most beautiful creature that ever he saw.”[302] In the same letter Castillon again urges that portraits of two or three of the ladies mentioned in his previous despatch should be sent as quickly as possible, as the matter is pressing. In this document there is no reference to Hoby by name, nor mention of any painter accompanying him; nor is there any entry in the King’s Book of Payments as to any expenses paid for such a journey either to Hoby or any other special envoy. Hoby had paid a visit to France earlier in the year in connection with his master’s matrimonial affairs. He had been sent over in February, at about the same time as Mewtas, and evidently, like the latter, for the purpose of urging Madame de Longueville to throw over James V. For this expedition he received exactly the same sum, £23, 6s. 8d., as for his journey to Brussels in the following March. It is entered among the royal payments for February as “Philip Hoby, sent into France about the King’s necessaries and affairs of importance, £23, 6s. 8d.”[303]

But although there is no record of payment for this second journey in June to Havre, or mention of him by name, there is no doubt that Hoby was the envoy sent, and that Holbein accompanied him. Evidence of this is contained in a letter, quoted below,[304] from the Duchess of Guise to her daughter Marie in Scotland, dated September 1, which speaks of the arrival of Hoby and Holbein at Joinville, and mentions their earlier visit to Havre. Contributory evidence is contained in Castillon’s letter of June 4, in which he describes the messenger sent as one who had already been over to see, or to try to see, Madame de Longueville, which undoubtedly refers to Hoby’s journey in February. According to the same letter from Joinville, two portraits at least were painted at Havre, or rather studies made, which would only occupy the artist for an hour or two, as in the case of the Duchess of Milan, the sitters in question being Louise of Guise, who was then eighteen, and some other lady—possibly Marie or Margaret of Vendôme.

Somewhere about the date of Hoby’s return from Havre, a third French candidate for Henry’s hand appeared upon the scene. This was Renée, the third daughter of the Duke of Guise, who afterwards became abbess of St. Pierre de Reims. Castillon wrote to Montmorency on June 19: “If you wish to entertain this King urge always the marriages; for he only waits for them to be presented, and the pictures must be sent immediately. He has heard that Mons, de Guyse has a daughter still more beautiful than the second. I hear she is in a religious order, but not professed (qu’elle est en une religion, mais elle n’est pas religieuse). You can say something of it to Mr. Bryant; for he (Henry) expects to be asked and to have several offered to him.”[305]

It will be seen from this letter that Castillon, who was probably unaware of the steps Henry was taking to obtain likenesses by means of his own artists, was doing his utmost, on his own account, to get portraits of likely ladies sent over from France. In a later letter (July 3) he harps upon the same theme. After reporting that Henry is still in the best of humours, and is ready to meet Francis at a house which he will have made between Boulogne and Calais, where they can both stay for six or seven days without pomp or great expense, he concludes by saying: “The principal point to bring him over to the interests of Francis is that he take a wife in France, and they must be more energetic than they have been, and let his ambassador see and send portraits and write news; for he wishes to be sought, and in the seeking they will put him so far in that he cannot draw back.”[306]

In his reply, dated July 10, Montmorency stated that a portrait of Louise of Guise had been obtained for Brian, who must have already despatched it to England. “If the King does not decide upon her,” he said, “others shall be shown to Brian.”[307] Castillon, who, on account of the plague in London, was then living in Chelsea, in Sir Thomas More’s old house, which had been lent to him by the King for the summer, announced to Francis I on July 25 that Brian “has sent the portrait of Mademoiselle de Guise, whom this King does not think ugly, as I know by his face.”[308] In spite, however, of Henry’s appreciation of the lady’s charms, Castillon, in a letter to Montmorency of the same date, urged that portraits of Mademoiselle de Vendôme and the young de Guise (i.e. Renée) should be despatched with all diligence.[309]

Throughout these negotiations Henry frequently suggested that a selection of ladies should be brought to Calais for his personal approval, in charge of Francis’ sister, Margaret of Navarre, or some other high personage, such as the Duke of Guise. “The ladies he means,” wrote Castillon to Francis on August 12, “are Mesdemoiselles de Vendôsme, de Lorraine, and the two de Guise. He has heard something of the younger of the two last, and I think he will settle on one of them. He has a great opinion of their house.”[310] This request of Henry’s gave great offence in France, which was voiced in a letter from Montmorency to Castillon on July 29: “To bring him thither (i.e. to Calais), as he asks, young ladies to choose and make them promenade on show! They are not hackneys to sell, and there would be no propriety in it. Henry has his choice of Mdlle. de Vendosme, or Mdlle. de Guise, and can judge of their beauty by the portraits and reports made to him; and if these be not approved, there are many other ladies from whom to choose. The selection might be left to his ambassador, Briant, who could send portraits.”[311] Even this did not quell the King, and in the end he was informed that Lorraine was not under the sway of Francis, and that he would have to apply for the hand of the damsel (Anne of Lorraine) to her father and mother, and as for the two daughters of Guise, one had already professed as a nun, while the other, as well as the daughter of M. de Vendosme, could not be disposed of as though they were on sale.

This official portrait of Louise of Guise by some French painter, which Brian sent over—and possibly a second one of Marie of Vendôme, as may be inferred from the last quoted letter—must not be confused with those privately procured by Hoby at Havre in June. These later French portraits cannot now be traced, and it would be mere guesswork to attempt to name the artist who was employed to produce them; but a careful search through the royal collections or in some of the older houses in England might possibly result in their discovery.

Some time in August Holbein and Hoby set out together upon their journey “into the parties of high Burgony.” The purpose of their expedition was to obtain portraits of Renée of Guise, the Duke’s third daughter, and of her cousin, Anne of Lorraine, while Hoby was to sound the latter’s father as to his inclinations towards a possible marriage between his house and England. Hoby’s instructions from Cromwell, as given in abstract in the State Papers, run as follows:

“‘A memorial [by Cromwell] to my friend Philip Hoby touching such matters as he hath now committed to his charge.’

“To repair with diligence where the young duke of Longueville lies, where he shall find the two daughters of Mons, de Guyse, whom he shall salute, declaring that having business in these parts he could not omit to visit the one of them ‘of whom he hath by his late being there some acquaintance.’ And therewith he shall view well the younger sister, and shall require the Duchess, her mother, or whoever has the government of them, that he may take the physiognomy of her, that he may join her sister and her in a fair table. Which obtained, he shall go to the duke of Lorraine, deliver my letter of credence, and declare that no doubt he has heard of my good will to advance some personage of his house to the marriage of the King my master; and albeit my purpose has not taken the effect I desired, yet my affection remains the same; and learning lately that his Grace has a daughter of excellent quality, I directed the said Philip, who has other affairs there, to see her and get her picture. Requiring him to show his inclination and devise some overture to the King, upon which I may set forth this thing. Philip shall also speak in the same manner to the young lady. As soon as he has gotten her physiognomy and known the Duke’s pleasure he shall return with all possible diligence.”[312]

When Marie of Guise married James V of Scotland she left her son François, Duke de Longueville, behind her in charge of his maternal grandmother, Anthoinette of Bourbon, Duchess of Guise, who throughout 1538 was at Joinville, one of the chief residences of the family, or at places in the immediate neighbourhood. Joinville is a small town in Champagne, situated on the Marne between Chaumont and Saint-Dizier, and was made a principality by Henri II in 1552 in favour of Duke Claude’s eldest son, François II of Guise. Mary Queen of Scots resided there for some time when a young girl, under the care of her maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Guise. Miss Jane T. Stoddart, in her recently-published book, The Girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots, describes Joinville as follows:

“The train from Bar-le-Duc passes through a fertile, well-wooded country, with many sparkling streams and closely planted villages. There are few more picturesquely situated towns in Eastern France than Joinville, which lies on a branch of the Marne, in a valley overshadowed by undulating tree-clad heights, on one of which, until near the end of the eighteenth century, stood the Castle of the Guises.... The woods of Joinville to-day are full of singing birds. Every variety of foliage clothes the deep ravines. The high road leading towards Wassy is fringed with innumerable small, well-kept gardens, and the air, on May evenings, is not only light and bracing, but sweet with the scent of flowers. The little town must have changed very much in appearance since the sixteenth century. It once possessed a wall and three gates, and an old map in the Hôtel de Ville shows more than a dozen spires.... It acquired great importance under the first Dukes of Guise, who used it as their habitual country residence, and entertained royal personages in the Castle with regal magnificence. That proud Castle was allowed to fall into ruins during the eighteenth century.... The picturesque quays near the church, where the grass-impeded Marne runs between rows of tall, irregularly built houses, cannot have altered greatly since Queen Mary’s time. In unexpected corners we find whitewashed houses adorned with old and costly sculptor’s work, with carved pillars, and scrolls of vine-leaves surrounding the porch.”[313]

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For Joinville, then, the diplomatist and the artist set out about the middle of August. The journey was a long one, and Hoby received in advance for travelling expenses, £66, 13s. 4d., nearly three times as much as he had been paid for his earlier journeys to Havre and Brussels, thus showing that the expedition was to be of considerably longer duration. This payment is entered in the royal accounts under August, anno 30, and is undated, but as may be gathered from entries preceding and following it, it was on some day between August 11 and 22. The place of destination is not mentioned; Hoby is said merely to be “sent into the parts of beyond the sea with all diligence.”[314]

All the information so far to be gained about this journey is contained in a letter from the Duchess of Guise to her daughter in Scotland, dated September 1, which is preserved among the Balcarres MSS. in the Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh. From it we learn that the two travellers reached Joinville on August 30. The letter begins by describing the health of the youthful Duke of Longueville, who was not quite three years old, and was growing very tall and plump, and goes on to give an account of the illnesses of various members of the family. Louise was still ill of the fever, and had not moved from her bed for eight days. Her brother Claude had been ill, even to death, at Autun, but was now quite out of danger. “Your sister Anthoinette is also ill of a fever and of a rheum, but I think she will do well. Your aunt (the Duchess of Lorraine) is sent for to be at Court at the coming of the Queen of Hungary, who is to be presently at Compiègne, where the King and all the Court will be in a few days.”

The letter then continues:

“It is but two days since the gentleman of the King of England who was at Havre and the painter were here. The gentleman came to me, pretending that he was going to the Emperor, and having heard that Louise was ill, would not go without seeing her, that he might report news of her to the King his master. He saw her (it was the day of her fever), and talked with her as he had done to me. He then told me that, being so near Lorraine, he wished to go to Nency to see the country. ‘Je me doute (doubtai) in contynent il y allet voir la demoyselle (i.e. Anne of Lorraine) pour la tirer comes les aultres;’ for which reason I sent to their lodging to see who was there, and found the said painter was there. In fact they have been at Nency, where they spent a day, and were well entertained, and at every meal the maître de hôtel came to eat with them, with plenty of presents. ‘Vella se que j’en ay encore seu; au pis alle sy navyes pour voysine vostre seur se pouret estre vostre cousine.’”[315]

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This letter fully bears out Cromwell’s instructions to Hoby. It is plain from its wording that Hoby had already obtained a portrait of Louise at Havre, and at least one other, of some unnamed lady (“pour la tirer comes les aultres”); and that the painter who had drawn them was the painter now at Joinville. Their journey was, however, in part at least, a failure, for their chief purpose in visiting the Duchess was to obtain a portrait of her daughter Renée, the “religieuse.” Hoby was ordered “to take the physiognomy of her, that he may join her sister and her in a fair table”; in other words, he was to get a drawing of the younger girl in order that her portrait might be painted as a companion to the one of her sister Louise already completed, so that they might be hung side by side in one of those double frames hinged together of which Henry VIII had several in his collection. Unfortunately for their purpose, Renée was not at Joinville, so that nothing could be done, and Hoby had to be content with an interview with Louise in her bedchamber. The fourth daughter, Anthoinette, was at home, but she was then only a child of seven. Thanks to the curiosity of the Duchess, however, we know that they succeeded in the second half of their mission. They spent a day at Nancy, where they were well received by the Duke of Lorraine, and evidently procured the drawing required, which Holbein would easily make in a few hours. Hoby attempted to conceal the real purpose of this visit to Nancy from the Duchess of Guise, but the lady was sharp enough to guess what was in the wind. Whether Louise or Anne, however, it was all in the family. “If the worst comes to the worst,” she tells the Queen of Scots, “if you do not have your sister for neighbour, it may well be your cousin.”

The letter is far from easy to decipher, owing to its extraordinary spelling and grammar. It is difficult to gather from it which of the two places Hoby and his companion first visited. The Duchess, writing only two days after they had been with her, says that the envoy told her that “he wished to go to Nency,” which seems to indicate a prospective journey; but, on the other hand, she says “they have been to Nency,” and a journey from Joinville to Nancy and back again, together with a whole day spent at the latter place, could not possibly have been accomplished between August 30 and September 1, so that it looks as though they had gone straight to the Duke of Lorraine in spite of Cromwell’s instructions, and then from there on to Joinville. The point, however, is of little importance.

Neither in Cromwell’s instructions nor the Duchess’s letter is Holbein mentioned by name, but that he was the painter who accompanied Hoby seems certain. In less than a fortnight afterwards he was in Basel, an easy journey from Lorraine, where he made a stay of at least some weeks, returning to England some time before Christmas, when he received from the royal purse a special reward of £10 for his journey into “high Burgony.” The entry runs as follows: “December, Ao xxx:—Item payde to Hans Holbyn, one of the Kingis paynters, by the Kingis commaundement, certefyed by my Lorde pryviseales lettre, x li. for his costis and chargis at this tyme sent aboute certeyn his gracis affares into the parties of high Burgony, by way of his Graces rewarde, x li.”[316]

Wornum and other writers have assumed that this journey to High Burgundy had to do with the painting of the portrait of the Duchess of Milan. The former even suggests that the £10 might be a deferred payment for the visit to Brussels in March.[317] But the title “High Burgony” was quite appropriate to the district in which Joinville and Nancy are situate. Woltmann says that High Burgundy was the name given to the county of Burgundy (Franche Comté), which belonged to the Emperor, in distinction to the duchy of Burgundy, which was French, and added that, in those days, the denomination would not have been impossible for Switzerland.[318] It may be taken, therefore, considering the lack of accurate geographical knowledge then existing in England, that the expression “High Burgony” sufficiently indicated, in the mind of the keeper of the royal accounts, that part of the world in which Guise and Lorraine had their headquarters.

That the payment of this special reward to Holbein—his travelling and other expenses would be included in the sum of £66, 13s. 4d. paid to Hoby—was deferred until Christmas was owing to the fact that, finding himself so near Switzerland when at Joinville, he seized the opportunity of paying a visit to his family in Basel, and so remained absent from England for about three months in all. Another point in favour of the contention that Holbein was abroad on the King’s business during 1538 more often than has been generally supposed, is to be found in the fact that at the Midsummer quarter he received three-quarters of a year’s salary in advance. At Lady Day he had been paid his customary quarter’s salary: “Lady Day, Anno xxix:—Item for Hans Holben, paynter, vii li. xs.”

At Midsummer he received £30, a whole year’s salary, but it included the quarter from Lady Day then owing to him. The entry reads: “Midsummer, Anno xxx:—Item for Hans Holbyn, paynter, for one hole yere’s annuitie advaunced to him beforehand the same yere, to be accomptedde from or Ladye dey last past, the somme of xxx li.”

On the two following quarter-days, owing to this payment in advance, he is entered as receiving nothing:

“Michaelmas, Ao xxx:—Item for Hans Holbyn, paynter, wages nihila quia solutum per warrantum.” “Christmas, Ao xxx:—Item for Hans Holbyn, paynter, Nihil.”

This payment in advance has generally been regarded as a mark of the King’s special favour and as an acknowledgment of his talents as an artist, but it was more probably due to his frequent absences from England at that time. On the one hand, his several journeys might well entail some amount of extra expenditure not covered by his travelling allowances, while on the other his income would be reduced through the limited time left him for painting the portraits of English courtiers or German merchants. There is, in fact, no portrait from his brush bearing the date 1538. Added to this, his great success in painting the Duchess of Milan must be taken into account. The King was delighted with this portrait, and his choice would naturally fall upon the man who had painted it when a similar journey was in contemplation.

There is one piece of evidence, however, against the assumption that Holbein was the painter who went to Joinville, which must not be overlooked—a letter from Niklaus Kratzer, the King’s astronomer, to Cromwell. It is a much-mutilated epistle, written in somewhat halting and incorrect Latin. Kratzer begins by saying that he had received, the day before writing, by a ship from Antwerp, two little books by Georgius Spalatinus, which the author had sent to him in order that he might present them to Cromwell. “These,” he says, “I gave to Hans Holbein (Joanni Holbein), in order that he might give them to you.” At first sight this looks as though Kratzer might have given Holbein the books to deliver, knowing that he was about to visit Cromwell for final instructions on the eve of his departure for High Burgundy. The letter,[319] however, is dated St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24 (Datum Lunduni, in [festo Sancti] Bartholomei), so that if Kratzer had seen Holbein on August 23, the latter could not possibly have reached Joinville by the 30th; for although the King’s messengers were accustomed to travel with great expedition—Castillon complains to Montmorency that the English couriers took only five or six days between Paris and London, whereas the French messengers took double that time—it would have been impossible, even with the utmost speed then attainable, to reach the far borders of eastern France within a week. But although the letter is dated “St. Bartholomew’s Day,” it has no year-date. It has been placed under the year 1538 by the editor of the Calendars of Letters and Papers from such internal evidence in it as it is possible to decipher; but it is so badly mutilated that it is impossible to make much sense of the greater part of it. It contains news from abroad, and mentions Burgratus, vice-chancellor of the Duke of Saxony; and Burgratus was certainly in London in the summer of 1538, with other envoys from the German Protestant princes. These envoys, however, paid more than one visit to England. As, therefore, the letter contains no evidence absolutely conclusive of the date 1538, it may, perhaps, be permitted to hold the opinion that it was written in some other year, and that, by itself, it is not sufficient to negative the strong proofs brought forward to show that Holbein was the painter who made this particular journey into France. Nor was this the only occasion on which Spalatinus used Kratzer as the medium for sending copies of his writings to Cromwell. On February 5, 1539, Cromwell wrote to the King, enclosing “a book brought this morning by Nic. Cratzer, astronomer, which Geo. Spalatinus, some time schoolmaster to the duke of Saxony, desired him to deliver to the King, on ‘The Solace and Consolation of Princes.’”[320]