One other point in connection with this subject must be mentioned before leaving it. Hoby’s instructions for visiting the courts of the Duchess of Guise and the Duke of Lorraine are not dated. The editor of the Calendars has entered them under February 1538, together with the very similar instructions for the visit to the Duchess of Milan, which are also undated, placing both under the one heading, “Philip Hoby’s Missions.” For the latter instructions, which he puts second, February is, of course, the correct date, but the former should be under August, as the preceding pages prove. Dr. Gairdner was misled, in the first place, by the fact that in February Hoby received payment from the royal purse for a journey to France, and, in the second, through his misreading of the heading to the Brussels instructions, as explained in the last chapter.[321] By the insertion of two unnecessary words,[322] the last-named instructions are made to read as though it was Cromwell’s intention that Hoby, on this particular journey, should go first of all to the Duchess of Lorraine, and then to the Duchess of Milan. He concludes from this, in his preface to vol. xiii. pt. i. of the Calendars of Letters and Papers, that Hoby went to France in February for the purpose of obtaining the portraits of Marie of Guise and her sister Louise in a single picture, and immediately upon his return set out for Brussels to get one of the Duchess of Milan. There is no need to quote the whole of his argument, as it is based upon a misapprehension, for the instructions in question were undoubtedly drawn up in August, as the letter of the Duchess of Guise, of the 1st of September, clearly proves.[323]

In spite of this anxiety to obtain portraits, Henry’s negotiations for a French marriage were as unsuccessful as his advances for the hand of the Duchess of Milan. In each case, no doubt, the proposed alliance was largely political, though Henry seems to have been genuinely anxious to marry Madame de Longueville, or to prevent his nephew of Scotland from doing so, and was afterwards by no means unwilling to take one of her sisters. Throughout the whole proceedings the French and the Imperial ambassadors in London kept each other well informed of what was going on, though each one was of the private opinion that Henry was more inclined towards a bride from his country than from the other’s. Thus Chapuys, writing to Charles V early in 1539, reports that “everybody says he is much inclined to the duchess of Milan, whom, as I was informed three days ago, by one who knows almost all secrets, he would willingly take, even if she were delivered to him naked without a penny.”[324] On the other hand, Castillon told Montmorency: “He, however, says the practice of his marriage with the duchess of Milan still continues, ... but I know he would willingly return to marry Mademoiselle de Guise. If you think the King (Francis) and Emperor should have the pastime of seeing him thus ‘virolin virolant,’ I can easily get it up, provided a little good cheer is made to his ambassador, and that M. le Cardinal or M. de Guise caress him a little.”[325] Henry, however, finally turned his attentions in another direction, while two of the ladies he had sought were soon married elsewhere, Louise of Guise to Charles de Croi, Prince de Chimaix, in 1541, and Anne of Lorraine to René, Prince of Orange, in 1540. The third, Marie of Vendôme, died unmarried, aged twenty-two, on 28th September 1538, a week or two after Holbein was at Joinville.[326]

Whether Holbein painted pictures of one or all of these ladies from the drawings he made in France it is impossible to say. The drawings themselves cannot be traced, but this does not prove that they were not taken, for the preliminary studies of Christina of Milan and of Anne of Cleves and her sister Amelia have so far remained undiscovered. Holbein and Hoby parted company at Nancy early in September, the former to visit his wife and family in Basel, while the latter returned post-haste to London, no doubt taking with him Holbein’s sketch of Anne of Lorraine in order to show it to his royal master. In October Hoby set out for Spain, in connection with the negotiations for the Milan marriage.

The contents of this chapter and the preceding one may be summarised as follows:

February 1, 1538.—Peter Mewtas sent over to France to obtain the portrait of Marie of Lorraine, Duchess of Longueville. Early in the same month Philip Hoby was also sent into France for the same purpose (about the King’s “necessaries and affairs of importance”), for which he was paid £23, 6s. 8d.

March 2 or 3, 1538. —Hoby and Holbein left London for Brussels to obtain the portrait of the Duchess of Milan, reaching the latter place on the evening of the 10th.

March 12, 1538.—Holbein made his drawing of the Duchess, and the two men started home on the evening of the same day, reaching London on March 18.

April and May 1538.—Holbein at work on the full-length portrait of the Duchess of Milan.

May 29, 1538.—Holbein received a royal licence to export 600 tuns of beer.

June 3, 1538.—Hoby and Holbein left London for Havre to obtain the portrait of Louise of Guise, and of some other lady, possibly Marie or Margaret of Vendôme.

June 30, 1538.—Holbein received three-quarters of a year’s salary in advance.

August 11-22, 1538.—On one of the days between these dates Hoby and Holbein left London for Nancy and Joinville to obtain portraits of Renée of Guise and Anne of Lorraine, receiving £66, 13s. 4d. for their travelling expenses. They arrived at Joinville on August 30, to find Renée absent, but were successful at Nancy in getting a likeness of Anne. From Joinville Hoby returned to London, and Holbein went on to Basel, which he reached before September 10. He remained there until after October 16.

December 1538.—Holbein, upon his return to London, received a special reward of £10 “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.”