Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [14]
Vives’s curriculum did allow for a few stories for Mary’s amusement, but they were carefully selected and focused heavily on the deeds of self-sacrificing women. Mary could read about the virtuous Roman matron Lucretia, who, after being raped by the son of Tarquin the Proud, stabbed herself to death; or about the patient Griselda, whose husband put her through endless trials to assure himself of her devotion. These were stories that taught “the art of life” and that Mary could “tell to others.”4 As Mary got older, Vives advised that Katherine revise her educational program more precisely: “Time will admonish her as to more exact details, and thy singular wisdom will discover for her what they should be.”5
GIVEN KATHERINE’S own intellect, much was anticipated of Mary. As Erasmus wrote to the queen in his Christiani Matrimonii Institutio, “Your qualities are known to us … we expect a work no less of your daughter Mary. For what should we not expect from a girl who is born of the most devout of parents and brought up under the care of such a mother?”6 Mary in fact proved to be a highly accomplished child. She was able to write a letter in Latin by the age of nine and at twelve translated the prayer of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Henry Parker, a literary noble, wrote in a later dedication to Mary, “I do well remember that scant you were twelve years of age but that you were so ripe in the Latin tongue, that rare doth happen to the woman sex, that your grace could not only perfectly read, write and construe Latin, but furthermore translate any hard thing of the Latin into our English tongue.”7
But Mary would also receive an education for life and rule that went beyond the strictures of Vives’s instruction. She proved to be precocious and talented and shared her father’s love of music. When at the age of two she heard the Venetian organist Dionysius Memo playing at court, she ran after him calling “Priest, Priest” and refusing to stop until he agreed to play more.8 By the age of four Mary was playing the virginals and would later win lavish praise for her lute playing. Like her parents, she liked to hawk and to hunt, and as a teenager she developed a love of gambling at cards: her privy purse accounts reveal numerous amounts lost in this way.9 Mary developed her own style, loved fine clothes and jewelry, and, eager to please, would happily dance and perform at court as foreign ambassadors sued for her hand.
CHAPTER 6
GREAT SIGNS AND TOKENS OF LOVE
Matters have gone so far, that the Queen sent her Confessor to me in secret to warn me of Henry’s discontents. She is very sorry that your Majesty [Charles V] ever promised so much in this treaty, and she fears it may one day be the cause of a weakening of the friendship between you two.1
—LOUIS DE PRAET TO CHARLES V, MARCH 26, 1524
IN THE SUMMER OF 1523, HENRY AND CHARLES EMBARKED ON THE “Great Enterprise,” the joint invasion of France that they had agreed upon the year before. It proved to be a debacle. At the end of August, an English force of around 11,000 troops began a march toward Paris but was forced back by French resistance and severe weather. When Charles failed to open an offensive in France as he had promised, the Anglo-imperial alliance reached the breaking point. Mistrustful of his ally’s fidelity, Henry began to consider the prospect of dissolving the marriage treaty with the emperor and began talks for a match between Mary and his sister’s son, the young Scottish king, James V.2 By the end of October it looked as if agreement were in sight. Wolsey sent word to Margaret that Henry would “find the means” to break Mary’s engagement with Charles “in brief time” and then “conclude the marriage” between his daughter and “his dearest nephew, the young King of Scots.”3
But the old alliances soon regained their appeal. On the morning of February 24, 1525, imperial troops decisively defeated the French army outside the walls of the city of Pavia. The French king was captured in battle and taken to Madrid in the custody of the emperor. Charles was in the