Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [17]
at her virginals, or other instruments musical, so that the same be not too much, and without fatigacion or weariness to intend to her learning of Latin tongue or French. At other seasons to dance, and amongst the residue to have good respect unto her diet, which is mete to be pure, well-prepared, dressed and served, with comfortable, joyous and merry communication in all honourable and virtuous manner.
Her clothes, her chamber, and her body were to be kept “pure, sweet, clean and wholesome.”9
With mother and daughter now apart, they maintained a correspondence, and Katherine resolved to remain closely involved in Mary’s education, writing her:
Daughter,
I pray you think not that any forgetfulness hath caused me to keep Charles [her messenger] so long here, and answered not to your good Letter … the long absence of the King and you troubleth me. My health is meetly good: and I trust in God, he that sent me the last doth it to the best, and will shortly turn it to the first to come to good effect. And in the meantime I am very glad to hear from You, specially when they show me that you be well amended. I pray God to continue it to his pleasure. As for your writing in Latin I am glad that you shall change from me to Master Fetherstone, for that shall do you much good, to learn by him to write right. But yet sometimes I would be glad when you do write to Master Fetherstone of your own editing when he hath read it that I may see it. For it shall be a great comfort to me to see You keep your Latin and fair writing and all. And so I pray You to recommend me to my Lady of Salisbury. At Woburn this Friday night,
Your loving mother,
Katherine the Queen.10
MARY’S HOUSEHOLD WOULD become the center of a social elite and of high courtly culture. Full royal ceremony was observed, with Mary practicing the part of queen at the head of her own court. Every day at least “two Gentleman Ushers, two Gentleman Waiters, two Yeoman Ushers, twelve Yeomen and two Grooms” were to attend her in the Presence Chamber, and more were to be added on “Sundays, Saturdays and other principal seasons,” when there “shall be access or recourse of noblemen or other strangers repairing unto that court or that it be as festival days or times or other things requisite to have be great and honourable presence.”11
Such numbers were expected to flock to Tewkesbury to pay homage to the princess that John Voysey, the bishop of Exeter and lord president of the Council, anxiously wrote to Wolsey asking, on account of the “great repair of strangers” anticipated, that “a ship of silver for the almes dish” be sent to hold the princess’s napkin, which afterward would be filled with scraps to be distributed among the poor. Voysey also inquired what provision would be made for the Twelfth Night banquet entertainments and whether they should employ a “Lord of Misrule,” and requested that trumpets and a rebeck (a type of fiddle) be sent to Thornbury.12
At the center of her own court, Mary began to learn the art of governance. Her French tutor, Giles Duwes, later wrote An Introductory for to Learn to Read, to Pronouce, and to Speak French based on his time in the household in the Marches. In it he portrayed Mary as a princely ruler and her court as a center of literary patronage, educated conversation, and gentle manners. Mary features in a number of dialogues about piety, philosophy, and courtly love. In one, Duwes recalled an occasion when the young princess participated in the drawing of names on Valentine’s Day. When Mary drew