Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [19]
On April 30, “perpetual peace” was concluded between France and England: a pledge was made to declare war on Charles V if he refused to come to terms, and a French marriage between Mary and the French king, or his second son, the duke of Orléans, was agreed upon.10 Mary was now betrothed to the House of Valois.
For two weeks, the Anglo-French festivities continued. These culminated on May 5 in a great court feast and a masque. A painted curtain was drawn back to reveal a stage, and Mary and seven ladies of the court emerged from a gold cave to the sound of trumpets. The princess was “dressed in cloth of gold, her hair gathered in a net, with a richly jewelled garland, surmounted by a velvet cap, the hanging sleeves of their surcoats being so long that they well nigh touched the ground.” She looked radiant, wrote one observer; “her beauty in this array produced such an effect on everybody that all other marvellous sights previously witnessed were forgotten.” She wore on her person “so many precious stones that their splendour and radiance dazzled the sight, in so wise as to make one believe that she was decked with all the gems of the eighth sphere.”
Having descended from the cave, Mary and her ladies danced a ballet with eight lords. After the masque, festivities continued, with Mary dancing with her father at the heart of the revelry. Mary presented herself to Henry, who “took off her cap, and the net being displaced, a profusion of silver tresses as beautiful as ever seen on human head fell over her shoulders.”11 The evening entertainment culminated with the French ambassador dancing with Mary “and the King with Mistress Boleyn.”12
CHAPTER 9
THIS SHEER CALAMITY
HENRY MAINTAINED THAT IT WAS A QUESTION POSED BY THE bishop of Tarbes, one of the French envoys, in the spring of 1527 that first made him doubt the validity of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon and therefore Mary’s legitimacy.1 During the course of negotiations for the betrothal of Mary and the duke of Orléans, the bishop had inquired whether in fact Mary was so great a prospect after all. Had not Henry married his brother’s widow? Was that marriage valid? Was Mary legitimate? The envoy’s questions struck a resounding chord with the king. Having toyed with the idea of advancing his illegitimate son, Henry now settled on a more radical solution to the succession. The lack of a male heir, the successive failed pregnancies that had left the forty-two-year-old queen seeming dowdy and dumpy, and the allure of the twentysomething Anne Boleyn all contributed to Henry’s mounting disillusionment with his Spanish wife.
Attractive and vivacious, Anne Boleyn had grown up in the household of Queen Claude, the first wife of the French king Francis I. She was, as one observer described, “beautiful, had an elegant figure and with eyes that were even more attractive.”2 On her return to England in the winter of 1521 she joined the queen’s household as one of Katherine’s ladies-in-waiting. Three years later Henry began his courtship of her. He had previously ended an affair with her sister Mary. Now he looked to install Anne as his “sole” mistress. But Anne refused. Henry grew increasingly infatuated, sending her gifts of jewelry and letters in which he declared his love and made promises that he would “cast off all others than yourself out of mind and affection and to serve you only.”3 Still Anne resisted. Only if they were married would she give herself to him.
Henry now came to believe that his marriage to Katherine was contrary to divine law as