Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [49]
CHAPTER 21
THE MOST UNHAPPY LADY IN CHRISTENDOM
The King … is little disposed to marry again, but some of his Council have thought it mete for us to urge him to it for the sake of his realm.1
AS HENRY MOURNED THE DEATH OF JANE SEYMOUR, THE FRENCH king and the emperor agreed upon a truce and began peace talks mediated by the pope. Now, with the growing threat of a Catholic offensive against him, the search for a new wife for Henry and a husband for Mary was used in an effort to forge an alliance that would keep France and the empire apart. “Since the King [Francis I] my brother, has already so great an amity with the Emperor, what amity should I have with him?” asked Henry. “I ask because I am not resolved to marry again unless the Emperor or King prefer my friendship to that which they have together.”2
Offers of marriage alliances were made to the empire and France for a match between Mary and either Dom Luis of Portugal or the duke of Orléans. Henry considered the prospect of marriage with the dowager duchess of Milan and for a time with Mary of Guise, though Henry delayed too long and in May she was betrothed to King James V of Scotland, thereby renewing the “Auld Alliance” between France and Scotland. At Nice in June, Charles and Francis came to terms, signing a ten-year truce, and some months later they pledged themselves to cooperate against the enemies of Christendom. Henry now moved to secure his position at home and look for new friends abroad.
Though publicly reconciled, Henry still regarded Mary and her supporters with suspicion. In the summer of 1538, Cromwell sent her a letter of warning. She had taken some “strangers” into her house. The incident had been relayed to the king in such a way to put her trustworthiness in doubt.3 Mary responded, “I fear it hath been reported to the worst, nevertheless I will promise you, with God’s help, from henceforth to refrain [from] it so utterly that of right none shall have cause to speak of.” She assured Cromwell that she would not lodge anyone in her house again and added that she would rather endure physical harm than lose even the smallest part of the king’s favor.4
Amid renewed fears of war, Henry sought to alienate Mary from the emperor and draw her more securely to him. At the end of August 1538, she was instructed to complain to the imperial ambassadors, Chapuys and Mendoza, about the emperor’s failure to conclude the Portuguese alliance and the miserable terms he had offered. Cromwell wrote to Mary outlining the supposed grievances that she was to present to the ambassadors when they visited her at Havering. Upon their arrival on the twenty-sixth, Mary dutifully protested about the “dissimulation” employed by the ambassadors, the offer of a miserly “dower,” and the emperor’s failure to show her the cousinly kindness and friendship she expected of him. “She was a woman only and could not help saying these things.” But “after so many overtures and fine words, nothing had been concluded.”5
Later Mary made clear her real feelings. She told Chapuys that she held the emperor in high esteem, as a “father and mother,” and “was so affectionately attached” to him “that it seemed almost impossible to her to have such an affection and love for a kinsman.” She did not believe what her father said about him, and she stood ready to do whatever he asked of her in the issue of marriage.6 Fearing for her safety, the ambassador raised again the prospect of escape. Mary was hesitant: “It might happen,” she said, that her father “might hereafter show greater consideration for her, or cause her to be more respected and better treated than she had been until now.” If that were the case, “she would much prefer remaining in England and conforming herself entirely to her father’s commands and wishes.”
When quizzed by Cromwell on her meeting with the ambassadors, Mary displayed some political astuteness, saying