Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [56]
In 1544, under Katherine Parr’s influence, Mary took up the translation of Erasmus’s Paraphrases on the Four Gospels. The scholar Nicholas Udall was the editor of the book; Katherine funded its publication, and Mary was one of the translators. Ill health prevented Mary from finishing work on the book, and her chaplain, Francis Mallet, eventually completed it. In a letter of September 20, Katherine inquired as to whether Mary wished it “to go forth to the world (most auspiciously) under your name, or as the production of an unknown writer?” adding, “You will, in my opinion, do a real injury if you refuse to let it go down to posterity under the auspices of your own name, since you have undertaken so much labour in accurately translating it for the great good of the public and would have undertaken still greater (as is well known) if the health of your body had permitted.” She continued, “I do not see why you should repudiate that praise which all men justly confer on you.”21 In his preface to the Paraphrases, Udall paid tribute to “the most noble, the virtuous, the most witty, and the most studious Lady Mary’s grace,” calling her “a peerless flower of virginity.”22
Based at court, Mary thrived in the favor of an intelligent and benevolent queen. When in February 1544 a ball was held during the visit of the Spanish grandee the duke of Nájera, Mary danced elegantly, dressed extravagantly in a gown of gold cloth under a robe of violet velvet with a coronal of large precious stones on her head. As Nájera described her:
The princess Mary has a pleasing countenance and person. It is said of her that she is endowed with very great goodness and discretion, and among other praises, I heard of her is this, that she knows how to conceal her acquirements; and certainly this is no small proof of prudence, since the real sage, who is aware of the extent of knowledge, thinks his own learning of too low an estimate to be boasted of, whilst those who have only a superficial acquaintance with learning exhibit the contrary, as they pride themselves in proportion to their acquirements and without imparting their knowledge, allow no one to be learned but themselves. The princess is much beloved throughout the kingdom, that she is almost adored.23
Despite being twenty years younger than Mary, Edward was fiercely protective of his elder sister. Writing to his stepmother, the six-year-old urged her to keep a careful eye on the princess: “preserve her, therefore, I pray you, my dear sister Mary,” from all the “wiles and enchantments of the evil one” and “beseech her to attend no longer to foreign dances and merriments which do not become a most Christian princess.”24 At the same time he praised Mary, telling her, “I like you even as a brother ought to like a very dear sister, who hath within herself all the embellishments of virtue and honourable station.” In the same way that he “loved his best clothes most of all, though he seldom wore them,” he explained, “so he wrote seldom to her, but loved her most.”25
CHAPTER 24
THE FAMILY OF HENRY VIII
His Majesty therefore thinketh convenient before his departure beyond the seas that it be enacted by his Highness with the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons in this present Parliament … that in case it shall happen the King’s Majesty and the said excellent Prince his yet only son Prince Edward and heir apparent to decease without heir of either of their bodies lawfully begotten … then the said Imperial Crown … shall be to the Lady Marie the King’s Highness’ daughter and to the heirs of the body of the Lady Marie lawfully begotten … and for default of such issue the said Imperial Crown … shall be to the Lady Elizabeth the