I.
1523-31] VISIT TO LONDON
The troubles of the Danish royal family were not over when they left Copenhagen. A violent storm scattered the fleet in the North Sea, and drove several of the ships on the Norwegian coast, where many of them were lost with all their cargo. The remaining eleven or twelve ships entered the harbour of Veeren, in Walcheren, on the 1st of May. Here the King and Queen were kindly received by Adolf of Burgundy, the Admiral of the Dutch fleet, who kept them for a week in his own house, and then escorted them to the Regent's Court at Malines. Margaret welcomed her niece with all her old affection, and took her and the royal children into her own house. But she met the King's prayer for help coldly, saying that it was beyond her power to give him either men or money. The moment, it is true, was singularly unpropitious. Not only were all the Emperor's resources needed to carry on his deadly struggle with France, but nearer home the Regent was engaged in a fierce conflict with her old enemy, Charles of Guelders, for the possession of Friesland. As Adolf of Burgundy wrote to Wolsey: "We need help so much ourselves that we are hardly in condition to help others."[40] Christian soon realized this, and determined to apply to Henry VIII., relying on his former assurances of brotherly affection, and feeling confident of Wolsey's support. The scheme met with Margaret's approval, and, since Isabella had only brought one Dutch maid and the children's nurses from Copenhagen, the Regent lent her several ladies, in order that she might appear in due state at the English Court.[41]
On the 5th of June the King and Queen left Malines with a suite of eighty persons and fifty horses, and, after waiting some time at Calais to hear the latest news from Denmark, crossed the Channel, and reached Greenwich on the 19th. Wolsey had already told the Imperial Ambassador, De Praet, that the King of Denmark would receive little encouragement from his master, and had expressed a hope that he would not give them the trouble of coming to England. He met the royal travellers, however, at the riverside, and conducted them to the palace, where they dined in the great hall with the King on the following day, Henry leading Christian by the hand, and Queen Katherine following with Isabella and her sister-in-law, Mary, Duchess of Suffolk, the widow of Louis XII., who was still known as la Reine blanche. From Greenwich the King and Queen of Denmark moved to Bath Place, where they were lodged at Henry's expense. Katherine welcomed her great-niece with motherly affection, but both Henry and Wolsey told Christian plainly that he had made a fatal mistake in deserting his loyal subjects, and advised him to return at once and encourage them by his presence.
All the English monarch would do was to send Envoys to Denmark to urge the usurper Frederic and his supporters to return to their allegiance.
"For," as Henry himself wrote to the Emperor, "this perfidy of the King's subjects is a most fatal example, if for the most trifling cause a Prince is to be called in question, and expelled and put from his crown."[42]
The futility of these measures was evident to De Praet, who wrote to Charles at Toledo, saying that unless he took up the exiled monarch's cause for his sister's sake he would never recover his kingdom. Copenhagen was now besieged by land and sea, and if the garrison were not relieved by Michaelmas they would be forced to surrender, and Christian's last hope would be gone. The King himself, De Praet owned, seemed little changed, and he advised the Emperor to insist on Sigebritt's removal before giving him any help.
"Your Majesty," wrote the Ambassador, "ought first of all to have the Woman of Holland sought out and punished, an act which in my small opinion would acquire great merit in the eyes of both God and man."[43]
At Isabella's request, both Margaret and King Henry had spoken strongly to Christian on this subject, but he still persisted in his infatuation, and it was not till after he had left the Netherlands, and his wife and aunt were dead, that this miserable woman was arrested in Ghent and burnt as a witch.[44]
1523-31] A NOBLE WIFE
As for the Queen, no words could express De Praet's admiration for her angelic goodness. "It is indeed grievous," he wrote, "to see this poor lady in so melancholy a plight, and I cannot marvel too much at her virtues and heroic patience." Henry was equally moved, and wrote to Charles in the warmest terms of his sister's noble qualities, but did not disguise his contempt for her husband.[45]
There was, clearly, nothing more to be gained by remaining in England, and on the 5th of July the King and Queen returned to the Low Countries. Isabella joined her children at Malines, and Christian went to Antwerp to equip ships for the relief of Copenhagen. But he soon quarrelled with Margaret, and left suddenly for Germany. In September he appeared at Berlin, having ridden from Brussels attended by only two servants, and succeeded in raising a force of 25,000 men, with the help of his brother-in-law, the Marquis of Brandenburg, and Duke Henry of Brunswick. But when the troops assembled on the banks of the Elbe, King Christian was unable to fulfil his promises or provide the money demanded by the leaders, and he was glad to escape with his life from the angry hordes of soldiers clamouring for pay. By the end of the year Copenhagen capitulated, and in the following August the usurper Frederic was elected King by the General Assembly, and solemnly crowned in the Frauenkirche.[46] The crimes of the unhappy Christian recoiled on his own head, and in the Act of Deprivation by which he was formally deposed, it was expressly stated that his neglect of his noble and virtuous wife, and infatuation for the adventuress Sigebritt and her daughter, had estranged the hearts of his people. But through all these troubles Isabella clung to him with unchanging faithfulness. She followed him first to Berlin, then to Saxony, where he sought his uncle's help. In March she went to Nuremberg on a visit to her brother, King Ferdinand, and pleaded her husband and children's cause before the Diet in so eloquent a manner that the assembled Princes were moved to tears.
"Everyone here," wrote Hannart, the minister whom Charles V. had sent to his sister's help, "is full of compassion for the Queen, but no one places the least trust in the King. If it were not for her sake, not a single man would saddle a horse on his behalf."
Hannart, in fact, confessed that he had done his utmost to keep Christian away from Nuremberg, feeling sure that his presence would do more harm than good. Even Isabella's entreaties were of no avail. She begged her brother in vain for the loan of 20,000 florins to satisfy the Duke of Brunswick, whose angry threats filled her with alarm.
"I am always afraid some harm may happen to you when I am away," she wrote to her husband. "I long to join you, and would rather suffer at your side than live in comfort away from you."[47]
But Christian, as Hannart remarked in a letter to the Regent Margaret, had few friends. Even his servants did not attempt to deny the charges that were brought against him, and the Queen alone, like the loyal wife that she was, sought to explain and excuse his conduct.
1523-31] MARTIN LUTHER
To add to Isabella's troubles, her brother Ferdinand was seriously annoyed at the leanings to the Lutheran faith which she now displayed. Christian's Protestant tendencies had been greatly strengthened by his residence in Saxony during the winter of 1523. He heard Luther preach at Wittenberg, and spent much time in his company, dining frequently with him and Spalatin, the Court chaplain, and making friends with the painter Lucas Cranach. The fine portrait of King Christian by this artist forms the frontispiece of a Danish version of the New Testament published by Hans Mikkelsen, the Burgomaster of Malmoë, who shared his royal master's exile. When the Marquis Joachim of Brandenburg remonstrated with his brother-in-law for his intimacy with the heretic Luther, Christian replied that he would rather lose all three of his kingdoms than forsake this truly Apostolic man.[48] Isabella's naturally religious nature was deeply impressed by these new influences, and both she and her sister-in-law, Elizabeth of Brandenburg, secretly embraced the reformed doctrine. At Nuremberg she attended the sermons of the Lutheran doctor Osiander, and received Communion in both kinds from his hands on Maundy Thursday, to the great indignation of King Ferdinand, who told her he could not own a heretic as his sister. Isabella replied gently that if he cast her off God would take care of her. Luther on his part was moved by the apparent sincerity of his royal convert.
"Strange indeed are the ways of God!" he wrote to Spalatin. "His grace penetrates into the most unlikely places, and may even bring this rare wild game, a King and Queen, safely into the heavenly net."[49]
While Luther addressed a strong remonstrance to the newly-elected King of Denmark and the citizens of Lübeck, Christian's Chancellor, Cornelius Scepperus, drew up an eloquent memorial to Pope Clement VII. on the exiled King's behalf, and travelled to Spain to seek the Emperor's help. By Hannart's exertions a Congress was held at Hamburg in April, which was attended by representatives of the Emperor, the Regent of the Netherlands, the Imperial Electors and Princes, as well as by deputies from Denmark, England, Poland, and Lübeck. Isabella accompanied her husband on this occasion, at Hannart's request.
"I hear on all sides," he wrote to Charles, "that the people of Denmark would gladly welcome the return of the Queen and her children if the King would not meddle with public affairs, and a good Governor appointed by Your Majesty should act as Regent until the young Prince is of age."[50]
But when, by way of compromise, some members of the Congress proposed that Frederic should retain the throne, and recognize Prince John as his successor, Christian rejected this offer angrily, and negotiations were soon broken off. Both Charles and Margaret now gave up all hope of effecting Christian's restoration, and concluded a treaty in the following August with King Frederic, by which his title was recognized, and the Baltic was once more opened to the merchants of the Low Countries.