I.
The Widow of Milan's fate still hung in the balance. While Mary of Hungary had not yet lost all hope of marrying her to the Duke of Cleves, and Queen Eleanor was no less anxious to see her the wife of a French Prince, fresh proposals reached Brussels from an unexpected quarter. This new suitor was none other than the Emperor's bel oncle, King Henry of England. This monarch, who had openly defied the laws of the Church, and after divorcing Charles's aunt, had pronounced Queen Katherine's daughter to be illegitimate, could hardly expect to find favour in the eyes of the Regent. Mary's own opinion of Henry's character is frankly given in a very interesting letter which she wrote to her brother Ferdinand in May, 1536, when the King of England had sent Anne Boleyn to the block and made Jane Seymour his third wife.
May, 1536] HENRY VIII. AND HIS WIVES
"I hope," she wrote, "that the English will not do us much harm now we are rid of the King's mistress, who was a good Frenchwoman, and whom, as you have no doubt heard, he has beheaded; and since no one skilful enough to do the deed could be found among his own subjects, he sent for the executioner of S. Omer, in order that a Frenchman should be the minister of his vengeance. I hear that he has married another lady, who is said to be a good Imperialist, although I do not know if she will remain so much longer. He is said to have taken a fancy to her before the last one's death, which, coupled with the fact that neither the poor woman nor any of those who were beheaded with her, saving one miserable musician, could be brought to acknowledge her guilt, naturally makes people suspect that he invented this pretext in order to get rid of her.... It is to be hoped—if one can hope anything from such a man—that when he is tired of this wife he will find some better way of getting rid of her. Women, I think, would hardly be pleased if such customs became general, and with good reason; and although I have no wish to expose myself to similar risks, yet, as I belong to the feminine sex, I, too, will pray that God may preserve us from such perils."[164]
But whatever Mary's private opinions were, political reasons compelled her to preserve a friendly demeanour towards King Henry. The English alliance was of the utmost importance to the trade of the Netherlands, and the enmity of France made it essential to secure Henry's neutrality, if not his active help. The death of Queen Katherine, as Cromwell wrote, had removed "the onelie matter of unkindness" between the two monarchs, and was soon followed by more friendly communications. When the news of Prince Edward's birth reached Spain, the Emperor held a long conversation with Sir Thomas Wyatt, the poet and scholar, who had been sent to the Imperial Court early in 1537. He expressed great pleasure at the news, laughing and talking pleasantly, inquiring after the size and goodliness of the child, and ended by saying frankly that he approved of the King's recent marriage as much as he had always disliked his union with Anne Boleyn.[165] These last remarks must have fallen strangely on the ears of Wyatt, whose old intimacy with the hapless Queen had nearly cost him his life, and whose death he lamented in some of his sweetest verse. But he was too good a courtier not to repeat them in his letters to Cromwell and the King. The news of the Prince's birth was shortly followed by that of the Queen's death, which took place at Hampton Court on the 24th of October.
"Divine Providence," said the royal widower, "has mingled my joy for the son which it has pleased God to give me with the bitterness of the death of her who brought me this happiness."
Dec., 1537] MARIE DE GUISE
Cromwell wrote to inform Lord William Howard, the special Envoy who had taken the news of the Prince's birth to France, of Her Grace's death, and in the same letter desired him to bring back particulars of two French ladies who had been recommended as suitable successors to the late Queen, since His Majesty, "moved by tender zeal for his subjects," had already resolved to marry again. One of these was King Francis's plain but accomplished daughter Margaret, who eventually married the Duke of Savoy, although Cromwell, knowing his master's tastes, remarked that, from what he heard, he "did not think she would be the meetest."[166] The other was Mary, Duchess of Longueville, the eldest daughter of Claude de Guise, brother of the Duke of Lorraine. The charms of this young widow were renowned at the French Court, and the English Ambassador's reports of her modesty and beauty inspired Henry with an ardent wish to make her his wife. Even before Jane Seymour was in her grave, he attacked the French Ambassador, Castillon, on the subject, and suggested that both these Princesses, and any other ladies whom the King of France could recommend, might be sent to meet him at Calais.[167]
Francis, who was more gallant in his relations with women than his brother of England, laughed long and loudly when this message reached him, and sent Castillon word that royal Princesses could not be trotted out like hackney horses for hire! He quite declined to allow his daughter to enter the lists; and as for Madame de Longueville, whom the King was pleased to honour with his suit, she was already promised to his son-in-law, the King of Scots. This fickle monarch, who had courted Dorothea and Christina by turn, and finally married Madeleine de Valois, had lost his young wife at the end of six months, and was already in search of another. At the same time Francis sent his royal brother word that he should count it a great honour if he could find a bride in his realm, and that any other lady in France was at his command.[168] But Henry was not accustomed to have his wishes thwarted, and in December, 1537, he sent a gentleman of his chamber, Sir Peter Mewtas, on a secret mission to Joinville, the Duke of Guise's castle on the borders of Lorraine, to wait on Madame de Longueville, and find out if her word was already pledged. Both Madame de Longueville and her clever mother, Antoinette de Bourbon, returned evasive answers, saying that the Duke of Guise had agreed to the marriage with King James, but that his daughter's consent had never been given. This reply encouraged Henry to persevere with his suit, while Mewtas's description of the Duchess's beauty, in Castillon's words, "set the tow on fire." He complained that his brother had behaved shamefully in preferring the beggarly King of Scots to him, and was forcing the lady to marry James against her will. In vain Castillon told him that Madame de Longueville had been promised to the King of Scots before Queen Jane's death, and that Francis could not break his word without mortally offending his old ally and son-in-law. Nothing daunted, Henry sent Mewtas again to Joinville in February, 1538, to obtain Madame de Longueville's portrait, and ask if she were still free. This time his errand proved fruitless. The marriage with the King of Scots was already concluded, and the contract signed. Nevertheless, Henry still harped on the same string. "Il revient toujours à ses moutons," wrote Castillon, "et ne peut pas oublier sa bergère." "Truly he is a marvellous man!"[169]
Meanwhile Cromwell, who had no personal inclination for the French alliance, was making inquiries in other directions. Early in December, while Mewtas was on his way to Joinville, the Lord Privy Seal wrote privately to Hutton, desiring him to send him a list of ladies in Flanders who would be suitable consorts for the King. In a letter written on the 4th of December, the Ambassador replied that he had little knowledge of ladies, and feared he knew no one at the Regent's Court "meet to be Queen of England."
Dec., 1537] A GOODLY PERSON
"The widow of Count Egmont," he wrote, "was a fair woman of good report, and the Duke of Cleves had a marriageable daughter, but he heard no great praise of her person or beauty. There is," he added, "the Duchess of Milan, whom I have not seen, but who is reported to be a goodly personage of excellent beauty."[170]
Five days later Hutton wrote again, to announce the arrival of the Duchess, who entered Brussels on the 8th, and was received by a great company of honourable gentlemen.
"She is, I am informed, of the age of sixteen years, very high in stature for that age—higher, in fact, than the Regent—and a goodly personage of competent beauty, of favour excellent, soft of speech, and very gentle in countenance. She weareth mourning apparel, after the manner of Italy. The common saying here is that she is both widow and maid. She resembleth much one Mistress Skelton,[171] that sometime waited in Court upon Queen Anne. She useth most to speak French, albeit it is reported that she can speak both Italian and High German."
The same evening Hutton added these further details in a postscript addressed to Cromwell's secretary, Thomas Wriothesley:
"If it were God's pleasure and the King's, I would there were some good alliance made betwixt His Highness and the Emperor, and there is none in these parts of personage, beauty, and birth, like unto the Duchess of Milan. She is not so pure white as was the late Queen, whose soul God pardon, but she hath a singular good countenance, and when she chanceth to smile, there appeareth two pits in her cheeks and one in her chin, the which becometh her right excellently well."[172]
The honest Englishman's first impressions of Christina were evidently very favourable. During the next week he watched her carefully, and was much struck by "the great majesty of her bearing and charm of her manners." At the same time he expressed his earnest conviction that, now peace was concluded between the Emperor and the French King, a close alliance between his own master and the Emperor was the more necessary, and suggested that a marriage between Henry and the Duchess, and another between the Princess Mary and the Duke of Cleves, would be very advantageous to both monarchs, who would then have all Germany at their command.
Cromwell lost no time in placing these letters in his master's hands. Hutton's account of the Duchess's beauty and virtues made a profound impression on the King, and, since Madame de Longueville was beyond his reach, he determined to pay his addresses to the Emperor's niece. With characteristic impetuosity, he wrote to Wyatt on the 22nd of January, saying that, as the Duchess of Milan's match with the Duke of Cleves was broken off, he thought of honouring her with an offer of marriage. This he desired Wyatt to suggest as of himself, in conversation with the Emperor and his Ministers, Granvelle and Covos, giving them a friendly hint to make overtures on behalf of the said Duchess.[173]
Jan., 1538] KING HENRY'S SUIT
Strangely enough, two years before Charles had himself proposed this alliance between his niece and the King of England. In May, 1536, when he was hurrying northwards to defend Savoy against the French, the news of Anne Boleyn's fall reached him at Vercelli. Without a moment's delay he wrote to Chapuys, his Ambassador in London, saying that, since Henry, being of so amorous a complexion, was sure to take another wife, and it was most important that he should not marry in France, Chapuys might propose his union with one of the Emperor's nieces, either Queen Eleanor's daughter, the Infanta Maria of Portugal, or the widowed Duchess of Milan, "a beautiful young lady, very well brought up, and with a rich dower." And then, as if a qualm had seized him at the thought of sacrificing Christina to a man of Henry's character, he added a postscript desiring the Ambassador not to mention the Duchess unless His Majesty should appear averse to the other.[174]
By the time, however, that these letters reached London, it was plain that the fickle monarch's affections were already fixed on Jane Seymour, and nothing more came of the Emperor's proposal until, in January, 1538, Henry himself wrote to Wyatt. Sir Thomas, who knew his royal master intimately, hastened to approach the Emperor, and on the 2nd of February Charles wrote from Barcelona to Chapuys, saying that, although royal ladies ought by right to be sought, not offered, in marriage, the King's language was so frank and sincere that he was willing to waive ceremony, and lend a favourable ear to his brother's proposal. Before these letters reached the Imperial Ambassador, he received a message from Henry, saying that he wished to treat of his own marriage with the Duchess of Milan, being convinced that a Princess born and bred in Northern climes would suit him far better than the Portuguese Infanta. The next day Cromwell paid a visit to Chapuys, and confirmed every word of the royal message.[175]
On the eve of Valentine's Day Henry saw Castillon, and told him in bitter tones that, if his master did not choose to give him Madame de Longueville, he could find plenty of better matches, and meant to marry the Duchess of Milan and conclude a close alliance with the Emperor.[176]
On the same day the German reformer Melanchthon, writing from Jena to a Lutheran friend, summed up the situation neatly in the following words:
"The Widow of Milan, daughter of Christian, the captive King of Denmark, was brought to Germany to wed the young Duke of Juliers. This is now changed, for Juliers becomes heir to Guelders, against the Emperor's will, and the girl is offered to the Englishman, whom the Spaniards, aiming at universal empire, would join to themselves against the Frenchmen and us. There is grave matter for your consideration."[177]