III.
March, 1538] MARRIAGE NEGOTIATIONS
On the 27th of March the Imperial Ambassadors dined at the Lord Privy Seal's house, to meet Archbishop Cranmer, Chancellor Audley, Thomas Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, the Lord High Admiral Southampton, and two other Bishops, who were the Commissioners appointed to treat of two royal marriages. One of these was the long-planned union of Princess Mary with the Infant Don Louis of Portugal, brother of the reigning King, which was the ostensible object of Don Diego's mission to England. The other was the King's own marriage with the Duchess, which Henry sent word must be arranged at once, since until this was concluded he absolutely refused to treat of his daughter's alliance with the Infant. As they sat down at table, by way of Benedicite, remarks Chapuys, the King's deputies began by rejoicing to think they had not to deal with Frenchmen, and pouring scorn on their mendacious habits. But before the end of the meeting many difficulties had arisen. First of all the English Commissioners demanded that the Count Palatine should renounce all his wife's rights to the crown of Denmark without compensation. Then the question of the Papal dispensation, which was necessary owing to Christina's relationship to Katherine of Aragon, was mooted, and, as Chapuys soon realized, was likely to prove an insuperable difficulty, since nothing would induce Henry to recognize the Pope's authority.[188]
During the next few weeks several meetings between the Commissioners took place, and the Ambassadors were repeatedly admitted to confer with the King and his Privy Council; but little progress was made, and Chapuys informed the Regent that there was even less hope of agreement than there had been at first. Henry on his part complained loudly of the coldness of the Imperial Envoys, and of their evident desire to push forward the Portuguese marriage and drop his own, which was the one thing for which he really cared.[189] An attempt to effect some mode of reconciliation between him and the Pope only incensed Henry, who sent two Doctors of Law, Bonner and Haynes, to Madrid, to protest against the meeting of a General Council, and to point out how the Bishops of Rome wrested Scripture to the maintenance of their lusts and worldly advantage. And he told Don Diego angrily that the meeting of a Council would do him the worst injury in the world, since if he refused to attend it he would be cut off from the rest of Christendom.[190] To add to the King's ill-temper, he was suffering from a return of the ulcers in the leg from which he had formerly suffered, and for some days his condition excited serious alarm.
May, 1538] LOUISE DE GUISE
On his recovery, Castillon, who had been looking on with some amusement while the Emperor's folk were "busy brewing marriages," approached His Majesty with flattering words, and tried to instil suspicions of Cromwell into his mind. Henry swallowed the bait greedily, and the French Ambassador's remarks on his favourite's "great Spanish passion" rankled in his mind to so great an extent that he sent for Cromwell and rated him soundly, telling him that he was quite unfit to meddle in the affairs of Kings. The wily Frenchman, satisfied that the only way of managing this wayward monarch was to make him fall in love, took advantage of his present mood to speak to him of the Queen of Scotland's sister, Louise de Guise, whom he described as being quite as beautiful as herself, with the additional advantage of being a maid, and not a widow. Henry, who was on his way to Mass when Castillon made this suggestion, slapped him familiarly on the back, and laughed, saying he must hear more of this young lady. The next day the Comptroller of the King's Household was sent to ask the Ambassador for particulars about Mademoiselle de Guise, and was told that she was so like Madame de Longueville that you would hardly know the sisters apart, and that a Scotchman who had seen both, wondered how King James could prefer Mary to so lovely a creature as Louise. The French Ambassador now found himself overwhelmed with attentions. The King sent him presents of venison and artichokes from his gardens, invited him to spend Sunday at Greenwich, and, when the plague broke out in London, lent him the beautiful old house in Chelsea which had belonged to Sir Thomas More, as a country residence.[191]
The wedding of King James was finally celebrated at Châteaudun on the 9th of May, and, hearing that the Duke of Guise and his fair daughter Louise had accompanied the new Queen to Havre, Henry sent Philip Hoby across the Channel to see Mademoiselle de Guise and have her picture painted. These orders were duly executed, and Louise's portrait, probably painted by Holbein, was placed in the King's hands. But, although Henry "did not find the portrait ugly," he was now anxious to see Louise's younger sister, Renée, who was said to be still more beautiful, and would not be put off when Castillon told him that she was about to take the veil in a convent at Reims.
"No doubt," remarked Montmorency, the Constable of France, "as King Henry has made himself Pope in his own country, he would prefer a nun to any other Princess."[192]
Nothing would now satisfy Henry but that the French King or Queen should meet him at Calais with the Duke of Guise's daughters, Mademoiselle de Lorraine, and Mademoiselle de Vendôme, who had all been recommended to his notice. When the English Envoy, Brian, proposed this to Queen Eleanor, she replied indignantly that she was not a keeper of harlots, and the Constable told Castillon once more that French Princesses were not to be trotted out like hackneys at a fair. At last the Ambassador, tired of repeating that this plan was impossible, asked Henry if the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table had ever treated ladies in such a fashion. This brought the King to his senses. He reddened and hesitated, and, after rubbing his nose for some moments, said that his proposal might have sounded a little uncivil, but he had been so often deceived in these matters that he could trust no one but himself.[193]
Still Henry would not give up all hope of winning the fair Louise, and towards the end of August he sent Philip Hoby on a fresh errand to Joinville. As before, he was to take Holbein with him, and, after viewing well the younger sister, ask the Duchess of Guise for leave to take the portraits of both her daughters, Louise and Renée, "in one faire table." Hoby was to explain that he had business in these parts, and that, since he had already made acquaintance with Mademoiselle de Guise at Havre, he could not pass Joinville without saluting her. On leaving Joinville he was to proceed to the Duke of Lorraine's Court, and inform him that the Lord Privy Seal, having heard that His Excellency had a daughter of excellent quality, begged that the King's painter might be allowed to take her portrait. On the 30th of August the travellers reached Joinville, as we learn from the following letter addressed by the Duchess of Guise to her eldest daughter in Scotland:
Aug., 1538] HOLBEIN AT JOINVILLE
"It is but two days since the King of England's gentleman who was at Havre, and the painter, were here. The gentleman came to see me, pretending that he was on his way to find the Emperor, and, having heard that Louise was ill, would not pass by without inquiring after her, that he might take back news of her health to the King his master. He begged to be allowed to see her, which he did, although it was a day when the fever was on her, and repeated the same words which he had already said to me. He then told me that, as he was so near Lorraine, he meant to go on to Nancy to see the country. I have no doubt that he was going there to draw Mademoiselle's portrait, in the same way that he has drawn the others, and so I sent down to the gentleman's lodgings, and found that the said painter was there. Since then they have been at Nancy, where they spent a day and were well feasted and entertained, and at every meal the maître d'hôtel ate with them, and many presents were made them. That is all I know yet, but you see that, at the worst, if you do not have your sister for a neighbour, you may yet have your cousin."[194]
This time Hoby's journey was evidently unsuccessful. Louise was ill of intermittent fever, and Renée had already been sent to the convent at Reims, where she was afterwards professed; and it is clear from Antoinette's letters that she had no wish to marry either of her daughters to Henry. A month before, on the 3rd of August, she wrote to the Queen of Scotland: "I have heard nothing more of the proposals which you know of"; and again on the 18th: "I have begged your father to speak of these affairs to the King, that we may be rid of them if possible, for no one could ever be happy with such a man."[195]
As for Anne de Lorraine, in spite of many excellent qualities, she lacked the beauty and charm of her cousins, and, as her aunt Antoinette said, "elle est bien honnête, mais pas si belle que je voudrais."[196]
Aug., 1538] HENRY'S SCRUPLES
The result of these disappointments was to revive Henry's wish to marry Christina. Several times in the course of the summer Castillon remarked that this monarch was still hankering after the Duchess of Milan, and had repeatedly tried to induce the Regent to bring her niece to meet him at Brussels. "The King my master," said Cromwell to Chapuys, "will never marry one, who is to be his companion for life, without he has first seen and known her."[197] In a long and careful paper of instructions which Henry drew up for the Ambassador Wyatt, he lays great stress on this point.
"His Grace, prudently considering how that marriage is a bargain of such nature as may endure for the whole life of man, and a thing whereof the pleasure and quiet, or the displeasure and torment, doth much depend, thinketh it to be most necessary, both for himself and the party with whom it shall please God to join him in marriage, that the one might see the other before the time that they should be so affianced, which point His Highness hath largely set forth heretofore to the Emperor's Ambassador."[198]
But on her side Mary was equally inflexible. Nothing would induce her to take a step forward in this direction, and even Hutton began to realize how coldly the marriage overtures were received at Brussels. The Queen never failed to ask after the King's health or to express her anxiety for the strengthening of the ancient friendship between the realm of England and the House of Burgundy; but when the Ambassador ventured to allude to the subject of her niece's preferment, she invariably gave an evasive reply. Since both the Queen and the Duchess spent much of the summer hunting in the Forest of Soignies, or in more distant parts, Hutton seldom had an opportunity of seeing Christina. Her servants were still very friendly, especially the Lord Benedick Court, as Hutton calls the Italian master of her household. One evening in June, when Hutton had been at Court, Benedetto came back to supper with him, whether of his own accord or at his mistress's command the Englishman could not tell. As they walked along the street, Benedetto asked the Ambassador if he had brought the Queen any good news about the Duchess. Hutton replied that the first good news must come from the Emperor, and, to his mind, was a long time upon the road. The old man looked up to heaven, and said devoutly: "I pray God that I may live to see her given to your master, even if I die the next day. But," he added significantly, "there is one doubt in the matter." Hutton asked eagerly what this might be, upon which Benedetto explained that, as the King's first wife, the Lady Katherine, was near of kin to the Duchess, the marriage could not be solemnized without the Pope's dispensation, and this he feared His Majesty would never accept. The Ambassador replied warmly that he did not know what might be against the Bishop of Rome's laws, but that he was quite sure his master would do nothing against God's laws. Then they sat down to supper with other guests, and nothing further was said on the subject. But the old Italian knew what he was talking about, and the Papal dispensation proved to be the one insuperable obstacle which stood in the way of a settlement.[199]
Sept., 1538] DEATH OF HUTTON
Another of Christina's servants, Gian Battista Ferrari, paid a visit to England this summer, and brought back glowing accounts of the beauties of London and the splendours of King Henry's Court. He had an Italian friend named Panizone, who was one of the royal equerries, and had been sent over to England with some Barbary horses from the Gonzaga stables. Panizone introduced him to Cromwell, who entertained him hospitably, and sent him back to tell his mistress all that he had seen and done at the Court of Whitehall. Christina was exceedingly curious to hear Battista's account of his visit, and was surprised when he told her that England was as beautiful as Italy. When she proceeded to inquire if he had seen the King, Battista replied that he had been fortunate enough to be received by His Majesty, and broke into ecstatic praises of Henry's comeliness, gracious manners, and liberality. The Duchess said that she had often heard praises of His Grace, and was glad to know from Battista's lips that they were true. After supper she sent for him again, and he informed her that Chapuys had told him the marriage would shortly be concluded. "At this it seemeth she did much rejoice." So at least Battista assured Hutton.[200] Ferrari himself was evidently very anxious to see his mistress Queen of England, and in a letter which he addressed on the 7th of September to his friend, "Guglielmo Panizone scudier del Invictissimo Rè d' Inghilterrà a Londra, alla Corte di sua Maestà," he wrote, "Madama the Duchess, my mistress, loves the King truly," and proceeded to send commendations to the Lord Privy Seal, Signor Filippo (Hoby), Portinari, and others. This letter contained one sad piece of news. "The Ambassador here is said to be dying; I am grieved because of the friendship between us and his excellent qualities. The next one we have will, I hope, be yourself."[201] Battista's news was true. Honest John Hutton, the popular Governor of the Merchant Adventurers, fell ill at Antwerp, and died there on the 5th of September. His genial nature had made him a general favourite, and he was lamented by everyone at Court. "It is a great loss," wrote Don Diego to Cromwell, "because he was so good a servant and so merry and honest a soul." To his own master, the Emperor, he remarked that the English Ambassador who had just died was a jovial, good-natured man, but more fit for courtly functions and social intercourse than grave political business, for which he had neither taste nor capacity.[202]