All who saw Mary at this time spoke favourably of her appearance. “She promises,” said Martin de Salinas, “to become a handsome lady, although it is difficult to form an idea of her beauty, as she is still so small.” Others describe her as a fair child, with a profusion of flaxen ringlets, and the admiration of all.
The usual revels were held in honour of the Emperor’s visit. The court removed to London, and Charles was magnificently lodged at Blackfriars. But he seems to have regarded the prodigality displayed with Hapsburg seriousness, if not with absolute disapproval. He was urgently in need of money, and would doubtless have been better pleased with a fresh loan, than with all that was done in his honour. At all events, the sombre stateliness of Windsor was more in accordance with his taste and humour, and he was altogether in his native element when the terms of the treaty were at last discussed. These included: (1) a settlement of the differences between the Emperor and Francis; (2) a marriage contract between the Emperor and the Princess Mary; (3) a league between the Emperor and Henry for making war upon France, and for recovering the territory which the English had lost in that country. A clause was inserted, to the effect that Mary should be sent to Spain to finish her education, when she was twelve years old.[31] The treaty of Windsor was signed on the 19th June, but was not then published, and “peace with France was dissembled”. Other things were dissembled also; and, although Mary was brought to Windsor, to take leave of her imperial cousin as his future bride, Wolsey soon discovered that no reliance could be placed on the Emperor’s words or promises, and that, as far as Charles was concerned, the whole negotiation and the treaty of Windsor itself were nothing but a political fiction, in order to alarm Francis. But indeed, in a competition of duplicity between Charles, Henry, Francis and Wolsey, it would be rash to speculate as to which of them would have borne the palm. Wolsey played a particularly odious part, inasmuch as he not only convinced Francis that he was anxious for the French alliance, but he was moreover in receipt of a yearly pension from him. Meanwhile, the determination of the Princess Isabella of Portugal to marry Charles served to further complicate matters. She took for her motto the trenchant device, Aut Cæsar aut nihil,[32] and the grandees of Spain threw their weight into the scale with her, urging the Emperor to marry her, with whom he would receive a million of gold, and not the English Princess, “about whom he thought less than of the first named”.[33] Still Charles hesitated, or affected to hesitate, and writing to Wolsey from Valladolid, the 10th February 1523, he begs to have news of the King: “et de ma mieulx aimee fiancee la Princesse, future Imperatrix”.[34] But much as Henry held to the fulfilment of the contract, he had no longer any real hope of it, and began to look for other possible alliances. It was thought in France that the Dauphin would soon be crowned, and that then he would marry the English princess,[35] but Gonzolles, the French ambassador in Scotland, wrote to the Duke of Albany: “The King of England has promised to give his daughter in marriage to the King of Scots, with a large pension, and proclaim him prince of his kingdom if they can agree”.
Henry would nevertheless have much preferred giving her to the Emperor, if by any means Charles could be persuaded to keep to his engagements, and he sent Tunstal, Bishop of London, and Sir Richard Wingfield, as extraordinary ambassadors to Spain, with orders to promote the marriage in every possible way.
In April 1525, Mary sent Charles an emerald with a curious message, showing that she was still taught to consider herself his promised bride. “Her Grace,” so ran the letter which accompanied the gift, “hath devised this token, for a better knowledge to be had, when God shall send them grace to be together, whether his Majesty do keep himself as continent and chaste as with God’s grace she woll, whereby ye may say, his Majesty may see that her assured love towards the same hath already such operation in her, that it is also confirmed by jealousy, being one of the greatest signs and tokens of hearty love and cordial affection.”[36]
After the victory of Pavia, Charles, no longer in fear of Francis, declared openly that he owed nothing to the help of his allies, and released himself from his pledges to Henry by the very extravagance of his demands. He sent a commission to Wolsey requiring that Mary should be sent to Spain at once, with a dowry of 400,000 ducats, and 200,000 crowns besides, to defray the expenses of the war with France. Nothing was said about the sums he had borrowed from Henry, while the whole transaction was in direct violation of the terms of the treaty of Windsor. The Cardinal replied that the Princess was still too young to be given up, and that the Spaniards had no hostages to offer that could be sufficient security for her, whom the English people looked upon as the treasure of the kingdom. The envoys whom the Emperor sent in return, in paying their respects to the King and Queen, were permitted to address “a short peroration in Latin to the Princess, to which she replied in the same tongue, with as much assurance and facility as if she were twelve years old,” and she did and said, they added, “many other gracious things on the occasion, of which they purpose giving an account at a future time”.[37] But the moment for fair speeches and compliments had gone by. Charles demanded that Henry should either agree to his conditions, or release him from his oath, “for all Spain” compelled him “to contract a marriage with Portugal”. Henry told him roundly that he would give him his daughter when she was of proper age, but no increase of dowry.[38] “If,” continued the King of England, “he should seek a maistress for hyr, to frame hyr after the manner of Spayne, and of whom she might take example of virtue, he shulde not find in all Christendome a more mete than she now hath, that is the Quene’s grace, her mother, who is comen of the house of Spayne, and who for the affection she bereth the Emperour, will norishe and bring hyr up as maybe hereafter to his most contentacion.”[39]
At the same time Tunstal and Wingfield represented that, as the Princess was not much more than nine years old, it might greatly endanger her health to be transported into an air so different from that of England. In replying more particularly to the Emperor’s statement, that his subjects wished him to marry the Portuguese Princess, Mary being still of tender age, Henry, seeing that nothing was to be gained by a breach with his nephew-in-law, told him that the Princess his daughter was still young; she was his own treasure and that of his kingdom; she was not of age to be married;[40] that the demands of the Spanish people seemed reasonable, and that desiring always to preserve the Emperor’s friendship, he consented to the Portuguese alliance under three conditions. These were: (1) that peace should be made with France; (2) that the Emperor should pay his debts to Henry; (3) that the treaties of Windsor and London should be annulled.[41]
The treaty of Windsor was rescinded on the 6th July 1525, and on the 22nd was signed the marriage contract between Charles V. and Isabella of Portugal. But the Emperor did not pay his debts, and henceforth no Spaniard coveted the post of ambassador to the English Court. To console Henry for the failure of his schemes, Tunstal assured him that Mary was “a pearl well worth the keeping”.[42]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] According to some accounts the 18th.