“In as hearty manner as I can devise, I recommend me unto you, as she which thinketh her self much bound unto you, for the great pain and labour that you have taken for me, and specially for obtaining of the King my father’s blessing and licence to write unto his Grace; which are two of the highest comforts that ever came to me: desiring you of your gentle and friendly continuance in your suit for me, wherein (next unto God) I trust you shall find me as obedient to the King’s grace as you can reasonably require of me. Wherefore I have a great hope in your goodness, that by your wisdom, help and means, his Grace shall not only withdraw his displeasure, but also that it may like his Grace (if it may stand with his gracious pleasure) to licence me to come into his presence, for the which I pray you in the honour of God to be a continual suitor for me, when your discretion shall think the time most convenient. For it is the thing which I ever have and do desire above all worldly things. And in all these things, good Mr. Secretary, for the love of him that all comfort sendeth, I beseech you to be my most humble petitioner, and that in like case (I take God to be my Judge) I would be for you, if the same did lie in my power. And thus I must desire you to accept this short and evil written letter. For the rheum in my head will suffer me to write no more at this time. Wherefore I pray you in all things to give credence to this bearer; and with this end I commit you to Almighty God, whom I shall pray to be with you in everything that you go about. From Hounsden, the 30 day of May (1536).
“By your bounden loving friend
Marye.”[179]
In accordance with the permission obtained, two days later Mary wrote to her father:—
“In as humble and lowly a manner as is possible for a child to use to her father and sovereign Lord, I beseech your Grace of your daily blessing, which is my chief desire in this world. And in the same humble wise knowledging all the offences that I have done to your Grace, since I had first discretion to offend unto this hour, I pray your Grace, in the honour of God, and for your fatherly pity to forgive me them; for the which I am as sorry as any creature living; and next unto God, I do and will submit me in all things to your goodness and pleasure, to do with me whatsoever shall please your Grace, humbly beseeching your Highness to consider that I am a woman and your child, who hath committed her soul to God, and her body to be ordered in this world, as it shall stand with your pleasure; whose order and direction, whatsoever it shall please your Highness to limit and direct to me I shall most humbly and willingly stand content to follow, obey and accomplish in all points. And so in the lowliest manner that I can, I beseech your Grace to accept me, your humble daughter, which doth not a little rejoice to hear the comfortable tidings, not only to me, but to all your Grace’s realm, concerning the marriage which is between your Grace and the Queen, now being your Grace’s wife, my mother-in-law. The hearing whereof caused nature to constrain me to be an humble suitor to your Grace, to be so good and gracious Lord and father to me, as to give me leave to wait upon the Queen, and to do her Grace such service as shall please her to command me, which my heart shall be as ready and obedient to fulfill (next unto your Grace) as the most humble servant that she hath. Trusting in your Grace’s mercy to come into your presence, which ever hath and shall be the greatest comfort that I can have within this world; having also a full hope in your Grace’s natural pity, which you have allwayes used as much or more than any Prince christened, that your Grace will show the same upon me your most humble and obedient daughter; who daily prayeth God to have your Grace in his holy keeping, with a long life, and as much honour as ever had king, and to send your Grace shortly a Prince, whereof no creature living shall more rejoice or heartlier pray for continually than I, as my duty bindeth me.
“From Hounsdon, the first day of June (1536).
“By your Grace’s most humble daughter and handmaid,
“Marye.”[180]
Humble as were these petitions, they elicited no reply from Henry, and Mary waited in vain for a word of kindness. Gradually it was borne in upon her, that the favour which she so earnestly implored, and which seemed to her so simple and easy a thing for the King to grant, would only be bestowed at the price of a sacrifice too heavy for her conscience to bear. Her contrition for past offences must not only be general, and such as any child might express to any father, but circumstantial and precise, affecting the vital principles for which she had struggled for four years. On the 6th June, Chapuys told the Emperor, that in an interview with Cromwell, the Secretary had declared it to be absolutely necessary that Mary should write a letter, according to a draft which he (Cromwell) had prepared, “in the most honourable and reasonable form that could be”. He had, he said, by the King’s command, sent a very confidential lady to solicit the Princess to do this, and that to avoid scruple, he wished that Chapuys would write to her, and send one of his principal servants to persuade her to make no difficulties about writing the said letter, which he intended to have translated from English into Latin, that Chapuys might see that it was quite honourable. There was, Chapuys thought, “some bird-catching attempted,” and he warned Mary. But meanwhile Cromwell visited him at his lodging, and told him that the King and Queen were wonderfully well pleased at the letters which Mary had written, in which, however, the ambassador told Charles that there was nothing corresponding to Cromwell’s draft, nor anything that could prejudice her.
Mary’s next two letters, the one addressed to the chief Secretary, the other to Henry, dated respectively the 7th and 8th June, were evidently written in an agony of suspense, and of that hope deferred which “afflicteth the soul”.