“The day before yesterday (6th inst.) the King and Queen left this, with a small and secret company to visit the Princess, three miles from here, where they remained till yesterday about vespers. The kindness shown by the King to the Princess was inconceivable, regretting that he had been so long separated from her. He made good amends for it in the little time he was with her, continually talking with her, with every sign of affection, and with ever so many fine promises. The Queen gave her a beautiful diamond, and the King about 1000 crowns in money for her little pleasures, telling her to have no anxiety about money, for she should have as much as she could wish. He promised her that when he returned from Dover, she should come to court. She will no doubt by her great prudence remedy many things.”[193]
On the same day, however, he had cause to modify this account somewhat, in a subsequent letter to Granvelle, in which he says:—
“What I have told his Majesty about this King’s singularly kind behaviour to his daughter the Princess, when he saw her the other day, I have on the authority of one of her own servants, the very same one who, for some time past, has been the bearer of her messages to me. Yesterday, as he was imparting the said news, and conveying his mistress’s commendations to me, I naturally concluded that he himself was speaking in the Princess’s name, but I am afraid such is not the case, and that the man only repeated what he had heard, for I have since been told, that mixed with the sweet food of paternal kindness, there were a few drachmas of gall and bitterness. But after all, we must set that down to paternal authority, and pray God to inspire the King to behave still better to the Princess, and work with more zest and sincerity than he has hitherto done, towards the establishment and extension of the confederacy with your Majesty, which, as may be gathered from my previous despatches, has hitherto been surrounded by much artifice and subterfuge.”[194]
Henry was much perplexed as to the exact position Mary was to occupy thenceforth. Cromwell told Chapuys that “the great and almost excessive love and affection that the English have always shown for the Princess” had so increased of late, that they were determined to risk everything for her sake. This attitude of the people roused her father’s jealousy and suspicion, and Cromwell was observed no longer to give her her title, a habit which he had already resumed. He not only avoided speaking of Mary as Princess, but requested Chapuys to do the same, which made him think that instead of declaring her to be Princess of Wales, she would be called Duchess of York. “Considering,” continued Cromwell, “the King’s versatility and, on the other hand, the rumours current among the people, I hesitate to say what the Princess’s future is likely to be; but this I can assure you (Chapuys), that the whole business will be conducted to her honor and profit”—“giving me,” said the ambassador, “to understand thereby that she will be appointed heiress to the Crown, should the King have no male issue.”
On the 22nd July, the Duke of Richmond died of consumption, and Mary’s prospects immediately brightened. Chapuys informed the Emperor of the fact, assuring him that the Princess had plenty of company, “even of the following of the little Bastard who will henceforth pay her court”. Her household had not yet been appointed, but nothing was wanting except her name and title of princess. “Nor need we make too much of the name,” said Chapuys, “seeing that it has not been usual to give such a title to a daughter, while there is any hope of male issue, and the Cardinal, for some particular reasons, had broken that custom in her case. Nevertheless, Cromwell says, that title will be restored to her before many days, and there is no doubt, if she comes to court, she will have that, and everything she can desire, for her incomparable beauty, grace and prudence. And I think that your Majesty’s affairs will proceed all the better for it; at all events, it will not be for want of goodwill that your affairs do not go on more prosperously than her own. I sent lately to warn the Princess, that there was some talk of marrying her in this kingdom to some very unsuitable person [perhaps he means to Cromwell, who had been suggested as a possible husband for her], and she sent to assure me, that she would never make any match without the express consent of your Majesty; protesting that except for some great advantage to the peace of Christendom, she would not care to be married at all.”[195]
THE PRINCESS MARY.
From the original drawing by Holbein, in the possession of the Marquis of Exeter.
Chapuys could never admire and praise Mary enough. Even in communicating officially the news of the Duke of Richmond’s death, eulogy of the Princess formed the chief part of his despatch. “Few are sorry,” he wrote to Perrenot de Granvelle, “because of the Princess. Even Cromwell has congratulated her in his letters, and thank God, she now triumphs, and it is to be hoped that the dangers are laid, with which she has been surrounded, to make her a paragon of virtue, goodness, honor and prudence: I say nothing of beauty and grace, for it is incredible. May God raise her soon to the Crown, for the benefit of his Majesty and of all Christendom.”[196]
Those who wished for a return to the old order in England looked to Mary’s influence to bring it about. She was in some miraculous way, by her very presence at court, to exercise power over her father’s indomitable will (the will that had crushed her into submission), to reconcile him with the Pope, and undo all the mischief he had been doing for the last ten years.