But for her tact and judgment, cultivated by Chapuys, Mary must inevitably, like innumerable others, even after her supreme sacrifice, have been crushed between these two millstones.
Henry had concluded the negotiations for his marriage with Anne of Cleves, in the autumn of 1539, and the lady arrived in England before the end of the year. But the subject of Mary’s union with Anne’s brother having now been dropped, another aspirant to her hand appeared on the scene. This was Philip, Duke of Bavaria, nephew of the Count Palatine, whose wooing was surrounded with some little romance. The preliminaries for this proposed marriage went farther, and gave more promise of fulfilment than any of the various plans for the disposal of the Princess since her childhood. The object of Duke Philip’s visit to England was at first kept secret, although Marillac, the shrewd ambassador of Francis I., was not long in discovering it. “There is a talk,” he wrote to Montmorency, “of the marriage of this King’s eldest daughter with the young Duke of the house of Bavaria, but there seems no appearance of it, except that he will not give her to a powerful prince, lest he should afterwards raise some claim to this crown.”[234]
Sir Thomas Wriothesley was sent to Hertford Castle, where Mary was then residing, to announce to her this new proposal. It does not appear whether she had any warning of his errand, Chapuys being then absent from England, and although her agreement to whatever marriage Henry might decide on for her was a foregone conclusion, Wriothesley’s account of the interview and her own answer to Cromwell are interesting documents.
Wriothesley wrote as follows:—
“Pleaseth your Lordship to understand, that arriving here at Hertford castle this afternoon about two of the clock, upon knowledge given of my coming and desire to speak with my Lady Mary’s Grace, I had immediately access to the same, to whom after the delivery of the King’s Majestie’s token, with his Grace’s most hearty commendations, I opened the cause and purpose of my coming, in as good sort as my poor witt had conceived the same. Whereunto she made me answer, that albeit the matter were towards her of great importance, and besides of such sort and nature, as the King’s Majestie not offended, she would wish and desire never to enter that kind of religion, but to continue still a maid during her life: yet remembering how by the laws of God and nature she was bound to be in this, and all other things obedient to the King’s Highness, and how by her own bond and obligation she had heretofore of her free will, according to her said bond and duty, obliged herself to the same, tho she might by frailty be induced in this so weighty a thing to cast many doubts, and to take great stay with herself: yet wholly and entirely without qualification, she committed herself to his Majestie, as to her most benign and mercifull father and most gracious Soveraign Lord; trusting and assuredly knowing, that his goodness and wisdom would so provide in all things for her, as should much exceed her simple capacity, and redound to his Grace’s honour and her quiet; which thing she will this night write with her Grace’s own hand, to be sent by me to-morrow at my return. I assure your Lordship, here can no more be desired, than with all humility and obedience is offered. And because I must tarry all night for these letters, I thought meet to signifie how farr I had proceeded, to the intent, the King’s Majestie knowing the same, may further in all things determine, as to his Grace’s high wisdom shall be thought meet and expedient.
“When I had done with her Grace, I went then to my Lady Elizabeth’s Grace, and to the same made the King’s Majestie’s most hearty commendations, declaring that his Highness desired to hear of her health, and sent her his blessing. She gave humble thanks, enquiring again of his Majestie’s welfare, and that with as great a gravitie as she had been 40 years old. If she be no worse educated than she now appeareth to me, she will prove of no less honor and womanhood than shall beseem her father’s daughter; whom our Lord long preserve unto us, and send your Lordship also long life many years to serve the same.
“From Hartford Castle this Wednesday the seventeenth of December.
“Your lordship’s bounden beadsman,
“Thomas Wriothesley.”[235]
It is to be regretted that Mary’s letter to her father on this occasion has been lost, but to Cromwell she wrote as follows:—