In May, Henry and Katharine went to visit Prince Edward at Mary’s request, “but chiefly,” says Chapuys, “at the intercession of the Queen herself”. Henry gave Mary on this occasion full permission to reside at court, “and the Queen,” Chapuys adds, “has countenanced it with a good grace”. Mary had therefore no choice but to spend the next few months with her new stepmother, keeping outwardly on good terms with her, and presenting a strange contrast to her surroundings. When at last it suited Henry to have his eyes opened to Katharine’s outrageously loose conduct, his indignation, or that which passed for such, knew no bounds. During her trial, the palace at Hampton Court, where she was imprisoned, was so strictly guarded that none but certain officers could enter or leave it. Mary was sent away, and her father announced that he was heart-broken at the Queen’s immorality and perfidy. Anne of Cleves was thought by Chapuys to rejoice greatly at Katharine’s fall, but her execution caused little comment throughout the country. Either the people were indifferent to her fate, or they had become accustomed to the disgrace of Queens consorts.
But for Mary there seemed no escape from tragedies. The block was never long absent from her life, which was often passed under its very shadow. When, in May 1541, the Countess of Salisbury was beheaded, under peculiarly aggravated circumstances, her goddaughter, on whose behalf she indirectly suffered, might well walk in terror. The axe had never before come so near Mary’s own head. Fear for her safety was universal. The Emperor shared the common apprehension, and was anxious to protect his cousin by seeming to be on especially good terms with her father. Chapuys therefore advised him no longer to address Henry as uncle, for the title only served to reopen old sores, and for the same reason, he thought it better to give up the word princess in addressing Mary. The King having now a son, it might be dropped without any loss of dignity, as it really implied heiress to the Crown, a title to which she had no longer any right.[248]
But the constant anxiety in which she lived, resulted, as often before, in a serious illness. Illness however was sometimes her best friend, for when she was in danger of death Henry would perhaps remember that she was the idolised child of his youth, connected with his happier days, and would hasten to show her that kindness and affection which always helped to restore her to health. It was not until she appeared to be in extremis that he could be roused to any degree of interest, whereas Chapuys was ever ready with sympathy. Thus on the 7th April 1542, he says that Mary had sent to him three or four days ago, to thank him for certain letters which he had written to her during her illness, saying that they had acted “as a most health-restoring cordial to her”. And he ends, “To say the truth, I did my very best to comfort and cheer her in the midst of her ailments”. But she was still far from recovery, and on the 22nd he writes to the Queen of Hungary, “The Princess has not improved in health of late; on the contrary, she has occasionally been in danger of her life. I pray and beseech God to grant her more consolation and pleasure than she has hitherto enjoyed.” Marillac also informed Francis of the extremely critical state in which she lay. However, at the end of the month, Chapuys reported her convalescence, with the news that Henry was taking great care of her, and that “with God’s help and good diet,” it was hoped that she would shortly be well. From this time onwards, till her father’s death, Mary’s lot improved, a fact that may have been owing to the King’s marriage with Katharine Parr, who had a great regard for the desolate girl. In September, we find that “the King has just been entertaining and feasting the Princess, beyond measure, presenting her with certain rings and jewels”. She was recalled to Hampton Court for the Christmas festivities, and was “triumphantly attended, and accompanied on her passage through London”. Henry received her kindly and “spoke the most gracious and amiable words that a father could address to his daughter”.[249] On New Year’s Day, he presented her with more rings, silver plate and jewels, among which were two rubies of inestimable value. In the course of the year, Chapuys tells the Emperor that “the King continues to treat her kindly, and has made her stay with the new Queen, who behaves affectionately towards her. As to Anne Boleyn’s daughter, the King has sent her back to stay with the Prince his son.”
Mary and Katharine had many tastes in common, and were excellent companions. Both were fond of study, though in an unequal degree, for to Mary it had been her only resource and consolation, in the midst of her fiercest trials. Friendships she had cultivated, as far as they were allowed to her, but books had been her constant refuge, and the taste for them once formed never forsook her. The New Learning had found in her an apt pupil, and she had eagerly welcomed the works of Erasmus, as they flowed from his facile and ever industrious pen. His Paraphrase on the New Testament had been printed in the year of her birth. It formed a part of her education, and was the basis on which her piety was founded. In later years, she translated a portion of it—“The Paraphrase on the Gospel of St. John”—into English. Udal gave it to the world with a translation of the whole work, which he dedicated to Katharine Parr. In his preface he says:—
“And in this behalf, like as to your highness, most noble Queen Catherine, for causing these paraphrases of the most famous clerk and most godly writer, Erasmus of Rotterdam, to be translated into our vulgar language, England can never be able to render thanks sufficient; so may it never be able, as her deserts require, enough to praise and magnify the most noble, the most virtuous, the most witty, and the most studious Lady Mary’s grace, daughter of the late most puissant and victorious King Henry the Eighth, etc., it may never be able I say, enough to praise and magnify her grace for taking such great study, pain and travail in translating this paraphrase of the said Erasmus upon the Gospel of St. John, at your highness’ special contemplation, as a number of right well-learned men both would have made courtesy at, and also would have brought to worse frame in the doing.”
The book was published after Henry’s death, but a letter from Katharine to Mary, and belonging to the year 1544, is interesting as showing how much of it was really Mary’s own work, and the arguments employed by the Queen to persuade her to acknowledge the fact of her authorship publicly.
“Although most noble and dearest Lady, there are many reasons that easily induce my writing to you at this time, yet nothing so greatly moves me thereto as my concern for your health, which as I hope is very good, so am I greatly desirous to be assured thereof. Wherefore I despatch to you this messenger, who will be (I judge) most acceptable to you, not only from his skill in music, in which you, I am well aware take as much delight as myself, but also because having long sojourned with me, he can give the most certain information of my whole estate and health. And in truth, I have had it in my mind before this, to have made a journey to you, and salute you in person; but all things do not correspond with my will. Now however, I hope this winter, and that ere long, that being nearer, we shall meet, than which, I assure you, nothing can be to me more agreeable, and more to my heart’s desire. Now since, as I have heard, the finishing touch (as far as translation is concerned) is given by Mallet to Erasmus’s work upon John, and nought now remains, but that proper care and vigilance should be taken in revising, I entreat you to send over to me this very excellent and useful work, now amended by Mallet, or some of your people, that it may be committed to the press in due time; and farther to signify whether you wish it to go forth to the world (most auspiciously) under your name, or as the production of an unknown writer. To which work you will in my opinion do a real injury, if you refuse to let it go down to posterity under the auspices of your own name, since you have undertaken so much labour in accurately translating it for the great good of the public, and would have undertaken still greater (as is well known) if the health of your body had permitted. And since all the world knows that you have toiled and laboured much in this business, I do not see why you should repudiate that praise which all men justly confer on you. However, I leave this whole matter to your discretion, and whatsoever resolution you may adopt, that will meet my fullest approbation. For the purse which you have sent me as a present, I return you great thanks. I pray God, the greatest and best of beings that He deign to bless you uninterruptedly with true and unalloyed happiness. May you long fare well in him.