Meanwhile, the Princess Mary, the innocent object of these plots, was still happily unconscious of her value in the eyes of politicians. She remained at Richmond Palace during the absence of the court, and Henry was kept well informed of her health and occupations. The Duke of Norfolk wrote to him on the 13th June, that he and the other members of the Council were, “on Saturday last,” with the Princess, “who, lauded be Almighty God, is right merry, and in prosperous health and state, daily exercising herself in virtuous pastimes”.[25] “On St. Peter’s Even,” as the lords of the Council informed him, “came the three gentlemen of France, of whose arrival they had notice from the Cardinal, and on Saturday, after dinner, as the tide was commodious, they being well accompanied by the lord Barnes, lord Darcy, and another, visited the Princess, at Richmond. There were with her,” they continue, “divers lords spiritual and temporal, and in the Presence Chamber, besides the lady governess and her other gentlewomen, the Duchess of Norfolk,” etc. They go on to say that she “welcomed the French gentlemen with most goodly countenance, proper communication, and pleasant pastime in playing on the virginals; and they greatly marvelled and rejoiced at the same, her young and tender age considered”.[26]
When we consider that this “young and tender age” represented but four short years, we cannot but feel sorry for the small lady, obliged to entertain visitors with “proper communication,” instead of amusing herself with her “rosemary bushes with gold spangles,” her “gold pomanders,” and other sixteenth century toys, which were continually being brought to her as presents. The Princess’s Household Book for 1520 informs us that she regaled those “gentlemen from France” with “four gallons of Ypocras, with cherries, old apples, wafers, and strawberries, the cost of which amounted to thirty-five shillings and threepence”.
Tokens were constantly exchanged between the Dauphin and his fiancée. In January 1521, Sir Peter Carew was sent over to Paris, to condole with Francis I. on an accident he had met with, and to inquire after his health. He took with him some rubies as presents, and the French defrayed his expenses, and prepared “some scents and smocks” for him to take back with him, as presents to the Princess.[27] According to the existing arrangements, the Dauphin was to be sent over to England to be brought up in this country when he was a few years old; but long before the time specified, Mary had been solemnly affianced to the Emperor, although her marriage-contract with the Dauphin was never annulled.
Until Mary was twelve years old, her health and education were the subjects of Henry’s constant solicitude, and apart from the value he set upon her as an important item in his political schemes, he appears to have regarded her with affection, as long as there was room in his character for natural feeling, or any sentiment unconnected with his dominant passions. The care of her health necessitated her frequent removal from one royal residence to another, as a precaution against infectious disease, rendered necessary by the conditions of life in England during the first half of the sixteenth century. The well-known letter written by Erasmus to Wolsey’s physician, testifies to the perpetual recurrence of the plague in this country, which was to be attributed, the writer considered, mainly to the construction of the houses, full indeed of windows, but as these were not made to open, light was admitted into the dwellings, but no air. He complains of the chalk floors and of the rushes laid thereon, but so carelessly renewed, that the bottom layer often remained for twenty years, harbouring all sorts of offal.
Writing in 1527, Erasmus says that thirty years before, if he entered a room uninhabited for some months previously, he caught a fever. It would have been well if some of the money lavished on the adornment of the walls had been expended on the floors, especially as the habits of the sixteenth century left much to be desired in point of cleanliness. Some attention was, however, given to this matter in the royal palaces, but it was of a kind that involved the removal of the court, whenever a room was to be thoroughly overhauled; the result of disturbing rushes upon which dogs had been fed and kennelled for months, and every kind of refuse allowed to rot, may be better imagined than described. There is little cause for surprise, therefore, if we hear constantly of fevers, agues and of the sweating sickness, more deadly than the plague.
On one occasion, news was brought to the court that “one of my lady princess’s servants was sick of a hot ague” at Enfield, whereupon Henry ordered that Mary should be taken at once to Byssham Abbey, remain there one day, and arrive at the More the day following. Even when the servant recovered, Mary was not allowed to return to Enfield. In August 1520, we find that “my lady princess will be sent to Richmond again, on account of the reports of the sickness at Woodstock”.
The excellent Lady Bryan having ceased in 1521, to occupy the position of governess of Mary’s household, Secretary Pace wrote to Wolsey that as the King intended leaving Windsor shortly, and as he would have no convenient lodging for the Princess, he desired Wolsey to think of some lady fit to give attendance on her. The King thought that the old Lady Oxford would be suitable, if she could be persuaded, if not, Lady Calthorpe, and her husband to be chamberlain to the Princess. Accordingly, Lady Oxford was invited to occupy the vacant post.
Wolsey describes her as “right discreet, and of a good age, and near at hand,” and she could at least “be tried for a season, if she did not decline on the score of health”. Apparently she did decline, for instead of Lady Oxford, we find Sir Philip Calthorpe and his wife appointed to attend on the Princess, and govern her house, with a salary of £40 a year.[28]
On the 29th July 1521, a commission was appointed to conclude a treaty for Mary’s marriage with the Emperor for which a dispensation was to be obtained from the Pope on account of their near relationship. This treaty was concluded, signed and sealed on the 24th November of the same year, on which day also, Francis I., writing to his ambassador in London, remarks that the contract between the Princess of England and the Dauphin is to remain in its entirety,[29] a curious satire on the good faith of princes. Moreover, while Francis thus proclaimed the peace and amity supposed to exist between himself and Henry, Charles was stipulating with Henry for a descent to be made by the English on the shores of France, not later than March, 1522. A fleet was to be provided by both parties, each contributing 3,000 men. It would be possible to regard Francis with some pity, as a miserable dupe, were it not for his own propensity for the same amount of false swearing. By February, he was in possession of the facts, but for some reason or other, war was not declared till June. On the 6th May, Contarini, the Venetian envoy, was able to inform the Signory of Mary’s approaching betrothal to the Emperor, adding that Henry was about to send a gentleman to France, to repudiate the French treaty.
On the 27th, Charles landed at Dover, and was received on the sands by Wolsey, attended by 300 nobles, knights and gentlemen. Leaning on the Cardinal’s arm, the Emperor proceeded to Dover Castle, where he remained for two days, being joined by Henry. On the road to Canterbury, and thence to Greenwich, they were greeted by the people with every demonstration of joy, the English looking upon Charles as the monarch of the world, and feeling flattered by his condescension in wedding a daughter of England.[30] At the great gates of Greenwich Palace stood the Queen and her daughter Mary, now six years old, to welcome him. The Emperor dropped on one knee, and asked Katharine’s blessing, “having,” says the chronicler Hall, “great joy to see the queen, his aunt, and in especiall his young cousin germain, the lady Mary”.