1513-23] KING CHRISTIAN AT BRUSSELS
The Nuremberg master had been spending the winter in the Low Countries, paying his respects to the Regent at Malines, and conversing with Erasmus of Rotterdam and Lucas van Leyden. He was starting on his journey home, when, on the Feast of the Visitation, he was sent for by the King of Denmark, who received him very graciously, and asked him to dine at his table and to take his portrait. So great was the interest which Christian showed in the painter's work, that Dürer gave him a fine set of his prints, which are still preserved in the museum at Copenhagen, and accepted an invitation to accompany him to Brussels the next day. Thus Albert Dürer was a witness of the meeting between Christian and his brother-in-law Charles V., who had just arrived from his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle, and had been received with great rejoicing by his subjects. At five that summer evening Charles rode out from Brussels at the head of a brilliant cavalcade, and met his royal brother-in-law in a meadow, where they embraced each other and conversed with the help of an interpreter, Christian speaking in German, and Charles in French. They entered Brussels after sunset, and found the streets hung with tapestries and lighted with innumerable torches and bonfires. The Emperor escorted Christian to the Count of Nassau's palace on the top of the hill, which Dürer describes as the finest house that he had ever seen. The next morning Charles brought his guest to the palace gates, where the Regent and Germaine de Foix, King Ferdinand's widow, were awaiting them, and for the first time Margaret came face to face with her niece's husband. Christian kissed the two ladies in French fashion, and after dinner the two Princes spent the evening dancing with the Court ladies.
"Now," wrote the Venetian Ambassador, Gaspare Contarini, "at two hours after dark, they are still dancing, for young monarchs such as these are not easily tired."[30]
The impression which the Danish King made on the learned Italian was very favourable. He describes him as a fine-looking Prince, with an earnest, animated expression, long locks, and a beard curled after the Italian fashion. In his black satin doublet, Spanish cloak, and jewelled cap, he looked every inch a King. On the Sunday after his arrival Christian entertained the Emperor, the Lady Margaret, and the Queen-Dowager of Spain, at dinner. Albert Dürer was present on this occasion, and was afterwards employed to paint a portrait of the King in oils, for which Christian gave him thirty florins, an act of liberality which contrasted favourably with Margaret's parsimony. "The Lady Margaret in particular," remarks the painter in his Journal, "gave me nothing for what I made and presented to her." Another personage in whose society the King took pleasure was Erasmus, who discussed the reform of the Church with him, and was much struck by the monarch's enlightened opinions. On the 12th of July Christian accompanied his brother-in-law to Antwerp, to lay the foundations of the new choir of Our Lady's Church, and went on to Ghent, where he paid formal homage for the duchy of Holstein, and was confirmed in his rights over the Hanse towns, but could not persuade Charles to join him in making war on the friendly citizens of Lübeck. At Ghent the King sent for the English Ambassador, Sir Robert Wingfield, with whom he had a long and friendly conversation, expressing great anxiety to meet King Henry VIII. In reply, Wingfield told him that he would soon have the opportunity of seeing the English monarch's powerful Minister, Cardinal Wolsey, to whom he could speak as frankly as to the King himself.[31] Accordingly, on the 5th of August Christian accompanied Charles and Margaret to the Prinzenhof at Bruges, where Wolsey joined them a week later. The regal state of the English Cardinal formed a striking contrast to the King's simplicity. He arrived with a train of over a thousand followers, clad in red satin, and twenty English nobles, wearing gold chains, walked at his horse's side. On Sunday he rode to Mass with the Emperor, and dined with Charles and Margaret, "praising the delicate and sumptuous manner" in which he was entertained. When the King of Denmark sent to ask him to come to his lodgings, the Cardinal demurred, saying that, as he represented His Majesty of England, the King must be the first to visit him, but that if Christian preferred he would meet him in the palace garden. Christian, however, waived ceremony, and called on Wolsey the next morning. The interview was a very friendly one. Christian expressed his anxiety to enter into a close alliance with England, and begged King Henry to be a good uncle to his young kinsman, James V. of Scotland. Wolsey on his part was much impressed by the King's good sense and peaceable intentions.
1513-23] REVOLT IN DENMARK
"Surely, Sir," he wrote to his royal master, "the King of Denmark, though in appearance he should be judged to be a rash man, yet he is right wise, sober, and discreet, minding the establishing of good peace betwixt Christian Princes, wherein he right substantially declared his mind to me at good length."[32]
CHRISTIAN II., KING OF DENMARK
To face p. [30]