It was stormy weather. For three days and nights it had rained without ceasing, and courtiers and ladies alike found the time hang heavy on their hands. "This weather liketh not the Queen," remarked Christina, who was standing by an open window looking out on the park. "She is thereby penned up, and cannot ride abroad to hunt." As she spoke, the wind drove the rain with such violence into her face that she was obliged to draw back farther into the room, and Hutton, growing bolder, asked if it were true that the Duchess herself loved hunting. "Nothing better," replied Christina, laughing; and she seemed as if she would gladly have prolonged the conversation. But then two ancient gentlemen drew near—"Master Bernadotte Court, her Grand Master, who, next to Monsieur de Courrières, is chief about her and another"—and, with a parting bow, the Duchess retired to her own rooms.
"She speaketh French," adds Hutton in reporting this interview to Cromwell, "and seemeth to be of few words. And in her speaking she lispeth, which doth nothing misbecome her. I cannot in anything perceive but she should be of much soberness, very wise, and no less gentle."[178]
Among the ladies who came to Court for the Carnival fêtes, Hutton found a friend in the Duke of Aerschot's sister, Madame de Berghen, a lively lady whom he had known in the town of Berghen-op-Zoom, where he had spent much time as Governor of the Merchant Adventurers. The Dutch merchants in this city had presented him with a house, an honour which the Ambassador appreciated highly, although he complained that it led him into great extravagance, and that the furniture, tapestries, and pictures, necessary for its adornment, "plucked the lining out of his purse, and left him as rich as a newly-shorn sheep."[179]
March, 1538] "MR. HAUNCE"
One day Madame de Berghen saw Hutton in the act of delivering a packet of letters which Wyatt had forwarded from Barcelona to the Queen, and her curiosity was excited by the warmth of Mary's thanks. That evening she invited the English Ambassador to dinner to meet her kinsman the Bishop of Liége, "a goodly personage," remarks Hutton, "but a man of little learning and less discretion, and, like most Bishops in these parts, very unfit for his office." When this secular ecclesiastic retired, the Lady Marchioness, "whose tongue always wagged freely," asked Hutton if the letters which he had delivered to the Queen came from England, and confessed that she hoped they contained good news regarding the Duchess of Milan, whose beauty, wisdom, and great gentleness, she could not praise too highly. She told him that he would have been amazed had he seen Christina gorgeously apparelled as she was the day before, and confided to him that the Duchess was having her portrait taken by the Court painter, Bernard van Orley, and had promised to give it to her. Hutton begged to be allowed to borrow the picture in order to show it to his wife, and told Cromwell that as soon as he could secure the portrait he would send it to England. Accordingly, on the 9th of March the Ambassador received the picture, which Madame de Berghen begged him to accept as her gift, and sent a servant to bear it without delay to the Lord Privy Seal's house in St. James's. Late on the following evening, much to the Ambassador's surprise, a young Shropshire gentleman, named Mr. Philip Hoby, who had lately entered Cromwell's service, appeared at his lodgings, accompanied by the King's painter, Master Hans Holbein. At this time the German master was at the height of his reputation. Since 1536, when he entered Henry's service as Court painter, he had executed some of his finest portraits, including the famous picture of the King in Whitehall Palace, the superb portrait of Queen Jane, and that of Cromwell himself, which is so marvellous a revelation of character. Now the Lord Privy Seal sent him across the Channel to take a sketch of the Duchess of Milan, and bring it back with all possible despatch.
Hutton's first idea was to send a messenger to stop the bearer of the Flemish portrait, fearing it might give a wrong impression of the lady, "since it was not so perfect as the cause required, and as the said Mr. Haunce could make it." But his servant had already sailed, and the Ambassador could only beg Cromwell to await Master Hans's return before he formed any opinion of the Duchess. The next morning he waited on the Queen, and informed her how the Lord Privy Seal, having received secret overtures from the Imperial Ambassador for a marriage between the King's Majesty and Her Grace of Milan, thought the best way to approach the King was to show him a portrait of the Duchess.
"And forasmuch as his lordship heard great commendation of the form, beauty, wisdom, and other virtuous qualities, with which God had endowed the Duchess, he could perceive no means more meet for the advancement of the same than to procure her perfect picture, for which he had sent a man very excellent in the making of physiognomies."
After long and elaborate explanation, Hutton asked humbly if his lordship's servant might salute the Duchess, and beg her to appoint a time and place for the painter to accomplish his task.
March, 1538] HOLBEIN'S PORTRAIT
Mary was evidently greatly surprised to hear of the Ambassador's errand. She started from her chair in amazement, but, quickly recovering composure, she sat down again, and listened attentively till Hutton had done speaking. Then she thanked him and Lord Cromwell for their good-will to the Emperor, and said that she had no objection to grant his request, and that he should see the Duchess herself. With these few words she rose and passed into the Council-chamber. Presently Christina entered the room, attended by two ladies. She listened graciously to Hutton's message, expressed her gratitude to Lord Cromwell for his kind intentions, and sent Benedetto da Corte back with him to meet the English gentleman. Fortunately, Philip Hoby was a pleasant and cultivated young man who could speak Italian fluently. He conversed for some time with Messer Benedetto, much to Hutton's envy and admiration, and at two o'clock that afternoon was conducted by him into the presence of the Duchess.