But D’Alençon was scarcely cold before Louise de Savoie offered Charles V. Margaret’s hand, and proposed Charles’s sister, the widowed Queen of Portugal, as wife for Francis. Margaret, however, was not to feel flattered at any period of her acquaintance with the self-contained Spaniard. He took no notice of Louise’s proposal as regards her daughter. Nevertheless, when Margaret started upon her famous embassy to Spain, there was in the minds of all those concerned the almost secure anticipation that her personal enticement would have a good deal of influence in bringing about a swift and satisfactory release of the French prisoners.
CHARLES V.
Neither Margaret nor her counsellors knew anything of the nature of the man she had gone to deal with. A woman was the last person to negotiate successfully with the suspicious and comprehending emperor. From the first he was opposed to her coming. His opinion, and that of his entourage, is frankly expressed by the English ambassador at the Spanish court: “Being young, and a widow, she comes, as Ovid says of women going to the play, to see and to be seen, that perhaps the emperor may like her, and also to woo the Queen-Dowager of Portugal for her brother.... Then, as they are both young widows, she shall find good commodity in cackling with her to advance her brother’s matter, and if she finds her inclined thereto, they will help each other.”
Happily, Margaret was unaware of the Spanish views upon her embassy, for, even without the knowledge, her nerves could only have been tense with the crucial uncertainties of her expedition, and the gravity of the issues hanging practically upon her personal fascination and diplomacy. If this man could be made to feel attraction, her mission was half secured already. All France looked upon success as a certain prospect. She was held to be so clever, so fascinating, so superior and intelligent, that beyond doubt, it was thought, she would achieve in a few interviews what a man would require a month to bring to a conclusion. She had hardly reached Spain before she received premature congratulations—“A vous, madame, l’honneur et la merite.”
But Margaret was to fail—bitterly, completely, and inevitably. Charles had pointedly ignored the question of marriage in his answer to Louise de Savoie’s letter. After seeing Margaret, it had still no attraction for him. That in itself was, in some measure, failure, and a thrust at pride as well. As a matter of fact, Charles found her, not only no longer very young or very pretty, but far too clever. “She is more of a prodigy than a woman,” remarked the man, who had every kind of astuteness himself, and needed contrast for fascination.
The negotiations took place in Toledo, but from the beginning Margaret had no chance of producing the smallest change of outlook. Charles refused to have any witness to their interviews; whatever he said could therefore be denied, if necessary. Margaret wrote to Francis from Toledo: “I went yesterday to visit the emperor. I found him very guarded and cold in his demeanour. He took me apart into his room with one lady to await me”—(this was outside)—“but when there, his discourse was not worth so great a ceremony, for he put me off to confer with his council, and will give me an answer to-day.”
The poor ambassadress soon grew baffled and exasperated. She had hoped great things from gaining over the Queen of Portugal. But Eleanor was cleverly sent upon an unwilling pilgrimage, concerning which Margaret wrote to Francis: “It is true that she sets out on her journey to-morrow. Before her departure I shall take leave of her. I believe she acts thus out of obedience more than in compliance with her own will, for they hold her in great subjection.”
A later letter showed that Margaret had now grown utterly disheartened. And before the end of her embassy, to express how deeply inimical and unworthy she considered the emperor’s conduct to be, she left the palace placed by him at her disposal, and moved into a convent, so as to destroy all obligations of hospitality.