The dismissing of the sheep dog was done by Louis but the rest of the suite, save those in the original contract, was got rid of in a much more ceremonious fashion by means of the Council.[ [324] Francis d'Angoulême was at the bottom of it, for he did and undid all in the court, and with him just now the English ambassadors had to reckon. He was cordiality itself, and sent florid messages to Henry, desiring Worcester "that sithens the Duke of Angoulême might not come to your presence, to bear the Earl of Angoulême's heart to you,"[ [325] and many "other good and hearty words." He had cause for contentment if any man of his upbringing, ambitions and temperament ever had, for his chances of a near throne were increased rather than diminished by Louis' marriage, which had so enfeebled the King that he could not leave his bed "and maketh semblance as he would depart every day, but yet he lieth still ever excusing him by his gout."[ [326] And his dutiful son-in-law gaily retailed to his friend Fleuranges the greatest joy he had ever had in his whole life of twenty years; "Je suis sure, ou on m'a bien fort menti, qu'il est impossible que le Roi et la Reine puissent avoir enfants."[ [327] Hence partly his cordiality to the king, who had sent "une hacquenée pour le [Louis] porter plus vite et plus doucement en Enfer ou au Paradis."
On Friday, October, 13, the English departed laden with presents of plate, and with them Mary's rejected household, leaving Lady Elizabeth Grey, Mary Fenes, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth Grey [of Wilton], and Anne Jerningham, most of them young and inexperienced. She retained in all thirteen men, including Dr Denton, her almoner, and Maître Guillaume, her physician, and six women, with Jean Barnes, "the chamberière." Mary's eight trumpeters went away with their pockets full of gold from the King, Monsieur, Madame, and the whole court, while the French court musicians and singers were far from content, for the King had forbidden them at the peril of their lives to go to play or sing as wandering minstrels for money in the lodgings of the English. The Court continued at Abbeville till after the 20th, and Mary was continually by the bedside of her husband, who, she told the ambassadors, "maketh as much of her as it is possible for any man to make of a lady."[ [328] She played to him on her lute and sang, and he was never happy but in her presence, and emptied his seven coffers of jewels slowly into her lap. The Dauphin and Longueville were her very good friends, and both asked her to use her influence with Henry for the deliverance at a reduced ransom of French prisoners in whom they were interested, and she wrote twice on the subject to her brother. There is little doubt that Mary found Francis an amusing companion, and she probably flirted with her son-in-law, for, after all, she was but nineteen and he but twenty, and now she was allowed to do as she liked. Henry did not write to her, but did to his brother-in-law, who had written to him to tell of his joy in the prospect of having an heir. Henry replied that he hoped the rather capricious nature of his sister would not upset these conjugal felicities, "et ainsi lui donnâmes avisement et conseil avant son département, et ne faisons aucun doute l'un jour plus que l'autre ne la trouvez telle que doit être envers vous et faire toutes choses qui vous peuvent venir à gré, plaisir ou contentement."
Before the departure of the English from Abbeville the Dauphin had caused a joust to be proclaimed which was considered of extraordinary character. In November, after the entry of the Queen into Paris he, with nine aides, would answer at the barrier all comers that were gentlemen of name and arms, on horseback and on foot. "The laws of horseback were that with sharp speares they should run five courses at Tilt and five more at Randon, being well armed and covered with pieces of advantage for their best defence. After this to fight twelve strokes with sharpe swords. This being done, he and his aides offered to fight at Barriers with the same persons with a hand spear and a sword."[ [329] The French herald had carried the proclamation of the jousts to England, and "the Duke of Suffolk, the Marquis of Dorset, and his four brethren, the Lord Clinton, Sir Edward Nevile, Sir Giles Capell, Thomas Cheyne, and others got licence of the King to go over to this challenge."[ [330] When Suffolk met Dannet at Canterbury he was on his way to Boulogne, where he landed on October 20, and after, no doubt, visiting Lady Guildford with what comfort he could, he set out with the Marquis and his brothers, who were all awaiting him "in grey coats and hoods because they would not be known."[ [331] The Duke was eager to "stryke wyet the Frynche King,"[ [332] and his one dread was that the Council, i.e. the Duke of Norfolk and his son, the Earl of Surrey, would insist on his returning home before this was accomplished, "Wherefore, my lord," he wrote to Wolsey, "I beseech you hold your hand fast that I be not sent for back." It was Suffolk's first visit to France, and his idea of distance was insular, not continental, for he expected to be in Paris the day after his landing at Boulogne, but travelling rapidly and passing by Abbeville to Beauvais, they came up with the Court there on the 25th. On hearing of their arrival Louis sent for Suffolk at once to come to him alone, and the Duke was brought straight into the King's room, where he was in bed, with the Queen sitting beside him. Suffolk did his "rywarynes and knyelled down by his bed sede; [the nobleman's own spelling] and soo he brassed me in hes armes and held me a good wyell, and said I was hartylle wyecoum and axsed me, How dows men esspysseal good brodar whom I am so moche bounden to lowf abouf hall the warld?"[ [333] Suffolk assured Louis of Henry's goodwill and thanks for the honour and love showed to his sister. "And upon that his Grace said that there should [be nothing] that he will spare to do your grace's pleasure a service, with as hearty manner as ever I saw a man: and, Sir, I said unto him that your Grace would do unto him in like case; and he said, I doubt it not, for I know well the nobleness, and trust so much in your master that I reckon I have of him the greatest jewel that ever one prince had of another." At this appropriate moment Suffolk rose from his knees and made his reverence unto the Queen. He gave her her brother's messages and Queen Katharine's, and was more than relieved to see that Mary could control her feelings and order herself wisely and honourably, "the which I assure your Grace rejoiced me not a little; your Grace knows why." Then he goes on, "for I think there was never queen in France that hath demeaned herself more honourably or wiselier, and so says all the noble men in France that have seen her demeanour, the which letted not to speak of it; and as for the King [there was] never a man that set his mind more upon [woman] than he does on her, because she demeans herself so winning unto him, the which I am sure [will be no] little comfort unto your Grace." The conversation turned upon the coming jousts, and the Duke said it would be little honour to win, seeing there were two or three hundred answerers, and Louis said that he would introduce him and the Marquis to the Dauphin to be his aides, and sent for Francis. He came showing himself all regard and courtesy, and in his exaggerated way declared them not aides only but brothers, and carried Suffolk off to supper. There again the conversation was all of jousting and the King of England's prowess, and Francis, with great tact, would talk of nothing but his admiration for Henry's skill. During this interview there is no mention of the "trwcheman" in the French language which last year Suffolk had found necessary, so that he must have taken lessons since his Flemish courtship.
With Suffolk's coming to the Court Mary's difficulties increased, for it was noticed that she gave him many marks of her friendship, but the Duke, according to the testimony of the Marquis of Dorset, behaved himself well and wisely in all matters, and the Dauphin's jealous precautions[ [334] (he insisted that his wife should never leave the Queen alone for a single minute by day, and that Madame d'Aumont should sleep in her room at night) seemed absolutely unnecessary to any who had not been brought up by Louise de Savoie.
The Queen had the pleasure of seeing Suffolk for one day only at Beauvais, and the day after the interview the English departed with Francis for Paris, hunting the boar by the way, when Suffolk and Dorset both killed, and on the 28th they came to Paris to "commune" about the jousts and to see about armour and trappings. The Court came on behind more slowly, and did not arrive at St Denis till the 30th, where, during the feasts of All Hallows and All Souls, they remained quietly in the Abbey. On Friday, November 3, about ten o'clock, the English ambassadors for the Coronation, the Duke of Suffolk, the Marquis of Dorset, the Earl of Worcester, the Lord of St Johns [i.e. the prior of the English langue of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in England], and Dr West, were sent for, and the ceremony was announced for the following Sunday.[ [335] After this official visit, Suffolk was commanded to the King's lodging to see the two princesses. When he came in, the King "mad me to kyes hys dawttares,"[ [336] and they conversed for some time about Wolsey's affairs. These were going smoothly, for at Abbeville Louis had ordered the French bishop-elect to retire from the contest and had told Robertet to compensate him, and now Longueville said that everything possible was being done about the Cardinalate. The immediate question to be settled with the ambassadors was the meeting of the two kings, and there was an amicable haggle over the place. While the King was entertaining the Duke, Mary had received a very important visitor, Louise de Savoie, mother of the Dauphin. She arrived in Paris at eleven o'clock on the 3rd, "et celui mesme jour sans me reposer je feus conseillée d'aller saluer la reine Marie à St Denys: et sortis de la ville de Paris à trois heures après midy avec grand nombre de gentishommes."[ [337] It is very regrettable that she did not record in her diary her opinion of the Queen, but, on the other hand, it proves that there was nothing to be said against Mary, for in that case it would certainly have been her pleasure to write it.
On Sunday, November 5, the Queen was crowned. The English were brought to the church by M. de Montmorency, and an hour after Mary came in with a great company of noblemen and ladies. The Dauphin led her, and before her went the Dukes of Alençon, Bourbon, Longueville, Albany, the Count of Vendôme, and the Count of St Pol, with many others. The Queen kneeled before the altar, and was anointed by the Cardinal of Brie, who delivered to her the sceptre and the vierge of justice, put a ring upon her finger, and lastly set the crown upon her head, "which done the Duke of Brittany (i.e. the Dauphin) led her to a stage made on the left side of the altar, where she was set in a chair, under a c[loth of State], and the said Duke stood behind her holding th[e crown] from her head to ease her by the weight thereo[f. And] then the High Mass sungen by the said Cardinal, whereat the Queen departed. After Agnus she [was] houseld. Mass done, she departed to the p[alace] and we to our lodgings to our dinners."[ [338] Louis had watched the ceremony privately, and next day he left the abbey about seven in the morning for Paris, and Mary followed about nine to make her solemn entry. After dinner at the Chapelle St Denis began the wearisome ceremonial, a repetition on a more grandiose scale of the entry into Abbeville. The city sent deputations to greet her, the law and the merchants likewise, and as Mary's French was not equal to the burden of replying to their welcome, the Archbishop of Paris had to be her spokesman. This was just outside the barriers, where the procession was formed, a replica of that at Abbeville. There were the same guards, the mingling of the French and English heralds, royal and noble, the Princes of the blood, the Queen's courser and palfrey, and then Mary, this time seated in her litter of state, wearing her crown, glittering with jewels worn on her gown of cloth of gold and in her hair. The Dauphin, "lui aussi tout or et diamants," again rode by her side, and they frequently spoke together. Then followed as before the ladies, the French princesses, and the State carriages of the Queen with her ladies and damsels. At the Porte St Denis the trades were waiting with a canopy of cloth of gold embroidered with roses and lilies, and this they bore over the Queen, but, once inside the gate, another halt had to be made to allow a second canopy borne by the merchants and burgesses to be placed over that of the trades. At this point was an allegorical display on a tapestry-covered scaffold of the arms of the city of Paris, a galley under sail with the four winds blowing with bursting cheeks upon it. On the deck were Ceres and Bacchus, while Paris held the tiller. Sailors manned the yards and chanted,
"Noble dame bien soit venue en France:
Par toi vivons en plaisir et en joye,
Francoys, Angloys vivent à leur plaisance: