"Most Gracious Sovereign Lord.—So it is that I am informed divers ways that all your whole Council, my lord of York excepted, with many others are clearly determined to tempt your Grace that I may either be put to death or be put in prison and so to be destroyed. Alas, Sir, I may say that I have a hard fortune, seeing that there was never none of them in trouble but I was glad to help them in my power, and that your Grace knows best. And now that I am in this none little trouble and sorrow now they are ready to help and destroy me. But, Sir, I can no more but God forgive them whatsoever comes to me, for I am determined. For, Sir, your Grace is he that is my sovereign lord and master, and he that has brought me up out of nought, and I am your subject and servant and he that has offended your Grace in breaking my promise that I made your Grace touching the Queen, your sister. For the which, with most humble heart, I will yield myself unto your Grace's hands to do with my poor body your gracious pleasure, not fearing the malice of them, for I know your Grace of such nature that it cannot lie in their powers to cause you to destroy me for their malice. But what punishment I have I shall thank God and your Grace of it, and think that I have well deserved it, both to God and your Grace. As knows our Lord, who send your Grace your most honorable heart's desire with long life, and me, most sorrowful wretch, your gracious favour, what sorrows soever I endure therefor.
At Mottryll, the 22nd day of April, by your most humble subject and servant, Charles Suffolk."
The letter Mary sent by the same messenger, Sir William Sidney, had been already submitted to Wolsey, for the draft of it in his secretary's hand altered in the archbishop's, is extant in the Public Record Office.[ [450]
"My most dear and entirely beloved brother. In most humble manner I recommend me to your Grace.
"Dearest brother, I doubt not that you have in your good remembrance that whereas, for the good of peace and for the furtherance of your affairs, you moved me to marry with my lord and late husband, King Louis of France, whose soul God pardon. Though I understood that he was very aged and sickly, yet for the advancement of the said peace and for the furtherance of your causes, I was contented to conform myself to your said motion, so that if I should fortune to survive the said late King I might with your good will marry myself at my liberty without your displeasure. Whereunto, good brother, you condescended and granted, as you well know, promising unto me that in such case you would never provoke nor move me but as mine own heart and mind should be best pleased, and that wheresoever I should dispose myself you would wholly be content with the same. And upon that your good comfort and faithful promise I assented to the said marriage, else I would never have granted to, as at the same time I showed unto you more at large. Now that God hath called my said late husband to his mercy, and I am at my liberty, dearest brother, remembering the great virtues which I have seen and perceived heretofore in my lord of Suffolk, to whom I have always been of good mind, as ye well know, I have affixed and clearly determined myself to marry him, and the same I assure you hath proceeded only of mine own mind, without any request or labour of my lord of Suffolk or of any other person. And to be plain with your Grace, I have so bound myself unto him that for no cause earthly I will or may vary or change from the same. Wherefore my good and most kind brother, I now beseech your Grace to take this matter in good part, and to give unto me and to my said lord of Suffolk your good will herein, ascertaining you that upon the trust and comfort which I have for that you have always honourably regarded your promise, I am comen out of the realm of France and have put myself within your jurisdiction in this your town of Calais, where I intend to remain till such time as I shall have answer from you of your good and loving mind herein, which I would not have done, but upon the faithful trust that I have in your said promise. Humbly beseeching your Grace for the great and tender love which ever hath been and shall be between you and me to bare your gracious mind and show yourself agreeable hereunto, and to certify me by your most loving letters of the same. Till which time I will make mine abode here and no further enter your realms.
"And to the intent it may please you, the rather to condescend to this my most hearty desire, I am contented and expressly promise, and bind me to you by these presents to give you all the whole dot which was delivered with me, and also all such plate of gold and jewels as I shall have of my said late husband's. Over and besides this I shall, rather than fail, give you as much yearly part of my dower to as great a sum as shall stand with your will and pleasure. And of all the premises I promise upon knowledge of your good mind to make unto you sufficient bonds. Trusting verily that in fulfilling your said promise to me made, you will show your brotherly love, affection and good mind to me in this behalf, which to hear of I abide with most desire, and not to be miscontented with my said lord of Suffolk, whom of mine inward good mind and affection to him I have in manner enforced to be agreeable to the same, without any request of him made. As knoweth our Lord, whom I beseech to have your Grace in his merciful governance."[ [451]
Both letters harped on a "promise," and Mary's argument was all the stronger that the King's anger was because of Suffolk's broken word, and Henry was just the man to feel that in these circumstances the royal word must remain intact. Besides, he was getting his full price. The argument was very likely Wolsey's, who no doubt was rather weary of hearing about Suffolk's default. In uncertainty, however, the Queen and Suffolk went on to Calais, only to find the town inflamed against the Duke, and it is said he had to keep within the King of England's house for fear of the people. For nearly a month, in expectation of the Queen's arrival, the deputation from the town to Henry on important local business had been put off by command of the Deputy, Sir Richard Wingfield, "for the town would have been left bare at the arrival of the Queen,"[ [452] and possibly this sharpened local exasperation. Stowe says that Mary crossed on May 2, and the official account says she did not stay long at Calais, "but within a few short days, the time being fine, good and suitable, took her passage and arrived at Dover, which is the place from whence she set sail when she went abroad. At which place she was met by many honourable personages, as well lords as ladies, and by them conducted and accompanied to a place called Saint Saulve (Sauveur?) de Grace (sic), and about two leagues from the said county of the said saint, she was met and received by my lord the Archbishop of York, and from thence also accompanied he conveyed her, taking the way to Barking, which is a fine manor, where was our said lord the King. And before she arrived at the said place of Barking, the King, accompanied by many great princes and lords of this kingdom, in good and great number met her a mile from the said place of Barking, and bid her welcome as cordially and affectionately as he possibly could, rejoicing greatly in her honourable return and great prosperity. And from the place of the said meeting his highness conveyed her to the said manor of Barking, at which place it was appointed that the King and she should stay all the day next ensuing."[ [453]
What was her real and private reception, and how Suffolk came into his master's presence, we have no means of knowing. The document given hereafter in full says that explanations took place in the evening of their arrival at Barking. By a deed dated May 11th, the day after their arrival, the final conditions of marriage and forgiveness were settled, and Mary and Suffolk bound themselves to pay to Henry for expenses over and above her dowry £24,000 in yearly instalments of £1000, and to resign to the King's use her dot of £200,000 and her plate and jewels. On Suffolk's part he resigned the wardship of Lady Lisle.[ [454] Two days after this the marriage was openly celebrated at Greenwich, on May 13,[ [455] in the presence of the whole Court, where the Norfolk faction gloomed in defeat, for while the Court bulletin sent abroad said that "all the estates and others of this realm be very glad and well pleased," Hall was nearer the mark when he wrote that "many men grudged."
Now that all was en règle, the only thing that remained to be done was to cover up entirely the traces of the first and most irregular marriage, and to acknowledge and ask for the concealment of the one on March 31, to which Francis was privy. So Sir William Sidney was sent back to Francis with a document containing a neat set of events, arranged to hide improprieties and to guard against future questions. It is really a safeguard of the legitimacy of the children of the then heir to the throne. There are two documents, one in Paris and one in London. Sir William Sidney is told therein (by Wolsey and Suffolk) to represent to Francis that[ [456] "the same evening that the said Queen arrived at the said place of Barking, after many communications and devices had between the King and her touching her affairs, she among other things made overture and declaration to the King, our said lord, that the marriage, for which the King, her son-in-law, had before written very earnestly by letters of his own hand to the King, our said lord, for the marriage between her and the Duke of Suffolk, was not only concluded and determined but was secretly perfected, finished and solemnized in the Kingdom of France in Lent last past, to the doing of which the King, her son-in-law, was alone privy, desiring, therefore, with the greatest possible humility the King, our said lord, to take and accept it in good part, and to be well content at it and not to object nor lay any blame on the said Duke of Suffolk, since this proceeded entirely on her own wish and the singular love that she bore him, and that it proceeded not all from his procuration or pursuit.
"Which overture and declaration was at first strange and very displeasing to the King, nevertheless, recalling the very urgent prayer and request that the King, his said good brother and cousin, had heretofore made him upon this by his said letters written with his hand for the accomplishing of the said marriage, with the very humble mediation and good aid of my lord of York, the anger of the King was appeased and somewhat modified. And considering that the said marriage had been contracted in the prohibited time and season, and without banns asked, and celebrated by a priest not having authority from the ordinary therefor, also to avoid the danger which might ensue from the illegitimation of such children as might be procreated between them two, and in part guard the King's honour and hers, and also accomplish and comply with the desire of his said good brother and cousin, the King—although the King might well have shown more displeasure, which might have been for his own dignity and that of his kingdom—nevertheless, for the causes and considerations above declared and that his said good brother, the King, might assuredly know and understand that the King would incline and be conformable to all his reasonable desires, his highness not only consented, but it seemed to him to be good and expedient—to avoid all danger and to establish the thing more perfectly—that the said marriage should be openly solemnized in England and performed in due form and manner with the publication of banns and all other ceremonies herein requisite and expedient, according to what has been and is accustomed to be done in such case.