by David Loades
Henry, meanwhile, was hedging his bets, because in the summer of 1505 he expressed an interest in wedding Ferdinand’s niece, the recently widowed Juana of Naples. In June he sent envoys to Valencia to interview her, and their report leaves little to the imagination. Her physical charms were considerable, but her financial situation was much more doubtful, and nothing came of the initiative. 5 Ferdinand expressed himself strongly in favour of the match, but it is obvious that Henry was trying to understand the Castilian situation, and the likely impact of the arrival of Philip and Juana. The King of Aragon was probably being less than honest in his desire for the marriage, because he seems to have concluded soon after that France would offer a better prospect of support than England. He made a treaty of alliance with Louis XII in October 1505, and married Louis’ niece, Germaine de Foix on 18 March 1506. 6 This undoubtedly freed Henry from any lingering sense of obligation to his former ally, and left him free to pursue a new relationship with Philip and Juana. Such a relationship had begun in a sense as far back as 1496, when he had signed the so-called Magnus Intercursus with Philip. He was keenly aware of the importance of Low Countries trade to the economic well-being of London, and was always anxious to keep on good terms with all his neighbours. This was followed up with a meeting between the two rulers at Calais in 1500, when amid much festivity they got down to the serious business of negotiating a new treaty of friendship. This was duly signed in early June, and included provision for a twofold marriage bond. The nine-year-old Henry was to wed Philip’s eldest daughter Eleanor, and five-year-old Mary was pledged to Charles, who at four months old was in no position to object. 7 How seriously these commitments were taken on either side may be doubted. Henry’s was not allowed to stand in the way of his betrothal to Catherine just two years later, and Mary’s was conveniently put into cold storage until the diplomatic revolution of 1505–06 brought it back to life.
No treaty of this kind would last any longer than the mutual advantage of the contracting parties, and in 1502 Philip thought that he spotted a greater benefit in a treaty with France. Because Louis had no sons, his daughter Claude was the heir, through her mother, to the Duchy of Brittany. She was not the heir to France because of the Salic Law, but no such law applied to the duchy, and it seemed likely that the personal union of Brittany with France, which had resulted from the marriage of the Duchess Anne with the French King would terminate with the life of whichever of them died first. 8 This made Claude a very desirable match, far more so than Mary, who had no such inheritance prospects. So Philip signed a new treaty of friendship and marriage with Louis, which effectively annulled his agreement with Henry. However, Louis proved equally slippery, and towards the end of 1505 renounced his understanding with Philip by bestowing his daughter upon the eleven-year-old Francis of Angouleme, who was his kinsman and next heir to the Crown of France. His desire to maintain the union of Brittany and France clearly took precedence over the prospects of the young Charles, glittering though they might be. 9 Philip had also moved on since 1502. Thanks to Isabella’s death he was now King of Castile in the right of his wife, as well as Lord of the Netherlands and Burgundy, and potentially a more powerful player on the European scene than his father the Emperor. This brought him into a natural rivalry with France, and more inclined to look favourably upon a renewed understanding with England. Then on 16 January 1506, fate intervened to push him in the same direction, because in setting sail for Spain to establish his position there, a winter storm forced the royal couple to take refuge in an English haven. Some of his ships were lost, and the remainder scattered. 10 Taking advantage of this fortuitous development, Philip notified Henry of his arrival, and sought the hospitality of the English court. Although he may well have been irritated by the delay to his main plan, he was quite astute enough to play the distinguished guest, and to take his opportunity to improve relations. Juana was also given the chance to visit her younger sister Catherine, whom she had not seen since 1496, but it is not clear that she displayed much enthusiasm for the reunion. Anxious to make a good impression, Henry surpassed himself in hospitality. He sent Prince Henry, with a distinguished escort of nobles, to Winchester to welcome his royal guests, and they arrived in London on 31 January to face almost three months of parties and entertainment. In spite of her sister’s indifference, Catherine enjoyed these celebrations a good deal, because they represented a welcome break from the normal tedium of her life on the fringes of the court. The ten-year-old Mary seems also to have welcomed the opportunity to enjoy herself, and may not have been indifferent to the fact that these were the parents of her one-time intended. Perhaps if she made a good enough impression, she might become again the Princess of Castile! 11
Early in February the royal guests were escorted by their host to Windsor, where Philip was entertained with some hunting in the great park, and the royal apartments were lavishly decorated in their honour, with:
great and rich beds of estate, hangings of rich cloth of gold [and] rich and sumptuous cloths of Arras with divers cloths of estate both of the kings’s lodgings and in the king of Castile’s lodging, so many chambers, hall, chapel, closet galleries with other lodgings so richly and very well appointed … as I think hath not been seen. 12
All this generosity of course had a purpose, and served as a cover for those serious diplomatic discussions which Philip must have been anticipating. The King of Castile was formally invested with the Order of the Garter, a gesture which he reciprocated by bestowing the Toison d’Or on the Prince of Wales, and on 9 February the secret Treaty of Windsor was signed. This basically committed Henry to the Habsburg cause in Spain. He recognised Philip as King of Castile, and pledged himself to assist him with military aid should anyone seek to invade his realms either in Spain or the Netherlands. Although Philip was to meet the costs of such assistance, this effectively gave him what he wanted, and completed the political realignment of Western Europe. Henry, Philip and Maximilian now stood against Louis and Ferdinand. 13 The Emperor’s inclusion was a filial piety on Philip’s part, because he was not likely to be an active player in any conflict which might result. In return Henry secured the surrender of the White Rose, Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who had taken refuge at Philip’s court in 1497. This rather insubstantial Yorkist pretender was handed over at Calais on 16 March and promptly disappeared into the Tower. 14 Within a few days the King of England had also committed himself to a marriage with Philip’s widowed sister, Margaret of Savoy, an arrangement made with the Emperor’s consent. How serious he may have been about this is not known; the lady herself was unwilling, and he seems not to have pursued it with any enthusiasm. Finally, just before he departed on 23 April, Philip authorised his agents to conclude the commercial treaty known in the Low Countries as the Malus Intercursus because it was so favourable to English interests. Perhaps the King of Castile thought that it was a price worth paying for so much hospitality received, but if so he had second thoughts because he never ratified it. 15
Mary cannot have been far from her father’s thoughts during these exchanges, but we have no record of what was said, or of whether the earlier suggestion of a marriage for her was followed up. We only know that no agreement was entered into at this time. Mary danced and sang for the entertainment of the visitors, and played on the lute and the clavichord, performances which attracted much admiration, and earned for her a kiss from Philip, and a place among the royal guests under the canopy of state. 16 This was no doubt a welcome break from the schoolroom, but in the majority of the adult entertainments she would have had no part. In a sense Mary was the first lady of the court, following the death of her mother and Scottish marriage of her sister Margaret, so she was allowed to present some of the prizes at the jousts or feats of arms which took place during the visit. However, she was too young to participate in the hunting which occupied the guests at Windsor, and whether she watched any of this pastime we do not know. In June 1506 the Venetian ambassador reported that an envoy had arrived to discu
ss a marriage between the King’s daughter and ‘Don Carlo, the son of the king of Castile’, which certainly suggests that the topic had been discussed during the visit. Other reports in July declare that the negotiations were well advanced, but before the end of September all such plans were thrown into doubt by the unexpected death of Philip in Spain. 17 This not only raised questions as to the validity of the treaties which he had agreed with Henry, but also caused confusion in Castile. In theory he had been only the King Consort, and sovereignty remained vested in his widow Juana. However, Ferdinand succeeded in raising doubts about her fitness to rule, and eventually had her confined as a lunatic, taking over the throne himself, a move in which he was supported by a significant section of the Castilian nobility which had no appetite for an unmarried queen, however sane she may have been. In respect of the Low Countries, Margaret took over her brother’s obligations, but politely declined the suggestion of a marriage with Henry, and did not ratify the Malus Intercursus . Instead she seems to have raised the possibility of a union between the English King and Philip’s widow, who in spite of her uncertain mental health was deemed to be strong and capable of bearing sons. 18 Henry toyed with the idea, but did not pursue it. However, the suggestion of a marriage between Mary and Charles was a different matter, and was followed up vigorously. In September 1507 de Puebla wrote to Ferdinand that an ambassador from Flanders had brought such a proposal, which presumably represented an advance in the negotiations, and on 5 October he wrote again reporting not only that Margaret had written a ‘very loving’ letter to the King, confirming the treaties which Philip had signed during his visit to England, but that ‘A marriage between the Prince of Spain and a princess of England has been concluded, and that all things … had been settled according to his [Henry’s] wishes.’ 19 Meanwhile, in May and June 1507, to demonstrate her arrival in the adult world, the eleven-year-old Mary had presided at the jousts and given away the prizes. This was undoubtedly a part of her political education, because she was learning the culture of chivalry in practice as well as in the schoolroom, where she seems to have been reading Christine de Pisan, Petrarch’s Griselda , Boccaccio, and other works appropriate to her status in the court. 20
She was being groomed as a royal bride, and on 21 December a treaty was signed between Maximilian, King of the Romans, Prince Charles of Spain and Henry VII, confirming the espousals of the young couple. This treaty was to be ratified by Charles within two months of his achieving his fourteenth birthday, that is to say by the end of April 1514. The other agreements signed by King Philip were to be ratified in the same way, but this was the one which was ultimately to matter. Another document of the same date declared that a proxy marriage was to take place within forty days of the same birthday, and that a dowry of 250,000 crowns was to be deposited with the merchants of Bruges in anticipation of that happy day. 21 When he heard this news, Ferdinand was rather less than delighted. He had been included in the terms of the treaty as a matter of courtesy, but had not been consulted. He professed himself in favour of the marriage, but wished to make his ratification dependent upon a similar union between the Prince of Wales and his daughter Catherine, a marriage which, as we have seen, Henry had repudiated in the summer of 1505. In the event Ferdinand’s reservations did not matter; the treaty of perpetual peace with the Emperor was specific enough to satisfy even the English, accustomed as they were to Maximilian’s slippery ways. Mary’s jointure of towns in the Low Countries was to be the same as that allocated to her great aunt Margaret, Edward IV’s sister, when she had married Charles the Bold, and heavy bonds were exchanged to ensure the completion of the contract. 22 Henry was delighted at having pinned Maximilian down, and at Christmas ordered ‘all possible demonstrations’ of rejoicing to take place in London and the other cities of the kingdom. Bells duly rang out, bonfires were lit and hogsheads of free wine distributed. However, the treaty remained unratified, and the Emperor continued to flirt with the French. It took a timely loan of 100,000 crowns and a couple of prodding missions before Maximilian finally confirmed the agreement at Brixen on 22 February 1508. Charles added his assent on 26 March, but it was not until 1 October that Margaret sent a special mission to London to complete the process. 23 She had not been a party to the original treaty, but would play a vital part in its implementation.
By this time Mary was thirteen, and it was decided to anticipate the treaty by holding a proxy ceremony at once, in spite of the fact that Charles was only eight. Given the changeable nature of renaissance politics, it was probably wise not to wait another five years for his formal ratification, which did not, in any case, come within the specified time limit, as we shall see. At this point, the Emperor made a great show of enthusiasm, and sent over an honourable embassy on 1 December 1508 to conduct the wedding. This was headed by the Sieur de Berghes, who was to act as proxy for Charles, and Jean de Sauvaige, the President of Flanders. They were sumptuously received, first at Dover and later by the King himself at Greenwich. Ten days later, on 17 December, Mary was married, and the event was recorded for posterity by Pietro Carmeliano, Henry’s Latin Secretary:
… the king’s highness being under his cloth of estate, the ambassador of Aragon and the Lords Spiritual sitting on his right hand downward, and my Lord the Prince [of Wales] with the other Lords Temporal sitting in like wise on the left hand, and the said ambassadors [of the Emperor] sitting directly before his Grace, the President of Flanders proposed a proposition containing the cause of their coming, which was for the perfect accomplishment of all things passed and concluded for the said amity and marriage at the town of Calais … 24
The Archbishop of Canterbury then began the proceedings with an address in Latin on the dignity of holy matrimony, and the significance of this particular union from which ‘many great and notable effects’ were intended to spring. De Sauvaige replied in kind, and Berghes then joined the Princess on the dais and avowed the loyalty and undying affection of the absent bridegroom. He repeated his authority to represent the Prince in the vows which were to be exchanged, and Mary took his hand, repeating in French the formula:
I, Mary, by you John Lord of Berghes, commissary and procurator of the most high and puissant Prince Charles, by the Grace of God Prince of Spain, Archduke of Austria and duke of Burgundy, hereby through his commission and special procuration, presently read, explained and announced, sufficiently constituted and ordained, through your mediation and signifying this to me, do accept the said Lord Charles to be my husband and spouse, and consent to receive him as my husband and spouse. And to him and to you for him, I promise that henceforth during my natural life, I will have, hold and repute him as my husband and spouse, and herby I plight my troth to him and to you for him … 25
The whole ceremony was conducted per verba de praesenti , in words of the present tense, and therefore should have constituted a complete and binding marriage. The use of proxies was common in royal weddings, and was not deemed to detract from the binding nature of the exchange of vows. However, it could be argued – and was to be later – that the absence of subsequent consummation made this less than a perfect union. That was debateable in the canon law, and Charles’s status as a minor also called its legality into question, which was why the original treaty had specified confirmation after he had reached the canonical age of consent. Meanwhile Berghes placed a gold ring on the middle finger of her left hand, and ‘reverently’ kissed her, while the court musicians played the company into the mass which followed. There then ensued a state banquet and three days of jousting, dancing and other festivities. 26 Mary watched the sports from a richly adorned gallery, but was allowed to work off some of her natural exuberance in the dance. She appears to have enjoyed her enhanced status as Princess of Castile, but it is not obvious that it made any difference to her normal lifestyle, which continued to be that of a pupil and dependent.