by David Loades
Carmeliano’s tract, entitled Solennes ceremoniae et triumphi , was translated into Castilian and Catalan, and John Stiles, Henry’s ambassador in Spain, presented a copy to King Ferdinand, who appears to have been less than delighted. He was no doubt looking ahead to the time when Charles might hold the Crowns of Spain, and Henry’s successor would have a legitimate interest in Castile through the right of his sister. It may be significant that Gonsales Fernandez of Cordoba, the Great Captain of Castile, was alleged to be delighted by the news, ‘and many with him’. 27 No doubt their agenda was rather different from the King’s. On 18 December, Charles wrote to his bride, as etiquette required, addressing her as ‘ma bonne compaigne’ and sending her three ‘goodly and right rich’ jewels as tokens of his affection. The first of these was a balas ruby, garnished with pearls, which actually came from the Archduchess Margaret; the second, from Maximilian, was a brooch with a large diamond; and the third, from Charles himself, a monogrammed ring garnished with diamonds and pearls, which was inscribed Maria optimam partem elegit que non auferetue ab ea – an ironic comment on what was to follow. 28 These were personal gifts, but the ambassadors had also brought other jewels with them as collaterals for Henry’s loan to the Emperor, notably the ‘Rich lily’ or fleur de lys, which was an arrangement of gold and precious stones weighing no less than 211½ ounces troy. Years later, in 1529, it was to be returned to Charles V as a part of the settlement following the Peace of Cambrai, when it was described as being so heavy that it required a pack horse to carry it. 29 The ambassadors departed, just before Christmas, loaded with rich gifts which expressed Henry’s satisfaction with the results of his diplomacy, and Carmeliano lauded his employer to the skies:
Rejoice England, and to thy most noble victorious and fortunate sovereign lord and king give honour, praise and thanks … Thy flourishing red rose be so planted and spread in the highest imperial gardens and houses of power [that] all Christian regions shall hereafter be united and allied unto thee, which honour until now thou couldst never attain. 30
In the last few months of his life, Henry was at peace with the world. With France, and with Ferdinand, relations were uneasy but peaceful; with Scotland, the Empire and the Low Countries, friendly. However, there was unfinished business, notably the marriage of his son, and it may have been for that reason that on his deathbed he urged Henry to wed his long-neglected ex-fiancée, Catherine – if, indeed, he said any such thing. He had been anxious to secure Ferdinand’s support for Mary’s marriage to Charles, and this may have been intended as a late bid for that. 31 Catherine herself had never ceased to believe that such would be her destiny, and she remained in England partly for that reason, not pressing her father for a return to Spain. Her marriage also became the focus of much earnest prayer, and her belief in it became an aspect of her religious life. Ferdinand meanwhile decided to take advantage of her place in the English court, and gave her an enhanced purpose in life by accrediting her as an additional ambassador during the summer of 1507. He was at that time dissatisfied with the efforts of his regular representatives. Dr de Puebla had fallen out with Catherine, and lacked the status to sustain his mission, although his information continued to be useful, and his replacement, Don Gutierro de Fuensalida, was an aristocratic bungler who got everything into a mess. 32 So the use of Catherine in this connection was not only shrewd but wise. It gave her an additional entrée into the royal presence, and improved her English remarkably. It also gave her some much-needed resources. She was nothing if not frank with her father, and on 9 March 1509 she wrote to him complaining of the impossibility of working with Fuensalida and of the unkindness of the King, ‘especially since he has disposed of his daughter in marriage to the Prince of Castile, and therefore imagines he has no longer any need of your Highness’. 33 She may have been wrong about Henry’s attitude towards Ferdinand, but it did not greatly matter as the King died on 21 April, and the political situation was transformed, along with her own prospects.
Henry VII died at Richmond, and there his body lay in state until 8 May, when it was borne in solemn procession to St Paul’s, where the obsequies commenced with a sermon by Bishop Fisher of Rochester, and a requiem mass was sung. The following day the cortège proceeded to Westminster, where the interment took place and the officers of his household cast their broken staves of office into the grave. The total cost of these ceremonies was about £8,500, and formed a fitting send-off for a king who, although not loved, was deeply respected and very rich. 34 Henry’s will made suitable provision for his younger daughter, setting aside £50,000 for her dowry and marriage, over and above the costs of her transport into the Netherlands, ‘furnishing of plate, and other her arrayments for her person, jewels and garnishings for her Chamber’. 35 This was to be equally available if the marriage to Charles was not completed, because he was only too aware of the conditions which still applied to that union. In that event, Mary was to be at the disposal of Henry VIII and his Council, although the hope was expressed that ‘she be married to some noble Prince out of this our realm’, because he was only too aware of the factional implications of a domestic marriage. In the meantime, she was an adornment at her brother’s court. At about this time she was described to Margaret of Austria as having
the most gracious and elegant carriage in conversation, dancing, or anything else that it is possible to have, and is not a bit melancholy, but lively. I am convinced that if you had ever seen her you would not cease until you had her near you. I assure you that she has been well brought up, and she must always have heard Monsieur [Charles] well spoken of, for by her words and manner, and also from those who surround her she lives him wonderfully. She has a picture of him … and they tell me that she wishes to see him ten times a day, and if you want to please her you must talk of the Prince. I should have thought that she had been tall and well developed, but she will only be of medium height, and seems to me much better suited both in age and person for marriage than had heard tell before I met her … 36
However, for the time being the consummation of this union was on hold, and Henry VIII was more concerned with his own glory than he was with the well-being of his sister. As soon as the regulation days of mourning were past, the court threw itself into an orgy of celebration for its magnificent new sovereign. Jousts, feasts and dances followed one another, and for the time being policy remained in the hands of his Council, which continued substantially as his father had left it. There was soon another cause for rejoicing, because Henry married his sister-in-law Catherine in a low-key ceremony at the Franciscan church in Greenwich on 11 June. Whether he did this out of respect for his father’s dying injunction, or out of any desire to mend fences with Ferdinand, we do not know. It seems more likely that he simply fancied her, because although at twenty-four she was six years his senior, she was very attractive and not otherwise committed. 37 Her commission as an envoy had come to an end with the old king’s death, and he may well have given her some indication of his intention before that. Catherine was triumphant, because this represented the answer to all her anxious prayers during the lean years of her exclusion, and she was soon to write to her father of the ‘endless round’ of celebrations in which the young couple were engaged. Fuensalida was astonished, because several days after Henry VII’s death he was still being told that the young king was free to marry where he chose – and no indication was given as to where that choice might fall. 38 On 21 June, just ten days after their wedding, the King and Queen rode into London to resounding acclamations, to take up residence at the Tower, as was customary before a coronation. The following day twenty-six ‘honourable persons’ joined the royal couple for dinner, and on Saturday the 23rd were made Knights of the Bath. The coronation ceremony itself was held at Westminster on 24 June, which was Midsummer’s Day, with Archbishop Wareham presiding. The Queen was crowned alongside her husband, and both the city of London and the nobility of England strove to be worthy of the occasion.
If I should declare [wrote the
chronicler Edward Hall] what pain, labour and diligence the tailors, embroiderers and goldsmiths took to make and devise garments for lords, ladies, knights and esquires and also for the decking, trapping and adorning of coursers, jennets and palfreys, it were too long to rehearse; but for a surety, more rich, nor more strange, nor more curious works hath not been seen than were prepared against this coronation. 39
As soon as the ceremony was over, the entire company retired for a magnificent banquet in Westminster Hall, and for a tournament which lasted until dark. Many days of jousts and feastings followed, in which the King’s young companions distinguished themselves, and Henry himself spent long days in the saddle, following his hawks and hounds. He did not, however, take part in the tournaments himself, apparently heeding the advice of his Council that it would be a disaster if he should be injured (or worse still killed) in an accident to which the sport was prone. Catherine was a happy onlooker, no doubt sharing the Council’s reservations, and Mary appears to have been her constant companion. In spite of the ten-year difference in their ages, they were firm friends, and the younger woman no doubt took advantage of the opportunity to ask discreetly about the pleasures of the marriage bed.
Henry, meanwhile, was set on fighting the French. This was partly the natural bellicosity of youth, because his head was full of chivalric dreams and he idolised his predecessor Henry V, but also partly a shrewd calculation. In the first place he knew that the quickest route to the glory which he craved was via the battlefield, and that Louis XII was getting old and might well lack the stomach for such an encounter, but he also knew that his nobles were fretting against his father’s regime of peace. They still saw their service to the Crown primarily in military terms, and the younger ones in particular had never seen service of that kind. 40 If he was to avoid domestic trouble once the round of entertainments had ended, he would be well advised to give them some congenial employment. Consequently although he renewed his father’s treaty with France, he made it clear that this was on the advice of his Council, and he insulted the French ambassador by declaring that Louis dared not look him in the face. 41 He knew perfectly well, however, that he could not fight a war against France single-handed. He needed allies, and that was where Ferdinand, Maximilian and Charles came in. The former was gratified that his daughter’s marriage had at last taken place, and kept up a friendly but non-committal correspondence with his son-in-law, but Maximilian proved even harder to pin down. There was no reason to suppose that the marriage agreement would not be fulfilled, but Charles seems to have been unimpressed by the eulogies of his bride which reached his ears, muttering (with some exaggeration) that he needed a wife and not a mother. 42 How the fifteen-year-old Mary reacted to being described in such a fashion – if she ever found out – we do not know. Henry did his best to keep the treaty in mind, in the summer of 1511 sending a force to assist the Archduchess in her small war with the Duke of Gueldres, reminding the ‘noble lady’ that there was ‘a communication hanging … between the young Prince Charles [Margaret’s nephew] and the lady Mary his sister’. 43 In the meantime he had signed a new treaty with Spain in May 1510, which effectively annulled that with France which had been renewed only two months earlier. Divisions in the Council were now becoming obvious, and it was time for the King to assert himself. His assistance to the Archduchess was a step in that direction.
The European situation was also moving in his favour. The League of Cambrai, which Julius II had formed against the Venetians in 1508 was breaking up, as the focus of the Pope’s anxiety moved from Venice to France. In 1510 he began to prepare a new league, directed this time against Louis, and the King of France responded by calling a council of the French bishops to make traditional Gallican noises. He then went further and attempted to call a schismatic General Council to meet at Pisa in May 1511, for the specific purpose of deposing Julius. 44 The council never met, but the result was a full-on confrontation between the Pope and the King of France, and the former now began to call his alliance a ‘Holy’ League, designed to defend the unity of the Church. This League was duly signed at Rome in October 1511, the original signatories being the Pope, the Emperor and the King of Spain. Within a month Henry had persuaded his Council to abandon a neutral position, and to take advantage of the opportunity which the League presented. War with France was decided upon, and was formally declared at the end of April 1512. 45 Preparations had been under way for some time, and Henry’s navy was at sea within days of the declaration being made. At the beginning of June, in accordance with a prearranged strategy, the Marquis of Dorset also led an expeditionary force of some 12,000 men to Guienne, to co-operate with Ferdinand’s proposed invasion of southern France. The result was a fiasco, because the King of Spain provided none of the logistical back-up which he had promised, and when Dorset proposed to advance from San Sebastian to attack Bayonne, Ferdinand declined to co-operate. Instead he used the English presence as a cover for an attack on Navarre, a move in which the English had no interest. Without action and marooned in a hostile environment, Dorset’s men became sick and mutinous; the council of officers was rent with quarrels, and the Marquis himself became ill. Eventually, in October, the surviving men commandeered ships and returned to England, a sad remnant of the proud host which had set forth only four months earlier. 46 Dorset had no option but to return also, and might have expected a rough reception. However all Henry’s anger was directed against Ferdinand, who had so conspicuously failed to honour his obligations. For the time being the alliance held, but it was greatly weakened.
One of the results of this failure was that it became easier for the King to keep his alliance with Maximilian separate from that with Spain, and to maintain friendly relations with the elusive Emperor. He even advanced him 100,000 crowns with which to hire Swiss mercenaries on the understanding that Maximilian would invade France as a part of his obligation to the League. However, at the end of 1512 he had done nothing, and it was not until 5 April 1513 that a further treaty was signed, binding the Emperor (in return for another 125,000 crowns) to make war upon Louis at the head of 30,000 men. As a result of this, when Henry himself arrived in Picardy at the head of an Army Royal in July 1513, Maximilian did actually join him in the campaign, although with far fewer men than he was committed to. 47 Meanwhile Margaret had been doing her best to keep his attention focussed on the marriage, which she saw as offering a more binding commitment than any treaty of friendship. During the summer of 1509 she persuaded Charles to send a jewel as a further token of his affection, and Mary sent him a ring in return. By the end of the year she had suggested a visit to the Low Countries to enable her to meet her intended husband and to learn something of German fashions. 48 This did not happen, but in February 1510 she persuaded the Emperor to appoint a gentlemen-in-waiting to her. This gentleman did not apparently come to England, but in the autumn of 1511 she tried again, this time sending a Fleming named John Cerf over to serve her. Henry accepted this initiative and gave Cerf an annuity until such time as the marriage was consummated, which he was clearly still expecting to be in the near future. 49 He was not alone in that expectation. Margaret was puzzled by Mary’s failure to respond to her invitation, but did not think that that affected the contract, and Erasmus wrote on 6 February 1512, ‘happy is our Prince Charles to have such a spouse. Nature never formed anything more beautiful, and she excels no less in goodness and in wisdom …’ Over a year later, on 13 April 1513 Mary wrote a letter to Margaret, which she signed as ‘Princess of Castile’, and it was being rumoured at that time that Henry would bring his sister with him when he invaded France later in the summer. 50 The Princess seems to have believed these rumours herself, because in the letter mentioned to her ‘bonne tante’ she expressed the hope that she would learn of Flemish fashions and would be able to introduce them in England. However the Army Royal arrived at the end of July, and Mary was not with it. The victory celebrations which followed the capture of Therouanne on 24 August were conducted without her, much to
Margaret’s regret. However, once Henry had returned to England she did succeed in extracting from him a joint declaration that the marriage would take place before 15 May 1514 – in other words within the forty days of Charles’s fourteenth birthday, as specified in the original treaty. 51
Meanwhile the war effort stuttered. In March 1512 Julius II had stripped Louis of his title to France, and conferred it on Henry. This was less significant than might appear, because it was made clear that the grant was conditional upon the King of England actually conquering France, which he was in no position to do. In fact it was a mere gesture, intended rather to express the Pope’s deposing power than to bring about any change in the military situation. More importantly, early in 1513 Ferdinand signed a one-year truce with Louis, and thus effectively withdrew from the League. At about the same time, in February 1513 Julius II died, and his successor Leo X had no desire to continue his predecessor’s feud with the French. There was even talk of a defensive alliance between Spain and France, which could have brought Ferdinand into the war on the other side. That did not happen, but by the time that Henry and Maximilian were conducting their campaign in Picardy in the late summer, they were doing so without Spanish support, and the possibility of a southern front against France had evaporated. 52 At the same time James IV of Scotland intervened on the French side. He had no particular quarrel with his brother-in-law, but the opportunity created by the King’s absence in France seemed too good to miss. His adventure came to a bloody and fatal end at Flodden on 9 September, but not before it had caused considerable anxiety to the regency government of Catherine of Aragon, who had been left to ‘mind the shop’ in Henry’s absence. 53 All these considerations meant that when a nuncio from the new pope arrived early in 1514 to persuade him to make peace, he was disposed to listen. He was also moved in that direction by his new chief adviser, Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey had made his mark in 1513 when he had organised the logistics of the Tournai campaign, and had managed to get men and supplies where they were needed in time to be of use – no mean achievement in sixteenth-century conditions. He was hugely efficient, and the King was most impressed, but he was also disposed to follow the Pope’s lead and argue for peace in the difficult circumstances of 1514. Consequently although arrangements for the marriage were pressed ahead, and by the middle of February had got as far as the lodging provision for Mary’s train, an air of uncertainty was beginning to prevail on both sides. On the 25th of that month Margaret inquired rather belatedly what would happen to the English succession if Henry were to die without a son. Perhaps she was unable to believe that the King would risk giving his sister to a Habsburg, who notoriously extended their territories by matrimony. 54 At the beginning of April the Prince’s health was giving cause for concern, and Mary was warned to be careful because all the arrangements were in the hands of his entourage. At the end of April the ever-optimistic Margaret wrote to the Emperor that all the preparations were complete, and that Mary would be arriving on 2 May. 55 Where she got her information from is not clear, because on 4 June she received a letter from Henry, excusing his sister, and wanting both the timetable and the place altered. He regretted that the marriage could not go ahead as planned. On 23 July the King was reported to be angry with the Emperor for the delay over the marriage, but by that time it was effectively dead. Since early April Henry had been toying with the idea of sealing a peace with France by marrying his sister to Louis, and on 30 July she formally renounced her engagement to Charles, citing as a reason the fact that he had not ratified the treaty of which it had been a part within two months as had been agreed in 1508. 56