by David Loades
Which the winds propel by divine ordinance.
All men of good will
Receive you as Queen of France.
In the last tableau before the Palais Royale, the angel Gabriel presided over the Garden of France, where shepherds sang.
As the peace between God and man,
By the intervention of the Virgin Mary,
Once was made, so now we,
The French bourgeois are relieved of our burdens;
Because Mary has married with us.
Through her justice and peace join
In the fields of France and in the countryside of England;
Since the bonds of love hold in restraining arms,
We have acquired for ourselves equally,
Mary in heaven and Mary on earth.
(Taken from Charles Read Baskervill (ed.) Pierre Grigore’s Pageants for the Entry of Mary Tudor into Paris , 1934. From BL Cotton MS Vespasian B.ii.)
APPENDIX 2
A SUFFOLK GARLAND
Eighth Henry ruling this land,
He had a sister fair,
That was the widowed Queen of France,
Enrich’d with virtues rare;
And being come to England’s Court,
She oft beheld a knight,
Charles Brandon nam’d in whose fair eyes,
She chiefly took delight
And noting in her princely mind,
His gallant sweet behaviour,
She daily drew him by degrees,
Still more and more in favour;
Which he perceiving, courteous knight,
Found fitting time and place,
And thus in amorous sort began,
His love-suit to her grace.
Brandon (quoth she) I greater am,
Than would I were for thee,
But I can as little master love,
As them of low degree.
My father was a king, and so
A king my husband was,
My brother is the like, and he
Will say I do transgress.
But let him say what pleaseth him,
His liking I’ll forego,
And chuse a love to please myself,
Though all the world said no:
If ploughmen make their marriages,
As best contents their mind,
Why should not princes of estate
The like contentment find?
But tell me, Brandon, am I not
More forward than beseems?
Yet blame me not for love, I love
Where best my fancy deems.
And long may live (quoth he) to love,
Nor longer live may I
Then when I love your royal grace,
And then disgraced die.
But if I do deserve your love,
My mind desires dispatch,
For many are the eyes in court,
That on your beauty watch:
But am I not, sweet lady, now
More forward than behoves?
Yet for my heart, forgive my tongue
That speaketh for him that loves.
The queen and this brave gentleman
Together both did wed,
And after sought the king’s goodwill,
And of their wishes sped:
For Brandon soon was made a Duke,
And graced so in court,
And who but he did flaunt it forth
Amongst the noblest sort.
And so from princely Brandon’s line,
And Mary did proceed
The noble race of Suffolk’s house,
As after did succeed:
And whose high blood the lady Jane,
Lord Guildford Dudley’s wife,
Came by descent, who with her lord,
In London lost her life.
(From the Suffolk Garland; or a Collection of Poems, Songs, Tales, Ballads, Sonnets, and Elegies, Legendary and Romantic, Historical and Descriptive, Relative to that County , 1818. The reader will observe that the poet’s chronology in somewhat adrift!)
NOTES
Introduction: Historiography & Background
1. The Suffolk Garland is printed by W. C. Richardson in Mary Tudor: The White Queen (1970), pp. xiv–xvi. Jean de Prechac , La Princesse d’Angleterre, ou la Duchesse Reyne (Paris 1677), translated into English 1678. Marguerite de Lussan, Marie d’Angleterre. Reine-Duchesse (Amsterdam, 1749). Russell M. Garnier, The White Queen (London, 1899).
2. J.J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII ( London, 1968). S. J. Gunn, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, 1484–1545 (Oxford, 1988). See also D. Loades, Henry VIII (Stroud, 2011).
3. Green, Lives of the Princesses , Vol. V. Both drew heavily on The Union of the Two Noble Families of Lancaster and York (edited by Richard Grafton in 1548), in the 1809 edition by Henry Ellis.
4. Mary Croom Brown, Mary Tudor, Queen of France (London, 1911). On the theoretical possibility of Mary’s pregnancy, and the attentions of Francis, see also R. J. Knecht, Francis I (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 11–13.
5. M. K. Jones and M. G. Underwood, The King’s Mother. Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby (Cambridge, 1992)
6. Erin A. Sadlack, The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe (London, 2011).
7. John’s father (also John) had been born to Katherine Swynford while she was still John of Gaunt’s mistress. Their subsequent marriage had legitimated him, and this was confirmed by the Pope, but he was barred from any claim to the throne by Henry IV in 1407. Margaret’s claim to the Crown depended upon whether this ban was accepted or not. This was controversial at the time, and since.
8. Jones and Underwood, The King’s Mother , p. 61.
9. S. B. Chrimes , Henry VII (1972), p. 18.
10. Charles Ross, Richard III (1981). Edward had been betrothed to one Eleanor Butler before he had married Elizabeth, and this was alleged to have created a pre-contract, thus making all his children illegitimate. This was an old and discredited story, resurrected for the occasion.
11. The King’s Mother , pp. 62–5.
12. Chrimes, Henry VII , pp. 22–3.
13. John Morton, Lionel Woodville and Peter Courtenay.
14. For the agreement, see T. Rymer, Foedera, Conventions, etc. (London, 1704–35), XII, p. 226. By some means unknown, John Morton got wind of this intention, and warned Henry in time. Chrimes, Henry VII , p. 29.
15. Anne of Beaujeu was effectively Regent for her brother Charles VIII, and was concerned to avoid a confrontation with England during the minority.
16. These rumours seem to have been prompted by the thought that he would want to prevent her marriage to Henry, but that aim had been achieved by his agreement with the Queen Dowager over a year earlier.
17. R. A. Griffiths, Sir Rhys ap Thomas and His Family (1993)
18. Ibid. Chrimes, Henry VII , p. 43. Cambrian Register (1796), p. 83.
19. R. A. Griffiths and R. S. Thomas, The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (1985) is particularly good on the Bosworth campaign.
20. Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII , ed. W. Campbell (Rolls Series, 1873), I, p. 6.
21. No fewer than twenty-nine of his councillors had served Edward or Richard in the same capacity. J. R. Lander, ‘The Yorkist Council and Administration, 1461–1485’, English Historical Review , 72, 1958, pp. 27–46.
22. Chrimes, Henry VII , Appendix D, pp.330–1.
23. Rotuli Parliamentorum (Records Commission, 1767–1832), VI, pp. 268–70.
24. S. Anglo, Spectacle, Pageantry and Early Tudor Policy (Oxford, 1969), pp. 18–21.
25. Chrimes, Appendix D, p. 330.
26. Richard Rex, The Tudors (Stroud, 2002), p. 16.
27. Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII , II, pp. 148 et seq.
28. After James was killed at Flodden, she married Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, and engaged in a long struggle for the control of her son, James V. She divorced Angus in 1527 and married
Henry Stuart. Her last years were spent peacefully at the Scottish Court.
29. Erin A. Sadlack, The French Queen’s Letters , p. 4.
30. J. J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII .
1. The Infant Princess
1. This psalter remains in Exeter College Library in Oxford. Mary C. Brown, Mary Tudor, Queen of France (1911). The date of Mary’s birth is also indicated by the authorisation of a payment of 50 s by Privy Seal bill to the child’s nurse, Anne Shenan, at Michaelmas 1496, suggesting that she was engaged in the spring. Camden Miscellany , 9, 1895.
2. The main nursery seems to have been at Richmond until the fire of 1497, at which point it was moved to Eltham.
3. W. C. Richardson, Mary Tudor: The White Queen (1970), p. 12.
4. H. M. Colvin, The History of the King’s Works (1963–82), IV, ii, pp. 222–34.
5. Richardson, Mary Tudor , pp. 14–15.
6. Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York , ed. N.H. Nicolas (1830).
7. Ibid.
8. Jones and Underwood, The King’s Mother (1992), p. 67.
9. Ibid.
10. St. John’s College Archive D.4.10, notes 216–50.
11. Chrimes, Henry VII , p. 67, n. 3.
12. A. F. Pollard, The Reign of Henry VII from Contemporary Sources (1913/67), III, p. 231.
13. Chrimes, Henry VII , p. 295.
14. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 23.
15. Ian Arthurson, The Warbeck Conspiracy, 1491–1499 (1994), pp. 146–161.
16. Raimondo de Raimondi, Milanese envoy in England to the Duke, 17 November 1498. Calendar of State Papers, Milan, 1385–1618 , I, p. 358.
17. Cal. Ven , I, p. 790. ‘News from London’, 1 April 1499.
18. Erasmus, Opus Epistolarum , ed. P. S. and H. M. Allen (12 vols, 1906–58), I, no. 1.
19. Such as ‘Giles the Luter’ or ‘The Welsh harpist’. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 24.
20. Ibid., pp. 27–8.
21. De Puebla to Ferdinand and Isabella, 15 July 1488, Calendar of State Papers, Spanish , I, p. 5.
22. G. Reese, Music in the Renaissance (1954), pp. 769 et seq.
23. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 27.
24. De Institutione Feminae Christianae (1524), in Opera Omnia , IV, pp. 65–301.
25. Rychard Hyrde’s translation of Vives, A Very Frutefull and Pleasant Boke (1540).
26. Garrett Mattingly, Catherine of Aragon (1942), pp. 141–2.
27. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 30.
28. Chrimes, Henry VII , p. 93.
29. R. L. Storey, The Reign of Henry VII (1968), p. 62.
30. Polydore Vergil, Anglica Historia , ed. D. Hay (Camden Society, n.s., 74, 1950), pp. 142–3.
2. The Princess of Castile
1 A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley, The Great Chronicle of London (1938), pp. 312–15. S. Anglo, Spectacle, Pageantry and Early Tudor Policy (1969), pp. 100–3.
2. Mattingly, Catherine of Aragon , p. 55.
3. There was from the start dispute within the College of Cardinals as to the propriety of this dispensation, which partly at least accounts for the delay. Chrimes, Henry VII , p. 286.
4. The text of the declaration made by Prince Henry to Bishop Fox is printed in G. Burnet, History of the Reformation , ed. N. Pocock (1865), vol. 4, in the Collection of Records, pp. 17–18.
5. The report of these envoys is printed in Memorials of King Henry VII , ed. J. Gairdner (1858), pp. 223–39.
6. Memorials , p. 278.
7. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 34.
8. Anne had been the heir of Duke Francis II, who had died in 1488. She had been married originally to Charles VIII, and after his death in 1498 transferred (after a diplomatic divorce on his part) to his successor Louis XII.
9. This was a betrothal; the actual marriage did not take place until May 1514. The purpose, however, was to preserve the personal union in the event of Louis having no son.
10. Chrimes, Henry VII , p. 289. A partial account of the visit, written by an unknown contemporary, is printed in Memorials , pp. 282–303.
11. According to one chronicle, Mary and Catherine both enjoyed ‘great cheer’ during this visit. Charles Wriothesley, A Chronicle of England , ed. W. D. Hamilton (Camden Society, n.s., vol. XI, 1875).
12. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 36.
13. Thomas Brady et al. A Handbook of European History, 1400–1600 (1994), pp. 446–54.
14. Where he remained until he was executed as a precaution by Henry VIII before his French campaign of 1513. His brother Richard was serving in the French army, and this is thought to have sealed his fate. J. J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII (1968), p. 32.
15. This may have been because he did not get around to it before his death in September. The treaty was subsequently confirmed verbally (but not formally ratified) by Margaret of Savoy.
16. Memorials , pp. 282–303.
17. Cal. Ven., 1202–1509 , pp. 883, 886. Vincenzo Quirini to the Signory, 25 June, 23 July 1506.
18. Cal. Span ., I, p. 502.
19. Ibid., p. 437. De Puebla to Ferdinand.
20. Sadlack, The French Queen’s Letters , p. 16.
21. Ibid., p. 444. It is not clear that this clause was ever honoured.
22. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 39.
23. A. F. Pollard, The Reign of Henry VII from Contemporary Sources (1913/67), III, p. 128.
24. Petrus Carmelianus, The solempnities & triumphes doon & made at the spousells and mariage of the kynges daughter, the ladye Marye , ed. James Gairdner (Camden Miscellany, 9, no. 53 (2), 1893), p. 10.
25. Richardson, Mary Tudor , pp. 42–3.
26. Carmellianus, loc. cit.
27. Pollard, The Reign of Henry VII , III, p. 128.
28. Richardson, Mary Tudor , pp, 43–4.
29. Ibid.
30. Carmellinus, The solempnities , p. 15.
31. The only evidence for Henry’s dying wish is contained in a letter written by Henry VIII to Margaret of Savoy on 27 June. Letters and Papers … of the reign of Henry VIII , ed. J. S. Brewer et al. (1862–1910), I, no. 84.
32. On Fuensalida’s incompetence, see Mattingly, Catherine of Aragon , pp. 79–95. See also Pollard, The Reign of Henry VII , I, p. 317.
33. Pollard, loc. cit.
34. John Leland, De Rebus Brittanicus Collectanea (1715), IV, pp. 303–9. Richardson, Mary Tudor , pp. 57–8.
35. Chrimes, Henry VII, pp. 311–13. The Will of Henry VII , ed. T. Astle (1775).
36. Mary C. Brown, Mary Tudor, Queen of France (1911), p. 73.
37. On Catherine’s appearance at this time, see Mattingly, p. 97.
38. Gutierre Gomez de Fuensalida, Correspondencia , ed. El Duque de Alba (1907), p. 518.
39. Edward Hall, Chronicle (ed. 1806), p. 507.
40. D. Loades, The Fighting Tudors (2009), pp. 40–59.
41. Cal. Ven ., II, p. 11. Letters and Papers , I, no. 156.
42. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 63.
43. Ibid. The Duke was acting ‘by the aid and comfort of the French King’. Pollard, The Reign of Henry VII , p. 143.
44. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII , p. 26.
45. Letters and Papers , I, no. 1182. Cal. Span ., II, p. 131.
46. The naval campaign had not fared much better. A fleet had gone to Brest, but the only result of the campaign had been the loss of the Regent in dramatic circumstances. Alfred Spont, The French War of 1512–13 (1897), pp. 49–50.
47. Rymer, Foedera , XIII, p. 354 . Letters and Papers , I, nos. 1750, 1884. Charles Cruickshank, Henry VIII and the Invasion of France (1990), p. 82.
48. Letters and Papers , I, no. 276. The idea seems to have come originally from Maximilian.
49. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 67.
50. Letters and Papers , I, no. 1777.
51. Ibid., no. 2366, Declaration of 15 October 1513.
52. Cruickshank, Invasion of France , p. 163.
53. Polydore Vergil, Anglica Historia , p. 221. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII , pp. 37–8.
54. L
etters and Papers , I, no. 2682.
55. Ibid., no. 2849
56. Ibid., no. 3101. This document also includes an oath by Louis XII to observe the peace between the realms.
57. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 75.
3. The Politics of Marriage
1. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 76.
2. R. J. Knecht, Francis I (1982), pp. 242–3.
3. Cal. Span ., II, p. 164.
4. Ibid., pp. 159, 170.
5. Calendar of State Papers, Milan , pp. 686, 708–9. Letters and Papers , I, no. 2997.
6. Cal. Ven ., II, nos. 635, 695. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII , p. 53.
7. Message from Paris, 7 April 1514. Letters and Papers , I, no. 2791.
8. Ibid., no. 2957.
9. Rymer, Foedera , XIII, p. 413 et seq. Letters and Papers , I, no. 3131.
10. This response was accompanied, apparently, by Charles plucking a young hawk alive, to the consternation of his councillors. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 79.
11. Marino Sanuto, Diarii , ed. R. Fulin, F. Stefani et al. (1879–1903, Vol. XIX).
12. Letters and Papers , I, no. 3134. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 81.
13. Letters and Papers , I, no. 3146. Ibid.
14. Cal. Ven ., II, no. 500. Henry sent it to the jewellers of ‘the Row’ to have it valued, which was probably Middle Row near Staple Inn. This is close to Hatton Garden, the centre of the present diamond market. M. Perry, Sisters to the King , p. 129.
15. Venetian notes, 28 August 1514 . Letters and Papers , I, no. 3206.
16. Ibid., no. 3247.
17. Perry, Sisters , p. 130.
18. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 84.
19. Ibid., p. 85.
20. Cal. Ven ., II, no. 500.
21. Hall, Chronicle , p. 570.
22. Ibid. Perry, Sisters , p. 133.
23. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 90.
24. Ibid., p. 91.
25. Cal. Ven ., II, no. 207.
26. Louis seems to have conducted himself in a remarkably youthful fashion throughout this encounter, not even dismounting in order to embrace her. Les Memoires de Martin et Guillaume Du Bellay (1753), VII, p. 184.
27. Carriages in the later sense were not known in the sixteenth century. These wagons were un-sprung, and drawn by anything from two to six horses. When carrying people, as here, they were normally highly decorated.
28. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 94.
29. Cal. Ven ., II, no. 511.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid. Perry, Sisters , p. 139. Richardson, Mary Tudor , p. 95. The alarm bells were not rung, for fear of disturbing the King.