The Tudor Brandons

by Sarah-Beth Watkins

  News soon came that the French had in fact taken Milan. Francis had long wanted to continue the Italianate wars of his predecessors, saying he would have done so sooner but ‘he had not money wherewith to undertake the Italian expedition’ as the English queen ‘took with her a considerable sum’ referring to Mary’s dowry.22 The Battle of Marignano – or the Battle of the Giants – as it was known was fought on 13/14 September with the French army victorious.

  Henry was growing increasingly frustrated with Francis. The King of England wanted to be the star of the European show, the most magnificent king and known military leader but Francis was giving him a run for his money. Henry is reported to have been close to tears when he heard of Francis’ victory. Charles however was pleased, informing the French envoy who brought the news ‘he was as glad of the prosperity of the king my master as any man in the kingdom of France, if not more so’ and ‘he considered himself more obliged to Francis than to any one else except Henry, and would serve him all his life’.23 It was well known that Charles was also Francis’ man, at least while his wife’s finances depended on yearly payments of her dowager pension from France.

  Charles had been to and fro from court to the countryside to see his wife but in October Mary came to court at her brother’s request. Henry wanted to honour his sister with a ship named after her, the Virgin Mary (or Princess Mary), adding to his fleet of twenty-eight ships. The king dressed for the occasion in a sailor’s uniform of cloth of gold adorned with a golden chain, and boatswain’s whistle that he blew loudly whilst piloting the ship along the Thames. Mary took the place of honour at a celebratory dinner held on board the ship after mass was said – Henry had forgiven her completely.

  The French ambassador was concerned that such a ship might mean trouble for France. It had 207 guns and the capability to carry 1,000 men. He took Charles aside to voice his concerns and was assured that it by no means meant it would be used against them. Wolsey also confirmed that it was solely to give pleasure and pastime to Mary and Queen Katherine – although it was quite obviously a warship. Henry may have signed a treaty with France but he would always be prepared for future hostilities.

  Charles and Mary were again in London in November to see Wolsey receive his cardinal’s hat; ‘the Pope sent him this hat as a worthy jewel of his honour, dignity and authority’, a token to announce his seniority in the church.24 Charles escorted Wolsey along with the Duke of Norfolk to Westminster Abbey for the ceremony, pleased to see the man who had helped negotiate the consequences of his marriage gain the recognition and power he sought. Afterwards Henry and Katherine, along with other nobles, Charles and Mary included, visited ‘My Lord Cardinal’s place being well sorted in every behalf, and used with goodly order, the hall and chambers garnished very sumptuously with rich arras’ where a ‘a great feast was kept as to such a high and honourable creation belongeth’.25

  Being back at court gave Mary a chance to catch up with Queen Katherine whom she had been close to before her marriages. Both were facing the later stages of pregnancy and they must have swopped their hopes and fears for themselves and the children they would bear. They had heard that Margaret had had her baby, a girl named Margaret Douglas, who would later be Countess of Lennox, but both prayed they would have a son and for Katherine, whose previous pregnancies had ended in disaster, a living heir was paramount.

  The Field of the Cloth of Gold

  Chapter Six

  1516–1520

  Married Life

  For Katherine, her wish for a male heir to make her husband happy and his kingdom secure was not to be. She gave birth to a healthy child but it was a girl, named after the king’s dearest sister. Princess Mary was born on 18 February 1516 at four in the morning, but Henry did not seem too disappointed about her sex remarking ‘We are both young. If it was a daughter this time, by the grace of God, the sons will follow’.1 It was a cold winter and the Thames had frozen over. Charles wrapped up in his furs to accompany his niece to her christening at the Church of the Observant Friars two days after her birth whereas Mary stayed at Butley Priory in the later stages of her own pregnancy.

  Butley Priory was an Augustinian monastic site founded in 1171 to house thirty-six ordained priests. Covering twenty acres, it housed a huge collection of buildings and under its Prior, Augustine Rivers, it became fashionable in the 1500s for nobles to relax and enjoy hunting in the grounds there. Butley became one of Mary’s favourite places. After the celebrations for the birth of the princess, Charles joined his wife there and then wrote to Henry asking whether Mary could return to London for the birth of her baby. He sent a goshawk as a gift, but the couple were obviously struggling financially. In response to Henry enquiring about Charles attendance at later festivities in May he thought he would be ’ill furnished for that purpose’.2

  Mary returned to Wolsey’s house at Bath Place where she gave birth in the evening of 11 March to a beautiful baby boy. Returning the honour she had been given, she named her son Henry, delighting her brother and further cementing their repaired relationship. Henry and Wolsey attended the christening as godparents, along with the Countess of Devon at Suffolk Place – underlining the Tudor Brandon baby’s importance as a possible heir to the throne and link to the royal Tudor line. It was a sumptuous affair ‘from the nursery to the hall door was well gravelled, and above that, well rushed of a meetly thickness, and railed round about from the nursery to the hall door, whereat was made a goodly porch of timber work, substantially builded, which porch was hanged without with cloth of arras and within, hanged with cloth of gold. And also the hall richly hanged with cloth of arras’.3 The altar was covered with a material embroidered with cloth of gold and the most expensive and precious of relics – candlesticks and religious imageries adorned it. The water in the font had been warmed to quell the baby’s cries and was covered with a canopy on which was embroidered Mary’s coat of arms and resplendent Tudor roses. It was a statement of status and confirmation of this new baby’s importance to the king.

  Another family member who was also important to both Henry and Mary was their sister, Margaret. Margaret had fled to Harbottle Castile in Northumberland to give birth to her daughter which had left her seriously ill for several weeks. So ill that she was not given the news that her son Alexander had died in the Duke of Albany’s care. Despite his previous assurances to Mary that her sister would be well looked after, he was not to be trusted, there being much at play for control of Scotland. Henry had continuously told his sister Margaret to return to England with her sons but it was too late for little Alexander. Margaret now took her brother’s advice and arrived at the English court on 3 May with her infant daughter. Mary and Katherine welcomed her warmly and Margaret settled in to her new surroundings in Scotland Yard.

  Margaret’s arrival was celebrated by many a banquet and on 19/20 May, a grand tournament. Charles rode with the king, the Earl of Essex and Nicholas Carew to challenge all comers and the three queens – Katherine, Mary and Margaret – watched on from the royal grandstand. The cost of their magnificent clothing was borne by the Great Wardrobe, much to Charles and Mary’s relief. On the first day, the challengers were dressed in black velvet embroidered with golden branches of honeysuckle. By the next day, they had changed to purple velvet embroidered with golden roses with Charles wearing a C and M motif. At the end of the joust Charles and Henry ran ‘volant at one another’4 – a freestyle display of their jousting skills. The evening was concluded with a banquet in Margaret’s honour. Henry had done his best to make sure she was welcomed and lauded in the country of her birth.

  Mary and Charles then retired to the countryside. Living at court had been costly and they needed to pay attention to their estates and their income. Some thought that Charles had been disgraced as his absence from court continued into the next year. The Venetian ambassador commented ‘The Duke of Suffolk had also absented himself from Court; it was said he was in less favour with the King than heretofore’.5

  Su
ffolk wrote to Wolsey on 14 July saying ‘Though he is far off by the King’s commandment, his heart is always with him’.6 Had Henry sent him away? There seems no reason for a disagreement between the king and his closest companion. Their relationship had been mended, although Wolsey was happy for Charles to be absent and therefore not meddling with political affairs. Perhaps Wolsey had suggested he retire to the countryside if not to get him away from Privy Council business then to at least give the Tudor Brandon’s a chance to consolidate their finances and be in a better position to pay back the king.

  Donnington Castle, near to Newbury, Berkshire, had previously been owned by Geoffrey Chaucer’s son and had passed to the de la Poles before reverting to the crown and being given to Charles. Henry visited Charles there during his summer progress, so whatever the reason for Charles’ absence, he was not out of favour for long. Mary and Charles had also been travelling, staying at places like Butley Priory, Castle Rising, Letheringham and Elmswell. It was a welcome summer break for all.

  Back at court in August, as a further sign of Henry’s favour, Charles was awarded the wardship of the sons of their fallen companion, Sir Thomas Knyvet, adding more charges to his growing family. In September Mary wrote to Henry from Letheringham Hall, Sir Anthony Wingfield’s family estate, ‘I account myself as much bounden unto your Grace as ever sister was to brother; and according thereunto I shall, to the best of my power during my life, endeavour myself as far as in me shall be possible to do the thing that will stand with your pleasure’. She had missed Henry at Donnington, perhaps due to illness, and sounds like she was missing both her brother and life at court.

  Money was still an issue for the couple. Mary had around one hundred servants, Charles around fifty, and the cost of these and their building projects at Suffolk Place and Westhorpe were crippling them. Mary was waiting her pension from France and Charles was in debt to the crown for £12,000. By the end of the year, some relief was felt at a new financial arrangement whereby Mary could pay some of what was owed with jewels instead of cash but their debt to the king would be continually renegotiated as their fortunes waxed and waned.

  By the end of the year it was rumoured that should England go to war with France, Charles would lead the army, giving him another stream of income as well as being Henry’s trusted man again. Far from being in disgrace, Charles and Henry were plotting anew and Charles was back at court in February when he met with the Venetian ambassador.

  But an incident in the New Year made Charles anxious about his relationship with the king yet again. In March 1517, Queen Katherine went on pilgrimage to the shrine at Walsingham and Mary and Charles rode out to meet her at Pickenham Wade before accompanying her to the priory and entertaining her on her return journey at Castle Rising. One of the queen’s women, Anne Jerningham, took it upon herself to arrange a betrothal between one of Mary’s ladies-in-waiting, Lady Anne Grey, and one of Charles’ wards, John Berkeley; something that should not have been done without the king’s consent. Charles immediately wrote to Wolsey asking him to ‘state the truth if this be reported to his prejudice’.7 He swore he would rather lose £1,000 than ‘any such pageant should have been within the Queen’s house and mine’.8 Wolsey was able to calm the situation and cancel the betrothal without any undue animosity from the king.

  Mary finally saw her brother again in April when they met at Richmond but there was trouble brewing in the city. Tension was rising against foreigners spurred on by preachers like Dr Bell who urged ‘Englishmen to cherish and defend themselves, and to hurt and grieve aliens for the common weal’.9 The people were unhappy; Hall, the chronicler, wrote ‘In this season, the Genevese, Frenchmen and other strangers said and boasted themselves to be in such favour with the king and his council, that they set nought by the rulers of the city; and the multitude of strangers was so great about London, that the poor English artificers could scarce get any living; and, most of all, the strangers were so proud, that they disdained, mocked and oppressed the Englishmen, which was the beginning of the grudge’. Racist attacks were mainly perpetrated against the French but also Jews, Italians and the Dutch. On 30 April, the mayor announced a 9pm curfew to stop the situation escalating but later in the evening, over 2,000 people gathered in Cheapside and continued on to St Martin le Grand, north of St Paul’s where many foreigners lived. Thomas More tried to calm the mob but they were infuriated by the inhabitants of St Martin le Grand who threw missiles and boiling water on them from their windows. Doors were kicked in, furniture strewn about, buildings damaged and homes looted until arrests were made and calm restored.

  Thirteen rioters were convicted of treason and condemned to die but John Stow writing later said the three queens, Katherine, Mary and Margaret, begged Henry to pardon them until all but one was released. Over the next few days, more and more people suspected of being involved were arrested and executed including women and children. The gaols were overflowing with suspects and towards the end of the month, a mass sentencing was held at Westminster Hall. Charles sat on the council and watched on as Henry and Wolsey presided over the proceedings. Perhaps listening to his family or wanting to appear the magnanimous king, Henry pardoned them all.

  Katherine and Mary, both pregnant again, were delighted. Margaret, however, was not around to see the outcome having returned to Scotland after staying in England for over a year. Although she didn’t know it, Mary would never see her sister again.

  The city had calmed by July when a banquet and joust were held in honour of a visit by Flemish ambassadors. This time, the joust at Greenwich was reorganised. Charles had always ridden with Henry but back in May he had outshone the king to his shame. Henry blamed his defeat on the quality of his opponents and he now ordered that Charles be leader of the answerers so that he could joust with ‘as good a man as himself’.10 Jousting like Hector and Achilles, Mary and Katherine watched their husbands excel at their favourite pastime.

  The King entered the lists about two. First came the marshal in a surcoat of cloth of gold, surrounded by thirty footmen in yellow and blue livery; then came the drummers and trumpeters in white damask, followed by forty knights in cloth of gold; and after them twenty young knights on very fine horses, all dressed in white, with doublets of cloth of silver and white velvet, and chains of unusual size, and their horses were barbed with silver chainwork, and a number of pendant bells, many of which rang. Next followed thirteen pages, singly, on extremely handsome horses, whose trappings were half of gold embroidery and the other half of purple velvet embroidered with gold stars. Then came fifteen jousters armed, their horse armor and surcoats being most costly; and alongside of each was one on horseback, sumptuously dressed, carrying his lance, with their footmen. Then appeared the King in silver bawdkin, with thirty gentlemen on foot, dressed in velvet and white satin. Among the jousters were the Duke of Suffolk, the Marquis of Dorset, and my Lord Admiral. The King jousted with Suffolk, and tilted eight courses, both shivering their lances at every time, to the great applause of the spectators. The jousts lasted four hours, but the honor of the day was awarded to the King and the Duke. Between the courses the King and other cavaliers made their horses jump and execute acts of horsemanship, to the delight of everybody.11

  Mary retired from the court soon afterwards. Reluctant to leave, it was time for her to withdraw for the birth of her next child but she decided to visit Walsingham Priory before her confinement. Going into labour en route, Mary had to stop at Hatfield House where she gave birth to her daughter Frances on 16 July 1517. Her christening was held two days later at the local parish church. The chosen godmothers, Queen Katherine and the infant Princess Mary were unable to attend due to such short notice but Ladies Boleyn and Grey stood in their stead with around eighty others present. Although it wasn’t as grand an affair as it was for little Henry’s birth, Frances was still welcomed into the world with a christening befitting a child of royal blood.

  The sweating sickness had been a constant presence in the city during the past
months and Mary continued on to Westhorpe to breathe in the country air and keep her new baby away from the noxious disease. While Charles travelled to and fro from court, Mary wintered in Suffolk with her household now swelling with children. She didn’t return to court until the Easter of 1518 when the king invited her to Abingdon. Still worried by illness in the city, the court moved to outer lying residences in Woodstock and Ewelme in Oxfordshire and Bisham in Berkshire, but at Woodstock, Mary became ill with a fever – perhaps a mild version of sweating sickness – and it delayed the courts departure to Ewelme. Charles wrote to Wolsey apologising for the delay ‘for, Sir, it hath pleased God to visit her with an ague, the which has taken her Grace every third day four times very sharp, but by the grace of God she shall shortly recover’12 and assured him that court physicians were in attendance to help ease her pain.