Mary Rose
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Clearly none of the defamatory rumours which were circulating had reached Louis ears, or if they had, then he had treated them with the scorn which they deserved. His letter went on to praise the Duke of Suffolk, commending him for his ‘virtues, manners and good conditions’ which deserved the highest respect. Happy indeed is the king who has such servants! It was to be Louis’ last effort, and three days later he was dead. 22 Mary, who was clearly not with him at the end, is alleged to have fainted at the news. Whether she did or not, as a childless royal widow she now faced an uncertain future, and much would depend upon the support which she received from England. For the time being she had to wait at Cluny until it was determined whether or not she was pregnant by her late husband. She herself was sure that she was not, but it was necessary to be as certain as the medical science of the period permitted, because the future of the French monarchy might depend upon it. 23
Meanwhile it was an established principal that the King never dies, so Francis succeeded Louis without a break, and immediately began to make his dispositions as king. This was not unconstitutional and would have become so only if Mary had born a son, and Francis had refused to step down. 24 That remained a hypothetical possibility for about a month, but no one took it very seriously, and Francis was duly and solemnly crowned at Rheims on 25 January. Although not in theory obliged to do so, he had by then agreed to honour Louis’ obligations, including his friendship with England, and accepted responsibility for his predecessor’s debts. On 2 January he had confirmed the members of the Parlement of Paris in their places, and did the same with the other sovereign courts. Over the next couple of weeks he confirmed most of the other officers who were in post throughout the kingdom, and made new appointments to the positions of Chancellor and Constable, both of which were vacant at the time of his accession. The former post, which had been empty since 1512, was filled by Antoine Duprat, the President of the Parlement of Paris, and the latter by Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, the King’s most powerful vassal. 25 The big gainer by the regime change was however the new King’s mother, Louise of Savoy, who was given the Duchy of Anjou and all the money obtained from the confirmation of office holders, who of course paid a fee for their recognition. This was bad news for Mary, because the new Queen Mother regarded her, as we have seen, with deep suspicion, seeing her as vamp who had her claws into her son, which was a total misrepresentation of the situation. Louis was buried at St Denis on 12 January 1515, but the Queen did not emerge from her seclusion to attend the ceremony. By custom she remained at Cluny, and wore the traditional white which was the royal mourning of France. For this reason she was known thereafter as ‘la reine blanche’ – the white queen. She had been married just eighty-two days, and the period of mourning was forty days, so the designation was not an unfair one. 26
Meanwhile, she was exchanging letters with Henry and with Wolsey. Anticipating Louis’ demise and her own incipient widowhood, the latter had written to her on 1 or 2 January, warning her to be careful in everything she said or did, and in no circumstances to entertain suggestions for her remarriage. This was scarcely advice that she needed, and on the 10th she replied with some indignation, ‘I trust the king my brother and you will not reckon in me such childhood …’ She had conducted herself honourably and with great discretion since her coming into France, and trusted that no reports to the contrary had reached England. 27 What reports Wolsey had heard we do not know, but the problem now was to retrieve Mary, and as much of her property as might be feasible. With this in mind, he advised the King to send the Duke of Suffolk back to France as his special envoy to negotiate her repatriation, and the Duke arrived in Paris on 31 January. He saw the Queen the same day, and immediately reported formally that she wished to come home ‘as shortly as may be’; she could, he said, ‘never be merry’ until she saw her brother face to face. She begged to be excused from writing personally as she had a toothache, which was probably a result of the stress she was under. 28 Difficulties were to be expected, because although Louis’ councillors had confirmed that in the event of her widowhood she would be at liberty to return to England ‘with her servants jewels and effects’, and that the French would reimburse the costs of her travel to Abbeville, there remained the question of her dowry. This could be offset against the million crowns which Louis had acknowledged that he owed the King of England, provided that Francis was willing to accept that debt. There was also the problem of the jewellery which the late king had so generously given to her. Had he bestowed these upon her as his queen, in which case they should remain to her successor, or as personal gifts, in which case she was entitled to take them with her? 29 The question of the travel expenses had already been resolved before Suffolk’s arrival, to the tune of £1,470, and this relatively small success boded well for the outcome of his mission, but he and his colleagues, Wingfield and West, expected to have to bargain hard for the greater sums. The situation was complicated by Francis’s unwillingness to let her go. This was not because he found her attractive (although he may have done so) as because she represented a major political asset. A beautiful royal widow, not yet twenty years old, was obviously ripe for remarriage, and Francis was very unwilling to surrender that advantage to the King of England. As Sir Thomas Spinelly reported to Henry VIII on 6 February, the Dukes of Savoy and Lorraine were already being proposed, and although Mary was rejecting all such overtures, as long as she remained under his control she was vulnerable. 30 Francis seems to have been particularly concerned that once she was back in England, Henry would revive the marriage with Charles of Ghent, which had been abandoned in the previous July, and which he would have been forced to interpret as a hostile move. It was for that reason that he was prepared to welcome the news that she had secretly bestowed herself on the Duke of Suffolk. As late as 10 February, the Duke was still reporting to Henry that his sister would be married to the Duke of Lorraine, but he also reported that inventories of her goods, her wardrobe, jewels and stables, were being prepared, and that an early settlement could be anticipated. 31 Eventually Francis agreed to all that was asked of him, although not without a lot of haggling, and kept up his payments until the outbreak of war in 1522.
Mary’s state of mind at this juncture is hard to assess. Immediately after Louis’ death two friars had been sent from the English court, ostensibly to commiserate with her on the loss of her husband, but in reality to pursue a party agenda. One of them, Bonaventure Langley, was the same man who had taken Catherine’s condolences to Margaret in Scotland after the death of James IV, and it is natural to suppose that she was again responsible for his despatch. The circumstances were similar, and it is reasonably certain that they had not been briefed by the King or Wolsey. 32 They apparently knew about Henry’s ‘waterside promise’ to allow her to choose her own mate the second time around, and set out to persuade her that he had no intention of keeping it. They also knew that Suffolk was on his way, and tried to persuade her that his instructions were to bring her back so that the King could renegotiate her marriage to Charles. Their mission left her unpersuaded, but in a state of considerable distress. When Suffolk arrived and discovered what had happened, he had no hesitation in blaming the Howards, whom he knew were in alliance with Catherine to attempt the resurrection of the Imperial connection and the overthrow of the continuing relationship with France which both he and Wolsey favoured. 33 Mary meanwhile had decided to take an initiative. If she remained in France, the chances of her being married to a French nobleman were very high. It is probable that she exaggerated Francis’s own interest, because he would have had to divorce Claude in order to marry her, and there is no suggestion that he contemplated such a course. If, on the other hand, her brother was successful in his bid to recover her, there seemed every likelihood that he would marry her to a partner of his own choosing. His relations with Francis, although outwardly cordial, were in fact suspicious. They were too much alike in their youth and ambition to be anything other than rivals, and the Queen Dowager looked
suspiciously like a hostage for Anglo-French relations. So she raised with Brandon the possibility of acting upon Henry’s earlier promise before he had any chance to renege, and of marrying him secretly while still in France. It is very unlikely that this was an emotional or impulsive decision, and was probably discussed long and hard over many days. 34 Francis, at any rate, got wind of what was afoot, and in welcoming Suffolk as an envoy, declared that he was pleased to learn that he had come to marry the Queen Dowager, an intention which at that time the Duke disowned. 35 Such a marriage was an acceptable compromise as far as the French King was concerned, because it would enable him to release Mary without running the risk that she would be used against him.
5
MARY & THE DUKE OF SUFFOLK
The origins of the relationship between Mary and Charles Brandon went back some way. He certainly had an eye for a pretty girl, and she may well have been attracted by her brother’s dashing friend. He had been the King’s chosen jousting companion since Henry had first entered the lists in public in 1510, and was well known for his gallantry, in both senses of the word. Whether there had been any discussion of the possibility of marriage between them we do not know, but Polydore Vergil, writing many years later, thought that there had, and attributed Brandon’s promotion to the dukedom of Suffolk to that consideration.
Many people considered it very strange that Charles should be so honoured as to be made a Duke [Vergil wrote] … the dignity was intended, as was apparent afterwards, to enable him more properly to be related to the king in marriage, this future development having already been decided upon by the King … 1
This is almost certainly wrong, because she was firmly betrothed to Charles of Castile at that point, and also because it implies a gift of foresight on Henry’s part that he could not possibly have possessed. It may well have been that the possibility had been raised, in which case it would have been raised by the Princess, who may well have been looking for a way out of her commitment to the Prince. It would have been unthinkably presumptuous for Brandon to have broached such a topic to the King. In any case, whatever understanding they thought that they had was set aside when peace with France was on the agenda. Henry apparently dropped hints that his sister was available, and that he favoured a foreign marriage for her, the implication being that he found her existing betrothal unsatisfactory. 2 ‘This coming to King Louis’ ears, he sought both peace and marriage,’ wrote Vergil, and he added truthfully enough that Pope Leo, who was the leader of the war alliance, was also determined upon peace, ‘so there was no gainsaying it’. 3 So Mary repudiated her engagement to Charles, and was betrothed instead to Louis, a man almost old enough to be her grandfather. She was undoubtedly motivated by the thought of becoming Queen of France, but we do not know what other inducements Henry may have offered, or whether Charles Brandon featured in them. What we do know is that when the King went to the waterside in Dover to see his sister off to France, he then promised that in the event of the ailing Louis not lasting long, she would be free to choose her own partner thereafter. 4 Brandon’s name does not seem to have been mentioned, but in view of the discussions which had already been held, we may presume that he could be taken for granted.
During the Duke’s embassy to France in November 1514, no mention was made of this relationship, for obvious reasons. Suffolk’s secret mission was to the King, and Mary was not involved in any of the negotiations. When he distinguished himself in the lists, it was in her honour, but that was because she was the Queen, and he does not seem to have worn her favour. By the time that he arrived the ‘bedchamber crisis’ had already been resolved by the Earl of Worcester, and there is no record of them having any private meetings. When he returned to England at the beginning of December, he reported her general well-being and happiness, but nothing more intimate. At the same time he was clear that Louis was a sick man, and although the Duke had secured his agreement to a meeting with Henry in the spring, it was by no means certain that he would last that long. 5 So anxious was Wolsey at this that he actually anticipated the news of the King’s death by writing to Mary early in January, urging her not to commit herself to any further marriage if Louis should die, a letter to which she replied on the 10th, as we have seen.
I pray you as my trust is in you for to remember me to the King my brother for such causes and business as I have to do for as now I have no other to put my trust in but the King my brother and you, and as it shall please the king my brother and his council, I would be ordered, and so I pray you my Lord to show his grace saying that the king my husband is departed to God of whose soul God pardon … I trust I have so ordered myself since that I came hither that I trust hath been to the honour of the king my brother and me since I came hither and so I trust to continue … 6
It is a very self-possessed letter, and one which shows that she knew very well what she was about. In an exchange of letters with the King and with Wolsey, she nevertheless revealed the extent of her anxiety. Trapped in the Hotel de Cluny, she felt isolated and vulnerable, cut off from her own people. Her English servants had been dismissed after Louis’ death, and replaced with French women, whom she did not trust. This action had presumably been taken by the Council, or by Louise of Savoy without Francis’s knowledge, because when she retaliated by dismissing her French attendants and reinstating the English, he did not object. 7 Her surviving letters from this period present something of a problem, because they all appear to be drafts, full of rewritings and corrections. She certainly used Wolsey as an intermediary with Henry, and sent the Archbishop her thoughts, which he then put into a form which he knew would be acceptable to the King, so these must be her rough versions. 8 Henry then responded with smooth reassurances of support. On 14 January he wrote to Francis, expressing his regret for Louis’ death, and congratulations upon his accession. He would, he intimated, shortly be sending a mission consisting of Brandon, Wingfield and West to sort out relations between the kingdoms in the new circumstances, and to negotiate Mary’s future. Francis, whose ambitions were focussed on Italy, was keen to renew the alliance with England, but reluctant to allow Mary to depart for fear that Henry would renew her betrothal to the Archduke Charles, or find some other equally unacceptable partner for her. 9 The King may have had some such thought in mind, but Mary was at pains to remind him of his ‘waterside promise’, which she was now insistent that he should honour. Since it would have been inconsistent with his chivalric code to have broken his promise to a lady, Henry now faced a dilemma. He discussed the matter with the Duke of Suffolk before his departure, and he seems to have agreed that he would accept some level of commitment to her on the Duke’s part; enough to persuade Francis to release her, but short of a full marriage. Indeed he extracted a promise from Suffolk that he would not marry her until after their return, perhaps intending to keep his options open in that direction. 10 Polydore Vergil’s account of what happened reveals a level of misunderstanding which was generally shared in the court:
The envoys came to Paris and explained to Francis the orders they had been given by Henry. Francis agreed with the greatest alacrity to perform all that was asked, except that it was quite clear that the departure of the girl seemed to be regarded by him with displeasure. Henry had anticipated this and ordered Charles to marry her; this was done in accordance with a decision taken before her French marriage … Francis rejoiced greatly at this since he had feared that she might be given to Charles, King of Castile. So Mary, having lost her first husband, yet returned home a wife … 11
The French King’s ‘alacrity’ to pay the sums demanded may be doubted, as there was considerable wrangling over this before an agreement was finally thrashed out, and Suffolk had certainly not been ‘ordered … to marry her’. However an understanding of some kind had been reached, and it was not as secret as it should have been, because when Suffolk reached Paris towards the end of January he was welcomed by Francis on the grounds that he had come to marry the King’s sister, an ambition which the Duke wa
s constrained to deny. However, when he met Mary, perhaps later that same day, he found that her mind was made up. She would ‘have none but me’ as he confessed to the King a few days later, and was quite prepared to accept the responsibility for her own actions. She had, he alleged, besought him with floods of tears, but it is unlikely to have happened in such a fashion. 12 Mary was a champion weeper when the occasion demanded, but this was no emotional decision, let alone a ‘hysterical’ one as has been claimed. It was a rational course of action, designed to placate Francis and to secure her release from Cluny. Nor was it a sudden decision, as Suffolk claimed. It was earnestly discussed between them over several days, as the risks of incurring Henry’s displeasure were weighed against the advantages of the French King’s favour. It remains something of a mystery what had passed between Mary and Francis that persuaded her into this drastic course of action. She knew, of course, that he was proposing several French noblemen as her prospective husband, but she also knew that he would be unable to force such a choice upon her without fatally disrupting his relations with Henry VIII. He had visited her at Cluny several times both before and after his coronation, and on one of his early visits she had assured him that she was not pregnant. Louise of Savoy did not trust her assurances, but the King apparently did, and went ahead with the plans for his crowning on that understanding. 13 On a later visit, according to Mary, he made some suggestions ‘not conducive to her honour’, which presumably means an offer to make her his mistress. It seems that he felt he owed this to himself, and was not too disconcerted when she rebuffed his advances; indeed they may not have been very seriously intended. On 15 February, some two weeks after her commitment to Suffolk, she wrote to her brother: