Mary Rose (6 page)

… 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 …
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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.

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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’.
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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.