WITH the exception of works executed for his royal master, such as the “Duchess of Milan” and the lost French portraits, the likeness of the infant Prince Edward, and that of Anne of Cleves, there is nothing by Holbein which can be ascribed with absolute certainty to the years 1538 and 1539.[366] It is possible that the portraits of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and his son, Henry, Earl of Surrey, were produced in the latter year, but no dated likeness by him is known of any member of the court circle, or, indeed, of any Englishman or German, painted during these two years. It is true that more than one of his undated works may be of this period, but there is no actual proof, beyond that of style, in favour of such a contention. This may be accounted for to some extent by his frequent absences from England on the King’s business, which would leave him less time than usual for private practice, while there is also the possibility that at least some of the works he produced during these two years have been lost. Footnote 366: The portrait of Henry VIII in the National Gallery, Rome, now attributed to Holbein, was painted, according to the King’s age inscribed on the background, in 1539 or 1540. See above, p. 103. By the beginning of 1539, when alarms of war were in the air, and the alliance between Francis and the Emperor was growing closer every week, Henry had abandoned all idea of a marriage in France or with the Duchess of Milan, and was turning his thoughts towards Protestant Germany. The project of this fresh matrimonial venture was not entirely a new one; it was under consideration during the previous summer in the midst of the more active negotiations elsewhere. There is a curious passage in one of Eustace Chapuys’ letters to the Emperor, dated London, 17th June 1538, in which he infers that Henry had grown less anxious for the Milan match because the Germans were making him offers. “Indeed it is a fact,” he says, “that about that time the King sent to Germany a painter (_ung paintre_) and one gentleman of his chamber for the express purpose of pourtraying the personages ‘au naturel’; for, although Cromwell at first denied this, or at least dissembled, he afterwards owned to me (Chapuys) that the report was true, that both from France and Germany several marriages had been proposed.” These marriages, he adds, according to report, were to be between the son of the Duke of Cleves and the Princess Mary, and Henry and one of the Duke’s kinswomen.[367] Footnote 367: _C.L.P._, vol. xiii. pt. i. 1198. _Spanish Calendar_, v. ii. 225.