This is the only reference in the State Papers to the despatch of one of the King’s painters to Germany in the earlier part of 1538, but it is interesting as containing a possible reference to Holbein and to some journey of his of which we have no further knowledge. It is much more likely, however, that Chapuys was misinformed, and that no such expedition actually took place, though it may have been suggested but afterwards abandoned. [Sidenote: SEARCH FOR A BRIDE IN GERMANY] About the middle of January 1539, Christopher Mont, or Mount, a German in Henry’s service, was sent abroad with letters of credence to the Duke of Saxony and the Landgrave. The ostensible purpose of his mission was to promote the attempted agreement between the English and German divines which had been the subject of numerous conferences in the previous year; but the real object was to find out to what extent Henry might rely upon the German Protestant princes in any trouble which might arise between England and the Pope or Emperor. At the same time, Mont, who was accompanied by Thomas Paynell, took with him private instructions from Cromwell, which included a secret message to Francis Burgartus,[368] the Duke of Saxony’s vice-chancellor, with respect to a marriage between the young Duke of Cleves and the Princess Mary, which he and Cromwell had discussed in London in the previous year. If, the instructions ran, Burgartus desire “the picture of her face,” Mont is to remind him that she is a King’s daughter, and that it was not the custom to send the picture of persons of such degree abroad. Burgartus, too, had seen her, and could testify of her proportion, countenance, and beauty. But there was a matter of still greater importance about which Mont was to sound the vice-chancellor, whose master, the Duke of Saxony, had married the eldest daughter of the Duke of Cleves, and was one of the most interested parties in any alliance proposed between England and Germany. Mont was to inquire diligently of the beauty and qualities of the elder of the two unmarried daughters of the Duke of Cleves, her shape, stature, and complexion, and, if he heard she was such “as might be likened unto his Majesty,” he was to throw out suggestions as to a marriage between her and the King. The proposal, however, must come from the side of Cleves, as the overtures made to his Grace in France and Flanders had not been finally refused. Mont, in short, was not to speak as if demanding her, “but rather to give them a prick to offer her;” but first of all, “it is expedient that they should send her picture hither.”[369] In this way the Princess Anne of Cleves first appears on the scene, and the Duchess of Milan, and the ladies of Guise and other royal French houses finally vanish from it. Footnote 368: Or Burgratus (Burchardt). Footnote 369: _C.L.P._, vol. xiv. pt. i. 103.