heard a muttering of it before Whitsuntide.”[379] It will be seen from this gossip that the legend respecting the Duchess of Milan’s refusal to accept Henry because she had fear for the safety of her head was commonly believed at the time. Footnote 379: _C.L.P._, vol. xiv. pt. ii. 400. _Archæologia_, xxiii. 56. The written descriptions of Anne which Henry received from his representatives and agents were all favourable, but not enthusiastic. Wootton in the letter referring to Holbein, already quoted, says of her: “She has been brought up with the lady Duchess her mother (as the lady Sybille also was till she was married and the lady Amelye has been and is) and in manner never from her elbow, the lady Duchess being a wise lady and one that very straitly looketh to her children. All report her to be of very lowly and gentle conditions, by the which she hath so much won her mother’s favour that she is very loth to suffer her to depart from her. ‘She occupieth her time most with the needle, wherewithall she.... She canne reede and wryte her ... Frenche, Latyn, or other langaige she [hathe no] ne, nor yet she canne not synge nor playe [upon] enye instrument, for they take it heere in Germanye for a rebuke and an occasion of lightenesse that great ladyes shold be lernyd or have enye knowledge of musike.’ Her wit is good and she will no doubt learn English soon when she puts her mind to it. ‘I could never hear that she is inclined to the good cheer of this country and marvel it were if she should, seeing that her brother, to whom yet it were somewhat more tolerable, doth so well abstain from it.’”[380] Footnote 380: _C.L.P._, vol. xiv. pt. ii. 33. Sir Michael Mercator, the German factor of musical instruments, knighted by Henry, wrote to Cromwell later in the year, giving praise to God “for this alliance with the most illustrious, beautiful, and noble lady Anna de Clefves, who has a great gift from God, both of sense and wit. It would be difficult to describe her good manners and grace, and how Gueldres, Cleves, and all the country of the Duke, rejoice at the alliance.”[381] Footnote 381: _C.L.P._, vol. xiv. pt. ii. 500. [Sidenote: THE “FLANDERS MARE” LEGEND] Around Holbein’s portrait of Anne there has been woven a legend which upon examination is found to have no foundation in fact. The story is to be traced back to Bishop Burnet, who, in his _History of the Reformation_, says:[382] “Hans Holbin having taken her picture, sent it over to the king. But in that he bestowed the common compliment of his art somewhat too liberally on a lady that was in a fair way to be queen the king liked the picture better than the original, when he had the occasion afterwards to compare them.” Instead of the promised beauty, continues the bishop, they brought him over a “Flanders mare.” Footnote 382: Vol. i. pt. i. p. 543.