At Calais, Mary said she would stay until she heard from the King.[196]
His message has not been preserved, but fears were never more strangely
belied than when the pair crossed their Rubicon. So far from any attempt
being made to separate them, their marriage was publicly solemnised
before Henry and all his Court on 13th May, at Greenwich.[197] In
spite of all that happened, wrote the Venetian ambassador, Henry
retained his friendship for Suffolk;[198] and a few months later he
asserted, with some exaggeration, that the Duke's authority was
scarcely less than the King's.[199] He and Mary were indeed (p. 084)
required to return all the endowment, whether in money, plate, jewels
or furniture, that she received on her marriage. But both she and the
Duke had agreed to these terms before their offence.[200] They were
not unreasonable. Henry's money had been laid out for political
purposes which could no longer be served; and Mary did not expect the
splendour, as Duchess of Suffolk, which she had enjoyed as Queen of
France. The only stipulation that looks like a punishment was the bond
to repay the cost of her journey to France; though not only was this
modified later on, but the Duke received numerous grants of land to
help to defray the charge. They were indeed required to live in the
country; but the Duke still came up to joust as of old with Henry on
great occasions, and Mary remained his favourite sister, to whose
issue, in preference to that of Margaret, he left the crown by will.
The vindictive suspicions which afterwards grew to rank luxuriance in
Henry's mind were scarcely budding as yet; his favour to Suffolk and
affection for Mary were proof against the intrigues in his Court. The
contrast was marked between the event and the terrors which Wolsey had
painted; and it is hard to believe that the Cardinal played an
entirely disinterested part in the matter.[201] It was obviously his
cue to exaggerate the King's anger, and to represent to the Duke that
its mitigation was due to the Cardinal's influence; and it is more
than possible that Wolsey found in Suffolk's indiscretion the means of
removing a dangerous rival. The "two obstinate men" who had ruled (p. 085)
in Henry's camp were not likely to remain long united; Wolsey could
hardly approve of any "second king" but himself, especially a "second
king" who had acquired a family bond with the first. The Venetian
ambassador plainly hints that it was through Wolsey that Suffolk lost
favour.[202] In the occasional notices of him during the next few
years it is Wolsey, and not Henry, whom Suffolk is trying to appease;
and we even find the Cardinal secretly warning the King against some
designs of the Duke that probably existed only in his own
imagination.[203]
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