This happy state of affairs however was not destined to endure, for Francis and Charles soon tired of their strife, and in the autumn of 1537 there were signs of a reconciliation. Francis, moreover, had strengthened his position by a league with the Turk, and began to feel powerful enough to make a move without Henry’s leave. The first intimation of this unpleasant fact came to Henry in the shape of a refusal of a matrimonial offer. The death of Queen Jane had left him free to marry again, and so gave him an excellent opportunity once more to mix in continental affairs, which he did not permit to escape him. Cromwell wrote a letter for him to Lord William Howard and Gardiner, artfully instructing them to feel the way for a possible alliance with Mme. de Longueville, who had just been affianced to James of Scotland. It was too much of a favour to ask Francis to put aside the claims of a sovereign who had always been his true friend, to make way for those of the more powerful but perfidious King of England, and Henry’s offers were, after some negotiations, politely but firmly declined, to the latter’s intense chagrin[593]. An almost equally ominous note of warning came from Spain at the same time. Sir John Dudley, ambassador to announce the death of the Queen at the Spanish Court, had expressed to the Emperor the King’s sorrow that his repeated offers of mediation with France had been set aside, whereupon Charles turned on him, and informed him that negotiations with France were already set on foot, though he relieved Henry’s anxiety a little by assuring him that no actual treaty should be made without the King of England’s being included as a ‘premier contrahent,’ a promise which Cromwell was continually harping upon a year later, when the situation had entirely changed[594].