On August 6th G. de Croy wrote to the emperor that 'he is afraid that the refusal of the archduchess will cool the friendship of Henry.' On August 8th Ulrich, Count of Montfort, and Claude Carondelet also sent a letter to Maximilian to inform him that 'they have travelled with all haste to Savoy in order to see the Archduchess Margaret, whom they found in company of the President of Flanders. They pressed her very strongly to consent to marry the King of England. Her answer, however, was that 'although an obedient daughter, she will never agree to so unreasonable a marriage.' On the 16th of August Monsieur de Croy and other councillors write to the King of Castile 'that they have written to the King of England... and have received this very day his answer, and send the letter of the King of England to him; they are much afraid that the King of England has cooled in his friendship in consequence of the answer which the Archduchess Margaret has given to the President of Flanders, and afterwards to the Count Montfort and the Bailly of Amont, ambassadors of the emperor, and again to the President of the King of Castile.' On September 24th Maximilian wrote to King Henry that 'he had not been able to persuade his daughter, the Archduchess Margaret, to marry him; but he would go and see her in order to persuade her.' Whilst these negotiations were taking place, an unexpected event freed Margaret from this distasteful marriage, though it added another sorrow to her lot. In September of the same year her brother Philip was attacked by a malignant fever at Burgos, brought on, it was said, by indulgence or over-exercise, and for days lay ill in raging delirium, not without strong suspicions of poison. He was assiduously attended by his wife Joanna, who never left his side, but in spite of all her care the disorder rapidly gained ground, and on the sixth day after his attack, on September 25th, he breathed his last. Philip was only twenty-eight years old, and had been King of Castile two months, dating from his recognition by the Cortes. After his death Queen Joanna still stayed by his side, deaf to all condolence or remonstrance, to all appearance unmoved. She calmly gave orders that her husband's body should be carried in state to the great hall of the Constable's palace upon a splendid catafalque of cloth of gold, the body clad in ermine-lined robes of rich brocade, the head covered by a jewelled cap, and a magnificent diamond cross upon the breast. A throne had been erected at the end of the hall, and upon this the corpse was arranged, seated as if in life. During the whole of the night the vigils for the dead were intoned by friars before the throne, and when the sunlight crept through the windows the body, stripped of its incongruous finery, was opened and embalmed and placed in a lead coffin, from which, for the rest of her life, Joanna never willingly parted.'[26] [26] Martin Hume, _Estanques Oronica in Documentos Ineditos_, vol. viii.