Amid all the fencing and diplomatic insincerities that went on between Henry and Charles, concerning Mary’s status, his cousin’s real welfare had but a small share in the policy of the Emperor. Persecuted by her father, Mary had taken counsel with the powerful kinsman who, she thought, had her interests, and the cause for which she was suffering, at heart. But Charles was a much better politician than kinsman, and had no cause so much at heart as his own advantage, and that of the empire. He was anxious to be at peace with Henry for more reasons than one, and cared little what temporary concessions his cousin made, so long as they furthered this object. He had not seen his way to make war, when she and her mother had looked to him as their avenger, and now that the principal cause of estrangement between himself and Henry had been removed by death, he was eager to sacrifice Mary on the altar of peace. Her eyes were never opened to the treacherous part he had played, but Henry was not ignorant of the fact that she was entirely influenced by the Emperor. If she had yielded, he knew that she had done so with Charles’s approval, a circumstance that made largely for political amity. The days of chivalry were done, and Mary’s trust and confidence were ruthlessly employed to pave a way out of the imperial difficulties. Great stress was laid by Charles on the axiom, that concessions extracted by force or fraud had no binding power, so long as formal protests against the compulsion exercised were secretly made and signed. This principle was frequently applied between the three chief rulers of Europe at this period, and sometimes led to curious results.