“After my most hearty commendations, I think the time so long since I heard from the King’s Highness, my most benign father, that nature moveth me to be so bold as to send my servant this bearer with letters to his Grace, and also to the Queen, because I would very fain know how their Graces do, desiring you, my Lord, if for lack of witt I have sent sooner than I should have done, molesting his Grace with my rude letters, you will make such an excuse for me as your wisdom shall think best. For till it may please his Highness to license me to come into his presence which of all worldly things is my chiefest desire, my next comfort is, to hear often of his Grace’s health and prosperous estate; which I beseech our Lord long to preserve. My lord, your servant hath brought me the well-favoured horse that you have given me, with a very goodly saddle; for the which I do thank you with all my heart. For he seemeth to be, indeed as good as I have heard report of him, which was that he had all the qualities belonging to a good horse. Wherefore I trust in time to come, the riding upon him shall do me very much good concerning my health. For I am wont to find great ease in riding.”[202] Mary’s appearance at court was still delayed, probably on account of the difficulty with regard to her rank. If the King’s eldest daughter was thenceforth to be regarded as heiress apparent, she must appear as Princess of Wales, with pomp and circumstance, but all was as yet uncertain, and for the same reason, Henry came to no conclusion, respecting the various marriages again proposed for her. If he had no son, he would be unwilling for her to leave the kingdom, but in any case hers was a name to intrigue with. “He feels,” wrote Chapuys to the Emperor, “that he is getting old, and has no male children to succeed him on the throne, and knows that he will have enough to do to keep the peace in his own kingdom, where the novelties he has introduced are not generally approved of. He therefore thinks of nothing else save making of good cheer, and filling his coffers with the feathers of those whom he wishes to put down. All his late shifting and dissimulation have no other origin, than the fear he has of your Majesty’s affairs becoming prosperous again, and your coming over to England to chastise him.”[203]