The History of Mary I, Queen of England: as found in the public records, despatches of ambassadors, in original private letters, and other contemporary documentsStone, J. M. (Jean Mary)
History
The History of Mary I, Queen of England: as found in the public records, despatches of ambassadors, in original private letters, and other contemporary documents
Stone, J. M. (Jean Mary)
Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603; Mary I, Queen of England, 1516-1558
The usual revels were held in honour of the Emperor’s visit. The court
removed to London, and Charles was magnificently lodged at Blackfriars.
But he seems to have regarded the prodigality displayed with Hapsburg
seriousness, if not with absolute disapproval. He was urgently in need
of money, and would doubtless have been better pleased with a fresh
loan, than with all that was done in his honour. At all events, the
sombre stateliness of Windsor was more in accordance with his taste
and humour, and he was altogether in his native element when the terms
of the treaty were at last discussed. These included: (1) a settlement
of the differences between the Emperor and Francis; (2) a marriage
contract between the Emperor and the Princess Mary; (3) a league
between the Emperor and Henry for making war upon France, and for
recovering the territory which the English had lost in that country. A
clause was inserted, to the effect that Mary should be sent to Spain
to finish her education, when she was twelve years old.[31] The treaty
of Windsor was signed on the 19th June, but was not then published,
and “peace with France was dissembled”. Other things were dissembled
also; and, although Mary was brought to Windsor, to take leave of
her imperial cousin as his future bride, Wolsey soon discovered that
no reliance could be placed on the Emperor’s words or promises, and
that, as far as Charles was concerned, the whole negotiation and the
treaty of Windsor itself were nothing but a political fiction, in order
to alarm Francis. But indeed, in a competition of duplicity between
Charles, Henry, Francis and Wolsey, it would be rash to speculate as to
which of them would have borne the palm. Wolsey played a particularly
odious part, inasmuch as he not only convinced Francis that he was
anxious for the French alliance, but he was moreover in receipt of a
yearly pension from him. Meanwhile, the determination of the Princess
Isabella of Portugal to marry Charles served to further complicate
matters. She took for her motto the trenchant device, _Aut Cæsar aut
nihil_,[32] and the grandees of Spain threw their weight into the
scale with her, urging the Emperor to marry her, with whom he would
receive a million of gold, and not the English Princess, “about whom he
thought less than of the first named”.[33] Still Charles hesitated, or
affected to hesitate, and writing to Wolsey from Valladolid, the 10th
February 1523, he begs to have news of the King: “et de ma mieulx aimee
fiancee la Princesse, future Imperatrix”.[34] But much as Henry held
to the fulfilment of the contract, he had no longer any real hope of
it, and began to look for other possible alliances. It was thought in
France that the Dauphin would soon be crowned, and that then he would
marry the English princess,[35] but Gonzolles, the French ambassador
in Scotland, wrote to the Duke of Albany: “The King of England has
promised to give his daughter in marriage to the King of Scots, with
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