We are greatly indebted for the history of the Queen and the Princess Mary, during the next few years, to the interesting despatches of the imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, who arrived in England in August 1529. He was a native of Switzerland, aged about thirty, of distinguished, and even courtly manners, eloquent, quick-witted and trustworthy. Charles V. had been so much impressed with his sagacity that he sent him as ambassador, first to Francis I., then to Henry VIII., both enemies who required judicious handling. Full of minute details, his letters cannot be said to present either a wholly impartial, or still less a one-sided view of passing events. Chapuys was an avowed friend of the unhappy Queen and of her daughter, but as the accredited envoy of Charles V. he would not be likely to furnish him with false statements, or garbled facts, and although his natural bias leads him to write with eulogy of the Queen and the Princess, and with acrimony of their enemies, he would not have been the diplomatist he proved himself to be had he misled Charles as to the details of the tragedy that was being played before his eyes. He was a shrewd observer, tactful and discreet, so that he never compromised his position at court by showing too much zeal. He contrived to give Henry and Cromwell the impression that he was acting solely as the Emperor’s diplomatic agent, and thus was at first allowed to communicate freely with Katharine and Mary, and was often able to render them important service. In transcribing portions of these letters, Dr. Gairdner’s excellent translations of the original documents in the Vienna archives, and the versions of Don Pasquale de Gayangos have been used. Mr. Rawdon Brown’s transcripts from the Venetian archives are still important, and later on, of even greater interest. The condition in which Chapuys found the English Court was unique. Henry continued to treat Katharine with outward decency; they still sometimes dined together in public, and occasionally hunted in each other’s company. But Anne was never far off, and when at court, was treated with as much ceremony as the Queen herself. Mary was seldom allowed to visit her parents, probably because of Anne’s intense dislike to her. The favourite was, perhaps not unnaturally, less jealous of the wife whom Henry had ceased to care for, than of the daughter whom he was supposed to idolise. Both at Hampton Court and Windsor there was ample accommodation for the Queen, and the mistress as well; but at York Place, Whitehall, which Henry had seized on Wolsey’s fall, there was no suitable apartment for Katharine; and Anne was always best pleased to be there, for then Henry left his wife at Greenwich. But the court was seldom in London, and Anne agitated incessantly that she might be banished.[74]