The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts They Played in History — David Hume — John Shaqi
The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts They Played in History
David Hume · en
This was the ambassador who, with a colleague called Juan de Sepulveda,
was occupied through the spring of 1488 in negotiating the marriage of the
two babies--Arthur, Prince of Wales, and the Infanta Katharine. They found
Henry, as Puebla says, singing _Te Deum Laudamus_ about the alliance and
marriage: but when the parties came to close quarters matters went less
smoothly. What Henry had to gain by the alliance was the disarming of
possible enemies of his own unstable throne, whilst Ferdinand needed
England's active or passive support in a war against France, for the
purpose of extorting the restoration to Aragon of the territory of
Roussillon and Cerdagne, and of preventing the threatened absorption of
the Duchy of Brittany into the French monarchy. The contest was keen and
crafty. First the English commissioners demanded with the Infanta a dowry
so large as quite to shock Puebla; it being, as he said, five times as
much as had been mentioned by English agents in Spain. Puebla and
Sepulveda offered a quarter of the sum demanded, and hinted with pretended
jocosity that it was a great condescension on the part of the sovereigns
of Spain to allow their daughter to marry at all into such a parvenu
family as the Tudors. After infinite haggling, both as to the amount and
the form of the dowry, it was agreed by the ambassadors that 200,000 gold
crowns of 4s. 2d. each should be paid in cash with the bride on her
marriage. But the marriage was the least part of Ferdinand's object, if
indeed he then intended, which is doubtful, that it should take place at
all. What he wanted was the assurance of Henry's help against France; and,
of all things, peace was the first need for the English king. When the
demand was made therefore that England should go to war with France
whenever Ferdinand chose to do so, and should not make peace without its
ally, baited though the demand was with the hollow suggestion of
recovering for England the territories of Normandy and Guienne, Henry's
duplicity was brought into play. He dared not consent to such terms, but
he wanted the benevolent regards of Ferdinand's coalition: so his
ministers flattered the Spanish king, and vaguely promised "mounts and
marvels" in the way of warlike aid, as soon as the marriage treaty was
signed and sealed. Even Puebla wanted something more definite than this;
and the English commissioners (the Bishop of Exeter and Giles Daubeney),
"took a missal in their hands and swore in the most solemn way before the
crucifix that it is the will of the King of England first to conclude the
alliance and the marriage, and afterwards to make war upon the King of
France, according to the bidding of the Catholic kings." Nor was this all:
for when Puebla and his colleagues later in the day saw the King himself,
Henry smiled at and flattered the envoys, and flourishing his bonnet and
bowing low each time the names of Ferdinand and Isabel passed his lips,