Mary Rose (25 page)

15. London Bridge.

16. The Tower of London.

17. Cardinal Wolsey. From a drawing by
Jacques le Boucq.

A ship represented Mary crossing the Channel, guided on its true course by the City of Paris. The sailors in the rigging sang her praises.

Noble Lady, welcome to France,
Through you we now shall live in joy and pleasure,
Frenchmen and Englishmen live at their ease,
Praise to God, who sends us such a blessing!

To which an orator responded:

Most illustrious, magnanimous princess,
Paris reveres and honours you
And presents this ship to your nobility,
Which is under the King’s governance.
Grains, wines and sweet liqueurs are therein,
Which the winds propel by divine ordinance.
All men of good will
Receive you as Queen of France.

In the last tableau before the Palais Royale, the angel Gabriel presided over the Garden of France, where shepherds sang.

As the peace between God and man,
By the intervention of the Virgin Mary,
Once was made, so now we,
The French bourgeois are relieved of our burdens;
Because Mary has married with us.
Through her justice and peace join
In the fields of France and in the countryside of England;
Since the bonds of love hold in restraining arms,
We have acquired for ourselves equally,
Mary in heaven and Mary on earth.

(Taken from Charles Read Baskervill (ed.)
Pierre Grigore’s Pageants for the Entry of Mary Tudor into Paris
, 1934. From BL Cotton MS Vespasian B.ii.)

Eighth Henry ruling this land,
He had a sister fair,
That was the widowed Queen of France,
Enrich’d with virtues rare;
And being come to England’s Court,
She oft beheld a knight,
Charles Brandon nam’d in whose fair eyes,
She chiefly took delight

And noting in her princely mind,
His gallant sweet behaviour,
She daily drew him by degrees,
Still more and more in favour;
Which he perceiving, courteous knight,
Found fitting time and place,
And thus in amorous sort began,
His love-suit to her grace.

Brandon (quoth she) I greater am,
Than would I were for thee,
But I can as little master love,
As them of low degree.
My father was a king, and so
A king my husband was,
My brother is the like, and he
Will say I do transgress.

But let him say what pleaseth him,
His liking I’ll forego,
And chuse a love to please myself,
Though all the world said no:
If ploughmen make their marriages,
As best contents their mind,
Why should not princes of estate
The like contentment find?

But tell me, Brandon, am I not
More forward than beseems?
Yet blame me not for love, I love
Where best my fancy deems.
And long may live (quoth he) to love,
Nor longer live may I
Then when I love your royal grace,
And then disgraced die.

But if I do deserve your love,
My mind desires dispatch,
For many are the eyes in court,
That on your beauty watch:
But am I not, sweet lady, now
More forward than behoves?
Yet for my heart, forgive my tongue
That speaketh for him that loves.

The queen and this brave gentleman
Together both did wed,
And after sought the king’s goodwill,
And of their wishes sped:
For Brandon soon was made a Duke,
And graced so in court,
And who but he did flaunt it forth
Amongst the noblest sort.

And so from princely Brandon’s line,
And Mary did proceed
The noble race of Suffolk’s house,
As after did succeed:
And whose high blood the lady Jane,
Lord Guildford Dudley’s wife,
Came by descent, who with her lord,
In London lost her life.

(From the
Suffolk Garland; or a Collection of Poems, Songs, Tales, Ballads, Sonnets, and Elegies, Legendary and Romantic, Historical and Descriptive, Relative to that County
, 1818. The reader will observe that the poet’s chronology in somewhat adrift!)

Introduction: Historiography & Background

1
. The Suffolk Garland is printed by W. C. Richardson in
Mary Tudor: The White Queen
(1970), pp. xiv–xvi. Jean de Prechac
, La Princesse d’Angleterre, ou la Duchesse Reyne
(Paris 1677), translated into English 1678. Marguerite de Lussan,
Marie d’Angleterre. Reine-Duchesse
(Amsterdam, 1749). Russell M. Garnier,
The White Queen
(London, 1899).

2
. J.J. Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII (
London, 1968). S. J. Gunn,
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, 1484–1545
(Oxford, 1988). See also D. Loades,
Henry VIII
(Stroud, 2011).

3
. Green,
Lives of the Princesses
, Vol. V. Both drew heavily on
The Union of the Two Noble Families of Lancaster and York
(edited by Richard Grafton in 1548), in the 1809 edition by Henry Ellis.

4
. Mary Croom Brown,
Mary Tudor, Queen of France
(London, 1911). On the theoretical possibility of Mary’s pregnancy, and the attentions of Francis, see also R. J. Knecht,
Francis I
(Cambridge, 1982), pp. 11–13.

5
. M. K. Jones and M. G. Underwood,
The King’s Mother. Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby
(Cambridge, 1992)

6
. Erin A. Sadlack,
The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe
(London, 2011).

7
. John’s father (also John) had been born to Katherine Swynford while she was still John of Gaunt’s mistress. Their subsequent marriage had legitimated him, and this was confirmed by the Pope, but he was barred from any claim to the throne by Henry IV in 1407. Margaret’s claim to the Crown depended upon whether this ban was accepted or not. This was controversial at the time, and since.

8
. Jones and Underwood,
The King’s Mother
, p. 61.

9
. S. B. Chrimes
, Henry VII
(1972), p. 18.

10
. Charles Ross,
Richard III
(1981). Edward had been betrothed to one Eleanor Butler before he had married Elizabeth, and this was alleged to have created a pre-contract, thus making all his children illegitimate. This was an old and discredited story, resurrected for the occasion.

11
.
The King’s Mother
, pp. 62–5.

12
. Chrimes,
Henry VII
, pp. 22–3.

13
. John Morton, Lionel Woodville and Peter Courtenay.

14
. For the agreement, see T. Rymer,
Foedera, Conventions, etc.
(London, 1704–35), XII, p. 226. By some means unknown, John Morton got wind of this intention, and warned Henry in time. Chrimes,
Henry VII
, p. 29.

15
. Anne of Beaujeu was effectively Regent for her brother Charles VIII, and was concerned to avoid a confrontation with England during the minority.

16
. These rumours seem to have been prompted by the thought that he would want to prevent her marriage to Henry, but that aim had been achieved by his agreement with the Queen Dowager over a year earlier.

17
. R. A. Griffiths,
Sir Rhys ap Thomas and His Family
(1993)

18
. Ibid. Chrimes,
Henry VII
, p. 43.
Cambrian Register
(1796), p. 83.

19
. R. A. Griffiths and R. S. Thomas,
The Making of the Tudor Dynasty
(1985) is particularly good on the Bosworth campaign.

20
.
Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII
, ed. W. Campbell (Rolls Series, 1873), I, p. 6.

21
. No fewer than twenty-nine of his councillors had served Edward or Richard in the same capacity. J. R. Lander, ‘The Yorkist Council and Administration, 1461–1485’,
English Historical Review
, 72, 1958, pp. 27–46.

22
. Chrimes,
Henry VII
, Appendix D, pp.330–1.

23
.
Rotuli Parliamentorum
(Records Commission, 1767–1832), VI, pp. 268–70.

24
. S. Anglo,
Spectacle, Pageantry and Early Tudor Policy
(Oxford, 1969), pp. 18–21.

25
. Chrimes, Appendix D, p. 330.

26
. Richard Rex,
The Tudors
(Stroud, 2002), p. 16.

27
.
Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII
, II, pp. 148 et seq.

28
. After James was killed at Flodden, she married Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, and engaged in a long struggle for the control of her son, James V. She divorced Angus in 1527 and married Henry Stuart. Her last years were spent peacefully at the Scottish Court.

29
. Erin A. Sadlack,
The French Queen’s Letters
, p. 4.

30
. J. J. Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
.

1. The Infant Princess

1
. This psalter remains in Exeter College Library in Oxford. Mary C. Brown,
Mary Tudor, Queen of France
(1911). The date of Mary’s birth is also indicated by the authorisation of a payment of 50
s
by Privy Seal bill to the child’s nurse, Anne Shenan, at Michaelmas 1496, suggesting that she was engaged in the spring.
Camden Miscellany
, 9, 1895.

2
. The main nursery seems to have been at Richmond until the fire of 1497, at which point it was moved to Eltham.

3
. W. C. Richardson,
Mary Tudor: The White Queen
(1970), p. 12.

4
. H. M. Colvin,
The History of the King’s Works
(1963–82), IV, ii, pp. 222–34.

5
. Richardson,
Mary Tudor
, pp. 14–15.

6
.
Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York
, ed. N.H. Nicolas (1830).

7
. Ibid.

8
. Jones and Underwood,
The King’s Mother
(1992), p. 67.

9
. Ibid.

10
. St. John’s College Archive D.4.10, notes 216–50.

11
. Chrimes,
Henry VII
, p. 67, n. 3.

12
. A. F. Pollard,
The Reign of Henry VII from Contemporary Sources
(1913/67), III, p. 231.

13
. Chrimes,
Henry VII
, p. 295.

14
. Richardson,
Mary Tudor
, p. 23.

15
. Ian Arthurson,
The Warbeck Conspiracy, 1491–1499
(1994), pp. 146–161.