Mary Tudor (10 page)
Authors: Anna Whitelock
W
ITH THE DIVORCE CASE REFERRED TO ROME, THERE SEEMED
little prospect of Henry securing a favorable judgment. By the Treaty of Cambrai, Francis, Charles, and the pope had come to terms and ended French military efforts in Italy. France could no longer be used to put pressure on the emperor. While in Charles’s custody, the pope had promised the emperor “not to grant unto any act that might be preparative, or otherwise, to divorce to be made to the King and Queen.”
2
It signaled Wolsey’s fall from favor. He had failed in his efforts to free the pope from Charles’s domination and to secure the annulment that Henry demanded. In his dispatch of September 1, the new imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, reported that “the affairs of the Cardinal are getting worse and worse every day.” Henry had banned him from receiving foreign ambassadors and prevented his coming to court. As the envoy continued in cipher, “the cause of this misunderstanding between the King and the Cardinal can be no other than the utter failure of the measures taken in order to bring about the divorce.”
3
By October, Wolsey had been charged with
praemunire
, the illegal exercise of papal authority in England, in his role as legate. On the twenty-second, having resigned the lord chancellorship to the
lawyer and accomplished humanist Sir Thomas More, Wolsey acknowledged his offenses and placed himself and his possessions into the king’s hands.
Anticipating that the verdict from Rome would be hostile, Henry now embarked on an English solution to the annulment. Letters “of great importance,” as the accounts of Sir Brian Tuke, the master of the posts, record, were sent to Henry’s ambassadors in Rome, instructing them to inform the pope that neither he nor any other Englishman could be summoned to a Roman court because by ancient custom and privileges of the realm no one could be “compelled to go to law out of the Kingdom.”
4
Over the next four years, under the stewardship of Thomas Cromwell, Parliament gradually eroded Rome’s power in England: first to pressure the pope to make concessions, then to fashion a homemade settlement. By 1533, Henry would be the supreme head of the English Church and married to his new wife, Anne Boleyn.
AS THE CAMPAIGN
against the Church reached a crescendo, relations between Henry and Katherine broke down irrevocably, with Mary remaining the only bond between them. In March 1531, Henry “dined and resorted to the Queen as he was accustomed, and diminished nothing of her estate, and much loved and cherished their daughter the Lady Mary, but in no ways would he come to her bed.”
5
Mary lived in the midst of all this: sometimes at a distance in adjacent royal houses, at other times at court. At Christmas the previous year, Henry, Katherine, and Mary had been together; but Anne Boleyn remained a constant, tormenting presence. On Christmas Eve, Katherine directly challenged Henry about his relationship with Anne. His behavior was a personal affront to her: he was setting a scandalous example. Henry’s response was curt: there was nothing wrong in his relationship with Anne, and he intended to marry her whatever Katherine or the pope might say.
6
Anne was becoming equally bold. In conversation with one of Katherine’s ladies-in-waiting, she declared that “she wished all the Spaniards were at the bottom of the sea” and added that “she cared not for the Queen or any of her family, and that she would rather see her hanged than have to confess that she was her Queen and mistress.”
7
Katherine now wrote to the emperor that she believed Anne alone stood in the way of a reconciliation with her husband and if she—that “woman [Henry] has under his roof”—were out of the way, their marriage might have a chance. Her husband’s behavior displayed “not the least particle of shame.”
8
For Mary, separation from her father was proving hard to bear, and she continually petitioned to see him. In July 1530, she wrote asking to be allowed to visit him before he left for four months of hunting. On this occasion Henry agreed. He traveled to Richmond, where Mary was staying, and spent the whole day with her, “showing her all possible affection.”
9
Suspicious of Mary’s influence over her father, Anne Boleyn sent two servants to report on their conversation.
10
The following summer, Henry visited Mary again at Richmond “and made great cheer with her,” speaking of her as he had when she was a young child, as a great “pearl.”
11
Such visits became more infrequent as Henry’s views became increasingly colored by those of Anne. As Chapuys surmised, the king’s apparent reluctance to see Mary was “to gratify the lady [Anne] who hates her as much as the Queen, or more so because she sees the King has some affection for her.”
12
Chapuys believed that Anne was constantly scheming to have Mary moved as far away from court, and her father, as possible.
13
The child who had once bound the royal couple together was now used by Henry to pry them apart. The king demanded that Katherine choose between his company and that of Mary. He made it clear that if she visited the princess she might be forced to stay with her permanently and lose what little claim she had on Henry’s companionship.
14
Desperate not to enrage Henry, Katherine “graciously replied that she would not leave him for her daughter, nor for anyone else in the world.”
15
It was a painful and ultimately futile gesture of wifely loyalty.
AT THE END
of May, a further attempt was made to force Katherine to submit to Henry’s will on the divorce. A delegation of some thirty privy councillors was sent to see her in her Privy Chamber at Greenwich. Once again they made their case on behalf of the king, and once again Katherine’s response was robust:
I say I am his lawful wife, and to him lawfully married and by the order of the holy Church I was to him espoused as his true wife, although I was not so worthy, and in that point I will abide till the court of Rome which was privy to the beginning have made thereof a determination and final ending.
16
The king would not approach Katherine again on the matter.
Henry and Anne left court for several weeks, leaving Katherine behind.
17
It marked the beginning of their public separation, though Katherine did not at first realize it. She sent a messenger to inquire about her husband’s health, as was usual when they were apart, “and to signify the regret she had experienced at not having been able to see him before his departure for the country.” Could he not at least have bid her farewell? Henry’s reply was cruel and to the point. “He cared not for her adieux,” he replied; “he had no wish to offer her the consolation of which she spoke or any other; and still less that she should send to him or to inquire as to his estate.” He was “angry at her because she had wished to bring shame on him by having him publicly cited.”
18
To both Katherine and the emperor’s ambassador, it was obvious who was responsible: it “must have been decreed by her [Anne].”
19
Mary and her mother stayed at Windsor, hunting and moving between royal residences. When Henry and Anne were ready to return, the king sent orders that his daughter should go to Richmond and the queen, banished from court, to Wolsey’s former residence, The More in Hertfordshire.
20
It was the last time mother and daughter would see each other, though at the time neither realized it. Their separation would, it was hoped, force Katherine to accept a repatriation of the trial back to England. But, as Chapuys predicted, Katherine would never agree, “whatever stratagems may be used for the purpose.”
21
Now, without her mother’s comfort and support, the fifteen-year-old Mary would have to grow up alone.
Shortly after parting from her mother, Mary became unwell with sickness and stomach pains.
22
She wrote to the king that “no medicine could do her so much good as seeing him and the Queen, and desired his licence to visit them both at Greenwich.” Chapuys reported that “this has been refused her, to gratify the lady, who hates her as much as the Queen, or more so, chiefly because she sees the King has some
affection for her.”
23
It is likely that Mary’s illness was the onset of menstruation, with recurrent pains and melancholy exacerbated by distress and anxiety. It was a condition from which she would suffer repeatedly.
IN THE SUMMER
of 1531, Mario Savorgnano, a wealthy Venetian, visited England from Flanders. His praise of Henry’s warm welcome and impressive physique and intellect was tempered by criticism of his private mores. His wish to divorce his wife “detracts greatly from his merits, as there is now living with him a young woman of noble birth, though many say of bad character, whose will is law to him, and is expected to marry her.” Having visited the queen, Savorgnano went to Richmond Palace to see Mary. The Venetian waited in the Presence Chamber
until the Princess came forth, accompanied by a noble lady advanced in years, who is her governess, and by six maids of honour. We kissed her hand and she asked us how long we have been in England, and if we had seen their Majesties, her father and mother, and what we thought of the country; then she turned to her attendants, desiring them to treat us well, and withdrew into her chamber.
This princess is not very tall, has a pretty face, and is well proportioned, with a beautiful complexion and is fifteen years old. She speaks Spanish, French and Latin besides her own mother English tongue, which is well grounded in Greek, and understands Italian, but does not venture to speak it. She sings excellently and plays on several instruments, so that she combines every accomplishment.
24
Mary was acknowledged as a highly accomplished European princess. But in the years that followed such talents would be overshadowed by the need for courage and self-preservation. She would be forced to grow up quickly.
THE SCANDAL OF CHRISTENDOM
