CHAPTER IX.

Royal Marriages.

1526.

I. Down to the moment of his union to his cousin, Isabel of Portugal, Charles affected to be keeping his engagement with his cousin Mary of England. He had taken Mary's money, and received from her the bridal kiss. A gentleman, he affirmed that he would keep his oath; unless the King, his uncle, should desire to see him marry in some other court. As Emperor, he had to think of others more than of himself. The welfare of his states lay near his heart; yet nothing should be either done or undone save as Henry willed. He sorely wanted money, and he hoped the King, his uncle, would increase the dowry; but he seemed to leave his fate in Henry's hands; a trick, as Wolsey saw, to gain his ends without the risk of an unprofitable war. In answer to a hint from Rome about a league with France, the Cardinal required that one of the demands addressed to Charles before a final breach should be, "Will you marry the Princess Mary, with the dowry already paid, or will you not?"

2. Wolsey heard from Sampson, who was gone with Tunstal into Spain, that Charles and John had come to an agreement with each other, and that Isabel would be married to the Emperor when a

Papal bull had been obtained. Yet here was the Treaty of Windsor, binding Charles to wed his cousin Mary, and the dowry stipulated in that treaty had been paid. Henry refused to hear of Mary being abandoned. "Considering that the Emperor is to marry the King's only child," wrote Wolsey, even after hearing that the Portuguese match had been arranged, "it is only reasonable that the King should be better acquainted with his secret intentions than he is." But Charles was not excited by this lofty tone. The battle of Pavia, which freed the English king of Richard de la Pole, who fell among the heap of slain, had given the Kings of France and Navarre into the Emperor's hands. Charles kept a silent tongue, but by his hints he led the King, his uncle, to imagine he was bent on cheating Isabel and John. In striving to penetrate that icy front, Henry told his nephew that his union. with Mary would make him "lord and owner of all Christendom." Charles seemed to raise no question beyond that of Mary's custody. He wished to have the girl in Spain, in order that his people might be certain of their future Queen. Though fond of Mary, Henry was ready to consult his nephew's good. He named commissioners to treat for the delivery of his daughter to the Emperor, and Mary sent an emerald ring to her betrothed; saying it was a talisman of love and loyalty, which she desired him to wear for her sake; so that when, in God's own time, they met as groom and bride, she could read in the depth and purity of the stone whether he had been true to her or not.

3. The smooth and silent gentleman took the jewel, drew it on his finger, and inquired about his little spouse. With placid brow he learnt that she read good books, plied a busy needle, and adored his majesty. Had Mary's birth been free from cavil, and the Excellenta in her grave, the Emperor would have had the strongest reasons for preferring Mary to his cousin Isabel; but Spain was eager and excited and the Council of Castille insisted on the match with Portugal. A deputation from the cities waited on his chancellor, and learnt from him that Charles was bound to carry out his treaty with his cousin Mary. But they also learnt that Charles might feel himself assisted to a better notion of his duty by a little money. Charles, the Chancellor said, had pledged his troth, and spent the dowry of his bride. If they would pay his debts, he might be readier to oblige them in return. Yet on the day in which Sauvage used this language in Toledo, his ministers in London were asking the King to make his nephew happy, by sending his daughter out to Spain!

4. Wolsey learnt from Valladolid that every point was settled with the King of Portugal. Charles was to marry Isabel. A Papal bull was needed for his breach of faith with Mary; but to a victorious army, lying at the gates of Rome, the Pope would not be able to refuse a Papal bull. A man was found for Elinor, the widowed Queen. At first, it was the handsome Bourbon, with a kingdom to be torn from France; but since the death of Claude, the pretty widow had been lifting up her eyes to

wards Paris. Bourbon was a vassal prince, while François was a reigning King. Elinor, already Queen of Portugal, preferred to wear the matrimonial crown of France. As nothing could be left undone which Portugal desired, these offers were being pressed on the prisoner in Madrid, as part of his conditions of release.

5. Marguerite de Valois went to Spain, with some wild hope of fascinating Charles. She was a widow, and a widow's garments gave a pensive tone to her bewitching face. If Charles could only see how beautiful she was, it might be well not only for his captive, but himself. François had been foully used; badly by Bourbon, worse by Charles; and Marguerite, while freeing her brother, had no objection to secure a crown. As every cardinal wished to be Pope, so every princess wished to be Empress; but the young and calculating Cæsar had no eyes for Marguerite; though Marguerite entered into female plots with Elinor, each of whom agreed to help the other in her matrimonial schemes.

6. A secret agent of Louise de Savoy, one Passano, was in London, waiting for events to take a better turn. This man, by birth a Genoese, by trade a grocer, was employed by Louise, partly for his wit and knowledge of the world, and partly for the ease with which a grocer passed from port to port. No one save the Cardinal knew his purpose. On his coming over, Wolsey received him privately at Richmond; asked him several times to dinner; and seemed to have a liking for the man of figs. Being History of two Queens. V.

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asked what this Passano was about, Wolsey excused himself from entering on such trifles, adding that he would answer by-and-by. Passano lodged with Father Larke, a prebendary of St. Stephen's, near York Place. The Cardinal was also waiting on events, and when he heard of François' capture, he made a merit of dismissing Passano with much appearance of contempt. Passano soon came back to London, with the unpaid pensions due from France. A change was seen in Wolsey from that moment. Heretofore a public champion of the Holy League and the dismemberment of France, he now became an advocate for the King's release on reasonable terms, for an alliance with the French against the Emperor, and for a closer union of the House of Lancaster with the House of Valois.

7. Charles laid such heavy terms on François, that his prisoner, out of shame, proposed to abdicate his throne. Mary had once been promised to the Dauphin, and when François talked of abdicating, Wolsey renewed that scheme. Louise of Savoy, who was moving heaven and earth in favour of her son, consented to his scheme. The Dauphin, after marrying Mary, was to be proclaimed. Clement knelt in prayer, and Solyman raged in battle, at the instance of Louise; but nothing scared the Emperor's councillors like news of what the Regent and the Cardinal had done.