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Sunday, September 19, 2021

Excerpts from Reports Following a Year of Royal Deaths (1536).

At this point in 1536, Catherine of Aragon has recently died. Anne Boleyn has been executed. The King’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Richmond, has been named heir and suddenly died of a consumptive disease. The King’s new wife, Jane Seymour, is pregnant though his wives have a tendency to miscarry. Jane may have been encouraging him to reconcile with his daughters by his previous marriages.

The Emperor’s representative in Rome, Dr. Pedro Ortiz, has an impressive network, it would seem, that keeps him informed with surprising speed of even the most sensitive communications between Eustace Chapuys, the English ambassador, in London, and the Emperor.

 

DR. ORTIZ to the EMPRESS ISABELLA. Rome, 17 August 1536.

This notwithstanding, writes the ambassador, Parliament ended its sessions four days before, on the 28th of July, after passing the statute concerning the succession to the throne of England. It had not yet been printed, but it was averred that both the Princess and the daughter of the King's concubine had therein been declared illegitimate. It is, moreover, established that the son or daughter to be born of this new marriage shall succeed to the Crown, and in their default, whoever the King should please to designate, for the appointment is entirely left to his will and discretion. In case of there being no sons at all of this last marriage, it is believed the King's determination was that the succession should go to his bastard son, the duke of Richamont (Richmond), who, however, being consumptive, happened to die, by God's permission, on the very same day that Chapuys wrote.

My firm belief is that the Princess has now greater need than ever of being commended to God in our prayers that she may stoutly persevere in that firm and resolute conduct which that holy martyr, the Queen, her mother, followed to the last.

Here, Chapuys speaks of a reconciliation between Henry and the Princess Mary. Mary’s most powerful supporter has been the Emperor. The tone becomes hopeful, even to the point of being unusually naïve for the ambassador.

 

EUSTACE CHAPUYS to the EMPRESS ISABELLA. London, August 29, 1536.

The Princess (thank God) is in good health, and has been, ever since her reconciliation with the King, her father, well and kindly treated,—nay, with greater ceremony and attention than in times of old, when nobody could dispute her title to the throne of England. Your Majesty ought to be very much pleased at this; for, besides her close relationship both to the Emperor and to Your Majesty, her having escaped safe from the greatest danger that ever a princess was in, and such as no words can describe, the change is of itself a motive for joy and thanksgiving. For it is to be hoped that through the Princess' means, and through her great wisdom and discretion, she may hereafter little by little bring back the King, her father, and the whole of the English nation, to the right path. It would, indeed, have been a great pity to lose such a gem, her virtues being of such a standard that I know not how to express and define her great accomplishments, her wisdom, beauty, prudence, virtue, austere life, and her other great qualities; for certainly all those who have been and are acquainted with her cannot cease from praising her any more than I can. Her love for the Emperor, her cousin, and for Your Majesty, is such that it cannot be surpassed. Not having facilities for writing, she has charged me to transmit to Your Majesty her most affectionate regards.

 

Matters have definitely much improved. Chapuys describes Mary in glowing terms such as were rarely applied to her during her life.

 

EUSTACE CHAPUYS to the EMPEROR. London, September 2, 1536.

With regard to the Princess, Cromwell told me that without fail she would shortly be appointed heir apparent to the Crown, and that the King, his master, approved entirely of her marriage to the Infante Dom Luiz [of Portugal], but said that it was requisite to proceed very slowly and with great caution in the matter, and that for the present it was enough to talk about the principal business. He, however, wished me to repeat before his colleagues what I once told him concerning the person, quality, and good parts of that Infante, which I did at once, and fancy that a good impression was produced. With regard to their favoring the pretensions of the Palatine duke Frederic, they said that it was an accessory to the principal point, and that they would do their best to persuade the King, their master, to include in the next treaty an article relating to it.

Mary has been given back her status and her servants. Negotiations are underway on several fronts for a suitable husband. Chapuys is hearing  from the king’s closest advisors that she will recover her place in the succession.  Life was surely much improved for Mary however many trials still lay ahead.

 

DR. ORTIZ to the EMPEROR. Rome, 7 Sept. 1536.

Wrote on the 9th of July and 17th Aug. Since then letters from Eustace Chapuys in date of the 12th ult. have been received, purporting that the Princess was much better treated than before, and that the King, awakened to her good qualities and many virtues, had ordered that she should now be attended just as his bastard daughter [Chapuys’ habitual designation of Princess Elizabeth] used to be when her mother Anne was alive. It is expected that very shortly her state and condition will be fixed in a permanent manner.

The King, says the letter, is at his usual amusement of the chase, with the Queen, as he is in the habit of doing every season; he will remain longer than usual this year.

 


Source: State Papers Relating to the Negotiations Between England and Spain, V. 5. Pt. 2. Henry VIII.


Also at Virtual Grub Street:

  • To Where Did Queen Elizabeth I Disappear in August 1564? July 18, 2021. “Leicestershire was in the opposite direction from London. Nichols could discover no more.”
  • Elizabeth I’s Progress to Cambridge University, 1564: Her Arrival. June 20, 2021. “The Queen would be the only woman riding a charger. It was a statement that she could rule as well as any king, including the rule of a war horse.”
  • Simnel Cake: Lenten Treat of the Ages. March 7, 2021. “Samuel Pegge sees confirmation that saffron was used in the crusts of simnel cakes in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale…”
  • Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador.  April 3, 2019.  “…the Queen of England, with the permission of her physicians, has been able to come out of her private chamber, she has permitted me… to see her…”
  • Lady Southwell on the Final Days of Queen Elizabeth I.  March 24, 2019.  “her majesty told [Lady Scrope] (commanding her to conceal the same ) that she saw, one night, in her bed, her body exceeding lean, and fearful in a light of fire.”
  • Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
  • Check out the English Renaissance Letter Index for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

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