Free Bastard Prince by Beverley A. Murphy Page A

Henry could now be reassured that that particular danger was laid to rest.
    It has also been argued that Richmond’s elevation was born more out of pique than policy. 11 During the battle at Pavia Francis I had been taken prisoner and his realm was now vulnerable to invasion. Henry was overjoyed. ‘Now is the time for the Emperor and myself to devise the means of getting full satisfaction from France’, he declared. His dream of regaining England’s ancient rights across the Channel, and more besides, at last seemed within his grasp. England prepared to reap the spoils of war. Forces were to be mustered, armaments to be made ready and money to be raised for the enterprise, from the so-called Amicable Grant. Whatever the political realities of the situation, and Henry was objective enough to arm his ambassadors with a sliding scale of demands, he clearly believed that the French throne could be his for the taking.
    Almost at once the King of England was being warned that Charles intended ‘little or nothing to your commodity, profit, or benefit’ and so it proved. More concerned with his own problems elsewhere, than indulging Henry’s dreams of European expansion, Charles V agreed terms for peace in the Treaty of Madrid. Whatever Henry had expected, it was not that.
    Not for the first time the King of England’s ambitions were thwarted by Katherine’s family. Like Ferdinand of Aragon before him, her nephew Charles V refused to co-operate in Henry’s grandiose designs. The king was bitterly disappointed and Richmond’s elevation has been seen as a deliberate snub to the queen and the Spanish alliance that she represented. Certainly, the ceremony did nothing to spare Katherine’s feelings. To make some honourable provision for a natural son was normal and expected. To parade him around the court, almost as if he was a legitimate prince, would have been a trial to the most patient of wives. For Katherine, who knew she had failed in her most basic duty, the implicit rebuke must have been keenly felt.
    Not only was there anxiety about the possible implications for her beloved daughter, Mary, but also Katherine’s own pride and honour were at stake. In a private letter, one of the Venetian observers wrote:
    It seems that the Queen resents the Earldom and Dukedom conferred on the king’s natural son and remains dissatisfied, at the instigation it is said of three of her Spanish ladies her chief counsellors, so the king has dismissed them the court, a strong measure, but the Queen was obliged to submit and have patience. 12
    Henry may have been angry enough not to care whether he upset and embarrassed his wife and through her therefore exact some small revenge on the real target of his wrath, Charles V. However, the significant financial outlay involved in Richmond’s elevation, at over £4,000 per annum, is evidence the king also had a far more serious purpose in mind than this transient satisfaction.
    It might also appear that Henry was pushed into honouring his son by Charles V’s decision, on 7 June 1525, to break off his engagement to Princess Mary. The couple had been betrothed since 1522 and their marriage could have offset many of the dangers of a female ruler. If Mary could marry and produce a son before Henry died, England’s future would be far more secure. Even without this obvious benefit, Charles V was a proven soldier and leader who could support her peaceful succession and help her to rule. If the king had to be a foreigner, a Hapsburg was perhaps rather more acceptable to the English people than either a Valois or a Stuart. If Mary’s marriage was a compromise from the ideal solution of a legitimate prince, then at least Henry could console himself with the thought that his grandson would one day rule over an immense empire.
    Now Charles V demanded that the nine-year-old Mary should leave England at once to be brought up among her future