Free Mary Tudor by Linda Porter Page A

confined to Church ceremony and Mary’s establishment played its part in the giving of alms to the poor and the sick.When Mary was a very small child this was obviously done in her name, but as she grew older she took an interest in the recipients themselves. She was a regular, though not extravagant, benefactress. It was part of her duty as a Christian and a great lady.

     
    Mary passed from childhood to the threshold of womanhood while she was based in the Marches.This was, in itself, part of the reason for sending her there.The 16th century had no concept of adolescence, and if 12 seems young to be considered as an adult, it was also viewed as old enough to marry and cohabit.The girl herself, the real Mary, is elusive, but not invisible. The infant princess, who had expressed so early a love for music, charmed visiting French diplomats and endeared herself (though nothing more) as the child-fiancée of the emperor CharlesV, was becoming a young lady. She had poise and regal bearing and she loved her parents. Mary was solicitous for her mother’s health but enjoyed her father’s company, his joie de vivre (which she seems to have shared, for it was remarked that she was a joyful child) and the culture of his court. Her time in Wales was a progression in her training, not a banishment, and she returned to court for state occasions.The Christmas of her first year away she did not spend with her parents but the late summer of 1526 was passed with the king and queen in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. She journeyed with them west to Ampthill until 1 October, when she returned to Wales. Richard Sampson, diplomat and confidant of Wolsey, witnessed her arrival at Langley, near Woodstock. He was struck by her composure and bearing:‘My lady princess came hither on Saturday; surely, sir, of her age as goodly a child as ever I have seen, and of as good gesture and countenance. ’ 16 He was also impressed by Mary’s substantial retinue, many of whom were apparently present when she and her father greeted each other.
    Foreign commentators spoke highly of Mary as well, and it is from them that more can be discovered about her appearance. In the spring of 1527 the Venetian ambassador, Gasparo Spinelli, writing to his brother, was nearly breathless in his description of the princess and the magnificent pageant in which she had played a prominent part. This spectacle was part of the entertainment given by Henry VIII to honour the count of Turenne and other French dignitaries, as discussions continued about another French marriage for Mary. This time the prospective bridegroom was the second son of Francis I, the duke of Orléans, and Mary was very much on show.
    After a joust marred by the spring rains, the company went back to the palace at Greenwich to witness the kind of spectacle for which the English court was renowned. Spinelli said he had never witnessed the like, anywhere. The decorations, the plate used at the sumptuous banquet, even the decorum and silence in which such public entertainments were given, all amazed him. Yet most stunning of all was the princess Mary herself. She was one of eight damsels ‘of such rare beauty as to be supposed goddesses. They were arrayed in cloth of gold, their hair gathered into a net, with a very richly jewelled garland, surmounted by a velvet cap, the hanging sleeves of their surcoats being so long that they well nigh touched the ground.’ In this company, Mary outshone all the others: ‘Her beauty in this array produced such an effect on everybody that all other marvellous sights … were forgotten and they gave themselves up solely to contemplation of so fair an angel. On her person were so many precious stones that their splendour and radiance dazzled the sight.’ Mary and the ladies then performed a dance with great skill. And at the end, when Mary presented herself to her father, he ‘took off her cap, and, the net being displaced, a profusion of silver tresses as beautiful as