Free Mary Tudor by Linda Porter Page B

ever seen on human head fell over her shoulders’. 17
    It is a wonderful description, but Spinelli’s Italian gallantry was perhaps overstated. Mary’s hair was auburn, not silver, unless it had been specially dressed for the occasion. Nor was his rapturous description of the princess’s appearance shared by the hard-headed Turenne. The French-man confined his compliments to Mary’s intellectual achievements, but his primary concern was to find a bride who could be married without delay. In his judgement, Mary was ‘too thin, spare and small’ to be married for the next three years. She did not look like childbearing materrial for the House of Valois.The French king took Turenne’s advice. He married his son, the future Henry II, to a plainer, podgier and very rich young Italian called Katherine de Medici. She failed, for many years, to produce children, but when she did, they came thick and fast. Her marriage was desperately unhappy and there is no reason to suppose that Mary would have fared any better, so perhaps it was a lucky escape.
    So there were contrasting views of the princess, but they were not necessarily contradictory. Mary was described elsewhere as being small for her age, though before her teens her health does not seem to have been a problem. She was a small-framed person, which might explain Turenne’s comments about her weight.There were reports in 1528 that she was suffering from smallpox, but if she did it could not have been a serious bout of that often deadly and disfiguring ailment. One thing on which all observers would agree, throughout her life, was that she was blessed with a beautiful complexion. She seems also, as a girl, to have had a charming and endearing personality, not as extroverted as her father but less withdrawn than her mother, or, at least, as her mother had become. Her servants loved her devotedly and she frequently repaid them with lifelong support. She revered and loved her parents, and she was a dutiful god-daughter, writing to Wolsey in 1528 that she knew it was through his intercession that ‘I have been allowed, for a month to enjoy, to my supreme delight, the society of the king and queen my parents.’ The one thing that had vexed her, she told the cardinal, was that she had been unable to visit him and thank him personally for ‘your frequent favours vouchsafed to me and mine’. It is the earliest of Mary’s letters to survive, and it has about it an air of sincerity and warmth. 18 Mary was a princess full of grace, with the presence of royalty and a mind well suited to the duties that lay ahead.
    Another Italian, Mario Savagnano, was not so effusive as Spinelli when he met Mary four years later, at the palace of Richmond, though he acknowledged that she was attractive and accomplished. Mary came out to greet Savagnano and other members of an Italian deputation, supported by the faithful countess of Salisbury and six maids of honour. He described her as ‘not tall, [she] has a pretty face, and is well-proportioned [no longer, apparently so thin and spare], with a very beautiful complexion … she speaks Latin, French and Spanish, besides her own mother-English tongue and is well-grounded in Greek and understands Italian but does not venture to speak it’. This, if true, showed a formidable range of linguistic achievement. ‘She sings excellently and plays on several musical instruments, so that she combines every accomplishment. ’ After the Italian visitors had left, Mary, ever the perfect English hostess, sent them a present of wine and ale and white bread. 19

     
    The princess Mary was 15 when she received this testimonial, though four years had passed since she was recalled from the Marches. At the time, her return may not have been intended as permanent - she had come and gone on several occasions during her residence there - and the Council of the Marches continued to function at Ludlow till 1534. Yet Henry chose to keep his daughter in the south-east