9th October 2016
Today in 1514 Mary Tudor, younger sister of Henry VIII, married Louis XII and became Queen of France. She was in love with Henry's friend Charles Brandon, but she played her part of dynastic bride impeccably. Renowned for her beauty in an age when looks were symbolically associated with virtue and status, she must have looked remarkable in gold brocade trimmed with ermine, with her hair loose under a coronet of precious stones. Louis, dressed to match her, was 52 to her 18 and had no son – he must have been hopeful that Mary would be able to provide one. But he died less than three months later, without conceiving a new heir.
Margaret Tudor sent her sister a prayer book as a wedding present, probably made for her own marriage to James IV of Scotland. You can just make out her inscription, which reads 'Madame I pray your grace remember on me when ye loke upon thys boke/ your lofing syster Margaret'. This quote from my latest novel Three Sisters, Three Queens is from Margaret's perspective:
I reply to her kindly, my silly little sister, smiling as I write. I say that I am sending her a book of hours as a wedding gift and that she should pray and think on God’s will; He will take her husband in His own good time. If that day comes I will gladly remind our brother that she wishes to choose her next husband, and I think, but I do not say, that she is a fool to hope to ruin herself, demean herself for love. I say that she must do her best as a Queen of France and as the wife of Louis – I think of him as the old lecher but I do not say that either. I write that I hope she is able to give him a child, though my lip curls even as I write it. How shall such a diseased old man get a son? I say that I hope that she will find happiness in her new country with her husband and I mean it – this is my dear little sister, as pretty as a doll and as brainless. From my pinnacle of experience and happiness I promise to pray for her. I am afraid of what he will do to her, I am afraid for her. I will pray, as she will, that the old monster dies quickly and sets her free.
Images: Mary Tudor and Louis XII of France, c.1514, British Library Cotton MS Vespasian B II, via Wikimedia Commons; Margaret Tudor's inscription on f. 188 of the Prayer Book of James IV of Scotland, c.1503, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Cod. 1897 Han (http://search.obvsg.at/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?institution=ONB&vid=ONB&onCampus=false&lang=ger&docId=ONB_aleph_onb06000148511, detail from scan 389)