She was so distraught that she sent at once for her Confessor. She wanted to pray with him, to ask him to help her to bear this fresh burden, which had been put upon her by a cynical king.
He could not be found and when she sent for her physician he told her that her Spanish Confessor was one of those who had been dismissed.
So here she was at Court—even more wretched than she had been at Durham House. Her expenses might have decreased but her misery had intensified.
There was only one ray of hope at that time. On occasions she saw the Prince of Wales. He was always aware of her, she knew. Sometimes their eyes would meet and in his would be a smile, which was almost conspiratorial.
What did that mean? she wondered.
She looked for him on every occasion. She felt happier when he was there.
There was only one way she could escape from his intolerable situation. That would be through marriage with the Prince of Wales.
The King was by no means a happy man. He was still unmarried and he had one son only. True, Henry was growing into splendid manhood. He was already taller than his father, he was outstandingly handsome and with his light auburn hair and fair skin he was admired wherever he went. He took great care always to be dressed to the best advantage. He liked to show off his well-shaped legs and the sumptuous velvets and brocades of his garments were the talk of the Court.
All very well, thought the King, but I hope the boy is not going to be extravagant.
Certainly that could be curbed while the King lived but as Henry said to Dudley and Empson, it would be intolerable if the Prince believed that when he came to the throne he could plunge into that storehouse of carefully built-up treasure and squander it.
Everyone made excuses for him. He was young yet. He had great charm and good looks; he was admired by the people. When he grew older he would realize his responsibilities.
But would he?
The King watched his son closely, curbed his exuberance, keeping him at his side. He was determined that the Prince should not yet be allowed to set up a household at Ludlow but remain at the King’s Court.
The rift with Ferdinand was growing. Henry was in fact seeking friendship with Philip, Juana’s husband, who since the death of Queen Isabella had become virtually ruler of Castile. (Juana was the Queen, but women did not count, certainly not one who was half mad and at the same time besottedly in love with her husband so that he could do anything he would with her.) When Philip’s father Maximilian died Philip would be the most powerful man in Europe. He was therefore a man to be cultivated and the deeper the rift between Henry and Ferdinand the more Henry would need Philip’s friendship to stand against the French. Moreover Ferdinand’s marriage with the niece of the King of France had made this more important than ever.
Henry’s fury with Ferdinand was increased when English merchants trading in Castile were refused the privileges they had enjoyed for some time under Isabella’s rule and were unable to do business. Consequently they returned with their cargo of cloth and did not bring back the wine and oil the country needed. Ferdinand swore that this was no fault of his. It had been his government who had refused the English merchants permission to do business. He had done his best to persuade them to allow the trade to proceed as before but they had refused. The English merchants had come to Richmond to complain to the King and they were in a very angry mood. Henry hated to see business deals frustrated; he had great difficulty in placating the merchants and although he was not to blame, people had looked to him to make the country prosperous and if he failed to do so he would be the one to answer for the failure.
Indeed he needed to court the friendship of Philip who would be only too ready to go against his father-in-law for Ferdinand was very resentful that Isabella should have declared her mad daughter Juana Queen of Castile, for that meant handing over that country to Juana’s husband Philip.
But there was one other matter which made Henry feel he needed Philip’s friendship.
At the time of the rebellion of Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, which had given the King the opportunity to dispose of Sir James Tyrell and thus put an end to that specter, which had haunted him for a long time, the Earl had been exiled.
Perhaps it was a mistake to send people into exile. One never knew what they were plotting there. On the other hand Henry always avoided bloodshed except when he considered it absolutely necessary.
Four years had passed since Suffolk was brought to trial and during that time he had been in Aix. It was dangerous of course. But Henry had expected that and he watched the antics of his enemy very closely. At the time of Suffolk’s trial he had thought his claim to the throne was too remote to be of great importance. After all it came through his mother’s being sister to Edward the Fourth. Henry now realized that he should have been more careful and he would give a great deal to have Suffolk safely in the Tower.
He had signed a treaty with the Emperor Maximilian, father of Philip, in which Maximilian had promised he would not help English rebels, even though these rebels should claim the title of duke.
Suffolk had clearly been meant in this for he regarded himself as a duke even though his titles had been confiscated.
In spite of this Suffolk stayed at Aix for two years and when he did finally go after having been promised safe conduct, he was arrested in Gelderland and imprisoned in the Castle of Hattem. Shortly after his incarceration there, this castle had been captured by Philip; thus Suffolk had passed into the hands of the man whose friendship Henry now so ardently sought and one of the main reasons for this was Philip’s possession of Suffolk.
There were so many things in Henry’s mind. His spirits would have been considerably lifted if he could have found a bride. He missed Elizabeth more than he had thought possible. She had been so docile, never complaining, accepting his superior wisdom in all things. Having enjoyed the company of such a wife it was not surprising that he missed it and desperately longed to replace her.
The country was prospering as never before and his ministers thought it rather foolish of him to be so constantly worrying about a claimant to the throne springing up. It was due to those alarming insurrections of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck . . . and of course the continued fears concerning the Princes in the Tower. They had colored his outlook to such an extent that there were times when they dominated all else.
