1530.
Aug. 23.
H. H. u. St. A.
England, f. 8.
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Eustache Chapuys to Margaret Of Savoy.
As soon as I received your letter of the 5th of this month I
communicated it to the queen, who was greatly rejoiced, both by
the good news from Germany and by the evidence of the solicitude
you have always shown for her affairs. Your letter came in good
time to mitigate the disappointment which she was feeling
because all the steps taken at Rome in her behalf have been
rendered nugatory by the pope's command. The English ambassadors
have given the pope to understand that he will win back
the king, their master, more easily by gentleness than by rigour,
and that his best course will be to send a nuncio here to remonstrate
with the king. All this will only delay matters and be a
waste of time. It could not succeed were the pope to come here
in person ; the obstinacy here is too great. It is true that if the
nuncio were trustworthy and zealous, he might do something
toward influencing parliament, through the bishops, to refuse its
consent to the king's new marriage. He might also be given a
commission to inquire as to the queen's virginity at the time this
king married her. This, the queen says it will be easy to prove
quite clearly, for she has several witnesses, and the king himself
formerly confessed the fact on several occasions. Even now he
will not deny it ; he only says he does not remember. Thus it
appears that the king himself has admitted that the marriage is
valid.
Some time ago I asked Mai to obtain a commission of this sort,
and I believe he has done what he could to obtain it and several
other commissions which may be of service to us if the nuncio uses
them. Even if the nuncio does nothing else, he can satisfy His
Holiness about the obstinacy of this king, his treatment of the
queen, and the wishes of the whole country for the preservation
of the marriage and the downfall of the lady.
The king does not rest in this affair. Within eight days after
the return of the lady's father, the king sent off two couriers to
Rome, the first bearing the seals which the king obtained in his
favour, and also a considerable sum of money which is the true
sauce to dress those seals to the Roman taste. Several days ago
the king called together a large number of nobles in council, for
what purpose I have been unable to discover unless to consult
them about the mission of the bishop of Bayonne. This bishop
arrived here yesterday and went to-day to see the king. He sent
me word that, were it not contrary to usage, he would have come
to see me before going to see the king, but that he hoped to see
me on his return and tell me some pleasant news, which I suppose
concerns the great satisfaction of all France with the queen
[Eleanor, queen of France] and the great desire of all the French to
maintain peace and friendship with the emperor.
London, 23 August, [1530].
Signed, Eustache Chapuys. French. pp. 2.
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