Spain: 1530 | British History Online

Calendar of State Papers, Spain: Further Supplement To Volumes 1 and 2, Documents From Archives in Vienna. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1947.

Citation:

'Spain: 1530', in Calendar of State Papers, Spain: Further Supplement To Volumes 1 and 2, Documents From Archives in Vienna, ed. Garrett Mattingly( London, 1947), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/spain/further-supp/vols1-2/pp449-450 [accessed 27 November 2024].

1530



1530. Aug. 23. H. H. u. St. A. England, f. 8.	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.