Tea at Trianon: Mary Tudor’s Proxy Wedding to Louis XII of France

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, September 8, 2023

Mary Tudor’s Proxy Wedding to Louis XII of France

From Janet Wertman:

On this day in 1514, at Greenwich Palace, Henry VIII’s sister Mary Tudor married Louis XII of France (represented by the Duc de Longueville, acting as proxy). According to the notarial document of the event, the Princess Mary and the Duc de Longueville appeared before the King and Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas postulate of York, the Dukes of Buckingham, Norfolk and Suffolk, the Bishops of Winchester and Durham, the Marquis of Dorset, the Earls of Shrewsbury, Surrey, Essex and Worcester, John de Selva and Thomas Bohier. After a Latin speech by the Archbishop and John de Selva, the Bishop of Durham read the French King’s letters patent, and the Duc de Longueville, taking with his right the right hand of the Princess Mary, recited the French King’s words of espousal in French. Then the Princess, taking the right hand of the Duc de Longueville, recited her part of the contract in the same tongue. The Duc de Longueville signed the schedule and delivered it for signature to the Princess Mary, who signed Marye; after which the Duc delivered the Princess a gold ring, which the Princess placed on the fourth finger of her right hand.

To reflect her new status, the Princess Mary assembled a new, much larger, household. It is common knowledge that Anne Boleyn was named as one of her ladies – it is less common knowledge that Edward Seymour also was appointed to her household on this day. Anne and Edward were each around fourteen years old at the time, this was a common age for a first appointment (though in both their cases, there are some who allege that they were closer to seven or eight). When Mary’s marriage ended quickly, Edward bounced around a little. He served Cardinal Wolsey for a time, joined the Duke of Suffolk’s campaign in France in 1523, then was appointed to the household of the Duke of Richmond (the King’s illegitimate son) before snagging a spot as one of the King’s own Esquires of the Body in 1529. And of course, once his sister Jane caught the King’s eye in 1535, his future was assured…(Read more.)

More HERE.