The English Experience in France c.1450-1558: War, Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange by David Grummitt

Author:David Grummitt [Grummitt, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138742895
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

7 ‘Une haquenée ... pour le porter bientost et plus doucement en enfer ou en paradis': the French and Mary Tudor's marriage to Louis XII in 1514

CHARLES GIRY-DELOISON

Recounting the last days of King Louis XII of France, the French chronicler Robert de La Mark, Seigneur de Fleurange, quoted the quip the clerks of the Parisian law courts (the basoche) circulating in Paris in November 1514 regarding his marriage to Princess Mary the previous month: le roy d'Angleterre avoit envoyé une haquenée au roy de France, pour le porter bientost et plus doucement en enfer ou en paradis'.1

Of course, the quip was meant to amuse. Louis was 52 and in poor health ('fort antique et débile' as Louise de Savoie so pleasantly wrote in her Journal2) and had married a very pretty but very young girl, 33 years his junior.3 It was common knowledge throughout the European courts that the king had been severely ill a few years before and was still suffering from gout.4 In December 1514, his doctors, who had put him on a very strict regime, were furious to learn that he was spending most of his days (and nights) with his newlywed: 'et lui disoient bien les médecins que s'il continuoit il en mourroit pour se jouer'.5 Indeed Louis fell ill the day after his wedding for, as Fleurange put it, 'il avoit voulu faire du gentil compaignon avecques sa femme; mais s'abusoit, car il n'estoit pas homme pour ce faire'.6 Although he attended the receptions in Paris in November, the king was unable to journey to the Loire valley, as had been planned. Instead the court went to Saint-Germain-en-Laye for three weeks, before returning to Paris in December to stay at the Hôtel des Tournelles7. The words also rang very true. In French, a hackney is a medium size mare, of the 'ambelinge stood'8 that proceeds at the leisurely pace fit for a woman. When Mary met Louis outside Abbeville on 8 October, she was riding such a hackney. The king went towards her, according to Fleurange, on his 'grand cheval bayard, qui saultoit'.9

But in reality, the basoche were out to ridicule the king and to discredit the new queen: in French, as in English, hackney also meant a filly or, worse, a prostitute.10 They were voicing the persistent rumours that, despite her marriage to Louis XII, Mary was engaged in relationships with Charles Brandon, the dashing Duke of Suffolk, and Francis, Duke of Vendôme (or of Bretagne as the English nobility liked to style him) and heir apparent to the crown of France. It is also quite likely that the basoche were taking revenge on Louis. If we are to believe Brantôme, the King of France, then married to Anne of Brittany, had warned them to be careful of what they said in their plays about him and his court, and certainly never to mention his wife on pain of being sent to the gallows:

. .. lui [Louis XII] estant raporté un jour que les

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.