Often a Fiancée, Barely a Wife

Parents, in particular mothers, have a way of distressing their unmarried daughters with such remarks as, ‘When are you going to settle down and get married?’ or ‘I want to be a grandmother’ or the real body blow, ‘You’re not a spring chicken any more’ – like you haven’t noticed!

Such comments give the impression that men are throwing themselves at you from every direction, and you’re jus too darn picky to pick one. In fact, getting that man was never that easy. Ask Mary Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry Vlll. You’d think with her connections she’d have no trouble. But in fact, she barely managed to become a wife at all.

She started off pretty well. At the tender age of just two years of age, her affectionate father Henry Vlll, had her betrothed to the Dauphin of France, himself even younger than Mary, having barely escaped from his mother’s womb. To mark the occasion a gold ring, suitably set with a diamond of appropriate value, was placed on her very tiny, two-year old finger.

Thus assured of her future, Mary’s childhood should have been one of looking forward to a happy ever after ending.

No such thing. By the time Mary reached the mature age of five, the young Dauphin seemed to have lost interest in his future bride, and her father, looking around for a suitable man, decided that her first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was just the man. Now, instead of robbing the cradle by marrying a younger groom, she would be marrying a man 17 years her senior.

Sleeping on this for couple of years, Mary’s future husband decided he didn’t want to wait at least another ten years for his bride to grow up, and so this engagement was also broken off.

For a while there, it looked as though her first fiance’s Father, the King himself, might be a candidate. And just to be on the safe side, the contract stipulated that if the king had second thoughts about the marriage, then perhaps his second son, and brother to Mary’s first fiance, might be persuaded to marry the English rose.

However, these two candidates also had a change of heart. It would have probably broken Mary’s heart if she had been old enough to care. At the age of ten, it didn’t seem such a big deal. Still, time marched on and still no husband.

Almost too late, Mary realised that if she wanted a husband she would have to find one herself. On becoming a queen, she was at last able to acquire, what had been promised to her over and over again, a husband. But perhaps it was something about Mary, because like her many fiances, her husband didn’t really go for Mary. After a mere twelve months, he decided to go home to mother. He did make a flying visit to Mary some some years later. But even then, he didn’t stay.

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