#rawdon brown

He [Henry VIII] was very accomplished and a good musician; composed well; was a capital horseman, and a fine jouster; spoke good French, Latin, and Spanish; was very religious; heard three masses daily when he hunted, and sometimes five on other days, besides hearing the office daily in the Queen's [Katharine of Aragon] chamber, that is to say, vespers and compline. He was extremely fond of hunting, and never took that diversion without tiring eight or ten horses, which he caused to be stationed beforehand along the line of country he meant to take. He was also fond of tennis, at which game it was the prettiest thing in the world to see him play; his fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest texture.

On Friday the 7th instant the King [Henry VIII] left Greenwich and crossed to Calais. It is said he goes to terminate the divorce, and espouse Marchioness Anne [Boleyn]; but one of the doctors who wrote in favour of his Majesty, declares that he will take for wife the daughter of the most Christian King [Madeleine of Valois, daughter of François I of France], and give the Marchioness [Anne Boleyn] in marriage in France, so as to unite himself with the Pope [Clement VII] and satisfy the Emperor [Charles V]; and for this purpose the Bishop of Langres [Claude de Longwy de Givry], who had been to the Emperor, came hither. 

No Englishmen of note have perished, but of the fate of the King of Scots [James IV] himself no certain intelligence has been hitherto received; the Earl of Surrey [Thomas Howard], when tired after the battle, having written this much in haste to the Queen [Katharine of Aragon], promising to transmit more exact details speedily. The Earl of Surrey's first letters were forwarded by the Queen to Tournai, and as yet no further particulars have reached the King [Henry VIII], who, however, on their arrival will take care to have them imparted to the Duke [of Milan, Maximilian Sforza]. […] [Signed:] Henricus. From our own camp at Tournai, 16 September 1513 […] P.S.—After writing the foregoing, has received sure intelligence that the King of Scots himself perished in the battle, his body having been found and recognized, and taken to the nearest church. He thus paid a heavier penalty for his perfidy than we would have wished.

The King [Henry VIII] came to London for the festival of the Corpus Domini, and on the following Sunday, the 18th [of June], created a natural son of his, aged seven years, by name Henry [FitzRoy], Earl of Nottingham and Viceroy, and subsequently Duke of Richmond and Donisan [Somerset], conferring on him, in conclusion, the highest grade in the kingdom, so that now he is next in rank to his Majesty. After this the King created his nephew Earl of Exeter [Henry Brandon, who was actually created Earl of Lincoln, not Exeter], making two of his cousins, one a marquis [Henry Courtenay, made Marquess of Exeter], the other an earl [Thomas Manners, made Earl of Rutland]; and of four [actually three] other gentlemen two [one] were made earls [Henry Clifford, made Earl of Cumberland], and two viscounts [Thomas Boleyn, made Viscount Rochford, and Robert Radclyffe, made Viscount Fitzwalter], with great ceremony and festivity. [...] It seems that the Queen [Katharine of Aragon] resents the earldom and dukedom conferred on the King's natural son and remains dissatisfied, at the instigation, it is said, of three of her Spanish ladies, her chief counsellors; so the King has dismissed them the Court, —a strong measure, but the Queen was obliged to submit and to have patience.

I [Reginald Pole] will tell you of the grievous trouble and remorse which [...] the most Serene Queen Katharine [of Aragon], had to endure, as frequently alluded to by herself, always thinking of this, namely, that a great part of her troubles emanated from God, not through any fault of her own, but for the salvation of her soul; and that the Divine justice thus punished the sin of her father King Ferdinand, for when he commenced negotiating her marriage with Prince Arthur, the eldest son of the King of England [Henry VII], some disturbances took place at the time, owing to the favour and goodwill borne by the people to my mother's brother [Edward] the Earl of Warwick, [...] who being the son of [George] the Duke of Clarence, brother of King Edward [IV], became, by the death of that King's sons, next heir to the English crown. King Ferdinand [...] made a difficulty about it, saying he would not give her to one who was not secure in his own kingdom; and thus, by inciting the King to do what he already desired spontaneously, he was the cause of the death of that innocent Earl, who had no more blame in those commotions, nor could anything else be laid to his charge, save the danger which the King in Council alleged had already befallen him in part, through the existence of the said Earl; and in addition to this having heard the opinion of the King of Spain, he did that deed, of winch [...] he so greatly repented on his death-bed. But the Divine justice did not permit so iniquitous an act of injustice to remain unpunished, for at the end of six months Prince Arthur died, nor could he any longer enjoy the wife who had been given him by such bad counsel [... ] To these causes that good Princess said that she attributed in great part the annoyances and distresses endured by her, confessing that she was therefore very much bound to recompense and requite us [the family of the Earl of Warwick] for the detriment we had received on her account (although she was not in the least to blame for it), and to show us every kindness, having found by experience that in all her sorrows and afflictions, from no family of the realm had she ever received greater consolation than from ours, although for her sake we had received so many injuries.

The Lady Margaret [of Austria] had come to the castle to visit the King, very much to the satisfaction of both one and the other, and to the great joy of their respective subjects. The King of England [Henry VIII], in the presence of the lady aforesaid, sang and played on the gitteron-pipe (flauto de cythara), and the lutepipes (lira de' flauti; sic) and on the cornet (corno); and he danced. The Queen [Katharine of Aragon] had written to him, congratulating him on the victory, and on his capture of the Duke of Longueville [Louis I d'Orléans] adding that it was no great thing for one armed man to take another, but that she was sending him three, taken by a woman; and that if he sent her a captive duke, she should soon send him a king.