Bastard Prince (20 page)

The royal party set sail for France on 11 October 1532. The Duke of Richmond was allowed a train of forty attendants. Over the next ten days Anne lived ‘like a Queen . . . and the King accompanies her to mass and everywhere, as if she was such'. On 21 October, reality intruded on this idyll when Henry and a small retinue left to meet the King of France. The Venetian ambassador, writing from England, assumed that Richmond accompanied his father. In fact, it seems to have been agreed that the children, like the ladies, would play no actual part in the summit. Henry VIII was introduced to Francis I's three sons at Boulogne, but they did not accompany their father to Calais.

In the meantime, Richmond was not exactly left cooling his heels among those ladies who had accompanied the new Marchioness of Pembroke.
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Much of the English nobility, including Richmond's stepfather, Edward Fiennes, Lord Clinton, also remained behind at Calais. Richmond may have been slightly put out that the Earl of Surrey was included in the king's party. However, not only was Surrey two years older than him, but since his wedding to Frances de Vere, the daughter of John, Earl of Oxford, in April 1532, he also had the added dignity of being a married man. Although Surrey did not live with his wife until 1535, this was evidently sufficient to class him among the adults.

The king's departure ensured that Richmond (rather than Anne) was the highest ranking noble at Calais. Perhaps this as much as any impatience at his exclusion explains why he was at the forefront of the welcoming committee when Henry VIII and Francis I returned to Calais. As they approached the town, Richmond hastened to meet them:

Francis I entered Calais to a 3,000 gun salute. In the lavish accounts of the feasting, music, dancing, and wrestling that Henry organised for the entertainment of the French king, Richmond features only briefly when the King of England hosted a special chapter of the Order of the Garter and Richmond was placed next to Francis. However, the duke was about to embark on what was, in effect, his first diplomatic mission.

The events at Calais were not solely about entertainment and extravagance. Even as the two kings attempted to outdo each other in spectacle, display and outfits encrusted with jewels, their respective ministers attended to the business of the summit. By 29 October, when Francis finally took his leave in a lavish exchange of gifts, it had been agreed that Richmond should go to the French court. It is fair to say that the news was not very important to the French who laconically reported:

It is hard to know which gift the Frenchman held in more esteem. Slightly more accurately, the Venetian ambassador relayed that Henry VIII ‘gave as servant to the most Christian King [Francis] his natural son'. He, at least, knew that Richmond was only thirteen years old.

Despite the earlier rumours about an exchange with Francis I's second son, Henri, duc d'Orléans remained firmly in France. The only envoy the King of France sent to the English court was a gentleman of his privy chamber. It was hardly a reciprocal arrangement. Admittedly, the French king had struggled to be reunited with his children, who had been held hostage in Spain to ensure their father's good faith in respect of the Treaty of Madrid, and he was perhaps naturally reluctant to give one up now.

By 10 November 1532, when Richmond had expected to have taken his final leave of his father, he was still trying to make provision for those of his servants who would not be accompanying him. It had evidently been decided that those who remained in England would be lodged in various religious houses that would provide them with ‘meat and drink for themselves, horse meat for their geldings and chambers for their lodgings' apparently at the monasteries' own expense. The prior of Tutbury monastery, in Staffordshire, was informed that he was expected to accommodate Robert Amyas, the clerk of Richmond's jewel house, together with his personal servant and their two horses. The prior was not given much choice in the matter. Richmond signed his letter ‘trusting you will show yourself conformable . . . like as all other religious fathers doth, as the King's trust and mine expectation is you will be'.

Since the decision to send Richmond into France had been under consideration for the last five months, such last minute urgency suggests a change of plans. If Richmond's absence had been envisaged as a matter of weeks, then nothing like this would have been necessary. Apparently Richmond's
séjour
in France was now to be considerably longer than had been originally planned.

It is often assumed that Richmond went to France primarily for the sake of his education: perhaps to attend the university, but largely so that he could acquire the manners and polish of the French court. Somewhat incongruously, given the English people's fairly xenophobic dislike of the French nation, one of Anne Boleyn's most admired attributes was the grace and style which she had acquired as a child on the continent so that ‘no one would ever have taken her to be English by her manners, but a native born Frenchwoman'. The French language had been part of Richmond's studies since Palsgrave's appointment in 1525, and while the court of Henry VIII would have provided some opportunity to practise his skills, this was obviously a perfect opportunity to increase his fluency. When the two courts were discussing a mutual exchange, perhaps the educational benefits were a factor in the arrangement; however, by 12 November 1532, contemporary observers were speculating that the true motive behind Richmond's journey was rather more political.

It was reported that Henry and Francis had agreed that Richmond should go to France ‘for the greater security of the matters treated between them' at the summit. Events certainly seem to bear out the idea that something discussed during the nine-day meeting had affected both the purpose and duration of Richmond's trip. With the benefit of hindsight, the proposed marriage between Henri, duc d'Orléans and the pope's niece, Catherine de Medici, which was due to be celebrated the following year, seems the most likely explanation. On such a happy occasion Francis I would be well placed to persuade Clement VII to grant Henry VIII his long desired annulment. In return, Henry could offer not only his profound gratitude, but also a possible alliance against Charles V.

As the king's only son Richmond was a powerful, physical surety for Henry's good faith, although the child, the spitting image of his father, may also have been chosen for another reason. Richmond was living proof that Henry's marriage to Katherine had been an offence to God. Here also was the underlying promise that his union with Anne would prove fruitful. Richmond's presence was conclusive proof of the validity of the king's position.

If Richmond was merely a token of Henry's good intentions, or simply a physical demonstration of the present alliance between the two kings, then Francis I was curiously unwilling to accept him. The gentleman of his privy chamber that Francis I sent over to England was entrusted to ensure that Henry made good his promise of ‘the present and gift' which the king of England had apparently promised to the French princes. This sounds suspiciously like a bribe, something that would not be necessary if the arrangement was to their mutual benefit. If Richmond's visit to the French court was primarily to serve Henry's own interests, then his generosity was perhaps instrumental in securing Francis I's agreement.

Nevertheless, Richmond was received by the French king with every outward sign of cordiality and affection. Accompanied by the Earl of Surrey and perhaps as many as sixty attendants, he finally left Calais in the second week of November. As he made his way through the countryside to rendezvous with the French court, it was happily reported back to England that Richmond was being ‘very well welcomed and in all places have had presents of wine with other gentle offerings'. Although Surrey fell ill, Richmond suffered no ill effects from his first trip abroad, finding the food and climate ‘very natural unto him'. By 5 December 1532, the Venetian ambassadors in France reported that Richmond had arrived and ‘resides at the court, living at very great expense and very honourably'. Richard Tate, the duke's almoner, wrote to inform Henry that Francis had greeted Richmond with a warm embrace and ‘made him great cheer' even saying that he now considered himself to have four sons.

Francis I was as good as his word. Once the dauphin, his two brothers, and the assembled nobility had welcomed Richmond, he was granted the status of one of the king's privy chamber. When the French court returned to Paris for the winter, Richmond was placed in the dauphin's own lodgings. Every day he took dinner and supper with the French princes. Although Tate was not entirely satisfied, grumbling secretly that ‘I find great fault in [the] setting forward of my lord's train which as yet is out of f[rame]' he was optimistic that this would soon be amended. That small protocol aside, it does seem that Richmond was being accorded every outward mark of respect by the French.

Richmond spent the rest of the winter in Paris with Francis I's three sons. The young princes made their guests welcome, the splendid tournament hosted by the dauphin in January 1533 being exactly the sort of thing Richmond would enjoy.
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Francis, the dauphin, was just over a year older than Richmond, having been born in February 1518. His brother Henri, duc d'Orléans was born in March 1519 and their younger sibling Charles, duc d'Angoulême on 22 January 1522. Richmond probably had most in common with the duc d'Orléans, the future Henri II, who was almost exactly the same age as him.

It is easy to imagine these two young royals getting on well. Henri was a lively child, the one most likely to take Richmond out riding or to play tennis. In the winter months he liked to go sliding on the ice on the pond at Fontainebleau or if the weather turned to snow he would make snow forts to hold snowball fights. The dauphin, described as colder and more reserved, preferred to keep himself to himself. He habitually dressed in black and was perhaps not always the best of company. Charles was not only considerably younger than Richmond, but also widely reputed as having a rather quick temper.

While he was in France, Richmond's circle of associates was not confined to a choice between the company of the three French princes or his English entourage. Not unlike the model envisaged for him at Sheriff Hutton, children from several eminent French families lodged with the dauphin and his brothers. The houses of Lorraine, Bourbon, Cleves and Guise were among those who had sent their sons to the court to share the royal princes' sports and studies.

Surrounded by sons of the highest nobility in France, Richmond seems to have made a good impression and been well liked. Several years after his death when Henri and his brother Charles were at a banquet with the English ambassador, Sir John Wallop, Henri suddenly ‘began to speak of my lord of Richmond, lamenting his death greatly, and so did mons d'Orleance likewise'.
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The ambassador was quick to point out that they had brought up the subject of the duke without any prompting from him, and the brothers' spontaneity, as much as their warm words, seems to indicate fond childhood memories of the duke. However, unlike at Sheriff Hutton, Richmond was far from being the centre of attention. When the French court began its summer progress he was quickly swallowed up in its train.

In general, the French displayed very little interest in Richmond's presence at court. When Montmorency, the dauphin's governor, wrote to his cousin, the arrival of the duke was mentioned only in passing and it was clear which piece of news was more important to him:

Direct or indirect references to Richmond's activities in any contemporary French sources are extremely rare. A passing mention in a letter to Arthur, Viscount Lisle does not exactly count, as it might be expected that he would be interested in news of his king's only son.

While the French chroniclers record in endless detail the pageantry, speeches, spectacles and gifts which accompanied the progress of the court, describing the separate entries of the king, the queen, the dauphin and other persons of note, not one of them saw fit to mention Richmond's presence. A contemporary account of the court's entry into the town of Béziers gives an exhaustive list of those who followed in the French king's train. Even so, Richmond is lost among the great number of nobles that the author frankly admitted that he had left out. Whatever importance Richmond was accorded by the English people, to the French he was simply the King of England's bastard son and of small account in their affairs. His exact status, hovering somewhere between private magnate and royal offspring, was in a delicate balance. Yet, whatever importance Henry VIII set by Richmond's embassy, it seems it was not shared by the French people.

On 23 April 1533, Francis I celebrated the feast of St George's Day ‘with much ceremony' at Fontainebleau. Since only a handful of his court were members of the Order of the Garter, this solemn observance of its major festival was no doubt staged in honour of Richmond's presence. Shortly afterwards the whole court departed on the first leg of their journey towards Marseilles. Their progress was designed to culminate in the celebration of the de Medici marriage and that meeting with the pope. However, this was also the first opportunity that the French king had had to visit much of his realm in person. As the train wound its way across France it was greeted with pageants, processions and presents from the inhabitants of the various towns en route.