Read Online The Last White Rose by Desmond Seward - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Desmond Seward
Ads: Link
Richmond’s widow. She declined, however, while her brother Lord Surrey proclaimed his contempt for so low a marriage. What made matters worse was that Surrey had made advances to Seymour’s wife. He began whispering into Henry’s ear that the Howards had designs on the throne; he understood exactly how to drop hints of disaffection that the king would interpret as clear proof of treason.
In his late twenties, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was a tall, horse-faced young man with a forked beard, very different from his father. A dazzling if troubled figure, he had spent a year at the French court with his friend the Duke of Richmond (the king’s short-lived son), where he learned not only French but Italian, and became a genuinely great poet – one of the first Englishmen to use the sonnet. Yet despite his brilliance and although basically honourable – unlike his father – there was something shallow about him. He could be childishly frivolous, as in January 1543 when he had led a group of gilded young com panions on a riot through London (shooting stone-firing crossbows at passers-by, smashing windows) that ended in the Fleet prison. Obsessed with display, he liked to ride through the city streets with an escort of fifty horsemen.
Arrogant, hot-tempered and quarrelsome, never hiding his contempt for fellow courtiers who were not nobly born, Henry Howard’s attitude is encapsulated by his comment on Cromwell’s fall: ‘Now is that foul churl dead, so ambitious of other blood, now is he stricken with his own staff.’ People like that would leave no noblemen alive, he added. 5 There is also a persistent tradition that, when very young, he had been in trouble for striking in the face Queen Jane’s brother, the recently ennobled Edward Seymour, partly from disdain for his comparatively ignoble origins. Understandably, he had a talent for making enemies. At first, however, his youthful high spirits amused the king, who would have agreed with the verdict of a contemporary cleric, ‘the most foolish proud boy that is in England’. 6
Henry would not have been so fond of Surrey, however, had he read Surrey’s sonnet Sardanapalus , which almost certainly had the king in mind, although it was probably written after the earl had lost favour.
The Assyrian king – in peace, with foul desire
And filthy lusts that stained his regal heart –
In war, that should set princely hearts on fire,
Did yield for want of martial art …
Who scarce the name of manhood did retain,
Drenchèd in sloth and womanish delight,
Feeble of sprite, unpatient of pain. 7
One of those men for whom war offers the best hope of staying out of mischief, Surrey served in France from 1543 to 1546, at one stage as Lieutenant General of the King on Sea and Land – commander-in-chief in the field. He turned out to be a born soldier who quickly established his authority over both starving, ill-paid English troops and tough, mutinous mercenaries, besides displaying a flair for organization. He led from the front, so much so that Henry wrote to chide him for risking his life. To the king’s joy, Boulogne was taken, doubling English territoryaround Calais. Although the earl had to abandon the siege of Montreuil, he beat off a determined attempt by the French to recapture Boulogne. However, after his humiliating rout by the French during a skirmish near St Étienne in January 1546, when he lost a fifth of his army and several of his standards, the earl was demoted by Henry to Captain of Boulogne, and then recalled to England. He had forfeited royal favour for good.
Surrey went back to the Tudor court, which was more dangerous than any battlefield. After winning the king’s approval and having wealth and honours heaped upon him, a man could all too easily end up on the scaffold. Shortly after his return, the earl had a disastrous argument with an officer who had served under him at Boulogne. Losing his temper, Surrey insisted that a council could not
In his late twenties, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was a tall, horse-faced young man with a forked beard, very different from his father. A dazzling if troubled figure, he had spent a year at the French court with his friend the Duke of Richmond (the king’s short-lived son), where he learned not only French but Italian, and became a genuinely great poet – one of the first Englishmen to use the sonnet. Yet despite his brilliance and although basically honourable – unlike his father – there was something shallow about him. He could be childishly frivolous, as in January 1543 when he had led a group of gilded young com panions on a riot through London (shooting stone-firing crossbows at passers-by, smashing windows) that ended in the Fleet prison. Obsessed with display, he liked to ride through the city streets with an escort of fifty horsemen.
Arrogant, hot-tempered and quarrelsome, never hiding his contempt for fellow courtiers who were not nobly born, Henry Howard’s attitude is encapsulated by his comment on Cromwell’s fall: ‘Now is that foul churl dead, so ambitious of other blood, now is he stricken with his own staff.’ People like that would leave no noblemen alive, he added. 5 There is also a persistent tradition that, when very young, he had been in trouble for striking in the face Queen Jane’s brother, the recently ennobled Edward Seymour, partly from disdain for his comparatively ignoble origins. Understandably, he had a talent for making enemies. At first, however, his youthful high spirits amused the king, who would have agreed with the verdict of a contemporary cleric, ‘the most foolish proud boy that is in England’. 6
Henry would not have been so fond of Surrey, however, had he read Surrey’s sonnet Sardanapalus , which almost certainly had the king in mind, although it was probably written after the earl had lost favour.
The Assyrian king – in peace, with foul desire
And filthy lusts that stained his regal heart –
In war, that should set princely hearts on fire,
Did yield for want of martial art …
Who scarce the name of manhood did retain,
Drenchèd in sloth and womanish delight,
Feeble of sprite, unpatient of pain. 7
One of those men for whom war offers the best hope of staying out of mischief, Surrey served in France from 1543 to 1546, at one stage as Lieutenant General of the King on Sea and Land – commander-in-chief in the field. He turned out to be a born soldier who quickly established his authority over both starving, ill-paid English troops and tough, mutinous mercenaries, besides displaying a flair for organization. He led from the front, so much so that Henry wrote to chide him for risking his life. To the king’s joy, Boulogne was taken, doubling English territoryaround Calais. Although the earl had to abandon the siege of Montreuil, he beat off a determined attempt by the French to recapture Boulogne. However, after his humiliating rout by the French during a skirmish near St Étienne in January 1546, when he lost a fifth of his army and several of his standards, the earl was demoted by Henry to Captain of Boulogne, and then recalled to England. He had forfeited royal favour for good.
Surrey went back to the Tudor court, which was more dangerous than any battlefield. After winning the king’s approval and having wealth and honours heaped upon him, a man could all too easily end up on the scaffold. Shortly after his return, the earl had a disastrous argument with an officer who had served under him at Boulogne. Losing his temper, Surrey insisted that a council could not
Similar Books
