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Charles Brandon, Tudor Cad
The great scholar Erasmus once said of Mary Tudor, “Nature never formed anything more beautiful.” The pampered and adored younger sister of Henry VIII was married at 19 to Louis XII, king of France. After the princess arrived in Paris with her dowry of 400,000 crowns and hundreds of attendants, the French, disposed to find her a disappointment, admitted that Mary was, indeed, a “nymph from heaven.”
King Louis, 52, crippled with gout, died less than three months after his wedding to the nymph, but not before showering her with jewels, including “the Mirror of Naples,” a diamond pendant with a pearl “the size of a pigeon’s egg.” Everyone expected the gorgeous widow of the French king to make another spectacular royal marriage.
Instead, while still in France, she secretly took as her second husband a 31-year-old Englishman, Charles Brandon, the newly elevated Duke of Suffolk, celebrated for his masculine good looks, military valor, and jousting skill. But he was not of noble birth.
Before she sailed for France, Mary had told her brother she would only agree to wed the aged French king if she could choose her second husband herself. Desperate for the diplomatic alliance, Henry VIII had agreed. But Mary feared that once she returned to England, her brother would force her into another arranged marriage. She persuaded Brandon, whom she had known for…
