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…