Page:The Queens of England.djvu/413

 MARY THE FIRST. 371 divorce, they owed the vengeance of the cruel and vindictive Henry. Again were Mary's pecuniary resources so much abridged that she was compelled to have recourse to the medium of Cromwell to represent her poverty to her father. This appeal, which must have been painful to Mary to make, was answered by the gift of one hundred pounds from Henry, which relieved her for some time from the pressure of want. In 1539 Henry signified his desire to his daughter, then residing at Hertford Castle, that she should receive the suit of the Duke Philip of Bavaria, lately arrived in England. This prince, who was nearly allied to Anne of Cleves, between whom and Henry a marriage had been then concerted, was the avant-courier of his cousin, and was received with peculiar favor by the king. On this occasion Mary again pleaded her desire to remain single, — a plea, the sincerity of which in this instance may well be credited, when the reader reflects that her proposed suitor professed the Protestant creed, while she was a bigoted adherent to the Roman Catholic one. But although Mary urged this plea, she too much dreaded incurring the anger of Henry to reject in more positive terms the alliance he wished her to form. She was compelled to receive the suit of Philip, to accept the gift which as an acknowledged suitor he be- stowed on her ; and had not the conduct of Henry to Anne of Cleves been such as too deeply offended her kinsman to admit of his continuing to urge his suit, there is every probability that she would have become, however unwillingly, the bride of the Bavarian prince, who had already acquired, by his in- vincible courage against the Turks, the epithet of "Philip the Brave." That this prince entertained an affection for her was proved by his willingness to wed her when the stigma of illegitimacy shut out all hope of her future accession to the throne, and when the well-known parismony of Henry pre- cluded any expectation of a rich dowry to his daughter. Among the ladies distinguished by the favor of Mary, the fair and afterwards celebrated Geraldine, must not be overlooked. She came to reside with the princess in 1538, at Hunsdon, and there commenced an affection between them that never knew a change. The Lady Geraldine was allied in no remote degree to Mary, being the daughter of Lady Elizabeth Grey, whose father, the Marquis of Dorset, was the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth Woodville. The father of the fair Geraldine was the Earl of Kilclare, who perished on the scaffold in 1537. The