raceful"; he was warranted, he said, in describing
her as "a nymph from heaven".[181] A more critical observer of
feminine beauty thought her eyes and eyebrows too light,[182] but, as
an Italian, he may have been biassed in favour of brunettes, and even
he wound up by calling Mary "a Paradise". She was eighteen at the
time; her marriage with a dotard like Louis had shocked public
opinion;[183] and if, as was hinted, the gaieties in which his
youthful bride involved him, hastened the French King's end, there was
some poetic justice in the retribution. She had, as she reminded Henry
herself, only consented to marry the "very aged and sickly" monarch on
condition that, if she survived him, she should be allowed to choose
her second husband herself. And she went on to declare, that
"remembering the great virtue" in him, she had, as Henry himself was
aware, "always been of good mind to my Lord of Suffolk".[184]

[Footnote 178: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 582.]

[Footnote 179: _L. and P._, i., 4953.]

[Footnote 180: _L. and P._, i., 5203.]

[Footnote 181: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 499, 500.]

[Footnote 182: _Ibid._, ii., 511.]

[Footnote 183: _L. and P._, i., 5470.]

[Footnote 184: _Ibid._, ii., 227.]

She was probably fascinated less by Suffolk's virtue than by his bold
and handsome bearing. A bluff Englishman after the King's own heart,
he shared, as none else did, in Henry's love of the joust and tourney,
in his skill with the lance and the sword; he was the Hector of
combat, on foot and on horse, to Henry's Achilles. His father, plain
William Brandon, was Henry of Richmond's standard-bearer on Bosworth
field; and as such he had been singled out and killed in personal (p. 080)
encounter by Richard III. His death gave his son a claim on the
gratitude of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; and similarity of tastes
secured him rapid promotion at the young King's Court. Created Viscount
Lisle, he served in 1513 as marshal of Henry's army throughout his
campaign in France. With the King there were said to be "two obstinate
men who governed everything";[185] one was Wolsey, the other was Brandon.
In July he was offering his hand to Margaret of Savoy, who was
informed that Brandon was "a second king," and that it would be well
to write him "a kind letter, for it is he who does and undoes".[186]
At Lille, in October,