y in January, Wolsey had
written to her, warning her not to make any fresh promise of marriage.
Two friars from England, sent apparently by Suffolk's secret enemies,
told Mary the same tale, that if she returned to England she would
never be suffered to marry the Duke, but made to take Charles for her
husband, "than which," she declared, "I would rather be torn in (p. 082)
pieces".[192] Suffolk tried in vain to soothe her fears. She refused
to listen, and brought him to his knees with the announcement that
unless he would wed her there and then, she would continue to believe
that he had come only to entice her back to England and force her into
marriage with Charles. What was the poor Duke to do, between his
promise to Henry and the pleading of Mary? He did what every other man
with a heart in his breast and warm blood in his veins would have
done, he cast prudence to the winds and secretly married the woman he
loved.

[Footnote 188: _L. and P._, ii., 134, 138, 163.]

[Footnote 189: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 574.]

[Footnote 190: _L. and P._, ii., 70, 85, 114.]

[Footnote 191: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 594; _L. and P._,
ii., 124.]

[Footnote 192: _L. and P._, ii., 80, Suffolk to
Henry VIII. This letter is placed under January in
the _Calendar_, but it was obviously written about
6th March, 1514-15.]

The news could not be long concealed, but unfortunately we have only
Wolsey's account of how it was received by Henry. He took it, wrote
the cardinal to Suffolk, "grievously and displeasantly," not only on
account of the Duke's presumption, but of the breach of his promise to
Henry.[193] "You are," he added, "in the greatest danger man was ever
in;" the council were calling for his ruin. To appease Henry and
enable the King to satisfy his council, Suffolk must induce Francis to
intervene in his favour, to pay Henry two hundred thousand crowns as
Mary's dowry, and to restore the plate and jewels she had received;
the Duke himself was to return the fortune with which Henry had endowed
his sister and pay twenty-four thousand pounds in yearly instalments
for the expenses of her marriage. Francis proved unexpectedly willing;
perhaps his better nature was touched by the lovers' distress. He also
saw that Mary's marriage with Suffolk prevented her being used as (p. 083