To give reality and color to the above bare outline of a story that once
throbbed with life, a few descriptions and quotations may be permitted.

Henry VIII., with his suite, including Brandon, visited Marguerite at
Lille. She in return "accompanied by her young nephew Charles and divers
other nobles," visited Henry in his camp at Tournay. Henry met them
outside the gates and "brought them in with greate triumphe." The
chronicler adds: "The noys went that the Lord Lysle made request of
marriage to the Ladye Margurite, Duchess of Savoy, and daughter to the
Emperor Maximilian. But whether he proffered marriage or not, she
favored him highly."

An evening banquet following, a day of tournaments is thus described:

"This night the King made a sumptuous banket of a. c. dishes to the
Prince of Castell and the Lady Margarete, and to all other Lords and
ladies and after the banket the ladies daunsed; and then came in the
king and a XI in a maske, all richly appareled with bonnettes of gold,
and when they had passed the time at their pleasure, the garments of the
maske were cast off amongst the ladies, take who could take."

That handsome Charles Brandon and stately Marguerite of Austria "took"
each other is proved by the following extracts, made from two letters
signed "M" among the Cottonian manuscripts now in the British Museum.
The epistles are evidently translations from French originals. They are
addressed to "Sir Richard Wingfield, Ambassadour," and are labelled on
the outside, in Sir Richard Wingfield's handwriting: _Secrete Matters of
the Duke of Suffolk_. The letters were delivered to Wingfield by
Marotin, a confidential servant, whom it is known Marguerite dismissed
for having "evile kept" her secrets. As Marotin was at once taken into
Maximilian's service it is probable that he was the emperor's informant
concerning the Suffolk love affair. For nearly a year afterward,
intercourse between the emperor and his daughter was confined to the
coldest formalities.

In the case of a few words, liberties have here been taken with Sir
Richard Wingfield's spelling in order to make the letter intelligible to
modern readers:

"The Archduchess Marguerite to Sir Richard Wingfield.

"My Ladye began this wryting before the koming of Marrotin, who came to
Lavoyne on Sundaye last."

"MY LORDE AMBASSADOURE:

"Sythe that I see that I may not have tydynges from the Emperor so soon,
it seemeth me that I shulde do welle no longer