should come from her home
down the Rhine through Holland, and thence by sea to England, the envoys
prayed that she might go through Germany and Flanders by land to Calais,
and so across. For, said they, by sea there will be great peril of capture
and insult by some too zealous subjects of the Emperor. "Besides, they
fear lest, the time of year being now cold and tempestuous, she might
there, though she never were so well ordered, take such cold or other
disease, considering she never was before upon the seas, as should be to
her great peril.... She is, moreover, young and beautiful; and if she
should be transported by sea they fear much how it might alter her
complexion."[192] No sooner was the marriage treaty signed than splendid
preparations were made for the reception of the King's coming bride. The
Lord Admiral (Fitzwilliam) was ordered to prepare a fleet of ten vessels
to escort her from Calais; repairs and redecorations of the royal
residences went on apace; and especially in the Queen's apartments, where
again the initials of poor Jane had to be altered to those of her
successor, and the "principal lords have bought much cloth of gold and
silk, a thing unusual for them except for some great solemnity."[193]

The conclusion of the treaty was a triumph for Cromwell and the
Protestant party in Henry's Council; and the Commissioners who signed it
reflect the fact. Cranmer, Cromwell, the Duke of Suffolk, Lord Chancellor
Audley, and Lord Admiral Fitzwilliam, were all of them inclined to the
reforming side, whilst Bishop Tunstal, though on the Catholic side, was a
personal friend of the King; and the new man, Hertford, Jane Seymour's
brother, though not one of the Commissioners, gave emphatic approval of
the match. "I am as glad," he wrote to Cromwell, "of the good resolution
(of the marriage) as ever I was of a thing since the birth of the Prince;
for I think the King's Highness could not in Christendom marry in any
place meet for his Grace's honour that should be less prejudicial to his
Majesty's succession."[194] Henry himself was in his usual vaunting mood
about the alliance. He had long desired, he said, to cement a union with
the German confederation, and could now disregard both France and the
Emperor; besides, his influence would suffice to prevent the Lutherans
from going too far in their religious innovations. As for the lady, he had
only one male child, and he was convinced that his desire for more issue
coul