Marrying Where “my mynd is”

Abstract

Louis’s death on New Year’s Day, 1515, less than three months after the wedding in Abbeville, resulted in a profound change in Mary’s circumstances.² Her careful work laying the foundation for the Anglo-French alliance was over. Once it was determined she was not pregnant with Louis’s child, she resumed her eligibility on the European marriage market. There she was embroiled in a power struggle between two proud young monarchs—Henry and the new king Francis I—both of whom were determined to wrest control of the situation by arranging Mary’s next marriage to his best advantage. Her position could not have been easy, particularly since she was determined to plot her own course by marrying Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk.