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illness, and that those he loved could be taken from him without warning. He learned not to care too deeply for anyone, to avoid the hurt.
    Over the years, Henry perfected an image of his dead mother that he used to measure other women against. Every wife and every mistress was assessed against this impossible yardstick.
    Who was he to love now?
    In August 1503, Henry escorted his 13-year-old sister, Princess Margaret, north on her way to marry the Scottish King, James IV. Margaret was a bossy, self-obsessed little madam, and it seems likely that Henry felt few qualms about losing her. His only female contacts now were his sweet little sister Mary and his elderly 58-year-old religious, dominant grandmother.
    Henry VII, however, had already enjoyed one good and fruitful marriage – why not a second? He began looking for a new queen. Despite plans for Catherine to marry the new Prince of Wales, Henry VII tentatively suggested that he should marry the princess himself! Catherine’s parents, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile vetoed the idea of this amended match. True, their daughter would be queen of England, but even if Henry VII gave her a son, the new baby would be unlikely to become king, with an existing and healthy Prince of Wales. Henry VII, at the age of 46, was already an old man by the standards of the day, and might die soon; Catherine would be a widow again, and this time would have no chance of marrying the next English king. Isabella described his suggestion as: ‘… an evil thing, the mere mention of which offends the ears, and we would not for anything in the world that it should take place.’ 14 If it had been expedient, Ferdinand and Isabella would have agreed to the marriage in a second. However, they saw a better chance of a lasting alliance with Catherine married to the future King of England.
    Instead, Isabella recommended Henry VII to consider marriage to Joan, the widowed Queen of Naples, the daughter of her husband Ferdinand’s sister. She was 26 years old and ‘particularly well-qualified to console him in his deep affliction.’ However, she lacked a dowry, and she only held the throne of Naples for her own lifetime. Henry might like her ‘comely neck’ and ‘womanly laughing cheer and good humour’, but he wanted more material benefit from a bride. 15
    While negotiations continued, Isabella of Castile died, and the political climate changed dramatically. Ferdinand of Aragon married again, to Germaine de Foix of Navarre, and Henry VII may have briefly looked towards France for a wife. The Portuguese Ambassador, Thomas Lopez, wrote a letter dated 10 October 1505 to his master, Emanuel I of Portugal: ‘Sire, the king of England is treating to get married in France to the daughter [sister – Margaret of Angoulême] of the Count of Angoulême, the Dauphin, or to his mother [Louise of Savoy] and he has sent thither for that purpose the Lord Somerset his ambassador.’ 16 Possibly to spite Ferdinand, whom he suspected of duplicity in the marriage negotiations, Henry VII suggested that he might marry Margaret of Austria, sister of Philip the Handsome, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor. Philip had married Joanna, the eldest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella; when Isabella died, it was Joanna, her eldest child, and not her husband Ferdinand of Aragon, who inherited the throne of Castile. Ferdinand and Philip were at loggerheads over Joanna’s inheritance and any suggestion that Henry VII was planning to ally himself to Philip would have annoyed Ferdinand greatly.
    Margaret of Austria had first married John, Crown Prince of Spain, in 1497, but he died only a few months later. In 1501, Margaret married Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, who died in 1504. Now Henry VII put pressure on Philip the Handsome, pushing him to forward this marriage. A treaty of friendship was signed between Henry and Philip in London, on 20 March 1506, one element of which promised Henry VII the hand of Margaret, along