to retain the fugitive in the teeth of his treaties with Henry, who was at that very time advancing money to him for his prospective voyage to Spain. He accordingly sent Suffolk back to Wageningen, where he was again in the Duke of Gelders' hands. Suffolk tried to escape, and then implored Philip to reclaim him; which apparently Philip did indirectly after receiving the last instalment of Henry's loan; whereupon Suffolk, coming into his hands again, was shut up in the castle of Namur.
But early in 1506, Philip and his Queen Juana, having set sail for Spain, were driven by tempest on the coast of England. Henry at once saw his advantage, hospitably received them at his Court/ and wrung from Philip not only the surrender of the unhappy Suffolk (whose life he promised to spare) but a very important commercial treaty with Flanders, which settled some long-standing tariff disputes in a way that the Flemings continually resented afterwards as unjust and onesided.
Meanwhile the deaths of Prince Arthur and the Queen had given rise to new marriage projects. As soon as the former event was known to Ferdinand and Isabel they sent a special ambassador to England empowered to demand repayment of the first instalment (all that was yet paid) of Katharine's dower, and that Katharine herself should be sent back to Spain, or, if Henry preferred it, to conclude a new marriage for her with his second son Henry, soon afterwards created Prince of Wales. This last was clearly their aim, and as early as September 24, 1502, a draft treaty for the new marriage was drawn up in England; but it was not concluded till June 23, 1503. Application was made to Rome for a dispensation, both by Spain and by England; but its issue was delayed first by the deaths of two Popes within one year, and then by the necessity of special enquiry into the case. A brief, ante-dated December 26, 1503, was at length sent to Spain for the satisfaction of Queen Isabel on her death-bed; and a bull, almost verbally the same, was afterwards issued with the same date. But, owing to continual disputes between Henry VII and Ferdinand, the marriage did not take place during the life of the former King.
The fact that Katharine remained in England gave Henry a great advantage over Ferdinand in these diplomatic squabbles. When Henry found himself a widower in 1503, a shameful suggestion was brought forward that he might himself marry her instead of his son. It was probably meant only to alarm the Spanish Court, and Isabel tried to meet it by offering him as a bride her niece, Juana Queen of Naples, the younger of two dowager princesses who bore the same title and lived together at Valencia. After some time Henry asked for this lady's portrait, and when, on Isabel's death, he sent three gentlemen to Spain to ascertain what hold Ferdinand still had upon Castile, he commissioned/them also to visit the princess and to report, rather too minutely, on her personal qualities. Offers were further held out to
