WHEN KNIGHTHOOD WAS IN FLOWER

CONTENTS


The Caskodens 1

I The Duel 6

II How Brandon Came to Court 13

III The Princess Mary 23

IV A Lesson in Dancing 45

V An Honor and an Enemy 74

VI A Rare Ride to Windsor 89

VII Love's Fierce Sweetness 102

VIII The Trouble in Billingsgate Ward 128

IX Put Not Your Trust in Princesses 146

X Justice, O King! 169

XI Louis XII a Suitor 182

XII Atonement 202

XIII A Girl's Consent 213

XIV In the Siren Country 226

XV To Make a Man of Her 244

XVI A Hawking Party 256

XVII The Elopement 268

XVIII To the Tower 289

XIX Proserpina 302

XX Down into France 320

XXI Letters from a Queen 337

_"Cloth of gold do not despise,
Though thou be match'd with cloth of frize;
Cloth of frize, be not too bold,
Though thou be match'd with cloth of gold_."

Inscription on a label affixed to Brandon's lance under a picture
of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, at Strawberry Hill.






The Play


The initial performance of the play was given in St. Louis on the
evening of November 26, 1900, and the first New York production was on
the fourteenth of the following January.

Its instant and continued success is well known. A prominent dramatic
critic of the press has said:

"Julia Marlowe fully realized the popular idea of the Mary described
by the novelist. She seemed to revel in the role. With its
instantaneous changes from gay daring to anger and fear, from coyness
to the dignity that hedges a princess, from resentment to ardent love,
the part of Mary Tudor gives Julia Marlowe full scope for the display
of her talent. She has never appeared to better or as good advantage
as in this play for the reason that it gives opportunity for broader
and more effective lights and shades than anything she has hitherto
given us."