Thus the year 1538 opened rather darkly for England. The dread with which Henry watched the increasing signs of good-feeling between Charles and Francis led him into ridiculous and undignified action. As soon as it was settled that Mary of Guise was to become James’ wife, Henry literally scoured the continent of Europe in search of an alliance for himself or his daughters, which would strengthen his position and avert the impending crisis. A somewhat confusing set of double instructions from Cromwell to his friend Philip Hoby, instructing him to negotiate for possible marriages with the younger sister of James’ wife, with the daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, and also with the Duchess of Milan, and to obtain their portraits, is not without interest as revealing Henry’s state of mind[595]. The first two of these unions, if accomplished, would of course have rendered him safe from France; the other would have put him on friendly terms with Spain; but none of them was destined to succeed. The King even went so far as to permit Sir Francis Brian, his agent at the French Court, to suggest that various suitable ladies should be brought to Calais for his inspection, that he might be sure that he made no mistake. Henry’s proceedings evoked such ridicule and derision in continental Europe, that Castillon, the French ambassador, contrived to convey to him the general feeling with such directness and force that he actually drew a blush from the King himself[596]. Finding that his endeavours to obtain a suitable wife for himself were abortive, Henry looked about for an advantageous marriage for his daughter Mary. By alternately holding out to the Emperor a prospect of a match for her with the Infant of Portugal, and pretending to accept a proposition of the French representative, Castillon, that she should marry the Duke of Orleans, he contrived to lay the basis for a continental quarrel. But his success in this scheme was very short-lived. The only person that he could deceive at all was Castillon. It seems that Cromwell, who again at this crisis took the opportunity to show his decided leaning towards Spain, had openly disapproved of the proposed French alliance, and when Castillon complained of this, Henry turned fiercely upon his minister and reprimanded him, saying that he was a good manager, but not fit to intermeddle in the affairs of kings, and finally Norfolk was sent for. Cromwell’s ‘great Spanish passion,’ as Castillon called it, had got him into trouble again, and the French ambassador was delighted, thinking that he had at last obtained the upper hand. But Castillon’s delusions were rudely dispelled three weeks later, when he learned that the King and Council were resolved ‘to withdraw from the French match,’ on account of offers which the Emperor had made, and when Francis wrote that the King’s proceedings only proved that he was jealous of the negotiations for peace[597]. It is needless to state that neither of the proposed unions ever took place, and Henry’s frantic endeavours to frustrate the steadily increasing amity of France and Spain were entirely unavailing.