The silver-tongued and ready debater substituted protocols for conversation, in deference to a monarch who could not speak.

He corresponded with Philip, with Margaret of Parma, with every one.

He wrote folios to the Duchess when they were in the same palace.

He would write letters forty pages long to the King, and send off another courier on the same day with two or three additional despatches of identical date.

Such prolixity enchanted the King, whose greediness for business epistles was insatiable.