Tarbes represented that the French King was so good a match for the English princess, that there was little need for further concession; to which Henry replied that Francis was no doubt an excellent match for his daughter, but was he free to marry?
His precontract with Charles V.'s sister, Eleanor, was a complication which seriously diminished the value of Francis's offer; and the papal dispensation, which he hoped to obtain, might not be forthcoming (p.

197) or valid.[556] As a counter to this stroke, Tarbes may well have hinted that the Princess Mary was not such a prize as Henry made out.
Was the dispensation for Henry's own marriage beyond cavil?
Was Mary's legitimacy beyond question?
Was her succession to the English throne, a prospect Henry dangled before the Frenchman's eyes, so secure?
These questions were not very new, even at the time of Tarbes's mission.

The divorce had been talked about in 1514, and now, in 1527, the position of importance given to the Duke of Richmond was a matter of public comment, and inevitably suggested doubts of Mary's succession.

There is no documentary evidence that this argument was ever employed, beyond the fact that, within three months of Tarbes's mission, both Henry and Wolsey asserted that the Bishop had suggested doubts of the validity of Henry's marriage.[557] Henry, however, does not say that Tarbes _first_ suggested the doubts, nor does Wolsey.

The Cardinal declares that the Bishop objected to the marriage with the Princess Mary on the ground of these doubts; and some time later, when Henry explained his position to the Lord-Mayor and aldermen of London, he said, according to Du Bellay, that the scruple of conscience, which he had _long_ entertained, had terribly increased upon him since Tarbes had spoken of it.[558] [Footnote 554: Dr.Gairdner (_Engl.Hist.