HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY. =1509-1527=
LEADING DATES
Reign of Henry VIII., 1509-1547
Accession of Henry VIII. 1509
Henry's first war with France 1512
Peace with France 1514
Charles V. elected Emperor 1519
Henry's second French war 1522
Francis I. taken captive at Pavia 1525
The sack of Rome and the alliance between England and
France 1527
[Illustration: Henry VIII.; from a painting by Holbein about 1536,
belonging to Earl Spencer.]
1. =The New King. 1509.=--Henry VIII. inherited the handsome face,
the winning presence, and the love of pleasure which distinguished
his mother's father, Edward IV., as well as the strong will of his
own father, Henry VII. He could ride better than his grooms, and
shoot better than the archers of his guard. Yet, though he had a
ready smile and a ready jest for everyone, he knew how to preserve
his dignity. Though he seemed to live for amusement alone, and
allowed others to toil at the business of administration, he took
care to keep his ministers under control. He was no mean judge of
character, and the saying which rooted itself amongst his subjects,
that 'King Henry knew a man when he saw him,' points to one of the
chief secrets of his success. He was well aware that the great
nobles were his only possible rivals, and that his main support was
to be found in the country gentry and the townsmen. Partly because
of his youth, and partly because the result of the political
struggle had already been determined when he came to the throne, he
thought less than his father had done of the importance of
possessing stored up wealth by which armies might be equipped and
maintained, and more of securing that popularity which at least for
the purposes of internal government, made armies unnecessary. The
first act of the new reign was to send Empson and Dudley to the
Tower, and it was significant of Henry's policy that they were tried
and executed, not on a charge of having extorted money illegally
from subjects, but on a trumped up charge of conspiracy against the
king. It was for the king to see that offences were not committed
against the people, but the people must be taught that the most
serious crimes were those committed against the king. Henry's next
act was to marry Catharine. Though he was but nineteen, whilst his
bride was twenty-five, the marriage was for many years a happy one.
2. =Continental Troubles. 1508-1511.=--For some time Henry lived as
though his only object in life was to squander his father's treasure
in festivities. Before long, however, he bethought himself of aiming
at distinction in war as well as in sport. Since Louis XII. had been
king of France (see p. 354) there had been constant wars in Italy,
where Louis was striving for the mastery with Ferdinand of Aragon.
In =1508= the two rivals, Ferdinand and Louis, abandoning their
hostility for a time, joined the Emperor Maximilian (see pp. 337,
348) and Pope Julius II. in the League of Cambrai, the object of
which was to despoil the Republic of Venice. In =1511= Ferdinand
allied himself with Julius II. and Venice in the Holy League, the
object of which was to drive the French out of Italy. After a while
the new league was joined by Maximilian, and every member of it was
anxious that Henry should join it too.
3. =The Rise of Wolsey. 1512.=--England had nothing to gain by an
attack on France, but Henry was young, and the English nation was,
in a certain sense, also young. It was conscious of the strength
brought to it by restored order, and was quite ready to use this
strength in an attack on its neighbours. In the new court it was
ignorantly thought that there was no reason why Henry VIII. should
not take up that work of conquering France which had fallen to
pieces in the feeble hands of Henry VI. To carry on his new policy
Henry needed a new minister. The best of the old ones were Fox, the
Bishop of Winchester, and Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who, great
nobleman as he was, had been contented to merge his greatness in the
greatness of the king. The whole military organisation of the
country, however, had to be created afresh, and neither Fox nor
Surrey was equal to such a task. The work was assigned to Thomas
Wolsey, the king's almoner, who, though not, as his enemies said,
the son of a butcher, was of no exalted origin. Wolsey's genius for
administration at once manifested itself. He was equally at home in
sketching out a plan of campaign, in diplomatic contests with the
wariest and most experienced statesmen, and in providing for the
minutest details of military preparation.
4. =The War with France. 1512-1513.=--It was not Wolsey's fault that
his first enterprise ended in failure. A force sent to attack France
on the Spanish side failed, not because it was ill-equipped, but
because the soldiers mutinied, and Ferdinand, who had promised to
support it, abandoned it to its fate. In =1513= Henry himself landed
at Calais, and, with the Emperor Maximilian serving under him,
defeated the French at Guinegatte in an engagement known, from the
rapidity of the flight of the French, as the Battle of the Spurs.
Before the end of the autumn he had taken Terouenne and Tournai. War
with France, as usual, led to a war with Scotland. James IV., during
Henry's absence, invaded Northumberland, but his army was destroyed
by the Earl of Surrey at Flodden, where he himself was slain.
5. =Peace with France. 1514.=--Henry soon found that his allies were
thinking exclusively of their own interests. In =1512= the French
were driven out of Italy, and Ferdinand made himself master of
Navarre. In =1513= the warlike Pope, Julius II., died, and a fresh
attempt of Louis to gain ground in Italy was decisively foiled.
Henry's allies had got what they wanted, and in =1514= Henry
discovered that to conquer France was beyond his power. Louis was
ready to come to terms. He was now a widower. Old in constitution,
though not in years, he was foolish enough to want a young wife.
Henry was ready to gratify him with the hand of his younger sister
Mary. The poor girl had fallen in love with Henry's favourite,
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, a man of sturdy limbs and weak
brain, and pleaded hard against the marriage. Love counted for
little in those days, and all that she could obtain from her brother
was a promise that if she married this time to please him, she
should marry next time to please herself. Louis soon relieved her by
dying on January 1, =1515=, after a few weeks of wedlock, and his
widow took care, by marrying Suffolk before she left France, to make
sure that her brother should keep his promise.
[Illustration: Cardinal Wolsey: from an original picture belonging
to the Hon. Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, K.C.B.]
6. =Wolsey's Policy of Peace. 1514-1518.=--In =1514= the king made
Wolsey Archbishop of York. In =1515= the Pope made him a Cardinal.
Before the end of the year he was Henry's Chancellor. The whole of
the business of the government passed through his hands. The
magnificence of his state was extraordinary. To all observers he
seemed to be more a king than the king himself. Behind him was
Henry, trusting him with all his power, but self-willed and
uncontrollable, quite ready to sacrifice his dearest friend to
satisfy his least desire. As yet the only conflict in Henry's mind
was the conflict about peace or war with France. Henry's love of
display and renown had led him to wish to rival the exploits of
Edward III. and Henry V. Wolsey preferred the old policy of Richard
II. and Henry VI., but he knew that he could only make it palatable
to the king and the nation by connecting the idea of peace with the
idea of national greatness. He aspired to be the peacemaker of
Europe, and to make England's interest in peace the law of the
world. In =1515= the new king of France, Francis I., needed peace
with England because he was in pursuit of glory in Italy, where he
won a brilliant victory at Marignano. In =1516= Ferdinand's death
gave Spain to his grandson, Charles, the son of Philip and Juana
(see p. 358), and from that time Francis and Charles stood forth as
the rivals for supremacy on the Continent. Wolsey tried his best to
maintain a balance between the two, and it was owing to his ability
that England, thinly populated and without a standing army, was
eagerly courted by the rulers of states far more powerful than
herself. In =1518= a league was struck between England and France,
in which Pope Leo X., the Emperor Maximilian, and Charles, king of
Spain, agreed to join, thus converting it into a league of universal
peace. Yet Wolsey was no cosmopolitan philanthropist. He believed
that England would be more influential in peace than she could be in
war.
7. =Wolsey and the Renascence.=--In scheming for the elevation of
his own country by peace instead of by conquest, Wolsey reflected
the higher aspirations of his time. No sooner had internal order
been secured, than the best men began to crave for some object to
which they could devote themselves, larger and nobler than that of
their own preservation. Wolsey gave them the contemplation of the
political importance of England on the Continent. The noblest minds,
however, would not be content with this, and an outburst of
intellectual vigour told that the times of internal strife had
passed away. This intellectual movement was not of native growth.
The Renascence, or new birth of letters, sprung up in Italy in the
fourteenth century, and received a further impulse through the
taking of Constantinople by the Turks in =1453=, when the dispersal
of Greek teachers from the East revived the study of the Greek
language. It was not merely because new teachers landed in Italy
that the literature of the ancient world was studied with avidity.
Men were weary of the mediæval system, and craved for other ideals
than those of the devotees of the Church. Whilst they learnt to
admire the works of the Greek and Latin authors as models of
literary form, they caught something of the spirit of the ancient
world. They ceased to look on man as living only for God and a
future world, and regarded him as devoting himself to the service of
his fellow-men, or even--in lower minds the temptation lay
perilously near--as living for himself alone. Great artists and
poets arose who gave expression to the new feeling of admiration for
human action and human beauty, whilst the prevailing revolt against
the religion of the middle ages gave rise to a spirit of criticism
which refused belief to popular legends.
8. =The Renascence in England.=--The spirit of the Renascence was
slow in reaching England. In the days of Richard II. Chaucer visited
Italy, and Italian influence is to be traced in his Canterbury
Tales. In the days of Henry VI. the selfish politician, Humphrey,
Duke of Gloucester, purchased books, and gave to Oxford a collection
which was the foundation of what was afterwards known as the
Bodleian Library. Even in the Wars of the Roses the brutal John
Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, and the gentle Earl Rivers, the brother
of Elizabeth Woodville, were known as patrons of letters. The
invention of printing brought literature within reach of those to
whom it had hitherto been strange. Edward IV. patronised Caxton, the
first English printer. In the peaceful reign of Henry VII. the seed
thus sown sprang into a crop. There was, however, a great difference
between the followers of the new learning in England and in Italy.
In Italy, for the most part, scholars mocked at Christianity, or
treated it with tacit contempt. In England there was no such breach
with the religion of the past. Those who studied in England sought
to permeate their old faith with the new thoughts.
9. =The Oxford Reformers.=--Especially was this the case with a
group of Oxford Reformers, Grocyn, Linacre, and Colet, who were
fighting hard to introduce the study of Greek into the University.
Among these Colet specially addicted himself to the explanation of
the epistles of St. Paul, insisting on following their plain meaning
instead of the mystical interpretations then in vogue. In =1510= he
founded St. Paul's School, that boys might be there taught without
being subjected to the brutal flogging which was in those days the
lot even of the most diligent of schoolboys. The most remarkable
member of this group of scholars was Thomas More. Young More, who
had hoped much from the accession of Henry VIII., had been
disappointed to find him engaging in a war with France instead of
cultivating the arts of peace. He meditated deeply over the miseries
of his fellow-men, and longed for a time when governments would
think it to be their highest duty to labour for those who are too
weak to help themselves.
10. ='The Utopia.' 1515-1516.=--In =1515= and =1516= More produced a
book which he called _Utopia_, or Nowhere, intending it to serve as
a satire on the defects of the government of England, by praising
the results of a very different government in his imaginary country.
The Utopians, he declared, fought against invaders of their own land
or the land of their allies, or to deliver other peoples from
tyranny, but they made no wars of aggression. In peace no one was
allowed either to be idle or overworked. Everyone must work six
hours a day, and then he might listen to lectures for the
improvement of his mind. As for the religion of Utopia, no one was
to be persecuted for his religious opinions, as long as he treated
respectfully those who differed from him. If, however, he used
scornful and angry words towards them, he was to be banished, not as
a despiser of the established religion, but as a stirrer up of
dissension. Men of all varieties of opinion met together in a common
temple, the worship in which was so arranged that all could take
part in it. Amongst their priests were women as well as men. More
practical was the author's attack on the special abuses of the
times. England swarmed with vagrants, who easily passed into
robbers, or even murderers. The author of _Utopia_ traced the evil
to its roots. Soldiers, he said, were discharged on their return
home, and, being used to roving and dissolute habits, naturally took
to vagrancy. Robbery was their only resource, and the law tempted a
robber to murder. Hanging was the penalty both for robbing and
murder, and the robber, therefore, knowing that he would be hanged
if he were detected, usually killed the victim whom he had plundered
in order to silence evidence against himself; and More consequently
argued that the best way of checking murder would be to abolish the
penalty of death for robbery. Another great complaint of More's was
against the ever-growing increase of inclosures for pasturage.
"Sheep," he said, "be become so great devourers and so wild that
they eat up and swallow down the very men themselves. They consume,
destroy, and devour whole fields, houses, and cities." More saw the
evil, but he did not see that the best remedy lay in the
establishment of manufactures, to give employment in towns to those
who lost it in the country. He wished to enforce by law the
reversion of all the new pasturage into arable land.
11. =More and Henry VIII.=--Henry VIII. was intolerant of those who
resisted his will, but he was strangely tolerant of those who
privately contradicted his opinions. He took pleasure in the society
of intelligent and witty men, and he urged More to take office under
him. More refused for a long time, but in =1518=--the year of the
league of universal peace--believing that Henry was now a convert to
his ideas, he consented, and became Sir Thomas More and a Privy
Councillor. Henry was so pleased with his conversation that he tried
to keep him always with him, and it was only by occasionally
pretending to be dull that More obtained leave to visit his home.
12. =The Contest for the Empire. 1519.=--In January =1519= the
Emperor Maximilian died. His grandson Charles was now possessed of
more extensive lands than any other European sovereign. He ruled in
Spain, in Austria, in Naples and Sicily, in the Netherlands, and in
the County of Burgundy, usually known as Franche Comté. Between him
and Francis I. a struggle was inevitable. The chances were
apparently, on the whole, on the side of Charles. His dominions,
indeed, were scattered, and devoid of the strength given by national
feeling, whilst the smaller dominions of Francis were compact and
united by a strong national bond. In character, however, Charles had
the superiority. He was cool and wary, whilst Francis was impetuous
and uncalculating. Both sovereigns were now candidates for the
Empire. The seven electors who had it in their gift were open to
bribery. Charles bribed highest, and being chosen became the Emperor
Charles V.
13. =The Field of the Cloth of Gold. 1520.=--Wolsey tried hard to
keep the peace. In =1520= Henry met Francis on the border of the
territory of Calais, and the magnificence of the display on both
sides gave to the scene the name of the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
In the same year Henry had interviews with Charles. Peace was for a
time maintained, because both Charles and Francis were still too
much occupied at home to quarrel, but it could hardly be maintained
long.
[Illustration: The embarkation of Henry VIII. from Dover, 1520: from
the original painting at Hampton Court.]
14. =The Execution of the Duke of Buckingham. 1521.=--Henry was
entirely master in England. In =1521= the Duke of Buckingham, son of
the Buckingham who had been beheaded by Richard III., was tried and
executed as a traitor. His fault was that he had great wealth, and
that, being descended from the Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son
of Edward III., he had not only cherished some idea of claiming the
throne after Henry's death, but had chattered about his prospects.
In former days justice was not to be had by those who offended the
great lords. Now, one despot had stepped into the place of many, and
justice was not to be had by those who offended the king. The legal
forms of trial were now as before observed. Buckingham was indeed
tried before the court of the Lord High Steward, which consisted of
a select number of peers, and which had jurisdiction over peers when
Parliament was not sitting. These, however, were no more than forms.
It was probably a mingled feeling of gratitude and fear which made
peers as well as ordinary juries ready to take Henry's word for the
guilt of any offender.
[Illustration: Cup and Cover, 1523, at Barber Surgeons' Hall,
London.]
15. =Another French War. 1522-1523.=--The diplomacy of those days
was a mere tissue of trickery and lies. Behind the falsehood,
however, Wolsey had a purpose of his own, the maintenance of peace
on the Continent. Yet, in =1521= war broke out between Charles and
Francis, both of whom laid claim to the Duchy of Milan, and it was
evident that Wolsey would be unable to keep England out of the
struggle. If there was to be fighting Henry preferred to fight
France rather than to fight Charles. In =1522=, in conjunction with
Charles, he invaded France. There was burning and ravaging enough,
but nothing of importance was done. Nevertheless in =1523= Henry was
in high spirits. A great French noble, the Duke of Bourbon, provoked
by ill-treatment, revolted against Francis, and Henry and Charles
fancied that he would open a way to them into the heart of France.
If Henry was to be crowned at Paris, which was the object on which
he was bent, he must have a supply of money from his subjects.
Though no Parliament had been summoned for nearly eight years, one
was summoned now, of which More was the Speaker. Wolsey asked for an
enormous grant of 800,000_l._, nearly equal to 12,000,000_l._ at the
present day. Finding that the Commons hesitated, he swept into the
House in state to argue with them. Expecting a reply, and finding
silence, he turned to More, who told him that it was against the
privilege of the House to call on it for an immediate answer. He had
to depart unsatisfied, and after some days the House granted a
considerable sum, but far less than that which had been demanded.
Wolsey was now in a position of danger. His own policy was pacific,
but his master's policy was warlike, and he had been obliged to
make himself the unquestioning mouthpiece of his master in demanding
supplies for war. He had long been hated by the nobles for thrusting
them aside. He was now beginning to be hated by the people as the
supposed author of an expensive war, which he would have done his
best to prevent. He had not even the advantage of seeing his master
win laurels in the field. The national spirit of France was roused,
and the combined attack of Henry and Charles proved as great a
failure in =1523= as in =1522=. The year =1524= was spent by Wolsey
in diplomatic intrigue.
16. =The Amicable Loan. 1525.=--Early in =1525= Europe was startled
by the news that Francis had been signally defeated by the
Imperialists at Pavia, and had been carried prisoner to Spain.
Wolsey knew that Charles's influence was now likely to predominate
in Europe, and that unless England was to be overshadowed by it,
Henry's alliance must be transferred to Francis. Henry, however, saw
in the imprisonment of Francis only a fine opportunity for
conquering France. Wolsey had again to carry out his master's wishes
as though they were his own. Raking up old precedents, he suggested
that the people should be asked for what was called an Amicable
Loan, on the plea that Henry was about to invade France in person.
He obtained the consent of the citizens of London by telling them
that, if they did not pay, it might 'fortune to cost some their
heads.' All over England Wolsey was cursed as the originator of the
loan. There were even signs that a rebellion was imminent. In
Norfolk when the Duke of Norfolk demanded payment there was a
general resistance. On his demanding the name of the captain of the
multitude which refused to pay, a man told him that their captain's
'name was Poverty,' and 'he and his cousin Necessity' had brought
them to this. Wolsey, seeing that it was impossible to collect the
money, took all the unpopularity of advising the loan upon himself.
'Because,' he wrote, 'every man layeth the burden from him, I am
content to take it on me, and to endure the fame and noise of the
people, for my goodwill towards the king ... but the eternal God
knoweth all.' Henry had no such nobility of character as to refuse
to accept the sacrifice. He liked to make his ministers scapegoats,
to heap on their heads the indignation of the people that he might
himself retain his popularity. For three centuries and a half it was
fully believed that the Amicable Loan had originated with Wolsey.
[Illustration: Hampton Court; built by Cardinal Wolsey, finished in
1526.]
17. =Closing Years of Wolsey's Greatness. 1525-1527.=--All idea of
continuing the war being now abandoned, Wolsey cautiously
negotiated for an alliance with France, and in the autumn of
=1525= peace was signed between France and England. In February
=1526= Charles set Francis at liberty on his promising to abandon to
him large tracts of French territory. As soon as he was out of Spain
Francis declared that, without the consent of his subjects, such
promises were not binding on him. An Italian league, jealous of
Charles's power, gathered round the Pope, Clement VII., to oppose
him. In May =1527= the exiled Duke of Bourbon, who was now one of
Charles's generals, took Rome by assault. He was himself slain as he
mounted the wall, but his followers took prisoner the Pope, and
sacked Rome with horrible barbarity. Wolsey was too worldly-minded
to be shocked at the Pope's misfortunes; but he had much to fear
from the enormous extension of the Emperor's power. For some weeks
he had been negotiating a close alliance with France on the basis of
a marriage between Henry's only surviving child, Mary, and the
worn-out voluptuary Francis. Suddenly the scheme was changed to a
proposal for a marriage between Mary, who was ten years old, and the
second son of Francis, who was but six. The bargain was concluded,
and for a time there was some thought of carrying it out. At all
events when the news of the sack of Rome arrived, England and France
were already in close alliance. Wolsey's position was, to all
outward appearance, secure.