THE THREE RIVALS.
The edifice which Wolsey had so laboriously built up was, however,
based on no surer foundation than the feeble life of a sickly monarch
already tottering to his grave. In the midst of his preparations for
the conquest of Milan and his negotiations for an attack upon Spain,
Louis XII. died on 1st January, 1515; and the stone which Wolsey had
barely rolled up the hill came down with a rush. The bourgeois Louis
was succeeded by the brilliant, ambitious and warlike Francis I., a
monarch who concealed under the mask of chivalry and the culture of
arts and letters a libertinism beside which the peccadilloes of Henry
or Charles seem virtue itself; whose person was tall and whose
features were described as handsome; but of whom an observer wrote
with unwonted candour that he "looked like the Devil".[178] The first
result of the change was an episode of genuine romance. The old King's
widow, "la reine blanche," was one of the most fascinating women of
the Tudor epoch. "I think," said a Fleming, "never man saw a more
beautiful creature, nor one having so much grace and sweetness."[179]
"He had never seen so beautiful a lady," repeated Maximilian's
ambassador, "her deportment is exquisite, both in conversation (p. 079)
and in dancing, and she is very lovely."[180] "She is very beautiful,"
echoed the staid old Venetian, Pasqualigo, "and has not her match in
England; she is tall, fair, of a light complexion with a colour, and
most affable and graceful"; he was warranted, he said, in describing
her as "a nymph from heaven".[181] A more critical observer of
feminine beauty thought her eyes and eyebrows too light,[182] but, as
an Italian, he may have been biassed in favour of brunettes, and even
he wound up by calling Mary "a Paradise". She was eighteen at the
time; her marriage with a dotard like Louis had shocked public
opinion;[183] and if, as was hinted, the gaieties in which his
youthful bride involved him, hastened the French King's end, there was
some poetic justice in the retribution. She had, as she reminded Henry
herself, only consented to marry the "very aged and sickly" monarch on
condition that, if she survived him, she should be allowed to choose
her second husband herself. And she went on to declare, that
"remembering the great virtue" in him, she had, as Henry himself was
aware, "always been of good mind to my Lord of Suffolk".[184]
[Footnote 178: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 582.]
[Footnote 179: _L. and P._, i., 4953.]
[Footnote 180: _L. and P._, i., 5203.]
[Footnote 181: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 499, 500.]
[Footnote 182: _Ibid._, ii., 511.]
[Footnote 183: _L. and P._, i., 5470.]
[Footnote 184: _Ibid._, ii., 227.]
She was probably fascinated less by Suffolk's virtue than by his bold
and handsome bearing. A bluff Englishman after the King's own heart,
he shared, as none else did, in Henry's love of the joust and tourney,
in his skill with the lance and the sword; he was the Hector of
combat, on foot and on horse, to Henry's Achilles. His father, plain
William Brandon, was Henry of Richmond's standard-bearer on Bosworth
field; and as such he had been singled out and killed in personal (p. 080)
encounter by Richard III. His death gave his son a claim on the
gratitude of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; and similarity of tastes
secured him rapid promotion at the young King's Court. Created Viscount
Lisle, he served in 1513 as marshal of Henry's army throughout his
campaign in France. With the King there were said to be "two obstinate
men who governed everything";[185] one was Wolsey, the other was Brandon.
In July he was offering his hand to Margaret of Savoy, who was
informed that Brandon was "a second king," and that it would be well
to write him "a kind letter, for it is he who does and undoes".[186]
At Lille, in October, he continued his assault on Margaret as a relief
from the siege of Tournay; Henry favoured his suit, and when Margaret
called Brandon a _larron_ for stealing a ring from her finger, the
King was called in to help Brandon out with his French. Possibly it
was to smooth the course of his wooing that Brandon, early in 1514,
received an extraordinary advancement in rank. There was as yet only
one duke in England, but now Brandon was made Duke of Suffolk, at the
same time that the dukedom of Norfolk was restored to Surrey for his
victory at Flodden. Even a dukedom could barely make the son of a
simple esquire a match for an emperor's daughter, and the suit did not
prosper. Political reasons may have interfered. Suffolk, too, is
accused by the Venetian ambassador of having already had three
wives.[187] This seems to be an exaggeration, but the intricacy (p. 081)
of the Duke's marital relationships, and the facility with which he
renounced them might well have served as a precedent to his master in
later years.
[Footnote 185: _L. and P._, i., 4386.]
[Footnote 186: _Ibid._, i., 4405.]
[Footnote 187: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 464. He had made
contracts with three different ladies, but had not
actually married them all. See below, p. 199 and
_D.N.B._, _s.v._ "Brandon".]
In January, 1515, the Duke was sent to Paris to condole with Francis
on Louis' death, to congratulate him on his own accession, and renew
the league with England. Before he set out, Henry made him promise
that he would not marry Mary until their return. But Suffolk was not
the man to resist the tears of a beautiful woman in trouble, and he
found Mary in sore distress. No sooner was Louis dead than his
lascivious successor became, as Mary said, "importunate with her in
divers matters not to her honour," in suits "the which," wrote Suffolk,
"I and the Queen had rather be out of the world than abide".[188]
Every evening Francis forced his attentions upon the beautiful
widow.[189] Nor was this the only trouble which threatened the lovers.
There were reports that the French would not let Mary go, but marry
her somewhere to serve their own political purposes.[190] Henry, too,
might want to betroth her again to Charles; Maximilian was urging this
course, and telling Margaret that Mary must be recovered for Charles,
even at the point of the sword.[191] Early in January, Wolsey had
written to her, warning her not to make any fresh promise of marriage.
Two friars from England, sent apparently by Suffolk's secret enemies,
told Mary the same tale, that if she returned to England she would
never be suffered to marry the Duke, but made to take Charles for her
husband, "than which," she declared, "I would rather be torn in (p. 082)
pieces".[192] Suffolk tried in vain to soothe her fears. She refused
to listen, and brought him to his knees with the announcement that
unless he would wed her there and then, she would continue to believe
that he had come only to entice her back to England and force her into
marriage with Charles. What was the poor Duke to do, between his
promise to Henry and the pleading of Mary? He did what every other man
with a heart in his breast and warm blood in his veins would have
done, he cast prudence to the winds and secretly married the woman he
loved.
[Footnote 188: _L. and P._, ii., 134, 138, 163.]
[Footnote 189: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 574.]
[Footnote 190: _L. and P._, ii., 70, 85, 114.]
[Footnote 191: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 594; _L. and P._,
ii., 124.]
[Footnote 192: _L. and P._, ii., 80, Suffolk to
Henry VIII. This letter is placed under January in
the _Calendar_, but it was obviously written about
6th March, 1514-15.]
The news could not be long concealed, but unfortunately we have only
Wolsey's account of how it was received by Henry. He took it, wrote
the cardinal to Suffolk, "grievously and displeasantly," not only on
account of the Duke's presumption, but of the breach of his promise to
Henry.[193] "You are," he added, "in the greatest danger man was ever
in;" the council were calling for his ruin. To appease Henry and
enable the King to satisfy his council, Suffolk must induce Francis to
intervene in his favour, to pay Henry two hundred thousand crowns as
Mary's dowry, and to restore the plate and jewels she had received;
the Duke himself was to return the fortune with which Henry had endowed
his sister and pay twenty-four thousand pounds in yearly instalments
for the expenses of her marriage. Francis proved unexpectedly willing;
perhaps his better nature was touched by the lovers' distress. He also
saw that Mary's marriage with Suffolk prevented her being used as (p. 083)
a link to bind Charles to Henry; and he may have thought that a
service to Suffolk would secure him a powerful friend at the English
Court, a calculation that was partly justified by the suspicion under
which Suffolk henceforth laboured, of being too partial to Francis.
Yet it was with heavy hearts that the couple left Paris in April and
wended their way towards Calais. Henry had given no sign; from Calais,
Mary wrote to him saying she would go to a nunnery rather than marry
against her desire.[194] Suffolk threw himself on the King's mercy;
all the council, he said, except Wolsey, were determined to put him to
death.[195] Secretly, against his promise, and without Henry's
consent, he had married the King's sister, an act the temerity of
which no one has since ventured to rival. He saw the executioner's axe
gleam before his eyes, and he trembled.
[Footnote 193: _L. and P._, ii., 224.]
[Footnote 194: _L. and P._, ii., 228.]
[Footnote 195: _Ibid._, ii., 367.]
At Calais, Mary said she would stay until she heard from the King.[196]
His message has not been preserved, but fears were never more strangely
belied than when the pair crossed their Rubicon. So far from any attempt
being made to separate them, their marriage was publicly solemnised
before Henry and all his Court on 13th May, at Greenwich.[197] In
spite of all that happened, wrote the Venetian ambassador, Henry
retained his friendship for Suffolk;[198] and a few months later he
asserted, with some exaggeration, that the Duke's authority was
scarcely less than the King's.[199] He and Mary were indeed (p. 084)
required to return all the endowment, whether in money, plate, jewels
or furniture, that she received on her marriage. But both she and the
Duke had agreed to these terms before their offence.[200] They were
not unreasonable. Henry's money had been laid out for political
purposes which could no longer be served; and Mary did not expect the
splendour, as Duchess of Suffolk, which she had enjoyed as Queen of
France. The only stipulation that looks like a punishment was the bond
to repay the cost of her journey to France; though not only was this
modified later on, but the Duke received numerous grants of land to
help to defray the charge. They were indeed required to live in the
country; but the Duke still came up to joust as of old with Henry on
great occasions, and Mary remained his favourite sister, to whose
issue, in preference to that of Margaret, he left the crown by will.
The vindictive suspicions which afterwards grew to rank luxuriance in
Henry's mind were scarcely budding as yet; his favour to Suffolk and
affection for Mary were proof against the intrigues in his Court. The
contrast was marked between the event and the terrors which Wolsey had
painted; and it is hard to believe that the Cardinal played an
entirely disinterested part in the matter.[201] It was obviously his
cue to exaggerate the King's anger, and to represent to the Duke that
its mitigation was due to the Cardinal's influence; and it is more
than possible that Wolsey found in Suffolk's indiscretion the means of
removing a dangerous rival. The "two obstinate men" who had ruled (p. 085)
in Henry's camp were not likely to remain long united; Wolsey could
hardly approve of any "second king" but himself, especially a "second
king" who had acquired a family bond with the first. The Venetian
ambassador plainly hints that it was through Wolsey that Suffolk lost
favour.[202] In the occasional notices of him during the next few
years it is Wolsey, and not Henry, whom Suffolk is trying to appease;
and we even find the Cardinal secretly warning the King against some
designs of the Duke that probably existed only in his own
imagination.[203]
[Footnote 196: _Ibid._, ii., 367, 226. The letters
relating to this episode in _L. and P._ are often
undated and sometimes misplaced; _e.g._, this last
is placed under March, although from Nos. 295, 296,
319, 327, 331, we find that Mary did not leave
Paris till 16th April.]
[Footnote 197: _L. and P._, ii., 468.]
[Footnote 198: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 618.]
[Footnote 199: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 638.]
[Footnote 200: _L. and P._, ii., 436.]
[Footnote 201: Brewer's view is that Wolsey saved
Suffolk from ruin on this occasion.]
[Footnote 202: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 919.]
[Footnote 203: _L. and P._, ii., 4057, 4308; iii.,
1.]
* * * * *
This episode threw into the shade the main purpose of Suffolk's
embassy to France. It was to renew the treaty concluded the year
before, and apparently also the discussions for war upon Spain.
Francis was ready enough to confirm the treaty, particularly as it
left him free to pursue his designs on Milan. With a similar object he
made terms with the Archduke Charles, who this year assumed the
government of the Netherlands, but was completely under the control of
Chievres, a Frenchman by birth and sympathy, who signed his letters to
Francis "your humble servant and vassal".[204] Charles bound himself
to marry Louis XII.'s daughter Renee, and to give his grandfather
Ferdinand no aid unless he restored Navarre to Jean d'Albret. Thus
safeguarded from attack on his rear, Francis set out for Milan. The
Swiss had locked all the passes they thought practicable; but the
French generals, guided by chamois hunters and overcoming almost
insuperable obstacles, transported their artillery over the Alps (p. 086)
near Embrun; and on 13th September, at Marignano, the great "Battle of
the Giants" laid the whole of Northern Italy at the French King's
feet. At Bologna he met Leo X., whose lifelong endeavour was to be
found on both sides at once, or at least on the side of the bigger
battalions; the Pope recognised Francis's claim to Milan, while
Francis undertook to support the Medici in Florence, and to
countenance Leo's project for securing the Duchy of Urbino to his
nephew Lorenzo.
[Footnote 204: _Sp. Cal_., ii., 246.]
Henry watched with ill-concealed jealousy his rival's victorious
progress; his envy was personal, as well as political. "Francis,"
wrote the Bishop of Worcester in describing the interview between the
French King and the Pope at Bologna, "is tall in stature,
broad-shouldered, oval and handsome in face, very slender in the legs
and much inclined to corpulence."[205] His appearance was the subject
of critical inquiry by Henry himself. On May Day, 1515, Pasqualigo[206]
was summoned to Greenwich by the King, whom he found dressed in green,
"shoes and all," and mounted on a bay Frieslander sent him by the
Marquis of Mantua; his guard were also dressed in green and armed with
bows and arrows for the usual May Day sports. They breakfasted in
green bowers some distance from the palace. "His Majesty," continues
Pasqualigo, "came into our arbor, and addressing me in French, said:
'Talk with me awhile. The King of France, is he as tall as I am?' I
told him there was but little difference. He continued, 'Is he as
stout?' I said he was not; and he then inquired, 'What sort of legs
has he?' I replied 'Spare'. Whereupon he opened the front of his (p. 087)
doublet, and placing his hand on his thigh, said: 'Look here; and
I also have a good calf to my leg'. He then told me he was very fond
of this King of France, and that on more than three occasions he was
very near him with his army, but that he would never allow himself to
be seen, and always retreated, which His Majesty attributed to
deference for King Louis, who did not choose an engagement to take
place." After dinner, by way of showing his prowess, Henry "armed
himself _cap-a-pie_ and ran thirty courses, capsizing his opponent,
horse and all". Two months later, he said to Giustinian: "I am aware
that King Louis, although my brother-in-law, was a bad man. I know not
what this youth may be; he is, however, a Frenchman, nor can I say how
far you should trust him;"[207] and Giustinian says he at once
perceived the great rivalry for glory between the two young kings.
[Footnote 205: _L. and P._, ii., 1281.]
[Footnote 206: _Ibid._, ii., 411; Giustinian,
_Desp._, i., 90; _Ven. Cal._, ii., 624.]
[Footnote 207: _Ven. Cal_., ii., 652]
Henry now complained that Francis had concealed his Italian enterprise
from him, that he was ill-treating English subjects, and interfering
with matters in Scotland. The last was his real and chief ground for
resentment. Francis had no great belief that Henry would keep the
peace, and resist the temptation to attack him, if a suitable
opportunity were to arise. So he had sent the Duke of Albany to
provide Henry with an absorbing disturbance in Scotland. Since the
death of James IV. at Flodden, English influence had, in Margaret's
hands, been largely increased. Henry took upon himself to demand a
voice in Scotland's internal affairs. He claimed the title of
"Protector of Scotland"; and wrote to the Pope asking him to (p. 088)
appoint no Scottish bishops without his consent, and to reduce the
Archbishopric of St. Andrews to its ancient dependence on York.[208]
Many urged him to complete the conquest of Scotland, but this
apparently he refused on the ground that his own sister was really its
ruler and his own infant nephew its king. Margaret, however, as an
Englishwoman, was hated in Scotland, and she destroyed much of her
influence by marrying the Earl of Angus. So the Scots clamoured for
Albany, who had long been resident at the French Court and was heir to
the Scottish throne, should James IV.'s issue fail. His appearance was
the utter discomfiture of the party of England; Margaret was besieged
in Stirling and ultimately forced to give up her children to Albany's
keeping, and seek safety in flight to her brother's dominions.[209]
[Footnote 208: _L. and P._, i., 4483, 4502; ii.,
654.]
[Footnote 209: It was said by the Scots Estates
that she had forfeited her claim to their custody
by her marriage with Angus (_ibid._, ii., 1011).]
Technically, Francis had not broken his treaty with England, but he
had scarcely acted the part of a friend; and if Henry could retaliate
without breaking the peace, he would eagerly seize any opportunity
that offered. The alliance with Ferdinand and Maximilian was renewed,
and a new Holy League formed under Leo's auspices. But Leo soon
afterwards made his peace at Bologna with France. Charles was under
French influence, and Henry's council and people were not prepared for
war. So he refused, says Giustinian, Ferdinand's invitations to join
in an invasion of France. He did so from no love of Francis, and it
was probably Wolsey's ingenuity which suggested the not very scrupulous
means of gratifying Henry's wish for revenge. Maximilian was (p. 089)
still pursuing his endless quarrel with Venice; and the seizure of
Milan by the French and Venetian allies was a severe blow to
Maximilian himself, to the Swiss, and to their protege, Sforza. Wolsey
now sought to animate them all for an attempt to recover the duchy,
and Sforza promised him 10,000 ducats a year from the date of his
restoration. There was nothing but the spirit of his treaty with
France to prevent Henry spending his money as he thought fit; and it
was determined to hire 20,000 Swiss mercenaries to serve under the
Emperor in order to conquer Milan and revenge Marignano.[210] The
negotiation was one of great delicacy; not only was secrecy absolutely
essential, but the money must be carefully kept out of Maximilian's
reach. "Whenever," wrote Pace, "the King's money passed where the
Emperor was, he would always get some portion of it by force or false
promises of restitution."[211] The accusation was justified by
Maximilian's order to Margaret, his daughter, to seize Henry's
treasure as soon as he heard it was on the way to the Swiss.[212] "The
Emperor," said Julius II., "is light and inconstant, always begging
for other men's money, which he wastes in hunting the chamois."[213]
[Footnote 210: _L. and P._, ii., 1065.]
[Footnote 211: _Ibid._, ii., 1817.]
[Footnote 212: _Ibid._, ii., 1231.]
[Footnote 213: _Ibid._, ii., 1877.]
The envoy selected for this difficult mission was Richard Pace,
scholar and author, and friend of Erasmus and More. He had been in
Bainbridge's service at Rome, was then transferred to that of Wolsey
and Henry, and as the King's secretary, was afterwards thought to be
treading too close on the Cardinal's heels. He set out in October, and
arrived in Zurich just in time to prevent the Swiss from coming (p. 090)
to terms with Francis. Before winter had ended the plans for invasion
were settled. Maximilian came down with the snows from the mountains
in March; on the 23rd he crossed the Adda;[214] on the 25th he was
within nine miles of Milan, and almost in sight of the army of France.
On the 26th he turned and fled without striking a blow. Back he went
over the Adda, over the Oglio, up into Tyrol, leaving the French and
Venetians in secure possession of Northern Italy. A year later they
had recovered for Venice the last of the places of which it had been
robbed by the League of Cambrai.
[Footnote 214: _L. and P._, ii., 1697, 1699, 1721,
1729, 1736, 1754, 1831, 2011, 2034, 2114.]
Maximilian retreated, said Pace, voluntarily and shamefully, and was
now so degraded that it signified little whether he was a friend or an
enemy.[215] The cause of his ignominious flight still remains a
mystery; countless excuses were made by Maximilian and his friends. He
had heard that France and England had come to terms; 6,000 of the
Swiss infantry deserted to the French on the eve of the battle.
Ladislaus of Hungary had died, leaving him guardian of his son, and he
must go to arrange matters there. He had no money to pay his troops.
The last has an appearance of verisimilitude. Money was at the bottom
of all his difficulties, and drove him to the most ignominious shifts.
He had served as a private in Henry's army for 100 crowns a day. His
councillors robbed him; on one occasion he had not money to pay for
his dinner;[216] on another he sent down to Pace, who was ill in bed,
and extorted a loan by force. He had apparently seized 30,000 (p. 091)
crowns of Henry's pay for the Swiss;[217] the Fuggers, Welzers and
Frescobaldi, were also accused of failing to keep their engagements,
and only the first month's pay had been received by the Swiss when
they reached Milan. On the Emperor's retreat the wretched Pace was
seized by the Swiss and kept in prison as security for the remainder.[218]
His task had been rendered all the more difficult by the folly of
Wingfield, ambassador at Maximilian's Court, who, said Pace, "took the
Emperor for a god and believed that all his deeds and thoughts
proceeded _ex Spiritu Sancto_".[219] There was no love lost between
them; the lively Pace nicknamed his colleague "Summer shall be green,"
in illusion perhaps to Wingfield's unending platitudes, or to his
limitless belief in the Emperor's integrity and wisdom.[220] Wingfield
opened Pace's letters and discovered the gibe, which he parried by
avowing that he had never known the time when summer was not
green.[221] On another occasion he forged Pace's signature, with a
view of obtaining funds for Maximilian;[222] and he had the hardihood
to protest against Pace's appointment as Henry's secretary. At last
his conduct brought down a stinging rebuke from Henry;[223] but the
King's long-suffering was not yet exhausted, and Wingfield continued
as ambassador to the Emperors Court.
[Footnote 215: _Ibid._, ii., 1877.]
[Footnote 216: _Ibid._, ii., 2152, 1892, 1896,
2034, 2035.]
[Footnote 217: _L. and P._, ii., 1231, 1792, 1854.]
[Footnote 218: _Ibid._, ii., 1877.]
[Footnote 219: _Ibid._, ii., 1817.]
[Footnote 220: _Ibid._, ii., 1566, 1567.]
[Footnote 221: _Ibid._, ii., 1775.]
[Footnote 222: _Ibid._, ii., 1813.]
[Footnote 223: _Ibid._, ii., 2177.]
* * * * *
The failure of the Milan expedition taught Wolsey and Henry a bitter
but salutary lesson. It was their first attempt to intervene in a
sphere of action so distant from English shores and so remote (p. 092)
from English interests as the affairs of Italian States. Complaints in
England were loud against the waste of money; the sagacious Tunstall
wrote that he did not see why Henry should bind himself to maintain
other men's causes.[224] All the grandees, wrote Giustinian, were
opposed to Wolsey's policy, and its adoption was followed by what
Giustinian called a change of ministry in England.[225] Warham
relinquished the burdens of the Chancellorship which he had long
unwillingly borne; Fox sought to atone for twenty-eight years' neglect
of his diocese by spending in it the rest of his days.[226] Wolsey
succeeded Warham as Chancellor, and Ruthal, who "sang treble to
Wolsey's bass,"[227] became Lord Privy Seal in place of Fox. Suffolk
was out of favour, and the neglect of his and Fox's advice was,
according to the Venetian, resented by the people, who murmured
against the taxes which Wolsey's intervention in foreign affairs
involved.
[Footnote 224: _L. and P._, ii., 2270.]
[Footnote 225: _Ibid._, ii., 1814, 2487, 2500.]
[Footnote 226: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 750, 798, 801; _L.
and P._, ii., 2183.]
[Footnote 227: _L. and P._, ii., 2205.]
But Wolsey still hoped that bribes would keep Maximilian faithful to
England and induce him to counteract the French influences with which
his grandson Charles was surrounded. Ferdinand had died in January,
1516,[228] having, said the English envoy at his Court, wilfully
shortened his life by hunting and hawking in all weathers, and following
the advice of his falconers rather than that of his physicians.
Charles thus succeeded to Castile, Aragon and Naples;[229] but (p. 093)
Naples was seriously threatened by the failure of Maximilian's
expedition and the omnipotence of Francis in Italy. "The Pope is
French," wrote an English diplomatist, "and everything from Rome to
Calais."[230] To save Naples, Charles, in July, 1516, entered into the
humiliating Treaty of Noyon with France.[231] He bound himself to
marry Francis's infant daughter, Charlotte, to do justice to Jean
d'Albret in the matter of Navarre, and to surrender Naples, Navarre,
and Artois, if he failed to keep his engagement. Such a treaty was not
likely to stand; but, for the time, it was a great feather in
Francis's cap, and a further step towards the isolation of England. It
was the work of Charles's Gallicised ministry, and Maximilian
professed the utmost disgust at their doings. He was eager to come
down to the Netherlands with a view to breaking the Treaty of Noyon
and removing his grandson's advisers, but of course he must have money
from England to pay his expenses. The money accordingly came from the
apparently bottomless English purse;[232] and in January, 1517, the
Emperor marched down to the Netherlands, breathing, in his despatches
to Henry, threatenings and slaughter against Charles's misleaders. His
descent on Flanders eclipsed his march on Milan. "Mon fils," he said
to Charles, "vous allez tromper les Francais, et moi, je vais tromper
les Anglais."[233] So far from breaking the Treaty of Noyon, he (p. 094)
joined it himself, and at Brussels solemnly swore to observe its
provisions. He probably thought he had touched the bottom of Henry's
purse, and that it was time to dip into Francis's. Seventy-five
thousand crowns was his price for betraying Henry.[234]
[Footnote 228: On 23rd Jan. (_L. and P._, ii.,
1541, 1610). Brewer in his introduction to vol. ii.
of the _L. and P._ says "in February".]
[Footnote 229: His mother Juana was rightfully
Queen, but she was regarded as mad; she thought her
husband, the Archduke Philip, might come to life
again, and carried him about in a coffin with her
wherever she went (_Ven. Cal._, ii., 564).]
[Footnote 230: _L. and P._, ii., 2930.]
[Footnote 231: _L. and P._, ii., 2303, 2327, 2387;
_Ven. Cal._, ii., 769, 773.]
[Footnote 232: _L. and P._, ii., 2406, 2573, 2626,
2702.]
[Footnote 233: _Ibid._, ii., 2930.]
[Footnote 234: _L. and P._, ii., 2891.]
In conveying the news to Wolsey, Tunstall begged him to urge Henry "to
refrain from his first passions" and "to draw his foot out of the
affair as gently as if he perceived it not, giving good words for good
words which they yet give us, thinking our heads to be so gross that
we perceive not their abuses".[235] Their persistent advances to
Charles had, he thought, done them more harm than good; let the King
shut his purse in time, and he would soon have Charles and the Emperor
again at his feet.[236] Tunstall was ably seconded by Dr. William
Knight, who thought it would be foolish for England to attempt to undo
the Treaty of Noyon; it contained within itself the seeds of its own
dissolution. Charles would not wait to marry Francis's daughter, and
then the breach would come.[237] Henry and Wolsey had the good sense
to act on this sound advice. Maximilian, Francis and Charles formed at
Cambrai a fresh league for the partition of Italy,[238] but they were
soon at enmity and too much involved with their own affairs to think
of the conquest of others. Disaffection was rife in Spain, where a
party wished Ferdinand, Charles's brother, to be King.[239] If Charles
was to retain his Spanish kingdoms, he must visit them at once. He
could not go unless England provided the means. His request for (p. 095)
a loan was graciously accorded and his ambassadors were treated with
magnificent courtesy.[240] "One day," says Chieregati,[241] the papal
envoy in England, "the King sent for these ambassadors, and kept them
to dine with him privately in his chamber with the Queen, a very
unusual proceeding. After dinner he took to singing and playing on
every musical instrument, and exhibited a part of his very excellent
endowments. At length he commenced dancing," and, continues another
narrator, "doing marvellous things, both in dancing and jumping,
proving himself, as he is in truth, indefatigable." On another day
there was "a most stately joust." Henry was magnificently attired in
"cloth of silver with a raised pile, and wrought throughout with
emblematic letters". When he had made the usual display in the lists,
the Duke of Suffolk entered from the other end, with well-nigh equal
array and pomp. He was accompanied by fourteen other jousters. "The
King wanted to joust with all of them; but this was forbidden by the
council, which, moreover, decided that each jouster was to run six
courses and no more, so that the entertainment might be ended on that
day.... The competitor assigned to the King was the Duke of Suffolk;
and they bore themselves so bravely that the spectators fancied
themselves witnessing a joust between Hector and Achilles." "They
tilted," says Sagudino, "eight courses, both shivering their lances at
every time, to the great applause of the spectators." Chieregati
continues: "On arriving in the lists the King presented himself before
the Queen and the ladies, making a thousand jumps in the air, and (p. 096)
after tiring one horse, he entered the tent and mounted another...
doing this constantly, and reappearing in the lists until the end of
the jousts". Dinner was then served, amid a scene of unparalleled
splendour, and Chieregati avers that the "guests remained at table for
seven hours by the clock". The display of costume on the King's part
was equally varied and gorgeous. On one occasion he wore "stiff
brocade in the Hungarian fashion," on another, he "was dressed in
white damask in the Turkish fashion, the above-mentioned robe all
embroidered with roses, made of rubies and diamonds"; on a third, he
"wore royal robes down to the ground, of gold brocade lined with
ermine"; while "all the rest of the Court glittered with jewels and
gold and silver, the pomp being unprecedented".
[Footnote 235: _Ibid._, ii., 2923, 2940.]
[Footnote 236: _Ibid._, ii., 2910.]
[Footnote 237: _Ibid._, ii., 2930.]
[Footnote 238: _Ibid._, ii., 2632, 3008; _Monumenta
Habsburgica_, ii., 37.]
[Footnote 239: _L. and P._, ii., 3076, 3077, 3081.]
[Footnote 240: _L. and P._, ii., 3402, 3439-41.]
[Footnote 241: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 918; _L. and P._,
ii., 3455, 3462.]
All this riot of wealth would no doubt impress the impecunious
Charles. In September he landed in Spain, so destitute that he was
glad to accept the offer of a hobby from the English ambassador.[242]
At the first meeting of his Cortes, they demanded that he should marry
at once, and not wait for Francis's daughter; the bride his subjects
desired was the daughter of the King of Portugal.[243] They were no
more willing to part with Navarre; and Charles was forced to make to
Francis the feeble excuse that he was not aware, when he was in the
Netherlands, of his true title to Navarre, but had learnt it since his
arrival in Spain; he also declined the personal interview to which
Francis invited him.[244] A rupture between Francis and Charles was
only a question of time; and, to prepare for it, both were anxious (p. 097)
for England's alliance. Throughout the autumn of 1517 and spring of
1518, France and England were feeling their way towards friendship.
Albany had left Scotland, so that source of irritation was gone. Henry
had now a daughter, Mary, and Francis a son. "I will unite them," said
Wolsey;[245] and in October, 1518, not only was a treaty of marriage
and alliance signed between England and France, but a general peace
for Europe. Leo X. sent Campeggio with blessings of peace from the
Vicar of Christ, though he was kept chafing at Calais for three
months, till he could bring with him Leo's appointment of Wolsey as
legate and the deposition of Wolsey's enemy, Hadrian, from the
Bishopric of Bath and Wells.[246] The ceremonies exceeded in splendour
even those of the year before. They included, says Giustinian, a "most
sumptuous supper" at Wolsey's house, "the like of which, I fancy, was
never given by Cleopatra or Caligula; the whole banqueting hall being
so decorated with huge vases of gold and silver, that I fancied myself
in the tower of Chosroes,[247] when that monarch caused Divine honours
to be paid him. After supper... twelve male and twelve female dancers
made their appearance in the richest and most sumptuous array possible,
being all dressed alike.... They were disguised in one suit of fine
green satin, all over covered with cloth of gold, undertied together
with laces of gold, and had masking hoods on their heads; the ladies
had tires made of braids of damask gold, with long hairs of white
gold. All these maskers danced at one time, and after they had danced
they put off their visors, and then they were all known.... The (p. 098)
two leaders were the King and the Queen Dowager of France, and all the
others were lords and ladies."[248] These festivities were followed by
the formal ratification of peace.[249] Approval of it was general, and
the old councillors who had been alienated by Wolsey's Milan expedition,
hastened to applaud. "It was the best deed," wrote Fox to Wolsey,
"that ever was done for England, and, next to the King, the praise of
it is due to you."[250] Once more the wheel had come round, and the
stone of Sisyphus was lodged more secure than before some way up the
side of the hill.
[Footnote 242: _L. and P._, ii., 3705.]
[Footnote 243: _Ibid._, ii., 4022.]
[Footnote 244: _Ibid._, ii., 4164, 4188.]
[Footnote 245: _L. and P._, ii., 4047.]
[Footnote 246: _Ibid._, ii., 4348.]
[Footnote 247: Chosroes I. (Nushirvan) of Persia.]
[Footnote 248: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1085, 1088; _cf._
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_.]
[Footnote 249: _L. and P._, ii., 4468, 4483, 4564,
4669.]
[Footnote 250: _Ibid._, ii., 4540.]
* * * * *
This general peace, which closed the wars begun ten years before by
the League of Cambrai, was not entirely due to a universal desire to
beat swords into ploughshares or to even turn them against the Turk.
That was the everlasting pretence, but eighteen months before,
Maximilian had suffered a stroke of apoplexy; men, said Giustinian,
commenting on the fact, did not usually survive such strokes a year,
and rivals were preparing to enter the lists for the Empire.
Maximilian himself, faithful to the end to his guiding principle,
found a last inspiration in the idea of disposing of his succession
for ready money. He was writing to Charles that it was useless to
expect the Empire unless he would spend at least as much as the
French.[251] "It would be lamentable," he said, "if we should now lose
all through some pitiful omission or penurious neglect;" and Francis
was "going about covertly and laying many baits,"[252] to attain (p. 099)
the imperial crown. To Henry himself Maximilian had more than once
offered the prize, and Pace had declared that the offer was only
another design for extracting Henry's gold "for the electors would
never allow the crown to go out of their nation".[253] The Emperor had
first proposed it while serving under Henry's banners in France.[254]
He renewed the suggestion in 1516, inviting Henry to meet him at
Coire. The brothers in arms were thence to cross the Alps to Milan,
where the Emperor would invest the English King with the duchy; he
would then take him on to Rome, resign the Empire himself, and have
Henry crowned. Not that Maximilian desired to forsake all earthly
authority; he sought to combine a spiritual with a temporal glory; he
was to lay down the imperial crown and place on his brows the papal
tiara.[255] Nothing was too fantastic for the Emperor Maximilian; the
man who could not wrest a few towns from Venice was always deluding
himself with the hope of leading victorious hosts to the seat of the
Turkish Empire and the Holy City of Christendom; the sovereign whose
main incentive in life was gold, informed his daughter that he
intended to get himself canonised, and that after his death she would
have to adore him. He died at Welz on 12th January, 1519, neither Pope
nor saint, with Jerusalem still in the hands of the Turk, and the
succession to the Empire still undecided.
[Footnote 251: _Ibid._, ii., 4172.]
[Footnote 252: _L. and P._, ii., 4159.]
[Footnote 253: _Ibid._, ii., 1923.]
[Footnote 254: _Ibid._, ii., 1398, 1878, 1902,
2218, 2911, 4257.]
[Footnote 255: _Cf._ W. Boehm, _Hat Kaiser
Maximilian I. im Jahre 1511 Papst werden wollen?_
1873.]
The contest now broke out in earnest, and the electors prepared (p. 100)
to garner their harvest of gold. The price of a vote was a hundredfold
more than the most corrupt parliamentary elector could conceive in his
wildest dreams of avarice. There were only seven electors and the prize
was the greatest on earth. Francis I. said he was ready to spend
3,000,000 crowns, and Charles could not afford to lag far behind.[256]
The Margrave of Brandenburg, "the father of all greediness," as the
Austrians called him, was particularly influential because his brother,
the Archbishop of Mainz, was also an elector and he required an
especially exorbitant bribe. He was ambitious as well as covetous, and
the rivals endeavoured to satisfy his ambitions with matrimonial
prizes. He was promised Ferdinand's widow, Germaine de Foix; Francis
sought to parry this blow by offering to the Margrave's son the French
Princess Renee; Charles bid higher by offering his sister Catherine.[257]
Francis relied much on his personal graces, the military renown he had
won by the conquest of Northern Italy, and the assistance of Leo. With
the Pope he concluded a fresh treaty that year for the conquest of
Ferrara, the extension of the papal States, and the settlement of
Naples on Francis's second son, on condition that it was meanwhile to
be administered by papal legates,[258] and that its king was to
abstain from all interference in spiritual matters. Charles, on the
other hand, owed his advantages to his position and not to his person.
Cold, reserved and formal, he possessed none of the physical or
intellectual graces of Francis I. and Henry VIII. He excelled in (p. 101)
no sport, was unpleasant in features and repellent in manners. No
gleam of magnanimity or chivalry lightened his character, no deeds in
war or statecraft yet sounded his fame. He was none the less heir of
the Austrian House, which for generations had worn the imperial crown;
as such, too, he was a German prince, and the Germanic constitution
forbade any other the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire. Against
this was the fact that his enormous dominions, including Naples and
Spain, would preclude his continued residence in Germany and might
threaten the liberties of the German people.
[Footnote 256: For details of the sums promised to
the various German princes see _L. and P._, iii.,
36, etc.; it has been said that there was really
little or no bribery at this election.]
[Footnote 257: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1165, 1187; _L.
and P._, ii., 4159; iii., 130.]
[Footnote 258: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 267.]
But was there no third candidate? Leo at heart regarded the election
of either as an absolute evil.[259] He had always dreaded Maximilian's
claims to the temporal power of the Church, though Maximilian held not
a foot of Italian soil. How much more would he dread those claims in
the hands of Francis or Charles! One threatened the papal States from
Milan, and the other from Naples. Of the two, he feared Francis the
less;[260] for the union of Naples with the Empire had been such a
terror to the Popes, that before granting the investiture of that
kingdom, they bound its king by oath not to compete for the Empire.[261]
But a third candidate would offer an escape from between the upper and
the nether mill-stone; and Leo suggested at one time Charles's brother
Ferdinand,[262] at another a German elector. Precisely the same
recommendations had been secretly made by Henry VIII. In public he
followed the course he commended to Leo; he advocated the claims (p. 102)
of both Charles and Francis, when asked so to do, but sent trusty
envoys with his testimonials to explain that no credence was to be
given them.[263] He told the French King that he favoured the election
of Francis, and the Spanish King the election of Charles, but like Leo
he desired in truth the election of neither. Why should he not come
forward himself? His dominions were not so extensive that, when
combined with the imperial dignity, they would threaten to dominate
Europe; and his election might seem to provide a useful check in the
balance of power. In March he had already told Francis that his claims
were favoured by some of the electors, though he professed a wish to
promote the French King's pretensions. In May, Pace was sent to
Germany with secret instructions to endeavour to balance the parties
and force the electors into a deadlock, from which the only escape
would be the election of a third candidate, either Henry himself or
some German prince. It is difficult to believe that Henry really
thought his election possible or was seriously pushing his claim. He
had repeatedly declined Maximilian's offers; he had been as often
warned by trusty advisers that no non-German prince stood a chance of
election; he had expressed his content with his own islands, which,
Tunstall told him with truth, were an Empire worth more than the
barren imperial crown.[264] Pace went far too late to secure a party
for Henry, and, what was even more fatal, he went without the
persuasive of money. Norfolk told Giustinian, after Pace's departure,
that the election would fall on a German prince, and such, said the
Venetian, was the universal belief and desire in England.[265] (p. 103)
After the election, Leo expressed his "regret that Henry gave no
attention to a project which would have made him a near, instead of a
distant, neighbour of the papal States". Under the circumstances, it
seems more probable that the first alternative in Pace's instructions
no more represented a settled design in Henry's mind than his
often-professed intention of conquering France, and that the real
purport of his mission was to promote the election of the Duke of
Saxony or another German prince.[266]
[Footnote 259: _L. and P._, iii., 149.]
[Footnote 260: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1227.]
[Footnote 261: _Ibid._, ii., 1246.]
[Footnote 262: _Ibid._, ii., 1163.]
[Footnote 263: _L. and P._, iii., 137.]
[Footnote 264: _Ibid._, ii., 2911.]
[Footnote 265: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1220.]
[Footnote 266: _L. and P._, ii., 241.]
Whether that was its object or not the mission was foredoomed to
failure. The conclusion was never really in doubt. Electors might
trouble the waters in order to fish with more success. They might
pretend to Francis that if he was free with his money he might be
elected, and to Charles that unless he was free with his money he
would not, but no sufficient reason had been shown why they should
violate national prejudices, the laws of the Empire, and prescriptive
hereditary right, in order to place Henry or Francis instead of a
German upon the imperial throne. Neither people nor princes nor
barons, wrote Leo's envoys, would permit the election of the Most
Christian King;[267] and even if the electors wished to elect him, it
was not in their power to do so. The whole of the nation, said Pace,
was in arms and furious for Charles; and had Henry been elected, they
would in their indignation have killed Pace and all his servants.[268]
The voice of the German people spoke in no uncertain tones; they would
have Charles and no other to be their ruler. Leo himself saw the (p. 104)
futility of resistance, and making a virtue of necessity, he sent
Charles an absolution from his oath as King of Naples. As soon as it
arrived, the electors unanimously declared Charles their Emperor on
28th June.[269]
[Footnote 267: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1227.]
[Footnote 268: _L. and P._, iii., 326.]
[Footnote 269: _L. and P._, iii., 339.]
Thus was completed the shuffling of the cards for the struggle which
lasted till Henry's death. Francis had now succeeded to Louis, Charles
to both his grandfathers, and Henry at twenty-eight was the _doyen_ of
the princes of Europe. He was two years older than Francis and eight
years older than Charles. Europe had passed under the rule of youthful
triumvirs whose rivalry troubled its peace and guided its destinies
for nearly thirty years. The youngest of all was the greatest in
power. His dominions, it is true, were disjointed, and funds were
often to seek, but these defects have been overrated. It was neither
of these which proved his greatest embarrassment. It was a cloud in
Germany, as yet no bigger than a man's hand, but soon to darken the
face of Europe. Ferdinand and Maximilian had at times been dangerous;
Charles wielded the power of both. He ruled over Castile and Aragon,
the Netherlands and Naples, Burgundy and Austria; he could command the
finest military forces in Europe; the infantry of Spain, the science
of Italy, the lance-knights of Germany, for which Ferdinand sighed,
were at his disposal; and the wealth of the Indies was poured out at
his feet. He bestrode the narrow world like a Colossus, and the only
hope of lesser men lay in the maintenance of Francis's power. Were
that to fail, Charles would become arbiter of Christendom, Italy a
Spanish kingdom, and the Pope little more than the Emperor's (p. 105)
chaplain. "Great masters," said Tunstall, with reference to a papal
brief urged by Charles in excuse for his action in 1517, "could get
great clerks to say what they liked."[270] The mastery of Charles in
1517 was but the shadow of what it became ten years later; and if
under its dominance "the great clerk" were called upon to decide
between "the great master" and Henry, it was obvious already that all
Henry's services to the Papacy would count for nothing.
[Footnote 270: _L. and P._, ii., 3054.]
* * * * *
For the present, those services were to be remembered. They were not,
indeed, inconsiderable. It would be absurd to maintain that, since his
accession, Henry had been actuated by respect for the Papacy more than
by another motive; but it is indisputable that that motive had entered
more largely into his conduct than into that of any other monarch.
James IV. and Louis had been excommunicated, Maximilian had obstinately
countenanced a schismatic council and wished to arrogate to himself
the Pope's temporal power. Ferdinand's zeal for his house had eaten
him up and left little room for less selfish impulses; his anxiety for
war with the Moor or the Turk was but a cloak; and the value of his
frequent demands for a Reformation may be gauged by his opinion that
never was there more need for the Inquisition, and by his anger with
Leo for refusing the Inquisitors the preferments he asked.[271] From
hypocrisy like Ferdinand's Henry was, in his early years, singularly
free, and the devotion to the Holy See, which he inherited, was of a
more than conventional type. "He is very religious," wrote (p. 106)
Giustinian, "and hears three masses daily when he hunts, and sometimes
five on other days. He hears the office every day in the Queen's chamber,
that is to say, vesper and compline."[272] The best theologians and
doctors in his kingdom were regularly required to preach at his Court,
when their fee for each sermon was equivalent to ten or twelve pounds.
He was generous in his almsgiving, and his usual offering on Sundays
and saints' days was six shillings and eightpence or, in modern
currency, nearly four pounds; often it was double that amount, and
there were special offerings besides, such as the twenty shillings he
sent every year to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury. In January,
1511, the gentlemen of the King's chapel were paid what would now be
seventy-five pounds for praying for the Queen's safe delivery, and
similar sums were no doubt paid on other occasions.[273] In 1513,
Catherine thought Henry's success was all due to his zeal for
religion,[274] and a year or two later Erasmus wrote that Henry's
Court was an example to all Christendom for learning and piety.[275]
[Footnote 271: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 80, 89, 167, 175.]
[Footnote 272: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1287; Giustinian,
_Desp._, ii., App., 309; _L. and P._, iii., 402.]
[Footnote 273: These details are from the King's
"Book of Payments" calendared at the end of _L. and
P._, vol. ii.]
[Footnote 274: _L. and P._, i., 4417.]
[Footnote 275: _Ibid._, ii., 4115.]
Piety went hand in hand with a filial respect for the head of the
Church. Not once in the ten years is there to be found any expression
from Henry of contempt for the Pope, whether he was Julius II. or Leo
X. There had been no occasion on which Pope and King had been brought
into conflict, and almost throughout they had acted in perfect harmony.
It was the siege of Julius by Louis that drew Henry from his peaceful
policy to intervene as the champion of the Papal See, and it was (p. 107)
as the executor of papal censures that he made war on France.[276] If
he had ulterior views on that kingdom, he could plead the justification
of a brief, drawn up if not published, by Julius II., investing him
with the French crown.[277] A papal envoy came to urge peace in 1514,
and a Pope claimed first to have suggested the marriage between Mary
and Louis.[278] The Milan expedition of 1516 was made under cover of a
new Holy League concluded in the spring of the previous year, and the
peace of 1518 was made with the full approval and blessings of Leo.
Henry's devotion had been often acknowledged in words, and twice by
tangible tokens of gratitude, in the gift of the golden rose in 1510
and of the sword and cap in 1513.[279] But did not his services merit
some more signal mark of favour? If Ferdinand was "Catholic," and
Louis "Most Christian," might not some title be found for a genuine
friend? And, as early as 1515, Henry was pressing the Pope for "some
title as protector of the Holy See".[280] Various names were suggested,
"King Apostolic," "King Orthodox," and others; and in January, 1516,
we find the first mention of "Fidei Defensor".[281] But the prize was
to be won by services more appropriate to the title than even ten
years' maintenance of the Pope's temporal interests. His championship
of the Holy See had been the most unselfish part of Henry's policy
since he came to the throne; and his whole conduct had been an
example, which others were slow to follow, and which Henry himself was
soon to neglect.
[Footnote 276: _L. and P._, i., 3876, 4283.]
[Footnote 277: _Arch. R. Soc. Rom._, xix., 3, 4.]
[Footnote 278: _L. and P._, i., 5543.]
[Footnote 279: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 53-54, 361; _L.
and P._, i., 976, 4621.]
[Footnote 280: _Ibid._, ii., 887, 967.]
[Footnote 281: _Ibid._, ii., 1456, 1928; iii.,
1369.]