KING AND CARDINAL.
"Nothing," wrote Giustinian of Wolsey in 1519, "pleases him more than
to be called the arbiter of Christendom."[282] Continental statesmen
were inclined to ridicule and resent the Cardinal's claim. But the
title hardly exaggerates the part which the English minister was
enabled to play during the next few years by the rivalry of Charles
and Francis, and by the apparently even balance of their powers. The
position which England held in the councils of Europe in 1519 was a
marvellous advance upon that which it had occupied in 1509. The first
ten years of Henry's reign had been a period of fluctuating, but
continual, progress. The campaign of 1513 had vindicated England's
military prowess, and had made it possible for Wolsey, at the peace of
the following year, to place his country on a level with France and
Spain and the Empire. Francis's conquest of Milan, and the haste with
which Maximilian, Leo and Charles sought to make terms with the
victor, caused a temporary isolation of England and a consequent
decline in her influence. But the arrangements made between Charles
and Francis contained, in themselves, as acute English diplomatists
saw, the seeds of future disruption; and, in 1518, Wolsey was able (p. 109)
so to play off these mutual jealousies as to reassert England's
position. He imposed a general peace, or rather a truce, which raised
England even higher than the treaties of 1514 had done, and made her
appear as the conservator of the peace of Europe. England had almost
usurped the place of the Pope as mediator between rival Christian
princes.[283]
[Footnote 282: _L. and P._, iii., 125; Giustinian,
_Desp._, ii., 256.]
[Footnote 283: _L. and P._, iii., 125. Men were
shocked when the Pope was styled "comes" instead of
"princeps confederationis" of 1518. "The chief
author of these proceedings," says Giustinian, "is
Wolsey, whose sole aim is to procure incense for
his king and himself" (_Desp._ ii., 256).]
These brilliant results were achieved with the aid of very moderate
military forces and an only respectable navy. They were due partly to
the lavish expenditure of Henry's treasures, partly to the extravagant
faith of other princes in the extent of England's wealth, but mainly
to the genius for diplomacy displayed by the great English Cardinal.
Wolsey had now reached the zenith of his power; and the growth of his
sense of his own importance is graphically described by the Venetian
ambassador. When Giustinian first arrived in England, Wolsey used to
say, "His Majesty will do so and so". Subsequently, by degrees,
forgetting himself, he commenced saying, "We shall do so and so". In
1519 he had reached such a pitch that he used to say, "I shall do so
and so".[284] Fox had been called by Badoer "a second King," but
Wolsey was now "the King himself".[285] "We have to deal," said Fox,
"with the Cardinal, who is not Cardinal, but King; and no one in the
realm dares attempt aught in opposition to his interests."[286] On
another occasion Giustinian remarks: "This Cardinal is King, nor does
His Majesty depart in the least from the opinion and counsel of (p. 110)
his lordship".[287] Sir Thomas More, in describing the negotiations
for the peace of 1518, reports that only after Wolsey had concluded a
point did he tell the council, "so that even the King hardly knows in
what state matters are".[288] A month or two later there was a curious
dispute between the Earl of Worcester and West, Bishop of Ely, who
were sent to convey the Treaty of London to Francis. Worcester, as a
layman, was a partisan of the King, West of the Cardinal. Worcester
insisted that their detailed letters should be addressed to Henry, and
only general ones to Wolsey. West refused; the important letters, he
thought, should go to the Cardinal, the formal ones to the King; and,
eventually, identical despatches were sent to both.[289] In
negotiations with England, Giustinian told his Government, "if it were
necessary to neglect either King or Cardinal, it would be better to
pass over the King; he would therefore make the proposal to both, but
to the Cardinal first, _lest he should resent the precedence conceded
to the King_".[290] The popular charge against Wolsey, repeated by
Shakespeare, of having written _Ego et rex meus_, though true in
fact,[291] is false in intention, because no Latin scholar could put
the words in any other order; but the Cardinal's mental attitude is
faithfully represented in the meaning which the familiar phrase was
supposed to convey.
[Footnote 284: _Ven._ Cal., ii. 1287.]
[Footnote 285: _L. and P._, ii., 1380.]
[Footnote 286: _Ibid._, ii., 3558.]
[Footnote 287: _Cf. Ven. Cal._, ii., 671, 875,
894.]
[Footnote 288: _L. and P._, ii., 4438.]
[Footnote 289: _Ibid._, ii., 4664. On other
occasions Wolsey took it upon himself to open
letters addressed to the King (_Ibid._, iii.,
2126).]
[Footnote 290: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1215.]
[Footnote 291: It will be found in _Ven. Cal._,
iii., p. 43; Shakespeare, _Henry VIII._, Act III.,
Sc. ii.]
His arrogance does not rest merely on the testimony of personal (p. 111)
enemies like the historian, Polydore Vergil, and the poet Skelton, or
of chroniclers like Hall, who wrote when vilification of Wolsey
pleased both king and people, but on the despatches of diplomatists
with whom he had to deal, and on the reports of observers who narrowly
watched his demeanour. "He is," wrote one, "the proudest prelate that
ever breathed."[292] During the festivities of the Emperor's visit to
England, in 1520, Wolsey alone sat down to dinner with the royal
party, while peers, like the Dukes of Suffolk and Buckingham,
performed menial offices for the Cardinal, as well as for Emperor,
King and Queen.[293] When he celebrated mass at the Field of Cloth of
Gold, bishops invested him with his robes and put sandals on his feet,
and "some of the chief noblemen in England" brought water to wash his
hands.[294] A year later, at his meeting with Charles at Bruges, he
treated the Emperor as an equal. He did not dismount from his mule,
but merely doffed his cap, and embraced as a brother the temporal head
of Christendom.[295] When, after a dispute with the Venetian ambassador,
he wished to be friendly, he allowed Giustinian, with royal condescension,
and as a special mark of favour, to kiss his hand.[296] He never
granted audience either to English peers or foreign ambassadors until
the third or fourth time of asking.[297] In 1515 it was the custom of
ambassadors to dine with Wolsey before presentation at Court, but four
years later they were never served until the viands had been removed
from the Cardinal's table.[298] A Venetian, describing Wolsey's (p. 112)
embassy to France in 1527, relates that his "attendants served cap in
hand, and, when bringing the dishes, knelt before him in the act of
presenting them. Those who waited on the Most Christian King, kept
their caps on their heads, dispensing with such exaggerated
ceremonies."[299]
[Footnote 292: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 56.]
[Footnote 293: _Ibid._, iii., 50.]
[Footnote 294: _Ibid._, vol. iii., p. 29.]
[Footnote 295: _Ibid._, iii., 298.]
[Footnote 296: _L. and P._, ii., 3733.]
[Footnote 297: Giustinian, _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]
[Footnote 298: Giustinian, _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]
[Footnote 299: _Ven. Cal._, iii., p. 84.]
Pretenders to royal honours seldom acquire the grace of genuine
royalty, and the Cardinal pursued with vindictive ferocity those who
offended his sensitive dignity. In 1515, Polydore Vergil said, in
writing to his friend, Cardinal Hadrian, that Wolsey was so tyrannical
towards all men that his influence could not last, and that all
England abused him.[300] The letter was copied by Wolsey's secretary,
Vergil was sent to the Tower,[301] and only released after many months
at the repeated intercession of Leo X. His correspondent, Cardinal
Hadrian, was visited with Wolsey's undying hatred. A pretext for his
ruin was found in his alleged complicity in a plot to poison the Pope;
the charge was trivial, and Leo forgave him.[302] Not so Wolsey, who
procured Hadrian's deprivation of the Bishopric of Bath and Wells,
appropriated the see for himself, and in 1518 kept Campeggio, the
Pope's legate, chafing at Calais until he could bring with him the
papal confirmation of these measures.[303] Venice had the temerity to
intercede with Leo on Hadrian's behalf; Wolsey thereupon overwhelmed
Giustinian with "rabid and insolent language"; ordered him not to (p. 113)
put anything in his despatches without his consent; and revoked the
privileges of Venetian merchants in England.[304] In these outbursts
of fury, he paid little respect to the sacrosanct character of
ambassadors. He heard that the papal nuncio, Chieregati, was sending
to France unfavourable reports of his conduct. The nuncio "was sent
for by Wolsey, who took him into a private chamber, laid rude hands
upon him, fiercely demanding what he had written to the King of
France, and what intercourse he had held with Giustinian and his son,
adding that he should not quit the spot until he had confessed
everything, and, if fair means were not sufficient, he should be put
upon the rack".[305] Nine years later, Wolsey nearly precipitated war
between England and the Emperor by a similar outburst against
Charles's ambassador, De Praet. He intercepted De Praet's
correspondence, and confined him to his house. It was a flagrant
breach of international law. Tampering with diplomatic correspondence
was usually considered a sufficient cause for war; on this occasion
war did not suit Charles's purpose, but it was no fault of Wolsey's
that his fury at an alleged personal slight did not provoke
hostilities with the most powerful prince in Christendom.[306]
[Footnote 300: _L. and P._, ii., 215.]
[Footnote 301: _Ibid._, ii., 491, 865, 1229.]
[Footnote 302: _Ibid._, ii., 3581, 3584; _Ven.
Cal._, ii., 902, 951.]
[Footnote 303: _L. and P._, ii., 4348.]
[Footnote 304: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 951, 953, 978; _L.
and P._, ii., 3584.]
[Footnote 305: _L. and P._, ii., 2643.]
[Footnote 306: _Sp. Cal._, iii., pp. 50, 76, 78,
92.]
Englishmen fared no better than others at Wolsey's hands. He used the
coercive power of the State to revenge his private wrongs as well as
to secure the peace of the realm. In July, 1517, Sir Robert Sheffield,[307]
who had been Speaker in two Parliaments, was sent to the Tower for
complaining of Wolsey, and to point the moral of Fox's assertion, (p. 114)
that none durst do ought in opposition to the Cardinal's interests.[308]
Again, the idea reflected by Shakespeare, that Wolsey was jealous of
Pace, has been described as absurd; but it is difficult to draw any
other inference from the relations between them after 1521. While
Wolsey was absent at Calais, he accused Pace, without ground, of
misrepresenting his letters to Henry, and of obtaining Henry's favour
on behalf of a canon of York;[309] he complained that foreign powers
were trusting to another influence than his over the King; and, when
he returned, he took care that Pace should henceforth be employed, not
as secretary to Henry, but on almost continuous missions to Italy. In
1525, when the Venetian ambassador was to thank Henry for making a
treaty with Venice, which Pace had concluded, he was instructed not to
praise him so highly, if the Cardinal were present, as if the oration
were made to Henry alone;[310] and, four years later, Wolsey found an
occasion for sending Pace to the Tower--treatment which eventually
caused Pace's mind to become unhinged.[311]
[Footnote 307: _L. and P._, ii., 3487.]
[Footnote 308: _L. and P._, ii., 3558.]
[Footnote 309: _Ibid._, iii., 1713.]
[Footnote 310: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 975.]
[Footnote 311: Brewer (Henry VIII., ii., 388; _L.
and P._, vol. iv., Introd., p. dxxxv. _n._) is very
indignant at this allegation, and when recording
Chapuys' statement in 1529 that Pace had been
imprisoned for two years in the Tower and elsewhere
by Wolsey, declares that "Pace was never committed
to the Tower, nor kept in prison by Wolsey" but was
"placed under the charge of the Bishop of Bangor,"
and that Chapuys' statement is "an instance how
popular rumour exaggerates facts, or how Spanish
ambassadors were likely to misrepresent them". It
is rather an instance of the lengths to which
Brewer's zeal for Wolsey carried him. He had not
seen the despatch from Mendoza recording Pace's
committal to the Tower on 25th Oct., 1527, "for
speaking to the King in opposition to Wolsey and
the divorce" (_Sp. Cal._, 1527-29, p. 440). It is
true that Pace was in the charge of the Bishop of
Bangor, but he was not transferred thither until
1528 (Ellis, _Orig. Letters_, 3rd ser., ii., 151);
he was released immediately upon Wolsey's fall.
Erasmus, thereupon, congratulating him on the fact,
remarked that he was consoled by Pace's experience
for his own persecution and that God rescued the
innocent and cast down the proud (_ibid._, iv.,
6283). The _D.N.B._ (xliii., 24), has been misled
by Brewer. Wolsey had long had a grudge against
Pace, and in 1514 was anxious to make "a fearful
example" of him (_L. and P._, i., 5465); and his
treatment of Pace was one of the charges brought
against him in 1529 (_ibid._, iv., p. 2552).]
Wolsey's pride in himself, and his jealousy of others, were not (p. 115)
more conspicuous than his thirst after riches. His fees as Chancellor
were reckoned by Giustinian at five thousand ducats a year. He made
thrice that sum by New Year's presents, "which he receives like the
King".[312] His demand for the Bishopric of Bath and Wells, coupled
with the fact that it was he who petitioned for Hadrian's deprivation,
amazed even the Court at Rome, and, "to avoid murmurs,"[313] compliance
was deferred for a time. But these scruples were allowed no more than
ecclesiastical law to stand in the way of Wolsey's preferment. One of
the small reforms decreed by the Lateran Council was that no bishoprics
should be held _in commendam_; the ink was scarcely dry when Wolsey
asked _in commendam_ for the see of the recently conquered Tournay.[314]
Tournay was restored to France in 1518, but the Cardinal took care
that he should not be the loser. A _sine qua non_ of the peace was
that Francis should pay him an annual pension of twelve thousand
livres as compensation for the loss of a bishopric of which he had
never obtained possession.[315] He drew other pensions for political
services, from both Francis and Charles; and, from the Duke of Milan,
he obtained the promise of ten thousand ducats a year before Pace (p. 116)
set out to recover the duchy.[316] It is scarcely a matter for wonder
that foreign diplomatists, and Englishmen, too, should have accused
Wolsey of spending the King's money for his own profit, and have
thought that the surest way of winning his favour was by means of a
bribe.[317] When England, in 1521, sided with Charles against Francis,
the Emperor bound himself to make good to Wolsey all the sums he would
lose by a breach with France; and from that year onwards Charles
paid--or owed--Wolsey eighteen thousand livres a year.[318] It was
nine times the pensions considered sufficient for the Dukes of Norfolk
and Suffolk; and even so it does not include the revenue Wolsey
derived from two Spanish bishoprics. These were not bribes in the
sense that they affected Wolsey's policy; they were well enough known
to the King; to spoil the Egyptians was considered fair game, and
Henry was generous enough not to keep all the perquisites of peace or
war for himself.
[Footnote 312: Giustinian, _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]
[Footnote 313: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1045.]
[Footnote 314: _L. and P._, i., 5457.]
[Footnote 315: _Ibid._, ii., 4354.]
[Footnote 316: _L. and P._, ii., 1053, 1066.]
[Footnote 317: _Ibid._, ii., 1931; _cf._
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII._, Act. I., Sc. i.:--
Thus the Cardinal
Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases
And for his own advantage.]
[Footnote 318: _L. and P._, iii., 709, 2307 (where
it is given as nine thousand "crowns of the sun");
_Sp. Cal._, ii., 273, 600. In 1527 Charles
instructed his ambassador to offer Wolsey in
addition to his pension of nine thousand ducats
with arrears a further pension of six thousand
ducats and a marquisate in Milan worth another
twelve or fifteen thousand ducats a year (_L. and
P._, iv., 3464).]
Two years after the agreement with Charles, Ruthal, Bishop of Durham,
died, and Wolsey exchanged Bath and Wells for the richer see formerly
held by his political ally and friend. But Winchester was richer (p. 117)
even than Durham; so when Fox followed Ruthal to the grave, in 1528,
Wolsey exchanged the northern for the southern see, and begged that
Durham might go to his natural son, a youth of eighteen.[319] All
these were held _in commendam_ with the Archbishopric of York, but
they did not satisfy Wolsey; and, in 1521, he obtained the grant of
St. Albans, the greatest abbey in England. His palaces outshone in
splendour those of Henry himself, and few monarchs have been able to
display such wealth of plate as loaded the Cardinal's table. Wolsey is
supposed to have conceived vast schemes of ecclesiastical reform,
which time and opportunity failed him to effect.[320] If he had ever
seriously set about the work, the first thing to be reformed would
have been his own ecclesiastical practice. He personified in himself
most of the clerical abuses of his age. Not merely an "unpreaching
prelate," he rarely said mass; his _commendams_ and absenteeism were
alike violations of canon law. Three of the bishoprics he held he
never visited at all; York, which he had obtained fifteen years
before, he did not visit till the year of his death, and then through
no wish of his own. He was equally negligent of the vow of chastity;
he cohabited with the daughter of "one Lark," a relative of the Lark
who is mentioned in the correspondence of the time as "omnipotent"
with the Cardinal, and as resident in his household.[321] By her (p. 118)
he left two children, a son,[322] for whom he obtained a deanery, four
archdeaconries, five prebends, and a chancellorship, and sought the
Bishopric of Durham, and a daughter who became a nun. The accusation
brought against him by the Duke of Buckingham and others, of procuring
objects for Henry's sensual appetite, is a scandal, to which no
credence would have been attached but for Wolsey's own moral laxity,
and the fact that the governor of Charles V. performed a similar
office.[323]
[Footnote 319: _L. and P._, iv., 4824.]
[Footnote 320: There is no doubt about his
eagerness for the power which would have enabled
him to carry out a reformation. As legate he
demanded from the Pope authority to visit and
reform the secular clergy as well as the
monasteries; this was refused on the ground that it
would have superseded the proper functions of the
episcopate (_L. and P._, ii., 4399; iii., 149).]
[Footnote 321: _L. and P._, ii., 629, 2637, 4068.
Lark became prebendary of St. Stephen's (_Ibid._,
iv., _Introd._, p. xlvi.).]
[Footnote 322: Called Thomas Wynter, see the
present writer's _Life of Cranmer_, p. 324 _n._
Some writers have affected to doubt Wolsey's
parentage of Wynter, but this son is often referred
to in the correspondence of the time, _e.g._, _L. and
P._, iv., p. 1407, Nos. 4824, 5581, 6026, 6075.
Art. 27.]
[Footnote 323: _Ibid._, iii., 1284; iv., p. 2558;
ii., 2930.]
Repellent as was Wolsey's character in many respects, he was yet the
greatest, as he was the last, of the ecclesiastical statesmen who have
governed England. As a diplomatist, pure and simple, he has never been
surpassed, and as an administrator he has had few equals. "He is,"
says Giustinian, "very handsome, learned, extremely eloquent, of vast
ability and indefatigable. He alone transacts the same business as
that which occupies all the magistracies, offices, and councils of
Venice, both civil and criminal; and all State affairs are managed by
him, let their nature be what it may. He is thoughtful, and has the
reputation of being extremely just; he favours the people exceedingly,
and especially the poor, hearing their suits and seeking to despatch
them instantly. He also makes the lawyers plead gratis for all poor
suitors. He is in very great repute, seven times more so than if (p. 119)
he were Pope."[324] His sympathy with the poor was no idle sentiment,
and his commission of 1517, and decree against enclosures in the
following year, were the only steps taken in Henry's reign to mitigate
that curse of the agricultural population.
[Footnote 324: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1287; Giustinian,
_D sp._, App. ii., 309; _L. and P._, iii., 402.]
The Evil May Day riots of 1517 alone disturbed the peace of Wolsey's
internal administration; and they were due merely to anti-foreign
prejudice, and to the idea that strangers within the gates monopolised
the commerce of England and diverted its profits to their own advantage.
"Never," wrote Wolsey to a bishop at Rome in 1518, "was the kingdom in
greater harmony and repose than now; such is the effect of my
administration of justice and equity."[325] To Henry his strain was
less arrogant. "And for your realm," he says, "our Lord be thanked, it
was never in such peace nor tranquillity; for all this summer I have
had neither of riot, felony, nor forcible entry, but that your laws be
in every place indifferently ministered without leaning of any manner.
Albeit, there hath lately been a fray betwixt Pygot, your Serjeant,
and Sir Andrew Windsor's servants for the seisin of a ward, whereto
they both pretend titles; in the which one man was slain. I trust the
next term to learn them the law of the Star Chamber that they shall
ware how from henceforth they shall redress their matter with their
hands. They be both learned in the temporal law, and I doubt not good
example shall ensue to see them learn the new law of the Star Chamber,
which, God willing, they shall have indifferently administered (p. 120)
to them, according to their deserts."[326]
[Footnote 325: _Ibid._, ii., 3973.]
[Footnote 326: _L. and P._, ii., App. No. 38; for
the Star Chamber see Scofield, _Star Chamber_,
1902, and Leadam, _Select Cases_ (Selden Soc.,
1904).]
Wolsey's "new law of the Star Chamber," his stern enforcement of the
statutes against livery and maintenance, and his spasmodic attempt to
redress the evils of enclosures,[327] probably contributed as much as
his arrogance and ostentation to the ill-favour in which he stood with
the nobility and landed gentry. From the beginning there were frequent
rumours of plots to depose him, and his enemies abroad often talked of
the universal hatred which he inspired in England. The classes which
benefited by his justice complained bitterly of the impositions
required to support his spirited foreign policy. Clerics who regarded
him as a bulwark on the one hand against heresy, and, on the other,
against the extreme view which Henry held from the first of his
authority over the Church, were alienated by the despotism Wolsey
wielded by means of his legatine powers. Even the mild and aged Warham
felt his lash, and was threatened with _Praemunire_ for having wounded
Wolsey's legatine authority by calling a council at Lambeth.[328]
Peers, spiritual no less than temporal, regarded him as "the great
tyrant". Parliament he feared and distrusted; he had urged the speedy
dissolution of that of 1515; only one sat during the fourteen years of
his supremacy, and with that the Cardinal quarrelled. He possessed no
hold over the nation, but only over the King, in whom alone he put his
trust.
[Footnote 327: _L. and P._, App. No. 53; _cf._
Leadam, _Domesday of Enclosures_ (Royal Hist.
Soc.).]
[Footnote 328: _Ibid._, iii., 77, 98; _cf._ ii.,
3973; iii. 1142.]
For the time he seemed secure enough. No one could touch a hair (p. 121)
of his head so long as he was shielded by Henry's power, and Henry
seemed to have given over his royal authority to Wolsey's hands with a
blind and undoubting confidence. "The King," said one, in 1515, "is a
youngling, cares for nothing but girls and hunting, and wastes his
father's patrimony."[329] "He gambled," reported Giustinian in 1519,
"with the French hostages, occasionally, it was said, to the amount of
six or eight thousand ducats a day."[330] In the following summer
Henry rose daily at four or five in the morning and hunted till nine
or ten at night; "he spares," said Pace, "no pains to convert the
sport of hunting into a martyrdom".[331] "He devotes himself," wrote
Chieregati, "to accomplishments and amusements day and night, is
intent on nothing else, and leaves business to Wolsey, who rules
everything."[332] Wolsey, it was remarked by Leo X., made Henry go
hither and thither, just as he liked,[333] and the King signed State
papers without knowing their contents. "Writing," admitted Henry, "is
to me somewhat tedious and painful."[334] When Wolsey thought it
essential that autograph letters in Henry's hand should be sent to
other crowned heads, he composed the letters and sent them to Henry to
copy out.[335] Could the most constitutional monarch have been more
dutiful? But constitutional monarchy was not then invented, and it is
not surprising that Giustinian, in 1519, found it impossible to (p. 122)
say much for Henry as a statesman. _Agere cum rege_, he said, _est
nihil agere_;[336] anything told to the King was either useless or was
communicated to Wolsey. Bishop West was sure that Henry would not take
the pains to look at his and Worcester's despatches; and there was a
widespread impression abroad and at home that the English King was a
negligible quantity in the domestic and foreign affairs of his own
kingdom.
[Footnote 329: _L. and P._, ii., 1105; _cf. ibid._,
ii., 215.]
[Footnote 330: Giustinian, _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]
[Footnote 331: _L. and P._, iii., 950; _cf._ iii.,
1160, where Fitzwilliam describes Henry as a
"master" in deer-hunting.]
[Footnote 332: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 788.]
[Footnote 333: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 281.]
[Footnote 334: _L. and P._, iii., 1.]
[Footnote 335: _Ibid._, iii., 1453, 3377.]
[Footnote 336: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1110.]
For ten years Henry had reigned while first his council, and then
Wolsey, governed. Before another decade had passed, Henry was King and
Government in one; and nobody in the kingdom counted for much but the
King. He stepped at once into Wolsey's place, became his own prime
minister, and ruled with a vigour which was assuredly not less than
the Cardinal's. Such transformations are not the work of a moment, and
Henry's would have been impossible, had he in previous years been so
completely the slave of Vanity Fair, as most people thought. In
reality, there are indications that beneath the superficial gaiety of
his life, Henry was beginning to use his own judgment, form his own
conclusions, and take an interest in serious matters. He was only
twenty-eight in 1519, and his character was following a normal course
of development.
From the earliest years of his reign Henry had at least two serious
preoccupations, the New Learning and his navy. We learn from Erasmus
that Henry's Court was an example to Christendom for learning and
piety;[337] that the King sought to promote learning among the clergy;
and on one occasion defended "mental and _ex tempore_ prayer" against
those who apparently thought laymen should, in their private (p. 123)
devotions, confine themselves to formularies prescribed by the
clergy.[338] In 1519 there were more men of learning at the English
Court than at any university;[339] it was more like a museum, says the
great humanist, than a Court;[340] and in the same year the King
endeavoured to stop the outcry against Greek, raised by the reactionary
"Trojans" at Oxford. "You would say," continues Erasmus, "that Henry
was a universal genius. He has never neglected his studies; and
whenever he has leisure from his political occupations, he reads, or
disputes--of which he is very fond--with remarkable courtesy and
unruffled temper. He is more of a companion than a king. For these
little trials of wit, he prepares himself by reading schoolmen,
Thomas, Scotus or Gabriel."[341] His theological studies were
encouraged by Wolsey, possibly to divert the King's mind from an
unwelcome interference in politics, and it was at the Cardinal's
instigation that Henry set to work on his famous book against
Luther.[342] He seems to have begun it, or some similar treatise,
which may afterwards have been adapted to Luther's particular case,
before the end of the year in which the German reformer published his
original theses. In September, 1517, Erasmus heard that Henry had
returned to his studies,[343] and, in the following June, Pace writes
to Wolsey that, with respect to the commendations given by the
Cardinal to the King's book, though Henry does not think it worthy
such great praise as it has had from him and from all other "great
learned" men, yet he says he is very glad to have "noted in your (p. 124)
grace's letters that his reasons be called inevitable, considering
that your grace was sometime his adversary herein and of contrary
opinion".[344] It is obvious that this "book," whatever it may have
been, was the fruit of Henry's own mind, and that he adopted a line of
argument not entirely relished by Wolsey. But, if it was the book
against Luther, it was laid aside and rewritten before it was given to
the world in its final form. Nothing more is heard of it for three
years. In April, 1521, Pace explains to Wolsey the delay in sending
him on some news-letters from Germany "which his grace had not read
till this day after his dinner; and thus he commanded me to write unto
your grace, declaring he was otherwise occupied; _i.e., in scribendo
contra Lutherum,_ as I do conjecture".[345] Nine days later Pace found
the King reading a new book of Luther's, "which he dispraised"; and he
took the opportunity to show Henry Leo's bull against the Reformer.
"His grace showed himself well contented with the coming of the same;
howbeit, as touching the publication thereof, he said he would have it
well examined and diligently looked to afore it were published."[346]
Even in the height of his fervour against heresy, Henry was in no mood
to abate one jot or one tittle of his royal authority in
ecclesiastical matters.
[Footnote 337: _L. and P._, ii., 4115.]
[Footnote 338: _L. and P._, iii., 226.]
[Footnote 339: _Ibid._, iii., 251.]
[Footnote 340: _Ibid._, ii., 4340.]
[Footnote 341: _Ibid._, iv., 5412; for the freedom
with which Cranmer in later days debated with Henry
see the present writer's _Cranmer_, p. 169.]
[Footnote 342: _Ibid._, iii., 1659, 1772.]
[Footnote 343: _Ibid._, ii., 3673.]
[Footnote 344: _L. and P._, ii., 4257.]
[Footnote 345: _Ibid._, iii., 1220.]
[Footnote 346: _Ibid._, 1233.]
His book was finished before 21st May, 1521, when the King wrote to
Leo, saying that "ever since he knew Luther's heresy in Germany, he
had made it his study how to extirpate it. He had called the learned
of his kingdom to consider these errors and denounce them, and (p. 125)
exhort others to do the same. He had urged the Emperor and Electors,
since this pestilent fellow would not return to God, to extirpate him
and his heretical books. He thought it right still further to testify
his zeal for the faith by his writings, that all might see he was
ready to defend the Church, not only with his arms, but with the
resources of his mind. He dedicated therefore, to the Pope, the first
offerings of his intellect and his little erudition."[347] The letter
had been preceded, on 12th May, by a holocaust of Luther's books in
St. Paul's Churchyard. Wolsey sat in state on a scaffold at St. Paul's
Cross, with the papal nuncio and the Archbishop of Canterbury at his
feet on the right, and the imperial ambassador and Tunstall, Bishop of
London, at his feet on the left; and while the books were being
devoured by the flames, Fisher preached a sermon denouncing the errors
contained therein.[348] But it was July before the fair copy of
Henry's book was ready for presentation to Leo; possibly the interval
was employed by learned men in polishing Henry's style, but the
substance of the work was undoubtedly of Henry's authorship. Such is
the direct testimony of Erasmus, and there is no evidence to indicate
the collaboration of others.[349] Pace was then the most intimate of
Henry's counsellors, and Pace, by his own confession, was not in the
secret. Nor is the book so remarkable as to preclude the possibility
of Henry's authorship. Its arguments are respectable and give evidence
of an intelligent and fairly extensive acquaintance with the writings
of the fathers and schoolmen; but they reveal no profound depth of
theological learning nor genius for abstract speculation. It does (p. 126)
not rank so high in the realm of theology, as do some of Henry's
compositions in that of music. In August it was sent to Leo, with
verses composed by Wolsey and copied out in the royal hand.[350] In
September the English ambassador at Rome presented Leo his copy, bound
in cloth of gold. The Pope read five leaves without interruption, and
remarked that "he would not have thought such a book should have come
from the King's grace, who hath been occupied, necessarily, in other
feats, seeing that other men which hath occupied themselves in study
all their lives cannot bring forth the like".[351] On 2nd October it
was formally presented in a consistory of cardinals; and, on the 11th,
Leo promulgated his bull conferring on Henry his coveted title, "Fidei
Defensor".
[Footnote 347: _L. and P._, iii., 1297.]
[Footnote 348: _Ibid._, iii., 1273.]
[Footnote 349: F.M. Nichols, _Epistles of Erasmus_,
p. 424; _L. and P._, iv., 5412.]
[Footnote 350: _L. and P._, iii., 1450.]
[Footnote 351: _Ibid._, iii., 1574, 1654, 1655,
1659.]
Proud as he was of his scholastic achievement and its reward at the
hands of the Pope, Henry was doing more for the future of England by
his attention to naval affairs than by his pursuit of high-sounding
titles. His intuitive perception of England's coming needs in this
respect is, perhaps, the most striking illustration of his political
foresight. He has been described as the father of the British navy;
and, had he not laid the foundations of England's naval power, his
daughter's victory over Spain and entrance on the path that led to
empire would have been impossible. Under Henry, the navy was first
organised as a permanent force; he founded the royal dockyards at
Woolwich and Deptford, and the corporation of Trinity House;[352] he
encouraged the planting of timber for shipbuilding, enacted laws (p. 127)
facilitating inland navigation, dotted the coast with fortifications,
and settled the constitution of the naval service upon a plan from
which it has ever since steadily developed. He owed his inspiration to
none of his councillors, least of all to Wolsey, who had not the
faintest glimmering of the importance of securing England's naval
supremacy, and who, during the war of 1522-23, preferred futile
invasions on land to Henry's "secret designs" for destroying the navy
of France.[353] The King's interest in ships and shipbuilding was
strong, even amid the alluring diversions of the first years of his
reign. He watched his fleet sail for Guienne in 1512, and for France
in 1513; he knew the speed, the tonnage and the armament of every ship
in his navy; he supervised the minutest details of their construction.
In 1520 his ambassador at Paris tells him that Francis is building a
ship, "and reasoneth in this mystery of shipman's craft as one which
had understanding in the same. But, sir, he approacheth not your
highness in that science."[354] A French envoy records how, in 1515,
the whole English Court went down to see the launch of the _Princess
Mary_. Henry himself "acted as pilot and wore a sailor's coat and
trousers, made of cloth of gold, and a gold chain with the inscription,
'Dieu _est_ mon droit,' to which was suspended a whistle, which he
blew nearly as loud as a trumpet".[355] The launch of a ship was then
almost a religious ceremony, and the place of the modern bottle of
champagne was taken by a mass, which was said by the Bishop of Durham.
In 1518 Giustinian tells how Henry went to Southampton to see the
Venetian galleys, and caused some new guns to be "fired again and (p. 128)
again, marking their range, as he is very curious about matters of
this kind".[356]
[Footnote 352: _Ibid._, i., 3807. In 1513 an
English consul was appointed at Scio (_ibid._, i.,
3854).]
[Footnote 353: _L. and P._, iii., 1440; _cf.
ibid._, 2421.]
[Footnote 354: _Ibid._, iii., 748.]
[Footnote 355: _Ibid._, ii., 1113.]
[Footnote 356: _L. and P._, ii., 4232.]
It was not long before Henry developed an active participation in
serious matters other than theological disputes and naval affairs. It
is not possible to trace its growth with any clearness because no
record remains of the verbal communications which were sufficient to
indicate his will during the constant attendance of Wolsey upon him.
But, as soon as monarch and minister were for some cause or another
apart, evidence of Henry's activity in political matters becomes more
available. Thus, in 1515, we find Wolsey sending the King, at his own
request, the Act of Apparel, just passed by Parliament, for Henry's
"examination and correction".[357] He also desires Henry's determination
about the visit of the Queen of Scotland, that he may make the
necessary arrangements. In 1518 Henry made a prolonged stay at
Abingdon, partly from fear of the plague, and partly, as he told Pace,
because at Abingdon people were not continually coming to tell him of
deaths, as they did daily in London. During this absence from London,
Henry insisted upon the attendance of sufficient councillors to enable
him to transact business; he established a relay of posts every seven
hours between himself and Wolsey; and we hear of his reading "every
word of all the letters" sent by his minister.[358] Every week Wolsey
despatched an account of such State business as he had transacted; and
on one occasion, "considering the importance of Wolsey's letters,"
Henry paid a secret and flying visit to London.[359] In 1519 there
was a sort of revolution at Court, obscure enough now, but then a (p. 129)
subject of some comment at home and abroad. Half a dozen of Henry's
courtiers were removed from his person and sent into honourable exile,
receiving posts at Calais, at Guisnes, and elsewhere.[360] Giustinian
thought that Henry had been gambling too much and wished to turn over
a new leaf. There were also rumours that these courtiers governed
Henry after their own appetite, to the King's dishonour; and Henry,
annoyed at the report and jealous as ever of royal prestige, promptly
cashiered them, and filled their places with grave and reverend
seniors.
[Footnote 357: _Ibid._, ii., 1223.]
[Footnote 358: _Ibid._, ii., 4060, 4061, 4089.]
[Footnote 359: _L. and P._, ii., 4276.]
[Footnote 360: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1220, 1230; _L.
and P._, iii., 246, 247, 249, 250. Francis I.
thought they were dismissed as being too favourable
to him, and as a rule the younger courtiers
favoured France and the older Spain.]
Two years later Wolsey was abroad at the conference of Calais, and
again Henry's hand in State affairs becomes apparent. Pace, defending
himself from the Cardinal's complaints, tells him that he had done
everything "by the King's express commandment, who readeth all your
letters with great diligence". One of the letters which angered Wolsey
was the King's, for Pace "had devised it very different"; but the King
would not approve of it; "and commanded me to bring your said letters
into his privy chamber with pen and ink, and there he would declare
unto me what I should write. And when his grace had your said letters,
he read the same three times, and marked such places as it pleased him
to make answer unto, and commanded me to write and rehearse as liked
him, and not further to meddle with that answer; so that I herein
nothing did but obeyed the King's commandment, and especially at (p. 130)
such time _as he would upon good grounds be obeyed, whosoever spake to
the contrary_."[361] Wolsey might say in his pride "I shall do so and
so," and foreign envoys might think that the Cardinal made the King
"go hither and thither, just as he liked"; but Wolsey knew perfectly
well that when he thought fit, Henry "would be obeyed, whosoever spake
to the contrary". He might delegate much of his authority, but men
were under no misapprehension that he could and would revoke it
whenever he chose. For the time being, King and Cardinal worked
together in general harmony, but it was a partnership in which Henry
could always have the last word, though Wolsey did most of the work.
As early as 1518 he had nominated Standish to the bishopric of St.
Asaph, disregarding Wolsey's candidate and the opposition of the
clerical party at Court, who detested Standish for his advocacy of
Henry's authority in ecclesiastical matters, and dreaded his promotion
as an evil omen for the independence of the Church.[362]
[Footnote 361: _L. and P._, iii., 1713.]
[Footnote 362: _Ibid._, ii., 4074, 4083, 4089.]
Even in the details of administration, the King was becoming
increasingly vigilant. In 1519 he drew up a "remembrance of such
things" as he required the Cardinal to "put in effectual
execution".[363] They were twenty-one in number and ranged over every
variety of subject. The household was to be arranged; "views to be
made and books kept"; the ordnance seen to; treasurers were to make
monthly reports of their receipts and payments, and send counterparts
to the King; the surveyor of lands was to make a yearly declaration;
and Wolsey himself and the judges were to make quarterly reports (p. 131)
to Henry in person. There were five points "which the King will debate
with his council," the administration of justice, reform of the
exchequer, Ireland, employment of idle people, and maintenance of the
frontiers. The general plan of Wolsey's negotiations at Calais in 1521
was determined by King and Cardinal in consultation, and every
important detail in them and in the subsequent preparations for war
was submitted to Henry. Not infrequently they differed. Wolsey wanted
Sir William Sandys to command the English contingent; Henry declared
it would be inconsistent with his dignity to send a force out of the
realm under the command of any one of lower rank than an earl. Wolsey
replied that Sandys would be cheaper than an earl,[364] but the
command was entrusted to the Earl of Surrey. Henry thought it unsafe,
considering the imminence of a breach with France, for English wine
ships to resort to Bordeaux; Wolsey thought otherwise, and they
disputed the point for a month. Honours were divided; the question was
settled for the time by twenty ships sailing while the dispute was in
progress.[365] Apparently they returned in safety, but the seizure of
English ships at Bordeaux in the following March justified Henry's
caution.[366] The King was already an adept in statecraft, and there
was at least an element of truth in the praise which Wolsey bestowed
on his pupil. "No man," he wrote, "can more groundly consider the
politic governance of your said realm, nor more assuredly look to the
preservation thereof, than ye yourself." And again, "surely, if all
_your_ whole council had been assembled together, they could not (p. 132)
have more deeply perceived or spoken therein".[367]
[Footnote 363: _Ibid._, iii., 576.]
[Footnote 364: _L. and P._, iii., 1454, 1473,
1474.]
[Footnote 365: _Ibid._, iii., 1629, 1630.]
[Footnote 366: _Ibid._, iii., 2224.]
[Footnote 367: _L. and P._, iii., 1544, 1762.]
The Cardinal "could not express the joy and comfort with which he
noted the King's prudence"; but he can scarcely have viewed Henry's
growing interference without some secret misgivings. For he was
developing not only Wolsey's skill and lack of scruple in politics,
but also a choleric and impatient temper akin to the Cardinal's own.
In 1514 Carroz had complained of Henry's offensive behaviour, and had
urged that it would become impossible to control him, if the "young
colt" were not bridled. In the following year Henry treated a French
envoy with scant civility, and flatly contradicted him twice as he
described the battle of Marignano. Giustinian also records how Henry
went "pale with anger" at unpleasant news.[368] A few years later his
successor describes Henry's "very great rage" when detailing Francis's
injuries; Charles made the same complaints against the French King,
"but not so angrily, in accordance with his gentler nature".[369] On
another occasion Henry turned his back upon a diplomatist and walked
away in the middle of his speech, an incident, we are told, on which
much comment was made in Rome.[370]
[Footnote 368: _Ibid._, ii., 1113, 1653.]
[Footnote 369: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 493.]
[Footnote 370: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 314.]
But these outbursts were rare and they grew rarer; in 1527 Mendoza,
the Spanish ambassador, remarks that it was "quite the reverse of the
King's ordinary manner" to be more violent than Wolsey;[371] and
throughout the period of strained relations with the Emperor, Chapuys
constantly refers to the unfailing courtesy and graciousness with (p. 133)
which Henry received him. He never forgot himself so far as to lay
rude hands on an ambassador, as Wolsey did; and no provocation betrayed
him in his later years, passionate though he was, into a neglect of
the outward amenities of diplomatic and official intercourse. Outbursts
of anger, of course, there were; but they were often like the explosions
of counsel in law courts, and were "to a great extent diplomatically
controlled".[372] Nor can we deny the consideration with which Henry
habitually treated his councillors, the wide discretion he allowed
them in the exercise of their duties, and the toleration he extended
to contrary opinions. He was never impatient of advice even when it
conflicted with his own views. His long arguments with Wolsey, and the
freedom with which the Cardinal justified his recommendations, even
after Henry had made up his mind to an opposite course, are a
sufficient proof of the fact. In 1517, angered by Maximilian's
perfidy, Henry wrote him some very "displeasant" letters. Tunstall
thought they would do harm, kept them back, and received no censure
for his conduct. In 1522-23 Wolsey advised first the siege of Boulogne
and then its abandonment. "The King," wrote More, "is by no means
displeased that you have changed your opinion, as his highness
esteemeth nothing in counsel more perilous than one to persevere in
the maintenance of his advice because he hath once given it. He
therefore commendeth and most affectuously thanketh your faithful
diligence and high wisdom in advertising him of the reasons which have
moved you to change your opinion."[373] No king knew better than Henry
how to get good work from his ministers, and his warning against (p. 134)
persevering in advice, merely because it has once been given, is a
political maxim for all time.
[Footnote 371: _Ibid._, iii., 109.]
[Footnote 372: _L. and P._, xiii., p. xli.]
[Footnote 373: _Ibid._, iii., 2421, 3346.]
A lesson might also be learnt from a story of Henry and Colet told by
Erasmus on Colet's own authority.[374] In 1513 war fever raged in
England. Colet's bishop summoned him "into the King's Court for
asserting, when England was preparing for war against France, that an
unjust peace was preferable to the most just war; but the King threatened
his persecutor with vengeance. After Easter, when the expedition was
ready against France, Colet preached on Whitsunday before the King and
the Court, exhorting men rather to follow the example of Christ their
prince than that of Caesar and Alexander. The King was afraid that this
sermon would have an ill effect upon the soldiers and sent for the
Dean. Colet happened to be dining at the Franciscan monastery near
Greenwich. When the King heard of it, he entered the garden of the
monastery, and on Colet's appearance dismissed his attendants; then
discussed the matter with him, desiring him to explain himself, lest
his audience should suppose that no war was justifiable. After the
conversation was over he dismissed him before them all, drinking to
Colet's health and saying 'Let every man have his own doctor, this is
mine'." The picture is pleasing evidence of Henry's superiority to
some vulgar passions. Another instance of freedom from popular prejudice,
which he shared with his father, was his encouragement of foreign
scholars, diplomatists and merchants; not a few of the ablest of Tudor
agents were of alien birth. He was therefore intensely annoyed at the
rabid fury against them that broke out in the riots of Evil May Day;
yet he pardoned all the ringleaders but one. Tolerance and (p. 135)
clemency were no small part of his character in early manhood;[375]
and together with his other mental and physical graces, his love of
learning and of the society of learned men, his magnificence and
display, his supremacy in all the sports that were then considered the
peculiar adornment of royalty, they contributed scarcely less than
Wolsey's genius for diplomacy and administration to England's renown.
"In short," wrote Chieregati to Isabella d'Este in 1517, "the wealth
and civilisation of the world are here; and those who call the English
barbarians appear to me to render themselves such. I here perceive
very elegant manners, extreme decorum, and very great politeness. And
amongst other things there is this most invincible King, whose
accomplishments and qualities are so many and excellent that I
consider him to surpass all who ever wore a crown; and blessed and
happy may this country call itself in having as its lord so worthy and
eminent a sovereign; whose sway is more bland and gentle than the
greatest liberty under any other."[376]
[Footnote 374: _L. and P._, iii., 303.]
[Footnote 375: For the extraordinary freedom of
speech which Henry permitted, see _L. and P._,
xii., ii., 952, where Sir George Throckmorton
relates how he accused Henry to his face of immoral
relations with Mary Boleyn and her mother.]
[Footnote 376: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 918.]