FROM CALAIS TO ROME.
The wonderful success that had attended Wolsey's policy during his
seven years' tenure of power, and the influential position to which he
had raised England in the councils of Christendom, might well have
disturbed the mental balance of a more modest and diffident man than
the Cardinal; and it is scarcely surprising that he fancied himself,
and sought to become, arbiter of the destinies of Europe. The condition
of continental politics made his ambition seem less than extravagant.
Power was almost monopolised by two young princes whose rivalry was
keen, whose resources were not altogether unevenly matched, and whose
disputes were so many and serious that war could only be averted by a
pacific determination on both sides which neither possessed. Francis
had claims on Naples, and his dependant, D'Albret, on Navarre. Charles
had suzerain rights over Milan and a title to Burgundy, of which his
great-grandfather Charles the Bold had been despoiled by Louis XI. Yet
the Emperor had not the slightest intention of compromising his
possession of Naples or Navarre, and Francis was quite as resolute to
surrender neither Burgundy nor Milan. They both became eager competitors
for the friendship of England, which, if its resources were inadequate
to support the position of arbiter, was at least a most useful (p. 137)
makeweight. England's choice of policy was, however, strictly limited.
She could not make war upon Charles. It was not merely that Charles
had a staunch ally in his aunt Catherine of Aragon, who is said to
have "made such representations and shown such reasons against" the
alliance with Francis "as one would not have supposed she would have
dared to do, or even to imagine".[377] It was not merely that in this
matter Catherine was backed by the whole council except Wolsey, and by
the real inclinations of the King. It was that the English people were
firmly imperialist in sympathy. The reason was obvious. Charles
controlled the wool-market of the Netherlands, and among English
exports wool was all-important. War with Charles meant the ruin of
England's export trade, the starvation or impoverishment of thousands
of Englishmen; and when war was declared against Charles eight years
later, it more nearly cost Henry his throne than all the fulminations
of the Pope or religious discontents, and after three months it was
brought to a summary end. England remained at peace with Spain so long
as Spain controlled its market for wool; when that market passed into
the hands of the revolted Netherlands, the same motive dictated an
alliance with the Dutch against Philip II. War with Charles in 1520
was out of the question; and for the next two years Wolsey and Henry
were endeavouring to make Francis and the Emperor bid against each
other, in order that England might obtain the maximum of concession
from Charles when it should declare in his favour, as all along (p. 138)
was intended.
[Footnote 377: _L. and P._, iii., 728. Wolsey's
opposition is attributed by the imperial ambassador
to Francis I.'s promise to make him Pope, "which we
might have done much better".]
By the Treaty of London Henry was bound to assist the aggrieved
against the aggressor. But that treaty had been concluded between
England and France in the first instance; Henry's only daughter was
betrothed to the Dauphin; and Francis was anxious to cement his
alliance with Henry by a personal interview.[378] It was Henry's
policy to play the friend for the time; and, as a proof of his desire
for the meeting with Francis, he announced, in August, 1519, his
resolve to wear his beard until the meeting took place.[379] He
reckoned without his wife. On 8th November Louise of Savoy, the
queen-mother of France, taxed Boleyn, the English ambassador, with a
report that Henry had put off his beard. "I said," writes Boleyn,
"that, as I suppose, it hath been by the Queen's desire; for I told my
lady that I have hereafore time known when the King's grace hath worn
long his beard, that the Queen hath daily made him great instance, and
desired him to put it off for her sake."[380] Henry's inconstancy in
the matter of his beard not only caused diplomatic inconvenience, but,
it may be parenthetically remarked, adds to the difficulty of dating
his portraits. Francis, however, considered the Queen's interference a
sufficient excuse, or was not inclined to stick at such trifles; and
on 10th January, 1520, he nominated Wolsey his proctor to make
arrangements for the interview.[381] As Wolsey was also agent for
Henry, the French King saw no further cause for delay.
[Footnote 378: The interview had been agreed upon
as early as October, 1518, when it was proposed
that it should take place before the end of July,
1519 (_L. and P._, ii., 4483).]
[Footnote 379: _Ibid._, iii., 416.]
[Footnote 380: _Ibid._, iii., 514.]
[Footnote 381: _Ibid._, iii., 592.]
The delay came from England; the meeting with Francis would be a (p. 139)
one-sided pronouncement without some corresponding favour to Charles.
Some time before Henry had sent Charles a pressing invitation to visit
England on his way from Spain to Germany; and the Emperor, suspicious
of the meeting between Henry and Francis, was only too anxious to come
and forestall it. The experienced Margaret of Savoy admitted that
Henry's friendship was essential to Charles;[382] but Spaniards were
not to be hurried, and it would be May before the Emperor's convoy was
ready. So Henry endeavoured to postpone his engagement with Francis.
The French King replied that by the end of May his Queen would be in
the eighth month of her pregnancy, and that if the meeting were
further prorogued she must perforce be absent.[383] Henry was nothing
if not gallant, at least on the surface. Francis's argument clinched
the matter. The interview, ungraced by the presence of France's Queen,
would, said Henry, be robbed of most of its charm;[384] and he gave
Charles to understand that, unless he reached England by the middle of
May, his visit would have to be cancelled. This intimation produced an
unwonted despatch in the Emperor's movements; but fate was against
him, and contrary winds rendered his arrival in time a matter of doubt
till the last possible moment. Henry must cross to Calais on the 31st
of May, whether Charles came or not; and it was the 26th before the
Emperor's ships appeared off the cliffs of Dover. Wolsey put out in a
small boat to meet him, and conducted Charles to the castle where he
lodged. During the night Henry arrived. Early next day, which was (p. 140)
Whitsunday, the two sovereigns proceeded to Canterbury, where the
Queen and Court had come on the way to France to spend their Pentecost.
Five days the Emperor remained with his aunt, whom he now saw for the
first time; but the days were devoted to business rather than to
elaborate ceremonial and show, for which there had been little time to
prepare.[385]
[Footnote 382: _L. and P._, iii., 672; _cf._ iii.,
742.]
[Footnote 383: _Ibid._, iii., 681, 725.]
[Footnote 384: _Ibid._, iii., 697.]
On the last day of May Charles took ship at Sandwich for Flanders.
Henry embarked at Dover for France. The painting at Hampton Court
depicting the scene has, like almost every other picture of Henry's
reign, been ascribed to Holbein; but six years were to pass before the
great artist visited England. The King himself is represented as being
on board the four-masted _Henry Grace a Dieu_, commonly called the
_Great Harry_, the finest ship afloat; though the vessel originally
fitted out for his passage was the _Katherine Pleasaunce_.[386] At
eleven o'clock he landed at Calais. On Monday, the 4th of June, Henry
and all his Court proceeded to Guisnes. There a temporary palace of
art had been erected, the splendour of which is inadequately set forth
in pages upon pages of contemporary descriptions. One Italian likened
it to the palaces described in Boiardo's _Orlando Innamorato_ and
Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_; another declared that it could not have
been better designed by Leonardo da Vinci himself.[387] Everything
was in harmony with this architectural pomp. Wolsey was (p. 141)
accompanied, it was said in Paris, by two hundred gentlemen clad in
crimson velvet, and had a body-guard of two hundred archers. He was
himself clothed in crimson satin from head to foot, his mule was
covered with crimson velvet, and her trappings were all of gold.
Henry, "the most goodliest prince that ever reigned over the realm of
England," appeared even to Frenchmen as a very handsome prince,
"honnete, hault et droit,"[388] in manner gentle and gracious, rather
fat, and--in spite of his Queen--with a red beard, large enough and
very becoming. Another eye-witness adds the curious remark that, while
Francis was the taller of the two, Henry had the handsomer and more
_feminine_ face![389] On the 7th of June the two Kings started
simultaneously from Guisnes and Ardres for their personal meeting in
the valley mid-way between the two towns, already known as the Val
Dore. The obscure but familiar phrase, Field of Cloth of Gold,[390] is
a mistranslation of the French Camp du Drap d'Or. As they came in
sight a temporary suspicion of French designs seized the English, but
it was overcome. Henry and Francis rode forward alone, embraced each
other first on horseback and then again on foot, and made show of
being the closest friends in Christendom. On Sunday the 10th Henry
dined with the French Queen, and Francis with Catherine of Aragon. The
following week was devoted to tourneys, which the two Kings opened by
holding the field against all comers. The official accounts are
naturally silent on the royal wrestling match, recorded in French (p. 142)
memoirs and histories.[391] On the 17th Francis, as a final effort to
win Henry's alliance, paid a surprise visit to him at breakfast with
only four attendants. The jousts were concluded with a solemn mass
said by Wolsey in a chapel built on the field. The Cardinal of Bourbon
presented the Gospel to Francis to kiss; he refused, offering it to
Henry who was too polite to accept the honour. The same respect for
each other's dignity was observed with the _Pax_, and the two Queens
behaved with a similarly courteous punctilio. After a friendly dispute
as to who should kiss the _Pax_ first, they kissed each other
instead.[392] On the 24th Henry and Francis met to interchange gifts,
to make their final professions of friendship, and to bid each other
adieu. Francis set out for Abbeville, and Henry returned to Calais.
[Footnote 385: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 50; _Sp. Cal._,
ii., 274.]
[Footnote 386: _L. and P._, iii., 558, an
account-book headed "expense of making the _Kateryn
Pleasaunce_ for transporting the King to Calais 22
May, 10 Henry VIII.".]
[Footnote 387: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 81, 88; _cf. L.
and P._, iii., 303-14; Hall, _Chronicle_, p. 604,
etc.]
[Footnote 388: _L. and P._, iii., 306.]
[Footnote 389: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 80.]
[Footnote 390: Erroneously called "Field of _the_
Cloth of Gold"; cloth of gold is a material like
velvet, and one does not talk about "a coat of
_the_ velvet".]
[Footnote 391: See Michelet, x., 137-38.]
[Footnote 392: _Ibid._, p. 312.]
The Field of Cloth of Gold was the last and most gorgeous display of
the departing spirit of chivalry; it was also perhaps the most
portentous deception on record. "These sovereigns," wrote a Venetian,
"are not at peace. They adapt themselves to circumstances, but they
hate each other very cordially."[393] Beneath the profusion of friendly
pretences lay rooted suspicions and even deliberate hostile intentions.
Before Henry left England the rumour of ships fitting out in French
ports had stopped preparations for the interview; and they were not
resumed till a promise under the broad seal of France was given that
no French ship should sail before Henry's return.[394] On the eve of
the meeting Henry is said to have discovered that three or four thousand
French troops were concealed in the neighbouring country;[395] (p. 143)
he insisted on their removal, and Francis's unguarded visit to Henry
was probably designed to disarm the English distrust.[396] No sooner
was Henry's back turned than the French began the fortification of
Ardres,[397] while Henry on his part went to Calais to negotiate a
less showy but genuine friendship with Charles. No such magnificence
adorned their meeting as had been displayed at the Field of Cloth of
Gold, but its solid results were far more lasting. On 10th July Henry
rode to Gravelines where the Emperor was waiting. On the 11th they
returned together to Calais, where during a three days' visit the
negotiations begun at Canterbury were completed. The ostensible
purport of the treaty signed on the 14th was to bind Henry to proceed
no further in the marriage between the Princess Mary and the Dauphin,
and Charles no further in that between himself and Francis's daughter,
Charlotte.[398] But more topics were discussed than appeared on the
surface; and among them was a proposal to marry Mary to the Emperor
himself.[399] The design proves that Henry and Wolsey had already made
up their minds to side with Charles, whenever his disputes with
Francis should develop into open hostilities.
[Footnote 393: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 119.]
[Footnote 394: _L. and P._, iii., 836, 842, 843.]
[Footnote 395: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 80.]
[Footnote 396: _Ibid._, iii., 90.]
[Footnote 397: _Ibid._, iii., 121.]
[Footnote 398: _L. and P._, iii., 914.]
[Footnote 399: _Ibid._, iii., 1149, 1150.]
That consummation could not be far off. Charles had scarcely turned
his back upon Spain when murmurs of disaffection were heard through
the length and breadth of the land; and while he was discussing with
Henry at Calais the prospects of a war with France, his commons in
Spain broke out into open revolt.[400] The rising had attained (p. 144)
such dimensions by February, 1521, that Henry thought Charles was
likely to lose his Spanish dominions. The temptation was too great for
France to resist; and in the early spring of 1521 French forces
overran Navarre, and restored to his kingdom the exile D'Albret.
Francis had many plausible excuses, and sought to prove that he was
not really the aggressor. There had been confused fighting between the
imperialist Nassau and Francis's allies, the Duke of Guelders and
Robert de la Marck, which the imperialists may have begun. But Francis
revealed his true motive, when he told Fitzwilliam that he had many
grievances against Charles and could not afford to neglect this
opportunity for taking his revenge.[401]
[Footnote 400: _Ibid._, iii., 883, 891, 964, 976,
988, 994.]
[Footnote 401: _L. and P._, iii., 1303, 1310,
1315.]
* * * * *
War between Emperor and King soon spread from Navarre to the borders
of Flanders and to the plains of Northern Italy. Both sovereigns
claimed the assistance of England in virtue of the Treaty of London.
But Henry would not be prepared for war till the following year at
least; and he proposed that Wolsey should go to Calais to mediate
between the two parties and decide which had been the aggressor.
Charles, either because he was unprepared or was sure of Wolsey's
support, readily agreed; but Francis was more reluctant, and only the
knowledge that, if he refused, Henry would at once side with Charles,
induced him to consent to the conference. So on 2nd August, 1521, the
Cardinal again crossed the Channel.[402] His first interview was with
the imperial envoys.[403] They announced that Charles had given them
no power to treat for a truce. Wolsey refused to proceed without this
authority; and he obtained the consent of the French chancellor, (p. 145)
Du Prat, to his proposal to visit the Emperor at Bruges, and secure
the requisite powers. He was absent more than a fortnight, and not
long after his return fell ill. This served to pass time in September,
and the extravagant demands of both parties still further prolonged
the proceedings. Wolsey was constrained to tell them the story of a
courtier who asked his King for the grant of a forest; when his
relatives denounced his presumption, he replied that he only wanted in
reality eight or nine trees.[404] The French and imperial chancellors
not merely demanded their respective forests, but made the reduction
of each single tree a matter of lengthy dispute; and as soon as a
fresh success in the varying fortune of war was reported, they
returned to their early pretensions. Wolsey was playing his game with
consummate skill; delay was his only desire; his illness had been
diplomatic; his objects were to postpone for a few months the breach
and to secure the pensions from France due at the end of October.[405]
[Footnote 402: See his various and ample
commissions, _ibid._, iii., 1443.]
[Footnote 403: _Ibid._, iii., 1462.]
[Footnote 404: _L. and P._, iii., 1622.]
[Footnote 405: _Ibid._, iii., 1507. "The Cardinal
apologised for not having met them so long on
account of his illness, but said he could not
otherwise have gained so much time without causing
suspicion to the French" (Gattinara to Charles V.,
24th September, 1521, _ibid._, iii., 1605).]
The conference at Calais was in fact a monument of perfidy worthy of
Ferdinand the Catholic. The plan was Wolsey's, but Henry had expressed
full approval. As early as July the King was full of his secret design
for destroying the navy of France, though he did not propose to proceed
with the enterprise till Wolsey had completed the arrangements with
Charles.[406] The subterfuge about Charles refusing his powers (p. 146)
and the Cardinal's journey to Bruges had been arranged between Henry,
Wolsey and Charles before Wolsey left England. The object of that
visit, so far from being to facilitate an agreement, was to conclude
an offensive and defensive alliance against one of the two parties
between whom Wolsey was pretending to mediate. "Henry agrees," wrote
Charles's ambassador on 6th July, "with Wolsey's plan that he should
be sent to Calais under colour of hearing the grievances of both
parties: and when he cannot arrange them, he should withdraw to the
Emperor to treat of the matters aforesaid".[407] The treaty was
concluded at Bruges on 25th August[408] before he returned to Calais;
the Emperor promised Wolsey the Papacy;[409] the details of a joint
invasion were settled. Charles was to marry Mary; and the Pope was to
dispense the two from the disability of their kinship, and from
engagements with others which both had contracted. The Cardinal might
be profuse in his protestations of friendship for France, of devotion
to peace, and of his determination to do justice to the parties before
him. But all his painted words could not long conceal the fact that
behind the mask of the judge were hidden the features of a conspirator.
It was an unpleasant time for Fitzwilliam, the English ambassador at
the French Court. The King's sister, Marguerite de Valois, taxed
Fitzwilliam with Wolsey's proceedings, hinting that deceit was being
practised on Francis. The ambassador grew hot, vowed Henry was (p. 147)
not a dissembler, and that he would prove it on any gentleman who
dared to maintain that he was.[410] But he knew nothing of Wolsey's
intrigues; nor was the Cardinal, to whom Fitzwilliam denounced the
insinuation, likely to blush, though he knew that the charge was true.
[Footnote 406: _Ibid._, iii., 1440.]
[Footnote 407: _L. and P._, iii., 1395, 1433; _cf._
iii., 1574, where Henry VIII.'s envoy tells Leo X.
that the real object of the conference was to gain
time for English preparations.]
[Footnote 408: _Ibid._, iii., 1508; _Cotton MS_.,
Galba, B, vii., 102; see also an account of the
conference in _L. and P._, iii., 1816, 1817.]
[Footnote 409: _Ibid._, iii., 1868, 1876.]
[Footnote 410: _L. and P._, iii., 1581.]
Wolsey returned from Calais at the end of November, having failed to
establish the truce to which the negotiations had latterly been in
appearance directed. But the French half-yearly pensions were paid,
and England had the winter in which to prepare for war. No attempt had
been made to examine impartially the mutual charges of aggression
urged by the litigants, though a determination of that point could
alone justify England's intervention. The dispute was complicated
enough. If, as Charles contended, the Treaty of London guaranteed the
_status quo_, Francis, by invading Navarre, was undoubtedly the
offender. But the French King pleaded the Treaty of Noyon, by which
Charles had bound himself to do justice to the exiled King of Navarre,
to marry the French King's daughter, and to pay tribute for Naples.
That treaty was not abrogated by the one concluded in London, yet
Charles had fulfilled none of his promises. Moreover, the Emperor
himself had, long before the invasion of Navarre, been planning a war
with France, and negotiating with Leo to expel the French from Milan,
and to destroy the predominant French faction in Genoa.[411] His (p. 148)
ministers were making little secret of Charles's warlike intentions,
when the Spanish revolt placed irresistible temptation in Francis's
way, and provoked that attack on Navarre, which enabled Charles to
plead, with some colour, that he was not the aggressor. This was the
ground alleged by Henry for siding with Charles, but it was not his
real reason for going to war. Nearly a year before Navarre was
invaded, he had discussed the rupture of Mary's engagement with the
Dauphin and the transference of her hand to the Emperor.
[Footnote 411: In July, 1521, Gattinara drew out
seven reasons for peace and ten for war; the former
he playfully termed the seven deadly sins, and the
latter the ten commandments (_L. and P._, iii.,
1446; _Sp. Cal._, ii., 337).]
The real motives of England's policy do not appear on the surface.
"The aim of the King of England," said Clement VII. in 1524,[412] "is
as incomprehensible as the causes by which he is moved are futile. He
may, perhaps, wish to revenge himself for the slights he has received
from the King of France and from the Scots, or to punish the King of
France for his disparaging language; or, seduced by the flattery of
the Emperor, he may have nothing else in view than to help the
Emperor; or he may, perhaps, really wish to preserve peace in Italy,
and therefore declares himself an enemy of any one who disturbs it. It
is even not impossible that the King of England expects to be rewarded
by the Emperor after the victory, and hopes, perhaps, to get Normandy."
Clement three years before, when Cardinal de Medici, had admitted that
he knew little of English politics;[413] and his ignorance may explain
his inability to give a more satisfactory reason for Henry's conduct
than these tentative and far-fetched suggestions. But after the
publication of Henry's State papers, it is not easy to arrive at any
more definite conclusion. The only motive Wolsey alleges, besides (p. 149)
the _ex post facto_ excuses of Francis's conduct, is the recovery of
Henry's rights to the crown of France; and if this were the real
object, it reduces both King and Cardinal to the level of political
charlatans. To conquer France was a madcap scheme, when Henry himself
was admitting the impossibility of raising 30,000 foot or 10,000
horse, without hired contingents from Charles's domains;[414] when,
according to Giustinian, it would have been hard to levy 100
men-at-arms or 1000 light cavalry in the whole island;[415] when the
only respectable military force was the archers, already an obsolete
arm. Invading hosts could never be victualled for more than three
months, or stand a winter campaign; English troops were ploughmen by
profession and soldiers only by chance; Henry VII.'s treasure was
exhausted, and efforts to raise money for fitful and futile inroads
nearly produced a revolt. Henry VIII. himself was writing that to
provide for these inroads would prevent him keeping an army in
Ireland; and Wolsey was declaring that for the same reason English
interests in Scotland must take care of themselves, that border
warfare must be confined to the strictest defensive, and that a
"cheap" deputy must be found for Ireland, who would rule it, like
Kildare, without English aid.[416] It is usual to lay the folly of the
pretence to the crown of France at Henry's door. But it is a curious
fact that when Wolsey was gone, and Henry was his own prime minister,
this spirited foreign policy took a very subordinate place, and Henry
turned his attention to the cultivation of his own garden instead of
seeking to annex his neighbour's. It is possible that he was (p. 150)
better employed in wasting his people's blood and treasure in the
futile devastation of France, than in placing his heel on the Church
and sending Fisher and More to the scaffold; but his attempts to
reduce Ireland to order, and to unite England and Scotland, violent
though his methods may have been, were at least more sane than the
quest for the crown of France, or even for the possession of
Normandy.[417]
[Footnote 412: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 626.]
[Footnote 413: _L. and P._, iii., 853.]
[Footnote 414: _L. and P._, iii., 2333, iv.]
[Footnote 415: _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]
[Footnote 416: _L. and P._, iii., 1252, 1646,
1675.]
[Footnote 417: The policy of abstention was often
urged at the council-table and opposed by Wolsey,
who, according to More, used to repeat the fable of
the men who hid in caves to keep out of the rain
which was to make all whom it wetted fools, hoping
thereby to have the rule over the fools (_L. and
P._, vii., 1114; More, _English Works_, p. 1434).
It had cost England, says More, many a fair penny.]
Yet if these were not Wolsey's aims, what were his motives? The
essential thing for England was the maintenance of a fairly even
balance between Francis and Charles; and if Wolsey thought that would
best be secured by throwing the whole of England's weight into the
Emperor's scale, he must have strangely misread the political
situation. He could not foresee, it may be said, the French debacle.
If so, it was from no lack of omens. Even supposing he was ignorant,
or unable to estimate the effects, of the moral corruption of Francis,
the peculations of his mother Louise of Savoy, the hatred of the war,
universal among the French lower classes, there were definite warnings
from more careful observers.[418] As early as 1517 there were bitter
complaints in France of the _gabelle_ and other taxes, and a Cordelier
denounced the French King as worse than Nero.[419] In 1519 an (p. 151)
anonymous Frenchman wrote that Francis had destroyed his own people,
emptied his kingdom of money, and that the Emperor or some other would
soon have a cheap bargain of the kingdom, for he was more unsteady on
his throne than people thought.[420] Even the treason of Bourbon,
which contributed so much to the French King's fall, was rumoured
three years before it occurred, and in 1520 he was known to be
"playing the malcontent".[421] At the Field of Cloth of Gold Henry is
said to have told Francis that, had he a subject like Bourbon, he
would not long leave his head on his shoulders.[422] All these details
were reported to the English Government and placed among English
archives; and, indeed, at the English Court the general anticipation,
justified by the event, was that Charles would carry the day.
[Footnote 418: "To hear how rich and poor lament
the war would grieve any man's heart" (Fitzwilliam
to Wolsey, 18th Jan., 1521-22, _L. and P._, iii.,
1971).]
[Footnote 419: _L. and P._, ii., 3702-3.]
[Footnote 420: _Ibid._, iii., 378.]
[Footnote 421: _Ibid._, iii., 404; _cf._ iii., 2446
_ad fin._]
[Footnote 422: Michelet, x., 131.]
No possible advantage could accrue to England from such a destruction
of the balance of power; her position as mediator was only tenable so
long as neither Francis nor Charles had the complete mastery. War on
the Emperor was, no doubt, out of the question, but that was no reason
for war on France. Prudence counselled England to make herself strong,
to develop her resources, and to hold her strength in reserve, while
the two rivals weakened each other by war. She would then be in a far
better position to make her voice heard in the settlement, and would
probably have been able to extract from it all the benefits she could
with reason or justice demand. So obvious was the advantage of this
policy that for some time acute French statesmen refused to credit
Wolsey with any other. They said, reported an English envoy to (p. 152)
the Cardinal, "that your grace would make your profit with them and
the Emperor both, and proceed between them so that they might continue
in war, and that the one destroy the other, and the King's highness
may remain and be their arbiter and superior".[423] If it is urged
that Henry was bent on the war, and that Wolsey must satisfy the King
or forfeit his power, even the latter would have been the better
alternative. His fall would have been less complete and more
honourable than it actually was. Wolsey's failure to follow this
course suggests that, by involving Henry in dazzling schemes of a
foreign conquest, he was seeking to divert his attention from urgent
matters at home; that he had seen a vision of impending ruin; and that
his actions were the frantic efforts of a man to turn a steed, over
which he has imperfect control, from the gulf he sees yawning ahead.
The only other explanation is that Wolsey sacrificed England's
interests in the hope of securing from Charles the gift of the papal
tiara.[424]
[Footnote 423: _L. and P._, iii, 2026.]
[Footnote 424: For another view see Busch,
_Cardinal Wolsey und die Englisch-Kaiserliche
Allianz_, 1522-25. Bonn, 1886.]
* * * * *
However that may be, it was not for Clement VII. to deride England's
conduct. The keen-sighted Pace had remarked in 1521 that, in the event
of Charles's victory, the Pope would have to look to his affairs in
time.[425] The Emperor's triumph was, indeed, as fatal to the Papacy
as it was to Wolsey. Yet Clement VII., on whom the full force of the
blow was to fall, had, as Cardinal de Medici, been one of the chief
promoters of the war. In August, 1521, the Venetian, Contarini, (p. 153)
reports Charles as saying that Leo rejected both the peace and the truce
speciously urged by Wolsey, and adds, on his own account, that he
believes it the truth.[426] In 1522 Francis asserted that Cardinal de
Medici "was the cause of all this war";[427] and in 1527 Clement VII.
sought to curry favour with Charles by declaring that as Cardinal de
Medici he had in 1521 caused Leo X. to side against France.[428] In
1525 Charles declared that he had been mainly induced to enter on the
war by the persuasions of Leo,[429] over whom his cousin, the
Cardinal, then wielded supreme influence. So complete was his sway
over Leo, that, on Leo's death, a cardinal in the conclave remarked
that they wanted a new Pope, not one who had already been Pope for
years; and the gibe turned the scale against the future Clement VII.
Medici both, Leo and the Cardinal regarded the Papacy mainly as a
means for family aggrandisement. In 1518 Leo had fulminated against
Francis Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, as "the son of iniquity
and child of perdition,"[430] because he desired to bestow the duchy
on his nephew Lorenzo. In the family interest he was withholding
Modena and Reggio from Alfonso d'Este, and casting envious eyes on
Ferrara. In March, 1521, the French marched to seize some Milanese
exiles, who were harboured at Reggio.[431] Leo took the opportunity to
form an alliance with Charles for the expulsion of Francis from Italy.
It was signed at Worms on the 8th of May, the day on which Luther was
outlawed;[432] and a war broke out in Italy, the effects of which (p. 154)
were little foreseen by its principal authors. A veritable Nemesis
attended this policy conceived in perfidy and greed. The battle of
Pavia made Charles more nearly dictator of Europe than any ruler has
since been, except Napoleon Bonaparte. It led to the sack of Rome and
the imprisonment of Clement VII. by Charles's troops. The dependence
of the Pope on the Emperor made it impossible for Clement to grant
Henry's petition for divorce, and his failure to obtain the divorce
precipitated Wolsey's fall.
[Footnote 425: _L. and P._, iii., 1370.]
[Footnote 426: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 312.]
[Footnote 427: _L. and P._, iii., 1947.]
[Footnote 428: _Sp. Cal._, iii., pp. 510-11.]
[Footnote 429: _Ibid._, ii., p. 717.]
[Footnote 430: _L. and P._, ii., 3617.]
[Footnote 431: _Ibid._, iii., 1209, 1400.]
[Footnote 432: Creighton, _Papacy_, ed. 1901, vi.,
184 n. The edict was not issued till 25th May, but
there was an intimate connection between the two
events. It was in the same month that Luther's
books were solemnly burnt in England, the ally of
Pope and Emperor, and the extirpation of heresy was
the first motive alleged for the alliance.]
Leo, meanwhile, had gone to his account on the night of 1st-2nd
December, 1521, singing "Nunc dimittis" for the expulsion of the
French from Milan;[433] and amid the clangour of war the cardinals met
to choose his successor. Their spirit belied their holy profession.
"All here," wrote Manuel, Charles's representative, "is founded on
avarice and lies;"[434] and again "there cannot be so much hatred and
so many devils in hell as among these cardinals". "The Papacy is in
great decay" echoed the English envoy Clerk, "the cardinals brawl and
scold; their malicious, unfaithful and uncharitable demeanour against
each other increases every day."[435] Feeling between the French and
imperial factions ran high, and the only question was whether an
adherent of Francis or Charles would secure election. Francis had
promised Wolsey fourteen French votes; but after the conference of
Calais he would have been forgiving indeed had he wielded his influence
on behalf of the English candidate. Wolsey built more upon the (p. 155)
promise of Charles at Bruges;[436] but, if he really hoped for Charles's
assistance, his sagacity was greatly to seek. The Emperor at no time
made any effort on Wolsey's behalf; he did him the justice to think
that, were Wolsey elected, he would be devoted more to English than to
imperial interests; and he preferred a Pope who would be undividedly
imperialist at heart. Pace was sent to join Clerk at Rome in urging
Wolsey's suit, and they did their best; but English influence at the
Court of Rome was infinitesimal. In spite of Campeggio's flattering
assurance that Wolsey's name appeared in every scrutiny, and that
sometimes he had eight or nine votes, and Clerk's statement that he
had nine at one time, twelve at another, and nineteen at a third,[437]
Wolsey's name only appears in one of the eleven scrutinies, and then
he received but seven out of eighty-one votes.[438] The election was
long and keenly contested. The conclave commenced on the 28th of
December, and it was not till the 9th of January, 1522, that the
cardinals, conscious of each other's defects, agreed to elect an
absentee, about whom they knew little. Their choice fell on Adrian,
Cardinal of Tortosa; and it is significant of the extent of Charles's
influence, that the new Pope had been his tutor, and was proposed as a
candidate by the imperial ambassador on the day that the conclave
opened.[439]
[Footnote 433: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 365; _L. and P._,
ii., 1795.]
[Footnote 434: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 370.]
[Footnote 435: _L. and P._, iii., 1960.]
[Footnote 436: _L. and P._, iii., 1884.]
[Footnote 437: _Ibid._, iii., 1952, 1960.]
[Footnote 438: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 375. It is not
quite clear how these votes were recorded, for
there were not eighty-one cardinals.]
[Footnote 439: _Ibid._, ii., 371.]
Neither the expulsion of the French from Milan, nor the election of
Charles's tutor as Pope, opened Wolsey's eyes to the danger of (p. 156)
further increasing the Emperor's power.[440] He seems rather to have
thrown himself into the not very chivalrous design of completing the
ruin of the weaker side, and picking up what he could from the spoils.
During the winter of 1521-22 he was busily preparing for war, while
endeavouring to delay the actual breach till his plans were complete.
Francis, convinced of England's hostile intentions, let Albany loose
upon Scotland and refused to pay the pensions to Henry and Wolsey.
They made these grievances the excuse for a war on which they had long
been determined. In March Henry announced that he had taken upon
himself the protection of the Netherlands during Charles's impending
visit to Spain. Francis asserted that this was a plain declaration of
war, and seized the English wine-ships at Bordeaux. But he was
determined not to take the formal offensive, and, in May, Clarencieux
herald proceeded to France to bid him defiance.[441] In the following
month Charles passed through England on his way to the south, and
fresh treaties were signed for the invasion of France, for the
marriage of Mary and for the extirpation of heresy. At Windsor[442]
Wolsey constituted his legatine court to bind the contracting parties
by oaths enforced by ecclesiastical censures. He arrogated to himself
a function usually reserved for the Pope, and undertook to arbitrate
between Charles and Henry if disputes arose about the observance (p. 157)
of their engagements. But he obviously found difficulty in raising
either money or men; and one of the suggestions at Windsor was that a
"dissembled peace" or a two years' truce should be made with France,
to give England time for more preparations for war.
[Footnote 440: Francis "begged Henry to consider
what would happen now that a Pope had been elected
entirely at Charles's devotion" (_L. and P._, iii.,
1994); but Adrian's attitude was at first
independent (_Sp. Cal._, ii., 494, 504, 533). In
July, 1522, however, he joined the league against
Francis (_ibid._, ii., 574).]
[Footnote 441: _L. and P._, iii., 2140, 2224,
2290.]
[Footnote 442: _Ibid._, iii., 2322, 2333; _Sp.
Cal._, ii., 430, 435, 561.]
Nothing came of this last nefarious suggestion. In July Surrey captured
and burnt Morlaix;[443] but, as he wrote from on board the _Mary
Rose_, Fitzwilliam's ships were without flesh or fish, and Surrey
himself had only beer for twelve days. Want of victuals prevented
further naval successes, and, in September, Surrey was sent into
Artois, where the same lack of organisation was equally fatal. It did
not, however, prevent him from burning farms and towns wherever he
went; and his conduct evoked from the French commander a just rebuke
of his "foul warfare".[444] Henry himself was responsible; for Wolsey
wrote on his behalf urging the destruction of Dourlens and the
adjacent towns.[445] If Henry really sought to make these territories
his own, it was an odd method of winning the affections and developing
the wealth of the subjects he hoped to acquire. Nothing was really
accomplished except devastation in France. Even this useless warfare
exhausted English energies, and left the Borders defenceless against
one of the largest armies ever collected in Scotland. Wolsey and Henry
were only saved, from what might have been a most serious invasion, by
Dacre's dexterity and Albany's cowardice. Dacre, the warden of the
marches, signed a truce without waiting for instructions, and before
it expired the Scots army disbanded. Henry and Wolsey might reprimand
Dacre for acting on his own responsibility, but they knew well (p. 158)
enough that Dacre had done them magnificent service.[446]
[Footnote 443: _L. and P._, iii., 2362.]
[Footnote 444: _Ibid._, iii., 2541.]
[Footnote 445: _Ibid._, iii., 2551.]
[Footnote 446: _L. and P._, iii., 2537.]
The results of the war from the English point of view had as yet been
contemptible, but great things were hoped for the following year.
Bourbon, Constable of France, and the most powerful peer in the kingdom,
intent on the betrayal of Francis, was negotiating with Henry and
Charles the price of his treason.[447] The commons in France, worn to
misery by the taxes of Francis and the ravages of his enemies, were
eager for anything that might promise some alleviation of their lot.
They would even, it appears, welcome a change of dynasty; everywhere,
Henry was told, they cried "Vive le roi d'Angleterre!"[448] Never,
said Wolsey, would there be a better opportunity for recovering the
King's right to the French crown; and Henry exclaimed that he trusted
to treat Francis as his father did Richard III. "I pray God," wrote
Sir Thomas More to Wolsey, "if it be good for his grace and for this
realm, that then it may prove so, and else in the stead thereof, I
pray God send his grace an honourable and profitable peace."[449] He
could scarcely go further in hinting his preference for peace to the
fantastic design which now occupied the minds of his masters. Probably
his opinion of the war was not far from that of old Bishop Fox, who
declared: "I have determined, and, betwixt God and me, utterly
renounced the meddling with worldly matters, specially concerning war
or anything to it appertaining (whereof, for the many intolerable
enormities that I have seen ensue by the said war in time past, I (p. 159)
have no little remorse in my conscience), thinking that if I did
continual penance for it all the days of my life, though I should live
twenty years longer than I may do, I could not yet make sufficient
recompense therefor. And now, my good lord, to be called to fortifications
of towns and places of war, or to any matter concerning the war, being
of the age of seventy years and above, and looking daily to die, the
which if I did, being in any such meddling of the war, I think I
should die in despair."[450] Protests like this and hints like More's
were little likely to move the militant Cardinal, who hoped to see the
final ruin of France in 1523. Bourbon was to raise the standard of
revolt, Charles was to invade from Spain and Suffolk from Calais. In
Italy French influence seemed irretrievably ruined. The Genoese
revolution, planned before the war, was effected; and the persuasions
of Pace and the threats of Charles at last detached Venice and Ferrara
from the alliance of France.[451]
[Footnote 447: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 584; _L. and P._,
iii., 2450, 2567, 2770, 2772, 2879, 3154. Bourbon
had substantial grievances against Francis I. and
his mother.]
[Footnote 448: _Ibid._, iii., 2770.]
[Footnote 449: _Ibid._, iii., 2555.]
[Footnote 450: Ellis, _Orig. Letters_, 2nd series,
ii., 4; _L. and P._, iii., 2207.]
[Footnote 451: _L. and P._, iii., 3207, 3271, 3291;
_Sp. Cal._, ii., 576, 594.]
The usual delays postponed Suffolk's invasion till late in the year.
They were increased by the emptiness of Henry's treasury. His father's
hoard had melted away, and it was absolutely necessary to obtain
lavish supplies from Parliament. But Parliament proved ominously
intractable. Thomas Cromwell, now rising to notice, in a temperate
speech urged the folly of indulging in impracticable schemes of
foreign conquest, while Scotland remained a thorn in England's
side.[452] It was three months from the meeting of Parliament before
the subsidies were granted, and nearly the end of August before (p. 160)
Suffolk crossed to Calais with an army, "the largest which has passed
out of this realm for a hundred years".[453] Henry and Suffolk wanted
it to besiege Boulogne, which might have been some tangible result in
English hands.[454] But the King was persuaded by Wolsey and his
imperial allies to forgo this scheme, and to order Suffolk to march
into the heart of France. Suffolk was not a great general, but he
conducted the invasion with no little skill, and desired to conduct it
with unwonted humanity. He wished to win the French by abstaining from
pillage and proclaiming liberty, but Henry thought only the hope of
plunder would keep the army together.[455] Waiting for the imperial
contingent under De Buren, Suffolk did not leave Calais till 19th
September. He advanced by Bray, Roye and Montdidier, capturing all the
towns that offered resistance. Early in November, he reached the Oise
at a point less than forty miles from the French capital.[456] But
Bourbon's treason had been discovered; instead of joining Suffolk with
a large force, he was a fugitive from his country. Charles contented
himself with taking Fuentarabia,[457] and made no effort at invasion.
The imperial contingent with Suffolk's army went home; winter set in
with unexampled severity, and Vendome advanced.[458] The English were
compelled to retire; their retreat was effected without loss, and by
the middle of December the army was back at Calais. Suffolk is
represented as being in disgrace for this retreat, and Wolsey as
saving him from the effects of his failure.[459] But even Wolsey (p. 161)
can hardly have thought that an army of twenty-five thousand men could
maintain itself in the heart of France, throughout the winter, without
support and with unguarded communications. The Duke's had been the
most successful invasion of France since the days of Henry V. from a
military point of view. That its results were negative is due to the
policy by which it was directed.
[Footnote 452: Merriman, _Cromwell's Letters_, i.,
30-44; _L. and P._, iii., 2958, 3024; Hall,
_Chronicle_, pp. 656, 657.]
[Footnote 453: _L. and P._, iii., 3281.]
[Footnote 454: _Ibid._, iii., 2360, 3319.]
[Footnote 455: _Ibid._, iii., 3346.]
[Footnote 456: _Ibid._, iii., 3452, 3485, 3505,
3516.]
[Footnote 457: _Ibid._, iii., 2798, 2869.]
[Footnote 458: _Ibid._, iii., 3559, 3580, 3601.]
[Footnote 459: Brewer's Introd. to _L. and P._,
vol. iv., p. ii., etc.]
Meanwhile there was another papal election. Adrian, one of the most
honest and unpopular of Popes, died on 14th September, 1523, and by
order of the cardinals there was inscribed on his tomb: _Hic jacet
Adrianus Sextus cui nihil in vita infelicius contigit quam quod
imperaret._ With equal malice and keener wit the Romans erected to his
physician, Macerata, a statue with the title _Liberatori Patriae_.[460]
Wolsey was again a candidate. He told Henry he would rather continue
in his service than be ten Popes.[461] That did not prevent him
instructing Pace and Clerk to further his claims. They were to
represent to the cardinals Wolsey's "great experience in the causes of
Christendom, his favour with the Emperor, the King, and other princes,
his anxiety for Christendom, his liberality, the great promotions to
be vacated by his election, his frank, pleasant and courteous
inclinations, his freedom from all ties of family or party, and the
hopes of a great expedition against the infidel".[462] Charles was, as
usual, profuse in his promise of aid. He actually wrote a letter in
Wolsey's favour; but he took the precaution to detain the bearer (p. 162)
in Spain till the election was over.[463] He had already instructed
his minister at Rome to procure the election of Cardinal de Medici.
That ambassador mocked at Wolsey's hopes; "as if God," he wrote,
"would perform a miracle every day".[464] The Holy Spirit, by which
the cardinals always professed to be moved, was not likely to inspire
the election of another absentee after their experience of Adrian.
Wolsey had not the remotest chance, and his name does not occur in a
single scrutiny. After the longest conclave on record, the imperial
influence prevailed; on 18th November De Medici was proclaimed Pope,
and he chose as his title Clement VII.[465]
[Footnote 460: _Ibid._, iii., 3464.]
[Footnote 461: _Ibid._, iii., 3372.]
[Footnote 462: _Ibid._, 3389.]
[Footnote 463: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 615.]
[Footnote 464: _Ibid._, ii., 604, 606.]
[Footnote 465: _L. and P._, iii., 3547, 3592; _Sp.
Cal._, ii., 610. He thought of retaining his name
Julius, but was told that Popes who followed that
practice always had short pontificates.]
Suffolk's invasion was the last of England's active participation in
the war. Exhausted by her efforts, discontented with the Emperor's
failure to render assistance in the joint enterprise, or perceiving at
last that she had little to gain, and much to lose, from the overgrown
power of Charles, England, in 1524, abstained from action, and even
began to make overtures to Francis. Wolsey repaid Charles's inactivity
of the previous year by standing idly by, while the imperial forces
with Bourbon's contingent invaded Provence and laid siege to
Marseilles. But Francis still held command of the sea; the spirit of
his people rose with the danger; Marseilles made a stubborn and
successful defence; and, by October, the invading army was in headlong
retreat towards Italy.[466] Had Francis been content with defending
his kingdom, all might have been well; but ambition lured him on (p. 163)
to destruction. He thought he had passed the worst of the trouble, and
that the prize of Milan might yet be his. So, before the imperialists
were well out of France, he crossed the Alps and sat down to besiege
Pavia. It was brilliantly defended by Antonio de Leyva. In November
Francis's ruin was thought to be certain; astrologers predicted his
death or imprisonment.[467] Slowly and surely Pescara, the most
consummate general of his age, was pressing north with imperial troops
to succour Pavia. Francis would not raise the siege. On 24th February,
1525, he was attacked in front by Pescara and in the rear by De Leyva.
"The victory is complete," wrote the Abbot of Najera to Charles from
the field of battle, "the King of France is made prisoner.... The
whole French army is annihilated.... To-day is feast of the Apostle
St. Mathias, on which, five and twenty years ago, your Majesty is said
to have been born. Five and twenty thousand times thanks and praise to
God for His mercy! Your Majesty is, from this day, in a position to
prescribe laws to Christians and Turks, according to your
pleasure."[468]
[Footnote 466: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 686; _L. and P._,
iv., 751, 753, 773, 774, 776.]
[Footnote 467: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 692-94, 711.]
[Footnote 468: _Ibid._, ii., 722; _cf._ Hall's
_Chron._, p. 693, which professes to give the "very
words" of Francis I.'s much misquoted letter to his
mother (_L. and P._, iv., 1120-24).]
Such was the result of Wolsey's policy since 1521, Francis a prisoner,
Charles a dictator, and Henry vainly hoping that he might be allowed
some share in the victor's spoils. But what claim had he? By the most
extraordinary misfortune or fatuity, England had not merely helped
Charles to a threatening supremacy, but had retired from the (p. 164)
struggle just in time to deprive herself of all claim to benefit by
her mistaken policy. She had looked on while Bourbon invaded France,
fearing to aid lest Charles would reap all the fruits of success. She
had sent no force across the channel to threaten Francis's rear. Not a
single French soldier had been diverted from attacking Charles in
Italy through England's interference. One hundred thousand crowns had
been promised the imperial troops, but the money was not paid; and
secret negotiations had been going on with France. In spite of all,
Charles had won, and he was naturally not disposed to divide the
spoils. England's policy since 1521 had been disastrous to herself, to
Wolsey, to the Papacy, and even to Christendom. For the falling out of
Christian princes seemed to the Turk to afford an excellent opportunity
for the faithful to come by his own. After an heroic defence by the
knights of St. John, Rhodes, the bulwark of Christendom, had
surrendered to Selim. Belgrade, the strongest citadel in Eastern
Europe, followed. In August, 1526, the King and the flower of
Hungarian nobility perished at the battle of Mohacz; and the
internecine strife of Christians seemed doomed to be sated only by
their common subjugation to the Turk.
* * * * *
Henry and Wolsey began to pay the price of their policy at home as
well as abroad. War was no less costly for being ineffective, and it
necessitated demands on the purses of Englishmen, to which they had
long been unused. In the autumn of 1522 Wolsey was compelled to have
recourse to a loan from both spiritualty and temporalty.[469] It seems
to have met with a response which, compared with later receptions, (p. 165)
may be described as almost cheerful. But the loan did not go far, and
before another six months had elapsed it was found necessary to summon
Parliament to make further provision.[470] The Speaker was Sir Thomas
More, who did all he could to secure a favourable reception of
Wolsey's demands. An unwonted spirit of independence animated the
members; the debates were long and stormy; and the Cardinal felt
called upon to go down to the House of Commons, and hector it in such
fashion that even More was compelled to plead its privileges.
Eventually, some money was reluctantly granted; but it too was soon
swallowed up, and in 1525 Wolsey devised fresh expedients. He was
afraid to summon Parliament again, so he proposed what he called an
Amicable Grant. It was necessary, he said, for Henry to invade France
in person; if he went, he must go as a prince; and he could not go as
a prince without lavish supplies. So he required what was practically
a graduated income-tax. The Londoners resisted till they were told
that resistance might cost them their heads. In Suffolk and elsewhere
open insurrection broke out. It was then proposed to withdraw the
fixed ratio, and allow each individual to pay what he chose as a
benevolence. A common councillor of London promptly retorted that
benevolences were illegal by statute of Richard III. Wolsey cared
little for the constitution, and was astonished that any one should
quote the laws of a wicked usurper; but the common councillor was a
sound constitutionalist, if Wolsey was not. "An it please your grace,"
he replied, "although King Richard did evil, yet in his time were (p. 166)
many good acts made, not by him only, but by the consent of the body
of the whole realm, which is Parliament."[471] There was no answer;
the demand was withdrawn. Never had Henry suffered such a rebuff, and
he never suffered the like again. Nor was this all; the whole of
London, Wolsey is reported to have said, were traitors to Henry.[472]
Informations of "treasonable words"--that ominous phrase--became
frequent.[473] Here, indeed, was a contrast to the exuberant loyalty
of the early years of Henry's reign. The change may not have been
entirely due to Wolsey, but he had been minister, with a power which
few have equalled, during the whole period in which it was effected,
and Henry may well have begun to think that it was time for his
removal.
[Footnote 469: _L. and P._, iii., 2483.]
[Footnote 470: _L. and P._, iii., 2956, 2958,
3249.]
[Footnote 471: Hall, _Chronicle_, ed. 1809, p.
698.]
[Footnote 472: _L. and P._, iii., 3076.]
[Footnote 473: _Ibid._, iii., 3082.]
Whether Wolsey was now anxious to repair his blunder by siding with
Francis against Charles, or to snatch some profit from the Emperor's
victory by completing the ruin of France, the refusal of Englishmen to
find more money for the war left him no option but peace. In April,
1525, Tunstall and Sir Richard Wingfield were sent to Spain with
proposals for the exclusion of Francis and his children from the
French throne and the dismemberment of his kingdom.[474] It is
doubtful if Wolsey himself desired the fulfilment of so preposterous
and iniquitous a scheme. It is certain that Charles was in no mood to
abet it. He had no wish to extract profit for England out of the
abasement of Francis, to see Henry King of France, or lord of any
French provinces. He had no intention of even performing his part (p. 167)
of the Treaty of Windsor. He had pledged himself to marry the Princess
Mary, and the splendour of that match may have contributed to Henry's
desire for an alliance with Charles. But another matrimonial project
offered the Emperor more substantial advantages. Ever since 1517 his
Spanish subjects had been pressing him to marry the daughter of
Emmanuel, King of Portugal. The Portuguese royal family had claims to
the throne of Castile which would be quieted by Charles's marriage
with a Portuguese princess. Her dowry of a million crowns was, also,
an argument not to be lightly disregarded in Charles's financial
embarrassments; and in March, 1526, the Emperor's wedding with
Isabella of Portugal was solemnised.
[Footnote 474: _Ibid._, iv., 1212, 1249, 1255,
1264, 1296; _Stowe MS._, 147, ff. 67, 86 (Brit.
Mus.).]
Wolsey, on his part, was secretly negotiating with Louise of Savoy
during her son's imprisonment in Spain. In August, 1525, a treaty of
amity was signed, by which England gave up all its claims to French
territory in return for the promise of large sums of money to Henry
and his minister.[475] The impracticability of enforcing Henry's
pretensions to the French crown or to French provinces, which had been
urged as excuses for squandering English blood and treasure, was
admitted, even when the French King was in prison and his kingdom
defenceless. But what good could the treaty do Henry or Francis?
Charles had complete control over his captive, and could dictate his
own terms. Neither the English nor the French King was in a position
to continue the war; and the English alliance with France could abate
no iota of the concessions which Charles extorted from Francis (p. 168)
in January, 1526, by the Treaty of Madrid.[476] Francis surrendered
Burgundy; gave up his claims to Milan, Genoa and Naples; abandoned his
allies, the King of Navarre, the Duke of Guelders and Robert de la
Marck; engaged to marry Charles's sister Eleanor, the widowed Queen of
Portugal; and handed over his two sons to the Emperor as hostages for
the fulfilment of the treaty. But he had no intention of keeping his
promises. No sooner was he free than he protested that the treaty had
been extracted by force, and that his oath to keep it was not binding.
The Estates of France readily refused their assent, and the Pope was,
as usual, willing, for political reasons, to absolve Francis from his
oath. For the time being, consideration for the safety of his sons and
the hope of obtaining their release prevented him from openly breaking
with Charles, or listening to the proposals for a marriage with the
Princess Mary, held out as a bait by Wolsey.[477] The Cardinal's
object was merely to injure the Emperor as much as he could without
involving England in war; and by negotiations for Mary's marriage,
first with Francis, and then with his second son, the Duke of Orleans,
he was endeavouring to draw England and France into a closer alliance.
For similar reasons he was extending his patronage to the Holy League,
formed by Clement VII. between the princes of Italy to liberate that
distressful country from the grip of the Spanish forces.
[Footnote 475: _L. and P._, iv., 1525, 1531, 1600,
1633.]
[Footnote 476: _L. and P._, iv., 1891.]
[Footnote 477: _Ibid._, iv., 2039, 2148, 2320,
2325.]
The policy of Clement, of Venice, and of other Italian States had been
characterised by as much blindness as that of England. Almost without
exception they had united, in 1523, to expel the French from Italy.
The result was to destroy the balance of power south of the Alps, (p. 169)
and to deliver themselves over to a bondage more galling than that
from which they sought to escape. Clement himself had been elected Pope
by imperial influence, and the Duke of Sessa, Charles's representative
in Rome, described him as entirely the Emperor's creature.[478] He
was, wrote Sessa, "very reserved, irresolute, and decides few things
himself. He loves money and prefers persons who know where to find it
to any other kind of men. He likes to give himself the appearance of
being independent, but the result shows that he is generally governed
by others."[479] Clement, however, after his election, tried to assume
an attitude more becoming the head of Christendom than slavish dependence
on Charles. His love for the Emperor, he told Charles, had not
diminished, but his hatred for others had disappeared;[480] and
throughout 1524 he was seeking to promote concord between Christian
princes. His methods were unfortunate; the failure of the imperial
invasion of Provence and Francis's passage of the Alps, convinced the
Pope that Charles's star was waning, and that of France was in the
ascendant. "The Pope," wrote Sessa to Charles V., "is at the disposal
of the conqueror."[481] So, on 19th January, 1525, a Holy League
between Clement and Francis was publicly proclaimed at Rome, and
joined by most of the Italian States.[482] It was almost the eve of
Pavia.
[Footnote 478: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 610.]
[Footnote 479: _Ibid._, ii., 619.]
[Footnote 480: _Ibid._, ii., 707.]
[Footnote 481: _Ibid._, ii., 699, 30th Nov., 1524.]
[Footnote 482: _Ibid._, ii., 702-11.]
Charles received the news of that victory with astonishing humility.
But he was not likely to forget that at the critical moment he had
been deserted by most of his Italian allies; and it was with fear and
trembling that the Venetian ambassador besought him to use his (p. 170)
victory with moderation.[483] Their conduct could hardly lead them
to expect much from the Emperor's clemency. Distrust of his intentions
induced the Holy League to carry on desultory war with the imperial
troops; but mutual jealousies, the absence of effective aid from
England or France, and vacillation caused by the feeling that after
all it might be safer to accept the best terms they could obtain,
prevented the war from being waged with any effect. In September,
1526, Hugo de Moncada, the imperial commander, concerted with
Clement's bitter foes, the Colonnas, a means of overawing the Pope. A
truce was concluded, wrote Moncada, "that the Pope, having laid down
his arms, may be taken unawares".[484] On the 19th he marched on Rome.
Clement, taken unawares, fled to the castle of St. Angelo; his palace
was sacked, St. Peter's rifled, and the host profaned. "Never," says
Casale, "was so much cruelty and sacrilege."[485]
[Footnote 483: _Ven. Cal._, iii, 413.]
[Footnote 484: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 898.]
[Footnote 485: _L. and P._, iv., 2510.]
It was soon thrown into the shade by an outrage at which the whole
world stood aghast. Charles's object was merely to render the Pope his
obedient slave; neither God nor man, said Moncada, could resist with
impunity the Emperor's victorious arms.[486] But he had little control
over his own irresistible forces. With no enemy to check them, with no
pay to content them, the imperial troops were ravaging, pillaging,
sacking cities and churches throughout Northern Italy without let or
hindrance. At length a sudden frenzy seized them to march upon (p. 171)
Rome. Moncada had shown them the way, and on 6th May, 1527, the
Holy City was taken by storm. Bourbon was killed at the first assault;
and the richest city in Christendom was given over to a motley,
leaderless horde of German, Spanish and Italian soldiery. The Pope
again fled to the castle of St. Angelo; and for weeks Rome endured an
orgy of sacrilege, blasphemy, robbery, murder and lust, the horrors of
which no brush could depict nor tongue recite. "All the churches and
the monasteries," says a cardinal who was present, "both of friars and
nuns, were sacked. Many friars were beheaded, even priests at the
altar; many old nuns beaten with sticks; many young ones violated,
robbed and made prisoners; all the vestments, chalices, silver, were
taken from the churches.... Cardinals, bishops, friars, priests, old
nuns, infants, pages and servants--the very poorest--were tormented
with unheard-of cruelties--the son in the presence of his father, the
babe in the sight of its mother. All the registers and documents of
the Camera Apostolica were sacked, torn in pieces, and partly
burnt."[487] "Having entered," writes an imperialist to Charles, "our
men sacked the whole Borgo and killed almost every one they found...
All the monasteries were rifled, and the ladies who had taken refuge
in them carried off. Every person was compelled by torture to pay a
ransom.... The ornaments of all the churches were pillaged and the
relics and other things thrown into the sinks and cesspools. Even the
holy places were sacked. The Church of St. Peter and the papal palace,
from the basement to the top, were turned into stables for horses....
Every one considers that it has taken place by the just judgment (p. 172)
of God, because the Court of Rome was so ill-ruled.... We are
expecting to hear from your Majesty how the city is to be governed and
whether the Holy See is to be retained or not. Some are of opinion it
should not continue in Rome, _lest the French King should make a
patriarch in his kingdom, and deny obedience to the said See, and the
King of England find all other Christian princes do the same_."[488]
[Footnote 486: Buonaparte's _Narrative_, ed.
Buchon, p. 190, ed. Milanesi, p. 279; _cf._
Gregorovius, _Gesch. der Stadt Rom._, viii., 568
_n._, and Alberini's _Diary_, ed. Drano 1901
(extracts are printed in Creighton, _Papacy_, ed.
1901, vi., 419-37).]
[Footnote 487: Cardinal Como in _Il Sacco di Roma_,
ed. C. Milanesi, 1867, p. 471.]
[Footnote 488: _Il Sacco di Roma_, ed. Milanesi,
pp. 499, 517.]
So low was brought the proud city of the Seven Hills, the holy place,
watered with the blood of the martyrs and hallowed by the steps of the
saints, the goal of the earthly pilgrim, the seat of the throne of the
Vicar of God. No Jew saw the abomination of desolation standing where
it ought not with keener anguish than the devout sons of the Church
heard of the desecration of Rome. If a Roman Catholic and an
imperialist could term it the just judgment of God, heretics and
schismatics, preparing to burst the bonds of Rome and "deny obedience
to the said See," saw in it the fulfilment of the woes pronounced by
St. John the Divine on the Rome of Nero, and by Daniel the Prophet on
Belshazzar's Babylon. Babylon the great was fallen, and become the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit; her ruler was
weighed in the balances and found wanting; his kingdom was divided and
given to kings and peoples who came, like the Medes and the Persians,
from the hardier realms of the North.