Produced by Karl Hagen, David Moynihan, Charles Franks
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ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS
BY ARTHUR D. INNES
SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD
FOURTH EDITION
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
BY THE GENERAL EDITOR
In England, as in France and Germany, the main characteristic of the last
twenty years, from the point of view of the student of history, has been
that new material has been accumulating much faster than it can be
assimilated or absorbed. The standard histories of the last generation need
to be revised, or even to be put aside as obsolete, in the light of the new
information that is coming in so rapidly and in such vast bulk. But the
students and researchers of to-day have shown little enthusiasm as yet for
the task of re-writing history on a large scale. We see issuing from the
press hundreds of monographs, biographies, editions of old texts,
selections from correspondence, or collections of statistics, mediaeval and
modern. But the writers who (like the late Bishop Stubbs or Professor
Samuel Gardiner) undertake to tell over again the history of a long period,
with the aid of all the newly discovered material, are few indeed. It is
comparatively easy to write a monograph on the life of an individual or a
short episode of history. But the modern student, knowing well the mass of
material that he has to collate, and dreading lest he may make a slip
through overlooking some obscure or newly discovered source, dislikes to
stir beyond the boundary of the subject, or the short period, on which he
has made himself a specialist.
Meanwhile the general reading public continues to ask for standard
histories, and discovers, only too often, that it can find nothing between
school manuals at one end of the scale and minute monographs at the other.
The series of which this volume forms a part is intended to do something
towards meeting this demand. Historians will not sit down, as once they
were wont, to write twenty-volume works in the style of Hume or Lingard,
embracing a dozen centuries of annals. It is not to be desired that they
should--the writer who is most satisfactory in dealing with Anglo-Saxon
antiquities is not likely to be the one who will best discuss the
antecedents of the Reformation, or the constitutional history of the Stuart
period. But something can be done by judicious co-operation: it is not
necessary that a genuine student should refuse to touch any subject that
embraces an epoch longer than a score of years, nor need history be written
as if it were an encyclopaedia, and cut up into small fragments dealt with
by different hands.
It is hoped that the present series may strike the happy mean, by dividing
up English History into periods that are neither too long to be dealt with
by a single competent specialist, nor so short as to tempt the writer to
indulge in that over-abundance of unimportant detail which repels the
general reader. They are intended to give something more than a mere
outline of our national annals, but they have little space for controversy
or the discussion of sources, save in periods such as the dark age of the
5th and 6th centuries after Christ, where the criticism of authorities is
absolutely necessary if we are to arrive at any sound conclusions as to the
course of history. A number of maps are to be found at the end of each
volume which, as it is hoped, will make it unnecessary for the reader to be
continually referring to large historical atlases--tomes which (as we must
confess with regret) are not to be discovered in every private library.
Genealogies and chronological tables of kings are added where necessary.
C. OMAN
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE TUDOR PERIOD, 1485-1603 An era of Revolutions--The Intellectual
Movement--The Reformation and Counter-Reformation--The New World--The
Constitution--Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry--International Relations.
CHAPTER I
HENRY VII (i), 1485-1492-THE NEW DYNASTY 1485. Henry's Title to the Crown--
Measures to strengthen the Title--1486. Marriage--The King and his Advisers
--Henry's enemies--1487. Lambert Simnel--The State of Europe--France and
Brittany--1488. Henry intervenes cautiously--England and Spain--1489.
Preparations for war with France--Spanish treaty of Medina del Campo--The
Allies inert--1490. Object of Henry's Foreign Policy--1491. Apparent Defeat
--1492. Henry's bellicose Attitude--Treaty of Etaples.
CHAPTER II
HENRY VII (ii), 1492-1499-PERKIN WARBECK Ireland; 1485--1487-1492. The Earl
of Kildare--1491. Perkin Warbeck's Appearance--Riddle of his imposture--
1492-5. Perkin and Margaret of Burgundy--Diplomatic Intrigues--Ireland:
Poynings, 1494-6--1495. Survey of the Situation--Perkin attempts Invasion
--Success of Henry's Diplomacy--1496. Perkin and the King of Scots--A
Scottish Incursion--1497. The Cornish rising--Its suppression--Perkin's
final effort and failure--The Scottish Truce--The End of Perkin Warbeck:
1497-9--1498. The situation.
CHAPTER III
HENRY VII (iii), 1498-1509-THE DYNASTY ASSURED Scotland and England--
Henry's Scottish Policy--France and Scotland--Relations in 1498--Marriage
Negotiations; 1498-1503--Marriage of James IV. and Margaret, 1503--Spain
and England; Marriage Negotiations, 1488-1499--France, 1499--Spain;
Marriage Negotiations, 1499-1501--1501; the Spanish Marriage--1502. New
Marriage Schemes--1504. The Papal Dispensation--The Earl of Suffolk;
1499-1505--1505. Henry's Position--Schemes for Re-marriage--1506: The
Archduke Philip in England--Philip's Death--1507-8. Matrimonial Projects
--The League of Cambrai--Wolsey--1509. Death of Henry.
CHAPTER IV
HENRY VII (iv), 1485-1509--ASPECTS OF THE REIGN 1485; Henry's Position
--Studied Legality--Policy of Lenity--Repression of the Nobles--The
Star-Chamber--Henry's Use of Parliament--Financial Exactions--Sources of
Revenue--Henry's Economics--Trade Theories--Commercial Policy--The
Netherlands Trade--The Hansa--The Navigation Acts--Voyages of Discovery--
The Rural Revolution--The Church--Henry and Rome--Learning and Letters--
Appreciation.
CHAPTER V
HENRY VIII (i), 1509-1527--EGO ET REX MEUS Europe in 1509--England's
Position--The New King--Inauguration of the reign--Henry and the Powers--
1512. Dorset's Expedition--Rise of Wolsey--1513. The French War--Scotland
(1499-1513)--The Flodden Campaign--The Battle--Its Effect--Recovery of
English Prestige--1514. Foreign Intrigues--The French Alliance and Marriage
--1515. Francis I.--Marignano--1516-7. European changes--1518-9. Wolsey's
Success--1519. Charles V.--The Imperial Election--1520. Wolsey's Triumph--
Rival Policies--Field of the Cloth of Gold--Wolsey's Aims--Charles V. and
Francis I.--Scotland: 1513-1520--1520-1. Affairs Abroad--1521. Buckingham
--Wolsey's Diplomacy--1522. A Papal Election--War with France--Scotland--
1523. Progress of the War--Election of Clement VII.--1524. Wolsey's
difficulties--Intrigues in Scotland--1525. Pavia--The Amicable Loan--A
Diplomatic struggle--1526-7. Wolsey's success--A new Factor.
CHAPTER VI
HENRY VIII (ii), 1509-1532--BIRTH OF THE REFORMATION _The Reformation in
England_--Its true Character--Religious Decadence--The Scholar-
Reformers--Ecclesiastical Demoralisation--Monastic Corruption--The
Proofs--Corruption of Doctrine--Evidence from Colet and More--Later
Evidence--Dean Colet--His Sermon: 1512--Erasmus--The _Utopia_: 1516--
Exaggerated attacks--Clerical Privileges--Tentative Reforms--The
Educational Movement--Wolsey and the Reformation--_The Lutheran
Revolt_: 1517--Luther's Defiance--The Diet of Worms; 1521--The German
Peasants' Revolt; 1524--Its Effect in England--1525. The Empire and the
Papacy--The Sack of Rome, 1527--Diet of Augsburg, 1530-The Swiss Reformers;
1520-1530--English Heretics Abroad--Contrasted Aims.
CHAPTER VII
HENRY VIII (iii), 1527-1529--THE FALL OF WOLSEY "The King's Affair"--Story
of the Marriage--Anne Boleyn--1527. The King Prepares--Theoretical
Excuses--The Need of an Heir--The Plea of Invalidity--Conjunction of
Incentives--The Orleans Betrothal--Conclusions--The first Plan--The second
Plan--Knight's Mission--Its Failure--The Pope and the Cardinal--1528.
Gardiner's Mission--Wolsey's Critical Position--Campeggio and Wolsey--
Henry's Attitude--1529. The Trial--The Storm Gathers--The Storm Breaks--
Wolsey's fall--1530. Wolsey's Death--His Achievement--Appreciation of
Wolsey.
CHAPTER VIII
HENRY VIII (iv), 1529-1533--THE BREACH WITH ROME 1529. No Revolt Yet--
Growth of Anti-clericalism--Thomas Cranmer--Appeal to the Universities
--The New Parliament--Thomas Cromwell--Pope, Clergy, and King--Double
Campaign Opens--1530. Answer of Universities--Preoccupation of the
Clergy--Menace of Praemunire--1531. "Only Supreme Head"--Proceedings in
Parliament--1532. Parliament--Supplication against the Ordinaries--
Resistance of Clergy--"Submission of the Clergy"--Mortmain, Benefit of
Clergy, and Annates--The Powers and the Divorce--The Turn of the Year--
1533. The Crisis--Restraint of Appeals--Cranmer Archbishop--The Decisive
Breach.
CHAPTER IX
HENRY VIII (v), 1533-1540--MALLEUS MONACHORUM 1533. Ecclesiastical Parties
--Pope or King?--1534. Confirmatory Acts--The Pope's Last Word--The Nun of
Kent--The Act of Succession--The Oath Refused--The "Bishop of Rome"--
Parliament--Treasons Act--1529-1534: The New Policy--Thomas Cromwell--1535.
More and Fisher--Cromwell Vicar--General--The German Lutherans--Overtures--
Visitation of the Monasteries--1536. Suppression of Lesser Houses--The
Evidence--The Black Book--The Consequent Commission--The Policy--Anne
Boleyn Threatened--Her Condemnation and Death--The Succession--Punishment
of Heresy--The Progressive Movement--The Ten Articles--The Lincolnshire
Rising--The Pilgrimage of Grace--Aske Beguiled--1537. Suppression of the
Rising--Turned to Account--Scotland, 1533-6--1536-7. Naval Measures--1537.
An Heir--1538. Diplomatic Moves--The Exeter Conspiracy--1539. Cromwell
Strikes--Menace of Invasion--The King and Lutheranism--The Six Articles--
Final Suppression of Monasteries--Royal Proclamations Act--Anne of Cleves--
1540. The Marriage--Fall of Cromwell.
CHAPTER X
HENRY VIII (vi), 1540-1547--HENRY'S LAST YEARS 1540. Katharine Howard--The
King his own Minister--England and the Powers--Scotland and England; 1541--
Cardinal Beton--1542--Solway Moss--1543. Henry's Scottish Policy--Alliance
with Charles V.--French War--1544. Domestic Affairs--Intrigues in Scotland
--Sack of Edinburgh--French War--Peace of Crepy--1545. Ancram Moor--A
French Armada--1546. Peace concluded--1532-1549. _Europe_--Lutherans
and the Papacy--Conference of Ratisbon-Council of Trent: first stages--
Death of Luther-Charles and the League of Schmalkald--The Jesuit Order--
Calvin--_England_: the Ecclesiastical Revolution--Progressives and
Reactionaries--1543. The King's Book-1546. Surrey--1547. Death of Henry.
CHAPTER XI
HENRY VIII (vii), 1509-1547--ASPECTS OF HENRY'S REIGN _Ireland_:
1509-1520--Surrey in Ireland, 1520--Irish Policy, 1520-1534--Fitzgerald's
Revolt--1535-1540: Lord Leonard Grey--1540: St. Leger--"King of Ireland"--
_England_: Wolsey's work--The Army--The Navy--The New World--
Absolutism--The Parliamentary Sanction--Depression of the Nobles--
Parliament and the Purse--Finance--The Land--Learning and Letters--The
_Utopia_--Surrey and Wyatt--_Appreciation of Henry VIII._: Morals
and Character--Abilities and Achievement--Dominant Personality--
Conclusions.
CHAPTER XII
EDWARD VI (i), 1547-1549--THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET 1547. The New Government--
Relations with France and Scotland--with Charles V.--Somerset's Scottish
Policy--Pinkie--The Advanced Reformers--Benevolent Legislation--
Ecclesiastical Legislation--1548. Progress of the Reformation--Somerset's
Ideas--The French in Scotland--The Augsburg Interim--Parliament--1549. A
New Liturgy--The Treason of the Lord Admiral: 1547-9--1549--Troubles in the
Provinces--The Western Rising--Ket's Insurrection--The Protector's
Attitude--The Council attacks him--His Fall--Ireland: St. Leger and
Bellingham.
CHAPTER XIII
EDWARD VI (ii), 1549-1553--THE DUDLEY ASCENDANCY 1549. Foreign Relations--
State of England--1550. Terms with France--Protestant zeal of Warwick--
Treasons Act--Protestant Fanaticism-1551. The Council and Charles V.--His
Difficulties--Groups among the Reformers--Somerset--His final overthrow--
1552. Execution of Somerset--Pacification of Passau--English Neutrality--
The Reformation: its Limits hitherto--Revision of the Liturgy--
Nonconformity--Parliament--1553. A New Parliament--Northumberland's
Programme--Plot to change the Succession--Adhesion of King and Council--
Death of Edward VI.--Willoughby and Chancellor.
CHAPTER XIV
MARY (i), 1553-1555-THE SPANISH MARRIAGE The Marian Tragedies--1553.
Proclamation of Queen Jane--The People support Mary--Collapse of the Plot--
Mary's Leniency--Cause of the Popular Loyalty--Problems: Marriage and the
Reformation--Possible Claimants--Moderate Reaction--Proposed Spanish Match
--Parliament: Repeal of Edward's Legislation--1554. Wyatt's Rebellion and
the Lady Elizabeth--Subsequent Severities--The Marriage Treaty-Pole,
Renard, and Gardiner--Public Tension--Parliament; Reconciliation with Rome
--Reaction consummated, 1555.
CHAPTER XV
MARY (ii), 1555-1558-THE PERSECUTION Mary's early Policy--The Persecution--
Who was Responsible?--Comparison with other Persecutions--Some
Characteristic Features--1555. The First Martyrs--Trial of Cranmer--Ridley
and Latimer--Fate of Cranmer--His Record and Character--Policy of Philip--
Paul IV.--Mary disappointed of an Heir--A New Parliament--Gardiner's Death
and Character--Mary's Difficulties--1556. The Dudley Conspiracy--Foreign
Complications--1557. War with France--1558. Loss of Calais--National
Depression--Mary's Death and Character.
CHAPTER XVI
ELIZABETH (i), 1558-1561-A PASSAGE PERILOUS
1558. Accession--Mary Stewart's Claim--Strength of Elizabeth's Position--
Sir William Cecil--Finance--Philip II. and Elizabeth's Marriage--The
Religious Question--A Protestant Policy--1559. Parliament: Act of
Supremacy--The Prayer-Book--France and Peace--State of Scotland--Arran and
Elizabeth--The Archduke Charles--Wynter in the Forth--1560. Difficulties of
France--Vacillations of Elizabeth--Siege of Leith--Treaty of Edinburgh--
Elizabeth's Methods--The Dudley Imbroglio--The Huguenots--The Pope--1561.
Return of Mary to Scotland.
CHAPTER XVII
ELIZABETH (ii), 1561-1568-QUEENS AND SUITORS 1561. The Situation--Council
of Trent--France; State of Parties--1561-8. France: Catholics and Huguenots
--The Netherlands: Philip's Policy--Prelude to War--1561. The Queens'
suitors--1562. Mary in Scotland--1562-3. Elizabeth and the Huguenots--The
English Succession-1564. Darnley and Others--1565. The Darnley Marriage--
Mary and Murray--1566. The Murder of Rizzio--1567. Kirk o' Field--The
Bothwell Marriage--Mary at Loch Leven--Murray Regent--1568. Langside, and
the Flight to England--1562-8. Protestantism of Elizabeth's Government--
Religious Parties--1566-7. Parliament and the Queen's Marriage--The Queen
and the Archduke.
CHAPTER XVIII
ELIZABETH (iii), 1568-1572--THE CATHOLIC CHALLENGE 1568. Mary in England--A
Commission of Enquiry--Proceedings at York--Attitude of Philip--The
Commission at Westminster--Comment on the Enquiry--Seizure of Spanish
Treasure--1569. The Incident passed over--The Northern Rebellion--1570.
Murder of Murray--The Bull of Deposition--The Anjou Match--1570-1. The
Ridolfi Plot--1571. Parliament--Collapse of the Anjou Match--The Ridolfi
Plot Develops--1572. Parliament and Mary Stewart--Lepanto--The Netherlands
Revolt--The Alençon Match--St. Bartholomew.
CHAPTER XIX
ELIZABETH (iv), 1572-1578--VARIUM ET MUTABILE Elizabeth's Diplomacy--The
Queen's Subjects--Development of Protestantism--1572. Katharine de Medici
--The Aim of Elizabeth--England and the Massacre--Spain seeks Amity--1573.
A Spanish Alliance--Scotland: End of the Marian Party--The Netherlands,
France, and Spain--The Netherlands, England, and Spain--1574. Amicable
Relations of England and Spain--1575. A Deadlock--1576. Attitude of the
Nation--The Queen evades War--Alençon and the Huguenots--The Netherlands
and Don John--Elizabeth's Attitude--1577. The Political Kaleidoscope--The
Archduke Matthias--1578. Mendoza--Orange and Alençon--Death of Don John--
NOTE: The Portuguese Succession.
CHAPTER XX
ELIZABETH (v), 1558-1578--IRISH AND ENGLISH 1549-58--1558. Shan O'Neill--
The Antrim Scots--1560-1. Shan and the Government--1562. Shan in England--
1563-5. Shan's supremacy in Ulster recognised--1566. Sir Henry Sidney
Deputy--Overthrow of O'Neill--Catholicism in Irish Politics--1568. The
Colonising of Munster--1569. Insurrection in Munster--Ireland and Philip--
Experimental Presidencies--1573-4. Essex in Ulster--1576-8. Sidney's second
Deputyship.
CHAPTER XXI
ELIZABETH (vi), 1578-1583--THE PAPAL ATTACK 1579. The Union of Utrecht--
1578. The Matrimonial Juggle--Alençon's wooing--1579. Popular Hostility to
the Match--Loyalty to Elizabeth--Yea and Nay--The Papal Plan of Campaign--
1580. Philip annexes Portugal--_Ireland_: 1579; the Desmond Rising--
1580: Fire and Sword--Development of the Rebellion--Smerwick: and after--
_Scotland_: 1579-1581--_England_: 1580--The Jesuit Mission--
Walsingham at Work--1581. An Anti-papal Parliament--Alençon redivivus--His
visit to England--1582. Alençon in the Netherlands--1583. Exit
Alençon--Scotland.
CHAPTER XXII
ELIZABETH (vii), 1583-1587-THE END OF QUEEN MARY 1583. Throgmorton's
Conspiracy--Catholics abroad sanguine--Division in their Counsels--The Plot
discovered--1584. Assassination of Orange--The "Association"--1585. Its
Ratification--France: The Holy League--Elizabeth's agreement with the
States--Drake's Cartagena Raid--Elizabeth's Intrigues-1586. Leicester in
the Netherlands--The Trapping of Mary--Babington's Plot--Trial of the
Queen of Scots--Elizabeth and Mary--1587. Execution of Mary.
CHAPTER XXIII
ELIZABETH (viii), 1558-1587-THE SEAMEN The New World--The English Marine
before Elizabeth--The Royal Navy--Privateering--"Piracy"--Reprisal--The
Explorers--Spain in America--John Hawkins, 1562-6--San Juan d'Ulloa, 1567--
Francis Drake--Darien Expedition, 1572--Oxenham, 1575--_Drake's Great
Voyage_: 1577--Drake in the Pacific, 1578--in the North Pacific, 1579--
his Return, 1580--_Various Voyages_: 1576-1587--Raleigh--Humphrey
Gilbert--Virginia.
CHAPTER XXIV
ELIZABETH (ix), 1587-1588-THE ARMADA 1587. Results of Mary's Death--
Attitude of Philip--Attitude of Elizabeth--The situation--Drake's Cadiz
Expedition--Negotiations with Parma--Elizabeth's Diplomacy--French Affairs
--Preparations for the Armada--1588. Plans of Campaign--Forces of the
Antagonists--The New Tactics--Defective Arrangements--The Land Forces--May
to July--The Fleets off Plymouth--The Fight off Portland--The Fight off the
Isle of Wight--Effect on the Fleets--The Armada at Calais--The Battle off
Gravelines--Flight and Ruin of the Armada.
CHAPTER XXV
ELIZABETH (x), 1588-1598-BRITANNIA VICTRIX After the Armada--A new
Phase--Death of Leicester--France, 1588-9--England aggressive--Alternative
Naval Policies--Don Antonio--Plan of the Lisbon Expedition--1589. The
Expedition; Corunna and Peniche--The Lisbon Failure--Policies and Persons--
France, 1589-1593--1590. Death of Walsingham--The Year's Operations--1591.
Grenville's Last Fight--France, 1590-3--Operations, 1592-4--Survey, 1589-94
--Spain and the English Catholics--Scottish Intrigues--Ireland: 1583-1592
--Tyrone, 1592-4--1595. Drake's Last Voyage--1596. The Cadiz Expedition--
Ireland--The Second Armada--1597. The Island Voyage--1598. Condition of
Spain--Death of Philip--Death of Burghley: Appreciation.
CHAPTER XXVI
ELIZABETH (xi), 1598-1603--THE QUEEN'S LAST YEARS A new Generation--1598.
Ireland--The Earl of Essex--1599. Essex in Ireland--His Downfall--Catholic
Factions--Philip III.--1600--Ireland--Succession Intrigues--The End of
Essex--Robert Cecil--1601. Ireland: Rebellion broken--1602. The Succession
--Last Intrigues--1603. Death of Elizabeth.
CHAPTER XXVII
ELIZABETH (xii), 1558-1603--LITERATURE Birth of a National Literature--
_Prose_: before 1579--1579-1589--_Euphues_--Sidney--Hooker--
_Verse_: before 1579--1579-1590--_Drama_: before Elizabeth--
early Elizabethan--_The Younger Generation>_: pervading
Characteristics Displayed in the Drama--and other Fields--Breadth of
view--Patriotism--Normal Types.
CHAPTER XXVIII
ELIZABETH (xiii), 1558-1603--ASPECTS OF THE REIGN Features of the Reign--
_Religion_: State and Church--The State and the Catholics--The Church
and the Puritans--Archbishop Whitgift--The Persecutions--_Economic
Progress_--Retrenchment--Wealth and Poverty--Trade Restrictions and
Development--_Travellers_--Maritime Expansion--_The Constitution--
Elizabeth_: her People--her Ministers--Appreciation.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A--TABLES
I. CONTEMPORARY RULERS--1475-1542
II. CONTEMPORARY RULERS--1542-1603
III. THE LENNOX STEWARTS
IV. HOWARDS AND BOLEYNS
V. HABSBURGS
VI. VALOIS AND BOURBONS
VII. GUISES
DESCENDANTS OF EDWARD III.
THE PORTUGUESE SUCCESSION
APPENDIX B
CLAIMS TO THE THRONE
APPENDIX C
THE QUEEN OF SCOTS
APPENDIX D
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MAPS
I. THE WORLD: AS KNOWN _circa_ 1485-1603.
II. WESTERN EUROPE: _circa_ 1558
III. ENGLAND AND IRELAND
IV. SPANISH AMERICA: _circa 1580
V. THE LOW COUNTRIES AND THE CHANNEL
THE FLODDEN CAMPAIGN
INDEX
ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS
INTRODUCTION
THE TUDOR PERIOD, 1485-1603
[Sidenote: An era of Revolutions]
The historian of the future will, perhaps, affirm that the nineteenth
century, with the last years of the eighteenth, has been a period more
fraught with momentous events in the development of the nations than any
equal period since the Christian era commenced. Yet striking as are the
developments witnessed by the last four generations, the years when England
was ruled by Princes of the House of Tudor have a history hardly if at all
less momentous. For though what we call the Tudor period, from 1485 to
1603, is determined by a merely dynastic title affecting England alone, the
reign of that dynasty happens to coincide in point of time with the
greatest territorial revolution on record, a religious revolution
unparalleled since the rise of Mohammed, and an intellectual activity to
match which we must go back to the great days of Hellas, or forward to the
nineteenth century: revolutions all of them not specifically English, but
affecting immediately every nation in Europe; while one of them extended
itself to every continent on the globe. Moreover, the accompanying social
revolution, though comparatively superficial, was only a little less marked
than the others. Nor was there any country in Europe more influenced by the
general Revolution in any one of its aspects than England.
_Nihil per saltum_ is no doubt as true of historical movements as of
physical evolution. Before Columbus sighted Hispaniola, Portuguese sailors
had told tales of some vast island seen by them far in the west.
Botticelli had passed out of Filippo Lippi's school, and Leonardo was
thirty, before Raphael was born; the printing press had reached England,
and Greek had been re-discovered, in the last years of the previous
"period"; the Byzantine Empire had fallen; the power of the old Baronage in
England and France had been broken before Richard fell on Bosworth
field. There were Lollards at home and Hussites abroad before Luther came
into the world. The changes did not begin in 1485, or in any particular
year. In Italy the intellectual movement had already long been active, and
had indeed produced its best work; outside of Italy, its appearances had
been quite sporadic. At that date, the Ocean movement was in its initial
stages. There had been foreshadowings of the Reformation; and, to speak
metaphorically, the castles which had maintained the power of the nobility,
overshadowing the gentry and the burghers, were already in ruins. But the
fame of every one of the great English names which are landmarks in every
one of these great movements belongs essentially to the years after 1485.
And every one of those movements had definitely and decisively set its mark
on the world before Elizabeth was laid in her grave.
[Sidenote: The Intellectual Movement]
The intellectual movement to which we apply the name Renaissance in its
narrower sense [Footnote: In the more inclusive sense the Renaissance of
course began in the time of Cimabue and Dante, but it was not till the
latter half of the fifteenth century that it became a pervading force
outside of Italy.] has many aspects. Whatever views we may happen to hold
as to schools of painting and architecture, it is indisputable that a
revolution was wrought by the work of Raphael and Leonardo, Michael Angelo
and Titian, and the crowd of lesser great men who learned from them. The
limitations imposed on Art by ecclesiastical conventions were deprived of
their old rigour, and it was no longer sought to confine the painter to
producing altar pieces and glorified or magnified missal-margins. The
immediate tangible and visible results were however hardly to be found
outside of Italy and the Low Countries; and if English domestic
architecture took on a new face, it was the outcome rather of the social
than the artistic change: since men wanted comfortable houses instead of
fortresses to dwell in. The Renaissance in its creative artistic phase
touched England directly hardly at all.
On its literary side, the movement was not creative but scholarly and
critical, though a great creative movement was its outcome. In the earlier
period the name of Ariosto is an exception; but otherwise the greatest of
the men of Letters are perhaps, in their several ways, Erasmus and
Macchiavelli abroad and Thomas More in England. Scholars and students were
doing an admirable work of which the world was much in need; displacing the
schoolmen, overturning mediaeval authorities and conventions, reviving the
knowledge of the mighty Greek Literature which for centuries had been
buried in oblivion, introducing fresh standards of culture, spreading
education, creating an entirely new intellectual atmosphere. An enormous
impulse was given to the new influences by the very active encouragement
which the princes of Europe, lay and ecclesiastical, extended to them, the
nobility following in the wake of the princes. The best literary brains of
the day however were largely absorbed by the religious movement. The great
imaginative writers, unless we except Rabelais, appear in the latter half
of the sixteenth century--Tasso and Camoens and Cervantes, [Footnote:
_Don Quixote_ did not appear till 1605; but Cervantes was then nearly
sixty.] Spenser and Marlowe and Shakespeare, as well as Montaigne. But even
in the first half of the century, Copernicus enunciated the new theory that
the Sun, not the Earth, is the centre of the astronomical system; and
before the end of our period, the new methods had established themselves in
the field of science, to be first formulated early in the new century by
one who had already mastered and applied them, Francis Bacon. Essentially,
the modern Scientific Method was the product of the Tudor Age.
[Sidenote: The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation]
For many centuries, Christendom had in effect been undivided. There had
indeed been a time when it was uncertain whether the Arian heresy might not
prevail over orthodoxy, but that was a thousand years ago. The Byzantine
Church later had separated from the Roman on a subtle point of Theology;
but in spite of various dissensions, and efforts on the part of kings and
of Churches which may be called national to assert a degree of
independence, all Western Europe had acknowledged the supremacy of the
papacy; and though reformers had arisen, the movements they initiated had
either been absorbed by orthodoxy or crushed almost out of sight. The Tudor
period witnessed that vast schism which divided Europe into the two
religious camps, labelled--with the usual inaccuracy of party labels--
Catholic and Protestant: the latter, as time went on, failing into infinite
divisions, still however remaining agreed in their resistance to the common
foe. Roughly--very roughly--in place of the united Christendom of the
Middle Ages, the end of the period found the Northern, Scandinavian, and
Teutonic races ranged on one side, the Southern Latin races on the other;
and in both camps a very much more intelligent conception of religion, a
much more lively appreciation of its relation to morals. The intellectual
revolution had engendered a keen and independent spirit of inquiry, a
disregard of traditional authority, an iconoclastic zeal, a passion for
ascertaining Truth, which, applied to religion, crashed against received
systems and dogmas with a tremendous shock rending Christendom in twain.
But the Reformers were not all on one side; and those who held by the old
faiths and acknowledged still the old mysteries included many of the most
essentially religious spirits of the time. If the Protestants won a new
freedom, the Catholics acquired a new fervour and on the whole a new
spirituality. For both Catholic and Protestant, religion meant something
which had been lacking to latter-day mediaevalism: something for which it
was worth while to fight and to die, and--a much harder matter than dying
--to sever the bonds of friendship and kinship. That these things should
have needed to be done was an evil; that men should have become ready to do
them was altogether good. The Reformation brought not peace but a sword;
Religion was but one of the motives which made men partisans of either
side; yet that it became a motive at all meant that they had realised it as
an essential necessity in their lives.
[Sidenote: The New World]
It is hardly necessary to dwell at length on the magnitude of the
maritime expansion; the Map [Footnote: See Map 1] is more eloquent than
words. In 1485 the coasts that were known to Europeans were those of
Europe, the Levant, and North Africa. Only such rare adventurers as
Marco Polo had penetrated Asia outside the ancient limits of the Roman
Empire. In 1603, the globe had been twice circumnavigated by Englishmen.
Portuguese fleets dominated the Indian waters; there were Portuguese
stations both on the West Coast of India and in the Bay of Bengal;
Portuguese and Spaniards were established in the Spice Islands whence
there was an annual trade round the Cape with the Spanish Peninsula:
the English East India Company was already incorporated, and its first
fleet, commanded by Captain Lancaster, had opened up the same waters
for English trade. Mexico and Peru and the West Indies were Spanish
posses-*
** Two pages missing from original book here
[Sidenote: Nobility, clergy and gentry]
In the business of managing the Estates, the problem was further simplified
to the Tudors because circumstances enabled them arbitrarily to replenish
their treasuries largely from sources which did not wound the
susceptibilities of the Commons. Henry VII. could victimise the nobles by
fines or benevolences, and Henry VIII. could rob the Church, without
arousing the animosity of the classes which were untouched; while neither
the nobility nor the clergy were strong enough for active resentment. In
each case the King made his profit out of privileged classes which got no
sympathy from the rest--who did not grudge the King money so long at least
as they were not asked to provide it themselves, and in fact felt that the
process diminished the necessity for making demands on their own pockets.
The disappearance of the old almost princely power of the greater barons,
completed by the repressive policy of Henry VII., with the redistribution
of the vast monastic estates effected by his son, were the leading factors
which changed the social and political centre of gravity. The old nobility
were almost wiped out by the civil wars; generation after generation, their
representatives had either fallen on the battlefield, or lost their heads
on the scaffold and their lands by attainder. The new nobility were the
creations of the Tudor Kings, lacking the prestige of renowned ancestry and
the means of converting retainers into small armies. With the exception of
the Howards, scarce one of the prominent statesmen of the period belonged
to any of the old powerful families. For more than forty years the chief
ministers were ecclesiastics; after Wolsey's fall, the Cromwells, Seymours,
Dudleys, and Pagets, the Cecils and Walsinghams, and Bacons, the Russels,
Sidneys, Raleighs, and Careys, were of stocks that had hardly been heard of
in Plantagenet times, outside their own localities. It was the Tudor policy
to foster and encourage this class of their subjects, who from the Tudor
times onward provided the country with most of her statesmen and her
captains, and in the aggregate mainly swayed her fortunes. At the same time
the political influence of the Church was reduced to comparative
insignificance by the treatment of the whole hierarchy almost as if it were
a branch, and a rather subordinate branch, of the civil administration; by
the appropriation of its wealth to secular purposes, to the enrichment of
individuals and of the royal treasury; and by the suppression of the
monastic orders. The effect of this last measure, limiting the clerical
ranks to the successors of the secular clergy, was to restrict them much
more generally to their pastoral functions; and at any rate after the death
of Gardiner and Pole, no ecclesiastic appears as indubitably first minister
of the Crown, and few as politicians of the front rank. England had no
Richelieu, and no Mazarin. Lastly while the diminution in the importance of
the ecclesiastical courts increased the influence of the lay lawyers, the
great development in the prosperity of the mercantile classes, due in part
at least to the deliberate policy of the Tudor monarchs, led in turn to
their wealthy burgesses acquiring a new weight in the national counsels
which, however, did not take full effect till a later day.
[Sidenote: International relations]
Finally we have to observe that in this period the whole system of
international relations underwent a complete transformation. At its
commencement, there was no Spanish kingdom; there was no Dutch Republic;
the unification even of France was not completed; England had a chronically
hostile nation on her northern borders; the Moors still held Granada; the
Turk had only very recently established himself in Europe, and his advance
constituted a threat to all Christendom, which still very definitely
recognised one ecclesiastical head in the Pope, and--very much less
definitely--one lay head in the Emperor. Elizabeth's death united England
and Scotland at least for international purposes; France and Spain had each
become a homogeneous state; Holland was on the verge of entering the lists
as a first-class power. The theoretical status of the Emperor in Europe had
vanished, but on the other hand, the co-ordination of the Empire itself as
a Teutonic power had considerably advanced. The Turk was held in check, and
the Moor was crushed: but one half of Christendom was disposed to regard
the other half as little if at all superior to the Turk in point of
Theology. The nations of Western Europe had approximately settled into the
boundaries with which we are familiar; the position of the great Powers had
been, at least comparatively speaking, formulated; and the idea had come
into being which was to dominate international relations for centuries to
come--the political conception of the Balance of Power.
CHAPTER I
HENRY VII (i), 1485-92--THE NEW DYNASTY
[Sidenote: 1485 Henry's title to the Crown]
On August 22nd, 1485, Henry Earl of Richmond overcame and slew King Richard
III., and was hailed as King on the field of victory. But the destruction
of Richard, an indubitable usurper and tyrant, was only the first step in
establishing a title to the throne as disputable as ever a monarch put
forward. To establish that title, however, was the primary necessity not
merely for Henry himself, but in the general interest; which demanded a
secure government after half a century of turmoil.
Henry's hereditary title amounted to nothing more than this, that through
his mother he was the recognised representative of the House of Lancaster
in virtue of his Beaufort descent from John of Gaunt, [Footnote: See
_Front_. and Appendix B. The prior hereditary claims of the royal
Houses of Portugal and Castile and of the Earl of Westmorland were
ignored.] father of Henry IV.; whereas the House of York was descended in
the female line from Lionel of Clarence, John of Gaunt's elder brother, and
in unbroken male line from the younger brother Edmund of York. On the
simple ground of descent therefore, any and every member of the House of
York had a prior title to Henry's; the most complete title lying in
Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV.; while the young Earl of Warwick,
son of George of Clarence, was the first male representative, and John de
la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, son of Edward's sister, had been named by Richard
as heir presumptive.
But Henry could support his hereditary title, such as it was, by the actual
fact that it was he and not a Yorkist who had challenged and overthrown the
usurper Richard.
[Sidenote 1: Measures to strengthen the title]
[Sidenote 2: 1486 Marriage]
Now the idea that the rivalry of the Houses of York and Lancaster should be
terminated and their union be effected by the marriage of the two
recognised representatives had been mooted long before. But in Henry's
position, it was imperative that he should assert his own personal right to
the throne, not admitting that he occupied it as his wife's consort. His
strongest line was to claim the Crown as his own of right and procure the
endorsement of that claim from Parliament, [Footnote: The intricacies of
descent, and the position of the crowd of hypothetical claimants, are set
forth in detail in Appendix B, and the complete genealogical chart
(_Front_.).] as Henry IV. had done on the deposition of Richard II. He
could then without prejudice to his own title effectively bar other rivals
by taking as his consort Elizabeth of York; since the Yorkists, as a group,
would at any rate hesitate to assert priority of title to hers for either
Warwick or De la Pole (who in fact never himself posed as a claimant for
the throne). In accordance with this plan of operations, the contemplated
marriage with Elizabeth of York was in the first instance postponed as a
matter for later consideration. Henry proceeded forthwith to London,
entering the City _laetanter_, amidst public rejoicings; [Footnote:
Gairdner, _Memorials of Henry VII_., p. xxvi, where a curious
misapprehension is explained for which Bacon is mainly responsible.] writs
for a new Parliament being issued a few days later. The coronation took
place on October 30th; a week afterwards Parliament met, and an Act was
promptly passed, declaring--without giving any reasons, which might have
been disputed--that the "inheritance of the Crowns of England and France
be, rest, remain and abide, in the person of our now Sovereign Lord, King
Harry the Seventh, and in the heirs of his body". This was sufficiently
decisive; but the endorsement of Henry's title in the abstract was
confirmed by further enactments which assumed that he had been King of
right, before the battle of Bosworth (thus repudiating title by conquest),
since they attainted of treason those who had joined Richard in levying war
against him. Thus Henry had affirmed his own inherent right to the throne;
and had hedged that round with an unqualified parliamentary title. In the
meantime he had also disqualified one possible figure-head for the Yorkists
by lodging the young Earl of Warwick in the Tower. It remained for him to
convert the other and principal rival into a prop of his own dignities by
marrying Elizabeth of York. Accordingly he was formally petitioned by
Parliament in December to take the princess to wife, to which petition he
graciously assented, and the union of the red and white roses was
accomplished in January. Any son born of this marriage would in his own
person unite the claims of the House of Lancaster with those of the senior
branch of the House of York.
[Sidenote: The King and his advisers]
It is difficult to think of the first Tudor monarch as a young man; for his
policy and conduct bore at all times the signs of a cautious and
experienced statesmanship. Nevertheless, he was but eight and twenty when
he wrested the kingdom from Richard. His life, however, had been passed in
the midst of perpetual plots and schemes, and in his day men developed
early--whereof an even more striking example was his son's contemporary,
the great Emperor Charles V. Young as Henry was, there was no youthful
hot-headedness in his policy, which was moreover his own. But he selected
his advisers with a skill inherited by his son; and the most notable
members of the new King's Council were Reginald Bray; Morton, Bishop of
Ely, who soon after became Archbishop of Canterbury and was later raised to
the Cardinalate; and Fox, afterwards Bishop of Durham and then of
Winchester, whose services were continued through the early years of the
next reign. Warham, afterwards Archbishop, was another of the great
ecclesiastics whom he promoted, and before his death he had discovered the
abilities of his son's great minister Thomas Wolsey. For two thirds of his
reign, however, Bray and Morton were the men on whom he placed chief
reliance.
[Sidenote: Henry's enemies]
Difficult as it was after Henry's union with Elizabeth to name any
pretender to the throne with even a plausible claim, Bosworth had been
in effect a victory for the Lancastrian party, and many of the Yorkists
were still prepared to seize any pretext for attempting to overthrow
the new dynasty. Not long after the marriage, Henry started on a
progress through his dominions; and while he was in the north, Lord
Lovel and other adherents of the late king attempted a rising which was
however suppressed with little difficulty. A considerable body of
troops was sent against the rebels, while a pardon was proclaimed for
all who forthwith surrendered. Many of the insurgents came in; the
promise to them was kept. Of the rest, one of the leaders was executed,
Lovel escaping; but the affair, though abortive, illustrated the
general atmosphere of insecurity which was to be more seriously
demonstrated by the insurrection in favour of Lambert Simnel in the
following year--some months after the Queen had given birth to a son,
Prince Arthur.
Outside Henry's own dominions, the Dowager Margaret of Burgundy, widow
of Duke Charles the Bold and sister of Edward IV., was implacably
hostile to Henry, and her court was the gathering place of dissatisfied
Yorkist intriguers. Within his realms, Ireland, where the House of York
had always been popular, offered a perpetual field in which to raise
the standard of rebellion, any excuse for getting up a fight being
generally welcomed. In that country the power of the King's government,
such as it was, was practically confined to the limits of the Pale--and
within those limits depended mainly on the attitude of the powerful
Irish noble, Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, who held the office of Deputy.
[Sidenote: 1487 Lambert Simnel]
At the close of the fifteenth century accurate information did not travel
rapidly, but vague rumours were readily spread abroad. Rumours were now
rife that one of the princes murdered by Richard III. had really escaped
and was still living; and on the other hand that the boy Warwick was dead
in the Tower. Some one devised the idea of producing a fictitious Richard
of York, or Warwick. A boy of humble birth named Lambert Simnel was taught
to play the part, carried over to Ireland, and produced after some
hesitation as the Earl of Warwick. Presumably the leaders of the Yorkists
intended to use the supposititious earl only until the real one could be
got into their hands; but Lincoln, who certainly knew the facts, espoused
the cause of the pretender, in complicity with Lovel and Margaret of
Burgundy. In Ireland, Simnel was cheerfully and with practical unanimity
accepted as the king, and a band of German mercenaries, under the command
of Martin Swart, was landed in that country to support him; though in
London the genuine Warwick was paraded through the streets to show that he
was really there alive. Lincoln, who had first escaped to Flanders, joined
the pretender; they landed in Lancashire in June. Within a fortnight,
however, the opposing forces met at Stoke, and after a brief but fierce
conflict the rebel army, mainly composed of Irish and of German
mercenaries, was crushed, Lincoln and several leaders were slain, and their
puppet was taken captive. Henry's action was the reverse of vindictive, for
Simnel was merely relegated to a position, appropriate to his origin, in
the royal kitchen, and was subsequently promoted to be one of the King's
falconers. Kildare, [Footnote: The narrative in the _Book of Howth_
gives the impression that Kildare was at Stoke, and was made prisoner; but
this is probably a misinterpretation arising from a lack of dates.] in
spite of his undoubted complicity in the rebellion and the actual
participation therein of his kinsmen, was even retained in the office of
Deputy. Twenty-eight of the rebels, however, were attainted in the new
Parliament which was summoned in November, the Queen's long-deferred
coronation taking place at the same time.
The same Parliament is noteworthy as having given a definitely legal status
to the judicial authority of the Council by the establishment of the Court
thereafter known as the Star Chamber, of which we shall hear later. Besides
this, however, it had the duty of voting supplies for embroilments
threatening on the Continent.
The complexities of foreign affairs form so important a feature in the
history of the next forty years that it is important to open the study of
the period with a clear idea of the position of the Continental powers.
[Sidenote: The state of Europe]
Lewis XI., the craftiest of kings, had died in 1482, leaving a tolerably
organised kingdom to his young son Charles VIII., under the regency of Anne
of Beaujeu. With the exception of the Dukedom of Brittany, which still
claimed a degree of independence, and of Flanders and Artois which, though
fiefs of France, were still ruled by the House of Burgundy, the whole
country was under the royal dominion; which had also absorbed the Duchy of
Burgundy proper. The daughter of Charles the Bold, wife of Maximilian of
Austria, inherited as a diminished domain the Low Countries and the County
of Burgundy or Franche Comté.
East of the Rhine, the kingdoms, principalities, and dukedoms of Germany
owned the somewhat vague authority of the Habsburg Emperor Frederick, but
the idea of German Unity had not yet come into being. On the south-east the
Turks who had captured Constantinople some thirty years before (1453) were
a militant and aggressive danger to the Empire and to Christendom; while
the stoutest opponent of their fleets was Venice. Switzerland was an
independent confederacy of republican States: Italy a collection of
separate States--dukedoms such as Milan, kingdoms such as Naples, Republics
such as Venice and Florence, with the Papal dominions in their midst. In
the Spanish peninsula were the five kingdoms of Navarre, Portugal, the
Moorish Granada, Aragon, and Castile. The last two, however, were already
united, though not yet merged into one, by the marriage of their respective
sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella. Sardinia and Sicily were attached to
Aragon.
Finally we have to note that Maximilian, son of the Emperor, had married
Mary of Burgundy; but on Mary's death the Netherlanders recognised as their
Duke not Maximilian but his young son Philip--the father exercising only a
very precarious authority as the boy's guardian; while the Dowager
Margaret, the second wife of Charles the Bold, the lady whose hostility to
the House of Lancaster has been already noted, possessed some dower-towns,
and considerable influence. In 1486 Maximilian was elected "King of the
Romans," in other words his father's presumed successor as Emperor.
[Sidenote: France and Brittany]
For the time, then, the consolidation of France was more advanced than that
of any other Power; her desire was to complete the process by the
absorption of Brittany. Spain, i.e., Castile and Aragon, had made
considerable progress in the same direction, but for her the conquest of
Granada was still the prime necessity.
The absorption of Brittany, however, was opposed alike to the interests of
Maximilian, of the Spanish monarchs, and of England. To the former two, any
further acquisition of power by France was a possible menace. To the last,
France was traditionally the enemy, and if Breton ports became French
ports, the strength of France in the Channel would be almost doubled. Henry
personally was under great obligations both to France and to Brittany,
especially to France; but political exigencies evidently compelled him to
favour the maintenance of Breton independence.
During 1487 France had been carrying on active hostilities in Brittany, but
the results had been small and a treaty had been signed. Lewis, Duke of
Orleans, and others of the French nobility who were hostile to the regency
of Anne of Beaujeu, were actively promoting the Breton cause within the
dukedom; there was no longer an active French party there; and now that
Henry in England had suppressed the Simnel rising France became anxious to
secure English neutrality. But, if Henry could not keep clear of the
complication altogether; if once the parties in the contest began appealing
to him; he was liable to find himself forced to take part with one side or
the other. Hence the necessity for calling upon Parliament to vote money
for armaments.
[Sidenote: 1488 Henry intervenes cautiously]
Thus in the opening months of 1488 we find Henry on the one hand fitting
out ships, and on the other offering friendly mediation both to France and
to Brittany: while his policy was not simplified by the unauthorised
interposition of his queen's uncle Edward Woodville, who secretly sailed
with a band of adventurers to support the Bretons. Henry repudiated
Woodville's action, and extended the existing treaty of peace with France
to January, 1490. In the same month (July, 1488) the Bretons suffered a
complete defeat, and the Duke was obliged to sign a treaty on ignominious
terms. Within a fortnight, however, the Duke was dead, and his daughter
Anne, a girl of twelve, succeeded him.
The result was the renewal of war; since Anne of Beaujeu and the Breton
Marshal de Rieux both claimed the wardship of the young Duchess, for whose
hand the widower Maximilian was already a prominent suitor. Now up to this
point Henry had refused to adopt a hostile attitude towards France, and had
treated overtures from Maximilian with frigidity. But in six months' time
he was concluding alliances both with Brittany and with Maximilian.
[Sidenote: England and Spain]
The determining factor in this change of attitude, practically involving a
French war, is probably to be found in Henry's relations with Spain. It was
of vital importance to him to get his dynasty recognised in an emphatic
form by foreign Powers. In Spain under its very able rulers he saw the most
valuable of allies, and during the first half of 1488 he had made it his
primary concern to procure the betrothal of his own infant son Arthur to
their infant daughter Katharine. And virtually his hostility to France was
the price they demanded. The preliminaries were settled in July, 1488; the
treaty was not definitively signed till March of the next year; and as the
essential nature of the Spanish requirements became more apparent, Henry
found himself compelled to accept active antagonism to France as part of
the bargain. With his subjects, a French war was always secure of a certain
popularity, though the provision of funds for it would entail a degree of
opposition. Moreover, though foreign wars might give extreme malcontents
their opportunity, it is a commonplace of politics that they distract
attention from domestic grievances. Thus it is easy to perceive how the
benefits of the Spanish alliance would very definitely turn the scale. And
we shall still find that Henry had no intention of expending an ounce of
either blood or treasure which might be saved consistently with the
ostensible fulfilment of the Spanish Compact.
[Sidenote 1: 1489 Preparations for war with France]
[Sidenote 2: Spanish treaty of Medina del Campo]
So in December, 1488, Henry was sending friendly embassies to all the
Powers, but while that to France was merely offering mediation, the envoy
to Brittany was offering military assistance--on terms. In January a new
Parliament was asked for, and after considerable debate granted, £100,000.
In February the embassy to Maximilian concluded an alliance for mutual
defence; while that to Brittany pledged Henry to defend the young Duchess,
but exacted in return the occupation by the English of sundry military
positions in the duchy, and the right to forbid any marriage or alliance
except with Maximilian or Spain. Then in March the Spanish treaty was
completed: whereof the terms were very significant. The children were to be
betrothed. If Spain declared war on France, England was to support her.
Spain might retire independently if she recovered the small districts of
Roussillon and Cerdagne, which had been surrendered (though only in pledge)
to Lewis XI.; England might similarly withdraw if she got back Guienne--a
very much more visionary prospect. Otherwise, one was not to retire without
the other being equally satisfied. If England attacked France, Spain was to
help; but occupied as she was with Granada the amount of aid likely to be
forthcoming was problematical. In brief, Henry was prepared to pay for the
marriage, and Spain could exact a high price.
France then was occupied in the west with the contest in Brittany, and in
the north she was supporting the Flemings in their normal resistance to
Maximilian. The English could use Calais as a base for operations on this
side, and also began to throw troops into Brittany. Incidentally there was
a rising in the north of England headed by Sir John Egremont, of which the
pretext was resistance to the levying of taxes; this, however, did not take
very long to suppress, nor was any one of importance involved in it. Still
the hostilities with France were carried on in a very half-hearted fashion;
being confined to defensive operations in Brittany which were supposed to
be no violation of the peace recently prolonged to January, 1490.
[Sidenote: The allies inert]
Henry was satisfied to make a show of fighting, and Spain made no haste to
help him, England not being formally at war. As early as July, Maximilian,
shiftiest and most impecunious of princes, concluded at Frankfort an
independent treaty with France; who agreed to give up the places she
occupied in Brittany if Henry were compelled to withdraw his garrisons;
while there were signs that she might cede Roussillon and thus deprive
Henry of his claim to Spanish support. Within the duchy itself, the Marshal
de Rieux and his ward were in a state of antagonism; since he wished her to
marry the Sieur D'Albret, a powerful Gascon noble who was not too
submissive to the French monarchy; while the Duchess declared she would
rather enter a convent. Anne at last announced her adhesion to the treaty
of Frankfort; but as Henry had no intention of evacuating his forts,
nothing particular resulted. The English King could not afford simply to
drop the contest, and when the New Year came in, he demanded and obtained
from Parliament fresh supplies for carrying on the war.
[Sidenote: 1490 Object of Henry's foreign policy]
The game Henry had to play in 1490 was a sufficiently difficult one: and he
played it with consummate skill. He meant to hold his position in Brittany
until he received adequate indemnities; he had to satisfy his own subjects
that he was not going to draw back before the power of France; and he had
to carry out the letter of his obligations to Spain under the treaty of the
previous March, On the other hand, he had in fact no ambitious military
projects, and while Spain abstained from sending active assistance in
force, she could not complain if he merely stood on the defensive. The
Duchess, finding herself no better off for accepting the Frankfort treaty,
adopted the alternative policy of throwing herself on his protection. So he
welcomed a mediatorial embassy from the Pope and showed no unwillingness to
negotiate, but continued to strengthen his own position; while he could
exhibit a sound reason for abstaining from aggressive action and still
accumulate war-funds.
By Midsummer France had enlarged her demands since the treaty of Frankfort,
requiring the withdrawal of the English from Brittany as a preliminary not
to her own withdrawal but to arbitration on her claims. In September the
shifty King of the Romans reverted to an alliance with Henry for mutual
defence; and the scheme of his marriage with the Duchess Anne was pressed
on. Marshal de Rieux had by this time become reconciled to the Duchess,
thrown over D'Albret, and come into agreement with Henry. At this time,
moreover, Henry ratified publicly the Spanish treaty which had been
accepted by Ferdinand and Isabella eighteen months before; but he also
submitted an alternative treaty [Footnote: Busch, _England under the
Tudors_. pp. 59, 330; and Gairdner's note, p. 438.] (which Spain
rejected) modifying the portions which placed the contracting Powers on an
unequal footing. By this step he forced the Spanish monarchs to resign any
pretence of having treated him generously or having placed him under an
obligation; and the step itself was significant of the increased confidence
he had acquired in the stability of his own position. In December
Maximilian was married by proxy to Anne--whom he had never seen--and not
long afterwards she assumed the style of Queen of the Romans.
[Sidenote: Apparent defeat of Henry's policy]
Ostensibly, the object of Henry's diplomacy had failed. Spain had rejected
his proposals: and the direct results of Anne's marriage were that the
activity of France was renewed; Spain, with the pretext of the Moorish war
to plead, was less inclined than ever to render assistance; Maximilian as a
matter of course proved a broken reed; D'Albret, his pretensions being
finally shattered, surrendered Nantes to the French by arrangement. England
was apparently to bear the entire brunt of the war. Henry was justified in
appealing to his subjects for every penny that could be raised, and
resorted to "benevolences"--an insidious method of extortion which had been
declared illegal in the previous reign, but under the existing abnormal
conditions could hardly be resisted. A great demonstration of warlike
ardour was made, on the strength of which Spain was urged to pledge herself
to throw herself into the war next year with more energy and on more
reasonable terms than the existing treaty of Medina del Campo provided for.
But in the meantime the French were reducing Brittany, and held the Duchess
besieged in Rennes. The French King, Charles VIII., proposed that the
marriage with a husband whom she had never seen should be annulled, and the
dispute be terminated by his wedding her himself. Resistance seemed
hopeless; Anne assented; the necessary dispensations were secured from
Rome, and Anne of Brittany became Queen of France.
[Sidenote: 1492 Henry's bellicose attitude]
Now the defence of Brittany had been the primary ground of England's
quarrel with the French; with Henry himself, however, this object had been
secondary to the matrimonial alliance with Spain, from which the latter was
now not likely to withdraw. Henry, moreover, had made use of the whole
affair to acquire a full money-chest; and since it was of vital importance
that this should be done without turning his subjects against him, it had
been necessary to lend the war as popular a colour as possible. Hence it
was part of his policy to emphasise at home as his ultimate end the
recovery of the English rights in the French Crown, so successfully
utilised by his predecessor Henry V. in the first quarter of the century.
It would have been manifestly dangerous for him in establishing his dynasty
to recede from a claim which both Yorkists and Lancastrians had maintained.
Incidentally also, there was the matter of indemnities owing to him by Anne
of Brittany for which Maximilian had been made responsible.
[Sidenote 1: France makes peace]
[Sidenote 2: Treaty of Etaples (Dec.)]
Since then it was impracticable simply to retire, the alternative course
was to demonstrate; and Henry spent the greater part of 1492 in making the
greatest possible display of preparation for war on a great scale--with a
view to obtaining satisfying terms of peace. The one real piece of military
work taken in hand was the siege and capture of Sluys in Flanders (in
conjunction with Albert of Saxony, on behalf of Maximilian); from which
port much injury of a piratical order had been wrought upon English
merchants. Meantime negotiations had been carried on, but with no
appearance of success. At last in October the King actually crossed the
Channel to take command of the army of invasion; and sat down before
Boulogne. Then on a sudden the air cleared. Charles in fact did not want a
serious English war, out of which he could make nothing. But he had
developed a very keen ambition to enter Italy and win the Crown of Naples.
Henry by himself, or even in conjunction with the much offended Maximilian,
was hardly likely to penetrate very far into France, if the forces of that
kingdom were arrayed against him; but while he threatened, Charles could
not move on Italy; moreover, his presence was an encouragement to those of
the nobility whose allegiance was doubtful. So the French King resolved to
buy off the English King at his own price. Lewis XI., threatened by Edward
IV., had agreed to pay what Edward called a tribute, in return for which he
held his claim to the French throne in abeyance. Henry need have no qualms
about following his Yorkist predecessor's example. Beyond that, Charles was
prepared to pay off the Brittany indemnities. Thus Henry secured Peace with
Honour and a solid cash equivalent for his expenditure; besides being able
to silence the complaints of the warlike by emphasising the gravity of
embarking on a great campaign with winter coming on. He threw over
Maximilian, but the faithlessness of the King of the Romans was so palpable
and notorious that at the worst Henry was only paying him back in his own
coin. As to Spain, Henry knew that the monarchs had been endeavouring to
negotiate a separate peace, and they had never carried out their part of
the contract. So far as he was breaking engagements with his allies, their
own conduct had given him ample warrant. The event had justified Henry's
management of a very difficult situation. The Peace of Etaples was ratified
in December; and Henry emerged from the war with England's continental
prestige restored to a respectable position, a full treasury, and his
throne in England infinitely more secure than it had been three years
before. He was never again driven to enter upon a foreign war; and now the
appearance of Perkin Warbeck on the scene, though it kept England in a
state of uneasiness for some years, was incomparably less dangerous than it
would have proved at an earlier stage.