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Title: Henry VIII.
Author: Pollard, A. F. (Albert Frederick), 1869-1948
Language: English
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HENRY VIII.
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
FROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD VI. TO THE
DEATH OF ELIZABETH (1547-1603). (Political History
of England, Vol. VI.). With 2 Maps.
THE COMMONWEALTH AT WAR. 8vo.
THE WAR: ITS HISTORY AND MORALS. 8vo.
THE REIGN OF HENRY VII. FROM CONTEMPORARY SOURCES.
Selected and arranged with an Introduction.
Crown 8vo.
Vol. I. Narrative Extracts.
Vol. II. Constitutional, Social, and Economic History.
Vol. III. Diplomacy, Ecclesiastical Affairs and Ireland.
* * * * *
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON INTERMEDIATE SOURCE-BOOKS
OF HISTORY.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER'S ENGLAND. Edited
by MISS DOROTHY HUGHES. With a Preface by A.F. POLLARD,
M.A., Litt.D., Fellow of All Souls, and Professor of
English History in the University of London. Crown 8vo.
ENGLAND UNDER THE YORKISTS. 1460-1485. Illustrated
from Contemporary Sources by ISOBEL D. THORNLEY, M.A.,
Assistant in the Department of History, University
College, London. With a Preface by A.F. POLLARD, M.A.,
Litt.D. Crown 8vo.
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.,
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS.
HENRY VIII.
BY
A.F. POLLARD, M.A.
Professor Of Constitutional History At University College,
London; Examiner In Modern History In The Universities Of Oxford
And London; Author Of "A Life Of Cranmer," "England Under
Protector Somerset," Etc., Etc.
_NEW IMPRESSION_
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
1919
_First published by Messrs. Goupil & Co.
in June, 1902, with numerous illustrations._
_New Edition, May, 1905._
_Reprinted, January, 1913, and October, 1919._
PREFACE. (p. v)
It is perhaps a matter rather for regret than for surprise that so few
attempts have been made to describe, as a whole, the life and
character of Henry VIII. No ruler has left a deeper impress on the
history of his country, or done work which has been the subject of
more keen and lasting contention. Courts of law are still debating the
intention of statutes, the tenor of which he dictated; and the moral,
political, and religious, are as much in dispute as the legal, results
of his reign. He is still the Great Erastian, the protagonist of laity
against clergy. His policy is inextricably interwoven with the high
and eternal dilemma of Church and State; and it is well-nigh
impossible for one who feels keenly on these questions to treat the
reign of Henry VIII. in a reasonably judicial spirit. No period
illustrates more vividly the contradiction between morals and
politics. In our desire to reprobate the immorality of Henry's
methods, we are led to deny their success; or, in our appreciation of
the greatness of the ends he achieved, we seek to excuse the means he
took to achieve them. As with his policy, so with his character. (p. vi)
There was nothing commonplace about him; his good and his bad
qualities alike were exceptional. It is easy, by suppressing the one
or the other, to paint him a hero or a villain. He lends himself
readily to polemic; but to depict his character in all its varied
aspects, extenuating nothing nor setting down aught in malice, is a
task of no little difficulty. It is two centuries and a half since
Lord Herbert produced his _Life and Reign of Henry VIII_.[1] The late
Mr. Brewer, in his prefaces to the first four volumes of the _Letters
and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._, published under the direction
of the Master of the Rolls, dealt adequately with the earlier portion
of Henry's career. But Mr. Brewer died when his work reached the year
1530; his successor, Dr. James Gairdner, was directed to confine his
prefaces to the later volumes within the narrowest possible limits;
and students of history were deprived of the prospect of a
satisfactory account of Henry's later years from a writer of
unrivalled learning.
[Footnote 1: The edition cited in the text is that
of 1672.]
Henry's reign, from 1530 onwards, has been described by the late Mr.
Froude in one of the most brilliant and fascinating masterpieces of
historical literature, a work which still holds the field in popular,
if not in scholarly, estimation. But Mr. Froude does not begin until
Henry's reign was half over, until his character had been determined
by influences and events which lie outside the scope of Mr. (p. vii)
Froude's inquiry. Moreover, since Mr. Froude wrote, a flood of light
has been thrown on the period by the publication of the above-mentioned
_Letters and Papers_;[2] they already comprise a summary of between
thirty and forty thousand documents in twenty thousand closely printed
pages, and, when completed, will constitute the most magnificent body
of materials for the history of any reign, ancient or modern, English
or foreign. Simultaneously there have appeared a dozen volumes
containing the State papers preserved at Simancas,[3] Vienna and
Brussels and similar series comprising the correspondence relating to
Venice,[4] Scotland[5] and Ireland;[6] while the despatches of French
ambassadors have been published under the auspices of the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs at Paris.[7] Still further information has been (p. viii)
provided by the labours of the Historical Manuscripts Commission,[8]
the Camden,[9] the Royal Historical,[10] and other learned Societies.
[Footnote 2: This series, unlike the _Calendars of
State Papers_, includes documents not preserved at
the Record Office; it is often inaccurately cited
as _Calendar of State Papers_, but the word
"Calendar" does not appear in the title and it
includes much besides State papers; such a
description also tends to confuse it with the
eleven volumes of Henry VIII.'s State papers
published _in extenso_ in 1830-51. The series now
extends to Dec., 1544, and is cited in the text as
_L. and P._.]
[Footnote 3: Cited as _Spanish Calendar_; the
volume completing Henry's reign was published in
1904.]
[Footnote 4: Cited as _Ven. Cal._; this
correspondence diminishes in importance as the
reign proceeds, and also, after 1530, the documents
are epitomised afresh in _L. and P._.]
[Footnote 5: Three series, _viz._, that edited by
Thorp (2 vols., 1858), a second edited by Bain (2
vols., 1898) and the _Hamilton Papers_ (2 vols.,
1890-92).]
[Footnote 6: Vol. i. of the _Irish Calendar_, and
also of the _Carew MSS._; see also the _Calendar of
Fiants_ published by the Deputy-Keeper of Records
for Ireland.]
[Footnote 7: _Correspondance de MM. Castillon et
Marillac_, edited by Kaulek, and of _Odet de
Selve_, 1888.]
[Footnote 8: The most important of these is vol. i.
of Lord Salisbury's MSS.; other papers of Henry
VIII.'s reign are scattered up and down the
Appendices to a score and more of reports.]
[Footnote 9: _E.g._, Wriothesley's _Chronicle_,
_Chron. of Calais_, and _Greyfriars Chron_.]
[Footnote 10: _E.g._, Leadam, _Domesday of
Inclosures_, and _Transactions_, _passim_.]
These sources probably contain at least a million definite facts
relating to the reign of Henry VIII.; and it is obvious that the task
of selection has become heavy as well as invidious. Mr. Froude has
expressed his concurrence in the dictum that the facts of history are
like the letters of the alphabet; by selection and arrangement they
can be made to spell anything, and nothing can be arranged so easily
as facts. _Experto crede_. Yet selection is inevitable, and
arrangement essential. The historian has no option if he wishes to be
intelligible. He will naturally arrange his facts so that they spell
what he believes to be the truth; and he must of necessity suppress
those facts which he judges to be immaterial or inconsistent with the
scale on which he is writing. But if the superabundance of facts
compels both selection and suppression, it counsels no less a
restraint of judgment. A case in a court of law is not simplified by a
cloud of witnesses; and the new wealth of contemporary evidence (p. ix)
does not solve the problems of Henry's reign. It elucidates some
points hitherto obscure, but it raises a host of others never before
suggested. In ancient history we often accept statements written
hundreds of years after the event, simply because we know no better;
in modern history we frequently have half a dozen witnesses giving
inconsistent accounts of what they have seen with their own eyes.
Dogmatism is merely the result of ignorance; and no honest historian
will pretend to have mastered all the facts, accurately weighed all
the evidence, or pronounced a final judgment.
The present volume does not profess to do more than roughly sketch
Henry VIII.'s more prominent characteristics, outline the chief
features of his policy, and suggest some reasons for the measure of
success he attained. Episodes such as the divorce of Catherine of
Aragon, the dissolution of the monasteries, and the determination of
the relations between Church and State, would severally demand for
adequate treatment works of much greater bulk than the present. On the
divorce valuable light has recently been thrown by Dr. Stephan Ehses
in his _Römische Dokumente_.[11] The dissolution of the monasteries
has been exhaustively treated from one point of view by Dr. Gasquet;[12]
but an adequate and impartial history of what is called the Reformation
still remains to be written. Here it is possible to deal with (p. x)
these questions only in the briefest outline, and in so far as they
were affected by Henry's personal action. For my facts I have relied
entirely on contemporary records, and my deductions from these facts
are my own. I have depended as little as possible even on contemporary
historians,[13] and scarcely at all on later writers.[14] I have,
however, made frequent use of Dr. Gairdner's articles in the _Dictionary
of National Biography_, particularly of that on Henry VIII., the best
summary extant of his career; and I owe not a little to Bishop
Stubbs's two lectures on Henry VIII., which contain some fruitful
suggestions as to his character.[15]
A.F. POLLARD.
PUTNEY, _11th January, 1905_.
[Footnote 11: Paderborn, 1893; _cf. Engl. Hist.
Rev._, xix., 632-45.]
[Footnote 12: _Henry VIII. and the English
Monasteries_, 2 vols., 1888.]
[Footnote 13: Of these the most important are
Polydore Vergil (Basel, 1534), Hall's _Chronicle_
(1548) and Fabyan's _Chronicle_ (edited by Ellis,
1811). Holinshed and Stow are not quite
contemporary, but they occasionally add to earlier
writers on apparently good authority.]
[Footnote 14: I have in this edition added
references to those which seem most important; for
a collected bibliography see Dr. Gairdner in
_Cambridge Modern History_, ii., 789-94. I have
also for the purpose of this edition added
references to the original sources--a task of some
labour when nearly every fact is taken from a
different document. The text has been revised, some
errors removed, and notes added on special points,
especially those on which fresh light has recently
been thrown.]
[Footnote 15: In _Lectures on Mediæval and Modern
History_, 1887.]
CONTENTS. (p. xi)
CHAPTER I.
Page
The Early Tudors 1
CHAPTER II.
Prince Henry and His Environment 15
CHAPTER III.
The Apprenticeship of Henry VIII. 43
CHAPTER IV.
The Three Rivals 78
CHAPTER V.
King and Cardinal 108
CHAPTER VI.
From Calais to Rome 136
CHAPTER VII.
The Origin of the Divorce 173
CHAPTER VIII.
The Pope's Dilemma 195
CHAPTER IX. (p. xii)
The Cardinal's Fall 228
CHAPTER X.
The King and His Parliament 249
CHAPTER XI.
"Down with the Church" 278
CHAPTER XII.
"The Prevailing of the Gates of Hell" 302
CHAPTER XIII.
The Crisis 331
CHAPTER XIV.
Rex et Imperator 362
CHAPTER XV.
The Final Struggle 397
CHAPTER XVI.
Conclusion 427
Index 441
CHAPTER I. (p. 001)
THE EARLY TUDORS.
In the whole range of English history there is no monarch whose
character has been more variously depicted by contemporaries or more
strenuously debated by posterity than the "majestic lord who broke the
bonds of Rome". To one historian an inhuman embodiment of cruelty and
vice, to another a superhuman incarnation of courage, wisdom and
strength of will, Henry VIII. has, by an almost universal consent,
been placed above or below the grade of humanity. So unique was his
personality, so singular his achievements, that he appears in the
light of a special dispensation sent like another Attila to be the
scourge of mankind, or like a second Hercules to cleanse, or at least
to demolish, Augean stables. The dictates of his will seemed as
inexorable as the decrees of fate, and the history of his reign is
strewn with records of the ruin of those who failed to placate his
wrath. Of the six queens he married, two he divorced, and two he
beheaded. Four English cardinals[16] lived in his reign; one perished
by the executioner's axe, one escaped it by absence, and a third (p. 002)
by a timely but natural death. Of a similar number of dukes[17] half
were condemned by attainder; and the same method of speedy despatch
accounted for six or seven earls and viscounts and for scores of
lesser degree. He began his reign by executing the ministers of his
father,[18] he continued it by sending his own to the scaffold. The
Tower of London was both palace and prison, and statesmen passed
swiftly from one to the other; in silent obscurity alone lay
salvation. Religion and politics, rank and profession made little
difference; priest and layman, cardinal-archbishop and "hammer of the
monks," men whom Henry had raised from the mire, and peers, over whose
heads they were placed, were joined in a common fate. Wolsey and More,
Cromwell and Norfolk, trod the same dizzy path to the same fatal end;
and the English people looked on powerless or unmoved. They sent their
burgesses and knights of the shire to Westminster without let or
hindrance, and Parliament met with a regularity that grew with the
rigour of Henry's rule; but it seemed to assemble only to register the
royal edicts and clothe with a legal cloak the naked violence of
Henry's acts. It remembered its privileges only to lay them at Henry's
feet, it cancelled his debts, endowed his proclamations with the force
of laws, and authorised him to repeal acts of attainder and dispose of
his crown at will. Secure of its support Henry turned and rent the
spiritual unity of Western Christendom, and settled at a blow that
perennial struggle between Church and State, in which kings and (p. 003)
emperors had bitten the dust. With every epithet of contumely and
scorn he trampled under foot the jurisdiction of him who was believed
to hold the keys of heaven and hell. Borrowing in practice the old
maxim of Roman law, _cujus regio, ejus religio_,[19] he placed himself
in the seat of authority in religion and presumed to define the faith
of which Leo had styled him defender. Others have made themselves
despots by their mastery of many legions, through the agency of a
secret police, or by means of an organised bureaucracy. Yet Henry's
standing army consisted of a few gentlemen pensioners and yeomen of
the guard; he had neither secret police nor organised bureaucracy.
Even then Englishmen boasted that they were not slaves like the
French,[20] and foreigners pointed a finger of scorn at their turbulence.
Had they not permanently or temporarily deprived of power nearly half
their kings who had reigned since William the Conqueror? Yet Henry
VIII. not only left them their arms, but repeatedly urged them to keep
those arms ready for use.[21] He eschewed that air of mystery with
which tyrants have usually sought to impose on the mind of the people.
All his life he moved familiarly and almost unguarded in the midst of
his subjects, and he died in his bed, full of years, with the spell of
his power unbroken and the terror of his name unimpaired.
[Footnote 16: Bainbridge, Wolsey, Fisher, Pole.
Bainbridge was a cardinal after Julius II's own
heart, and he received the red hat for military
services rendered to that warlike Pope (_Ven.
Cal._, ii., 104).]
[Footnote 17: There were two Dukes of Norfolk, the
second of whom was attainted, as was the Duke of
Buckingham; the fourth Duke was Henry's
brother-in-law, Suffolk.]
[Footnote 18: Empson and Dudley.]
[Footnote 19: "Sua cuique civitati religio est,
nostra nobis." Cicero, _Pro Flacco_, 28; _cf._ E.
Bourre, _Des Inequalités de condition resultant de
la religion en droit Romain_, Paris, 1895.]
[Footnote 20: _Cf._ Bishop Scory to Edward VI. in
Strype, _Eccl. Mem._, II., ii., 482; Fortescue, ed.
Plummer, pp. 137-142.]
[Footnote 21: _E.g._, _L. and P._, i., 679.]
What manner of man was this, and wherein lay the secret of his (p. 004)
strength? Is recourse necessary to a theory of supernatural agency, or
is there another and adequate solution? Was Henry's individual will of
such miraculous force that he could ride roughshod in insolent pride
over public opinion at home and abroad? Or did his personal ends,
dictated perhaps by selfish motives and ignoble passions, so far
coincide with the interests and prejudices of the politically
effective portion of his people, that they were willing to condone a
violence and tyranny, the brunt of which fell after all on the few?
Such is the riddle which propounds itself to every student of Tudor
history. It cannot be answered by pæans in honour of Henry's intensity
of will and force of character, nor by invectives against his vices
and lamentations over the woes of his victims. The miraculous
interpretation of history is as obsolete as the catastrophic theory of
geology, and the explanation of Henry's career must be sought not so
much in the study of his character as in the study of his environment,
of the conditions which made things possible to him that were not
possible before or since and are not likely to be so again.
* * * * *
It is a singular circumstance that the king who raised the personal
power of English monarchy to a height to which it had never before
attained, should have come of humble race and belonged to an upstart
dynasty. For three centuries and a half before the battle of Bosworth
one family had occupied the English throne. Even the usurpers, Henry
of Bolingbroke and Richard of York, were directly descended in unbroken
male line from Henry II., and from 1154 to 1485 all the sovereigns of
England were Plantagenets. But who were the Tudors? They were a (p. 005)
Welsh family of modest means and doubtful antecedents.[22] They
claimed, it is true, descent from Cadwallader, and their pedigree was
as long and quite as veracious as most Welsh genealogies; but Henry
VII.'s great-grandfather was steward or butler to the Bishop of
Bangor. His son, Owen Tudor, came as a young man to seek his fortune
at the Court of Henry V., and obtained a clerkship of the wardrobe to
Henry's Queen, Catherine of France. So skilfully did he use or abuse
this position of trust, that he won the heart of his mistress; and
within a few years of Henry's death his widowed Queen and her clerk of
the wardrobe were secretly, and possibly without legal sanction,
living together as man and wife. The discovery of their relations
resulted in Catherine's retirement to Bermondsey Abbey, and Owen's to
Newgate prison. The Queen died in the following year, but Owen
survived many romantic adventures. Twice he escaped from prison, twice
he was recaptured. Once he took sanctuary in the precincts of
Westminster Abbey, and various attempts to entrap him were made by
enticing him to revels in a neighbouring tavern. Finally, on the
outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, he espoused the Lancastrian cause,
and was beheaded by order of Edward IV. after the battle of Mortimer's
Cross. Two sons, Edmund and Jasper, were born of this singular match
between Queen and clerk of her wardrobe. Both enjoyed the favour of
their royal half-brother, Henry VI. Edmund, the elder, was first
knighted and then created Earl of Richmond. In the Parliament of 1453,
he was formally declared legitimate; he was enriched by the grant of
broad estates and enrolled among the members of Henry's council. (p. 006)
But the climax of his fortunes was reached when, in 1455, he married
the Lady Margaret Beaufort. Owen Tudor had taken the first step which
led to his family's greatness; Edmund took the second. The blood-royal
of France flowed in his veins, the blood-royal of England was to flow
in his children's; and the union between Edmund Tudor and Margaret
Beaufort gave Henry VII. such claim as he had by descent to the
English throne.
[Footnote 22: _Archæologia Cambrensis_, 1st ser.,
iv., 267; 3rd ser., xv., 278, 379.]
The Beauforts were descended from Edward III., but a bar sinister
marred their royal pedigree. John of Gaunt had three sons by Catherine
Swynford before she became his wife. That marriage would, by canon
law, have made legitimate the children, but the barons had, on a
famous occasion, refused to assimilate in this respect the laws of
England to the canons of the Church; and it required a special Act of
Parliament to confer on the Beauforts the status of legitimacy. When
Henry IV. confirmed this Act, he introduced a clause specifically
barring their contingent claim to the English throne. This limitation
could not legally abate the force of a statute; but it sufficed to
cast a doubt upon the Beaufort title, and has been considered a
sufficient explanation of Henry VII.'s reluctance to base his claim
upon hereditary right. However that may be, the Beauforts played no
little part in the English history of the fifteenth century; their
influence was potent for peace or war in the councils of their royal
half-brother, Henry IV., and of the later sovereigns of the House of
Lancaster. One was Cardinal-Bishop of Winchester, another was Duke of
Exeter, and a third was Earl of Somerset. Two of the sons of the Earl
became Dukes of Somerset; the younger fell at St. Albans, the (p. 007)
earliest victim of the Wars of the Roses, which proved so fatal to
his House; and the male line of the Beauforts failed in the third
generation. The sole heir to their claims was the daughter of the
first Duke of Somerset, Margaret, now widow of Edmund Tudor; for,
after a year of wedded life, Edmund had died in November, 1456. Two
months later his widow gave birth to a boy, the future Henry VII.;
and, incredible as the fact may seem, the youthful mother was not
quite fourteen years old. When fifteen more years had passed, the
murder of Henry VI. and his son left Margaret Beaufort and Henry Tudor
in undisputed possession of the Lancastrian title. A barren honour it
seemed. Edward IV. was firmly seated on the English throne. His right
to it, by every test, was immeasurably superior to the Tudor claim,
and Henry showed no inclination and possessed not the means to dispute
it. The usurpation by Richard III., and the crimes which polluted his
reign, put a different aspect on the situation, and set men seeking
for an alternative to the blood-stained tyrant. The battle of Bosworth
followed, and the last of the Plantagenets gave way to the first of
the Tudors.
For the first time, since the Norman Conquest, a king of decisively
British blood sat on the English throne. His lineage was, indeed,
English in only a minor degree; but England might seem to have lost at
the battle of Hastings her right to native kings; and Norman were
succeeded by Angevin, Angevin by Welsh, Welsh by Scots, and Scots by
Hanoverian sovereigns. The Tudors were probably more at home on the
English throne than most of England's kings; and their humble and
British origin may have contributed to their unique capacity for (p. 008)
understanding the needs, and expressing the mind, of the English
nation. It was well for them that they established their throne in the
hearts of their people, for no dynasty grasped the sceptre with less
of hereditary right. Judged by that criterion, there were many
claimants whose titles must have been preferred to Henry's. There were
the daughters of Edward IV. and the children of George, Duke of
Clarence; and their existence may account for Henry's neglect to press
his hereditary claim. But there was a still better reason. Supposing
the Lancastrian case to be valid and the Beauforts to be the true
Lancastrian heirs, even so the rightful occupant of the throne was not
Henry VII., but his mother, Margaret Beaufort. England had never
recognised a Salic law at home; on occasion she had disputed its
validity abroad. But Henry VII. was not disposed to let his mother
rule; she could not unite the Yorkist and Lancastrian claims by
marriage, and, in addition to other disabilities, she had a second
husband in Lord Stanley, who might demand the crown matrimonial. So
Henry VII.'s hereditary title was judiciously veiled in vague
obscurity. Parliament wisely admitted the accomplished fact and
recognised that the crown was vested in him, without rashly venturing
upon the why or the wherefore. He had in truth been raised to the
throne because men were weary of Richard. He was chosen to vindicate
no theory of hereditary or other abstract right, but to govern with a
firm hand, to establish peace within his gates and give prosperity to
his people. That was the true Tudor title, and, as a rule, they
remembered the fact; they were _de facto_ kings, and they left the _de
jure_ arguments to the Stuarts.
Peace, however, could not be obtained at once, nor the embers of (p. 009)
thirty years' strife stamped out in a moment. For fifteen years
open revolt and whispered sedition troubled the rest of the realm and
threatened the stability of Henry's throne. Ireland remained a hot-bed
of Yorkist sympathies, and Ireland was zealously aided by Edward IV.'s
sister, Margaret of Burgundy; she pursued, like a vendetta, the family
quarrel with Henry VII., and earned the title of Henry's Juno by
harassing him as vindictively as the Queen of Heaven vexed the pious
Æneas. Other rulers, with no Yorkist bias, were slow to recognise the
_parvenu_ king and quick to profit by his difficulties. Pretenders to
their rivals' thrones were useful pawns on the royal chess-board; and
though the princes of Europe had no reason to desire a Yorkist
restoration, they thought that a little judicious backing of Yorkist
claimants would be amply repaid by the restriction of Henry's energies
to domestic affairs. Seven months after the battle of Bosworth there
was a rising in the West under the Staffords, and in the North under
Lovell; and Henry himself was nearly captured while celebrating at
York the feast of St. George. A year later a youth of obscure origin,
Lambert Simnel,[23] claimed to be first the Duke of York and then the
Earl of Warwick. The former was son, and the latter was nephew, of
Edward IV. Lambert was crowned king at Dublin amid the acclamations of
the Irish people. Not a voice was raised in Henry's favour; Kildare,
the practical ruler of Ireland, earls and archbishops, bishops and
barons, and great officers of State, from Lord Chancellor downwards,
swore fealty to the reputed son of an Oxford tradesman. Ireland was
only the volcano which gave vent to the subterranean flood; (p. 010)
treason in England and intrigue abroad were working in secret concert
with open rebellion across St. George's Channel. The Queen Dowager was
secluded in Bermondsey Abbey and deprived of her jointure lands. John
de la Pole, who, as eldest son of Edward IV.'s sister, had been named
his successor by Richard III., fled to Burgundy; thence his aunt
Margaret sent Martin Schwartz and two thousand mercenaries to co-operate
with the Irish invasion. But, at East Stoke, De la Pole and Lovell,
Martin Schwartz and his merry men were slain; and the most serious of
the revolts against Henry ended in the consignment of Simnel to the
royal scullery and of his tutor to the Tower.
[Footnote 23: See the present writer in _D.N.B._,
lii., 261.]
Lambert, however, was barely initiated in his new duties when the son
of a boatman of Tournay started on a similar errand with a less
congenial end. An unwilling puppet at first, Perkin Warbeck was on a
trading visit to Ireland, when the Irish, who saw a Yorkist prince in
every likely face, insisted that Perkin was Earl of Warwick. This he
denied on oath before the Mayor of Cork. Nothing deterred, they
suggested that he was Richard III.'s bastard; but the bastard was safe
in Henry's keeping, and the imaginative Irish finally took refuge in
the theory that Perkin was Duke of York. Lambert's old friends rallied
round Perkin; the re-animated Duke was promptly summoned to the Court
of France and treated with princely honours. When Charles VIII. had
used him to beat down Henry's terms, Perkin found a home with
Margaret, aunt to all the pretenders. As usual, there were traitors in
high places in England. Sir William Stanley, whose brother had married
Henry's mother, and to whom Henry himself owed his victory at (p. 011)
Bosworth, was implicated. His sudden arrest disconcerted the plot,
and when Perkin's fleet appeared off the coast of Kent, the rustics
made short work of the few who were rash enough to land. Perkin sailed
away to the Yorkist refuge in Ireland, but Kildare was no longer
deputy. Waterford, to which he laid siege, was relieved, and the
pretender sought in Scotland a third basis of operations. An abortive
raid on the Borders and a high-born Scottish wife[24] were all that he
obtained of James IV., and in 1497, after a second attempt in Ireland,
he landed in Cornwall. The Cornishmen had just risen against Henry's
extortions, marched on London and been defeated at Blackheath; but
Henry's lenience encouraged a fresh revolt, and three thousand men
flocked to Perkin's standard. They failed to take Exeter; Perkin was
seized at Beaulieu and sent up to London to be paraded through the
streets amid the jeers and taunts of the people. Two years later a
foolish attempt at escape and a fresh personation of the Earl of
Warwick by one Ralf Wulford[25] led to the execution of all three,
Perkin, Wulford, and the real Earl of Warwick, who had been a prisoner
and probably the innocent centre of so many plots since the accession
of Henry VII. Warwick's death may have been due to the instigation of
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, who were negotiating for the marriage
of Catherine of Aragon with Prince Arthur. They were naturally anxious
for the security of the throne their daughter was to share with (p. 012)
Henry's son; and now their ambassador wrote triumphantly that there
remained in England not a doubtful drop of royal blood.[26] There were
no more pretenders, and for the rest of Henry's reign England enjoyed
such peace as it had not known for nearly a century. The end which
Henry had sought by fair means and foul was attained, and there was no
practical alternative to his children in the succession to the English
throne.
[Footnote 24: Perkin was the first of Lady
Catherine Gordon's four husbands; her second was
James Strangways, gentleman-usher to Henry VIII.,
her third Sir Matthew Cradock (d. 1531), and her
fourth Christopher Ashton, also gentleman-usher;
she died in 1537 and was buried in Fyfield Church
(_L. and P._, ii., 3512).]
[Footnote 25: See the present writer in _Dict. Nat.
Biog._, lxiii., 172.]
[Footnote 26: _Sp. Cal._, i., No. 249; see below,
p. 179.]
But all his statecraft, his patience and labour would have been writ
in water without children to succeed him and carry on the work which
he had begun; and at times it seemed probable that this necessary
condition would remain unfulfilled. For the Tudors were singularly
luckless in the matter of children. They were scarcely a sterile race,
but their offspring had an unfortunate habit of dying in childhood. It
was the desire for a male heir that involved Henry VIII. in his breach
with Rome, and led Mary into a marriage which raised a revolt; the
last of the Tudors perceived that heirs might be purchased at too
great a cost, and solved the difficulty by admitting its insolubility.
Henry VIII. had six wives, but only three children who survived
infancy; of these, Edward VI. withered away at the age of fifteen, and
Mary died childless at forty-two. By his two[27] mistresses he seems
to have had only one son, who died at the age of eleven, and as far as
we know, he had not a single grandchild, legitimate or other. His
sisters were hardly more fortunate. Margaret's eldest son by James IV.
died a year after his birth; her eldest daughter died at birth; her
second son lived only nine months; her second daughter died at (p. 013)
birth; her third son lived to be James V., but her fourth found an
early grave. Mary, the other sister of Henry VIII., lost her only son
in his teens. The appalling death-rate among Tudor infants cannot be
attributed solely to medical ignorance, for Yorkist babies clung to
life with a tenacity which was quite as inconvenient as the readiness
with which Tudor infants relinquished it; and Richard III., Henry VII.
and Henry VIII. all found it necessary to accelerate, by artificial
means, the exit from the world of the superfluous children of other
pretenders. This drastic process smoothed their path, but could not
completely solve the problem; and the characteristic Tudor infirmity
was already apparent in the reign of Henry VII. He had three sons; two
predeceased him, one at the age of fifteen years, the other at fifteen
months. Of his four daughters, two died in infancy, and the youngest
cost the mother her life.[28] The fruit of that union between the Red
Rose and the White, upon which so much store had been set,[29] seemed
doomed to fail.
[Footnote 27: There is no definite evidence that he
had more.]
[Footnote 28: _Ven. Cal._, i., 833.]
[Footnote 29: _Cf._ Skelton, _Works_, ed. Dyce.
vol. i., pp. ix-xi.]
The hopes built upon it had largely contributed to the success of
Henry's raid upon the English throne, and before he started on his
quest he had solemnly promised to marry Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Edward IV., and heiress of the House of York. But he was resolute to
avoid all appearance of ruling in her right; his title had been
recognised by Parliament, and he had been five months _de facto_ king
before he wedded his Yorkist wife (18th January, 1486). Eight months
and two days later, the Queen gave birth, in the priory of St. Swithin's,
at Winchester, to her first-born son. Four days later, on Sunday, (p. 014)
24th September, the child was christened in the minster of the old
West Saxon capital, and given in baptism the name of Arthur, the old
British king. It was neither Yorkist nor Lancastrian, it evoked no
bitter memories of civil strife, and it recalled the fact that the
Tudors claimed a pedigree and boasted a title to British sovereignty,
beside the antiquity of which Yorkist pretentions were a mushroom
growth. Duke of Cornwall from his birth, Prince Arthur was, when three
years old, created Prince of Wales. Already negotiations had been
begun for his marriage with Catherine, the daughter of Ferdinand of
Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Both were cautious sovereigns, and
many a rebellion had to be put down and many a pretender put away,
before they would consent to entrust their daughter to the care of an
English king. It was not till 2nd October, 1501, that Catherine landed
at Plymouth. At her formal reception into England, and at her
marriage, six weeks later, in St. Paul's, she was led by the hand of
her little brother-in-law, Prince Henry, then ten years old.[30]
Against the advice of his council, Henry VII. sent the youthful bride
and bridegroom to live as man and wife at Ludlow Castle, and there,
five and a half months later, their married life came to a sudden end.
Prince Arthur died on 2nd April, 1502, and was buried in princely
state in Worcester Cathedral.
[Footnote 30: _L. and P._, _Henry VII._, i.,
413-415; _L. and P._, _Henry VIII._, iv., 5791.]
CHAPTER II. (p. 015)
PRINCE HENRY AND HIS ENVIRONMENT.
The Prince, who now succeeded to the position of heir-apparent, was
nearly five years younger than his brother. The third child and second
son of his parents, he was born on 28th June, 1491, at Greenwich, a
palace henceforth intimately associated with the history of Tudor
sovereigns. The manor of Greenwich had belonged to the alien priory of
Lewisham, and, on the dissolution of those houses, had passed into the
hands of Henry IV. Then it was granted to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester,
who began to enclose the palace grounds; on his death it reverted to
the Crown; and Edward IV., many of whose tastes and characteristics
were inherited by his grandson, Henry VIII., took great delight in
beautifying and extending the palace. He gave it to his Queen,
Elizabeth, and in her possession it remained until her sympathy with
Yorkist plots was punished by the forfeiture of her lands. Henry VII.
then bestowed it on his wife, the dowager's daughter, and thus it
became the birthplace of her younger children. Here was the scene of
many a joust and tournament, of many a masque and revel; here the
young Henry, as soon as he came to the throne, was wedded to Catherine
of Aragon; here Henry's sister was married to the Duke of Suffolk; and
here were born all future Tudor sovereigns, Edward VI., Mary, (p. 016)
and Elizabeth. At Greenwich, then, through the forfeit of his
grandmother, Henry was born; he was baptised in the Church of the
Observant Friars, an Order, the object first of his special favour,[31]
and then of an equally marked dislike; the ceremony was performed by
Richard Fox,[32] then Bishop of Exeter, and afterwards one of the
child's chief advisers. His nurse was named Ann Luke, and years
afterwards, when Henry was King, he allowed her the annual pension of
twenty pounds, equivalent to about three hundred in modern currency.
The details of his early life are few and far between. Lord Herbert,
who wrote his _Life and Reign_ a century later, records that the young
Prince was destined by his father for the see of Canterbury,[33] and
provided with an education more suited to a clerical than to a lay
career. The motive ascribed to Henry VII. is typical of his character;
it was more economical to provide for younger sons out of ecclesiastical,
than royal, revenues. But the story is probably a mere inference from
the excellence of the boy's education, and from his father's thrift.
If the idea of an ecclesiastical career for young Henry was ever
entertained, it was soon abandoned for secular preferment. On 5th
April, 1492, before the child was ten months old, he was appointed to
the ancient and important posts of Warden of the Cinque Ports and
Constable of Dover Castle.[34] A little later he received the still
more honourable office of Earl Marshal; the duties were performed by
deputy, but a goodly portion of the fees was doubtless (p. 017)
appropriated for the expenses of the boy's establishment, or found its
way into the royal coffers. Further promotion awaited him at the
mature age of three. On 12th September, 1494, he became Lord-Lieutenant
of Ireland;[35] six weeks later he was created Duke of York, and
dubbed, with the usual quaint and formal ceremonies,[36] a Knight of
the Bath. In December, he was made Warden of the Scottish Marches, and
he was invested with the Garter in the following May.[37]
[Footnote 31: _L. and P._, i., 4871.]
[Footnote 32: Fox's own statement, _L. and P._,
iv., 5791.]
[Footnote 33: Herbert gives Paolo Sarpi as his
authority.]
[Footnote 34: G.E.C [okayne], _Complete Peerage_,
_s.v._ Cornwall.]
[Footnote 35: _L. and P._, _Henry VII._, Rolls
Ser., ii., 374.]
[Footnote 36: _Ib._, i., 388-404; _Paston Letters_,
iii., 384-85.]
[Footnote 37: _L. and P._, _Henry VII._, ii., 57.]
The accumulation of these great offices of State, any one of which
might have taxed the powers of a tried administrator, in the feeble
hands of a child appears at first sight a trifle irrational; but there
was always method in Henry's madness. In bestowing these administrative
posts upon his children he was really concentrating them in his own
person and bringing them directly under his own supervision. It was
the policy whereby the early Roman Emperors imposed upon Republican
Rome the substance, without the form, of despotism. It limited the
powers of mischief which Henry's nobles might otherwise have enjoyed,
and provided incomes for his children without increasing taxation or
diminishing the privy purse. The work of administration could be done
at least as effectively, much more economically, and with far less
danger to internal peace by deputies of lower rank than the dukes and
earls and barons who had been wont to abuse these high positions for
the furtherance of private ends, and often for the levying of (p. 018)
private war. Nowhere were the advantages of Henry's policy more
conspicuous than in his arrangements for the government of Ireland.
Ever since Richard, Duke of York, and George, Duke of Clarence, had
ruled as Irish viceroys, Ireland had been a Yorkist stronghold. There
Simnel had been crowned king, and there peers and peasants had fought
for Perkin Warbeck. Something must be done to heal the running sore.
Possibly Henry thought that some of Ireland's loyalty might be
diverted from Yorkist channels by the selection of a Tudor prince as
its viceroy; but he put his trust in more solid measures. As deputy to
his infant son he nominated one who, though but a knight, was perhaps
the ablest man among his privy council. It was in this capacity that
Sir Edward Poynings[38] crossed to Ireland about the close of 1494,
and called the Parliament of Drogheda. Judged by the durability of its
legislation, it was one of the most memorable of parliaments; and for
nearly three hundred years Poynings' laws remained the foundation upon
which rested the constitutional relations between the sister kingdoms.
Even more lasting was the precedent set by Prince Henry's creation as
Duke of York; from that day to this, from Henry VIII. to the present
Prince of Wales, the second son of the sovereign or of the heir-apparent
has almost invariably been invested with that dukedom.[39] The original
selection of the title was due to substantial reasons. Henry's name
was distinctively Lancastrian, his title was no less distinctively
Yorkist; it was adopted as a concession to Yorkist prejudice. (p. 019)
It was a practical reminder of the fact which the Tudor laureate,
Skelton, celebrated in song: "The rose both red and white, in one rose
now doth grow". It was also a tacit assertion of the death of the last
Duke of York in the Tower and of the imposture of Perkin Warbeck, now
pretending to the title.
[Footnote 38: See the present writer in _D.N.B._,
xlvi., 271.]
[Footnote 39: An exception was made in the case of
the late Duke of Edinburgh. It was designed if
Henry VIII. had a second son, to make him Duke of
York (_L. and P._, vii., 1364).]
But thoughts of the coercion of Ireland and conciliation of Yorkists
were as yet far from the mind of the child, round whose person these
measures were made to centre. Precocious he must have been, if the
phenomenal development of brow and the curiously mature expression
attributed to him in his portrait[40] are any indication of his
intellectual powers at the age at which he is represented. Without the
childish lips and nose, the face might well be that of a man of fifty;
and with the addition of a beard, the portrait would be an unmistakable
likeness of Henry himself in his later years. When the Prince was no
more than a child, says Erasmus, he was set to study.[41] He had, we
are told, a vivid and active mind, above measure able to execute
whatever tasks he undertook; and he never attempted anything in which
he did not succeed.[42] The Tudors had no modern dread of educational
over-pressure when applied to their children, and the young Henry was
probably as forward a pupil as his son, Edward VI., his daughter,
Elizabeth, or his grand-niece, Lady Jane Grey. But, fortunately for
Henry, a physical exuberance corrected his mental precocity; and, (p. 020)
as he grew older, any excessive devotion to the Muses was checked by
an unwearied pursuit of bodily culture. He was the first of English
sovereigns to be educated under the new influence of the Renaissance.
Scholars, divines and poets thronged the Court of Henry VII. Margaret
Beaufort, who ruled in Henry's household, was a signal benefactor to
the cause of English learning. Lady Margaret professors commemorate
her name in both our ancient universities, and in their bidding prayers
she is to this day remembered. Two colleges at Cambridge revere her as
their foundress; Caxton, the greatest of English printers, owed much
to her munificence, and she herself translated into English books from
both Latin and French. Henry VII., though less accomplished that the
later Tudors, evinced an intelligent interest in art and letters, and
provided for his children efficient instructors; while his Queen,
Elizabeth of York, is described by Erasmus as possessing the soundest
judgment and as being remarkable for her prudence as well as for her
piety. Bernard André,[43] historian and poet, who had been tutor to
Prince Arthur, probably took no small part in the education of his
younger brother; to him he dedicated, after Arthur's death, two of the
annual summaries of events which he was in the habit of compiling.
Giles D'Ewes,[44] apparently a Frenchman and the author of a notable
French grammar, taught that language to Prince Henry, as many (p. 021)
years later he did to his daughter, Queen Mary; probably either D'Ewes
or André trained his handwriting, which is a curious compromise
between the clear and bold Italian style, soon to be adopted by
well-instructed Englishmen, and the old English hieroglyphics in which
more humbly educated individuals, including Shakespeare, concealed the
meaning of their words. But the most famous of Henry's teachers was
the poet Skelton, the greatest name in English verse from Lydgate down
to Surrey. Skelton was poet laureate to Henry VII. Court, and refers
in his poems to his wearing of the white and green of Tudor
liveries.[45] He celebrated in verse Arthur's creation as Prince of
Wales and Henry's as Duke of York;[46] and before the younger prince
was nine years old, this "incomparable light and ornament of British
Letters," as Erasmus styles him, was directing Henry's studies.
Skelton himself writes.--
The honor of England I learned to spell,
I gave him drink of the sugred well
Of Helicon's waters crystalline,
Acquainting him with the Muses nine.
[Footnote 40: This is an anonymous portrait of
Henry at the age of eighteen months or two years
belonging to Sir Edmund and Lady Verney.]
[Footnote 41: Erasmus, _Epist._, p. 1182; _L. and
P._, iv., 5412.]
[Footnote 42: This testimonial was written in 1528
before Henry VIII. had given the most striking
demonstrations of its truth.]
[Footnote 43: See _D.N.B._, i., 398. Erasmus,
however, described André as being "of mean
abilities" (_L. and P._, iv., 626).]
[Footnote 44: _D.N.B._, xiv., 449; _cf._ _L. and
P._, i., 513. On Henry VIII's accession D'Ewes was
appointed keeper of the King's library at Richmond
with a salary of £10 per year.]
[Footnote 45: Skelton, _Works_, ed. Dyce, vol. i.,
p. xiii.; the white and green still survive as the
colours of Jesus College, Oxford, founded by Queen
Elizabeth.]
[Footnote 46: _Ib._, p. xxi.; a copy of the latter,
which Dyce could not find, is in _Brit. Mus. Addit.
MS. 26787_.]
The coarseness of Skelton's satires and his open disregard of the
clerical vows of chastity may justify some doubt of the value of the
poet's influence on Henry's character; but he so far observed the
conventional duties of his post as to dedicate to his royal pupil, in
1501, a moral treatise in Latin of no particular worth.[47] More
deserving of Henry's study were two books inscribed to him a (p. 022)
little later by young Boerio, son of the King's Genoese physician and
a pupil of Erasmus, who, according to his own account, suffered untold
afflictions from the father's temper. One was a translation of
Isocrates' _De Regno_, the other of Lucian's tract against believing
calumnies.[48] The latter was, to judge from the tale of Henry's
victims, a precept which he scarcely laid to heart in youth. In other
respects he was apt enough to learn. He showed "remarkable docility
for mathematics," became proficient in Latin, spoke French with ease,
understood Italian, and, later on, possibly from Catherine of Aragon,
acquired a knowledge of Spanish. In 1499 Erasmus himself, the greatest
of the humanists, visited his friend, Lord Mountjoy, near Greenwich,
and made young Henry's acquaintance. "I was staying," he writes,[49]
"at Lord Mountjoy's country house when Thomas More came to see me, and
took me out with him for a walk as far as the next village, where all
the King's children, except Prince Arthur, who was then the eldest
son, were being educated. When we came into the hall, the attendants
not only of the palace, but also of Mountjoy's household, were all
assembled. In the midst stood Prince Henry, now nine years old, and
having already something of royalty in his demeanour in which there
was a certain dignity combined with singular courtesy. On his right
was Margaret, about eleven years of age, afterwards married to James,
King of Scots; and on his left played Mary, a child of four. Edmund
was an infant in arms. More, with his companion Arnold, after (p. 023)
paying his respects to the boy Henry, the same that is now King of
England, presented him with some writing. For my part, not having
expected anything of the sort, I had nothing to offer, but promised
that, on another occasion, I would in some way declare my duty towards
him. Meantime, I was angry with More for not having warned me, especially
as the boy sent me a little note, while we were at dinner, to challenge
something from my pen. I went home, and in the Muses' spite, from whom
I had been so long divorced, finished the poem within three days." The
poem,[50] in which Britain speaks her own praise and that of her
princes, Henry VII. and his children, was dedicated to the Duke of
York and accompanied by a letter in which Erasmus commended Henry's
devotion to learning. Seven years later Erasmus again wrote to Henry,
now Prince of Wales, condoling with him upon the death of his
brother-in-law, Philip of Burgundy, King of Castile. Henry replied in
cordial manner, inviting the great scholar to continue the correspondence.
The style of his letter so impressed Erasmus that he suspected, as he
says,[51] "some help from others in the ideas and expressions. In a
conversation I afterwards had with William, Lord Mountjoy, he tried by
various arguments to dispel that suspicion, and when he found he could
not do so he gave up the point and let it pass until he was
sufficiently instructed in the case. On another occasion, when we were
talking alone together, he brought out a number of the Prince's
letters, some to other people and some to himself, and among them one
which answered to mine: in these letters were manifest signs of (p. 024)
comment, addition, suppression, correction and alteration--You might
recognise the first drafting of a letter, and you might make out the
second and third, and sometimes even the fourth correction; but
whatever was revised or added was in the same handwriting. I had then
no further grounds for hesitation, and, overcome by the facts, I laid
aside all suspicion." Neither, he adds, would his correspondent doubt
Henry VIII's authorship of the book against Luther if he knew that
king's "happy genius". That famous book is sufficient proof that
theological studies held no small place in Henry's education. They
were cast in the traditional mould, for the Lancastrians were very
orthodox, and the early Tudors followed in their steps. Margaret
Beaufort left her husband to devote herself to good works and a
semi-monastic life; Henry VII. converted a heretic at the stake and
left him to burn;[52] and the theological conservatism, which Henry
VIII. imbibed in youth, clung to him to the end of his days.
[Footnote 47: _Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 26787._]
[Footnote 48: _Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19553._]
[Footnote 49: F.M. Nichols, _Epistles of Erasmus_,
i., 201.]
[Footnote 50: Printed in 1500 at the end of
Erasmus's _Adagia_.]
[Footnote 51: F.M. Nichols, pp. 423-24; _L. and
P._, iv., 5412.]
[Footnote 52: _Cotton MS._, Vitellius, A., xvi., f.
172.]
Nor were the arts neglected, and in his early years Henry acquired a
passionate and lifelong devotion to music. Even as Duke of York he had
a band of minstrels apart from those of the King and Prince Arthur;[53]
and when he was king his minstrels formed an indispensable part of his
retinue, whether he went on progress through his kingdom, or crossed
the seas on errands of peace or war.[54] He became an expert performer
on the lute, the organ and the harpsichord, and all the cares of State
could not divert him from practising on those instruments both day (p. 025)
and night. He sent all over England in search of singing men and boys
for the chapel royal, and sometimes appropriated choristers from
Wolsey's chapel, which he thought better provided than his own.[55]
From Venice he enticed to England the organist of St. Mark's, Dionysius
Memo, and on occasion Henry and his Court listened four hours at a
stretch to Memo's organ recitals.[56] Not only did he take delight in
the practice of music by himself and others; he also studied its
theory and wrote with the skill of an expert. Vocal and instrumental
pieces of his own composition, preserved among the manuscripts at the
British Museum,[57] rank among the best productions of the time; and
one of his anthems, "O Lorde, the Maker of all thyng," is of the
highest order of merit, and still remains a favourite in English
cathedrals.
[Footnote 53: _Hist. MSS. Comm._, 5th Rep., App.,
p. 549.]
[Footnote 54: _L. and P._, i., 4314.]
[Footnote 55: _L. and P._, ii., 410, 4024.]
[Footnote 56: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 780; _L. and P._,
ii., 2401, 3455.]
[Footnote 57: _E.g._, _Add. MS. 31922_.]
In April, 1502, at the age of ten, Henry became the heir-apparent to
the English throne. He succeeded at once to the dukedom of Cornwall,
but again a precedent was set which was followed but yesterday; and
ten months were allowed to elapse before he was, on 18th February,
1503, created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, the dukedom of York
becoming void until a king or an heir apparent should again have a
second son.[58] The first sign of his increased importance was his
implication in the maze of matrimonial intrigues which formed so large
a part of sixteenth-century diplomacy. The last thing kings (p. 026)
considered was the domestic felicity of their children; their marriages
were pieces in the diplomatic game and sometimes the means by which
States were built up. While Duke of York, Henry had been proposed as a
husband for Eleanor,[59] daughter of the Archduke Philip; and his
sister Mary as the bride of Philip's son Charles, who, as the heir of
the houses of Castile and of Aragon, of Burgundy and of Austria, was
from the cradle destined to wield the imperial sceptre of Cæsar. No
further steps were taken at the time, and Prince Arthur's death
brought other projects to the front.
[Footnote 58: The next prince to hold the title was
Charles, afterwards Charles I., who was created
Duke of York on 6th Jan., 1605.]
[Footnote 59: Afterwards Queen of Portugal and then
of France. _L. and P._, _Henry VII._, i., 285,
425.]
Immediately on receiving the news, and two days before they dated
their letter of condolence to Henry VII., Ferdinand and Isabella
commissioned the Duke of Estrada to negotiate a marriage between the
widowed Catherine and her youthful brother-in-law.[60] No doubt was
entertained but that the Pope would grant the necessary dispensation,
for the spiritual head of Christendom was apt to look tenderly on the
petitions of the powerful princes of this world. A more serious
difficulty was the question of the widow's dower. Part only had been
paid, and Ferdinand not merely refused to hand over the rest, but
demanded the return of his previous instalments. Henry, on the other
hand, considered himself entitled to the whole, refused to refund a
penny, and gave a cold reception to the proposed marriage between
Catherine and his sole surviving son. He was, however, by no means
blind to the advantages of the Spanish matrimonial and political
alliance, and still less to the attractions of Catherine's dower; (p. 027)
he declined to send back the Princess, when Isabella, shocked at Henry
VII.'s proposal to marry his daughter-in-law himself, demanded her
return; and eventually, when Ferdinand reduced his terms, he suffered
the marriage treaty to be signed. On 25th June, 1503, Prince Henry and
Catherine were solemnly betrothed in the Bishop of Salisbury's house,
in Fleet Street.
[Footnote 60: _Sp. Cal._, i., 267.]
The papal dispensation arrived in time to solace Isabella on her
death-bed in November, 1504; but that event once more involved in
doubt the prospects of the marriage. The crown of Castile passed from
Isabella to her daughter Juaña; the government of the kingdom was
claimed by Ferdinand and by Juaña's husband, Philip of Burgundy. On
their way from the Netherlands to claim their inheritance, Philip and
Juaña were driven on English shores. Henry VII. treated them with all
possible courtesy, and made Philip a Knight of the Garter, while
Philip repaid the compliment by investing Prince Henry with the Order
of the Golden Fleece.[61] But advantage was taken of Philip's plight
to extort from him the surrender of the Earl of Suffolk, styled the
White Rose, and a commercial treaty with the Netherlands, which the
Flemings named the Malus Intercursus. Three months after his arrival
in Castile, Philip died, and Henry began to fish in the troubled
waters for a share in his dominions. Two marriage schemes occurred to
him; he might win the hand of Philip's sister Margaret, now Regent of
the Netherlands, and with her hand the control of those provinces; or
he might marry Juaña and claim in her right to administer Castile. On
the acquisition of Castile he set his mind. If he could not gain (p. 028)
it by marriage with Juaña, he thought he could do so by marrying
her son and heir, the infant Charles, to his daughter Mary. Whichever
means he took to further his design, it would naturally irritate
Ferdinand and make him less anxious for the completion of the marriage
between Catherine and Prince Henry. Henry VII. was equally averse from
the consummation of the match. Now that he was scheming with Charles's
other grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian, to wrest the government of
Castile from Ferdinand's grasp, the alliance of the King of Aragon had
lost its attraction, and it was possible that the Prince of Wales
might find elsewhere a more desirable bride. Henry's marriage with
Catherine was to have been accomplished when he completed the age of
fourteen; but on the eve of his fifteenth birthday he made a solemn
protestation that the contract was null and void, and that he would
not carry out his engagements.[62] This protest left him free to
consider other proposals, and enhanced his value as a negotiable
asset. More than once negotiations were started for marrying him to
Marguerite de Valois, sister of the Duke of Angoulême, afterwards
famous as Francis I.;[63] and in the last months of his father's
reign, the Prince of Wales was giving audience to ambassadors from
Maximilian, who came to suggest matrimonial alliances between the
prince and a daughter of Duke Albert of Bavaria, and between Henry
VII. and the Lady Margaret of Savoy, Regent of the Netherlands.[64]
Meanwhile, Ferdinand, threatened on all sides, first came to terms (p. 029)
with France; he married a French princess, Germaine de Foix, abandoned
his claim to Navarre, and bought the security of Naples by giving
Louis XII. a free hand in the north of Italy. He then diverted
Maximilian from his designs on Castile by humouring his hostility to
Venice. By that bait he succeeded in drawing off his enemies, and the
league of Cambrai united them all, Ferdinand and Louis, Emperor and
Pope, in an iniquitous attack on the Italian Republic. Henry VII.,
fortunately for his reputation, was left out of the compact. He was
still cherishing his design on Castile, and in December, 1508, the
treaty of marriage between Mary and Charles was formally signed. It
was the last of his worldly triumphs; the days of his life were
numbered, and in the early months of 1509 he was engaged in making a
peace with his conscience.
[Footnote 61: _L. and P._, _Henry VII._, ii., 158;
_Ven. Cal._, i., 867.]
[Footnote 62: _Sp. Cal._, i., 458; _L. and P._,
iv., 5791.]
[Footnote 63: _L. and P._, _Henry VII._, i.,
241-47; ii. 342-43.]
[Footnote 64: _Sp. Cal._, Suppl., p. 23.]
* * * * *
The twenty-four years during which Henry VII. had guided the destinies
of England were a momentous epoch in the development of Western
civilisation. It was the dawn of modern history, of the history of
Europe in the form in which we know it to-day. The old order was in a
state of liquidation. The mediæval ideal, described by Dante, of a
universal monarchy with two aspects, spiritual and temporal, and two
heads, emperor and pope, was passing away. Its place was taken by the
modern but narrower ideal of separate polities, each pursuing its own
course, independent of, and often in conflict with, other societies.
Unity gave way to diversity of tongues, of churches, of states; and
the cosmopolitan became nationalist, patriot, separatist. Imperial
monarchy shrank to a shadow; and kings divided the emperor's power (p. 030)
at the same time that they consolidated their own. They extended their
authority on both sides, at the expense of their superior, the
emperor, and at the expense of their subordinate feudal lords. The
struggle between the disruptive forces of feudalism and the central
power of monarchy ended at last in monarchical triumph; and internal
unity prepared the way for external expansion. France under Louis XI.
was first in the field. She had surmounted her civil troubles half a
century earlier than England. She then expelled her foreign foes,
crushed the remnants of feudal independence, and began to expand at
the cost of weaker States. Parts of Burgundy, Provence, and Brittany
became merged in France; the exuberant strength of the new-formed
nation burst the barriers of the Alps and overflowed into the plains
of Italy. The time of universal monarchy was past, but the dread of it
remained; and from Charles VIII.'s invasion of Italy in 1494 to
Francis I.'s defeat at Pavia in 1525, French dreams of world-wide
sovereignty were the nightmare of other kings. Those dreams might, as
Europe feared, have been realised, had not other States followed
France in the path of internal consolidation. Ferdinand of Aragon
married Isabella of Castile, drove out the Moors, and founded the
modern Spanish kingdom. Maximilian married Mary, the daughter of
Charles the Bold, and joined the Netherlands to Austria. United France
found herself face to face with other united States, and the political
system of modern Europe was roughly sketched out. The boundaries of
the various kingdoms were fluctuating. There still remained minor
principalities and powers, chiefly in Italy and Germany, which offered
an easy prey to their ambitious neighbours; for both nations had (p. 031)
sacrificed internal unity to the shadow of universal dominion, Germany
in temporal, and Italy in spiritual, things. Mutual jealousy of each
other's growth at the expense of these States gave rise to the theory
of the balance of power; mutual adjustment of each other's disputes
produced international law; and the necessity of watching each other's
designs begat modern diplomacy.[65]
[Footnote 65: _Cf._ A.O. Meyer, _Die Englische
Diplomatie_, Breslau, 1901.]
Parallel with these developments in the relations between one State
and another marched a no less momentous revolution in the domestic
position of their sovereigns. National expansion abroad was marked by
a corresponding growth in royal authority at home. The process was not
new in England; every step in the path of the tribal chief of Saxon
pirates to the throne of a united England denoted an advance in the
nature of kingly power. Each extension of his sway intensified his
authority, and his power grew in degree as it increased in area. So
with fifteenth-century sovereigns. Local liberties and feudal rights
which had checked a Duke of Brittany or a King of Aragon were
powerless to restrain the King of France or of Spain. The sphere of
royal authority encroached upon all others; all functions and all
powers tended to concentrate in royal hands. The king was the emblem
of national unity, the centre of national aspirations, and the object
of national reverence. The Renaissance gave fresh impetus to the
movement. Men turned not only to the theology, literature, and art of
the early Christian era; they began to study anew its political
organisation and its system of law and jurisprudence. The code of
Justinian was as much a revelation as the original Greek of the (p. 032)
New Testament. Roman imperial law seemed as superior to the barbarities
of common law as classical was to mediæval Latin; and Roman law
supplanted indigenous systems in France and in Germany, in Spain and
in Scotland. Both the Roman imperial law and the Roman imperial
constitution were useful models for kings of the New Monarchy; the
Roman Empire was a despotism; _quod principi placuit legis habet
vigorem_ ran the fundamental principle of Roman Empire.[66] Nor was
this all; Roman emperors were habitually deified, and men in the
sixteenth century seemed to pay to their kings while alive the Divine
honours which Romans paid to their emperors when dead. "Le nouveau
Messie," says Michelet, "est le roi."[67]
[Footnote 66: The conclusion of the maxim _utpote
cum lege regia quae de imperio ejus lata est,
populus ei et in eum omne suum imperium et
potestatem conferat_ (Ulpian, _Digest_, I., iv.,
1), was conveniently forgotten by apologists for
absolutism, though the Tudors respected it in
practice.]
[Footnote 67: _Hist. de France_, ed. 1879, ix.,
301.]
Nowhere was the king more emphatically the saviour of society than in
England. The sixty years of Lancastrian rule were in the seventeenth
century represented as the golden age of parliamentary government, a
sort of time before the fall to which popular orators appealed when
they wished to paint in vivid colours the evils of Stuart tyranny. But
to keen observers of the time the pre-eminent characteristic of
Lancastrian rule appeared to be its "lack of governance" or, in modern
phrase, administrative anarchy.[68] There was no subordination in the
State. The weakness of the Lancastrian title left the king at the
mercy of Parliament, and the limitations of Parliament were never (p. 033)
more apparent than when its powers stood highest. Even in the realm of
legislation, the statute book has seldom been so barren. Its principal
acts were to narrow the county electorate to an oligarchy, to restrict
the choice of constituencies to resident knights and burgesses, and to
impair its own influence as a focus of public opinion. It was not
content with legislative authority; it interfered with an executive
which it could hamper but could not control. It was possessed by the
inveterate fallacy that freedom and strong government are things
incompatible; that the executive is the natural enemy of the Legislature;
that if one is strong, the other must be weak; and of the two
alternatives it vastly preferred a weak executive. So, to limit the
king's power, it sought to make him "live of his own," when "his own"
was absolutely inadequate to meet the barest necessities of government.
Parliament was in fact irresponsible; the connecting link between it
and the executive had yet to be found. Hence the Lancastrian "lack of
governance"; it ended in a generation of civil war, and the memory of
that anarchy explains much in Tudor history.
[Footnote 68: Fortescue, _Governance of England_,
ed. Plummer, 1885.]
The problems of Henry VIII.'s reign can indeed only be solved by
realising the misrule of the preceding century, the failure of
parliamentary government, and the strength of the popular demand for a
firm and masterful hand. It is a modern myth that Englishmen have
always been consumed with enthusiasm for parliamentary government and
with a thirst for a parliamentary vote. The interpretation of history,
like that of the Scriptures, varies from age to age; and present
political theories colour our views of the past. The political
development of the nineteenth century created a parliamentary legend;
and civil and religious liberty became the inseparable stage (p. 034)
properties of the Englishman. Whenever he appeared on the boards, he
was made to declaim about the rights of the subject and the privileges
of Parliament. It was assumed that the desire for a voice in the
management of his own affairs had at all times and all seasons been
the mainspring of his actions; and so the story of Henry's rule was
made into a political mystery. In reality, love of freedom has not
always been, nor will it always remain, the predominant note in the
English mind. At times the English people have pursued it through
battle and murder with grim determination, but other times have seen
other ideals. On occasion the demand has been for strong government
irrespective of its methods, and good government has been preferred to
self-government. Wars of expansion and wars of defence have often
cooled the love of liberty and impaired the faith in parliaments; and
generally English ideals have been strictly subordinated to a passion
for material prosperity.
Never was this more apparent than under the Tudors. The parliamentary
experiment of the Lancastrians was premature and had failed.
Parliamentary institutions were discredited and people were
indifferent to parliamentary rights and privileges: "A plague on both
your Houses," was the popular feeling, "give us peace, above all peace
at home to pursue new avenues of wealth, new phases of commercial
development, peace to study new problems of literature, religion, and
art"; and both Houses passed out of the range of popular imagination,
and almost out of the sphere of independent political action.
Parliament played during the sixteenth century a modester part than it
had played since its creation. Towards the close of the period (p. 035)
Shakespeare wrote his play of _King John_, and in that play there is
not the faintest allusion to Magna Carta.[69] Such an omission would
be inconceivable now or at any time since the death of Elizabeth; for
the Great Charter is enshrined in popular imagination as the palladium
of the British constitution. It was the fetish to which Parliament
appealed against the Stuarts. But no such appeal would have touched a
Tudor audience. It needed and desired no weapon against a sovereign
who embodied national desires, and ruled in accord with the national
will. References to the charter are as rare in parliamentary debates
as they are in the pages of Shakespeare. The best hated instruments of
Stuart tyranny were popular institutions under the Tudors; and the
Star Chamber itself found its main difficulty in the number of suitors
which flocked to a court where the king was judge, the law's delays
minimised, counsel's fees moderate, and justice rarely denied merely
because it might happen to be illegal. England in the sixteenth
century put its trust in its princes far more than it did in its
parliaments; it invested them with attributes almost Divine. By Tudor
majesty the poet was inspired with thoughts of the divinity that doth
hedge a king. "Love for the King," wrote a Venetian of Henry VIII. in
the early years of his reign, "is universal with all who see him, for
his Highness does not seem a person of this world, but one (p. 036)
descended from heaven."[70] _Le nouveau Messie est le Roi._
[Footnote 69: Magna Carta may almost be said to
have been "discovered" by the parliamentary
opponents of the Stuarts; and in discovering it,
they misinterpreted several of its clauses such as
the _judicium parium_. Allusion was, however, made
to Magna Carta in the proceedings against Wolsey
for _Præmunire_ (Fox, vi., 43).]
[Footnote 70: _Ven Cal._, ii., 336.]
Such were the tendencies which Henry VII. and Henry VIII. crystallised
into practical weapons of absolute government. Few kings have attained
a greater measure of permanent success than the first of the Tudors;
it was he who laid the unseen foundations upon which Henry VIII.
erected the imposing edifice of his personal authority. An orphan from
birth and an exile from childhood, he stood near enough to the throne
to invite Yorkist proscription, but too far off to unite in his favour
Lancastrian support. He owed his elevation to the mistakes of his
enemies and to the cool, calculating craft which enabled him to use
those mistakes without making mistakes of his own. He ran the great
risk of his life in his invasion of England, but henceforth he left
nothing to chance. He was never betrayed by passion or enthusiasm into
rash adventures, and he loved the substance, rather than the pomp and
circumstance of power. Untrammelled by scruples, unimpeded by principles,
he pursued with constant fidelity the task of his life, to secure the
throne for himself and his children, to pacify his country, and to
repair the waste of the civil wars. Folly easily glides into war, but
to establish a permanent peace required all Henry's patience, clear
sight and far sight, caution and tenacity. A full exchequer, not empty
glory, was his first requisite, and he found in his foreign wars a
mine of money. Treason at home was turned to like profit, and the
forfeited estates of rebellious lords accumulated in the hands of the
royal family and filled the national coffers. Attainder, the
characteristic instrument of Tudor policy, was employed to (p. 037)
complete the ruin of the old English peerage which the Wars of the
Roses began: and by 1509 there was only one duke and one marquis left
in the whole of England.[71] Attainder not only removed the particular
traitor, but disqualified his family for place and power; and the process
of eliminating feudalism from the region of government, started by
Edward I., was finished by Henry VII. Feudal society has been described
as a pyramid; the upper slopes were now washed away leaving an
impassable precipice, with the Tudor monarch alone in his glory at its
summit. Royalty had become a caste apart. Marriages between royal
children and English peers had hitherto been no uncommon thing; since
Henry VII.'s accession there have been but four, two of them in our
own day. Only one took place in the sixteenth century, and the Duke of
Suffolk was by some thought worthy of death for his presumption in
marrying the sister of Henry VIII. The peerage was weakened not only
by diminishing numbers, but by the systematic depression of those who
remained. Henry VII., like Ferdinand of Aragon,[72] preferred to
govern by means of lawyers and churchmen; they could be rewarded by
judgeships and bishoprics, and required no grants from the royal
estates. Their occupancy of office kept out territorial magnates who
abused it for private ends. Of the sixteen regents nominated by Henry
VIII. in his will, not one could boast a peerage of twelve years'
standing;[73] and all the great Tudor ministers, Wolsey and (p. 038)
Cromwell, Cecil and Walsingham, were men of comparatively humble birth.
With similar objects Henry VII. passed laws limiting the number of
retainers and forbidding the practice of maintenance. The courts of
Star Chamber and Requests were developed to keep in order his powerful
subjects and give poor men protection against them. Their civil law
procedure, influenced by Roman imperial maxims, served to enhance the
royal power and dignity, and helped to build up the Tudor autocracy.
[Footnote 71: The Duke was Buckingham, and the
Marquis was Dorset.]
[Footnote 72: See a description of Ferdinand's
court by John Stile, the English envoy, in _L. and
P._, i., 490.]
[Footnote 73: See the present writer's _England
under Protector Somerset_, p. 38.]
* * * * *
To the office of king thus developed and magnified, the young Prince
who stood upon the steps of the throne brought personal qualities of
the highest order, and advantages to which his father was completely a
stranger. His title was secure, his treasury overflowed, and he
enjoyed the undivided affections of his people. There was no alternative
claimant. The White Rose, indeed, had languished in the Tower since
his surrender by Philip, and the Duke of Buckingham had some years
before been mentioned as a possible successor to the throne;[74] but
their claims only served to remind men that nothing but Henry's life
stood between them and anarchy, for his young brother Edmund, Duke of
Somerset, had preceded Arthur to an early grave. Upon the single
thread of Henry's life hung the peace of the realm; no other could
have secured the throne without a second civil war. It was small
wonder if England regarded Henry with a somewhat extravagant loyalty.
Never had king ascended the throne more richly endowed with mental and
physical gifts. He was ten weeks short of his eighteenth year. (p. 039)
From both his parents he inherited grace of mind and of person. His
father in later years was broken in health and soured in spirit, but
in the early days of his reign he had charmed the citizens of York
with his winning smile. His mother is described by the Venetian
ambassador as a woman of great beauty and ability. She transmitted to
Henry many of the popular characteristics of her father, Edward IV.,
though little of the military genius of that consummate commander who
fought thirteen pitched battles and lost not one. Unless eye-witnesses
sadly belied themselves, Henry VIII. must have been the desire of all
eyes. "His Majesty," wrote one a year or two later,[75] "is the
handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on; above the usual height, with
an extremely fine calf to his leg; his complexion fair and bright,
with auburn hair combed straight and short in the French fashion, and
a round face so very beautiful that it would become a pretty woman,
his throat being rather long and thick.... He speaks French, English,
Latin, and a little Italian; plays well on the lute and harpsichord,
sings from the book at sight, draws the bow with greater strength than
any man in England, and jousts marvellously." Another foreign resident
in 1519[76] described him as "extremely handsome. Nature could not
have done more for him. He is much handsomer than any other sovereign
in Christendom; a great deal handsomer than the King of France; very
fair and his whole frame admirably proportioned. On hearing that
Francis I. wore a beard, he allowed his own to grow, and as it is (p. 040)
reddish, he has now got a beard that looks like gold. He is very
accomplished, a good musician, composes well, is a capital horseman, a
fine jouster, speaks French, Latin, and Spanish.... He is very fond of
hunting, and never takes his diversion without tiring eight or ten
horses which he causes to be stationed beforehand along the line of
country he means to take, and when one is tired he mounts another, and
before he gets home they are all exhausted. He is extremely fond of
tennis, at which game it is the prettiest thing in the world to see
him play, his fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest
texture."
[Footnote 74: _L. and P., Henry VII._, i., 180,
233, 319.]
[Footnote 75:_L. and P._, ii., 395.]
[Footnote 76: Giustinian, _Despatches_, ii., 312;
_Ven. Cal._, ii., 1287; _L. and P._, iii., 402.]
The change from the cold suspicious Henry VII. to such a king as this
was inevitably greeted with a burst of rapturous enthusiasm. "I have
no fear," wrote Mountjoy to Erasmus,[77] "but when you heard that our
Prince, now Henry the Eighth, whom we may well call our Octavius, had
succeeded to his father's throne, all your melancholy left you at
once. For what may you not promise yourself from a Prince, with whose
extraordinary and almost Divine character you are well acquainted....
But when you know what a hero he now shows himself, how wisely he
behaves, what a lover he is of justice and goodness, what affection he
bears to the learned, I will venture to swear that you will need no
wings to make you fly to behold this new and auspicious star. If you
could see how all the world here is rejoicing in the possession of so
great a Prince, how his life is all their desire, you could not
contain your tears for joy. The heavens laugh, the earth exults, all
things are full of milk, of honey, of nectar! Avarice is expelled the
country. Liberality scatters wealth with a bounteous hand. Our (p. 041)
King does not desire gold or gems or precious metals, but virtue,
glory, immortality." The picture is overdrawn for modern taste, but
making due allowance for Mountjoy's turgid efforts to emulate his
master's eloquence, enough remains to indicate the impression made by
Henry on a peer of liberal education. His unrivalled skill in national
sports and martial exercises appealed at least as powerfully to the
mass of his people. In archery, in wrestling, in joust and in tourney,
as well as in the tennis court or on the hunting field, Henry was a
match for the best in his kingdom. None could draw a bow, tame a
steed, or shiver a lance more deftly than he, and his single-handed
tournaments on horse and foot with his brother-in-law, the Duke of
Suffolk, are likened by one who watched them to the combats of
Achilles and Hector. These are no mere trifles below the dignity of
history; they help to explain the extraordinary hold Henry obtained
over popular imagination. Suppose there ascended the throne to-day a
young prince, the hero of the athletic world, the finest oar, the best
bat, the crack marksman of his day, it is easy to imagine the
enthusiastic support he would receive from thousands of his people who
care much for sport, and nothing at all for politics. Suppose also
that that prince were endowed with the iron will, the instinctive
insight into the hearts of his people, the profound aptitude for
government that Henry VIII. displayed, he would be a rash man who
would guarantee even now the integrity of parliamentary power or the
continuance of cabinet rule. In those days, with thirty years of civil
war and fifteen more of conspiracy fresh in men's minds, with no
alternative to anarchy save Henry VIII., with a peerage fallen (p. 042)
from its high estate, and a Parliament almost lost to respect, royal
autocracy was not a thing to dread or distrust. "If a lion knew his
strength," said Sir Thomas More of his master to Cromwell, "it were
hard for any man to rule him." Henry VIII. had the strength of a lion;
it remains to be seen how soon he learnt it, and what use he made of
that strength when he discovered the secret.
[Footnote 77: F.M. Nichols, _Epistles of Erasmus_,
i., 457.]
CHAPTER III. (p. 043)
THE APPRENTICESHIP OF HENRY VIII.
Quietly and peacefully, without a threat from abroad or a murmur at
home, the crown, which his father had won amid the storm and stress of
the field of battle, devolved upon Henry VIII. With an eager profusion
of zeal Ferdinand of Aragon placed at Henry's disposal his army, his
fleet, his personal services.[78] There was no call for this sacrifice.
For generations there had been no such tranquil demise of the crown.
Not a ripple disturbed the surface of affairs as the old King lay sick
in April, 1509, in Richmond Palace at Sheen. By his bedside stood his
only surviving son; and to him the dying monarch addressed his last
words of advice. He desired him to complete his marriage with Catherine,
he exhorted him to defend the Church, and to make war on the infidel;
he commended to him his faithful councillors, and is believed to have
urged upon him the execution of De la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, the White
Rose of England. On the 22nd he was dead. A fortnight later the funeral
procession wended its way from Sheen to St. Paul's, where the illustrious
John Fisher, cardinal and martyr, preached the _éloge_. Thence it (p. 044)
passed down the Strand, between hedges and willows clad in the fresh
green of spring, to
That acre sown indeed
With the richest, royallest seed
That the earth did e'er drink in.
There, in the vault beneath the chapel in Westminster Abbey, which
bears his name and testifies to his magnificence in building, Henry
VII. was laid to rest beside his Queen; dwelling, says Bacon, "more
richly dead in the monument of his tomb than he did alive in Richmond
or any of his palaces". For years before and after, Torrigiano, the
rival of Buonarotti, wrought at its "matchless altar," not a stone of
which survived the Puritan fury of the civil war.
[Footnote 78: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 4.]
On the day of his father's death, or the next, the new King removed
from Richmond Palace to the Tower, whence, on 23rd April, was dated
the first official act of his reign. He confirmed in ampler form the
general pardon granted a few days before by Henry VII.; but the ampler
form was no bar to the exemption of fourscore offenders from the act
of grace.[79] Foremost among them were the three brothers De la Pole,
Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley. The exclusion of Empson and
Dudley from the pardon was more popular than the pardon itself. If
anything could have enhanced Henry's favour with his subjects, it was
the condign punishment of the tools of his father's extortion. Their
death was none the less welcome for being unjust. They were not merely
refused pardon and brought to the block; a more costly concession was
made when their bonds for the payment of loans were cancelled.[80]
Their victims, so runs the official record, had been "without (p. 045)
any ground or matter of truth, by the undue means of certain of the
council of our said late father, thereunto driven contrary to law,
reason and good conscience, to the manifest charge and peril of the
soul of our said late father".
[Footnote 79: _L. and P._, i., 2, 12.]
[Footnote 80: _Cf. L. and P._, i., 1004.]
If filial piety demanded the delivery of his father's soul from peril,
it counselled no less the fulfilment of his dying requests, and the
arrangements for Catherine's marriage were hurried on with an almost
indecent haste. The instant he heard rumours of Henry VII.'s death,
Ferdinand sent warning to his envoy in England that Louis of France
and others would seek by all possible means to break off the match.[81]
To further it, he would withdraw his objections to the union of Charles
and Mary; and a few days later he wrote again to remove any scruples
Henry might entertain about marrying his deceased brother's wife;
while to Catherine herself he declared with brutal frankness that she
would get no other husband than Henry.[82] All his paternal anxiety
might have been spared. Long before Ferdinand's persuasions could
reach Henry's ears, he had made up his mind to consummate the marriage.
He would not, he wrote to Margaret of Savoy,[83] disobey his father's
commands, reinforced as they were by the dispensation of the Pope and
by the friendship between the two families contracted by his sister
Mary's betrothal to Catherine's nephew Charles. There were other
reasons besides those he alleged. A council trained by Henry VII. was
loth to lose the gold of Catherine's dower; it was of the utmost
importance to strengthen at once the royal line; and a full-blooded
youth of Henry's temperament was not likely to repel a comely (p. 046)
wife ready to his hand, when the dictates of his father's policy no
longer stood between them. So on 11th June, barely a month after Henry
VII.'s obsequies, the marriage, big with destinies, of Henry VIII. and
Catherine of Aragon was privately solemnised by Archbishop Warham "in
the Queen's closet" at Greenwich.[84] On the same day the commission
of claims was appointed for the King's and Queen's coronation. A week
then sufficed for its business, and on Sunday, 24th June, the Abbey
was the scene of a second State function within three months. Its
splendour and display were emblematic of the coming reign. Warham
placed the crown on the King's head; the people cried, "Yea, yea!" in
a loud voice when asked if they would have Henry as King; Sir Robert
Dymock performed the office of champion; and a banquet, jousts and
tourneys concluded the ceremonies.
[Footnote 81: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 3.]
[Footnote 82: _Ibid._, ii., 8, 15.]
[Footnote 83: _L. and P._, i., 224.]
[Footnote 84: _L. and P._, iv., 5774.]
* * * * *
Though he had wedded a wife and been crowned a king, Henry was as yet
little more than a boy. A powerful mind ripens slowly in a vigorous
frame, and Henry's childish precocity had given way before a youthful
devotion to physical sports. He was no prodigy of early development.
His intellect, will and character were of a gradual, healthier growth;
they were not matured for many years after he came to the throne. He
was still in his eighteenth year; and like most young Englishmen of
means and muscle, his interests centred rather in the field than in
the study. Youth sat on the prow and pleasure at the helm. "Continual
feasting" was the phrase in which Catherine described their early married
life. In the winter evenings there were masks and comedies, romps (p. 047)
and revels, in which Henry himself, Bessie Blount and other young
ladies of his Court played parts.[85] In the spring and summer there
were archery and tennis. Music, we are told, was practised day and
night. Two months after his accession Henry wrote to Ferdinand that he
diverted himself with jousts, birding, hunting, and other innocent and
honest pastimes, in visiting various parts of his kingdom, but that he
did not therefore neglect affairs of State.[86] Possibly he was as
assiduous in his duties as modern university athletes in their studies;
the neglect was merely comparative. But Ferdinand's ambassador remarked
on Henry's aversion to business, and his councillors complained that
he cared only for the pleasures of his age. Two days a week, said the
Spaniard, were devoted to single combats on foot, initiated in imitation
of the heroes of romance, Amadis and Lancelot;[87] and if Henry's
other innocent and honest pastimes were equally exacting, his view of
the requirements of State may well have been modest. From the earliest
days of his reign the general outline of policy was framed in accord
with his sentiments, and he was probably consulted on most questions
of importance. But it was not always so; in August, 1509, Louis XII.
acknowledged a letter purporting to come from the English King with a
request for friendship and peace. "Who wrote this letter?" burst out
Henry. "I ask peace of the King of France, who dare not look me in the
face, still less make war on me!"[88] His pride at the age of eighteen
was not less than his ignorance of what passed in his name. He had (p. 048)
yet to learn the secret that painful and laborious mastery of detail
is essential to him who aspires not merely to reign but to rule; and
matters of detail in administration and diplomacy were still left in
his ministers' hands.
[Footnote 85: _L. and P._, vol. ii., p. 1461.]
[Footnote 86: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 19.]
[Footnote 87: _Ibid._, ii., 44, 45.]
[Footnote 88: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 11.]
With the exception of Empson and Dudley, Henry made little or no change
in the council his father bequeathed him. Official precedence appertained
to his Chancellor, Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury. Like most of
Henry VII.'s prelates, he received his preferment in the Church as a
reward for services to the State. Much of the diplomatic work of the
previous reign had passed through his hands; he helped to arrange the
marriage of Arthur and Catherine, and was employed in the vain attempt
to obtain Margaret of Savoy as a bride for Henry VII. As Archbishop he
crowned and married Henry VIII., and as Chancellor he delivered
orations at the opening of the young King's first three Parliaments.[89]
They are said to have given general satisfaction, but apart from them,
Warham, for some unknown reason, took little part in political
business. So far as Henry can be said at this time to have had a Prime
Minister, that title belongs to Fox, his Lord Privy Seal and Bishop of
Winchester. Fox had been even more active than Warham in politics, and
more closely linked with the personal fortunes of the two Tudor kings.
He had shared the exile of Henry of Richmond; the treaty of Étaples,
the Intercursus Magnus, the marriage of Henry's elder daughter to
James IV., and the betrothal of his younger to Charles, were largely
the work of his hands. Malicious gossip described him as willing to
consent to his own father's death to serve the turn of his king, (p. 049)
and a better founded belief ascribed to his wit the invention of
"Morton's fork".[90] He was Chancellor of Cambridge in 1500, as Warham
was of Oxford, but won more enduring fame by founding the college of
Corpus Christi in the university over which the Archbishop presided.
He had baptised Henry VIII. and advocated his marriage to Catherine;
and to him the King extended the largest share in his confidence.
Badoer, the Venetian ambassador, called him "alter rex,"[91] and
Carroz, the Spaniard, said Henry trusted him most; but Henry was not
blind to the failings of his most intimate councillors, and he warned
Carroz that the Bishop of Winchester was, as his name implied, a fox
indeed.[92] A third prelate, Ruthal of Durham, divided with Fox the
chief business of State; and these clerical advisers were supposed to
be eager to guide Henry's footsteps in the paths of peace, and
counteract the more adventurous tendencies of their lay colleagues.
[Footnote 89: _L. and P._, i., 811, 2082; ii.,
114.]
[Footnote 90: _D.N.B._, xx., 152.]
[Footnote 91: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 63.]
[Footnote 92: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 44.]
At the head of the latter stood Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, soon to
be rewarded for his victory at Flodden by his restoration to the
dukedom of Norfolk. He and his son, the third duke, were Lord High
Treasurers throughout Henry's reign; but jealousy of their past, Tudor
distrust of their rank, or personal limitations, impaired the
authority that would otherwise have attached to their official
position; and Henry never trusted them as he did ministers whom he
himself had raised from the dust. Surrey had served under Edward IV.
and Richard III.; he had fought against Henry at Bosworth, been
attainted and sent to the Tower. Reflecting that it was better to (p. 050)
be a Tudor official at Court than a baronial magnate in prison, he
submitted to the King and was set up as a beacon to draw his peers
from their feudal ways. The rest of the council were men of little
distinction. Shrewsbury, the Lord High Steward, was a pale reflex of
Surrey, and illustrious in nought but descent. Charles Somerset, Lord
Herbert, who was Chamberlain and afterwards Earl of Worcester, was a
Beaufort bastard,[93] and may have derived some little influence from
his harmless kinship with Henry VIII. Lovell, the Treasurer, Poynings
the Controller of the Household, and Harry Marney, Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster, were tried and trusty officials. Bishop Fisher was
great as a Churchman, a scholar, a patron of learning, but not as a
man of affairs; while Buckingham, the only duke in England, and his
brother, the Earl of Wiltshire, were rigidly excluded by dynastic
jealousy from all share in political authority.
[Footnote 93: He is a link in the hereditary chain
which began with Beauforts, Dukes of Somerset and
ended in Somersets, Dukes of Beaufort.]
The most persistent of Henry's advisers was none of his council. He
was Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Aragon; and to his inspiration has
been ascribed[94] the course of foreign policy during the first five
years of his son-in-law's reign. He worked through his daughter; the
only thing she valued in life, wrote Catherine a month after her
marriage, was her father's confidence. When Membrilla was recalled
because he failed to satisfy Catherine's somewhat exacting temper, she
was herself formally commissioned to act in his place as (p. 051)
Ferdinand's ambassador at Henry's Court; Henry was begged to give her
implicit credence and communicate with Spain through her mediation!
"These kingdoms of _your_ highness," she wrote to her father, "are in
great tranquillity."[95] Well might Ferdinand congratulate himself on
the result of her marriage, and the addition of fresh, to his already
extensive, domains. He needed them all to ensure the success of his
far-reaching schemes. His eldest grandson, Charles, was heir not only
to Castile and Aragon, Naples and the Indies, which were to come to
him from his mother, Ferdinand's imbecile daughter, Juaña, but to
Burgundy and Austria, the lands of his father, Philip, and of Philip's
father, the Emperor Maximilian. This did not satisfy Ferdinand's
grasping ambition; he sought to carve out for his second grandson,
named after himself, a kingdom in Northern Italy.[96] On the Duchy of
Milan, the republics of Venice, Genoa and Florence, his greedy eyes
were fixed. Once conquered, they would bar the path of France to
Naples; compensated by these possessions, the younger Ferdinand might
resign his share in the Austrian inheritance to Charles; while Charles
himself was to marry the only daughter of the King of Hungary, add
that to his other dominions, and revive the empire of Charlemagne. (p. 052)
Partly with these objects in view, partly to draw off the scent from
his own track, Ferdinand had, in 1508, raised the hue and cry after
Venice. Pope and Emperor, France and Spain, joined in the chase, but
of all the parties to the league of Cambrai, Louis XII. was in a position
to profit the most. His victory over Venice at Agnadello (14th May,
1509), secured him Milan and Venetian territory as far as the Mincio;
it also dimmed the prospects of Ferdinand's Italian scheme and threatened
his hold on Naples; but the Spanish King was restrained from open
opposition to France by the fact that Louis was still mediating
between him and Maximilian on their claims to the administration of
Castile, the realm of their daughter and daughter-in-law, Juaña.
[Footnote 94: By Bergenroth in his prefaces to the
_Calendar of Spanish State Papers_. He greatly
exaggerates Ferdinand's influence.]
[Footnote 95: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 12, 21; _L. and P._,
i., 368.]
[Footnote 96: _Ibid._, ii., 153, 159. The following
pedigree may be useful for reference:--
Charles = Margaret
the Bold of York, "aunt to all the Pretenders"
|
|
Mary = Emperor Ferdinand = Isabella
Maximilian of Aragon | of Castile
| (_d._ 1519) |
| +---------------------+
| | |
Archduke = Juaña Catherine
Philip | of
(_d._ 1506) | Aragon
|
+----------------------+
| |
Charles V., Emperor Ferdinand, Emperor
1519-1556 1556-1564]
* * * * *
Such was the situation with which Henry VIII. and his council were
required to deal. The young King entered the arena of Europe, a child
of generous impulse in a throng of hoary intriguers--Ferdinand,
Maximilian, Louis XII., Julius II.--each of whom was nearly three
times his age. He was shocked to see them leagued to spoil a petty
republic, a republic, too, which had been for ages the bulwark of
Christendom against the Turk and from time immemorial the ally of
England. Venice had played no small part in the revival of letters
which appealed so strongly to Henry's intellectual sympathies. Scholars
and physicians from Venice, or from equally threatened Italian
republics, frequented his Court and Cabinet. Venetian merchants
developed the commerce of London; Venetian galleys called twice a year
at Southampton on their way to and from Flanders, and their trade (p. 053)
was a source of profit to both nations. Inevitably Henry's sympathies
went out to the sore-pressed republic. They were none the less strong
because the chief of the spoilers was France, for Henry and his people
were imbued with an inborn antipathy to everything French.[97] Before
he came to the throne he was reported to be France's enemy; and
speculations were rife as to the chances of his invading it and
imitating the exploits of his ancestor Henry V. It needed no
persuasion from Ferdinand to induce him to intervene in favour of
Venice. Within a few weeks of his accession he refused to publish the
papal bull which cast the halo of crusaders over the bandits of
Cambrai. The day after his coronation he deplored to Badoer Louis'
victory at Agnadello, and a week later he wrote to the sovereigns of
Europe urging the injustice of their Venetian crusade. In September he
sent Bainbridge, Cardinal-Archbishop of York, to reside at the Papal
Court, and watch over the interests of Venice as well as of England.
"Italy," wrote Badoer, "was entirely rescued from the barbarians by
the movements of the English King; and, but for that, Ferdinand would
have done nothing."[98] Henry vainly endeavoured to persuade
Maximilian, the Venetian's lifelong foe, to accept arbitration; but he
succeeded in inducing the Doge to make his peace with the Pope, and
Julius to remove his ecclesiastical censures. To Ferdinand he declared
that Venice must be preserved as a wall against the Turk, and he
hinted that Ferdinand's own dominions in Italy would, if Venice were
destroyed, "be unable to resist the ambitious designs of certain (p. 054)
Christian princes".[99] The danger was as patent to Julius and
Ferdinand as it was to Henry; and as soon as Ferdinand had induced
Louis to give a favourable verdict in his suit with the Emperor, the
Catholic King was ready to join Henry and the Pope in a league of
defence.
[Footnote 97: _Ven. Cal._, i., 941, 942, 945; ii.,
1.]
[Footnote 98: _L. and P._, i., 922, 932, 3333;
_Ven. Cal._, ii., 5, 7, 9, 19-22, 28, 33, 39, 40,
45, 51.]
[Footnote 99: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 23.]
But, in spite of Venetian, Spanish and papal instigations to "recover
his noble inheritance in France," in spite of his own indignation at
the treatment of Venice, and the orders issued in the first year of
his reign to his subjects to furnish themselves with weapons of war,
for which the long peace had left them unprepared,[100] Henry, or the
peace party in his council, was unwilling to resort to the arbitrament
of arms. He renewed his father's treaties not only with other powers,
but, much to the disgust of Ferdinand, Venice and the Pope, with Louis
himself. His first martial exploit, apart from 1,500 archers whom he
was bound by treaty to send to aid the Netherlands against the Duke of
Guelders,[101] was an expedition for the destruction of the enemies of
the faith.[102] Such an expedition, he once said, he owed to God for
his peaceful accession; at another time he declared[103] that he
cherished, like an heirloom, the ardour against the infidel which he
inherited from his father. He repressed that ardour, it must be added,
with as much success as Henry VII.; and apart from this one youthful
indiscretion, he did not suffer his ancestral zeal to escape into
action. His generous illusions soon vanished before the sordid
realities of European statecraft; and the defence of Christendom (p. 055)
became with him, as with others, a hollow pretence, a diplomatic
fiction, the infinite varieties of which age could not wither nor
custom stale. Did a monarch wish for peace? Peace at once was
imperative to enable Christian princes to combine against the Turk.
Did he desire war? War became a disagreeable necessity to restrain the
ambition of Christian princes who, "worse than the infidel," disturbed
the peace of Christendom and opened a door for the enemies of the
Church. Nor did the success of Henry's first crusade encourage him to
persist in similar efforts. It sailed from Plymouth in May, 1511, to
join in Ferdinand's attack on the Moors, but it had scarcely landed
when bickerings broke out between the Christian allies, and Ferdinand
informed the English commanders that he had made peace with the
Infidel, to gird his loins for war with the Most Christian King.
[Footnote 100: _L. and P._, i., 679.]
[Footnote 101: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 16; _L. and P._,
i., 1740.]
[Footnote 102: _L. and P._, i., 1531.]
[Footnote 103: _Ibid._, ii., 4688; _Ven. Cal._,
ii., 178.]
In the midst of their preparation against infidels, so runs the
preamble to the treaty in which Henry and Ferdinand signified their
adhesion to the Holy League, they heard that Louis was besieging the
Pope in Bologna.[104] The thought of violent hands being laid on the
Vicar of Christ stirred Henry to a depth of indignation which no
injuries practised against a temporal power could rouse. His ingenuous
deference to the Papacy was in singular contrast to the contempt with
which it was treated by more experienced sovereigns, and they traded
on the weight which Henry always attached to the words of the Pope. He
had read Maximilian grave lectures on his conduct in countenancing the
schismatic _conciliabulum_ assembled by Louis at Pisa.[105] He wrote
to Bainbridge at the Papal Court that he was ready to sacrifice goods,
life and kingdom for the Pope and the Church;[106] and to the (p. 056)
Emperor that at the beginning of his reign he thought of nothing else
than an expedition against the Infidel. But now he was called by the
Pope and the danger of the Church in another direction; and he
proceeded to denounce the impiety and schism of the French and their
atrocious deeds in Italy. He joined Ferdinand in requiring Louis to
desist from his impious work. Louis turned a deaf ear to their
demands; and in November, 1511, they bound themselves to defend the
Church against all aggression and make war upon the aggressor.
[Footnote 104: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 59.]
[Footnote 105: _L. and P._, i., 1828.]
[Footnote 106: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 177.]
* * * * *
This reversal of the pacific policy which had marked the first two and
a half years of Henry's reign was not exclusively due to the King's
zeal for the Church. The clerical party of peace in his council was
now divided by the appearance of an ecclesiastic who was far more
remarkable than any of his colleagues, and to whose turbulence and
energy the boldness of English policy must, henceforth, for many years
be mainly ascribed. Thomas Wolsey had been appointed Henry's almoner
at the beginning of his reign, but he exercised no apparent influence
in public affairs. It was not till 1511 that he joined the council,
though during the interval he must have been gradually building up his
ascendancy over the King's mind. To Wolsey, restlessly ambitious for
himself, for Henry, and England, was attributed the responsibility for
the sudden adoption of a spirited foreign policy; and it was in the
preparations for the war of 1512 that his marvellous industry and
grasp of detail first found full scope.
The main attack of the English and Spanish monarchs was to be on (p. 057)
Guienne,[107] and in May, 1512, Henry went down to Southampton to
speed the departing fleet.[108] It sailed from Cowes under Dorset's
command on 3rd June, and a week later the army disembarked on the
coast of Guipuscoa.[109] There it remained throughout the torrid
summer, awaiting the Spanish King's forces to co-operate in the
invasion of France. But Ferdinand was otherwise occupied. Navarre was
not mentioned in the treaty with Henry, but Navarre was what Ferdinand
had in his mind. It was then an independent kingdom, surrounded on
three sides by Spanish territory, and an easy prey which would serve
to unite all Spain beyond the Pyrenees under Ferdinand's rule. Under
pretence of restoring Guienne to the English crown, Dorset's army had
been enticed to Passages, and there it was used as a screen against
the French, behind which Ferdinand calmly proceeded to conquer
Navarre. It was, he said, impossible to march into France with Navarre
unsubdued in his rear. Navarre was at peace, but it might join the
French, and he invited Dorset to help in securing the prey. Dorset
refused to exceed his commission, but the presence of his army at
Passages was admitted by the Spaniards to be "quite providential,"[110]
as it prevented the French from assisting Navarre. English indignation
was loud and deep; men and officers vowed that, but for Henry's
displeasure, they would have called to account the perfidious King.
Condemned to inactivity, the troops almost mutinied; they found it
impossible to live on their wages of sixpence a day (equivalent now to
at least six shillings), drank Spanish wine as if it were English (p. 058)
beer, and died of dysentery like flies in the autumn. Discipline
relaxed; drill was neglected. Still Ferdinand tarried, and in October,
seeing no hope of an attempt on Guienne that year, the army took
matters into its own hands and embarked for England.[111]
[Footnote 107: _L. and P._, i., 1980; _Sp. Cal._,
ii., 59; _Ven. Cal._, ii., 122.]
[Footnote 108: _Ibid._, ii., 159.]
[Footnote 109: _L. and P._, i., 3243.]
[Footnote 110: _Ibid._, i., 3352.]
[Footnote 111: _L. and P._, i., 3298, 3355; _Ven.
Cal._, ii., 198, 205. The financial accounts for
the expedition are in _L. and P._, i., 3762.]
Henry's first military enterprise had ended in disgrace and disaster.
The repute of English soldiers, dimmed by long peace, was now further
tarnished. Henry's own envoys complained of the army's insubordination,
its impatience of the toils, and inexperience of the feats, of war;
and its ignominious return exposed him to the taunts of both friends
and foes. He had been on the point of ordering it home, when it came
of its own accord; but the blow to his authority was not, on that
account, less severe. His irritation was not likely to be soothed when
he realised the extent to which he had been duped by his father-in-law.
Ferdinand was loud in complaints and excuses.[112] September and
October were, he said, the proper months for a campaign in Guienne,
and he was marching to join the English army at the moment of its
desertion. In reality, it had served his purpose to perfection. Its
presence had diverted French levies from Italy, and enabled him,
unmolested, to conquer Navarre. With that he was content. Why should
he wish to see Henry in Guienne? He was too shrewd to involve his own
forces in that hopeless adventure, and the departure of the English
furnished him with an excuse for entering into secret negotiations
with Louis. His methods were eloquent of sixteenth-century (p. 059)
diplomacy. He was, he ordered Carroz to tell Henry many months
later,[113] when concealment was no longer possible or necessary,
sending a holy friar to his daughter in England; the friar's health
did not permit of his going by sea; so he went through France, and was
taken prisoner. Hearing of his fame for piety, the French Queen desired
his ghostly advice, and took the opportunity of the interview to
persuade the friar to return to Spain with proposals of peace.
Ferdinand was suddenly convinced that death was at hand; his confessor
exhorted him to forgive and make peace with his enemies. This work of
piety he could not in conscience neglect. So he agreed to a twelvemonth's
truce, which secured Navarre. In spite of his conscience he would
never have consented, had he not felt that the truce was really in
Henry's interests. But what weighed with him most was, he said, the
reformation of the Church. That should be Henry's first and noblest
work; he could render no greater service to God. No reformation was
possible without peace, and so long as the Church was unreformed, wars
among princes would never cease.
[Footnote 112: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 68, 70, 72; _cf._
_L. and P._, i., 3350, 3356.]
[Footnote 113: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 89, 118; _L. and
P._, i., 3839.]
Such reasoning, he thought, would appeal to the pious and unsophisticated
Henry. To other sovereigns he used arguments more suited to their
experience of his diplomacy. He told Maximilian[114] that his main
desire was to serve the Emperor's interests, to put a curb on the
Italians, and to frustrate their design of driving himself, Louis and
Maximilian across the Alps. But the most monumental falsehood he
reserved for the Pope; his ambassador at the Papal Court was to (p. 060)
assure Julius that he had failed in his efforts to concert with Henry
a joint invasion of France, that Henry was not in earnest over the war
and that he had actually made a truce[115] with France. This had
enabled Louis to pour fresh troops into Italy, and compelled him,
Ferdinand, to consult his own interests and make peace! Two days later
he was complaining to Louis that Henry refused to join in the
truce.[116] To punish Henry for his refusal he was willing to aid
Louis against him, but he would prefer to settle the differences
between the French and the English kings by a still more treacherous
expedient. Julius was to be induced to give a written promise that, if
the points at issue were submitted to his arbitration, he would
pronounce no verdict till it had been secretly sanctioned by Ferdinand
and Louis. This promise obtained, Louis was publicly to appeal to the
Pope; Henry's devotion to the Church would prevent his refusing the
Supreme Pontiff's mediation; if he did, ecclesiastical censures could
be invoked against him.[117] Such was the plot Ferdinand was hatching
for the benefit of his daughter's husband. The Catholic King had ever
deceit in his heart and the name of God on his lips. He was accused by
a rival of having cheated him twice; the charge was repeated to
Ferdinand. "He lies," he broke out, "I cheated him three times." He
was faithful to one principle only, self-aggrandisement by fair means
or foul. His favourite scheme was a kingdom in Northern Italy; but in
the way of its realisation his own overreaching ambition placed an
insuperable bar. Italy had been excluded from his truce with France to
leave him free to pursue that design;[118] but in July, 1512, the (p. 061)
Italians already suspected his motives, and a papal legate declared
that they no more wished to see Milan Spanish than French.[119] In the
following November, Spanish troops in the pay and alliance of Venice
drove the French out of Brescia. By the terms of the Holy League, it
should have been restored to its owner, the Venetian Republic.
Ferdinand kept it himself; it was to form the nucleus of his North
Italian dominion. Venice at once took alarm and made a compact with
France which kept the Spaniards at bay until after Ferdinand's
death.[120] The friendship between Venice and France severed that
between France and the Emperor; and, in 1513, the war went on with a
rearrangement of partners, Henry and Maximilian on one side,[121]
against France and Venice on the other, with Ferdinand secretly trying
to trick them all.
[Footnote 114: _Ibid._, ii., 96, 101.]
[Footnote 115: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 106.]
[Footnote 116: _Ibid._, ii., 107.]
[Footnote 117: _Ibid._, ii., 104.]
[Footnote 118: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 70.]
[Footnote 119: _L. and P._, i., 3325.]
[Footnote 120: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 208, 234, 254,
283, 298. Bergenroth, in his zeal for Ferdinand,
represents the Pope and not Ferdinand as being
responsible for driving Venice into the arms of
France.]
[Footnote 121: _L. and P._, i., 3649, 3859-61. The
league between Henry and Maximilian was concluded
5th April, 1513; Carroz ratified it on Ferdinand's
behalf on 25th April, though Ferdinand had already
signed a truce with France. A good instance of
Ferdinand's duplicity may be found in _Sp. Cal._,
ii., 104, 207; in the former he is asking for the
hand of Renée for his grandson Ferdinand, in the
latter he tells the Pope that the report that he
had made this request was pure invention.]
* * * * *
For many months Henry knew not, or refused to credit, his father-in-law's
perfidy. To outward appearance, the Spanish King was as eager as ever
for the war in Guienne. He was urging Henry to levy 6,000 Germans (p. 062)
to serve for that purpose in conjunction with Spanish forces; and, in
April, Carroz, in ignorance of his master's real intentions, signed on
his behalf a treaty for the joint invasion of France.[122] This forced
the Catholic King to reveal his hand. He refused his ratification;[123]
now he declared the conquest of Guienne to be a task of such magnitude
that preparations must be complete before April, a date already past;
and he recommended Henry to come into the truce with Louis, the
existence of which he had now to confess. Henry had not yet fathomed
the depths; he even appealed to Ferdinand's feelings and pathetically
besought him, as a good father, not to forsake him entirely.[124] But
in vain; his father-in-law deserted him at his sorest hour of need. To
make peace was out of the question. England's honour had suffered a
stain that must at all costs be removed. No king with an atom of
spirit would let the dawn of his reign be clouded by such an admission
of failure. Wolsey was there to stiffen his temper in case of need;
with him it was almost a matter of life and death to retrieve the
disaster. His credit was pledged in the war. In their moments of anger
under the Spanish sun, the English commanders had loudly imputed to
Wolsey the origin of the war and the cause of all the mischief.[125]
Surrey, for whose banishment from Court the new favourite had
expressed to Fox a wish, and other "great men" at home, repeated the
charge.[126] Had Wolsey failed to bring honour with peace, his name
would not have been numbered among the greatest of England's
statesmen.
[Footnote 122: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 101.]
[Footnote 123: _Ib._, ii., 118, 122.]
[Footnote 124: _Ib._, ii., 125.]
[Footnote 125: _L. and P._, i., 3356, 3451.]
[Footnote 126: _Ib._, i., 3443.]
Henry's temper required no spur. Tudors never flinched in the face (p. 063)
of danger, and nothing could have made Henry so resolved to go on as
Ferdinand's desertion and advice to desist. He was prepared to avenge
his army in person. There were to be no expeditions to distant shores;
there was to be war in the Channel, where Englishmen were at home on
the sea; and Calais was to be the base of an invasion of France over
soil worn by the tramp of English troops. In March, 1513, Henry, to
whom the navy was a weapon, a plaything, a passion, watched his fleet
sail down the Thames; its further progress was told him in letters
from its gallant admiral, Sir Edmund Howard, who had been strictly
charged to inform the King of the minutest details in the behaviour of
every one of the ships.[127] Never had such a display of naval force
left the English shores; twenty-four ships ranging downwards from the
1,600 tons of the _Henry Imperial_, bore nearly 5,000 marines and
3,000 mariners.[128] The French dared not venture out, while Howard
swept the Channel, and sought them in their ports. Brest was
blockaded. A squadron of Mediterranean galleys coming to its relief
anchored in the shallow water off Conquêt. Howard determined to cut
them out; he grappled and boarded their admiral's galley. The
grappling was cut away, his boat swept out in the tide, and Howard,
left unsupported, was thrust overboard by the Frenchmen's pikes.[129]
His death was regarded as a national disaster, but he had retrieved
England's reputation for foolhardy valour.
[Footnote 127: _L. and P._, i., 3809, 3820.]
[Footnote 128: _Ib._, i., 3977.]
[Footnote 129: _Ib._, i., 4005; see also _The War
of 1512-13_ (Navy Records Society) where the
documents are printed in full.]
Meanwhile, Henry's army was gathering at Calais.[130] On 30th (p. 064)
June, at 7 P.M., the King himself landed. Before his departure, the
unfortunate Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, was brought to the
block for an alleged correspondence with his brother in Louis'
service, but really because rumours were rife of Louis' intention to
proclaim the White Rose as King of England.[131] On 21st July, Henry
left Calais to join his army, which had already advanced into French
territory. Heavy rains impeded its march and added to its discomfort.
Henry, we are told, did not put off his clothes, but rode round the
camp at three in the morning, cheering his men with the remark, "Well,
comrades, now that we have suffered in the beginning, fortune promises
us better things, God willing".[132] Near Ardres some German
mercenaries, of whom there were 8,000 with Henry's forces, pillaged
the church; Henry promptly had three of them hanged. On 1st August the
army sat down before Thérouanne; on the 10th, the Emperor arrived to
serve as a private at a hundred crowns a day under the English
banners. Three days later a large French force arrived at Guinegate to
raise the siege; a panic seized it, and the bloodless rout that
followed was named the Battle of Spurs. Louis d'Orléans, Duc de
Longueville, the famous Chevalier Bayard, and others of the noblest
blood in France, were among the captives.[133] Ten days after this
defeat Thérouanne surrendered; and on the 24th Henry made his (p. 065)
triumphal entry into the first town captured by English arms since
the days of Jeanne Darc. On the 26th he removed to Guinegate, where he
remained a week, "according," says a curious document, "to the laws of
arms, for in case any man would bid battle for the besieging and
getting of any city or town, then the winner (has) to give battle, and
to abide the same certain days".[134] No challenge was forthcoming,
and on 15th September Henry besieged Tournay, then said to be the
richest city north of Paris. During the progress of the siege the Lady
Margaret of Savoy, the Regent of the Netherlands, joined her father,
the Emperor, and Henry, at Lille. They discussed plans for renewing
the war next year and for the marriage of Charles and Mary. To please
the Lady Margaret and to exhibit his skill Henry played the gitteron,
the lute and the cornet, and danced and jousted before her.[135] He
"excelled every one as much in agility in breaking spears as in
nobleness of stature". Within a week Tournay fell; on 13th October
Henry commenced his return, and on the 21st he re-embarked at Calais.
[Footnote 130: _L. and P._, i., 3885, 3915. There
are three detailed diaries of the campaign in _L.
and P._, two anonymous (Nos. 4253, and 4306), and
the other (No. 4284) by John Taylor, afterwards
Master of the Rolls, for whom see the present
writer in _D.N.B_., lv., 429; the original of his
diary is in _Cotton MS._, Cleopatra, C., v. 64.]
[Footnote 131: _Ib._, i., 4324, 4328-29.]
[Footnote 132: Taylor's _Diary_.]
[Footnote 133: Besides the English accounts
referred to, see _L. and P._, i., 4401.]
[Footnote 134: _L. and P._, i., 4431.]
[Footnote 135: _Ven. Cal_., ii., 328.]
Thérouanne, the Battle of Spurs, and Tournay were not the only, or the
most striking, successes in this year of war. In July, Catherine, whom
Henry had left as Regent in England, wrote that she was "horribly busy
with making standards, banners, and badges"[136] for the army in the
North; for war with France had brought, as usual, the Scots upon the
English backs. James IV., though Henry's brother-in-law, preferred to
be the cat's paw of the King of France; and in August the Scots
forces poured over the Border under the command of James himself. (p. 066)
England was prepared; and on 9th September, "at Flodden hills," sang
Skelton, "our bows and bills slew all the flower of their honour".
James IV. was left a mutilated corpse upon the field of battle.[137]
"He has paid," wrote Henry, "a heavier penalty for his perfidy than we
would have wished." There was some justice in the charge. James was
bound by treaty not to go to war with England; he had not even waited
for the Pope's answer to his request for absolution from his oath; and
his challenge to Henry, when he was in France and could not meet it,
was not a knightly deed. Henry wrote to Leo for permission to bury the
excommunicated Scottish King with royal honours in St. Paul's.[138]
The permission was granted, but the interment did not take place. In
Italy, Louis fared no better; at Novara, on 6th June, the Swiss
infantry broke in pieces the grand army of France, drove the fragments
across the Alps, and restored the Duchy of Milan to the native house
of Sforza.
[Footnote 136: _L. and P._, i., 4398; Ellis,
_Original Letters_, 1st ser., i., 83.]
[Footnote 137: _L. and P._, i., 4439, 4441, 4461;
_cf._ popular ballads in Weber's _Flodden Field_,
and _La Rotta de Scocese_ (Bannatyne Club).]
[Footnote 138: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 909; _Sp. Cal._,
i., 137; _L. and P._, i., 4502, 4582.]
* * * * *
The results of the campaign of 1513 were a striking vindication of the
refusal of Henry VIII. and Wolsey to rest under the stigma of their
Spanish expedition of 1512. English prestige was not only restored,
but raised higher than it had stood since the death of Henry V., whose
"name," said Pasqualigo, a Venetian in London, "Henry VIII. would now
renew". He styled him "our great King".[139] Peter Martyr, a resident
at Ferdinand's Court, declared that the Spanish King was "afraid (p. 067)
of the over-growing power of England".[140] Another Venetian in London
reported that "were Henry ambitious of dominion like others, he would
soon give law to the world". But, he added, "he is good and has a good
council. His quarrel was a just one, he marched to free the Church, to
obtain his own, and to liberate Italy from the French."[141] The pomp
and parade of Henry's wars have, indeed, somewhat obscured the
fundamentally pacific character of his reign. The correspondence of
the time bears constant witness to the peaceful tendencies of Henry
and his council. "I content myself," he once said to Giustinian, "with
my own, I only wish to command my own subjects; but, on the other
hand, I do not choose that any one shall have it in his power to
command me."[142] On another occasion he said: "We want all potentates
to content themselves with their own territories; we are content with
this island of ours"; and Giustinian, after four years' residence at
Henry's Court, gave it as his deliberate opinion to his Government,
that Henry did not covet his neighbours' goods, was satisfied with his
own dominions, and "extremely desirous of peace".[143] Ferdinand said,
in 1513, that his pensions from France and a free hand in Scotland
were all that Henry really desired;[144] and Carroz, his ambassador,
reported that Henry's councillors did not like to be at war with any
one.[145] Peace, they told Badoer, suited England better than
war.[146]
[Footnote 139: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 340.]
[Footnote 140: _L. and P._, i., 4864.]
[Footnote 141: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 362.]
[Footnote 142: _L. and P._, ii., 1991.]
[Footnote 143: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1287; Giustinian,
_Desp._, App., ii., 309.]
[Footnote 144: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 142.]
[Footnote 145: _Ib._, ii., 201.]
[Footnote 146: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 298; _cf. L. and
P._, i., 3081.]
But Henry's actions proclaimed louder than the words of himself (p. 068)
or of others that he believed peace to be the first of English interests.
He waged no wars on the continent except against France; and though he
reigned thirty-eight years, his hostilities with France were compressed
into as many months. The campaigns of 1512-13, Surrey's and Suffolk's
inroads of 1522 and 1523, and Henry's invasion of 1544, represent the
sum of his military operations outside Great Britain and Ireland. He
acquired Tournay in 1513 and Boulogne in 1544, but the one was
restored in five years for an indemnity, and the other was to be given
back in eight for a similar consideration. These facts are in curious
contrast with the high-sounding schemes of recovering the crown of
France, which others were always suggesting to Henry, and which he,
for merely conventional reasons, was in the habit of enunciating
before going to war; and in view of the tenacity which Henry exhibited
in other respects, and the readiness with which he relinquished his
regal pretensions to France, it is difficult to believe that they were
any real expression of settled policy. They were, indeed, impossible
of achievement, and Henry saw the fact clearly enough.[147] Modern
phenomena such as huge armies sweeping over Europe, and capitals from
Berlin to Moscow, Paris to Madrid, falling before them, were quite
beyond military science of the sixteenth century. Armies fought, as a
rule, only in the five summer months; it was difficult enough to
victual them for even that time; and lack of commissariat or transport
crippled all the invasions of Scotland. Hertford sacked Edinburgh, (p. 069)
but he went by sea. No other capital except Rome saw an invading army.
Neither Henry nor Maximilian, Ferdinand nor Charles, ever penetrated
more than a few miles into France, and French armies got no further
into Spain, the Netherlands, or Germany. Machiavelli points out that
the chief safeguard of France against the Spaniards was that the latter
could not victual their army sufficiently to pass the Pyrenees.[148]
If in Italy it was different, it was because Italy herself invited the
invaders, and was mainly under foreign dominion. Henry knew that with
the means at his disposal he could never conquer France; his claims to
the crown were transparent conventions, and he was always ready for
peace in return for the _status quo_ and a money indemnity, with a
town or so for security.
[Footnote 147: In 1520 he described his title "King
of France" as a title given him by others which was
"good for nothing" (_Ven. Cal._, iii., 45). Its
value consisted in the pensions he received as a
sort of commutation.]
[Footnote 148: Machiavelli, _Opera_, iv., 139.]
The fact that he had only achieved a small part of the conquest he
professed to set out to accomplish was, therefore, no bar to
negotiations for peace. There were many reasons for ending the war;
the rapid diminution of his father's treasures; the accession to the
papal throne of the pacific Leo in place of the warlike Julius; the
absolution of Louis as a reward for renouncing the council of Pisa;
the interruption of the trade with Venice; the attention required by
Scotland now that her king was Henry's infant nephew; and lastly, his
betrayal first by Ferdinand and now by the Emperor. In October, 1513,
at Lille, a treaty had been drawn up binding Henry, Maximilian and
Ferdinand to a combined invasion of France before the following
June.[149] On 6th December, Ferdinand wrote to Henry to say he (p. 070)
had signed the treaty. He pointed out the sacrifices he was making
in so doing; he was induced to make them by considering that the war
was to be waged in the interests of the Holy Church, of Maximilian,
Henry, and Catherine, and by his wish and hope to live and die in
friendship with the Emperor and the King of England. He thought,
however, that to make sure of the assistance of God, the allies ought
to bind themselves, if He gave them the victory, to undertake a
general war on the infidel.[150] Ferdinand seems to have imagined that
he could dupe the Almighty as easily as he hoped to cheat his allies,
by a pledge which he never meant to fulfil. A fortnight after this
despatch he ordered Carroz not to ratify the treaty he himself had
already signed.[151] The reason was not far to seek. He was deluding
himself with the hope, which Louis shrewdly encouraged, that the
French King would, after his recent reverses, fall in with the
Spaniard's Italian plans.[152] Louis might even, he thought, of his
own accord cede Milan and Genoa, which would annihilate the French
King's influence in Italy, and greatly facilitate the attack on
Venice.
[Footnote 149: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 138, 143; _L. and
P._, i., 4511, 4560.]
[Footnote 150: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 132.]
[Footnote 151: _Ibid._, ii., 159.]
[Footnote 152: _Ibid._, ii., 158, 163.]
That design had occupied him throughout the summer, before Louis had
become so amenable; then he was urging Maximilian that the Pope must
be kept on their side and persuaded "not to forgive the great sins
committed by the King of France"; for if he removed his ecclesiastical
censures, Ferdinand and Maximilian "would be deprived of a plausible
excuse for confiscating the territories they intended to conquer".[153]
Providence was, as usual, to be bribed into assisting in the (p. 071)
robbery of Venice by a promise to make war on the Turk. But now that
Louis was prepared to give his daughter Renée in marriage to young
Ferdinand and to endow the couple with Milan and Genoa and his claims
on Naples, his sins might be forgiven. The two monarchs would not be
justified in making war upon France in face of these offers. Venice
remained a difficulty, for Louis was not likely to help to despoil his
faithful ally; but Ferdinand had a suggestion. They could all make
peace publicly guaranteeing the Republic's possessions, but Maximilian
and he could make a "mental reservation" enabling them to partition
Venice, when France could no longer prevent it.[154]
[Footnote 153: _Ibid._, ii., 131.]
[Footnote 154: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 153.]
So on 13th March, 1514, Ferdinand renewed his truce with France, and
Maximilian joined it soon after.[155] The old excuses about the
reformation of the Church, his death-bed desire to make peace with his
enemies, could scarcely be used again; so Ferdinand instructed his
agent to say, if Henry asked for an explanation, that there was a
secret conspiracy in Italy.[156] If he had said no more, it would have
been literally true, for the conspiracy was his own; but he went on to
relate that the conspiracy was being hatched by the Italians to drive
him and the Emperor out of the peninsula. The two were alike in their
treachery; both secretly entered the truce with France and broke their
promise to Henry. Another engagement of longer standing was ruptured.
Since 1508, Henry's sister Mary had been betrothed to Maximilian's
grandson Charles. The marriage was to take place when Charles was (p. 072)
fourteen; the pledge had been renewed at Lille, and the nuptials fixed
not later than 15th May, 1514.[157] Charles wrote to Mary signing
himself _votre mari_, while Mary was styled Princess of Castile,
carried about a bad portrait of Charles,[158] and diplomatically
sighed for his presence ten times a day. But winter wore on and turned
to spring; no sign was forthcoming of Maximilian's intention to keep
his grandson's engagement, and Charles was reported as having said
that he wanted a wife and not a mother.[159] All Henry's inquiries
were met by excuses; the Ides of May came and went, but they brought
no wedding between Mary and Charles.
[Footnote 155: _Ibid._, ii., 164; _Ven. Cal._, ii.,
389, 391, 401, 405.]
[Footnote 156: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 167.]
[Footnote 157: _L. and P._, i., 4560.]
[Footnote 158: _Ibid._, i., 5203.]
[Footnote 159: _Ven. Cal_., ii., 295. Charles was
fourteen, Mary eighteen years of age.]
Henry was learning by bitter experience. Not only was he left to face
single-handed the might of Louis; but Ferdinand and Maximilian had
secretly bound themselves to make war on him, if he carried out the
treaty to which they had all three publicly agreed. The man whom he
said he loved as a natural father, and the titular sovereign of
Christendom, had combined to cheat the boy-king who had come to the
throne with youthful enthusiasms and natural, generous instincts. "Nor
do I see," said Henry to Giustinian, "any faith in the world save in
me, and therefore God Almighty, who knows this, prospers my affairs."[160]
This absorbing belief in himself and his righteousness led to strange
aberrations in later years, but in 1514 it had some justification. "Je
vous assure," wrote Margaret of Savoy to her father, the Emperor, (p. 073)
"qu'en lui n'a nulle faintise." "At any rate," said Pasqualigo, "King
Henry has done himself great honour, and kept faith single-handed."[161]
A more striking testimony was forthcoming a year or two later. When
Charles succeeded Ferdinand, the Bishop of Badajos drew up for
Cardinal Ximenes a report on the state of the Prince's affairs. In it
he says: "The King of England has been truer to his engagements
towards the House of Austria than any other prince. The marriage of
the Prince with the Princess Mary, it must be confessed, did not take
place, but it may be questioned whether it was the fault of the King
of England or of the Prince and his advisers. However that may be,
with the exception of the marriage, the King of England has generally
fulfilled his obligations towards the Prince, and has behaved as a
trusty friend. An alliance with the English can be trusted most of
all."[162]
[Footnote 160: _L. and P._, ii., 3163.]
[Footnote 161: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 406.]
[Footnote 162: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 246.]
But the meekest and saintliest monarch could scarce pass unscathed
through the baptism of fraud practised on Henry; and Henry was at no
time saintly or meek. Ferdinand, he complained, induced him to enter
upon the war, and urged the Pope to use his influence with him for
that purpose; he had been at great expense, had assisted Maximilian,
taken Tournay, and reduced France to extremities; and now, when his
enemy was at his feet, Ferdinand talked of truce: he would never trust
any one again.[163] "Had the King of Spain," wrote a Venetian attaché,
"kept his promise to the King of England, the latter would never have
made peace with France; and the promises of the Emperor were equally
false, for he had received many thousands of pounds from King (p. 074)
Henry, on condition that he was to be in person at Calais in the month
of May, with a considerable force in the King's pay; but the Emperor
pocketed the money and never came. His failure was the cause of all
that took place, for, as King Henry was deceived in every direction,
he thought fit to take this other course."[164] He discovered that he,
too, could play at the game of making peace behind the backs of his
nominal friends; and when once he had made up his mind, he played the
game with vastly more effect than Maximilian or Ferdinand. It was he
who had been really formidable to Louis, and Louis was therefore
prepared to pay him a higher price than to either of the others. In
February Henry had got wind of his allies' practices with France. In
the same month a nuncio started from Rome to mediate peace between
Henry and Louis;[165] but, before his arrival, informal advances had
probably been made through the Duc de Longueville, a prisoner in
England since the Battle of Spurs.[166] In January Louis' wife, Anne
of Brittany, had died. Louis was fifty-two years old, worn out and
decrepit; but at least half a dozen brides were proposed for his hand.
In March it was rumoured in Rome that he would choose Henry's sister
Mary, the rejected of Charles.[167] But Henry waited till May had
passed, and Maximilian had proclaimed to the world his breach of
promise. Negotiations for the alliance and marriage with Louis then
proceeded apace. Treaties for both were signed in August. Tournay
remained in Henry's hands, Louis increased the pensions paid by
France to England since the Treaty of Étaples, and both kings (p. 075)
bound themselves to render mutual aid against their common
foes.[168]
[Footnote 163: _L. and P._, i., 4864.]
[Footnote 164: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 505.]
[Footnote 165: _Ibid._, ii., 372.]
[Footnote 166: _Ibid._, ii., 505; _L. and P._, i.,
5173, 5278.]
[Footnote 167: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 383.]
[Footnote 168: _L. and P._, i., 5305; _Ven. Cal._,
ii., 482, 483.]
Maximilian and Ferdinand were left out in the cold. Louis not only
broke off his negotiations with them, but prepared to regain Milan and
discussed with Henry the revival of his father's schemes for the
conquest of Castile. Henry was to claim part of that kingdom in right
of his wife, the late Queen's daughter; later on a still more shadowy
title by descent was suggested. As early as 5th October, the Venetian
Government wrote to its ambassador in France, "commending extremely
the most sage proceeding of Louis in exhorting the King of England to
attack Castile".[169] Towards the end of the year it declared that
Louis had wished to attack Spain, and sought to arrange details in an
interview with Henry; but the English King would not consent, delayed
the interview, and refused the six thousand infantry required for the
purpose.[170] But Henry had certainly urged Louis to reconquer
Navarre,[171] and from the tenor of Louis' reply to Henry, late in
November, it would be inferred that the proposed conquest of Castile
also emanated from the English King or his ministers. Louis professed
not to know the laws of succession in Spain, but he was willing to
join the attack, apart from the merits of the case on which it was
based. Whether the suggestion originated in France or in England,
whether Henry eventually refused it or not, its serious discussion
shows how far Henry had travelled in his resentment at the double
dealing of Ferdinand. Carroz complained that he was treated by (p. 076)
the English "like a bull at whom every one throws darts,"[172] and
that Henry himself behaved in a most offensive manner whenever
Ferdinand's name was mentioned. "If," he added, "Ferdinand did not put
a bridle on this young colt," it would afterwards become impossible to
control him. The young colt was, indeed, already meditating a project,
to attain which he, in later years, took the bit in his teeth and
broke loose from control. He was not only betrayed into casting in
Catherine's teeth her father's ill faith, but threatening her with
divorce.[173]
[Footnote 169: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 495.]
[Footnote 170: _Ibid._, ii., 532, 542.]
[Footnote 171: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 192; _L. and P._,
i., 5637.]
[Footnote 172: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 201. A Venetian
reports that the English were so enraged that they
would have killed Carroz had it not been for Henry
(_Ven. Cal._, ii., 248), and Carroz was actually
placed in confinement.]
[Footnote 173: _L. and P._, i., 5718; _Ven. Cal._,
ii., 464.]
Henry had struck back with a vengeance. His blow shivered to fragments
the airy castles which Maximilian and Ferdinand were busy constructing.
Their plans for reviving the empire of Charlemagne, creating a new
kingdom in Italy, inducing Louis to cede Milan and Genoa and assist in
the conquest of Venice, disappeared like empty dreams. The younger
Ferdinand found no provision in Italy; he was compelled to retain his
Austrian inheritance, and thus to impair the power of the future
Charles V.; while the children's grandparents were left sadly
reflecting on means of defence against the Kings of England and
France. The blot on the triumph was Henry's desertion of Sforza,[174]
who, having gratefully acknowledged that to Henry he owed his
restoration of Milan,[175] was now left to the uncovenanted mercies
of Louis. But neither the credit nor discredit is due mainly to (p. 077)
Henry. He had learnt much, but his powers were not yet developed
enough to make him a match for the craft and guile of his rivals. The
consciousness of the fact made him rely more and more upon Wolsey, who
could easily beat both Maximilian and Ferdinand at their own game. He
was not more deceitful than they, but in grasp of detail, in boldness
and assiduity, he was vastly superior. While Ferdinand hawked, and
Maximilian hunted the chamois, Wolsey worked often for twelve hours
together at the cares of the State. Possibly, too, his clerical
profession and the cardinalate which he was soon to hold gave him an
advantage which they did not possess; for, whenever he wanted to obtain
credence for a more than usually monstrous perversion of truth, he
swore "as became a cardinal and on the honour of the cardinalate".[176]
His services were richly rewarded; besides livings, prebends,
deaneries and the Chancellorship of Cambridge University, he received
the Bishoprics of Lincoln and of Tournay, the Archbishopric of York,
and finally, in 1515, Cardinalate. This dignity he had already, in May
of the previous year, sent Polydore Vergil to claim from the Pope;
Vergil's mission was unknown to Henry, to whom the grant of the
Cardinal's hat was to be represented as Leo's own idea.[177]
[Footnote 174: _L. and P._, i., 5319.]
[Footnote 175: _Ibid._, i., 4499, 4921.]
[Footnote 176: _Cf._ _Ven. Cal._, ii., 695; _L. and
P._, ii., 1380. Giustinian complains that Wolsey
"never said what he meant but the reverse of what
he intended to do" (_Ibid._, ii., 3081). This
perhaps is no great crime in a diplomatist.]
[Footnote 177: _L. and P._, i., 5110, 5121. Henry's
request that Leo should make Wolsey a Cardinal was
not made till 12th Aug., 1514 (_L. and P._, i.,
5318), at least six months after Wolsey had
instructed Pace to negotiate for that honour.]
CHAPTER IV. (p. 078)
THE THREE RIVALS.
The edifice which Wolsey had so laboriously built up was, however,
based on no surer foundation than the feeble life of a sickly monarch
already tottering to his grave. In the midst of his preparations for
the conquest of Milan and his negotiations for an attack upon Spain,
Louis XII. died on 1st January, 1515; and the stone which Wolsey had
barely rolled up the hill came down with a rush. The bourgeois Louis
was succeeded by the brilliant, ambitious and warlike Francis I., a
monarch who concealed under the mask of chivalry and the culture of
arts and letters a libertinism beside which the peccadilloes of Henry
or Charles seem virtue itself; whose person was tall and whose
features were described as handsome; but of whom an observer wrote
with unwonted candour that he "looked like the Devil".[178] The first
result of the change was an episode of genuine romance. The old King's
widow, "la reine blanche," was one of the most fascinating women of
the Tudor epoch. "I think," said a Fleming, "never man saw a more
beautiful creature, nor one having so much grace and sweetness."[179]
"He had never seen so beautiful a lady," repeated Maximilian's
ambassador, "her deportment is exquisite, both in conversation (p. 079)
and in dancing, and she is very lovely."[180] "She is very beautiful,"
echoed the staid old Venetian, Pasqualigo, "and has not her match in
England; she is tall, fair, of a light complexion with a colour, and
most affable and graceful"; he was warranted, he said, in describing
her as "a nymph from heaven".[181] A more critical observer of
feminine beauty thought her eyes and eyebrows too light,[182] but, as
an Italian, he may have been biassed in favour of brunettes, and even
he wound up by calling Mary "a Paradise". She was eighteen at the
time; her marriage with a dotard like Louis had shocked public
opinion;[183] and if, as was hinted, the gaieties in which his
youthful bride involved him, hastened the French King's end, there was
some poetic justice in the retribution. She had, as she reminded Henry
herself, only consented to marry the "very aged and sickly" monarch on
condition that, if she survived him, she should be allowed to choose
her second husband herself. And she went on to declare, that
"remembering the great virtue" in him, she had, as Henry himself was
aware, "always been of good mind to my Lord of Suffolk".[184]
[Footnote 178: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 582.]
[Footnote 179: _L. and P._, i., 4953.]
[Footnote 180: _L. and P._, i., 5203.]
[Footnote 181: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 499, 500.]
[Footnote 182: _Ibid._, ii., 511.]
[Footnote 183: _L. and P._, i., 5470.]
[Footnote 184: _Ibid._, ii., 227.]
She was probably fascinated less by Suffolk's virtue than by his bold
and handsome bearing. A bluff Englishman after the King's own heart,
he shared, as none else did, in Henry's love of the joust and tourney,
in his skill with the lance and the sword; he was the Hector of
combat, on foot and on horse, to Henry's Achilles. His father, plain
William Brandon, was Henry of Richmond's standard-bearer on Bosworth
field; and as such he had been singled out and killed in personal (p. 080)
encounter by Richard III. His death gave his son a claim on the
gratitude of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; and similarity of tastes
secured him rapid promotion at the young King's Court. Created Viscount
Lisle, he served in 1513 as marshal of Henry's army throughout his
campaign in France. With the King there were said to be "two obstinate
men who governed everything";[185] one was Wolsey, the other was Brandon.
In July he was offering his hand to Margaret of Savoy, who was
informed that Brandon was "a second king," and that it would be well
to write him "a kind letter, for it is he who does and undoes".[186]
At Lille, in October, he continued his assault on Margaret as a relief
from the siege of Tournay; Henry favoured his suit, and when Margaret
called Brandon a _larron_ for stealing a ring from her finger, the
King was called in to help Brandon out with his French. Possibly it
was to smooth the course of his wooing that Brandon, early in 1514,
received an extraordinary advancement in rank. There was as yet only
one duke in England, but now Brandon was made Duke of Suffolk, at the
same time that the dukedom of Norfolk was restored to Surrey for his
victory at Flodden. Even a dukedom could barely make the son of a
simple esquire a match for an emperor's daughter, and the suit did not
prosper. Political reasons may have interfered. Suffolk, too, is
accused by the Venetian ambassador of having already had three
wives.[187] This seems to be an exaggeration, but the intricacy (p. 081)
of the Duke's marital relationships, and the facility with which he
renounced them might well have served as a precedent to his master in
later years.
[Footnote 185: _L. and P._, i., 4386.]
[Footnote 186: _Ibid._, i., 4405.]
[Footnote 187: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 464. He had made
contracts with three different ladies, but had not
actually married them all. See below, p. 199 and
_D.N.B._, _s.v._ "Brandon".]
In January, 1515, the Duke was sent to Paris to condole with Francis
on Louis' death, to congratulate him on his own accession, and renew
the league with England. Before he set out, Henry made him promise
that he would not marry Mary until their return. But Suffolk was not
the man to resist the tears of a beautiful woman in trouble, and he
found Mary in sore distress. No sooner was Louis dead than his
lascivious successor became, as Mary said, "importunate with her in
divers matters not to her honour," in suits "the which," wrote Suffolk,
"I and the Queen had rather be out of the world than abide".[188]
Every evening Francis forced his attentions upon the beautiful
widow.[189] Nor was this the only trouble which threatened the lovers.
There were reports that the French would not let Mary go, but marry
her somewhere to serve their own political purposes.[190] Henry, too,
might want to betroth her again to Charles; Maximilian was urging this
course, and telling Margaret that Mary must be recovered for Charles,
even at the point of the sword.[191] Early in January, Wolsey had
written to her, warning her not to make any fresh promise of marriage.
Two friars from England, sent apparently by Suffolk's secret enemies,
told Mary the same tale, that if she returned to England she would
never be suffered to marry the Duke, but made to take Charles for her
husband, "than which," she declared, "I would rather be torn in (p. 082)
pieces".[192] Suffolk tried in vain to soothe her fears. She refused
to listen, and brought him to his knees with the announcement that
unless he would wed her there and then, she would continue to believe
that he had come only to entice her back to England and force her into
marriage with Charles. What was the poor Duke to do, between his
promise to Henry and the pleading of Mary? He did what every other man
with a heart in his breast and warm blood in his veins would have
done, he cast prudence to the winds and secretly married the woman he
loved.
[Footnote 188: _L. and P._, ii., 134, 138, 163.]
[Footnote 189: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 574.]
[Footnote 190: _L. and P._, ii., 70, 85, 114.]
[Footnote 191: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 594; _L. and P._,
ii., 124.]
[Footnote 192: _L. and P._, ii., 80, Suffolk to
Henry VIII. This letter is placed under January in
the _Calendar_, but it was obviously written about
6th March, 1514-15.]
The news could not be long concealed, but unfortunately we have only
Wolsey's account of how it was received by Henry. He took it, wrote
the cardinal to Suffolk, "grievously and displeasantly," not only on
account of the Duke's presumption, but of the breach of his promise to
Henry.[193] "You are," he added, "in the greatest danger man was ever
in;" the council were calling for his ruin. To appease Henry and
enable the King to satisfy his council, Suffolk must induce Francis to
intervene in his favour, to pay Henry two hundred thousand crowns as
Mary's dowry, and to restore the plate and jewels she had received;
the Duke himself was to return the fortune with which Henry had endowed
his sister and pay twenty-four thousand pounds in yearly instalments
for the expenses of her marriage. Francis proved unexpectedly willing;
perhaps his better nature was touched by the lovers' distress. He also
saw that Mary's marriage with Suffolk prevented her being used as (p. 083)
a link to bind Charles to Henry; and he may have thought that a
service to Suffolk would secure him a powerful friend at the English
Court, a calculation that was partly justified by the suspicion under
which Suffolk henceforth laboured, of being too partial to Francis.
Yet it was with heavy hearts that the couple left Paris in April and
wended their way towards Calais. Henry had given no sign; from Calais,
Mary wrote to him saying she would go to a nunnery rather than marry
against her desire.[194] Suffolk threw himself on the King's mercy;
all the council, he said, except Wolsey, were determined to put him to
death.[195] Secretly, against his promise, and without Henry's
consent, he had married the King's sister, an act the temerity of
which no one has since ventured to rival. He saw the executioner's axe
gleam before his eyes, and he trembled.
[Footnote 193: _L. and P._, ii., 224.]
[Footnote 194: _L. and P._, ii., 228.]
[Footnote 195: _Ibid._, ii., 367.]
At Calais, Mary said she would stay until she heard from the King.[196]
His message has not been preserved, but fears were never more strangely
belied than when the pair crossed their Rubicon. So far from any attempt
being made to separate them, their marriage was publicly solemnised
before Henry and all his Court on 13th May, at Greenwich.[197] In
spite of all that happened, wrote the Venetian ambassador, Henry
retained his friendship for Suffolk;[198] and a few months later he
asserted, with some exaggeration, that the Duke's authority was
scarcely less than the King's.[199] He and Mary were indeed (p. 084)
required to return all the endowment, whether in money, plate, jewels
or furniture, that she received on her marriage. But both she and the
Duke had agreed to these terms before their offence.[200] They were
not unreasonable. Henry's money had been laid out for political
purposes which could no longer be served; and Mary did not expect the
splendour, as Duchess of Suffolk, which she had enjoyed as Queen of
France. The only stipulation that looks like a punishment was the bond
to repay the cost of her journey to France; though not only was this
modified later on, but the Duke received numerous grants of land to
help to defray the charge. They were indeed required to live in the
country; but the Duke still came up to joust as of old with Henry on
great occasions, and Mary remained his favourite sister, to whose
issue, in preference to that of Margaret, he left the crown by will.
The vindictive suspicions which afterwards grew to rank luxuriance in
Henry's mind were scarcely budding as yet; his favour to Suffolk and
affection for Mary were proof against the intrigues in his Court. The
contrast was marked between the event and the terrors which Wolsey had
painted; and it is hard to believe that the Cardinal played an
entirely disinterested part in the matter.[201] It was obviously his
cue to exaggerate the King's anger, and to represent to the Duke that
its mitigation was due to the Cardinal's influence; and it is more
than possible that Wolsey found in Suffolk's indiscretion the means of
removing a dangerous rival. The "two obstinate men" who had ruled (p. 085)
in Henry's camp were not likely to remain long united; Wolsey could
hardly approve of any "second king" but himself, especially a "second
king" who had acquired a family bond with the first. The Venetian
ambassador plainly hints that it was through Wolsey that Suffolk lost
favour.[202] In the occasional notices of him during the next few
years it is Wolsey, and not Henry, whom Suffolk is trying to appease;
and we even find the Cardinal secretly warning the King against some
designs of the Duke that probably existed only in his own
imagination.[203]
[Footnote 196: _Ibid._, ii., 367, 226. The letters
relating to this episode in _L. and P._ are often
undated and sometimes misplaced; _e.g._, this last
is placed under March, although from Nos. 295, 296,
319, 327, 331, we find that Mary did not leave
Paris till 16th April.]
[Footnote 197: _L. and P._, ii., 468.]
[Footnote 198: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 618.]
[Footnote 199: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 638.]
[Footnote 200: _L. and P._, ii., 436.]
[Footnote 201: Brewer's view is that Wolsey saved
Suffolk from ruin on this occasion.]
[Footnote 202: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 919.]
[Footnote 203: _L. and P._, ii., 4057, 4308; iii.,
1.]
* * * * *
This episode threw into the shade the main purpose of Suffolk's
embassy to France. It was to renew the treaty concluded the year
before, and apparently also the discussions for war upon Spain.
Francis was ready enough to confirm the treaty, particularly as it
left him free to pursue his designs on Milan. With a similar object he
made terms with the Archduke Charles, who this year assumed the
government of the Netherlands, but was completely under the control of
Chièvres, a Frenchman by birth and sympathy, who signed his letters to
Francis "your humble servant and vassal".[204] Charles bound himself
to marry Louis XII.'s daughter Renée, and to give his grandfather
Ferdinand no aid unless he restored Navarre to Jean d'Albret. Thus
safeguarded from attack on his rear, Francis set out for Milan. The
Swiss had locked all the passes they thought practicable; but the
French generals, guided by chamois hunters and overcoming almost
insuperable obstacles, transported their artillery over the Alps (p. 086)
near Embrun; and on 13th September, at Marignano, the great "Battle of
the Giants" laid the whole of Northern Italy at the French King's
feet. At Bologna he met Leo X., whose lifelong endeavour was to be
found on both sides at once, or at least on the side of the bigger
battalions; the Pope recognised Francis's claim to Milan, while
Francis undertook to support the Medici in Florence, and to
countenance Leo's project for securing the Duchy of Urbino to his
nephew Lorenzo.
[Footnote 204: _Sp. Cal_., ii., 246.]
Henry watched with ill-concealed jealousy his rival's victorious
progress; his envy was personal, as well as political. "Francis,"
wrote the Bishop of Worcester in describing the interview between the
French King and the Pope at Bologna, "is tall in stature,
broad-shouldered, oval and handsome in face, very slender in the legs
and much inclined to corpulence."[205] His appearance was the subject
of critical inquiry by Henry himself. On May Day, 1515, Pasqualigo[206]
was summoned to Greenwich by the King, whom he found dressed in green,
"shoes and all," and mounted on a bay Frieslander sent him by the
Marquis of Mantua; his guard were also dressed in green and armed with
bows and arrows for the usual May Day sports. They breakfasted in
green bowers some distance from the palace. "His Majesty," continues
Pasqualigo, "came into our arbor, and addressing me in French, said:
'Talk with me awhile. The King of France, is he as tall as I am?' I
told him there was but little difference. He continued, 'Is he as
stout?' I said he was not; and he then inquired, 'What sort of legs
has he?' I replied 'Spare'. Whereupon he opened the front of his (p. 087)
doublet, and placing his hand on his thigh, said: 'Look here; and
I also have a good calf to my leg'. He then told me he was very fond
of this King of France, and that on more than three occasions he was
very near him with his army, but that he would never allow himself to
be seen, and always retreated, which His Majesty attributed to
deference for King Louis, who did not choose an engagement to take
place." After dinner, by way of showing his prowess, Henry "armed
himself _cap-à-pie_ and ran thirty courses, capsizing his opponent,
horse and all". Two months later, he said to Giustinian: "I am aware
that King Louis, although my brother-in-law, was a bad man. I know not
what this youth may be; he is, however, a Frenchman, nor can I say how
far you should trust him;"[207] and Giustinian says he at once
perceived the great rivalry for glory between the two young kings.
[Footnote 205: _L. and P._, ii., 1281.]
[Footnote 206: _Ibid._, ii., 411; Giustinian,
_Desp._, i., 90; _Ven. Cal._, ii., 624.]
[Footnote 207: _Ven. Cal_., ii., 652]
Henry now complained that Francis had concealed his Italian enterprise
from him, that he was ill-treating English subjects, and interfering
with matters in Scotland. The last was his real and chief ground for
resentment. Francis had no great belief that Henry would keep the
peace, and resist the temptation to attack him, if a suitable
opportunity were to arise. So he had sent the Duke of Albany to
provide Henry with an absorbing disturbance in Scotland. Since the
death of James IV. at Flodden, English influence had, in Margaret's
hands, been largely increased. Henry took upon himself to demand a
voice in Scotland's internal affairs. He claimed the title of
"Protector of Scotland"; and wrote to the Pope asking him to (p. 088)
appoint no Scottish bishops without his consent, and to reduce the
Archbishopric of St. Andrews to its ancient dependence on York.[208]
Many urged him to complete the conquest of Scotland, but this
apparently he refused on the ground that his own sister was really its
ruler and his own infant nephew its king. Margaret, however, as an
Englishwoman, was hated in Scotland, and she destroyed much of her
influence by marrying the Earl of Angus. So the Scots clamoured for
Albany, who had long been resident at the French Court and was heir to
the Scottish throne, should James IV.'s issue fail. His appearance was
the utter discomfiture of the party of England; Margaret was besieged
in Stirling and ultimately forced to give up her children to Albany's
keeping, and seek safety in flight to her brother's dominions.[209]
[Footnote 208: _L. and P._, i., 4483, 4502; ii.,
654.]
[Footnote 209: It was said by the Scots Estates
that she had forfeited her claim to their custody
by her marriage with Angus (_ibid._, ii., 1011).]
Technically, Francis had not broken his treaty with England, but he
had scarcely acted the part of a friend; and if Henry could retaliate
without breaking the peace, he would eagerly seize any opportunity
that offered. The alliance with Ferdinand and Maximilian was renewed,
and a new Holy League formed under Leo's auspices. But Leo soon
afterwards made his peace at Bologna with France. Charles was under
French influence, and Henry's council and people were not prepared for
war. So he refused, says Giustinian, Ferdinand's invitations to join
in an invasion of France. He did so from no love of Francis, and it
was probably Wolsey's ingenuity which suggested the not very scrupulous
means of gratifying Henry's wish for revenge. Maximilian was (p. 089)
still pursuing his endless quarrel with Venice; and the seizure of
Milan by the French and Venetian allies was a severe blow to
Maximilian himself, to the Swiss, and to their protégé, Sforza. Wolsey
now sought to animate them all for an attempt to recover the duchy,
and Sforza promised him 10,000 ducats a year from the date of his
restoration. There was nothing but the spirit of his treaty with
France to prevent Henry spending his money as he thought fit; and it
was determined to hire 20,000 Swiss mercenaries to serve under the
Emperor in order to conquer Milan and revenge Marignano.[210] The
negotiation was one of great delicacy; not only was secrecy absolutely
essential, but the money must be carefully kept out of Maximilian's
reach. "Whenever," wrote Pace, "the King's money passed where the
Emperor was, he would always get some portion of it by force or false
promises of restitution."[211] The accusation was justified by
Maximilian's order to Margaret, his daughter, to seize Henry's
treasure as soon as he heard it was on the way to the Swiss.[212] "The
Emperor," said Julius II., "is light and inconstant, always begging
for other men's money, which he wastes in hunting the chamois."[213]
[Footnote 210: _L. and P._, ii., 1065.]
[Footnote 211: _Ibid._, ii., 1817.]
[Footnote 212: _Ibid._, ii., 1231.]
[Footnote 213: _Ibid._, ii., 1877.]
The envoy selected for this difficult mission was Richard Pace,
scholar and author, and friend of Erasmus and More. He had been in
Bainbridge's service at Rome, was then transferred to that of Wolsey
and Henry, and as the King's secretary, was afterwards thought to be
treading too close on the Cardinal's heels. He set out in October, and
arrived in Zurich just in time to prevent the Swiss from coming (p. 090)
to terms with Francis. Before winter had ended the plans for invasion
were settled. Maximilian came down with the snows from the mountains
in March; on the 23rd he crossed the Adda;[214] on the 25th he was
within nine miles of Milan, and almost in sight of the army of France.
On the 26th he turned and fled without striking a blow. Back he went
over the Adda, over the Oglio, up into Tyrol, leaving the French and
Venetians in secure possession of Northern Italy. A year later they
had recovered for Venice the last of the places of which it had been
robbed by the League of Cambrai.
[Footnote 214: _L. and P._, ii., 1697, 1699, 1721,
1729, 1736, 1754, 1831, 2011, 2034, 2114.]
Maximilian retreated, said Pace, voluntarily and shamefully, and was
now so degraded that it signified little whether he was a friend or an
enemy.[215] The cause of his ignominious flight still remains a
mystery; countless excuses were made by Maximilian and his friends. He
had heard that France and England had come to terms; 6,000 of the
Swiss infantry deserted to the French on the eve of the battle.
Ladislaus of Hungary had died, leaving him guardian of his son, and he
must go to arrange matters there. He had no money to pay his troops.
The last has an appearance of verisimilitude. Money was at the bottom
of all his difficulties, and drove him to the most ignominious shifts.
He had served as a private in Henry's army for 100 crowns a day. His
councillors robbed him; on one occasion he had not money to pay for
his dinner;[216] on another he sent down to Pace, who was ill in bed,
and extorted a loan by force. He had apparently seized 30,000 (p. 091)
crowns of Henry's pay for the Swiss;[217] the Fuggers, Welzers and
Frescobaldi, were also accused of failing to keep their engagements,
and only the first month's pay had been received by the Swiss when
they reached Milan. On the Emperor's retreat the wretched Pace was
seized by the Swiss and kept in prison as security for the remainder.[218]
His task had been rendered all the more difficult by the folly of
Wingfield, ambassador at Maximilian's Court, who, said Pace, "took the
Emperor for a god and believed that all his deeds and thoughts
proceeded _ex Spiritu Sancto_".[219] There was no love lost between
them; the lively Pace nicknamed his colleague "Summer shall be green,"
in illusion perhaps to Wingfield's unending platitudes, or to his
limitless belief in the Emperor's integrity and wisdom.[220] Wingfield
opened Pace's letters and discovered the gibe, which he parried by
avowing that he had never known the time when summer was not
green.[221] On another occasion he forged Pace's signature, with a
view of obtaining funds for Maximilian;[222] and he had the hardihood
to protest against Pace's appointment as Henry's secretary. At last
his conduct brought down a stinging rebuke from Henry;[223] but the
King's long-suffering was not yet exhausted, and Wingfield continued
as ambassador to the Emperors Court.
[Footnote 215: _Ibid._, ii., 1877.]
[Footnote 216: _Ibid._, ii., 2152, 1892, 1896,
2034, 2035.]
[Footnote 217: _L. and P._, ii., 1231, 1792, 1854.]
[Footnote 218: _Ibid._, ii., 1877.]
[Footnote 219: _Ibid._, ii., 1817.]
[Footnote 220: _Ibid._, ii., 1566, 1567.]
[Footnote 221: _Ibid._, ii., 1775.]
[Footnote 222: _Ibid._, ii., 1813.]
[Footnote 223: _Ibid._, ii., 2177.]
* * * * *
The failure of the Milan expedition taught Wolsey and Henry a bitter
but salutary lesson. It was their first attempt to intervene in a
sphere of action so distant from English shores and so remote (p. 092)
from English interests as the affairs of Italian States. Complaints in
England were loud against the waste of money; the sagacious Tunstall
wrote that he did not see why Henry should bind himself to maintain
other men's causes.[224] All the grandees, wrote Giustinian, were
opposed to Wolsey's policy, and its adoption was followed by what
Giustinian called a change of ministry in England.[225] Warham
relinquished the burdens of the Chancellorship which he had long
unwillingly borne; Fox sought to atone for twenty-eight years' neglect
of his diocese by spending in it the rest of his days.[226] Wolsey
succeeded Warham as Chancellor, and Ruthal, who "sang treble to
Wolsey's bass,"[227] became Lord Privy Seal in place of Fox. Suffolk
was out of favour, and the neglect of his and Fox's advice was,
according to the Venetian, resented by the people, who murmured
against the taxes which Wolsey's intervention in foreign affairs
involved.
[Footnote 224: _L. and P._, ii., 2270.]
[Footnote 225: _Ibid._, ii., 1814, 2487, 2500.]
[Footnote 226: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 750, 798, 801; _L.
and P._, ii., 2183.]
[Footnote 227: _L. and P._, ii., 2205.]
But Wolsey still hoped that bribes would keep Maximilian faithful to
England and induce him to counteract the French influences with which
his grandson Charles was surrounded. Ferdinand had died in January,
1516,[228] having, said the English envoy at his Court, wilfully
shortened his life by hunting and hawking in all weathers, and following
the advice of his falconers rather than that of his physicians.
Charles thus succeeded to Castile, Aragon and Naples;[229] but (p. 093)
Naples was seriously threatened by the failure of Maximilian's
expedition and the omnipotence of Francis in Italy. "The Pope is
French," wrote an English diplomatist, "and everything from Rome to
Calais."[230] To save Naples, Charles, in July, 1516, entered into the
humiliating Treaty of Noyon with France.[231] He bound himself to
marry Francis's infant daughter, Charlotte, to do justice to Jean
d'Albret in the matter of Navarre, and to surrender Naples, Navarre,
and Artois, if he failed to keep his engagement. Such a treaty was not
likely to stand; but, for the time, it was a great feather in
Francis's cap, and a further step towards the isolation of England. It
was the work of Charles's Gallicised ministry, and Maximilian
professed the utmost disgust at their doings. He was eager to come
down to the Netherlands with a view to breaking the Treaty of Noyon
and removing his grandson's advisers, but of course he must have money
from England to pay his expenses. The money accordingly came from the
apparently bottomless English purse;[232] and in January, 1517, the
Emperor marched down to the Netherlands, breathing, in his despatches
to Henry, threatenings and slaughter against Charles's misleaders. His
descent on Flanders eclipsed his march on Milan. "Mon fils," he said
to Charles, "vous allez tromper les Français, et moi, je vais tromper
les Anglais."[233] So far from breaking the Treaty of Noyon, he (p. 094)
joined it himself, and at Brussels solemnly swore to observe its
provisions. He probably thought he had touched the bottom of Henry's
purse, and that it was time to dip into Francis's. Seventy-five
thousand crowns was his price for betraying Henry.[234]
[Footnote 228: On 23rd Jan. (_L. and P._, ii.,
1541, 1610). Brewer in his introduction to vol. ii.
of the _L. and P._ says "in February".]
[Footnote 229: His mother Juaña was rightfully
Queen, but she was regarded as mad; she thought her
husband, the Archduke Philip, might come to life
again, and carried him about in a coffin with her
wherever she went (_Ven. Cal._, ii., 564).]
[Footnote 230: _L. and P._, ii., 2930.]
[Footnote 231: _L. and P._, ii., 2303, 2327, 2387;
_Ven. Cal._, ii., 769, 773.]
[Footnote 232: _L. and P._, ii., 2406, 2573, 2626,
2702.]
[Footnote 233: _Ibid._, ii., 2930.]
[Footnote 234: _L. and P._, ii., 2891.]
In conveying the news to Wolsey, Tunstall begged him to urge Henry "to
refrain from his first passions" and "to draw his foot out of the
affair as gently as if he perceived it not, giving good words for good
words which they yet give us, thinking our heads to be so gross that
we perceive not their abuses".[235] Their persistent advances to
Charles had, he thought, done them more harm than good; let the King
shut his purse in time, and he would soon have Charles and the Emperor
again at his feet.[236] Tunstall was ably seconded by Dr. William
Knight, who thought it would be foolish for England to attempt to undo
the Treaty of Noyon; it contained within itself the seeds of its own
dissolution. Charles would not wait to marry Francis's daughter, and
then the breach would come.[237] Henry and Wolsey had the good sense
to act on this sound advice. Maximilian, Francis and Charles formed at
Cambrai a fresh league for the partition of Italy,[238] but they were
soon at enmity and too much involved with their own affairs to think
of the conquest of others. Disaffection was rife in Spain, where a
party wished Ferdinand, Charles's brother, to be King.[239] If Charles
was to retain his Spanish kingdoms, he must visit them at once. He
could not go unless England provided the means. His request for (p. 095)
a loan was graciously accorded and his ambassadors were treated with
magnificent courtesy.[240] "One day," says Chieregati,[241] the papal
envoy in England, "the King sent for these ambassadors, and kept them
to dine with him privately in his chamber with the Queen, a very
unusual proceeding. After dinner he took to singing and playing on
every musical instrument, and exhibited a part of his very excellent
endowments. At length he commenced dancing," and, continues another
narrator, "doing marvellous things, both in dancing and jumping,
proving himself, as he is in truth, indefatigable." On another day
there was "a most stately joust." Henry was magnificently attired in
"cloth of silver with a raised pile, and wrought throughout with
emblematic letters". When he had made the usual display in the lists,
the Duke of Suffolk entered from the other end, with well-nigh equal
array and pomp. He was accompanied by fourteen other jousters. "The
King wanted to joust with all of them; but this was forbidden by the
council, which, moreover, decided that each jouster was to run six
courses and no more, so that the entertainment might be ended on that
day.... The competitor assigned to the King was the Duke of Suffolk;
and they bore themselves so bravely that the spectators fancied
themselves witnessing a joust between Hector and Achilles." "They
tilted," says Sagudino, "eight courses, both shivering their lances at
every time, to the great applause of the spectators." Chieregati
continues: "On arriving in the lists the King presented himself before
the Queen and the ladies, making a thousand jumps in the air, and (p. 096)
after tiring one horse, he entered the tent and mounted another...
doing this constantly, and reappearing in the lists until the end of
the jousts". Dinner was then served, amid a scene of unparalleled
splendour, and Chieregati avers that the "guests remained at table for
seven hours by the clock". The display of costume on the King's part
was equally varied and gorgeous. On one occasion he wore "stiff
brocade in the Hungarian fashion," on another, he "was dressed in
white damask in the Turkish fashion, the above-mentioned robe all
embroidered with roses, made of rubies and diamonds"; on a third, he
"wore royal robes down to the ground, of gold brocade lined with
ermine"; while "all the rest of the Court glittered with jewels and
gold and silver, the pomp being unprecedented".
[Footnote 235: _Ibid._, ii., 2923, 2940.]
[Footnote 236: _Ibid._, ii., 2910.]
[Footnote 237: _Ibid._, ii., 2930.]
[Footnote 238: _Ibid._, ii., 2632, 3008; _Monumenta
Habsburgica_, ii., 37.]
[Footnote 239: _L. and P._, ii., 3076, 3077, 3081.]
[Footnote 240: _L. and P._, ii., 3402, 3439-41.]
[Footnote 241: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 918; _L. and P._,
ii., 3455, 3462.]
All this riot of wealth would no doubt impress the impecunious
Charles. In September he landed in Spain, so destitute that he was
glad to accept the offer of a hobby from the English ambassador.[242]
At the first meeting of his Cortes, they demanded that he should marry
at once, and not wait for Francis's daughter; the bride his subjects
desired was the daughter of the King of Portugal.[243] They were no
more willing to part with Navarre; and Charles was forced to make to
Francis the feeble excuse that he was not aware, when he was in the
Netherlands, of his true title to Navarre, but had learnt it since his
arrival in Spain; he also declined the personal interview to which
Francis invited him.[244] A rupture between Francis and Charles was
only a question of time; and, to prepare for it, both were anxious (p. 097)
for England's alliance. Throughout the autumn of 1517 and spring of
1518, France and England were feeling their way towards friendship.
Albany had left Scotland, so that source of irritation was gone. Henry
had now a daughter, Mary, and Francis a son. "I will unite them," said
Wolsey;[245] and in October, 1518, not only was a treaty of marriage
and alliance signed between England and France, but a general peace
for Europe. Leo X. sent Campeggio with blessings of peace from the
Vicar of Christ, though he was kept chafing at Calais for three
months, till he could bring with him Leo's appointment of Wolsey as
legate and the deposition of Wolsey's enemy, Hadrian, from the
Bishopric of Bath and Wells.[246] The ceremonies exceeded in splendour
even those of the year before. They included, says Giustinian, a "most
sumptuous supper" at Wolsey's house, "the like of which, I fancy, was
never given by Cleopatra or Caligula; the whole banqueting hall being
so decorated with huge vases of gold and silver, that I fancied myself
in the tower of Chosroes,[247] when that monarch caused Divine honours
to be paid him. After supper... twelve male and twelve female dancers
made their appearance in the richest and most sumptuous array possible,
being all dressed alike.... They were disguised in one suit of fine
green satin, all over covered with cloth of gold, undertied together
with laces of gold, and had masking hoods on their heads; the ladies
had tires made of braids of damask gold, with long hairs of white
gold. All these maskers danced at one time, and after they had danced
they put off their visors, and then they were all known.... The (p. 098)
two leaders were the King and the Queen Dowager of France, and all the
others were lords and ladies."[248] These festivities were followed by
the formal ratification of peace.[249] Approval of it was general, and
the old councillors who had been alienated by Wolsey's Milan expedition,
hastened to applaud. "It was the best deed," wrote Fox to Wolsey,
"that ever was done for England, and, next to the King, the praise of
it is due to you."[250] Once more the wheel had come round, and the
stone of Sisyphus was lodged more secure than before some way up the
side of the hill.
[Footnote 242: _L. and P._, ii., 3705.]
[Footnote 243: _Ibid._, ii., 4022.]
[Footnote 244: _Ibid._, ii., 4164, 4188.]
[Footnote 245: _L. and P._, ii., 4047.]
[Footnote 246: _Ibid._, ii., 4348.]
[Footnote 247: Chosroes I. (Nushirvan) of Persia.]
[Footnote 248: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1085, 1088; _cf._
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_.]
[Footnote 249: _L. and P._, ii., 4468, 4483, 4564,
4669.]
[Footnote 250: _Ibid._, ii., 4540.]
* * * * *
This general peace, which closed the wars begun ten years before by
the League of Cambrai, was not entirely due to a universal desire to
beat swords into ploughshares or to even turn them against the Turk.
That was the everlasting pretence, but eighteen months before,
Maximilian had suffered a stroke of apoplexy; men, said Giustinian,
commenting on the fact, did not usually survive such strokes a year,
and rivals were preparing to enter the lists for the Empire.
Maximilian himself, faithful to the end to his guiding principle,
found a last inspiration in the idea of disposing of his succession
for ready money. He was writing to Charles that it was useless to
expect the Empire unless he would spend at least as much as the
French.[251] "It would be lamentable," he said, "if we should now lose
all through some pitiful omission or penurious neglect;" and Francis
was "going about covertly and laying many baits,"[252] to attain (p. 099)
the imperial crown. To Henry himself Maximilian had more than once
offered the prize, and Pace had declared that the offer was only
another design for extracting Henry's gold "for the electors would
never allow the crown to go out of their nation".[253] The Emperor had
first proposed it while serving under Henry's banners in France.[254]
He renewed the suggestion in 1516, inviting Henry to meet him at
Coire. The brothers in arms were thence to cross the Alps to Milan,
where the Emperor would invest the English King with the duchy; he
would then take him on to Rome, resign the Empire himself, and have
Henry crowned. Not that Maximilian desired to forsake all earthly
authority; he sought to combine a spiritual with a temporal glory; he
was to lay down the imperial crown and place on his brows the papal
tiara.[255] Nothing was too fantastic for the Emperor Maximilian; the
man who could not wrest a few towns from Venice was always deluding
himself with the hope of leading victorious hosts to the seat of the
Turkish Empire and the Holy City of Christendom; the sovereign whose
main incentive in life was gold, informed his daughter that he
intended to get himself canonised, and that after his death she would
have to adore him. He died at Welz on 12th January, 1519, neither Pope
nor saint, with Jerusalem still in the hands of the Turk, and the
succession to the Empire still undecided.
[Footnote 251: _Ibid._, ii., 4172.]
[Footnote 252: _L. and P._, ii., 4159.]
[Footnote 253: _Ibid._, ii., 1923.]
[Footnote 254: _Ibid._, ii., 1398, 1878, 1902,
2218, 2911, 4257.]
[Footnote 255: _Cf._ W. Boehm, _Hat Kaiser
Maximilian I. im Jahre 1511 Papst werden wollen?_
1873.]
The contest now broke out in earnest, and the electors prepared (p. 100)
to garner their harvest of gold. The price of a vote was a hundredfold
more than the most corrupt parliamentary elector could conceive in his
wildest dreams of avarice. There were only seven electors and the prize
was the greatest on earth. Francis I. said he was ready to spend
3,000,000 crowns, and Charles could not afford to lag far behind.[256]
The Margrave of Brandenburg, "the father of all greediness," as the
Austrians called him, was particularly influential because his brother,
the Archbishop of Mainz, was also an elector and he required an
especially exorbitant bribe. He was ambitious as well as covetous, and
the rivals endeavoured to satisfy his ambitions with matrimonial
prizes. He was promised Ferdinand's widow, Germaine de Foix; Francis
sought to parry this blow by offering to the Margrave's son the French
Princess Renée; Charles bid higher by offering his sister Catherine.[257]
Francis relied much on his personal graces, the military renown he had
won by the conquest of Northern Italy, and the assistance of Leo. With
the Pope he concluded a fresh treaty that year for the conquest of
Ferrara, the extension of the papal States, and the settlement of
Naples on Francis's second son, on condition that it was meanwhile to
be administered by papal legates,[258] and that its king was to
abstain from all interference in spiritual matters. Charles, on the
other hand, owed his advantages to his position and not to his person.
Cold, reserved and formal, he possessed none of the physical or
intellectual graces of Francis I. and Henry VIII. He excelled in (p. 101)
no sport, was unpleasant in features and repellent in manners. No
gleam of magnanimity or chivalry lightened his character, no deeds in
war or statecraft yet sounded his fame. He was none the less heir of
the Austrian House, which for generations had worn the imperial crown;
as such, too, he was a German prince, and the Germanic constitution
forbade any other the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire. Against
this was the fact that his enormous dominions, including Naples and
Spain, would preclude his continued residence in Germany and might
threaten the liberties of the German people.
[Footnote 256: For details of the sums promised to
the various German princes see _L. and P._, iii.,
36, etc.; it has been said that there was really
little or no bribery at this election.]
[Footnote 257: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1165, 1187; _L.
and P._, ii., 4159; iii., 130.]
[Footnote 258: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 267.]
But was there no third candidate? Leo at heart regarded the election
of either as an absolute evil.[259] He had always dreaded Maximilian's
claims to the temporal power of the Church, though Maximilian held not
a foot of Italian soil. How much more would he dread those claims in
the hands of Francis or Charles! One threatened the papal States from
Milan, and the other from Naples. Of the two, he feared Francis the
less;[260] for the union of Naples with the Empire had been such a
terror to the Popes, that before granting the investiture of that
kingdom, they bound its king by oath not to compete for the Empire.[261]
But a third candidate would offer an escape from between the upper and
the nether mill-stone; and Leo suggested at one time Charles's brother
Ferdinand,[262] at another a German elector. Precisely the same
recommendations had been secretly made by Henry VIII. In public he
followed the course he commended to Leo; he advocated the claims (p. 102)
of both Charles and Francis, when asked so to do, but sent trusty
envoys with his testimonials to explain that no credence was to be
given them.[263] He told the French King that he favoured the election
of Francis, and the Spanish King the election of Charles, but like Leo
he desired in truth the election of neither. Why should he not come
forward himself? His dominions were not so extensive that, when
combined with the imperial dignity, they would threaten to dominate
Europe; and his election might seem to provide a useful check in the
balance of power. In March he had already told Francis that his claims
were favoured by some of the electors, though he professed a wish to
promote the French King's pretensions. In May, Pace was sent to
Germany with secret instructions to endeavour to balance the parties
and force the electors into a deadlock, from which the only escape
would be the election of a third candidate, either Henry himself or
some German prince. It is difficult to believe that Henry really
thought his election possible or was seriously pushing his claim. He
had repeatedly declined Maximilian's offers; he had been as often
warned by trusty advisers that no non-German prince stood a chance of
election; he had expressed his content with his own islands, which,
Tunstall told him with truth, were an Empire worth more than the
barren imperial crown.[264] Pace went far too late to secure a party
for Henry, and, what was even more fatal, he went without the
persuasive of money. Norfolk told Giustinian, after Pace's departure,
that the election would fall on a German prince, and such, said the
Venetian, was the universal belief and desire in England.[265] (p. 103)
After the election, Leo expressed his "regret that Henry gave no
attention to a project which would have made him a near, instead of a
distant, neighbour of the papal States". Under the circumstances, it
seems more probable that the first alternative in Pace's instructions
no more represented a settled design in Henry's mind than his
often-professed intention of conquering France, and that the real
purport of his mission was to promote the election of the Duke of
Saxony or another German prince.[266]
[Footnote 259: _L. and P._, iii., 149.]
[Footnote 260: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1227.]
[Footnote 261: _Ibid._, ii., 1246.]
[Footnote 262: _Ibid._, ii., 1163.]
[Footnote 263: _L. and P._, iii., 137.]
[Footnote 264: _Ibid._, ii., 2911.]
[Footnote 265: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1220.]
[Footnote 266: _L. and P._, ii., 241.]
Whether that was its object or not the mission was foredoomed to
failure. The conclusion was never really in doubt. Electors might
trouble the waters in order to fish with more success. They might
pretend to Francis that if he was free with his money he might be
elected, and to Charles that unless he was free with his money he
would not, but no sufficient reason had been shown why they should
violate national prejudices, the laws of the Empire, and prescriptive
hereditary right, in order to place Henry or Francis instead of a
German upon the imperial throne. Neither people nor princes nor
barons, wrote Leo's envoys, would permit the election of the Most
Christian King;[267] and even if the electors wished to elect him, it
was not in their power to do so. The whole of the nation, said Pace,
was in arms and furious for Charles; and had Henry been elected, they
would in their indignation have killed Pace and all his servants.[268]
The voice of the German people spoke in no uncertain tones; they would
have Charles and no other to be their ruler. Leo himself saw the (p. 104)
futility of resistance, and making a virtue of necessity, he sent
Charles an absolution from his oath as King of Naples. As soon as it
arrived, the electors unanimously declared Charles their Emperor on
28th June.[269]
[Footnote 267: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1227.]
[Footnote 268: _L. and P._, iii., 326.]
[Footnote 269: _L. and P._, iii., 339.]
Thus was completed the shuffling of the cards for the struggle which
lasted till Henry's death. Francis had now succeeded to Louis, Charles
to both his grandfathers, and Henry at twenty-eight was the _doyen_ of
the princes of Europe. He was two years older than Francis and eight
years older than Charles. Europe had passed under the rule of youthful
triumvirs whose rivalry troubled its peace and guided its destinies
for nearly thirty years. The youngest of all was the greatest in
power. His dominions, it is true, were disjointed, and funds were
often to seek, but these defects have been overrated. It was neither
of these which proved his greatest embarrassment. It was a cloud in
Germany, as yet no bigger than a man's hand, but soon to darken the
face of Europe. Ferdinand and Maximilian had at times been dangerous;
Charles wielded the power of both. He ruled over Castile and Aragon,
the Netherlands and Naples, Burgundy and Austria; he could command the
finest military forces in Europe; the infantry of Spain, the science
of Italy, the lance-knights of Germany, for which Ferdinand sighed,
were at his disposal; and the wealth of the Indies was poured out at
his feet. He bestrode the narrow world like a Colossus, and the only
hope of lesser men lay in the maintenance of Francis's power. Were
that to fail, Charles would become arbiter of Christendom, Italy a
Spanish kingdom, and the Pope little more than the Emperor's (p. 105)
chaplain. "Great masters," said Tunstall, with reference to a papal
brief urged by Charles in excuse for his action in 1517, "could get
great clerks to say what they liked."[270] The mastery of Charles in
1517 was but the shadow of what it became ten years later; and if
under its dominance "the great clerk" were called upon to decide
between "the great master" and Henry, it was obvious already that all
Henry's services to the Papacy would count for nothing.
[Footnote 270: _L. and P._, ii., 3054.]
* * * * *
For the present, those services were to be remembered. They were not,
indeed, inconsiderable. It would be absurd to maintain that, since his
accession, Henry had been actuated by respect for the Papacy more than
by another motive; but it is indisputable that that motive had entered
more largely into his conduct than into that of any other monarch.
James IV. and Louis had been excommunicated, Maximilian had obstinately
countenanced a schismatic council and wished to arrogate to himself
the Pope's temporal power. Ferdinand's zeal for his house had eaten
him up and left little room for less selfish impulses; his anxiety for
war with the Moor or the Turk was but a cloak; and the value of his
frequent demands for a Reformation may be gauged by his opinion that
never was there more need for the Inquisition, and by his anger with
Leo for refusing the Inquisitors the preferments he asked.[271] From
hypocrisy like Ferdinand's Henry was, in his early years, singularly
free, and the devotion to the Holy See, which he inherited, was of a
more than conventional type. "He is very religious," wrote (p. 106)
Giustinian, "and hears three masses daily when he hunts, and sometimes
five on other days. He hears the office every day in the Queen's chamber,
that is to say, vesper and compline."[272] The best theologians and
doctors in his kingdom were regularly required to preach at his Court,
when their fee for each sermon was equivalent to ten or twelve pounds.
He was generous in his almsgiving, and his usual offering on Sundays
and saints' days was six shillings and eightpence or, in modern
currency, nearly four pounds; often it was double that amount, and
there were special offerings besides, such as the twenty shillings he
sent every year to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury. In January,
1511, the gentlemen of the King's chapel were paid what would now be
seventy-five pounds for praying for the Queen's safe delivery, and
similar sums were no doubt paid on other occasions.[273] In 1513,
Catherine thought Henry's success was all due to his zeal for
religion,[274] and a year or two later Erasmus wrote that Henry's
Court was an example to all Christendom for learning and piety.[275]
[Footnote 271: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 80, 89, 167, 175.]
[Footnote 272: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1287; Giustinian,
_Desp._, ii., App., 309; _L. and P._, iii., 402.]
[Footnote 273: These details are from the King's
"Book of Payments" calendared at the end of _L. and
P._, vol. ii.]
[Footnote 274: _L. and P._, i., 4417.]
[Footnote 275: _Ibid._, ii., 4115.]
Piety went hand in hand with a filial respect for the head of the
Church. Not once in the ten years is there to be found any expression
from Henry of contempt for the Pope, whether he was Julius II. or Leo
X. There had been no occasion on which Pope and King had been brought
into conflict, and almost throughout they had acted in perfect harmony.
It was the siege of Julius by Louis that drew Henry from his peaceful
policy to intervene as the champion of the Papal See, and it was (p. 107)
as the executor of papal censures that he made war on France.[276] If
he had ulterior views on that kingdom, he could plead the justification
of a brief, drawn up if not published, by Julius II., investing him
with the French crown.[277] A papal envoy came to urge peace in 1514,
and a Pope claimed first to have suggested the marriage between Mary
and Louis.[278] The Milan expedition of 1516 was made under cover of a
new Holy League concluded in the spring of the previous year, and the
peace of 1518 was made with the full approval and blessings of Leo.
Henry's devotion had been often acknowledged in words, and twice by
tangible tokens of gratitude, in the gift of the golden rose in 1510
and of the sword and cap in 1513.[279] But did not his services merit
some more signal mark of favour? If Ferdinand was "Catholic," and
Louis "Most Christian," might not some title be found for a genuine
friend? And, as early as 1515, Henry was pressing the Pope for "some
title as protector of the Holy See".[280] Various names were suggested,
"King Apostolic," "King Orthodox," and others; and in January, 1516,
we find the first mention of "Fidei Defensor".[281] But the prize was
to be won by services more appropriate to the title than even ten
years' maintenance of the Pope's temporal interests. His championship
of the Holy See had been the most unselfish part of Henry's policy
since he came to the throne; and his whole conduct had been an
example, which others were slow to follow, and which Henry himself was
soon to neglect.
[Footnote 276: _L. and P._, i., 3876, 4283.]
[Footnote 277: _Arch. R. Soc. Rom._, xix., 3, 4.]
[Footnote 278: _L. and P._, i., 5543.]
[Footnote 279: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 53-54, 361; _L.
and P._, i., 976, 4621.]
[Footnote 280: _Ibid._, ii., 887, 967.]
[Footnote 281: _Ibid._, ii., 1456, 1928; iii.,
1369.]
CHAPTER V. (p. 108)
KING AND CARDINAL.
"Nothing," wrote Giustinian of Wolsey in 1519, "pleases him more than
to be called the arbiter of Christendom."[282] Continental statesmen
were inclined to ridicule and resent the Cardinal's claim. But the
title hardly exaggerates the part which the English minister was
enabled to play during the next few years by the rivalry of Charles
and Francis, and by the apparently even balance of their powers. The
position which England held in the councils of Europe in 1519 was a
marvellous advance upon that which it had occupied in 1509. The first
ten years of Henry's reign had been a period of fluctuating, but
continual, progress. The campaign of 1513 had vindicated England's
military prowess, and had made it possible for Wolsey, at the peace of
the following year, to place his country on a level with France and
Spain and the Empire. Francis's conquest of Milan, and the haste with
which Maximilian, Leo and Charles sought to make terms with the
victor, caused a temporary isolation of England and a consequent
decline in her influence. But the arrangements made between Charles
and Francis contained, in themselves, as acute English diplomatists
saw, the seeds of future disruption; and, in 1518, Wolsey was able (p. 109)
so to play off these mutual jealousies as to reassert England's
position. He imposed a general peace, or rather a truce, which raised
England even higher than the treaties of 1514 had done, and made her
appear as the conservator of the peace of Europe. England had almost
usurped the place of the Pope as mediator between rival Christian
princes.[283]
[Footnote 282: _L. and P._, iii., 125; Giustinian,
_Desp._, ii., 256.]
[Footnote 283: _L. and P._, iii., 125. Men were
shocked when the Pope was styled "comes" instead of
"princeps confederationis" of 1518. "The chief
author of these proceedings," says Giustinian, "is
Wolsey, whose sole aim is to procure incense for
his king and himself" (_Desp._ ii., 256).]
These brilliant results were achieved with the aid of very moderate
military forces and an only respectable navy. They were due partly to
the lavish expenditure of Henry's treasures, partly to the extravagant
faith of other princes in the extent of England's wealth, but mainly
to the genius for diplomacy displayed by the great English Cardinal.
Wolsey had now reached the zenith of his power; and the growth of his
sense of his own importance is graphically described by the Venetian
ambassador. When Giustinian first arrived in England, Wolsey used to
say, "His Majesty will do so and so". Subsequently, by degrees,
forgetting himself, he commenced saying, "We shall do so and so". In
1519 he had reached such a pitch that he used to say, "I shall do so
and so".[284] Fox had been called by Badoer "a second King," but
Wolsey was now "the King himself".[285] "We have to deal," said Fox,
"with the Cardinal, who is not Cardinal, but King; and no one in the
realm dares attempt aught in opposition to his interests."[286] On
another occasion Giustinian remarks: "This Cardinal is King, nor does
His Majesty depart in the least from the opinion and counsel of (p. 110)
his lordship".[287] Sir Thomas More, in describing the negotiations
for the peace of 1518, reports that only after Wolsey had concluded a
point did he tell the council, "so that even the King hardly knows in
what state matters are".[288] A month or two later there was a curious
dispute between the Earl of Worcester and West, Bishop of Ely, who
were sent to convey the Treaty of London to Francis. Worcester, as a
layman, was a partisan of the King, West of the Cardinal. Worcester
insisted that their detailed letters should be addressed to Henry, and
only general ones to Wolsey. West refused; the important letters, he
thought, should go to the Cardinal, the formal ones to the King; and,
eventually, identical despatches were sent to both.[289] In
negotiations with England, Giustinian told his Government, "if it were
necessary to neglect either King or Cardinal, it would be better to
pass over the King; he would therefore make the proposal to both, but
to the Cardinal first, _lest he should resent the precedence conceded
to the King_".[290] The popular charge against Wolsey, repeated by
Shakespeare, of having written _Ego et rex meus_, though true in
fact,[291] is false in intention, because no Latin scholar could put
the words in any other order; but the Cardinal's mental attitude is
faithfully represented in the meaning which the familiar phrase was
supposed to convey.
[Footnote 284: _Ven._ Cal., ii. 1287.]
[Footnote 285: _L. and P._, ii., 1380.]
[Footnote 286: _Ibid._, ii., 3558.]
[Footnote 287: _Cf. Ven. Cal._, ii., 671, 875,
894.]
[Footnote 288: _L. and P._, ii., 4438.]
[Footnote 289: _Ibid._, ii., 4664. On other
occasions Wolsey took it upon himself to open
letters addressed to the King (_Ibid._, iii.,
2126).]
[Footnote 290: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1215.]
[Footnote 291: It will be found in _Ven. Cal._,
iii., p. 43; Shakespeare, _Henry VIII._, Act III.,
Sc. ii.]
His arrogance does not rest merely on the testimony of personal (p. 111)
enemies like the historian, Polydore Vergil, and the poet Skelton, or
of chroniclers like Hall, who wrote when vilification of Wolsey
pleased both king and people, but on the despatches of diplomatists
with whom he had to deal, and on the reports of observers who narrowly
watched his demeanour. "He is," wrote one, "the proudest prelate that
ever breathed."[292] During the festivities of the Emperor's visit to
England, in 1520, Wolsey alone sat down to dinner with the royal
party, while peers, like the Dukes of Suffolk and Buckingham,
performed menial offices for the Cardinal, as well as for Emperor,
King and Queen.[293] When he celebrated mass at the Field of Cloth of
Gold, bishops invested him with his robes and put sandals on his feet,
and "some of the chief noblemen in England" brought water to wash his
hands.[294] A year later, at his meeting with Charles at Bruges, he
treated the Emperor as an equal. He did not dismount from his mule,
but merely doffed his cap, and embraced as a brother the temporal head
of Christendom.[295] When, after a dispute with the Venetian ambassador,
he wished to be friendly, he allowed Giustinian, with royal condescension,
and as a special mark of favour, to kiss his hand.[296] He never
granted audience either to English peers or foreign ambassadors until
the third or fourth time of asking.[297] In 1515 it was the custom of
ambassadors to dine with Wolsey before presentation at Court, but four
years later they were never served until the viands had been removed
from the Cardinal's table.[298] A Venetian, describing Wolsey's (p. 112)
embassy to France in 1527, relates that his "attendants served cap in
hand, and, when bringing the dishes, knelt before him in the act of
presenting them. Those who waited on the Most Christian King, kept
their caps on their heads, dispensing with such exaggerated
ceremonies."[299]
[Footnote 292: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 56.]
[Footnote 293: _Ibid._, iii., 50.]
[Footnote 294: _Ibid._, vol. iii., p. 29.]
[Footnote 295: _Ibid._, iii., 298.]
[Footnote 296: _L. and P._, ii., 3733.]
[Footnote 297: Giustinian, _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]
[Footnote 298: Giustinian, _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]
[Footnote 299: _Ven. Cal._, iii., p. 84.]
Pretenders to royal honours seldom acquire the grace of genuine
royalty, and the Cardinal pursued with vindictive ferocity those who
offended his sensitive dignity. In 1515, Polydore Vergil said, in
writing to his friend, Cardinal Hadrian, that Wolsey was so tyrannical
towards all men that his influence could not last, and that all
England abused him.[300] The letter was copied by Wolsey's secretary,
Vergil was sent to the Tower,[301] and only released after many months
at the repeated intercession of Leo X. His correspondent, Cardinal
Hadrian, was visited with Wolsey's undying hatred. A pretext for his
ruin was found in his alleged complicity in a plot to poison the Pope;
the charge was trivial, and Leo forgave him.[302] Not so Wolsey, who
procured Hadrian's deprivation of the Bishopric of Bath and Wells,
appropriated the see for himself, and in 1518 kept Campeggio, the
Pope's legate, chafing at Calais until he could bring with him the
papal confirmation of these measures.[303] Venice had the temerity to
intercede with Leo on Hadrian's behalf; Wolsey thereupon overwhelmed
Giustinian with "rabid and insolent language"; ordered him not to (p. 113)
put anything in his despatches without his consent; and revoked the
privileges of Venetian merchants in England.[304] In these outbursts
of fury, he paid little respect to the sacrosanct character of
ambassadors. He heard that the papal nuncio, Chieregati, was sending
to France unfavourable reports of his conduct. The nuncio "was sent
for by Wolsey, who took him into a private chamber, laid rude hands
upon him, fiercely demanding what he had written to the King of
France, and what intercourse he had held with Giustinian and his son,
adding that he should not quit the spot until he had confessed
everything, and, if fair means were not sufficient, he should be put
upon the rack".[305] Nine years later, Wolsey nearly precipitated war
between England and the Emperor by a similar outburst against
Charles's ambassador, De Praet. He intercepted De Praet's
correspondence, and confined him to his house. It was a flagrant
breach of international law. Tampering with diplomatic correspondence
was usually considered a sufficient cause for war; on this occasion
war did not suit Charles's purpose, but it was no fault of Wolsey's
that his fury at an alleged personal slight did not provoke
hostilities with the most powerful prince in Christendom.[306]
[Footnote 300: _L. and P._, ii., 215.]
[Footnote 301: _Ibid._, ii., 491, 865, 1229.]
[Footnote 302: _Ibid._, ii., 3581, 3584; _Ven.
Cal._, ii., 902, 951.]
[Footnote 303: _L. and P._, ii., 4348.]
[Footnote 304: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 951, 953, 978; _L.
and P._, ii., 3584.]
[Footnote 305: _L. and P._, ii., 2643.]
[Footnote 306: _Sp. Cal._, iii., pp. 50, 76, 78,
92.]
Englishmen fared no better than others at Wolsey's hands. He used the
coercive power of the State to revenge his private wrongs as well as
to secure the peace of the realm. In July, 1517, Sir Robert Sheffield,[307]
who had been Speaker in two Parliaments, was sent to the Tower for
complaining of Wolsey, and to point the moral of Fox's assertion, (p. 114)
that none durst do ought in opposition to the Cardinal's interests.[308]
Again, the idea reflected by Shakespeare, that Wolsey was jealous of
Pace, has been described as absurd; but it is difficult to draw any
other inference from the relations between them after 1521. While
Wolsey was absent at Calais, he accused Pace, without ground, of
misrepresenting his letters to Henry, and of obtaining Henry's favour
on behalf of a canon of York;[309] he complained that foreign powers
were trusting to another influence than his over the King; and, when
he returned, he took care that Pace should henceforth be employed, not
as secretary to Henry, but on almost continuous missions to Italy. In
1525, when the Venetian ambassador was to thank Henry for making a
treaty with Venice, which Pace had concluded, he was instructed not to
praise him so highly, if the Cardinal were present, as if the oration
were made to Henry alone;[310] and, four years later, Wolsey found an
occasion for sending Pace to the Tower--treatment which eventually
caused Pace's mind to become unhinged.[311]
[Footnote 307: _L. and P._, ii., 3487.]
[Footnote 308: _L. and P._, ii., 3558.]
[Footnote 309: _Ibid._, iii., 1713.]
[Footnote 310: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 975.]
[Footnote 311: Brewer (Henry VIII., ii., 388; _L.
and P._, vol. iv., Introd., p. dxxxv. _n._) is very
indignant at this allegation, and when recording
Chapuys' statement in 1529 that Pace had been
imprisoned for two years in the Tower and elsewhere
by Wolsey, declares that "Pace was never committed
to the Tower, nor kept in prison by Wolsey" but was
"placed under the charge of the Bishop of Bangor,"
and that Chapuys' statement is "an instance how
popular rumour exaggerates facts, or how Spanish
ambassadors were likely to misrepresent them". It
is rather an instance of the lengths to which
Brewer's zeal for Wolsey carried him. He had not
seen the despatch from Mendoza recording Pace's
committal to the Tower on 25th Oct., 1527, "for
speaking to the King in opposition to Wolsey and
the divorce" (_Sp. Cal._, 1527-29, p. 440). It is
true that Pace was in the charge of the Bishop of
Bangor, but he was not transferred thither until
1528 (Ellis, _Orig. Letters_, 3rd ser., ii., 151);
he was released immediately upon Wolsey's fall.
Erasmus, thereupon, congratulating him on the fact,
remarked that he was consoled by Pace's experience
for his own persecution and that God rescued the
innocent and cast down the proud (_ibid._, iv.,
6283). The _D.N.B._ (xliii., 24), has been misled
by Brewer. Wolsey had long had a grudge against
Pace, and in 1514 was anxious to make "a fearful
example" of him (_L. and P._, i., 5465); and his
treatment of Pace was one of the charges brought
against him in 1529 (_ibid._, iv., p. 2552).]
Wolsey's pride in himself, and his jealousy of others, were not (p. 115)
more conspicuous than his thirst after riches. His fees as Chancellor
were reckoned by Giustinian at five thousand ducats a year. He made
thrice that sum by New Year's presents, "which he receives like the
King".[312] His demand for the Bishopric of Bath and Wells, coupled
with the fact that it was he who petitioned for Hadrian's deprivation,
amazed even the Court at Rome, and, "to avoid murmurs,"[313] compliance
was deferred for a time. But these scruples were allowed no more than
ecclesiastical law to stand in the way of Wolsey's preferment. One of
the small reforms decreed by the Lateran Council was that no bishoprics
should be held _in commendam_; the ink was scarcely dry when Wolsey
asked _in commendam_ for the see of the recently conquered Tournay.[314]
Tournay was restored to France in 1518, but the Cardinal took care
that he should not be the loser. A _sine qua non_ of the peace was
that Francis should pay him an annual pension of twelve thousand
livres as compensation for the loss of a bishopric of which he had
never obtained possession.[315] He drew other pensions for political
services, from both Francis and Charles; and, from the Duke of Milan,
he obtained the promise of ten thousand ducats a year before Pace (p. 116)
set out to recover the duchy.[316] It is scarcely a matter for wonder
that foreign diplomatists, and Englishmen, too, should have accused
Wolsey of spending the King's money for his own profit, and have
thought that the surest way of winning his favour was by means of a
bribe.[317] When England, in 1521, sided with Charles against Francis,
the Emperor bound himself to make good to Wolsey all the sums he would
lose by a breach with France; and from that year onwards Charles
paid--or owed--Wolsey eighteen thousand livres a year.[318] It was
nine times the pensions considered sufficient for the Dukes of Norfolk
and Suffolk; and even so it does not include the revenue Wolsey
derived from two Spanish bishoprics. These were not bribes in the
sense that they affected Wolsey's policy; they were well enough known
to the King; to spoil the Egyptians was considered fair game, and
Henry was generous enough not to keep all the perquisites of peace or
war for himself.
[Footnote 312: Giustinian, _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]
[Footnote 313: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1045.]
[Footnote 314: _L. and P._, i., 5457.]
[Footnote 315: _Ibid._, ii., 4354.]
[Footnote 316: _L. and P._, ii., 1053, 1066.]
[Footnote 317: _Ibid._, ii., 1931; _cf._
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII._, Act. I., Sc. i.:--
Thus the Cardinal
Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases
And for his own advantage.]
[Footnote 318: _L. and P._, iii., 709, 2307 (where
it is given as nine thousand "crowns of the sun");
_Sp. Cal._, ii., 273, 600. In 1527 Charles
instructed his ambassador to offer Wolsey in
addition to his pension of nine thousand ducats
with arrears a further pension of six thousand
ducats and a marquisate in Milan worth another
twelve or fifteen thousand ducats a year (_L. and
P._, iv., 3464).]
Two years after the agreement with Charles, Ruthal, Bishop of Durham,
died, and Wolsey exchanged Bath and Wells for the richer see formerly
held by his political ally and friend. But Winchester was richer (p. 117)
even than Durham; so when Fox followed Ruthal to the grave, in 1528,
Wolsey exchanged the northern for the southern see, and begged that
Durham might go to his natural son, a youth of eighteen.[319] All
these were held _in commendam_ with the Archbishopric of York, but
they did not satisfy Wolsey; and, in 1521, he obtained the grant of
St. Albans, the greatest abbey in England. His palaces outshone in
splendour those of Henry himself, and few monarchs have been able to
display such wealth of plate as loaded the Cardinal's table. Wolsey is
supposed to have conceived vast schemes of ecclesiastical reform,
which time and opportunity failed him to effect.[320] If he had ever
seriously set about the work, the first thing to be reformed would
have been his own ecclesiastical practice. He personified in himself
most of the clerical abuses of his age. Not merely an "unpreaching
prelate," he rarely said mass; his _commendams_ and absenteeism were
alike violations of canon law. Three of the bishoprics he held he
never visited at all; York, which he had obtained fifteen years
before, he did not visit till the year of his death, and then through
no wish of his own. He was equally negligent of the vow of chastity;
he cohabited with the daughter of "one Lark," a relative of the Lark
who is mentioned in the correspondence of the time as "omnipotent"
with the Cardinal, and as resident in his household.[321] By her (p. 118)
he left two children, a son,[322] for whom he obtained a deanery, four
archdeaconries, five prebends, and a chancellorship, and sought the
Bishopric of Durham, and a daughter who became a nun. The accusation
brought against him by the Duke of Buckingham and others, of procuring
objects for Henry's sensual appetite, is a scandal, to which no
credence would have been attached but for Wolsey's own moral laxity,
and the fact that the governor of Charles V. performed a similar
office.[323]
[Footnote 319: _L. and P._, iv., 4824.]
[Footnote 320: There is no doubt about his
eagerness for the power which would have enabled
him to carry out a reformation. As legate he
demanded from the Pope authority to visit and
reform the secular clergy as well as the
monasteries; this was refused on the ground that it
would have superseded the proper functions of the
episcopate (_L. and P._, ii., 4399; iii., 149).]
[Footnote 321: _L. and P._, ii., 629, 2637, 4068.
Lark became prebendary of St. Stephen's (_Ibid._,
iv., _Introd._, p. xlvi.).]
[Footnote 322: Called Thomas Wynter, see the
present writer's _Life of Cranmer_, p. 324 _n._
Some writers have affected to doubt Wolsey's
parentage of Wynter, but this son is often referred
to in the correspondence of the time, _e.g._, _L. and
P._, iv., p. 1407, Nos. 4824, 5581, 6026, 6075.
Art. 27.]
[Footnote 323: _Ibid._, iii., 1284; iv., p. 2558;
ii., 2930.]
Repellent as was Wolsey's character in many respects, he was yet the
greatest, as he was the last, of the ecclesiastical statesmen who have
governed England. As a diplomatist, pure and simple, he has never been
surpassed, and as an administrator he has had few equals. "He is,"
says Giustinian, "very handsome, learned, extremely eloquent, of vast
ability and indefatigable. He alone transacts the same business as
that which occupies all the magistracies, offices, and councils of
Venice, both civil and criminal; and all State affairs are managed by
him, let their nature be what it may. He is thoughtful, and has the
reputation of being extremely just; he favours the people exceedingly,
and especially the poor, hearing their suits and seeking to despatch
them instantly. He also makes the lawyers plead gratis for all poor
suitors. He is in very great repute, seven times more so than if (p. 119)
he were Pope."[324] His sympathy with the poor was no idle sentiment,
and his commission of 1517, and decree against enclosures in the
following year, were the only steps taken in Henry's reign to mitigate
that curse of the agricultural population.
[Footnote 324: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1287; Giustinian,
_D sp._, App. ii., 309; _L. and P._, iii., 402.]
The Evil May Day riots of 1517 alone disturbed the peace of Wolsey's
internal administration; and they were due merely to anti-foreign
prejudice, and to the idea that strangers within the gates monopolised
the commerce of England and diverted its profits to their own advantage.
"Never," wrote Wolsey to a bishop at Rome in 1518, "was the kingdom in
greater harmony and repose than now; such is the effect of my
administration of justice and equity."[325] To Henry his strain was
less arrogant. "And for your realm," he says, "our Lord be thanked, it
was never in such peace nor tranquillity; for all this summer I have
had neither of riot, felony, nor forcible entry, but that your laws be
in every place indifferently ministered without leaning of any manner.
Albeit, there hath lately been a fray betwixt Pygot, your Serjeant,
and Sir Andrew Windsor's servants for the seisin of a ward, whereto
they both pretend titles; in the which one man was slain. I trust the
next term to learn them the law of the Star Chamber that they shall
ware how from henceforth they shall redress their matter with their
hands. They be both learned in the temporal law, and I doubt not good
example shall ensue to see them learn the new law of the Star Chamber,
which, God willing, they shall have indifferently administered (p. 120)
to them, according to their deserts."[326]
[Footnote 325: _Ibid._, ii., 3973.]
[Footnote 326: _L. and P._, ii., App. No. 38; for
the Star Chamber see Scofield, _Star Chamber_,
1902, and Leadam, _Select Cases_ (Selden Soc.,
1904).]
Wolsey's "new law of the Star Chamber," his stern enforcement of the
statutes against livery and maintenance, and his spasmodic attempt to
redress the evils of enclosures,[327] probably contributed as much as
his arrogance and ostentation to the ill-favour in which he stood with
the nobility and landed gentry. From the beginning there were frequent
rumours of plots to depose him, and his enemies abroad often talked of
the universal hatred which he inspired in England. The classes which
benefited by his justice complained bitterly of the impositions
required to support his spirited foreign policy. Clerics who regarded
him as a bulwark on the one hand against heresy, and, on the other,
against the extreme view which Henry held from the first of his
authority over the Church, were alienated by the despotism Wolsey
wielded by means of his legatine powers. Even the mild and aged Warham
felt his lash, and was threatened with _Præmunire_ for having wounded
Wolsey's legatine authority by calling a council at Lambeth.[328]
Peers, spiritual no less than temporal, regarded him as "the great
tyrant". Parliament he feared and distrusted; he had urged the speedy
dissolution of that of 1515; only one sat during the fourteen years of
his supremacy, and with that the Cardinal quarrelled. He possessed no
hold over the nation, but only over the King, in whom alone he put his
trust.
[Footnote 327: _L. and P._, App. No. 53; _cf._
Leadam, _Domesday of Enclosures_ (Royal Hist.
Soc.).]
[Footnote 328: _Ibid._, iii., 77, 98; _cf._ ii.,
3973; iii. 1142.]
For the time he seemed secure enough. No one could touch a hair (p. 121)
of his head so long as he was shielded by Henry's power, and Henry
seemed to have given over his royal authority to Wolsey's hands with a
blind and undoubting confidence. "The King," said one, in 1515, "is a
youngling, cares for nothing but girls and hunting, and wastes his
father's patrimony."[329] "He gambled," reported Giustinian in 1519,
"with the French hostages, occasionally, it was said, to the amount of
six or eight thousand ducats a day."[330] In the following summer
Henry rose daily at four or five in the morning and hunted till nine
or ten at night; "he spares," said Pace, "no pains to convert the
sport of hunting into a martyrdom".[331] "He devotes himself," wrote
Chieregati, "to accomplishments and amusements day and night, is
intent on nothing else, and leaves business to Wolsey, who rules
everything."[332] Wolsey, it was remarked by Leo X., made Henry go
hither and thither, just as he liked,[333] and the King signed State
papers without knowing their contents. "Writing," admitted Henry, "is
to me somewhat tedious and painful."[334] When Wolsey thought it
essential that autograph letters in Henry's hand should be sent to
other crowned heads, he composed the letters and sent them to Henry to
copy out.[335] Could the most constitutional monarch have been more
dutiful? But constitutional monarchy was not then invented, and it is
not surprising that Giustinian, in 1519, found it impossible to (p. 122)
say much for Henry as a statesman. _Agere cum rege_, he said, _est
nihil agere_;[336] anything told to the King was either useless or was
communicated to Wolsey. Bishop West was sure that Henry would not take
the pains to look at his and Worcester's despatches; and there was a
widespread impression abroad and at home that the English King was a
negligible quantity in the domestic and foreign affairs of his own
kingdom.
[Footnote 329: _L. and P._, ii., 1105; _cf. ibid._,
ii., 215.]
[Footnote 330: Giustinian, _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]
[Footnote 331: _L. and P._, iii., 950; _cf._ iii.,
1160, where Fitzwilliam describes Henry as a
"master" in deer-hunting.]
[Footnote 332: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 788.]
[Footnote 333: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 281.]
[Footnote 334: _L. and P._, iii., 1.]
[Footnote 335: _Ibid._, iii., 1453, 3377.]
[Footnote 336: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1110.]
For ten years Henry had reigned while first his council, and then
Wolsey, governed. Before another decade had passed, Henry was King and
Government in one; and nobody in the kingdom counted for much but the
King. He stepped at once into Wolsey's place, became his own prime
minister, and ruled with a vigour which was assuredly not less than
the Cardinal's. Such transformations are not the work of a moment, and
Henry's would have been impossible, had he in previous years been so
completely the slave of Vanity Fair, as most people thought. In
reality, there are indications that beneath the superficial gaiety of
his life, Henry was beginning to use his own judgment, form his own
conclusions, and take an interest in serious matters. He was only
twenty-eight in 1519, and his character was following a normal course
of development.
From the earliest years of his reign Henry had at least two serious
preoccupations, the New Learning and his navy. We learn from Erasmus
that Henry's Court was an example to Christendom for learning and
piety;[337] that the King sought to promote learning among the clergy;
and on one occasion defended "mental and _ex tempore_ prayer" against
those who apparently thought laymen should, in their private (p. 123)
devotions, confine themselves to formularies prescribed by the
clergy.[338] In 1519 there were more men of learning at the English
Court than at any university;[339] it was more like a museum, says the
great humanist, than a Court;[340] and in the same year the King
endeavoured to stop the outcry against Greek, raised by the reactionary
"Trojans" at Oxford. "You would say," continues Erasmus, "that Henry
was a universal genius. He has never neglected his studies; and
whenever he has leisure from his political occupations, he reads, or
disputes--of which he is very fond--with remarkable courtesy and
unruffled temper. He is more of a companion than a king. For these
little trials of wit, he prepares himself by reading schoolmen,
Thomas, Scotus or Gabriel."[341] His theological studies were
encouraged by Wolsey, possibly to divert the King's mind from an
unwelcome interference in politics, and it was at the Cardinal's
instigation that Henry set to work on his famous book against
Luther.[342] He seems to have begun it, or some similar treatise,
which may afterwards have been adapted to Luther's particular case,
before the end of the year in which the German reformer published his
original theses. In September, 1517, Erasmus heard that Henry had
returned to his studies,[343] and, in the following June, Pace writes
to Wolsey that, with respect to the commendations given by the
Cardinal to the King's book, though Henry does not think it worthy
such great praise as it has had from him and from all other "great
learned" men, yet he says he is very glad to have "noted in your (p. 124)
grace's letters that his reasons be called inevitable, considering
that your grace was sometime his adversary herein and of contrary
opinion".[344] It is obvious that this "book," whatever it may have
been, was the fruit of Henry's own mind, and that he adopted a line of
argument not entirely relished by Wolsey. But, if it was the book
against Luther, it was laid aside and rewritten before it was given to
the world in its final form. Nothing more is heard of it for three
years. In April, 1521, Pace explains to Wolsey the delay in sending
him on some news-letters from Germany "which his grace had not read
till this day after his dinner; and thus he commanded me to write unto
your grace, declaring he was otherwise occupied; _i.e., in scribendo
contra Lutherum,_ as I do conjecture".[345] Nine days later Pace found
the King reading a new book of Luther's, "which he dispraised"; and he
took the opportunity to show Henry Leo's bull against the Reformer.
"His grace showed himself well contented with the coming of the same;
howbeit, as touching the publication thereof, he said he would have it
well examined and diligently looked to afore it were published."[346]
Even in the height of his fervour against heresy, Henry was in no mood
to abate one jot or one tittle of his royal authority in
ecclesiastical matters.
[Footnote 337: _L. and P._, ii., 4115.]
[Footnote 338: _L. and P._, iii., 226.]
[Footnote 339: _Ibid._, iii., 251.]
[Footnote 340: _Ibid._, ii., 4340.]
[Footnote 341: _Ibid._, iv., 5412; for the freedom
with which Cranmer in later days debated with Henry
see the present writer's _Cranmer_, p. 169.]
[Footnote 342: _Ibid._, iii., 1659, 1772.]
[Footnote 343: _Ibid._, ii., 3673.]
[Footnote 344: _L. and P._, ii., 4257.]
[Footnote 345: _Ibid._, iii., 1220.]
[Footnote 346: _Ibid._, 1233.]
His book was finished before 21st May, 1521, when the King wrote to
Leo, saying that "ever since he knew Luther's heresy in Germany, he
had made it his study how to extirpate it. He had called the learned
of his kingdom to consider these errors and denounce them, and (p. 125)
exhort others to do the same. He had urged the Emperor and Electors,
since this pestilent fellow would not return to God, to extirpate him
and his heretical books. He thought it right still further to testify
his zeal for the faith by his writings, that all might see he was
ready to defend the Church, not only with his arms, but with the
resources of his mind. He dedicated therefore, to the Pope, the first
offerings of his intellect and his little erudition."[347] The letter
had been preceded, on 12th May, by a holocaust of Luther's books in
St. Paul's Churchyard. Wolsey sat in state on a scaffold at St. Paul's
Cross, with the papal nuncio and the Archbishop of Canterbury at his
feet on the right, and the imperial ambassador and Tunstall, Bishop of
London, at his feet on the left; and while the books were being
devoured by the flames, Fisher preached a sermon denouncing the errors
contained therein.[348] But it was July before the fair copy of
Henry's book was ready for presentation to Leo; possibly the interval
was employed by learned men in polishing Henry's style, but the
substance of the work was undoubtedly of Henry's authorship. Such is
the direct testimony of Erasmus, and there is no evidence to indicate
the collaboration of others.[349] Pace was then the most intimate of
Henry's counsellors, and Pace, by his own confession, was not in the
secret. Nor is the book so remarkable as to preclude the possibility
of Henry's authorship. Its arguments are respectable and give evidence
of an intelligent and fairly extensive acquaintance with the writings
of the fathers and schoolmen; but they reveal no profound depth of
theological learning nor genius for abstract speculation. It does (p. 126)
not rank so high in the realm of theology, as do some of Henry's
compositions in that of music. In August it was sent to Leo, with
verses composed by Wolsey and copied out in the royal hand.[350] In
September the English ambassador at Rome presented Leo his copy, bound
in cloth of gold. The Pope read five leaves without interruption, and
remarked that "he would not have thought such a book should have come
from the King's grace, who hath been occupied, necessarily, in other
feats, seeing that other men which hath occupied themselves in study
all their lives cannot bring forth the like".[351] On 2nd October it
was formally presented in a consistory of cardinals; and, on the 11th,
Leo promulgated his bull conferring on Henry his coveted title, "Fidei
Defensor".
[Footnote 347: _L. and P._, iii., 1297.]
[Footnote 348: _Ibid._, iii., 1273.]
[Footnote 349: F.M. Nichols, _Epistles of Erasmus_,
p. 424; _L. and P._, iv., 5412.]
[Footnote 350: _L. and P._, iii., 1450.]
[Footnote 351: _Ibid._, iii., 1574, 1654, 1655,
1659.]
Proud as he was of his scholastic achievement and its reward at the
hands of the Pope, Henry was doing more for the future of England by
his attention to naval affairs than by his pursuit of high-sounding
titles. His intuitive perception of England's coming needs in this
respect is, perhaps, the most striking illustration of his political
foresight. He has been described as the father of the British navy;
and, had he not laid the foundations of England's naval power, his
daughter's victory over Spain and entrance on the path that led to
empire would have been impossible. Under Henry, the navy was first
organised as a permanent force; he founded the royal dockyards at
Woolwich and Deptford, and the corporation of Trinity House;[352] he
encouraged the planting of timber for shipbuilding, enacted laws (p. 127)
facilitating inland navigation, dotted the coast with fortifications,
and settled the constitution of the naval service upon a plan from
which it has ever since steadily developed. He owed his inspiration to
none of his councillors, least of all to Wolsey, who had not the
faintest glimmering of the importance of securing England's naval
supremacy, and who, during the war of 1522-23, preferred futile
invasions on land to Henry's "secret designs" for destroying the navy
of France.[353] The King's interest in ships and shipbuilding was
strong, even amid the alluring diversions of the first years of his
reign. He watched his fleet sail for Guienne in 1512, and for France
in 1513; he knew the speed, the tonnage and the armament of every ship
in his navy; he supervised the minutest details of their construction.
In 1520 his ambassador at Paris tells him that Francis is building a
ship, "and reasoneth in this mystery of shipman's craft as one which
had understanding in the same. But, sir, he approacheth not your
highness in that science."[354] A French envoy records how, in 1515,
the whole English Court went down to see the launch of the _Princess
Mary_. Henry himself "acted as pilot and wore a sailor's coat and
trousers, made of cloth of gold, and a gold chain with the inscription,
'Dieu _est_ mon droit,' to which was suspended a whistle, which he
blew nearly as loud as a trumpet".[355] The launch of a ship was then
almost a religious ceremony, and the place of the modern bottle of
champagne was taken by a mass, which was said by the Bishop of Durham.
In 1518 Giustinian tells how Henry went to Southampton to see the
Venetian galleys, and caused some new guns to be "fired again and (p. 128)
again, marking their range, as he is very curious about matters of
this kind".[356]
[Footnote 352: _Ibid._, i., 3807. In 1513 an
English consul was appointed at Scio (_ibid._, i.,
3854).]
[Footnote 353: _L. and P._, iii., 1440; _cf.
ibid._, 2421.]
[Footnote 354: _Ibid._, iii., 748.]
[Footnote 355: _Ibid._, ii., 1113.]
[Footnote 356: _L. and P._, ii., 4232.]
It was not long before Henry developed an active participation in
serious matters other than theological disputes and naval affairs. It
is not possible to trace its growth with any clearness because no
record remains of the verbal communications which were sufficient to
indicate his will during the constant attendance of Wolsey upon him.
But, as soon as monarch and minister were for some cause or another
apart, evidence of Henry's activity in political matters becomes more
available. Thus, in 1515, we find Wolsey sending the King, at his own
request, the Act of Apparel, just passed by Parliament, for Henry's
"examination and correction".[357] He also desires Henry's determination
about the visit of the Queen of Scotland, that he may make the
necessary arrangements. In 1518 Henry made a prolonged stay at
Abingdon, partly from fear of the plague, and partly, as he told Pace,
because at Abingdon people were not continually coming to tell him of
deaths, as they did daily in London. During this absence from London,
Henry insisted upon the attendance of sufficient councillors to enable
him to transact business; he established a relay of posts every seven
hours between himself and Wolsey; and we hear of his reading "every
word of all the letters" sent by his minister.[358] Every week Wolsey
despatched an account of such State business as he had transacted; and
on one occasion, "considering the importance of Wolsey's letters,"
Henry paid a secret and flying visit to London.[359] In 1519 there
was a sort of revolution at Court, obscure enough now, but then a (p. 129)
subject of some comment at home and abroad. Half a dozen of Henry's
courtiers were removed from his person and sent into honourable exile,
receiving posts at Calais, at Guisnes, and elsewhere.[360] Giustinian
thought that Henry had been gambling too much and wished to turn over
a new leaf. There were also rumours that these courtiers governed
Henry after their own appetite, to the King's dishonour; and Henry,
annoyed at the report and jealous as ever of royal prestige, promptly
cashiered them, and filled their places with grave and reverend
seniors.
[Footnote 357: _Ibid._, ii., 1223.]
[Footnote 358: _Ibid._, ii., 4060, 4061, 4089.]
[Footnote 359: _L. and P._, ii., 4276.]
[Footnote 360: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1220, 1230; _L.
and P._, iii., 246, 247, 249, 250. Francis I.
thought they were dismissed as being too favourable
to him, and as a rule the younger courtiers
favoured France and the older Spain.]
Two years later Wolsey was abroad at the conference of Calais, and
again Henry's hand in State affairs becomes apparent. Pace, defending
himself from the Cardinal's complaints, tells him that he had done
everything "by the King's express commandment, who readeth all your
letters with great diligence". One of the letters which angered Wolsey
was the King's, for Pace "had devised it very different"; but the King
would not approve of it; "and commanded me to bring your said letters
into his privy chamber with pen and ink, and there he would declare
unto me what I should write. And when his grace had your said letters,
he read the same three times, and marked such places as it pleased him
to make answer unto, and commanded me to write and rehearse as liked
him, and not further to meddle with that answer; so that I herein
nothing did but obeyed the King's commandment, and especially at (p. 130)
such time _as he would upon good grounds be obeyed, whosoever spake to
the contrary_."[361] Wolsey might say in his pride "I shall do so and
so," and foreign envoys might think that the Cardinal made the King
"go hither and thither, just as he liked"; but Wolsey knew perfectly
well that when he thought fit, Henry "would be obeyed, whosoever spake
to the contrary". He might delegate much of his authority, but men
were under no misapprehension that he could and would revoke it
whenever he chose. For the time being, King and Cardinal worked
together in general harmony, but it was a partnership in which Henry
could always have the last word, though Wolsey did most of the work.
As early as 1518 he had nominated Standish to the bishopric of St.
Asaph, disregarding Wolsey's candidate and the opposition of the
clerical party at Court, who detested Standish for his advocacy of
Henry's authority in ecclesiastical matters, and dreaded his promotion
as an evil omen for the independence of the Church.[362]
[Footnote 361: _L. and P._, iii., 1713.]
[Footnote 362: _Ibid._, ii., 4074, 4083, 4089.]
Even in the details of administration, the King was becoming
increasingly vigilant. In 1519 he drew up a "remembrance of such
things" as he required the Cardinal to "put in effectual
execution".[363] They were twenty-one in number and ranged over every
variety of subject. The household was to be arranged; "views to be
made and books kept"; the ordnance seen to; treasurers were to make
monthly reports of their receipts and payments, and send counterparts
to the King; the surveyor of lands was to make a yearly declaration;
and Wolsey himself and the judges were to make quarterly reports (p. 131)
to Henry in person. There were five points "which the King will debate
with his council," the administration of justice, reform of the
exchequer, Ireland, employment of idle people, and maintenance of the
frontiers. The general plan of Wolsey's negotiations at Calais in 1521
was determined by King and Cardinal in consultation, and every
important detail in them and in the subsequent preparations for war
was submitted to Henry. Not infrequently they differed. Wolsey wanted
Sir William Sandys to command the English contingent; Henry declared
it would be inconsistent with his dignity to send a force out of the
realm under the command of any one of lower rank than an earl. Wolsey
replied that Sandys would be cheaper than an earl,[364] but the
command was entrusted to the Earl of Surrey. Henry thought it unsafe,
considering the imminence of a breach with France, for English wine
ships to resort to Bordeaux; Wolsey thought otherwise, and they
disputed the point for a month. Honours were divided; the question was
settled for the time by twenty ships sailing while the dispute was in
progress.[365] Apparently they returned in safety, but the seizure of
English ships at Bordeaux in the following March justified Henry's
caution.[366] The King was already an adept in statecraft, and there
was at least an element of truth in the praise which Wolsey bestowed
on his pupil. "No man," he wrote, "can more groundly consider the
politic governance of your said realm, nor more assuredly look to the
preservation thereof, than ye yourself." And again, "surely, if all
_your_ whole council had been assembled together, they could not (p. 132)
have more deeply perceived or spoken therein".[367]
[Footnote 363: _Ibid._, iii., 576.]
[Footnote 364: _L. and P._, iii., 1454, 1473,
1474.]
[Footnote 365: _Ibid._, iii., 1629, 1630.]
[Footnote 366: _Ibid._, iii., 2224.]
[Footnote 367: _L. and P._, iii., 1544, 1762.]
The Cardinal "could not express the joy and comfort with which he
noted the King's prudence"; but he can scarcely have viewed Henry's
growing interference without some secret misgivings. For he was
developing not only Wolsey's skill and lack of scruple in politics,
but also a choleric and impatient temper akin to the Cardinal's own.
In 1514 Carroz had complained of Henry's offensive behaviour, and had
urged that it would become impossible to control him, if the "young
colt" were not bridled. In the following year Henry treated a French
envoy with scant civility, and flatly contradicted him twice as he
described the battle of Marignano. Giustinian also records how Henry
went "pale with anger" at unpleasant news.[368] A few years later his
successor describes Henry's "very great rage" when detailing Francis's
injuries; Charles made the same complaints against the French King,
"but not so angrily, in accordance with his gentler nature".[369] On
another occasion Henry turned his back upon a diplomatist and walked
away in the middle of his speech, an incident, we are told, on which
much comment was made in Rome.[370]
[Footnote 368: _Ibid._, ii., 1113, 1653.]
[Footnote 369: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 493.]
[Footnote 370: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 314.]
But these outbursts were rare and they grew rarer; in 1527 Mendoza,
the Spanish ambassador, remarks that it was "quite the reverse of the
King's ordinary manner" to be more violent than Wolsey;[371] and
throughout the period of strained relations with the Emperor, Chapuys
constantly refers to the unfailing courtesy and graciousness with (p. 133)
which Henry received him. He never forgot himself so far as to lay
rude hands on an ambassador, as Wolsey did; and no provocation betrayed
him in his later years, passionate though he was, into a neglect of
the outward amenities of diplomatic and official intercourse. Outbursts
of anger, of course, there were; but they were often like the explosions
of counsel in law courts, and were "to a great extent diplomatically
controlled".[372] Nor can we deny the consideration with which Henry
habitually treated his councillors, the wide discretion he allowed
them in the exercise of their duties, and the toleration he extended
to contrary opinions. He was never impatient of advice even when it
conflicted with his own views. His long arguments with Wolsey, and the
freedom with which the Cardinal justified his recommendations, even
after Henry had made up his mind to an opposite course, are a
sufficient proof of the fact. In 1517, angered by Maximilian's
perfidy, Henry wrote him some very "displeasant" letters. Tunstall
thought they would do harm, kept them back, and received no censure
for his conduct. In 1522-23 Wolsey advised first the siege of Boulogne
and then its abandonment. "The King," wrote More, "is by no means
displeased that you have changed your opinion, as his highness
esteemeth nothing in counsel more perilous than one to persevere in
the maintenance of his advice because he hath once given it. He
therefore commendeth and most affectuously thanketh your faithful
diligence and high wisdom in advertising him of the reasons which have
moved you to change your opinion."[373] No king knew better than Henry
how to get good work from his ministers, and his warning against (p. 134)
persevering in advice, merely because it has once been given, is a
political maxim for all time.
[Footnote 371: _Ibid._, iii., 109.]
[Footnote 372: _L. and P._, xiii., p. xli.]
[Footnote 373: _Ibid._, iii., 2421, 3346.]
A lesson might also be learnt from a story of Henry and Colet told by
Erasmus on Colet's own authority.[374] In 1513 war fever raged in
England. Colet's bishop summoned him "into the King's Court for
asserting, when England was preparing for war against France, that an
unjust peace was preferable to the most just war; but the King threatened
his persecutor with vengeance. After Easter, when the expedition was
ready against France, Colet preached on Whitsunday before the King and
the Court, exhorting men rather to follow the example of Christ their
prince than that of Cæsar and Alexander. The King was afraid that this
sermon would have an ill effect upon the soldiers and sent for the
Dean. Colet happened to be dining at the Franciscan monastery near
Greenwich. When the King heard of it, he entered the garden of the
monastery, and on Colet's appearance dismissed his attendants; then
discussed the matter with him, desiring him to explain himself, lest
his audience should suppose that no war was justifiable. After the
conversation was over he dismissed him before them all, drinking to
Colet's health and saying 'Let every man have his own doctor, this is
mine'." The picture is pleasing evidence of Henry's superiority to
some vulgar passions. Another instance of freedom from popular prejudice,
which he shared with his father, was his encouragement of foreign
scholars, diplomatists and merchants; not a few of the ablest of Tudor
agents were of alien birth. He was therefore intensely annoyed at the
rabid fury against them that broke out in the riots of Evil May Day;
yet he pardoned all the ringleaders but one. Tolerance and (p. 135)
clemency were no small part of his character in early manhood;[375]
and together with his other mental and physical graces, his love of
learning and of the society of learned men, his magnificence and
display, his supremacy in all the sports that were then considered the
peculiar adornment of royalty, they contributed scarcely less than
Wolsey's genius for diplomacy and administration to England's renown.
"In short," wrote Chieregati to Isabella d'Este in 1517, "the wealth
and civilisation of the world are here; and those who call the English
barbarians appear to me to render themselves such. I here perceive
very elegant manners, extreme decorum, and very great politeness. And
amongst other things there is this most invincible King, whose
accomplishments and qualities are so many and excellent that I
consider him to surpass all who ever wore a crown; and blessed and
happy may this country call itself in having as its lord so worthy and
eminent a sovereign; whose sway is more bland and gentle than the
greatest liberty under any other."[376]
[Footnote 374: _L. and P._, iii., 303.]
[Footnote 375: For the extraordinary freedom of
speech which Henry permitted, see _L. and P._,
xii., ii., 952, where Sir George Throckmorton
relates how he accused Henry to his face of immoral
relations with Mary Boleyn and her mother.]
[Footnote 376: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 918.]
CHAPTER VI. (p. 136)
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 à 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,
"honnête, 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
Doré. 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 Vendôme 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 Patriæ_.[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 Orléans,
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.
CHAPTER VII. (p. 173)
THE ORIGIN OF THE DIVORCE.[489]
[Footnote 489: It is impossible to avoid the term
"divorce," although neither from Henry VIII.'s nor
from the Pope's point of view was there any such
thing (see the present writer's _Cranmer_, p. 24
_n._).]
Matrimonial discords have, from the days of Helen of Troy, been the
fruitful source of public calamities; and one of the most decisive
events in English history, the breach with the Church of Rome, found
its occasion in the divorce of Catherine of Aragon. Its origin has
been traced to various circumstances. On one hand, it is attributed to
Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn, on the other, to doubts of the
validity of Henry's marriage, raised by the Bishop of Tarbes in 1527,
while negotiating a matrimonial alliance between the Princess Mary and
Francis I. These are the two most popular theories, and both are
demonstrably false.[490] Doubts of the legality of Henry's marriage
had existed long before the Bishop of Tarbes paid his visit to
England, and even before Anne Boleyn was born. They were urged, not
only on the eve of the completion of the marriage, but when it was
first suggested. In 1503, when Henry VII. applied to Julius II. for a
dispensation to enable his second son to marry his brother's (p. 174)
widow, the Pope replied that "the dispensation was a great matter; nor
did he well know, _prima facie_, if it were competent for the Pope to
dispense in such a case".[491] He granted the dispensation, but the
doubts were not entirely removed. Catherine's confessor instilled them
into her mind, and was recalled by Ferdinand on that account. The
Spanish King himself felt it necessary to dispel certain "scruples of
conscience" Henry might entertain as to the "sin" of marrying his
brother's widow.[492] Warham and Fox debated the matter, and Warham
apparently opposed the marriage.[493] A general council had pronounced
against the Pope's dispensing power;[494] and, though the Popes had,
in effect, established their superiority over general councils, those
who still maintained the contrary view can hardly have failed to doubt
the legality of Henry's marriage.
[Footnote 490: See, besides the original
authorities cited in this chapter, Busch, _Der
Ursprung der Ehescheidung König Heinrichs VIII._
(Hist. Taschenbuch, Leipzig, VI., viii., 271-327).]
[Footnote 491: _L. and P._, iv., 5773; Pocock,
_Records of the Reformation_, i., 1.]
[Footnote 492: _Sp. Cal._, vol. ii., Pref., p.
xiv., No. 8.]
[Footnote 493: _L. and P._, iv., 5774 [6].]
[Footnote 494: _Ibid._, iv., 5376.]
So good a papalist as the young King, however, would hardly allow
theoretical doubts of the general powers of the Pope to outweigh the
practical advantages of a marriage in his own particular case; and it
is safe to assume that his confidence in its validity would have
remained unshaken, but for extraneous circumstances of a definite and
urgent nature. On the 31st of January, 1510, seven months after his
marriage with Catherine, she gave birth to her first child; it was a
daughter, and was still-born.[495] On the 27th of May following (p. 175)
she told her father that the event was considered in England to be of
evil omen, but that Henry took it cheerfully, and she thanked God for
having given her such a husband. "The King," wrote Catherine's
confessor, "adores her, and her highness him." Less than eight months
later, on the 1st of January, 1511, she was delivered of her first-born
son.[496] A tourney was held to celebrate the joyous event, and the
heralds received a handsome largess at the christening. The child was
named Henry, styled Prince of Wales, and given a serjeant-at-arms on
the 14th, and a clerk of the signet on the 19th of February. Three
days later he was dead; he was buried at the cost of some ten thousand
pounds in Westminster Abbey. The rejoicings were turned to grief,
which, aggravated by successive disappointments, bore with cumulative
force on the mind of the King and his people. In September, 1513, the
Venetian ambassador announced the birth of another son,[497] who was
either still-born, or died immediately afterwards. In June, 1514,
there is again a reference to the christening of the "King's new
son,"[498] but he, too, was no sooner christened than dead.
[Footnote 495: _D.N.B._, ix., 292, gives this date.
Catherine herself, writing on 27th May, 1510, says
that "some _days_ before she had been delivered of
a still-born daughter" (_Sp. Cal._, ii., 43). On
1st November, 1509, Henry informed Ferdinand that
Catherine was pregnant, and the child had quickened
(_ibid._, ii., 23).]
[Footnote 496: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 95-96; _L. and
P._, vol. i., 1491, 1495, 1513, Pref., p. lxxiii.;
ii., 4692.]
[Footnote 497: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 329.]
[Footnote 498: _L. and P._, i., 5192.]
Domestic griefs were now embittered by political resentments. Ferdinand
valued his daughter mainly as a political emissary; he had formally
accredited her as his ambassador at Henry's Court, and she naturally
used her influence to maintain the political union between her father
and her husband. The arrangement had serious drawbacks; when relations
between sovereigns grew strained, their ambassadors could be (p. 176)
recalled, but Catherine had to stay. In 1514 Henry was boiling over
with indignation at his double betrayal by the Catholic king; and it
is not surprising that he vented some of his rage on the wife who was
Ferdinand's representative. He reproached her, writes Peter Martyr
from Ferdinand's Court, with her father's ill-faith, and taunted her
with his own conquests. To this brutality Martyr attributes the
premature birth of Catherine's fourth son towards the end of 1514.[499]
Henry, in fact, was preparing to cast off, not merely the Spanish
alliance, but his Spanish wife. He was negotiating for a joint attack
on Castile with Louis XII. and threatening the divorce of Catherine.[500]
"It is said," writes a Venetian from Rome in August, 1514, "that the
King of England means to repudiate his present wife, the daughter of
the King of Spain and his brother's widow, because he is unable to
have children by her, and intends to marry a daughter of the French
Duke of Bourbon.... He intends to annul his own marriage, and will
obtain what he wants from the Pope as France did from Pope Julius
II."[501]
[Footnote 499: _L. and P._, i., 5718.]
[Footnote 500: See above p. 76.]
[Footnote 501: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 479. The Pope was
really Alexander VI.]
But the death of Louis XII. (January, 1515) and the consequent
loosening of the Anglo-French alliance made Henry and Ferdinand again
political allies; while, as the year wore on, Catherine was known to
be once more pregnant, and Henry's hopes of issue revived. This time
they were not disappointed; the Princess Mary was born on the 18th of
February, 1516.[502] Ferdinand had died on the 23rd of January, but
the news was kept from Catherine, lest it might add to the risks (p. 177)
of her confinement.[503] The young princess seemed likely to live, and
Henry was delighted. When Giustinian, amid his congratulations, said
he would have been better pleased had it been a son, the King replied:
"We are both young; if it was a daughter this time, by the grace of
God the sons will follow".[504] All thoughts of a divorce passed away
for the time, but the desired sons did not arrive. In August, 1517,
Catherine was reported to be again expecting issue, but nothing more
is heard of the matter, and it is probable that about this time the
Queen had various miscarriages. In July, 1518, Henry wrote to Wolsey
from Woodstock that Catherine was once more pregnant, and that he
could not move the Court to London, as it was one of the Queen's
"dangerous times".[505] His precautions were unavailing, and, on the
10th of November, his child arrived still-born. Giustinian notes the
great vexation with which the people heard the news, and expresses the
opinion that, had it occurred a month or two earlier, the Princess
Mary would not have been betrothed to the French dauphin, "as the one
fear of England was lest it should pass into subjection to France
through that marriage".[506]
[Footnote 502: _L. and P._, ii., 1505, 1573.]
[Footnote 503: _L. and P._, ii., 1563, 1610.]
[Footnote 504: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 691.]
[Footnote 505: _Cotton MS._, Vespasian, F, iii.,
fol. 34, _b_; _cf. L. and P._, ii., 4074, 4288.]
[Footnote 506: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1103.]
The child was the last born of Catherine. For some years Henry went on
hoping against every probability that he might still have male issue
by his Queen; and in 1519 he undertook to lead a crusade against the
Turk in person if he should have an heir.[507] But physicians summoned
from Spain were no more successful than their English colleagues. (p. 178)
By 1525 the last ray of hope had flickered out. Catherine was then
forty years old; and Henry at the age of thirty-four, in the full
vigour of youthful manhood, seemed doomed by the irony of fate and by
his union with Catherine to leave a disputed inheritance. Never did
England's interests more imperatively demand a secure and peaceful
succession. Never before had there been such mortality among the
children of an English king; never before had an English king married
his brother's widow. So striking a coincidence could be only explained
by the relation of cause and effect. Men who saw the judgment of God
in the sack of Rome, might surely discern in the fatality that
attended the children of Henry VIII. a fulfilment of the doom of
childlessness pronounced in the Book of the Law against him who should
marry his brother's wife. "God," wrote the French ambassador in 1528,
"has long ago Himself passed sentence on it;"[508] and there is no
reason to doubt Henry's assertion, that he had come to regard the
death of his children as a Divine judgment, and that he was impelled
to question his marriage by the dictates of conscience. The "scruples
of conscience," which Henry VII. had urged as an excuse for delaying
the marriage, were merely a cloak for political reasons; but scruples
of conscience are dangerous playthings, and the pretence of Henry VII.
became, through the death of his children, a terrible reality to Henry
VIII.
[Footnote 507: _L. and P._, iii., 432.]
[Footnote 508: Du Bellay to Montmorenci, 1st Nov.,
1528, _L. and P._, iv., 4899.]
Queen Catherine, too, had scruples of conscience about the marriage,
though of a different sort. When she first heard of Henry's intention
to seek a divorce, she is reported to have said that "she had (p. 179)
not offended, but it was a judgment of God, for that her former marriage
was made in blood"; the price of it had been the head of the innocent
Earl of Warwick, demanded by Ferdinand of Aragon.[509] Nor was she
alone in this feeling. "He had heard," witnessed Buckingham's chancellor
in 1521, "the Duke grudge that the Earl of Warwick was put to death,
and say that God would punish it, by not suffering the King's issue to
prosper, as appeared by the death of his sons; and that his daughters
prosper not, and that he had no issue male."[510]
[Footnote 509: _Sp. Cal._, i., 249; _L. and P. of
Richard III. and Henry VII._, vol. i., pp. xxxiii.,
113; Hall, _Chron_., p. 491; Bacon, _Henry VII._,
ed. 1870, p. 376; _Transactions of the Royal Hist.
Soc._, N.S., xviii., 187.]
[Footnote 510: _L. and P._, iii., 1284.]
Conscience, however, often moves men in directions indicated by other
than conscientious motives, and, of the other motives which influenced
Henry's mind, some were respectable and some the reverse. The most
legitimate was his desire to provide for the succession to the throne.
It was obvious to him and his council that, if he died with no
children but Mary, England ran the risk of being plunged into an
anarchy worse than that of the civil wars. "By English law," wrote
Falier, the Venetian ambassador, in 1531, "females are excluded from
the throne;"[511] that was not true, but it was undoubtedly a
widespread impression, based upon the past history of England. No
Queen-Regnant had asserted a right to the English throne but one, and
that one precedent provided the most effective argument for avoiding a
repetition of the experiment. Matilda was never crowned, though she
had the same claim to the throne as Mary, and her attempt to (p. 180)
enforce her title involved England in nineteen years of anarchy and
civil war. Stephen stood to Matilda in precisely the same relation as
James V. of Scotland stood to the Princess Mary; and in 1532, as soon
as he came of age, James was urged to style himself "Prince of England"
and Duke of York, in manifest derogation of Mary's title.[512] At that
time Charles V. was discussing alternative plans for deposing Henry
VIII. One was to set up James V., the other to marry Mary to some
great English noble and proclaim them King and Queen;[513] Mary by
herself was thought to have no chance of success. John of Gaunt had
maintained in Parliament that the succession descended only through
males;[514] the Lancastrian case was that Henry IV., the son of Edward
III.'s fourth son, had a better title to the throne than Philippa, the
daughter of the third; an Act limiting the succession to the male line
was passed in 1406;[515] and Henry VII. himself only reigned through a
tacit denial of the right of women to sit on the English throne.
[Footnote 511: _Ven. Cal._, iv., 300.]
[Footnote 512: _L. and P._, v., 609, 817.]
[Footnote 513: _Ibid._, vi., 446.]
[Footnote 514: _Chronicon Angliae_, Rolls Ser., p.
92, _s.a._, 1376; _D.N.B._, xxix., 421. This became
the orthodox Lancastrian theory (_cf._ Fortescue,
_Governance of England_, ed. Plummer, pp. 352-55).]
[Footnote 515: Stubbs, _Const. Hist._, iii., 58.
This Act was, however, repealed before the end of
the same year.]
The objection to female sovereigns was grounded not so much on male
disbelief in their personal qualifications, as upon the inevitable
consequence of matrimonial and dynastic problems.[516] If the Princess
Mary succeeded, was she to marry? If not, her death would leave (p. 181)
the kingdom no better provided with heirs than before; and in her weak
state of health, her death seemed no distant prospect. If, on the
other hand, she married, her husband must be either a subject or a
foreign prince. To marry a subject would at once create discords like
those from which the Wars of the Roses had sprung; to marry a foreign
prince was to threaten Englishmen, then more jealous than ever of
foreign influence, with the fear of alien domination. They had before
their eyes numerous instances in which matrimonial alliances had
involved the union of states so heterogeneous as Spain and the
Netherlands; and they had no mind to see England absorbed in some
continental empire. In the matrimonial schemes arranged for the
princess, it was generally stipulated that she should, in default of
male heirs, succeed to the throne of England; her succession was
obviously a matter of doubt, and it is quite certain that her marriage
in France or in Spain would have proved a bar in the way of her
succession to the English throne, or at least have given rise to
conflicting claims.
[Footnote 516: Professor Maitland has spoken of the
"Byzantinism" of Henry's reign, and possibly the
objection to female sovereigns was strengthened by
the prevalent respect for Roman imperial and
Byzantine custom (_cf._ Hodgkin, _Charles the
Great_, p. 180).]
These rival pretensions began to be heard as soon as it became evident
that Henry VIII. would have no male heirs by Catherine of Aragon. In
1519, a year after the birth of the Queen's last child, Giustinian
reported to the Venetian signiory on the various nobles who had hopes
of the crown. The Duke of Norfolk had expectations in right of his
wife, a daughter of Edward IV., and the Duke of Suffolk in right of
his Duchess, the sister of Henry VIII. But the Duke of Buckingham was
the most formidable: "It was thought that, were the King to die
without male heirs, that Duke might easily obtain the crown".[517] (p. 182)
His claims had been canvassed in 1503, when the issue of Henry VII.
seemed likely to fail,[518] and now that the issue of Henry VIII. was
in even worse plight, Buckingham's claims to the crown became again a
matter of comment. His hopes of the crown cost him his head; he had
always been discontented with Tudor rule, especially under Wolsey; he
allowed himself to be encouraged with hopes of succeeding the King,
and possibly spoke of asserting his claim in case of Henry's death.
This was to touch Henry on his tenderest spot, and, in 1521, the Duke
was tried by his peers, found guilty of high treason, and sent to the
block.[519] In this, as in all the great trials of Henry's reign, and
indeed in most state trials of all ages, considerations of justice
were subordinated to the real or supposed dictates of political
expediency. Buckingham was executed, not because he was a criminal,
but because he was, or might become, dangerous; his crime was not
treason, but descent from Edward III. Henry VIII., like Henry VII.,
showed his grasp of the truth that nothing makes a government so
secure as the absence of all alternatives.
[Footnote 517: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1287. Buckingham's
end was undoubtedly hastened by Wolsey's jealousy;
before the end of 1518 the Cardinal had been
instilling into Henry's ear suspicions of
Buckingham (_L. and P._, iii., 1; _cf. ibid._, ii.,
3973, 4057). Brewer regards the hostility of Wolsey
to Buckingham as one of Polydore Vergil's
"calumnies" (_ibid._, vol. iii., Introd., p.
lxvi.).]
[Footnote 518: _L. and P. of Richard III. and Henry
VII._, i., 233.]
[Footnote 519: See detailed accounts in _L. and
P._, iii., 1284, 1356. Shakespeare's account in
"Henry VIII." is remarkably accurate, except in
matters of date.]
Buckingham's execution is one of the symptoms that, as early as 1521,
the failure of his issue had made Henry nervous and susceptible about
the succession. Even in 1519, when Charles V.'s minister, (p. 183)
Chièvres, was proposing to marry his niece to the Earl of Devonshire,
a grandson of Edward IV., Henry was suspicious, and Wolsey inquired
whether Chièvres was "looking to any chance of the Earl's succession
to the throne of England."[520] If further proof were needed that
Henry's anxiety about the succession was not, as has been represented,
a mere afterthought intended to justify his divorce from Catherine, it
might be found in the extraordinary measures taken with regard to his
one and only illegitimate son. The boy was born in 1519. His mother
was Elizabeth Blount, sister of Erasmus's friend, Lord Mountjoy; and
she is noticed as taking part in the Court revels during the early
years of Henry's reign.[521] Outwardly, at any rate, Henry's Court was
long a model of decorum; there was no parade of vice as in the days of
Charles II., and the existence of this royal bastard was so effectually
concealed that no reference to him occurs in the correspondence of the
time until 1525, when it was thought expedient to give him a position
of public importance. The necessity of providing some male successor
to Henry was considered so urgent that, two years before the divorce
is said to have occurred to him, he and his council were meditating a
scheme for entailing the succession on the King's illegitimate son. In
1525 the child was created Duke of Richmond and Somerset. These titles
were significant; Earl of Richmond had been Henry VII.'s title before
he came to the throne; Duke of Somerset had been that of his grandfather
and of his youngest son. Shortly afterwards the boy was made Lord (p. 184)
High Admiral of England, Lord Warden of the Marches, and Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland,[522] the two latter being offices which Henry
VIII. himself had held in his early youth. In January, 1527, the
Spanish ambassador reported that there was a scheme on foot to make
the Duke King of Ireland;[523] it was obviously a design to prepare
the way for his succession to the kingdom of England. The English
envoys in Spain were directed to tell the Emperor that Henry proposed
to demand some noble princess of near blood to the Emperor as a wife
for the Duke of Richmond. The Duke, they were to say, "is near of the
King's blood and of excellent qualities, and is already furnished to
keep the state of a great prince, and yet may be easily, by the King's
means, exalted to higher things".[524] The lady suggested was Charles's
niece, a daughter of the Queen of Portugal; she was already promised
to the Dauphin of France, but the envoys remarked that, if that match
were broken off, she might find "another dauphin" in the Duke of
Richmond. Another plan for settling the succession was that the Duke
should, by papal dispensation, marry his half-sister Mary! Cardinal
Campeggio saw no moral objection to this. "At first I myself," he
writes on his arrival in England in October, 1528, "had thought of
this as a means of establishing the succession, but I do not believe
that this design would suffice to satisfy the King's desires."[525]
The Pope was equally willing to facilitate the scheme, on (p. 185)
condition that Henry abandoned his divorce from Catherine.[526] Possibly
Henry saw more objections than Pope or Cardinal to a marriage between
brother and sister. At all events Mary was soon betrothed to the
French prince, and the Emperor recorded his impression that the French
marriage was designed to remove the Princess from the Duke of
Richmond's path to the throne.[527]
[Footnote 520: _L. and P._, iii., 386.]
[Footnote 521: _Ibid._, ii., p. 1461.]
[Footnote 522: See G.E. C[okayne]'s and Doyle's
_Peerages_, _s.v._ "Richmond".]
[Footnote 523: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 109; _L. and P._,
iv., 2988, 3028, 3140.]
[Footnote 524: _L. and P._, iv., 3051. In _ibid._,
iv., 3135, Richmond is styled "The Prince".]
[Footnote 525: Laemmer, _Monumenta Vaticana_, p.
29; _L. and P._, iv., 4881. It was claimed that the
Pope's dispensing power was unlimited, extending
even to marriages between brothers and sisters
(_ibid._, v., 468). Campeggio told Du Bellay in
1528 that the Pope's power was "infinite" (_ibid._,
iv., 4942).]
[Footnote 526: _L. and P._, iv., 5072.]
[Footnote 527: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 482.]
The conception of this violent expedient is mainly of interest as
illustrating the supreme importance attached to the question of
providing for a male successor to Henry. He wanted an heir to the
throne, and he wanted a fresh wife for that reason. A mistress would
not satisfy him, because his children by a mistress would hardly
succeed without dispute to the throne, not because he laboured under
any moral scruples on the point. He had already had two mistresses,
Elizabeth Blount, the mother of the Duke of Richmond, and Anne's
sister, Mary Boleyn. Possibly, even probably, there were other lapses
from conjugal fidelity, for, in 1533, the Duke of Norfolk told Chapuys
that Henry was always inclined to amours;[528] but none are capable of
definite proof, and if Henry had other illegitimate children besides
the Duke of Richmond it is difficult to understand why their existence
should have been so effectually concealed when such publicity was
given their brother. The King is said to have had ten mistresses in
1528, but the statement is based on a misrepresentation of the only
document adduced in its support.[529] It is a list of New Year's (p. 186)
presents,[530] which runs "To thirty-three noble ladies" such and such
gifts, then "to ten mistresses" other gifts; it is doubtful if the
word then bore its modern sinister signification; in this particular
instance it merely means "gentlewomen," and differentiates them from
the noble ladies. Henry's morals, indeed, compare not unfavourably
with those of other sovereigns. His standard was neither higher nor
lower than that of Charles V., who was at this time negotiating a
marriage between his natural daughter and the Pope's nephew; it was
not lower than those of James II., of William III., or of the first
two Georges; it was infinitely higher than the standard of Francis I.,
of Charles II., or even of Henry of Navarre and Louis XIV.
[Footnote 528: _L. and P._, vi., 241.]
[Footnote 529: E.L. Taunton, _Wolsey_, 1902, p.
173, where the words are erroneously given as "To
the King's ten mistresses"; "the King's" is an
interpolation.]
[Footnote 530: _L. and P._, iv., 3748.]
The gross immorality so freely imputed to Henry seems to have as
little foundation as the theory that his sole object in seeking the
divorce from Catherine and separation from Rome was the gratification
of his passion for Anne Boleyn. If that had been the case, there would
be no adequate explanation of the persistence with which he pursued
the divorce. He was "studying the matter so diligently," Campeggio
says, "that I believe in this case he knows more than a great
theologian and jurist"; he was so convinced of the justice of his
cause "that an angel descending from heaven would be unable to
persuade him otherwise".[531] He sent embassy after embassy to Rome;
he risked the enmity of Catholic Europe; he defied the authority of
the vicar of Christ; and lavished vast sums to obtain verdicts in his
favour from most of the universities in Christendom. It is not (p. 187)
credible that all this energy was expended merely to satisfy a sensual
passion, which could be satisfied without a murmur from Pope or Emperor,
if he was content with Anne Boleyn as a mistress, and is believed to
have been already satisfied in 1529, four years before the divorce was
obtained.[532] So, too, the actual sentence of divorce in 1533 was
precipitated not by Henry's passion for Anne, but by the desire that
her child should be legitimate. She was pregnant before Henry was
married to her or divorced from Catherine. But, though the representation
of Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn as the sole _fons et origo_ of the
divorce is far from convincing, that passion introduced various
complications into the question; it was not merely an additional
incentive to Henry's desires; it also brought Wolsey and Henry into
conflict; and the unpopularity of the divorce was increased by the
feeling that Henry was losing caste by seeking to marry a lady of the
rank and character of Anne Boleyn.
[Footnote 531: _Ibid._, iv., 4858.]
[Footnote 532: No conclusive evidence on this point
is possible; the French ambassador, Clement VII.
and others believed that Henry VIII. and Anne
Boleyn had been cohabiting since 1529. On the other
hand, if such was the case, it is singular that no
child should have been born before 1533; for after
that date Anne seems to have had a miscarriage
nearly every year. Ortiz, indeed, reports from Rome
that she had a miscarriage in 1531 (_L. and P._,
v., 594), but the evidence is not good.]
* * * * *
The Boleyns were wealthy merchants of London, of which one of them had
been Lord-Mayor, but Anne's mother was of noble blood, being daughter
and co-heir of the Earl of Ormonde,[533] and it is a curious fact that
all of Henry's wives could trace their descent from Edward I.[534]
Anne's age is uncertain, but she is generally believed to have (p. 188)
been born in 1507.[535] Attempts have been made to date her influence
over the King by the royal favours bestowed on her father, Sir Thomas,
afterwards Viscount Rochford and Earl of Wiltshire, but, as these
favours flowed in a fairly regular stream from the beginning of the
reign, as Sir Thomas's services were at least a colourable excuse for
them, and as his other daughter Mary was Henry's mistress before he
fell in love with Anne, these grants are not a very substantial ground
upon which to build. Of Anne herself little is known except that,
about 1519, she was sent as maid of honour to the French Queen,
Claude; five years before, her sister Mary had accompanied Mary Tudor
in a similar capacity on her marriage with Louis XII.[536] In 1522,
when war with France was on the eve of breaking out, Anne was recalled
to the English Court,[537] where she took part in revels and
love-intrigues. Sir Thomas Wyatt, the poet, although a married man,
sued for her favours;[538] Henry, Lord Percy made her more honest
proposals, but was compelled to desist by the King himself, who (p. 189)
had arranged for her marriage with Piers Butler, son of the Earl
of Ormond, as a means to end the feud between the Butler and the
Boleyn families.
[Footnote 533: See Friedmann's _Anne Boleyn_, 2
vols., 1884, and articles on the Boleyn family in
_D.N.B._, vol. v.]
[Footnote 534: See George Fisher, _Key to the
History of England_, Table xvii.; _Gentleman's
Magazine_, May, 1829.]
[Footnote 535: Henry would then be fifteen, yet a
fable was invented and often repeated that Henry
VIII. was Anne Boleyn's father. Nicholas Sanders,
whose _De Origine ac Progressu Schismatis
Anglicani_ became the basis of Roman Catholic
histories of the English Reformation, gave currency
to the story; and some modern writers prefer
Sanders' veracity to Foxe's.]
[Footnote 536: The error that it was Anne who
accompanied Mary Tudor in 1514 was exposed by
Brewer more than forty years ago, but it still
lingers and was repeated with innumerable others in
the Catalogue of the New Gallery Portrait
Exhibition of 1902.]
[Footnote 537: _L. and P._, iii., 1994.]
[Footnote 538: In Harpsfield's _Pretended Divorce_
there is a very improbable story that Wyatt told
Henry VIII. his relations with Anne were far from
innocent and warned the King against marrying a
woman of Anne's character.]
None of these projects advanced any farther, possibly because they
conflicted with the relations developing between Anne and the King
himself. As Wyatt complained in a sonnet,[539]
There is written her fair neck round about
_Noli me tangere_; for Cæsar's I am
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
But, for any definite documentary evidence to the contrary, it might
be urged that Henry's passion for Anne was subsequent to the
commencement of his proceedings for a divorce from Catherine. Those
proceedings began at least as early as March, 1527, while the first
allusion to the connection between the King and Anne Boleyn occurs in
the instructions to Dr. William Knight, sent in the following autumn
to procure a dispensation for her marriage with Henry.[540] The King's
famous love-letters, the earliest of which are conjecturally assigned
to July, 1527,[541] are without date and with but slight internal
indications of the time at which they were written; they may be earlier
than 1527, they may be as late as the following winter. It is unlikely
that Henry would have sought for the Pope's dispensation to marry (p. 190)
Anne until he was assured of her consent, of which in some of the
letters he appears to be doubtful; on the other hand, it is difficult
to see how a lady of the Court could refuse an offer of marriage made
by her sovereign. Her reluctance was to fill a less honourable
position, into which Henry was not so wicked as to think of forcing
her. "I trust," he writes in one of his letters, "your absence is not
wilful on your part; for if so, I can but lament my ill-fortune, and
by degrees abate my great folly."[542] His love for Anne Boleyn was
certainly his "great folly," the one overmastering passion of his
life. There is, however, nothing very extraordinary in the letters
themselves; in one he says he has for more than a year been "wounded
with the dart of love," and is uncertain whether Anne returns his
affection. In others he bewails her briefest absence as though it were
an eternity; desires her father to hasten his return to Court; is torn
with anxiety lest Anne should take the plague, comforts her with the
assurance that few women have had it, and sends her a hart killed by
his own hand, making the inevitable play on the word. Later on, he
alludes to the progress of the divorce case; excuses the shortness of
a letter on the ground that he has spent four hours over the book he
was writing in his own defence[543] and has a pain in his head. The
series ends with an announcement that he has been fitting up apartments
for her, and with congratulations to himself and to her that the
"well-wishing" Legate, Campeggio, who has been sent from Rome to (p. 191)
try the case, has told him he was not so "imperial" in his sympathies
as had been alleged.
[Footnote 539: Wyatt, _Works_, ed. G.F. Nott, 1816,
p. 143.]
[Footnote 540: _L. and P._, iv., 3422.]
[Footnote 541: _Ibid._, iv., 3218-20, 3325-26,
3990, 4383, 4403, 4410, 4477, 4537, 4539, 4597,
4648, 4742, 4894. They have also been printed by
Hearne at the end of his edition of _Robert of
Avesbury_, in the _Pamphleteer_, vol. xxi., and in
the _Harleian Miscellany_, vol. iii. The originals
in Henry's hand are in the Vatican Library; one of
them was reproduced in facsimile for the
illustrated edition of this book.]
[Footnote 542: _L. and P._, iv., 3326.]
[Footnote 543: In 1531 he was said to have written
"many books" on the divorce question (_ibid._, v.,
251).]
The secret of her fascination over Henry was a puzzle to observers.
"Madame Anne," wrote a Venetian, "is not one of the handsomest women
in the world. She is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long
neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in fact has nothing but
the King's great appetite, and her eyes, which are black and
beautiful".[544] She had probably learnt in France the art of using
her beautiful eyes to the best advantage; her hair, which was long and
black, she wore loose, and on her way to her coronation Cranmer
describes her as "sitting _in_ her hair".[545] Possibly this was one
of the French customs, which somewhat scandalised the staider ladies
of the English Court. She is said to have had a slight defect on one
of her nails, which she endeavoured to conceal behind her other
fingers.[546] Of her mental accomplishments there is not much evidence;
she naturally, after some years' residence at the Court of France,
spoke French, though she wrote it in an orthography that was quite her
own. Her devotion to the Gospel is the one great virtue with which
Foxe and other Elizabethans strove to invest the mother of the Good
Queen Bess. But it had no nobler foundation than the facts that Anne's
position drove her into hostility to the Roman jurisdiction, and that
her family shared the envy of church goods, common to the nobility and
the gentry of the time.[547] Her place in English history is due (p. 192)
solely to the circumstance that she appealed to the less refined part
of Henry's nature; she was pre-eminent neither in beauty nor in
intellect, and her virtue was not of a character to command or deserve
the respect of her own or subsequent ages.
[Footnote 544: _Ven. Cal._, iv., 365.]
[Footnote 545: Cranmer, _Works_ (Parker Soc.), ii.,
245; _cf. Ven. Cal._, iv., 351, 418.]
[Footnote 546: _L. and P._, iv., Introd., p.
ccxxxvii.]
[Footnote 547: There is not much historical truth
in Gray's phrase about "the Gospel light which
dawned from Bullen's eyes"; but Brewer goes too far
in minimising the "Lutheran" proclivities of the
Boleyns. In 1531 Chapuys described Anne and her
father as being "more Lutheran than Luther himself"
(_L. and P._, v., 148), in 1532 as "true apostles
of the new sect" (_ibid._, v., 850), and in 1533 as
"perfect Lutherans" (_ibid._, vi., 142).]
It is otherwise with her rival, Queen Catherine, the third of the
principal characters involved in the divorce. If Henry's motives were
not so entirely bad as they have often been represented, neither they
nor Anne Boleyn's can stand a moment's comparison with the unsullied
purity of Catherine's life or the lofty courage with which she defended
the cause she believed to be right. There is no more pathetic figure
in English history, nor one condemned to a crueller fate. No breath of
scandal touched her fair name, or impugned her devotion to Henry. If
she had the misfortune to be identified with a particular policy, the
alliance with the House of Burgundy, the fault was not hers; she had
been married to Henry in consideration of the advantages which that
alliance was supposed to confer; and, if she used her influence to
further Spanish interest, it was a natural feeling as near akin to
virtue as to vice, and Carroz at least complained, in 1514, that she
had completely identified herself with her husband and her husband's
subjects.[548] If her miscarriages and the death of her children (p. 193)
were a grief to Henry, the pain and the sorrow were hers in far
greater measure; if they had made her old and deformed, as Francis
brutally described her in 1519,[549] the fact must have been far more
bitter to her than it was unpleasant to Henry. There may have been
some hardship to Henry in the circumstance that, for political
motives, he had been induced by his council to marry a wife who was
six years his senior; but to Catherine herself a divorce was the
height of injustice. The question was in fact one of justice against a
real or supposed political necessity, and in such cases justice
commonly goes to the wall. In politics, men seek to colour with
justice actions based upon considerations of expediency. They first
convince themselves, and then they endeavour with less success to
persuade mankind.
[Footnote 548: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 201.]
[Footnote 549: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1230.]
So Henry VIII. convinced himself that the dispensation granted by
Julius II. was null and void, that he had never been married to
Catherine, and that to continue to live with his brother's wife was
sin. "The King," he instructed his ambassador to tell Charles V. in
1533, "taketh himself to be in the right, not because so many say it,
but because he, being learned, knoweth the matter to be right.... The
justice of our cause is so rooted in our breast that nothing can
remove it, and even the canons say that a man should rather endure all
the censures of the Church than offend his conscience."[550] No man
was less tolerant of heresy than Henry, but no man set greater (p. 194)
store on his own private judgment. To that extent he was a Protestant;
"though," he instructed Paget in 1534 to tell the Lutheran princes,
"the law of every man's conscience be but a private court, yet it is
the highest and supreme court for judgment or justice". God and his
conscience, he told Chapuys in 1533, were on very good terms.[551] On
another occasion he wrote to Charles _Ubi Spiritus Domini, ibi
libertas_,[552] with the obvious implication that he possessed the
spirit of the Lord, and therefore he might do as he liked. To him, as
to St. Paul, all things were lawful; and Henry's appeals to the Pope,
to learned divines, to universities at home and abroad, were not for
his own satisfaction, but were merely concessions to the profane herd,
unskilled in royal learning and unblessed with a kingly conscience.
Against that conviction, so firmly rooted in the royal breast, appeals
to pity were vain, and attempts to shake it were perilous. It was his
conscience that made Henry so dangerous. Men are tolerant of
differences about things indifferent, but conscience makes bigots of
us all; theological hatreds are proverbially bitter, and religious
wars are cruel. Conscience made Sir Thomas More persecute, and glory
in the persecution of heretics,[553] and conscience earned Mary her
epithet "Bloody". They were moved by conscientious belief in the
Catholic faith, Henry by conscientious belief in himself; and
conscientious scruples are none the less exigent for being reached by
crooked paths.
[Footnote 550: _L. and P._, vi., 775. _Hoc volo,
sic jubeo; stet pro ratione voluntas._ Luther
quoted this line _à propos_ of Henry; see his
preface to Robert Barnes' _Bekenntniss des
Glaubens_, Wittemberg, 1540.]
[Footnote 551: _L. and P._, vi., 351; vii., 148.]
[Footnote 552: _Ibid._, iv., 6111.]
[Footnote 553: It has been denied that More either
persecuted or gloried in the persecution of
heretics; but he admits himself that he recommended
corporal punishment in two cases and "it is clear
that he underestimated his activity" (_D.N.B._,
xxxviii., 436, and instances and authorities there
cited).]
CHAPTER VIII. (p. 195)
THE POPE'S DILEMMA.
In February, 1527, in pursuance of the alliance with France, which
Wolsey, recognising too late the fatal effects of the union with
Charles, was seeking to make the basis of English policy, a French
embassy arrived in England to conclude a marriage between Francis I.
and the Princess Mary. At its head was Gabriel de Grammont, Bishop of
Tarbes; and in the course of his negotiations he is alleged to have
first suggested those doubts of the validity of Henry's marriage,
which ended in the divorce. The allegation was made by Wolsey three
months later, and from that time down to our own day it has done duty
with Henry's apologists as a sufficient vindication of his conduct. It
is now denounced as an impudent fiction, mainly on the ground that no
hint of these doubts occurs in the extant records of the negotiations.
But unfortunately we have only one or two letters relating to this
diplomatic mission.[554] There exists, indeed, a detailed (p. 196)
narrative, drawn up some time afterwards by Claude Dodieu, the French
secretary; but the silence, on so confidential a matter, of a third
party who was not present when the doubts were presumably suggested,
proves little or nothing. Du Bellay, in 1528, reported to the French
Government Henry's public assertion that Tarbes had mentioned these
doubts;[555] the statement was not repudiated; Tarbes himself believed
in the validity of Henry's case and was frequently employed in efforts
to win from the Pope an assent to Henry's divorce. It is rather a
strong assumption to suppose in the entire absence of positive
evidence that Henry and Wolsey were deliberately lying. There is
nothing impossible in the supposition that some such doubts were
expressed; indeed, Francis I. had every reason to encourage doubts of
Henry's marriage as a means of creating a breach between him and
Charles V. In return for Mary's hand, Henry was endeavouring to obtain
various advantages from Francis in the way of pensions, tribute and
territory. Tarbes represented that the French King was so good a match
for the English princess, that there was little need for further
concession; to which Henry replied that Francis was no doubt an
excellent match for his daughter, but was he free to marry? His
precontract with Charles V.'s sister, Eleanor, was a complication
which seriously diminished the value of Francis's offer; and the papal
dispensation, which he hoped to obtain, might not be forthcoming (p. 197)
or valid.[556] As a counter to this stroke, Tarbes may well have
hinted that the Princess Mary was not such a prize as Henry made out.
Was the dispensation for Henry's own marriage beyond cavil? Was Mary's
legitimacy beyond question? Was her succession to the English throne,
a prospect Henry dangled before the Frenchman's eyes, so secure? These
questions were not very new, even at the time of Tarbes's mission. The
divorce had been talked about in 1514, and now, in 1527, the position
of importance given to the Duke of Richmond was a matter of public
comment, and inevitably suggested doubts of Mary's succession. There
is no documentary evidence that this argument was ever employed,
beyond the fact that, within three months of Tarbes's mission, both
Henry and Wolsey asserted that the Bishop had suggested doubts of the
validity of Henry's marriage.[557] Henry, however, does not say that
Tarbes _first_ suggested the doubts, nor does Wolsey. The Cardinal
declares that the Bishop objected to the marriage with the Princess
Mary on the ground of these doubts; and some time later, when Henry
explained his position to the Lord-Mayor and aldermen of London, he
said, according to Du Bellay, that the scruple of conscience, which he
had _long_ entertained, had terribly increased upon him since Tarbes
had spoken of it.[558]
[Footnote 554: Dr. Gairdner (_Engl. Hist. Rev._,
xi., 675) speaks of the "full diplomatic
correspondence which we possess"; the documents are
these: (1) an undated letter (_L. and P._, iv.,
App. 105) announcing the ambassador's arrival in
England; (2) a letter of 21st March (iv., 2974);
(3) a brief note of no importance to Dr. Brienne,
dated 2nd April (_ibid._, 3012); (4) the formal
commission of Francis I., dated 13th April
(_ibid._, 3059); (5) the treaty of 30th April
(3080); and (6) three brief notes from Turenne to
Montmorenci, dated 6th, 7th and 24th April. From
Tarbes himself there are absolutely no letters
relating to his negotiations, and it would almost
seem as though they had been deliberately
destroyed. Our knowledge depends solely upon
Dodieu's narrative.]
[Footnote 555: _L. and P._, iv., 4942.]
[Footnote 556: "There will be great difficulty,"
wrote Clerk, "_circa istud benedictum divortium_."
Brewer interpreted this as the earliest reference
to Henry's divorce; it was really, as Dr. Ehses
shows, in reference to the dissolution of the
precontract between Francis I. and Charles V.'s
sister Eleanor (_Engl. Hist. Rev._, xi., 676).]
[Footnote 557: _L. and P._, iv., 3231.]
[Footnote 558: _Ibid._, iv., 4231, 4942. Henry's
own account of the matter was as follows: "For some
years past he had noticed in reading the Bible the
severe penalty inflicted by God on those who
married the relicts of their brothers"; he at
length "began to be troubled in his conscience, and
to regard the sudden deaths of his male children as
a Divine judgment. The more he studied the matter,
the more clearly it appeared to him that he had
broken a Divine law. He then called to counsel men
learned in pontifical law, to ascertain their
opinion of the dispensation. Some pronounced it
invalid. So far he had proceeded as secretly as
possible that he might do nothing rashly" (_L. and
P._, iv., 5156; _cf._ iv., 3641). Shakespeare,
following Cavendish (p. 221), makes Henry reveal
his doubts first to his confessor, Bishop Longland
of Lincoln: "First I began in private with you, my
Lord of Lincoln" ("Henry VIII.," Act II., sc. iv.);
and there is contemporary authority for this
belief. In 1532 Longland was said to have suggested
a divorce to Henry ten years previously (_L. and
P._, v., 1114), and Chapuys termed him "the
principal promoter of these practices" (_ibid._,
v., 1046); and in 1536 the northern rebels thought
that he was the beginning of all the trouble
(_ibid._, xi., 705); the same assertion is made in
the anonymous "Life and Death of Cranmer" (_Narr.
of the Reformation_, Camden Soc., p. 219). Other
persons to whom the doubtful honour was ascribed
are Wolsey and Stafileo, Dean of the Rota at Rome
(_L. and P._, iv., 3400; _Sp. Cal._, iv., 159).]
However that may be, before the Bishop's negotiations were (p. 198)
completed the first steps had been taken towards the divorce, or, as
Wolsey and Henry pretended, towards satisfying the King's scruples as
to the validity of his marriage. Early in April, 1527, Dr. Richard
Wolman was sent down to Winchester to examine old Bishop Fox on the
subject.[559] The greatest secrecy was observed and none of the
Bishop's councillors were allowed to be present. Other evidence was
doubtless collected from various sources, and, on 17th May, a week
after Tarbes's departure, Wolsey summoned Henry to appear before him
to explain his conduct in living with his brother's widow.[560] Wolman
was appointed promoter of the suit; Henry put in a justification, (p. 199)
and, on 31st May, Wolman replied. With that the proceedings terminated.
In instituting them Henry was following a precedent set by his
brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk.[561] In very early days that
nobleman had contracted to marry Sir Anthony Browne's daughter, but
for some reason the match was broken off, and he sought the hand of
one Margaret Mortimer, to whom he was related in the second and third
degrees of consanguinity; he obtained a dispensation, completed the
marriage, and cohabited with Margaret Mortimer. But, like Henry VIII.,
his conscience or other considerations moved him to regard his
marriage as sin, and the dispensation as invalid. He caused a
declaration to that effect to be made by "the official of the
Archdeacon of London, to whom the cognisance of such causes of old
belongs," married Ann Browne, and, after her death, Henry's sister
Mary. A marriage, the validity of which depended, like Henry's, upon a
papal dispensation, and which, like Henry's, had been consummated, was
declared null and void on exactly the same grounds as those upon which
Henry himself sought a divorce, namely, the invalidity of the previous
dispensation. On 12th May, 1528, Clement VII. issued a bull confirming
Suffolk's divorce and pronouncing ecclesiastical censures on all who
called in question the Duke's subsequent marriages. That is precisely
the course Henry wished to be followed. Wolsey was to declare the
marriage invalid on the ground of the insufficiency of the papal
dispensation; Henry might then marry whom he pleased; the Pope was to
confirm the sentence, and censure all who should dispute the second
marriage or the legitimacy of its possible issue.
[Footnote 559: _L. and P._, iv., 5291. This
examination took place on 5th and 6th April.]
[Footnote 560: _Ibid._, iv., 3140.]
[Footnote 561: _L. and P._, iv., 5859; _cf._ iv.,
737.]
Another precedent was also forced on Henry's mind. On 11th March, (p. 200)
1527, two months before Wolsey opened his court, a divorce was granted
at Rome to Henry's sister Margaret, Queen of Scotland.[562] Her
pretexts were infinitely more flimsy than Henry's own. She alleged a
precontract on the part of her husband, Angus, which was never proved.
She professed to believe that James IV. had survived Flodden three
years, and was alive when she married Angus. Angus had been
unfaithful, but that was no ground for divorce by canon law; and she
herself was living in shameless adultery with Henry Stewart, who had
also procured a divorce to be free to marry his Queen. No objection
was found at Rome to either of these divorces; but neither Angus nor
Margaret Mortimer had an Emperor for a nephew; no imperial armies
would march on Rome to vindicate the validity of their marriages, and
Clement could issue his bulls without any fear that their justice
would be challenged by the arms of powerful princes. Not so with
Henry; while the secret proceedings before Wolsey were in progress,
the world was shocked by the sack of Rome, and Clement was a prisoner
in the hands of the Emperor's troops. There was no hope that a Pope in
such a plight would confirm a sentence to the detriment of his
master's aunt. "If the Pope," wrote Wolsey to Henry on receipt of the
news, "be slain or taken, it will hinder the King's affairs not a
little, which have hitherto been going on so well."[563] A little
later he declared that, if Catherine repudiated his authority, it
would be necessary to have the assent of the Pope or of the cardinals
to the divorce. To obtain the former the Pope must be liberated; to
secure the latter the cardinals must be assembled in France.[564] (p. 201)
[Footnote 562: _L. and P._, iv., 4130.]
[Footnote 563: _Ibid._, iv., 3147.]
[Footnote 564: _L. and P._, iv., 3311.]
To effect the Pope's liberation, or rather to call an assembly of
cardinals in France during Clement's captivity, was the real object of
the mission to France, on which Wolsey started in July. Such a body,
acting under Wolsey's presidency and in the territories of the French
King, was as likely to favour an attack upon the Emperor's aunt as the
Pope in the hands of Charles's armies was certain to oppose it. Wolsey
went in unparalleled splendour, not as Henry's ambassador but as his
lieutenant; and projects for his own advancement were, as usual, part
of the programme. Louise of Savoy, the queen-mother of France,
suggested to him that all Christian princes should repudiate the
Pope's authority so long as he remained in captivity, and the Cardinal
replied that, had the overture not been made by her, it would have
been started by himself and by Henry.[565] It was rumoured in Spain
that Wolsey "had gone into France to separate the Church of England
and of France from the Roman, not merely during the captivity of the
Pope and to effect his liberation, but for a perpetual division,"[566]
and that Francis was offering Wolsey the patriarchate of the two
schismatic churches. To win over the Cardinal to the interest of
Spain, it was even suggested that Charles should depose Clement and
offer the Papacy to Wolsey.[567] The project of a schism was not found
feasible; the cardinals at Rome were too numerous, and Wolsey only
succeeded in gaining four, three French and one Italian, to join him
in signing a protest repudiating Clement's authority so long as (p. 202)
he remained in the Emperor's power. It was necessary to fall back
after all on the Pope for assent to Henry's divorce, and the news that
Charles had already got wind of the proceedings against Catherine made
it advisable that no time should be lost. The Emperor, indeed, had
long been aware of Henry's intentions; every care had been taken to
prevent communication between Catherine and her nephew, and a plot had
been laid to kidnap a messenger she was sending in August to convey
her appeal for protection. All was in vain, for the very day after
Wolsey's court had opened in May, Mendoza wrote to Charles that Wolsey
"as the finishing stroke to all his iniquities, had been scheming to
bring about the Queen's divorce"; and on the 29th of July, some days
before Wolsey had any suspicion that a hint was abroad, Charles
informed Mendoza that he had despatched Cardinal Quignon to Rome, to
act on the Queen's behalf and to persuade Clement to revoke Wolsey's
legatine powers.[568]
[Footnote 565: _Ibid._, iv., 3247, 3263.]
[Footnote 566: _Ibid._, iv., 3291.]
[Footnote 567: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 273.]
[Footnote 568: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 193, 276, 300; _L.
and P._, iv., 3312.]
In ignorance of all this, Wolsey urged Henry to send Ghinucci, the
Bishop of Worcester, and others to Rome with certain demands, among
which was a request for Clement's assent to the abortive proposal for
a council in France.[569] But now a divergence became apparent between
the policy of Wolsey and that of his king. Both were working for a
divorce, but Wolsey wanted Henry to marry as his second wife Renée,
the daughter of Louis XII., and thus bind more closely the two kings,
upon whose union the Cardinal's personal and political schemes were
now exclusively based. Henry, however, had determined that his (p. 203)
second wife was to be Anne Boleyn, and of this determination Wolsey
was as yet uninformed. The Cardinal had good reason to dread that
lady's ascendancy over Henry's mind; for she was the hope and the tool
of the anti-clerical party, which had hitherto been kept in check by
Wolsey's supremacy. The Duke of Norfolk was her uncle, and he was
hostile to Wolsey for both private and public reasons; her father,
Viscount Rochford, her cousins, Sir William Fitzwilliam and Sir
Francis Brian, and many more distant connections, were anxious at the
first opportunity to lead an attack on the Church and Cardinal. Before
the divorce case began Wolsey's position had grown precarious; taxes
at home and failure abroad had turned the loyalty of the people to
sullen discontent, and Wolsey was mainly responsible. "Disaffection to
the King," wrote Mendoza in March, 1527, "and hatred of the Legate are
visible everywhere.... The King would soon be obliged to change his
councillors, were only a leader to present himself and head the
malcontents;" and in May he reported a general rumour to the effect
that Henry intended to relieve the Legate of his share in the
administration.[570] The Cardinal had incurred the dislike of nearly
every section of the community; the King was his sole support and the
King was beginning to waver. In May there were high words between
Wolsey and Norfolk in Henry's presence;[571] in July King and Cardinal
were quarrelling over ecclesiastical patronage at Calais,[572] and,
long before the failure of the divorce suit, there were other (p. 204)
indications that Henry and his minister had ceased to work together in
harmony.
[Footnote 569: _Ibid._, iv., 3400.]
[Footnote 570: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 109, 190, 192,
193; _cf._ iv., 3951, Du Bellay to Montmorenci,
"those who desire to catch him tripping are very
glad the people cry out 'Murder'".]
[Footnote 571: _L. and P._, iv., 1411.]
[Footnote 572: _Ibid._, iv., 3304.]
It is, indeed, quite a mistake to represent Wolsey's failure to obtain
a sentence in Henry's favour as the sole or main cause of his fall.
Had he succeeded, he might have deferred for a time his otherwise
unavoidable ruin, but it was his last and only chance. He was driven
to playing a desperate game, in which the dice were loaded against
him. If his plan failed, he told Clement over and over again, it would
mean for him irretrievable ruin, and in his fall he would drag down
the Church. If it succeeded, he would be hardly more secure, for
success meant the predominance of Anne Boleyn and of her
anti-ecclesiastical kin. Under the circumstances, it is possible to
attach too much weight to the opinion of the French and Spanish
ambassadors, and of Charles V. himself, that Wolsey suggested the
divorce as the means of breaking for ever the alliance between England
and the House of Burgundy, and substituting for it a union with
France.[573] The divorce fitted in so well with Wolsey's French
policy, that the suspicion was natural; but the same observers also
recorded the impression that Wolsey was secretly opposing the divorce
from fear of the ascendancy of Anne Boleyn.[574] That suspicion had
been brought to Henry's mind as early as June, 1527. It was probably
due to the facts that Wolsey was not blinded by passion, as Henry was,
to the difficulties in the way, and that it was he who persuaded Henry
to have recourse to the Pope in the first instance,[575] when the
King desired to follow Suffolk's precedent, obtain a sentence (p. 205)
in England, marry again, and trust to the Pope to confirm his
proceedings.
[Footnote 573: _L. and P._, iv., 4112, 4865, 5512.]
[Footnote 574: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 432, 790; _Ven.
Cal._, 1529, 212.]
[Footnote 575: "He showed me," writes Campeggio,
"that in order to maintain and increase here the
authority of the Holy See and the Pope he had done
his utmost to persuade the King to apply for a
legate... although many of these prelates declared
it was possible to do without one" (iv., 4857;
_cf._ iv., 5072, 5177).]
It is not, however, impossible to trace Wolsey's real designs behind
these conflicting reports. He knew that Henry was determined to have a
divorce and that this was one of those occasions upon which "he would
be obeyed, whosoever spoke to the contrary". As minister he must
therefore either resign--a difficult thing in the sixteenth
century--or carry out the King's policy. For his own part he had no
objection to the divorce in itself; he was no more touched by the
pathos of Catherine's fate than was her nephew Charles V., he wished
to see the succession strengthened, he thought that he might restore
his tottering influence by obtaining gratification for the King, and
he was straining every nerve to weaken Charles V., either because the
Emperor's power was really too great, or out of revenge for his
betrayal over the papal election. But he was strenuously hostile to
Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn for two excellent reasons: firstly
she and her kin belonged to the anti-ecclesiastical party which Wolsey
had dreaded since 1515, and secondly he desired Henry to marry the
French Princess Renée in order to strengthen his anti-imperial policy.
Further, he was anxious that the divorce problem should be solved by
means of the Papacy, because its solution by merely national action
would create a breach between England and Rome, would ruin Wolsey's
chances of election as Pope, would threaten his ecclesiastical
supremacy in England, which was merely a legatine authority (p. 206)
dependent on the Pope,[576] and would throw Clement into the arms of
Charles V., whereas Wolsey desired him to be an effective member of
the anti-imperial alliance. Thus Wolsey was prepared to go part of the
way with Henry VIII., but he clearly saw the point at which their
paths would diverge; and his efforts on Henry's behalf were hampered
by his endeavours to keep the King on the track which he had marked
out.
[Footnote 576: Wolsey "certainly proves himself
very zealous for the preservation of the authority
of the See Apostolic in this kingdom _because all
his grandeur is connected with it_" (Campeggio to
Sanga, 28th Oct., 1528, _L. and P._, iv., 4881).]
Henry's suspicions, and his knowledge that Wolsey would be hostile to
his marriage with Anne Boleyn, induced him to act for the time
independently of the Cardinal; and, while Wolsey was in France hinting
at a marriage between Henry and Renée, the King himself was secretly
endeavouring to remove the obstacles to his union with Anne Boleyn.
Instead of adopting Wolsey's suggestion that Ghinucci should be sent
to Rome as an Italian versed in the ways of the Papal Curia, he
despatched his secretary, Dr. William Knight, with two extraordinary
commissions, the second of which he thought would not be revealed "for
any craft the Cardinal or any other can find".[577] The first was to
obtain from the Pope a dispensation to marry a second wife, without
being divorced from Catherine, the issue from both marriages to be
legitimate. This "licence to commit bigamy" has naturally been the
subject of much righteous indignation. But marriage-laws were lax (p. 207)
in those days, when Popes could play fast and loose with them for
political purposes; and, besides the "great reasons and precedents,
especially in the Old Testament," to which Henry referred,[578] he
might have produced a precedent more pertinent, more recent, and
better calculated to appeal to Clement VII. In 1521 Charles V.'s
Spanish council drew up a memorial on the subject of his marriage, in
which they pointed out that his ancestor, Henry IV. of Castile, had,
in 1437, married Dona Blanca, by whom he had no children; and that the
Pope thereupon granted him a dispensation to marry a second wife on
condition that, if within a fixed time he had no issue by her, he
should return to his first.[579] A licence for bigamy, modelled after
this precedent, would have suited Henry admirably, but apparently he
was unaware of this useful example, and was induced to countermand
Knight's commission before it had been communicated to Clement. The
demand would not, however, have shocked the Pope so much as his modern
defenders, for on 18th September, 1530, Casale writes to Henry: "A few
days since the Pope secretly proposed to me that your Majesty might be
allowed two wives. I told him I could not undertake to make any such
proposition, because I did not know whether it would satisfy your
Majesty's conscience. I made this answer because I know that the
Imperialists have this in view, and are urging it; but why, I know
not."[580] Ghinucci and Benet were equally cautious, and thought the
Pope's suggestion was only a ruse; whether a ruse or not, it is (p. 208)
a curious illustration of the moral influence Popes were then likely
to exert on their flock.
[Footnote 577: Henry VIII. to Knight in Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, MS., 318, f. 3, printed in
the _Academy_, xv., 239, and _Engl. Hist. Rev._,
xi., 685.]
[Footnote 578: _L. and P._, iv., 4977.]
[Footnote 579: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 379.]
[Footnote 580: _L. and P._, iv., 6627, 6705, App.
261.]
The second commission, with which Knight was entrusted, was hardly
less strange than the first. By his illicit relations with Mary
Boleyn, Henry had already contracted affinity in the first degree with
her sister Anne, in fact precisely the same affinity (except that it
was illicit) as that which Catherine was alleged to have contracted
with him before their marriage. The inconsistency of Henry's conduct,
in seeking to remove by the same method from his second marriage the
disability which was held to invalidate his first, helps us to define
the precise position which Henry took up and the nature of his
peculiar conscience. Obviously he did not at this stage deny the
Pope's dispensing power; for he was invoking its aid to enable him to
marry Anne Boleyn. He asserted, and he denied, no principle whatever,
though it must be remembered that his own dispensation was an almost,
if not quite, unprecedented stretch of papal power. To dispense with
the "divine" law against marrying the brother's wife, and to dispense
with the merely canonical obstacle to his marriage with Anne arising
out of his relations with Mary Boleyn, were very different matters;
and in this light the breach between England and Rome might be
represented as caused by a novel extension of papal claims. Henry,
however, was a casuist concerned exclusively with his own case. He
maintained merely that the particular dispensation, granted for his
marriage with Catherine, was null and void. As a concession to others,
he condescended to give a number of reasons, none of them affecting
any principle, but only the legal technicalities of the case--the
causes for which the dispensation was granted, such as his own (p. 209)
desire, and the political necessity for the marriage were fictitious;
he had himself protested against the marriage, and so forth. For
himself, his own conviction was ample sanction; he knew he was living
in sin with Catherine because his children had all died but one, and
that was a manifest token of the wrath of Providence. The capacity for
convincing himself of his own righteousness is the most effective
weapon in the egotist's armoury, and Henry's egotism touched the
sublime. His conscience was clear, whatever other people might think
of the maze of apparent inconsistencies in which he was involved. In
1528 he was in some fear of death from the plague; fear of death is
fatal to the peace of a guilty conscience, and it might well have made
Henry pause in his pursuit after the divorce and Anne Boleyn. But
Henry never wavered; he went on in serene assurance, writing his love
letters to Anne, as a conscientiously unmarried man might do, making
his will,[581] "confessing every day and receiving his Maker at every
feast,"[582] paying great attention to the morals of monasteries, and
to charges of malversation against Wolsey, and severely lecturing his
sister Margaret on the sinfulness of her life.[583] He hopes she will
turn "to God's word, the vively doctrine of Jesu Christ, the only
ground of salvation--1 COR. 3, etc."; he reminds her of "the divine
ordinance of inseparable matrimony first instituted in Paradise," and
urges her to avoid "the inevitable damnation threatened against (p. 210)
advoutrers". Henry's conscience was convenient and skilful. He
believed in the "ordinance of inseparable matrimony," so, when he
wished to divorce a wife, his conscience warned him that he had never
really been married to her. Hence his nullity suits with Catherine of
Aragon, with Anne Boleyn and with Anne of Cleves. Moreover, if he had
never been married to Catherine, his relations with Mary Boleyn and
Elizabeth Blount were obviously not adultery, and he was free to
denounce that sin in Margaret with a clear conscience.
[Footnote 581: _L. and P._, iv., 4404.]
[Footnote 582: _Ibid._, iv., 4542.]
[Footnote 583: _Ibid._, iv., 4131. Wolsey writes
the letter, but he is only giving Henry's
"message". The letter is undated, but it refers to
the "shameless sentence sent from Rome," _i.e._,
sentence of divorce which is dated 11th March,
1527.]
* * * * *
Dr. Knight had comparatively little difficulty in obtaining the
dispensation for Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn; but it was only to
be effective after sentence had been given decreeing the nullity of
his marriage with Catherine of Aragon; and, as Wolsey saw, that was
the real crux of the question.[584] Knight had scarcely turned his
steps homeward, when he was met by a courier with fresh instructions
from Wolsey to obtain a further concession from Clement; the Pope was
to empower the Cardinal himself, or some other safe person, to examine
the original dispensation, and, if it were found invalid, to annul
Henry's marriage with Catherine. So Knight returned to the Papal
Court; and then began that struggle between English and Spanish (p. 211)
influence at Rome which ended in the victory of Charles V. and the
repudiation by England of the Roman jurisdiction. Never did two
parties enter upon a contest with a clearer perception of the issues
involved, or carry it on with their eyes more open to the magnitude of
the results. Wolsey himself, Gardiner, Foxe, Casale, and every English
envoy employed in the case, warned and threatened Clement that, if he
refused Henry's demands, he would involve Wolsey and the Papal cause
in England in a common ruin. "He alleged," says Campeggio of Wolsey,
"that if the King's desire were not complied with... there would
follow the speedy and total ruin of the kingdom, of his Lordship and
of the Church's influence in this kingdom."[585] "I cannot reflect
upon it," wrote Wolsey himself, "and close my eyes, for I see ruin,
infamy and subversion of the whole dignity and estimation of the See
Apostolic if this course is persisted in. You see in what dangerous
times we are. If the Pope will consider the gravity of this cause, and
how much the safety of the nation depends upon it, he will see that
the course he now pursues will drive the King to adopt remedies which
are injurious to the Pope, and are frequently instilled into the
King's mind."[586] On one occasion Clement confessed that, though the
Pope was supposed to carry the papal laws locked up in his breast,
Providence had not vouchsafed him the key wherewith to unlock them;
and Gardiner roughly asked in retort whether in that case the papal
laws should not be committed to the flames.[587] He told how the
Lutherans were instigating Henry to do away with the temporal (p. 212)
possessions of the Church.[588] But Clement could only bewail his
misfortune, and protest that, if heresies and schisms arose, it was
not his fault. He could not afford to offend the all-powerful Emperor;
the sack of Rome and Charles's intimation conveyed in plain and set
terms that it was the judgment of God[589] had cowed Clement for the
rest of his life, and made him resolve never again to incur the
Emperor's enmity.
[Footnote 584: For these intricate negotiations see
Stephan Ehses, _Römische Dokumente zur Geschichte
der Ehescheidung Heinrichs VIII. von England_,
1893; these documents had all, I think, been
previously printed by Laemmer or Theiner, but only
from imperfect copies often incorrectly deciphered.
Ehses has printed the originals with the utmost
care, and thrown much new light on the subject. The
story of the divorce is retold in this new light by
Dr. Gairdner in the _English Historical Review_,
vols. xi. and xii.; the documents in _L. and P._
must be corrected from these sources.]
[Footnote 585: _L. and P._, iv., 4881.]
[Footnote 586: _Ibid._, iv., 4897.]
[Footnote 587: _Ibid._, iv., 4167; _cf._ iv., 5156,
and Ehses, _Römische Dokumente_, No. 20, where
Cardinal Pucci gives a somewhat different account
of the interviews.]
[Footnote 588: _L. and P._, iv., 5038, 5417, 5476.]
[Footnote 589: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 309.]
From the point of view of justice, the Pope had an excellent case;
even the Lutherans, who denied his dispensing power, denounced the
divorce. _Quod non fieri debuit_, was their just and common-sense
point, _factum valet_. But the Pope's case had been hopelessly
weakened by the evil practice of his predecessors and of himself.
Alexander VI. had divorced Louis XII. from his Queen for no other
reasons than that Louis XII. wanted to unite Brittany with France by
marrying its duchess, and that Alexander, the Borgia Pope, required
Louis' assistance in promoting the interests of the iniquitous Borgia
family.[590] The injustice to Catherine was no greater than that to
Louis' Queen. Henry's sister Margaret, and both the husbands of his
other sister, Mary, had procured divorces from Popes, and why not
Henry himself? Clement was ready enough to grant Margaret's
divorce;[591] he was willing to give a dispensation for a marriage
between the Princess Mary and her half-brother, the Duke of (p. 213)
Richmond; the more insuperable the obstacle, the more its removal
enhanced his power. It was all very well to dispense with canons and
divine laws, but to annul papal dispensations--was that not to cheapen
his own wares? Why, wrote Henry to Clement, could he not dispense with
human laws, if he was able to dispense with divine at pleasure?[592]
Obviously because divine authority could take care of itself, but papal
prerogatives needed a careful shepherd. Even this principle, such as
it was, was not consistently followed, for he had annulled a dispensation
in Suffolk's case. Clement's real anxiety was to avoid responsibility.
More than once he urged Henry to settle the matter himself,[593] as
Suffolk had done, obtain a sentence from the courts in England, and
marry his second wife. The case could then only come before him as a
suit against the validity of the second marriage, and the accomplished
fact was always a powerful argument. Moreover, all this would take
time, and delay was as dear to Clement as irresponsibility. But Henry
was determined to have such a sentence as would preclude all doubts of
the legitimacy of his children by the second marriage, and was as
anxious to shift the responsibility to Clement's shoulders as the Pope
was to avoid it. Clement next urged Catherine to go into a nunnery,
for that would only entail injustice on herself, and would involve the
Church and its head in no temporal perils.[594] When Catherine (p. 214)
refused, he wished her in the grave, and lamented that he seemed
doomed through her to lose the spiritualties of his Church, as he had
lost its temporalties through her nephew, Charles V.[595]
[Footnote 590: _L. and P._, iv., 5152, where
Henry's ambassadors quote this precedent to the
Pope. _Cf. ibid._, v., 45, for other precedents.]
[Footnote 591: The sentence was actually pronounced
by the Cardinal of Ancona, and the date was 11th
March, 1527, just before Henry commenced
proceedings against Catherine. Henry called it a
"shameless sentence"; but it may nevertheless have
suggested to his mind the possibility of obtaining
one like it.]
[Footnote 592: _L. and P._, iv., 5966.]
[Footnote 593: _Ibid._, iv., 3802, 6290.]
[Footnote 594: _Ibid._, iv., 5072. "It would
greatly please the Pope," writes his secretary
Sanga, "if the Queen could be induced to enter some
religion, because, although this course would be
portentous and unusual, he could more readily
entertain the idea, _as it would involve the injury
of only one person_."]
[Footnote 595: _L. and P._, iv., 5518.]
It was thus with the utmost reluctance that he granted the commission
brought by Knight. It was a draft, drawn up by Wolsey, apparently
declaring the law on the matter and empowering Wolsey, if the facts
were found to be such as were alleged, to pronounce the nullity of
Catherine's marriage.[596] Wolsey desired that it should be granted in
the form in which he had drawn it up. But the Pope's advisers declared
that such a commission would disgrace Henry, Wolsey and Clement
himself. The draft was therefore amended so as to be unobjectionable,
or, in other words, useless for practical purposes; and, with this
commission, Knight returned to England, rejoicing in the confidence of
complete success. But, as soon as Wolsey had seen it, he pronounced
the commission "as good as none at all".[597] The discovery did not
improve his or Henry's opinion of the Pope's good faith; but, dissembling
their resentment, they despatched, in February, 1528, Stephen Gardiner
and Edward Foxe to obtain fresh and more effective powers. Eventually,
on 8th June a commission was issued to Wolsey and Campeggio to try the
case and pronounce sentence;[598] even if one was unwilling, the other
might act by himself; and all appeals from their jurisdiction (p. 215)
were forbidden. This was not a decretal commission; it did not bind
the Pope or prevent him from revoking the case. Such a commission was,
however, granted on condition that it should be shown to no one but
the King and Wolsey, and that it should not be used in the procedure.
The Pope also gave a written promise, in spite of a protest lodged on
Catherine's behalf by the Spanish ambassador, Muxetula,[599] that he
would not revoke, or do anything to invalidate, the commission, but
would confirm the cardinals' decision.[600] If, Clement had said in
the previous December, Lautrec, the French commander in Italy, came
nearer Rome, he might excuse himself to the Emperor as having acted
under pressure.[601] He would send the commission as soon as Lautrec
arrived. Lautrec had now arrived; he had marched down through Italy;
he had captured Melfi; the Spanish commander, Moncada, had been
killed; Naples was thought to be on the eve of surrender.[602] The
Spanish dominion in Italy was waning, the Emperor's thunderbolts were
less terrifying, and the justice of the cause of his aunt less
apparent.
[Footnote 596: It was called a "decretal
commission," and it was a legislative as well as an
administrative act; the Pope being an absolute
monarch, his decrees were the laws of the Church;
the difficulties of Clement VII. and indeed the
whole divorce question could never have arisen had
the Church been a constitutional monarchy.]
[Footnote 597: _L. and P._, iv., 3913.]
[Footnote 598: _Ibid._, iv., 4345.]
[Footnote 599: _Engl. Hist. Rev._, xii., 110-14.]
[Footnote 600: Ehses, _Römische Dok._, No. 23;
_Engl. Hist. Rev._, xii., 8.]
[Footnote 601: _L. and P._, iv., 3682, 3750.]
[Footnote 602: _Ibid._, iv., 3934, 3949, 4224.]
* * * * *
On 25th July Campeggio embarked at Corneto,[603] and proceeded by slow
stages through France towards England. Henry congratulated himself
that his hopes were on the eve of fulfilment. But, unfortunately for
him, the basis, on which they were built, was as unstable as water.
The decision of his case still depended upon Clement, and Clement
wavered with every fluctuation in the success or the failure of (p. 216)
the Spanish arms in Italy. Campeggio had scarcely set out, when
Doria, the famous Genoese admiral, deserted Francis for Charles;[604]
on the 17th of August Lautrec died before Naples;[605] and, on 10th
September, an English agent sent Wolsey news of a French disaster,
which he thought more serious than the battle of Pavia or the sack of
Rome.[606] On the following day Sanga, the Pope's secretary, wrote to
Campeggio that, "as the Emperor is victorious, the Pope must not give
him any pretext for a fresh rupture, lest the Church should be utterly
annihilated.... Proceed on your journey to England, and there do your
utmost to restore mutual affection between the King and Queen. You are
not to pronounce any opinion without a new and express commission
hence."[607] Sanga repeated the injunction a few days later. "Every
day," he wrote, "stronger reasons are discovered;" to satisfy Henry
"involves the certain ruin of the Apostolic See and the Church, owing
to recent events.... If so great an injury be done to the Emperor...
the Church cannot escape utter ruin, as it is entirely in the power of
the Emperor's servants. You will not, therefore, be surprised at my
repeating that you are not to proceed to sentence, under any pretext,
without express commission; but to protract the matter as long as
possible."[608] Clement himself wrote to Charles that nothing would be
done to Catherine's detriment, that Campeggio had gone merely to urge
Henry to do his duty, and that the whole case would eventually be
referred to Rome.[609] Such were the secret instructions with which
Campeggio arrived in England in October.[610] He readily promised (p. 217)
not to proceed to sentence, but protested against the interpretation
which he put upon the Pope's command, namely, that he was not to begin
the trial. The English, he said, "would think that I had come to
hoodwink them, and might resent it. You know how much that would
involve."[611] He did not seem to realise that the refusal to pass
sentence was equally hoodwinking the English, and that the trial would
only defer the moment of their penetrating the deception; a trial was
of no use without sentence.
[Footnote 603: _Ibid._, iv., 4605.]
[Footnote 604: _L. and P._, iv., 4626.]
[Footnote 605: _Ibid._, iv., 4663.]
[Footnote 606: _Ibid._, iv., 4713.]
[Footnote 607: _Ibid._, iv., 4721.]
[Footnote 608: _Ibid._, iv., 4736-37.]
[Footnote 609: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 779.]
[Footnote 610: _L. and P._, iv., 4857.]
[Footnote 611: _Ibid._, iv., 4736.]
In accordance with his instructions, Campeggio first sought to dissuade
Henry from persisting in his suit for the divorce. Finding the King
immovable, he endeavoured to induce Catherine to go into a nunnery, as
the divorced wife of Louis XII. had done, "who still lived in the
greatest honour and reputation with God and all that kingdom".[612] He
represented to her that she had nothing to lose by such a step; she
could never regain Henry's affections or obtain restitution of her
conjugal rights. Her consent might have deferred the separation of the
English Church from Rome; it would certainly have relieved the Supreme
Pontiff from a humiliating and intolerable position. But these
considerations of expediency weighed nothing with Catherine. She was
as immovable as Henry, and deaf to all Campeggio's solicitations. Her
conscience was, perhaps, of a rigid, Spanish type, but it was as clear
as Henry's and a great deal more comprehensible. She was convinced
that her marriage was valid; to admit a doubt of it would imply that
she had been living in sin and imperil her immortal soul. Henry (p. 218)
did not in the least mind admitting that he had lived for twenty years
with a woman who was not his wife; the sin, to his mind, was continuing
to live with her after he had become convinced that she was really not
his wife. Catherine appears, however, to have been willing to take the
monastic vows, if Henry would do the same. Henry was equally willing,
if Clement would immediately dispense with the vows in his case, but
not in Catherine's.[613] But there were objections to this course, and
doubts of Clement's power to authorise Henry's re-marriage, even if
Catherine did go into a nunnery.
[Footnote 612: _Ibid._, iv., 4858.]
[Footnote 613: _L. and P._, iv., 4977.]
Meanwhile, Campeggio found help from an unexpected quarter in his
efforts to waste the time. Quite unknown to Henry, Wolsey, or Clement,
there existed in Spain a brief of Julius II. fuller than the original
bull of dispensation which he had granted for the marriage of Henry
and Catherine, and supplying any defects that might be found in it.
Indeed, so conveniently did the brief meet the criticisms urged
against the bull, that Henry and Wolsey at once pronounced it an
obvious forgery, concocted after the doubts about the bull had been
raised. No copy of the brief could be found in the English archives,
nor could any trace be discovered of its having been registered at
Rome; while Ghinucci and Lee, who examined the original in Spain,
professed to see in it such flagrant inaccuracies as to deprive it of
all claim to be genuine.[614] Still, if it were genuine, it shattered
the whole of Henry's case. That had been built up, not on the (p. 219)
denial of the Pope's power to dispense, but on the technical defects
of a particular dispensation. Now it appeared that the validity of the
marriage did not depend upon this dispensation at all. Nor did it
depend upon the brief, for Catherine was prepared to deny on oath that
the marriage with Arthur had been anything more than a form;[615] in
that case the affinity with Henry had not been contracted, and there
was no need of either dispensation or brief. This assertion seems to
have shaken Henry; certainly he began to shift his position, and,
early in 1529, he was wishing for some noted divine, friar or other,
who would maintain that the Pope could not dispense at all.[616] This
was his first doubt as to the plenitude of papal power; his marriage
with Catherine must be invalid, because his conscience told him so; if
it was not invalid through defects in the dispensation, it must be
invalid because the Pope could not dispense. Wolsey met the objection
with a legal point, perfectly good in itself, but trivial. There were
two canonical disabilities which the dispensation must meet for
Henry's marriage to be valid; first, the consummation of Catherine's
marriage with Arthur; secondly, the marriage, even though it was not
consummated, was yet celebrated _in facie ecclesiæ_, and generally
reputed complete. There was thus an _impedimentum publicæ honestatis_
to the marriage of Henry and Catherine, and this impediment was not
mentioned in, and therefore not removed by, the dispensation.[617]
[Footnote 614: _Ibid._, iv., 5376-77, 5470-71,
5486-87. For the arguments as to its validity see
Busch, _England under the Tudors_, Eng. trs., i.,
376-8; Friedmann, _Anne Boleyn_, ii., 329; and Lord
Acton in the _Quarterly Rev._, cxliii., 1-51.]
[Footnote 615: She made this statement to Campeggio
in the confessional (_L. and P._, iv., 4875).]
[Footnote 616: _Ibid._, iv., 5377, 5438; _Sp.
Cal._, iii., 276, 327.]
[Footnote 617: _L. and P._, iv., 3217. See this
point discussed in Taunton's _Cardinal Wolsey_,
chap. x.]
But all this legal argument might be invalidated by the brief. (p. 220)
It was useless to proceed with the trial until the promoters of the
suit knew what the brief contained. According to Mendoza, Catherine's
"whole right" depended upon the brief, a statement indicating a
general suspicion that the bull was really insufficient.[618] So the
winter of 1528-29 and the following spring were spent in efforts to
get hold of the original brief, or to induce Clement to declare it a
forgery. The Queen was made to write to Charles that it was absolutely
essential to her case that the brief should be produced before the
legatine Court in England.[619] The Emperor was not likely to be
caught by so transparent an artifice. Moreover, the emissary, sent
with Catherine's letter, wrote, as soon as he got to France, warning
Charles that his aunt's letter was written under compulsion and
expressed the reverse of her real desires.[620] In the spring of 1529
several English envoys, ending with Gardiner, were sent to Rome to
obtain a papal declaration of the falsity of the brief. Clement,
however, naturally refused to declare the brief a forgery, without
hearing the arguments on the other side,[621] and more important
developments soon supervened. Gardiner wrote from Rome, early in May,
that there was imminent danger of the Pope revoking the case, and (p. 221)
the news determined Henry and Wolsey to relinquish their suit about
the brief, and push on the proceedings of the legatine Court, so as to
get some decision before the case was called to Rome. Once the legates
had pronounced in favour of the divorce, Clement was informed, the
English cared little what further fortunes befel it elsewhere.
[Footnote 618: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 882.]
[Footnote 619: _L. and P._, iv., 4841.]
[Footnote 620: _Ibid._, iv., 5154, 5177, 5211
(ii.); _Sp. Cal._, iii., 877, 882.]
[Footnote 621: _L. and P._, iv., 5474. Yet there is
a letter from Clement to Campeggio (_Cotton MS._,
Vitellius, B, xii., 164; _L. and P._, iv., 5181)
authorising him "to reject whatever evidence is
tendered in behalf of this brief as an evident
forgery". Clement was no believer in the maxim _qui
facit per alium facit per se_; he did not mind what
his legates did, so long as he was free to
repudiate their action when convenient.]
So, on the 31st of May, 1529, in the great hall of the Black Friars,
in London, the famous Court was formally opened, and the King and
Queen were cited to appear before it on the 18th of June.[622] Henry
was then represented by two proxies, but Catherine came in person to
protest against the competence of the tribunal.[623] Three days later
both the King and the Queen attended in person to hear the Court's
decision on this point. Catherine threw herself on her knees before
Henry; she begged him to consider her honour, her daughter's and his.
Twice Henry raised her up; he protested that he desired nothing so
much as that their marriage should be found valid, in spite of the
"perpetual scruple" he had felt about it, and declared that only his
love for her had kept him silent so long; her request for the removal
of the cause to Rome was unreasonable, considering the Emperor's power
there. Again protesting against the jurisdiction of the Court and
appealing to Rome, Catherine withdrew. Touched by her appeal, Henry
burst out in her praise. "She is, my Lords," he said, "as true, as
obedient, and as conformable a wife, as I could, in my phantasy, wish
or desire. She hath all the virtuous qualities that ought to be in a
woman of her dignity, or in any other of baser estate."[624] (p. 222)
But these qualities had nothing to do with the pitiless forms of law.
The legate, overruled her protest, refused her appeal, and summoned
her back. She took no notice, and was declared contumacious.
[Footnote 622: _L. and P._, iv., 5611, 5612.]
[Footnote 623: _Ibid._, iv., 5685, 5694, 5695,
5702.]
[Footnote 624: _L. and P._, iv., Introd., p.
cccclxxv.]
The proceedings then went on without her; Fisher Bishop of Rochester,
made a courageous defence of the validity of the marriage, to which
Henry drew up a bitter reply in the form of a speech addressed to the
legates.[625] The speed with which the procedure was hurried on was
little to Campeggio's taste. He had not prejudged the case; he was
still in doubt as to which way the sentence would go; and he entered a
dignified protest against the orders he received from Rome to give
sentence, if it came to that point, against Henry.[626] He would
pronounce what judgment seemed to him just, but he shrank from the
ordeal, and he did his best to follow out Clement's injunctions to
procrastinate.[627] In this he succeeded completely. It seemed that
judgment could no longer be deferred; it was to be delivered on the
23rd of July.[628] On that day the King himself, and the chief men of
his Court, were present; his proctor demanded sentence. Campeggio
stood up, and instead of giving sentence, adjourned the Court till
October.[629] "By the mass!" burst out Suffolk, giving the table (p. 223)
a great blow with his hand, "now I see that the old-said saw is true,
that there was never a legate nor cardinal that did good in England."
The Court never met again; and except during the transient reaction,
under Mary, it was the last legatine Court ever held in England. They
might assure the Pope, Wolsey had written to the English envoys at
Rome a month before, that if he granted the revocation he would lose
the devotion of the King and of England to the See Apostolic, and
utterly destroy Wolsey for ever.[630]
[Footnote 625: _Ibid._, iv., Introd., p. cccclxxix.]
[Footnote 626: _Ibid._, iv., 5732, 5734.]
[Footnote 627: _Ibid._, iv., 3604.]
[Footnote 628: _Ibid._, iv., 5789.]
[Footnote 629: It was alleged that this adjournment
was only the usual practice of the curia; but it is
worth noting that in 1530 Charles V. asserted that
it was usual to carry on matters so important as
the divorce during vacation (_ibid._, iv., 6452),
and that Clement had repeatedly ordered Campeggio
to prolong the suit as much as possible and above
all to pronounce no sentence.]
[Footnote 630: _L. and P._, iv., 5703, 5715, 5780.]
Long before the vacation was ended, news reached Henry that the case
had been called to Rome; the revocation was, indeed, decreed a week
before Campeggio adjourned his court. Charles's star, once more in the
ascendant, had cast its baleful influence over Henry's fortunes. The
close alliance between England and France had led to a joint
declaration of war on the Emperor in January, 1528, into which the
English ambassadors in Spain had been inveigled by their French
colleagues, against Henry's wishes.[631] It was received with a storm
of opposition in England, and Wolsey had some difficulty in justifying
himself to the King. "You may be sure," wrote Du Bellay, "that he is
playing a terrible game, for I believe he is the only Englishman who
wishes a war with Flanders."[632] If that was his wish, he was doomed
to disappointment. Popular hatred of the war was too strong; a project
was mooted by the clothiers in Kent for seizing the Cardinal and
turning him adrift in a boat, with holes bored in it.[633] The (p. 224)
clothiers in Wiltshire were reported to be rising; in Norfolk
employers dismissed their workmen.[634] War with Flanders meant ruin
to the most prosperous industry in both countries, and the attempt to
divert the Flanders trade to Calais had failed.[635] So Henry and
Charles were soon discussing peace; no hostilities took place; an
agreement, that trade should go on as usual with Flanders,[636] was
followed by a truce in June,[637] and the truce by the Peace of
Cambrai in the following year. That peace affords the measure of
England's decline since 1521. Wolsey was carefully excluded from all
share in the negotiations. England was, indeed, admitted as a
participator, but only after Louise and Margaret of Savoy had
practically settled the terms, and after Du Bellay had told Francis
that, if England were not admitted, it would mean Wolsey's immediate
ruin.[638]
[Footnote 631: _Ibid._, iv., 4564; _Sp. Cal._,
iii., 729.]
[Footnote 632: _L. and P._, iv., 3930.]
[Footnote 633: _L. and P._, iv., 4310.]
[Footnote 634: _Ibid._, iv., 4012, 4040, 4043,
4044, 4239.]
[Footnote 635: _Ibid._, iv., 3262.]
[Footnote 636: _Ibid._, iv., 4147.]
[Footnote 637: _Ibid._, iv., 4376.]
[Footnote 638: _Ibid._, iv., 5679, 5701, 5702,
5713.]
By the Treaty of Cambrai Francis abandoned Italy to Charles. His
affairs beyond the Alps had been going from bad to worse since the
death of Lautrec; and the suggested guard of French and English
soldiers which was to relieve the Pope from fear of Charles was never
formed.[639] That failure was not the only circumstance which made
Clement imperialist. Venice, the ally of England and France, seized
Ravenna and Cervia, two papal towns.[640] "The conduct of the
Venetians," wrote John Casale from Rome, "moves the Pope more than
anything else, and he would use the assistance of any one, except (p. 225)
the Devil, to avenge their injury."[641] "The King and the Cardinal,"
repeated Sanga to Campeggio, "must not expect him to execute his
intentions, until they have used their utmost efforts to compel the
Venetians to restore the Pope's territories."[642] Henry did his best,
but he was not sincerely helped by Francis; his efforts proved vain,
and Clement thought he could get more effective assistance from
Charles. "Every one is persuaded," said one of the Emperor's agents in
Italy on 10th January, 1529, "that the Pope is now sincerely attached
to his Imperial Majesty."[643] "I suspect," wrote Du Bellay from
London, in the same month, "that the Pope has commanded Campeggio to
meddle no further, seeing things are taking quite a different turn
from what he had been assured, and that the Emperor's affairs in
Naples are in such a state that Clement dare not displease him."[644]
The Pope had already informed Charles that his aunt's petition for the
revocation of the suit would be granted.[645] The Italian League was
practically dissolved. "I have quite made up my mind," said Clement to
the Archbishop of Capua on 7th June, "to become an Imperialist, and to
live and die as such... I am only waiting for the return of my
nuncio."[646]
[Footnote 639: _Ibid._, iv., 5179.]
[Footnote 640: _Ibid._, iv., 4680-84.]
[Footnote 641: _L. and P._, iv., 4900.]
[Footnote 642: _Ibid._, iv., 5447.]
[Footnote 643: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 875.]
[Footnote 644: _L. and P._, iv., 5209.]
[Footnote 645: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 890.]
[Footnote 646: _Ibid._, iv., 72.]
That nuncio had gone to Barcelona to negotiate an alliance between the
Pope and the Emperor; and the success of his mission completed
Clement's conversion. The revocation was only delayed, thought
Charles's representative at Rome, to secure better terms for the
Pope.[647] On 21st June, the French commander, St. Pol, was utterly
defeated at Landriano; "not a vestige of the army is left," (p. 226)
reported Casale.[648] A few days later the Treaty of Barcelona between
Clement and Charles was signed.[649] Clement's nephew was to marry the
Emperor's natural daughter; the Medici tyranny was to be re-established
in Florence; Ravenna, Cervia and other towns were to be restored to
the Pope; His Holiness was to crown Charles with the imperial crown,
and to absolve from ecclesiastical censures all those who were present
at, or consented to, the sack of Rome. It was, in effect, a family
compact; and part of it was the quashing of the legates' proceedings
against the Emperor's aunt, with whom the Pope was now to be allied by
family ties. "We found out secretly," write the English envoys at
Rome, on the 16th of July, "that the Pope signed the revocation
yesterday morning, as it would have been dishonourable to have signed
it after the publication of the new treaty with the Emperor, which
will be published here on Sunday."[650] Clement knew that his motives
would not bear scrutiny, and he tried to avoid public odium by a
characteristic subterfuge. Catherine could hope for no justice in
England, Henry could expect no justice at Rome. Political expediency
would dictate a verdict in Henry's favour in England; political
expediency would dictate a verdict for Catherine at Rome. Henry's
ambassadors were instructed to appeal from Clement to the "true Vicar
of Christ," but where was the true Vicar of Christ to be found on (p. 227)
earth?[651] There was no higher tribunal. It was intolerable that
English suits should be decided by the chances and changes of French
or Habsburg influence in Italy, by the hopes and the fears of an
Italian prince for the safety of his temporal power. The natural and
inevitable result was the separation of England from Rome.
[Footnote 647: _Ibid._, iv., 154.]
[Footnote 648: _L. and P._, iv., 5705, 5767; _cf.
Sp. Cal._, iv., 150.]
[Footnote 649: _L. and P._, iv., 5779; _Sp. Cal._,
iv., 117, 161.]
[Footnote 650: _L. and P._, iv., 5780; _Sp. Cal._,
iv., 156. Another detail was the excommunication of
Zapolya, the rival of the Habsburgs in Hungary--a
step which Henry VIII. denounced as "letting the
Turk into Hungary" (_L. and P._, v., 274).]
[Footnote 651: _L. and P._, iv., 5650, 5715.]
CHAPTER IX. (p. 228)
THE CARDINAL'S FALL.[652]
[Footnote 652: See, besides the documents cited,
Busch, _Der Sturz des Cardinals Wolsey_ (Hist.
Taschenbuch, VI., ix., 39-114).]
The loss of their spiritual jurisdiction in England was part of the
price paid by the Popes for their temporal possessions in Italy. The
papal domains were either too great or too small. If the Pope was to
rely on his temporal power, it should have been extensive enough to
protect him from the dictation and resentment of secular princes; and
from this point of view there was no little justification for the aims
of Julius II. Had he succeeded in driving the barbarians across the
Alps or into the sea, he and his successors might in safety have
judged the world, and the breach with Henry might never have taken
place. If the Pope was to rely on his spiritual weapons, there was no
need of temporal states at all. In their existing extent and position,
they were simply the heel of Achilles, the vulnerable spot, through
which secular foes might wound the Vicar of Christ. France threatened
him from the north and Spain from the south; he was ever between the
upper and the nether mill-stone. Italy was the cockpit of Europe in
the sixteenth century, and the eyes of the Popes were perpetually bent
on the worldly fray, seeking to save or extend their dominions.
Through the Pope's temporal power, France and Spain exerted their (p. 229)
pressure. He could only defend himself by playing off one against the
other, and in this game his spiritual powers were his only effective
pieces. More and more the spiritual authority, with which he was
entrusted, was made to serve political ends. Temporal princes were
branded as "sons of iniquity and children of perdition," not because
their beliefs or their morals were worse than other men's, but because
they stood in the way of the family ambitions of various popes. Their
frequent use and abuse brought ecclesiastical censures into public
contempt, and princes soon ceased to be frightened with false fires.
James IV., when excommunicated, said he would appeal to Prester John,
and that he would side with any council against the Pope, even if it
contained only three bishops.[653] The Vicar of Christ was lost in the
petty Italian prince. _Corruptio optimi pessima_. The lower dragged
the higher nature down. If the Papal Court was distinguished from the
courts of other Italian sovereigns, it was not by exceptional purity.
"In this Court as in others," wrote Silvester de Giglis from Rome,
"nothing can be effected without gifts."[654] The election of Leo X.
was said to be free from bribery; a cardinal himself was amazed, and
described the event as _Phoenix et rara avis_.[655] If poison was not
a frequent weapon at Rome, popes and cardinals at least believed it to
be. Alexander VI. was said to have been poisoned; one cardinal was
accused of poisoning his fellow-cardinal, Bainbridge; and others were
charged with an attempt on the life of Leo X.[656] In 1517, Pace (p. 230)
described the state of affairs at Rome as _plane monstra, omni
dedecore et infamia plena; omnis fides, omnis honestas, una cum
religione, a mundo abvolasse videntur_.[657] Ten years later, the
Emperor himself declared that the sack of Rome was the just judgment
of God, and one of his ambassadors said that the Pope ought to be
deprived of his temporal states, as they had been at the bottom of all
the dissensions.[658] Clement himself claimed to have been the
originator of that war which brought upon him so terrible and so just
a punishment.
[Footnote 653: _L. and P._, i., 3838, 3876.]
[Footnote 654: _Ibid._, ii., 3781; _cf._, i., 4283,
"all here have regard only to their own honour and
profit".]
[Footnote 655: _Ibid._, ii., 2362.]
[Footnote 656: _L. and P._, ii., 3277, 3352.]
[Footnote 657: _Ibid._, ii., 3523.]
[Footnote 658: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 209, 210, 309;
_cf._, _L. and P._, iv., 3051, 3352. Clement had
given away Sicily and Naples to one of Charles's
vassals "which dealing may make me not take him as
Pope, no, not for all the excommunications that he
can make; for I stand under appellation to the next
general council". Every one--Charles V., Henry
VIII., Cranmer--played an appeal to the next
general council against the Pope's
excommunication.]
Another result of the merging of the Pope in the Italian prince was
the practical exclusion of the English and other Northern nations from
the supreme council of Christendom. There was no apparent reason why
an Englishman should not be the head of the Christian Church just as
well as an Italian; but there was some incongruity in the idea of an
Englishman ruling over Italian States, and no Englishman had attained
the Papacy for nearly four centuries. The double failure of Wolsey
made it clear that the door of the Papacy was sealed to Englishmen,
whatever their claims might be. The roll of cardinals tells a similar
tale; the Roman curia graciously conceded that there should generally
be one English cardinal in the sacred college, but one in a body (p. 231)
of forty or fifty was thought as much as England could fairly demand.
It is not so very surprising that England repudiated the authority of
a tribunal in which its influence was measured on such a contemptible
scale. The other nations of Europe thought much the same, and it is
only necessary to add up the number of cardinals belonging to each
nationality to arrive at a fairly accurate indication of the peoples
who rejected papal pretensions. The nations most inadequately represented
in the college of cardinals broke away from Rome; those which remained
faithful were the nations which controlled in the present, or might
hope to control in the future, the supreme ecclesiastical power. Spain
and France had little temptation to abolish an authority which they
themselves wielded in turn; for if the Pope was a Spaniard to-day, he
might well be a Frenchman to-morrow. There was no absurdity in
Frenchmen or Spaniards ruling over the papal States; for France and
Spain already held under their sway more Italian territory than
Italian natives themselves. It was the subjection of the Pope to
French and Spanish domination that prejudiced his claims in English
eyes. His authority was tolerable so long as the old ideal of the
unity of Christendom under a single monarch retained its force, or
even so long as the Pope was Italian pure and simple. But when Italy
was either Spanish or French, and the Pope the chaplain of one or the
other monarch, the growing spirit of nationality could bear it no
longer; it responded at once to Henry's appeals against the claims of
a foreign jurisdiction.
It was a mere accident that the breach with Rome grew out of Spanish
control of the Pope. The separation was nearly effected more than (p. 232)
a century earlier, as a result of the Pope's Babylonish captivity in
France; and the wonder is, not that the breach took place when it did,
but that it was deferred for so long. At the beginning of the fifteenth
century all the elements were present but one for the ecclesiastical
revolution which was reserved for Henry VIII. to effect. The Papacy
had been discredited in English eyes by subservience to France, just
as it had in 1529 by subservience to Charles. Lollardy was more
powerful in England in the reign of Henry IV. than heresy was in the
middle of that of Henry VIII. There was as strong a demand for the
secularisation of Church property on the part of the lay peers and
gentry; and Wycliffe himself had anticipated the cardinal point of the
later movement by appealing to the State to reform the Church. But
great revolutions depend on a number of causes working together, and
often fail for the lack of one. The element lacking in the reign of
Henry IV. was the King himself. The Lancastrians were orthodox from
conviction and from the necessities of their position; they needed the
support of the Church to bolster up a weak title to the crown. The
civil wars followed; and Henry VII. was too much absorbed in securing
his throne to pursue any quarrels with Rome. But when his son began to
rule as well as to reign, it was inevitable that not merely questions
of Church property and of the relations with the Papacy should come up
for revision, but also those issues between Church and State which had
remained in abeyance during the fifteenth century. The divorce was the
spark which ignited the flame, but the combustible materials had been
long existent. If the divorce had been all, there would have been no
Reformation in England. After the death of Anne Boleyn, Henry (p. 233)
might have done some trifling penance at his subjects' expense, made
the Pope a present, or waged war on one of Clement's orthodox foes,
and that would have been the end. Much had happened since the days of
Hildebrand, and Popes were no longer able to exact heroic repentance.
The divorce, in fact, was the occasion, and not the cause, of the
Reformation.
* * * * *
That movement, so far as Henry VIII. was concerned, was not in essence
doctrinal; neither was it primarily a schism between the English and
Roman communions. It was rather an episode in the eternal dispute
between Church and State. Throughout the quarrel, Henry and Elizabeth
maintained that they were merely reasserting their ancient royal
prerogative over the Church, which the Pope of Rome had usurped.
English revolutions have always been based on specious conservative
pleas, and the only method of inducing Englishmen to change has been
by persuasions that the change is not a change at all, or is a change
to an older and better order. The Parliaments of the seventeenth
century regarded the Stuart pretensions, as Henry and Elizabeth did
those of the Pope, in the light of usurpations upon their own
imprescriptible rights; and more recently, movements to make the
Church Catholic have been based on the ground that it has never been
anything else. The Tudor contention that the State was always supreme
over the Church has been transformed into a theory that the Church was
always at least semi-independent of Rome. But it is not so clear that
the Church has always been anti-papal, as that the English laity have
always been anti-clerical.
The English people were certainly very anti-sacerdotal from the (p. 234)
the very beginning of Henry VIII.'s reign. In 1512 James IV. complained
to Henry that Englishmen seized Scots merchants, ill-treated them, and
abused them as "the Pope's men".[659] At the end of the same year
Parliament deprived of their benefit of clergy all clerks under the
rank of sub-deacon who committed murder or felony.[660] This measure
at once provoked a cry of "the Church in danger". The Abbot of
Winchcombe preached that the act was contrary to the law of God and to
the liberties of the Church, and that the lords, who consented
thereto, had incurred a liability to spiritual censures. Standish,
warden of the Mendicant Friars of London, defended the action of
Parliament, while the temporal peers requested the bishops to make the
Abbot of Winchcombe recant.[661] They refused, and, at the Convocation
of 1515, Standish was summoned before it to explain his conduct. He
appealed to the King; the judges pronounced that all who had taken
part in the proceedings against Standish had incurred the penalties of
_præmunire_. They also declared that the King could hold a Parliament
without the spiritual lords, who only sat in virtue of their
temporalties. This opinion seems to have nothing to do with (p. 235)
the dispute, but it is remarkable that, in one list of the peers
attending the Parliament of 1515, there is not a single abbot.[662]
[Footnote 659: _L. and P._, i., 3320. In 1516 one
Humphrey Bonner preached a sermon ridiculing the
Holy See (_ibid._, ii., 2692).]
[Footnote 660: In this, as in many other reforms,
the English Parliament only anticipated the action
of the Church; for on 12th February, 1516, Leo X.
issued a bull prohibiting any one from being
admitted, for the next five years, into minor
orders unless he were simultaneously promoted to be
sub-deacon; as many persons, to avoid appearing
before the civil courts and to enjoy immunity,
received the tonsure and minor orders without
proceeding to the superior (_L. and P._, ii.,
1532).]
[Footnote 661: _L. and P._, ii., 1313. Brewer
impugns the authority of Keilway's report of this
incident on the ground that he lived in Elizabeth's
reign; that is true, but according to the _D.N.B._
he was born in 1497, which makes him a strictly
contemporary authority.]
[Footnote 662: _L. and P._, ii., 1131.]
With regard to the Abbot of Winchcombe and Friar Standish, the
prelates claimed the same liberty of speech for Convocation as was
enjoyed by Parliament; so that they could, without offence, have
maintained certain acts of Parliament to be against the laws of the
Church.[663] Wolsey interceded on their behalf, and begged that the
matter might be left to the Pope's decision, while Henry contented
himself with a declaration that he would maintain intact his royal
jurisdiction. This was not all that passed during that session of
Parliament and Convocation. At the end of his summary of the
proceedings, Dr. John Taylor, who was both clerk of Parliament and
prolocutor of Convocation, remarks: "In this Parliament and
Convocation the most dangerous quarrels broke out between the clergy
and the secular power, respecting the Church's liberties";[664] and
there exists a remarkable petition presented to this Parliament
against clerical exactions; it complained that the clergy refused
burial until after the gift of the deceased's best jewel, best garment
or the like, and demanded that every curate should administer the
sacrament when required to do so.[665] It was no wonder that Wolsey
advised "the more speedy dissolution" of this Parliament,[666] and
that, except in 1523, when financial straits compelled him, he did not
call another while he remained in power. His fall was the sign (p. 236)
for the revival of Parliament, and it immediately took up the work
where it was left in 1515.
[Footnote 663: _Ibid._, ii., 1314.]
[Footnote 664: _Ibid._, ii., 1312.]
[Footnote 665: _Ibid._, ii., 1315; _cf._ another
petition to the same effect from the inhabitants of
London (_ibid._, i., 5725 (i.)).]
[Footnote 666: _Ibid._, ii., 1223.]
These significant proceedings did not stand alone. In 1515 the Bishop
of London's chancellor was indicted for the murder of a citizen who
had been found dead in the Bishop's prison.[667] The Bishop interceded
with Wolsey to prevent the trial; any London jury would, he said,
convict any clerk, "be he innocent as Abel; they be so maliciously set
_in favorem hæreticæ pravitatis_".[668] The heresy was no matter of
belief, but hatred of clerical immunities. The _Epistolæ Obscurorum
Virorum_, wrote More to Erasmus in 1516, was "popular everywhere";[669]
and no more bitter a satire had yet been penned on the clergy. In this
matter Henry and his lay subjects were at one. Standish, whom Taylor
describes as the promoter and instigator of all these evils, was a
favourite preacher at Henry's Court. The King, said Pace, had "often
praised his doctrine".[670] But what was it? It was no advocacy of
Henry's loved "new learning," for Standish denounced the Greek
Testament of Erasmus, and is held up to ridicule by the great Dutch
humanist;[671] Standish, too, was afterwards a stout defender of the
Pope's dispensing power, and followed Fisher in his protest against
the divorce before the legatine Court. The doctrine, which pleased the
King so much, was Standish's denial of clerical immunity from State
control, and his assertion of royal prerogatives over the Church. (p. 237)
In 1518 the Bishopric of St. Asaph's fell vacant. Wolsey, who was then
at the height of his power, recommended Bolton,[672] prior of St.
Bartholomew's, a learned man; but Henry was resolved to reward his
favourite divine, and Standish obtained the see. Pace, a good churchman,
expressed himself to Wolsey as "mortified" at the result, but said it
was inevitable, as besides the King's good graces, Standish enjoyed
"the favour of all the courtiers for the singular assistance he has
rendered towards subverting the Church of England".[673]
[Footnote 667: See Dr. Gairdner, _History of
English Church in Sixteenth Century_, ch. iii.,
where the story of Richard Hunne is critically
examined in detail. Its importance consists,
however, not in the question whether Hunne was or
was not murdered by the Bishop's chancellor Horsey,
but in the popular hostility to the clergy revealed
by the incident.]
[Footnote 668: _L. and P._, ii., 2.]
[Footnote 669: _Ibid._, ii., 2492.]
[Footnote 670: _Ibid._, ii., 4074.]
[Footnote 671: _Ibid._, iii., 929.]
[Footnote 672: _L. and P._, ii., 4082.]
[Footnote 673: _Ibid._, ii., 4074.]
Eleven more years were to roll before the Church was subverted. They
were years of Wolsey's supremacy; he alone stood between the Church
and its subjection. It was owing, wrote Campeggio, in 1528, to Wolsey's
vigilance and solicitude that the Holy See retained its rank and
dignity.[674] His ruin would drag down the Church, and the fact was
known to Anne Boleyn and her faction, to Campeggio and Clement VII.,
as well as to Henry VIII.[675] "These Lords intend," wrote Du Bellay,
on the eve of Wolsey's fall, "after he is dead or ruined, to impeach
the State of the Church, and take all its goods; which it is hardly
needful for me to write in cipher, for they proclaim it openly. I
expect they will do fine miracles."[676] A few days later he says, "I
expect the priests will never have the great seal again; and that in
this Parliament they will have terrible alarms. I think Dr. Stephen
(Gardiner) will have a good deal to do with the management of affairs,
_especially if he will abandon his order_."[677] At Easter, 1529,
Lutheran books were circulating in Henry's Court, advocating the (p. 238)
confiscation of ecclesiastical property and the restoration of his
Church to its primitive simplicity. Campeggio warned the King against them
and maintained that it had been determined by councils and theologians
that the Church justly held her temporalties. Henry retorted that
according to the Lutherans "those decisions were arrived at by
ecclesiastics and now it was necessary for the laity to interpose".[678]
In his last interview with Henry, Campeggio "alluded to this Parliament,
which is about to be holden, and I earnestly pressed upon him the
liberty of the Church. He certainly seemed to me very well disposed to
exert his power to the utmost."[679] "Down with the Church" was going
to be the Parliament cry. Whether Henry would really "exert his power"
to maintain her liberties remained to be seen, but there never was a
flimsier theory than that the divorce of Catherine was the sole cause
of the break with Rome. The centrifugal forces were quite independent
of the divorce; its historical importance lies in the fact that it
alienated from Rome the only power in England which might have kept
them in check. So long as Wolsey and the clerical statesmen, with whom
he surrounded the King, remained supreme, the Church was comparatively
safe. But Wolsey depended entirely on Henry's support; when that was
withdrawn, Church and Cardinal fell together.
[Footnote 674: _Ibid._, iv., 4898.]
[Footnote 675: _Ibid._, iv., 5210, 5255, 5581,
5582.]
[Footnote 676: _Ibid._, iv., 6011.]
[Footnote 677: _Ibid._, 6019.]
[Footnote 678: _L. and P._, iv., 5416.]
[Footnote 679: _Ibid._, iv., 5995. Henry VIII. no
doubt also had his eye on Gustavus in Sweden where
the Vesteräs Recess of 1527 had provided that all
episcopal, capitular and monastic property which
was not absolutely required should be handed over
to the King, and conferred upon him an
ecclesiastical jurisdiction as extensive as that
afterwards conferred upon Henry VIII. (_Cambridge
Modern Hist._, ii., 626).]
Wolsey's ruin was, however, due to more causes than his failure (p. 239)
to get a divorce for the King. It was at bottom the result of the
natural development of Henry's character. Egotism was from the first
his most prominent trait; it was inevitably fostered by the
extravagant adulation paid to Tudor sovereigns, and was further
encouraged by his realisation, first of his own mental powers, and
then of the extent to which he could force his will upon others. He
could never brook a rival in whatever sphere he wished to excel. In
the days of his youth he was absorbed in physical sports, in gorgeous
pageantry and ceremonial; he was content with such exhibitions as
prancing before the ladies between every course in a tourney, or
acting as pilot on board ship, blowing a whistle as loud as a trumpet,
and arrayed in trousers of cloth of gold. Gradually, as time wore on,
the athletic mania wore off, and pursuits, such as architecture, took
the place of physical sports. A generation later, a writer describes
Henry as "the only Phoenix of his time for fine and curious masonry".[680]
From his own original designs York House was transformed into
Whitehall Palace, Nonsuch Palace was built, and extensive alterations
were made at Greenwich and Hampton Court.
[Footnote 680: Harrison, _Description of England_,
in Holinshed, ed. 1577, bk. ii., chap. ix.]
But architecture was only a trifle; Henry's uncontrollable activity
also broke out in political spheres, and the eruption was fatal to
Wolsey's predominance. The King was still in the full vigour of
manhood; he had not reached his fortieth year, and his physical graces
were the marvel of those who saw him for the first time. Falier, the
new Venetian ambassador, who arrived in England in 1529, is as (p. 240)
rapturous over the King's personal attractions as Giustinian or
Pasqualigo had been. "In this Eighth Henry," he writes, "God has
combined such corporeal and intellectual beauty as not merely to
surprise but astound all men.... His face is angelic (nine years
before a Frenchman had called it "feminine"), rather than handsome;
his head imperial and bold; and he wears a beard, contrary to the
English custom. Who would not be amazed, when contemplating such
singular beauty of person, coupled with such bold address, adapting
itself with the greatest ease to every manly exercise?"[681] But
Henry's physique was no longer proof against every ailment; frequent
mention is made about this time of headaches[682] which incapacitated
him from business, and it was not long before there appeared on his
leg the fistula which racked him with pain till the end of his life,
and eventually caused his death.
[Footnote 681: _Ven. Cal._, iv., 184, 185, 293.]
[Footnote 682: _L. and P._, iv., 4546. Henry had
had small-pox in February, 1514 (_ibid._, i.,
4831), without any serious consequences, but apart
from that he had had no great illness.]
The divorce and the insuperable obstacles, which he discovered in
attaining the end he thought easy at first, did more to harden Henry's
temper than any bodily ills. He became a really serious man, and
developed that extraordinary power of self-control which stood him in
good stead in his later years. Naturally a man of violent passions, he
could never have steered clear of the dangers that beset him without
unusual capacity for curbing his temper, concealing his intentions,
and keeping his own counsel. Ministers might flatter themselves that
they could read his mind and calculate his actions, but it is quite
certain that henceforth no minister read so clearly his master's (p. 241)
mind as the master did his minister's. "Three may keep counsel," said
the King in 1530,[683] "if two be away; and if I thought that my cap
knew my counsel, I would cast it into the fire and burn it." "Never,"
comments a modern writer,[684] "had the King spoken a truer word, or
described himself more accurately. Few would have thought that, under
so careless and splendid an exterior--the very ideal of bluff,
open-hearted good-humour and frankness--there lay a watchful and
secret eye, that marked what was going on, without appearing to mark
it; kept its own counsel until it was time to strike, and then struck,
as suddenly and remorselessly as a beast of prey. It was strange to
witness so much subtlety, combined with so much strength."
[Footnote 683: Cavendish, _Life of Wolsey_, p.
397.]
[Footnote 684: Brewer, Introd. to _L. and P._, iv.,
p. dcxxi.]
In spite of his remorseless blows and arbitrary temper, Henry was too
shrewd and too great a man to despise the counsel of others, or think
any worse of an adviser because his advice differed from his own. He
loved to meet argument with argument, even when he might command. To
the end of his days he valued a councillor who would honestly maintain
the opposite of what the King desired. These councillors to whom he
gave his confidence were never minions or servile flatterers. Henry
had his Court favourites with whom he hunted and shot and diced; with
whom he played--always for money--tennis, primero and bowls, and the
more mysterious games of Pope July, Imperial and Shovelboard;[685] and
to whom he threw many an acre of choice monastic land. But they never
influenced his policy. No man was ever advanced to political (p. 242)
power in Henry's reign, merely because he pandered to the King's
vanity or to his vices. No one was a better judge of conduct in the
case of others, or a sterner champion of moral probity, when it did
not conflict with his own desires or conscience. In 1528 Anne Boleyn
and her friends were anxious to make a relative abbess of Wilton.[686]
But she had been notoriously unchaste. "Wherefore," wrote Henry to
Anne herself, "I would not, for all the gold in the world, cloak your
conscience nor mine to make her ruler of a house which is of so
ungodly demeanour; nor I trust you would not that neither for brother
nor sister I should so distain mine honour or conscience." He
objected, on similar grounds, to the prioress whom Wolsey wished to
nominate; the Cardinal neglected Henry's wishes, and thereby called
down upon himself a rebuke remarkable for dignity and delicacy. "The
great affection and love I bear you," wrote the King, "causeth me,
using the doctrine of my Master, saying _Quem diligo, castigo_, thus
plainly, as ensueth, to break to you my mind.... Methink it is not the
right train of a trusty loving friend and servant, when the matter is
put by the master's consent into his arbitre and judgment (specially
in a matter wherein his master hath both royalty and interest), to
elect and choose a person which was by him defended (forbidden). And
yet another thing, which much displeaseth me more,--that is, to cloak
your offence made by ignorance of my pleasure, saying that you
expressly knew not my determinate mind in that behalf." Then, after
showing how empty were Wolsey's excuses, he continues: "Ah! my Lord,
it is a double offence, both to do ill and colour it too; but with (p. 243)
men that have wit it cannot be accepted so. Wherefore, good my Lord,
use no more that way with me, for there is no man living that more
hateth it." He then proceeds to warn the Cardinal against sinister
reports with regard to his methods of raising money for his college at
Oxford. "They say the college is a cloak for all mischief. I perceive
by your letter that you have received money of the exempts for having
their old visitors. If your legacy (legatine authority) is a cloak
_apud homines_, it is not _apud Deum_. I doubt not, therefore, you
will desist." Wolsey had used his legatine authority to extort money
from monasteries as the price of their immunity from his visitatorial
powers. The monasteries, too, had strenuously opposed the late
Amicable Loan to the King; by Wolsey's means they had been released
from that obligation; and Henry strongly suspected that they had
purchased their exemption from relieving his necessities by lavish
contributions to the Cardinal's colleges. "I pray you, my Lord," he
concludes, "think not that it is upon any displeasure that I write
this unto you. For surely it is for my discharge afore God, being in
the room that I am in; and secondly for the great zeal I bear unto
you." Henry possessed in the highest degree not a few of the best of
kingly attributes. His words are not the words of a hypocrite without
conscience, devoid of the fear of God and man. For all the strange and
violent things that he did, he obtained the sanction of his
conscience, but his imperious egotism made conscience his humble
slave, and blinded to his own sins a judgment so keen to detect and
chastise the failings of others.
[Footnote 685: See various entries in Privy Purse
Expenses, _L. and P._, v., 747-62.]
[Footnote 686: _L. and P._, iv., 4477, 4488, 4507,
4509.]
These incidents, of more than a year before the Cardinal's fall, (p. 244)
illustrate the change in the respective positions of monarch and
minister. There was no doubt now which was the master; there was no
king but one. Henry was already taking, as Du Bellay said, "the
management of everything".[687] Wolsey himself knew that he had lost
the King's confidence. He began to talk of retirement. He told Du
Bellay, in or before August, 1528, that when he had established a firm
amity between France and England, extinguished the hatred between the
two nations, reformed the laws and customs of England, and settled the
succession, he would retire and serve God to the end of his days.[688]
The Frenchman thought this was merely to represent as voluntary a loss
of power which he saw would soon be inevitable; but the conversation
is a striking illustration of the difference between Henry and Wolsey,
and helps to explain why Wolsey accomplished so little that lasted,
while Henry accomplished so much. The Cardinal seems to have been
entirely devoid of that keen perception of the distinction between
what was, and what was not, practicable, which was Henry's saving
characteristic. In the evening of his days, after sixteen years of
almost unlimited power, he was speaking of plans, which might have
taxed the energies of a life-time, as preliminaries to a speedy
withdrawal from the cares of State. He had enjoyed an unequalled
opportunity of effecting these reforms, but what were the results of
his administration? The real greatness and splendour of Henry's reign
are said to have departed with Wolsey's fall.[689] The gilt and the
tinsel were indeed stripped off, but the permanent results of (p. 245)
Henry's reign were due to its later course. Had he died when Wolsey
fell, what would have been his place in history? A brilliant figure,
no doubt, who might have been thought capable of much, had he not
failed to achieve anything. He had made wars from which England
derived no visible profit; not an acre of territory had been acquired;
the wealth, amassed by Henry VII., had been squandered, and Henry
VIII., in 1529, was reduced to searching for gold mines in
England.[690] The loss of his subjects' blood and treasure had been
followed by the loss of their affections. The exuberant loyalty of
1509 had been turned into the wintry discontent of 1527. England had
been raised to a high place in the councils of Europe by 1521, but her
fall was quite as rapid, and in 1525 she counted for less than she had
done in 1513. At home the results were equally barren; the English
hold on Ireland was said, in 1528, to be weaker than it had been since
the conquest;[691] and the English statute-book between 1509 and 1529
may be searched in vain for an act of importance, while the
statute-book between 1529 and 1547 contains a list of acts which have
never been equalled for their supreme importance in the subsequent
history of England.
[Footnote 687: _L. and P._, iv., 5983; _cf._ iv.,
3992, where Henry has an interview (March, 1528)
with a Scots ambassador and tells no one about it.]
[Footnote 688: _Ibid._, iv., 4649.]
[Footnote 689: Brewer, _Ibid._, iv., Introd., p.
dcxxii.]
[Footnote 690: _L. and P._, iv., 5209. One
Hochstetter was imported from Germany in connection
with "the gold mines that the King was seeking for"
(Du Bellay to Montmorenci, 25th January, 1529).]
[Footnote 691: _Ibid._, iv., 4933.]
Wolsey's policy was, indeed, a brilliant fiasco; with a pre-eminent
genius for diplomacy, he thought he could make England, by diplomacy
alone, arbiter of Europe. Its position in 1521 was artificial; it had
not the means to support a grandeur which was only built on the wealth
left by Henry VII. and on Wolsey's skill. England owed her advance (p. 246)
in repute to the fact that Wolsey made her the paymaster of Europe.
"The reputation of England for wealth," said an English diplomatist in
1522, "is a great cause of the esteem in which it is held."[692] But,
by 1523, that wealth had failed; Parliament refused to levy more
taxes, and Wolsey's pretensions collapsed like a pack of cards. He
played no part in the peace of Cambrai, which settled for the time the
conditions of Europe. When rumours of the clandestine negotiations
between France and Spain reached England, Wolsey staked his head to
the King that they were pure invention.[693] He could not believe that
peace was possible, unless it were made by him. But the rumours were
true, and Henry exacted the penalty. The positive results of the
Cardinal's policy were nil; the chief negative result was that he had
staved off for many years the ruin of the Church, but he only did it
by plunging England in the maëlstrom of foreign intrigue and of futile
wars.
[Footnote 692: _L. and P._, iii., 1978.]
[Footnote 693: _Ibid._, iv., 5231.]
The end was not long delayed. "I see clearly," writes Du Bellay on 4th
October, 1529, "that by this Parliament Wolsey will completely lose
his influence; I see no chance to the contrary."[694] Henry anticipated
the temper of Parliament. A bill of indictment was preferred against
him in the Court of King's Bench, and on the 22nd of October he
acknowledged his liability to the penalties of _præmunire_.[695] The
Great Seal was taken from him by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk. In
November the House of Lords passed a bill of attainder against him,
but the Commons were persuaded by Cromwell, acting with Henry's (p. 247)
connivance, to throw it out. "The King," wrote Chapuys, "is thought to
bear the Cardinal no ill-will;" and Campeggio thought that he would
"not go to extremes, but act considerately in this matter, as he is
accustomed to do in all his actions."[696] Wolsey was allowed to
retain the Archbishopric of York, a sum in money and goods equivalent
to at least £70,000, and a pension of 1,000 marks from the See of
Winchester.[697] In the following spring he set out to spend his last
days in his northern see; six months he devoted to his archiepiscopal
duties, confirming thousands of children, arranging disputes among
neighbours, and winning such hold on the hearts of the people as he
had never known in the days of his pride. Crowds in London had flocked
to gloat over the sight of the broken man; now crowds in Yorkshire
came to implore his blessing.
[Footnote 694: _Ibid._, iv., 5983.]
[Footnote 695: _Ibid._, iv., 6017.]
[Footnote 696: _L. and P._, iv., 6199, 6050; _cf._
iv., 6295, where Henry orders Dacre to treat Wolsey
as became his rank; _Ven. Cal._, 1529, p. 237.]
[Footnote 697: _Ibid._, iv., 6220.]
He prepared for his installation at York on 7th November, 1530; on the
4th he was arrested for treason. His Italian physician, Agostini, had
betrayed him; he was accused of having asked Francis I. to intercede
with Henry on his behalf, which was true;[698] and he seems also to
have sought the mediation of Charles V. But Agostini further declared
that Wolsey had written to Clement, urging him to excommunicate Henry
and raise an insurrection, by which the Cardinal might recover his
power.[699] By Pontefract, Doncaster, Nottingham, with feeble (p. 248)
steps and slow, the once-proud prelate, broken in spirit and shattered
in health, returned to meet his doom. His gaol was to be the cell in
the Tower, which had served for the Duke of Buckingham.[700] But a
kindlier fate than a traitor's death was in store. "I am come," he
said to the monks of Leicester Abbey, "I am come to leave my bones
among you." He died there at eight o'clock on St. Andrew's morning,
and there, on the following day, he was simply and quietly buried.
"If," he exclaimed in his last hour, "I had served God as diligently
as I have done the King, He would not have given me over in my grey
hairs." That cry, wrung from Wolsey, echoed throughout the Tudor
times.[701] Men paid _le nouveau Messie_ a devotion they owed to the
old; they rendered unto Cæsar the things that were God's. They reaped
their reward in riches and pomp and power, but they won no peace of
mind. The favour of princes is fickle, and "the wrath of the King is
death". So thought Wolsey and Warham and Norfolk. "Is that all?" said
More, with prophetic soul, to Norfolk; "then in good faith between
your grace and me is but this, that I shall die to-day and you shall
die to-morrow."[702]
[Footnote 698: _Ibid._, iv., 6018, 6199, 6273,
6738.]
[Footnote 699: De Vaux writes on 8th November,
1530, to Montmorenci, that the King had told him
"where and how" Wolsey had intrigued against him,
but he does not repeat the information (_ibid._,
iv., 6720), though Bryan's remark (_ibid._, iv.,
6733) that "De Vaux has done well in disclosing the
misdemeanour of the Cardinal" suggests that De Vaux
knew more than he says.]
[Footnote 700: So Chapuys reports (iv., 6738); that
Wolsey had used Agostini to sound Chapuys is
obvious from the latter's remark, "were the
physician to say all that passed between us, he
could not do anything to impugn me".]
[Footnote 701: _Cf._ Buckingham's remark in _L. and
P._, iii., 1356: "An he had not offended no more
unto God than he had done to the Crown, he should
die as true a man as ever was in the world".]
[Footnote 702: _D.N.B._, xxxviii., 437.]
CHAPTER X. (p. 249)
THE KING AND HIS PARLIAMENT.
In the closing days of July, 1529, a courier came posting from Rome
with despatches announcing the alliance of Clement and Charles, and
the revocation to the Papal Court of the suit between Henry VIII. and
the Emperor's aunt. Henry replied with no idle threats or empty
reproaches, but his retort was none the less effective. On the 9th of
August[703] writs were issued from Chancery summoning that Parliament
which met on the 3rd of November and did not separate till the last
link in the chain which bound England to Rome was sundered, and the
country was fairly launched on that sixty years' struggle which the
defeat of the Spanish Armada concluded.[704] The step might well seem
a desperate hazard. The last Parliament had broken up in (p. 250)
discontent; it had been followed by open revolt in various shires;
while from others there had since then come demands for the repayment
of the loan, which Henry was in no position to grant. Francis and
Charles, on whose mutual enmity England's safety largely depended, had
made their peace at Cambrai; and the Emperor was free to foment
disaffection in Ireland and to instigate Scotland to war. His chancellor
was boasting that the imperialists could, if they would, drive Henry
from his kingdom within three months,[705] and he based his hopes on
revolt among Henry's own subjects. The divorce had been from the
beginning, and remained to the end, a stumbling-block to the people.
Catherine received ovations wherever she went, while the utmost
efforts of the King could scarcely protect Anne Boleyn from popular
insult. The people were moved, not only by a creditable feeling that
Henry's first wife was an injured woman, but by the fear lest a breach
with Charles should destroy their trade in wool, on which, said the
imperial ambassador, half the realm depended for sustenance.[706]
[Footnote 703: Rymer, _Foedera_, xiv., 302.]
[Footnote 704: It has been alleged that the
immediate object of this Parliament was to relieve
the King from the necessity of repaying the loan
(_D.N.B._, xxvi., 83); and much scorn has been
poured on the notion that it had any important
purpose (_L. and P._, iv., Introd., p. dcxlvii.).
Brewer even denies its hostility to the Church on
the ground that it was composed largely of lawyers,
and "lawyers are not in general enemies to things
established; they are not inimical to the clergy".
Yet the law element was certainly stronger in the
Parliaments of Charles I. than in that of 1529;
were they not hostile to "things established" and
"inimical to the clergy"? Contemporaries had a
different opinion of the purpose of the Parliament
of 1529. "It is intended," wrote Du Bellay on the
23rd of August, three months before Parliament met,
"to hold a Parliament here this winter and act by
their own absolute power, in default of justice
being administered by the Pope in this divorce"
(_ibid._, iv., 5862; _cf._ iv., 6011, 6019, 6307);
"nothing else," wrote a Florentine in December,
1530, "is thought of in that island every day
except of arranging affairs in such a way that they
do no longer be in want of the Pope, neither for
filling vacancies in the Church, nor for any other
purpose" (_ibid._, iv., 6774).]
[Footnote 705: _L. and P._, iv., 4909, 4911; _cf._
5177, 5501.]
[Footnote 706: _Ibid._, vi., 1528.]
To summon a Parliament at such a conjuncture seemed to be courting
certain ruin. In reality, it was the first and most striking instance
of the audacity and insight which were to enable Henry to guide the
whirlwind and direct the storm of the last eighteen years of his (p. 251)
reign. Clement had put in his hands the weapon with which he secured
his divorce and broke the bonds of Rome. "If," wrote Wolsey a day or
two before the news of the revocation arrived, "the King be cited to
appear at Rome in person or by proxy, and his prerogative be interfered
with, none of his subjects will tolerate it. If he appears in Italy,
it will be at the head of a formidable army."[707] A sympathiser with
Catherine expressed his resentment at his King being summoned to plead
as a party in his own realm before the legatine Court;[708] and it has
even been suggested that those proceedings were designed to irritate
popular feeling against the Roman jurisdiction. Far more offensive was
it to national prejudice, that England's king should be cited to
appear before a court in a distant land, dominated by the arms of a
foreign prince. Nothing did more to alienate men's minds from the
Papacy. Henry would never have been able to obtain his divorce on its
merits as they appeared to his people. But now the divorce became
closely interwoven with another and a wider question, the papal
jurisdiction in England; and on that question Henry carried with him
the good wishes of the vast bulk of the laity. There were few Englishmen
who would not resent the petition presented to the Pope in 1529 by
Charles V. and Ferdinand that the English Parliament should be forbidden
to discuss the question of divorce.[709] By summoning Parliament,
Henry opened the floodgates of anti-papal and anti-sacerdotal feelings
which Wolsey had long kept shut; and the unpopular divorce became (p. 252)
merely a cross-current in the main stream which flowed in Henry's favour.
[Footnote 707: _L. and P._, iv., 5797.]
[Footnote 708: Cavendish, p. 210; _L. and P._, iv.,
Introd., p. dv.]
[Footnote 709: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 979.]
It was thus with some confidence that Henry appealed from the Pope to
his people. He could do so all the more surely, if, as is alleged,
there was no freedom of election, and if the House of Commons was
packed with royal nominees.[710] But these assertions may be dismissed
as gross exaggerations. The election of county members was marked by
unmistakable signs of genuine popular liberty. There was often a riot,
and sometimes a secret canvass among freeholders to promote or defeat
a particular candidate.[711] In 1547 the council ventured to recommend
a minister to the freeholders of Kent. The electors objected; the
council reprimanded the sheriff for representing its recommendation as
a command; it protested that it never dreamt of depriving the shire of
its "liberty of election," but "would take it thankfully" if the
electors would give their voices to the ministerial candidate. The
electors were not to be soothed by soft words, and that Government
candidate had to find another seat.[712] In the boroughs there was
every variety of franchise. In some it was almost democratic; in
others elections were in the hands of one or two voters. In the city
of London the election for the Parliament of 1529 was held on (p. 253)
5th October, _immensa communitate tunc presente_, in the Guildhall;
there is no hint of royal interference, the election being conducted
in the customary way, namely, two candidates were nominated by the
mayor and aldermen, and two by the citizens.[713] The general tendency
had for more than a century, however, been towards close corporations
in whose hands the parliamentary franchise was generally vested, and
consequently towards restricting the basis of popular representation.
The narrower that basis became, the greater the facilities it afforded
for external influence. In many boroughs elections were largely
determined by recommendations from neighbouring magnates, territorial
or official.[714] At Gatton the lords of the manor nominated the
members for Parliament, and the formal election was merely a matter of
drawing up an indenture between Sir Roger Copley and the sheriff,[715]
and the Bishop of Winchester was wont to select representatives for
more than one borough within the bounds of his diocese.[716] The Duke
of Norfolk claimed to be able to return ten members in Sussex and
Surrey alone.[717]
[Footnote 710: "The choice of the electors," says
Brewer (_L. and P._, iv., Introd., p. dcxlv.), "was
still determined by the King or his powerful
ministers with as much certainty and assurance as
that of the sheriffs."]
[Footnote 711: _L. and P._, i., 792, vii., 1178,
where mention is made of "secret labour" among the
freeholders of Warwickshire for the bye-election on
Sir E. Ferrers' death in 1534; and x., 1063, where
there is described a hotly contested election
between the candidate of the gentry of Shropshire
and the candidate of the townsfolk of Shrewsbury.]
[Footnote 712: _Acts of the Privy Council_,
1547-50, pp. 516, 518, 519; _England under
Protector Somerset_, pp. 71, 72.]
[Footnote 713: _Narratives of the Reformation_,
Camden Soc., pp. 295, 296.]
[Footnote 714: _Cf._ Duchess of Norfolk's letter to
John Paston, 8th June, 1455 (_Paston Letters_, ed.
1900, i., 337), and in 1586 Sir Henry Bagnal asked
the Earl of Rutland if he had a seat to spare in
Parliament as Bagnal was anxious "for his
learning's sake to be made a Parliament man"
(_D.N.B._, Suppl., i., 96).]
[Footnote 715: _L. and P._, xiv., 645; _cf._
Hallam, 1884, iii., 44-45.]
[Footnote 716: Foxe, ed. Townsend, vi., 54. There
are some illustrations and general remarks on
Henry's relations with Parliament in Porritt's
_Unreformed House of Commons_, 2 vols., 1903.]
[Footnote 717: At Reigate, says the Duke, "I doubt
whether any burgesses be there or not" (_L. and
P._, x., 816); and apparently there were none at
Gatton.]
But these nominations were not royal, and there is no reason (p. 254)
to suppose that the nominees were any more likely to be subservient to
the Crown than freely elected members unless the local magnate happened
to be a royal minister. Their views depended on those of their patrons,
who might be opposed to the Court; and, in 1539, Cromwell's agents
were considering the advisability of setting up Crown candidates
against those of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.[718] The curious
letter to Cromwell in 1529,[719] upon which is based the theory that
the House of Commons consisted of royal nominees, is singularly
inconclusive. Cromwell sought Henry's permission to serve in
Parliament for two reasons; firstly, he was still a servant of the
obnoxious and fallen Cardinal; secondly, he was seeking to transfer
himself to Henry's service, and thought he might be useful to the King
in the House of Commons. If Henry accepted his offer, Cromwell was to
be nominated for Oxford; if he were not elected there, he was to be
put up for one of the boroughs in the diocese of Winchester, then
vacant through Wolsey's resignation. Even with the King's assent, his
election at Oxford was not regarded as certain; and, as a matter of
fact, Cromwell sat neither for Oxford, nor for any constituency (p. 255)
in the diocese of Winchester, but for the borough of Taunton.[720]
Crown influence could only make itself effectively felt in the limited
number of royal boroughs; and the attempts to increase that influence
by the creation of constituencies susceptible to royal influence were
all subsequent in date to 1529. The returns of members of Parliament
are not extant from 1477 to 1529, but a comparison of the respective
number of constituencies in those two years reveals only six in 1529
which had not sent members to a previous Parliament; and almost if not
all of these six owed their representation to their increasing
population and importance, and not to any desire to pack the House of
Commons. Indeed, as a method of enforcing the royal will upon
Parliament, the creation of half a dozen boroughs was both futile and
unnecessary. So small a number of votes was useless, except in the
case of a close division of well-drilled parties, of which there is no
trace in the Parliaments of Henry VIII.[721] The House of Commons
acted as a whole, and not in two sections. "The sense of the House"
was more apparent in its decisions then than it is to-day. Actual
divisions were rare; either a proposal commended itself to the House,
or it did not; and in both cases the question was usually determined
without a vote.
[Footnote 718: This seems to have been the object
of Southampton's tour through the constituencies of
Surrey and Hampshire in March, 1539; with one of
Gardiner's pocket-boroughs he did not meddle,
because the lord chamberlain was the Bishop's
steward there (_L. and P._, xiv., i., 520). There
were some royal nominees in the House of Commons.
In 1523 the members for Cumberland were nominated
by the Crown (_ibid._, iii., 2931); at Calais the
lord-deputy and council elected one of the two
burgesses and the mayor and burgesses the other
(_ibid._, x., 736). Calais and the Scottish Borders
were of course exceptionally under Crown influence,
but this curious practice may have been observed in
some other cities and boroughs; in 1534, for
instance, the King was to nominate to one of the
two vacancies at Worcester (_ibid._, vii., 56).]
[Footnote 719: _Ibid._, iv., App. 238.]
[Footnote 720: _Official Return of Members of
Parliament_, i., 370.]
[Footnote 721: Occasionally there were divisions,
_e.g._, in 1523 when the court party voted a
subsidy of 2_s._ in the pound; but this was only
half the sum demanded by Wolsey (Hall, pp. 656,
657, Ellis, _Orig. Letters_, I., i., 220, 221).]
The creation of boroughs was also unnecessary. Parliaments packed
themselves quite well enough to suit Henry's purpose, without (p. 256)
any interference on his part. The limiting of the county franchise to
forty-shilling (_i.e._, thirty pounds in modern currency) freeholders,
and the dying away of democratic feeling in the towns, left
parliamentary representation mainly in the hands of the landed gentry
and of the prosperous commercial classes; and from them the Tudors
derived their most effective support. There was discontent in
abundance during Tudor times, but it was social and economic, and not
as a rule political. It was directed against the enclosers of common
lands; against the agricultural capitalists, who bought up farms,
evicted the tenants, and converted their holdings to pasture; against
the large traders in towns who monopolised commerce at the expense of
their poorer competitors. It was concerned, not with the one tyrant on
the throne, but with the thousand petty tyrants of the villages and
towns, against whom the poorer commons looked to their King for
protection. Of this discontent Parliament could not be the focus, for
members of Parliament were themselves the offenders. "It is hard,"
wrote a contemporary radical, "to have these ills redressed by
Parliament, because it pricketh them chiefly which be chosen to be
burgesses.... Would to God they would leave their old accustomed
choosing of burgesses! For whom do they choose but such as be rich or
bear some office in the country, many times such as be boasters and
braggers? Such have they ever hitherto chosen; be he never so very a
fool, drunkard, extortioner, adulterer, never so covetous and crafty a
person, yet, if he be rich, bear any office, if he be a jolly cracker
and bragger in the country, he must be a burgess of Parliament. Alas,
how can any such study, or give any godly counsel for the (p. 257)
commonwealth?"[722] This passage gives no support to the theory that
members of Parliament were nothing but royal nominees. If the
constituencies themselves were bent on electing "such as bare office
in the country," there was no call for the King's intervention; and
the rich merchants and others, of whom complaint is made, were almost
as much to the royal taste as were the officials themselves.
[Footnote 722: Brinkelow, _Complaynt of Roderik
Mors_ (Early English Text Society), pp. 12, 13; for
other evidence of the attitude of Parliament
towards social grievances, see John Hales's letter
to Somerset in _Lansdowne MS._, 238; Crowley's
_Works_ (Early English Text Society), _passim_;
Latimer, _Sermons_, p. 247.]
For the time being, in fact, the interests of the King and of the lay
middle classes coincided, both in secular and ecclesiastical affairs.
Commercial classes are generally averse from war, at least from war
waged within their own borders, from which they can extract no profit.
They had every inducement to support Henry's Government against the
only alternative, anarchy. In ecclesiastical politics they, as well as
the King, had their grievances against the Church. Both thought the
clergy too rich, and that ecclesiastical revenues could be put to
better uses in secular hands. Community of interests produced harmony
of action; and a century and a half was to pass before Parliament
again met so often, or sat so long, as it did during the latter half
of Henry's reign. From 1509 to 1515 there had been on an average a
parliamentary session once a year,[723] and in February, 1512, Warham,
as Lord Chancellor, had in opening the session discoursed on the (p. 258)
necessity of frequent Parliaments.[724] Then there supervened the
ecclesiastical despotism of Wolsey, who tried, like Charles I., to
rule without Parliament, and with the same fatal result to himself;
but, from Wolsey's fall till Henry's death, there was seldom a year
without a parliamentary session. Tyrants have often gone about to
break Parliaments, and in the end Parliaments have generally broken
them. Henry was not of the number; he never went about to break
Parliament. He found it far too useful, and he used it. He would have
been as reluctant to break Parliament as Ulysses the bow which he
alone could bend.
[Footnote 723: The first Parliament of the reign
met in January, 1510, the second in February, 1512.
It had a second session, November-December of the
same year (_L. and P._, i., 3502). A third
Parliament met for its first session on 23rd
January, 1514, for its second on 5th February,
1515, and for its third on 12th November, 1515
(_ibid._, i., 5616, 5725, ii., 1130). It was this
last of which Wolsey urged "the more speedy
dissolution"; then for fourteen years there was
only one Parliament, that of 1523. These dates
illustrate the antagonism between Wolsey and
Parliament and show how natural it was that Wolsey
should fall in 1529, and that his fall should
coincide with the revival of Parliament.]
No monarch, in fact, was ever a more zealous champion of parliamentary
privileges, a more scrupulous observer of parliamentary forms, or a
more original pioneer of sound constitutional doctrine. In 1543 he
first enunciated the constitutional principle that sovereignty is
vested in the "King in Parliament". "We," he declared to the Commons,
"at no time stand so highly in our estate royal as in the time of
Parliament, wherein we as head and you as members are conjoined and
knit together in one body politic, so as whatsoever offence or injury
during that time is offered to the meanest member of the House, is to
be judged as done against our person and the whole Court of
Parliament."[725] He was careful to observe himself the deference to
parliamentary privilege which he exacted from others. It is no (p. 259)
strange aberration from the general tenor of his rule that in 1512
by Strode's case[726] the freedom of speech of members of Parliament
was established, and their freedom from arrest by Ferrers' case in
1543. In 1515 Convocation had enviously petitioned for the same
liberty of speech as was enjoyed in Parliament, where members might
even attack the law of the land and not be called in question
therefor.[727] "I am," writes Bishop Gardiner, in 1547, apologising
for the length of a letter, "like one of the Commons' house, that,
when I am in my tale, think I should have liberty to make an
end;"[728] and again he refers to a speech he made during Henry's
reign "in the Parliament house, _where was free speech without
danger_".[729] Wolsey had raised a storm in 1523 by trying to browbeat
the House of Commons. Henry never erred in that respect. In 1532 a
member moved that Henry should take back Catherine to wife.[730]
Nothing could have touched the King on a tenderer spot. Charles I.,
for a less offence, would have gone to the House to arrest the (p. 260)
offender. All Henry did was to argue the point of his marriage with
the Speaker and a deputation from the Commons; no proceedings whatever
were taken against the member himself. In 1529 John Petit, one of the
members for London, opposed the bill releasing Henry from his
obligation to repay the loan; the only result apparently was to
increase Petit's repute in the eyes of the King, who "would ask in
Parliament time if Petit were on his side".[731] There is, in fact,
nothing to show that Henry VIII. intimidated his Commons at any time,
or that he packed the Parliament of 1529. Systematic interference in
elections was a later expedient devised by Thomas Cromwell. It was
apparently tried during the bye-elections of 1534, and at the general
elections of 1536[732] and 1539. Cromwell then endeavoured to secure
a majority in favour of himself and his own particular policy (p. 261)
against the reactionary party in the council. His schemes had created
a division among the laity, and rendered necessary recourse to
political methods of which there was no need, so long as the laity
remained united against the Church. Nor is it without significance
that its adoption was shortly followed by Cromwell's fall. Henry did
not approve of ministers who sought to make a party for themselves.
The packing of Parliaments has in fact been generally the death-bed
expedient of a moribund Government. The Stuarts had their "Undertakers,"
and the only Parliament of Tudor times which consisted mainly of
Government nominees was that gathered by Northumberland on the eve of
his fall in March, 1553; and that that body was exceptionally
constituted is obvious from Renard's inquiry in August, 1553, as to
whether Charles V. would advise his cousin, Queen Mary, to summon a
general Parliament or merely an assembly of "notables" after the
manner introduced by Northumberland.
[Footnote 724: _L. and P._, i., 2082.]
[Footnote 725: Holinshed, _Chronicles_, iii., 956.]
[Footnote 726: Hallam, _Const. Hist._, ii., 4.]
[Footnote 727: _L. and P._, ii., 1314. In some
respects the House of Commons appears to have
exercised unconstitutional powers, _e.g._, in 1529
one Thomas Bradshaw, a cleric, was indicted for
having conspired to poison members of Sir James
Worsley's household, and on 27th February, 1531,
Henry VIII. orders Lady Worsley not to trouble
Bradshaw any more, "as the House of Commons has
decided that he is not culpable" (_ibid._, iv.,
6293; v., 117; _cf._ the case of John Wolf and his
wife, _ibid._, vi., 742; vii., _passim_). The claim
to criminal jurisdiction which the House of Commons
asserted in Floyd's case (1621) seems in fact to
have been admitted by Henry VIII.; compare the
frequent use of acts of attainder.]
[Footnote 728: Foxe, ed. Townsend, vi., 33.]
[Footnote 729: _Ibid._, vi., 43.]
[Footnote 730: In the House of Lords in 1531 the
Bishops of St. Asaph and of Bath with a similar
immunity attacked the defence of Henry's divorce
policy made by the Bishops of Lincoln and London
(_L. and P._, v., 171).]
[Footnote 731: _Narratives of the Reformation_
(Camden Soc.), p. 25.]
[Footnote 732: Hence the complaints of the northern
rebels late in that year (_L. and P._, xi., 1143,
1182 [15], 1244, 1246); these are so to speak the
election petitions of the defeated party; the chief
complaint is that non-residents were chosen who
knew little about the needs of their constituents,
and they made the advanced demand that all King's
servants or pensioners be excluded.
The most striking instance of interference in
elections is Cromwell's letter to the citizens of
Canterbury, written on 18th May, 1536, and first
printed in Merriman's _Cromwell_, 1902, ii., 13; he
there requires the electors to annul an election
they had made in defiance of previous letters, and
return as members Robert Derknall (a member of the
royal household, _L. and P._, xv., pp. 563-5) and
John Brydges, M.P. for Canterbury in 1529-36,
instead of the two who had been unanimously chosen
by eighty electors on 11th May (_L. and P._, x.,
852). The Mayor thereupon assembled ninety-seven
citizens who "freely with one voice and without any
contradiction elected the aforesaid" (_ibid._, x.,
929). These very letters show that electors did
exercise a vote, and the fact that from 1534 to
1539 we find traces of pressure being put upon
them, affords some presumption that before the rise
of Cromwell, when we find no such traces no such
pressure was exerted. The most striking exception
must not be taken as the rule. See p. 317 _n._]
But, while Parliament was neither packed nor terrorised to any great
extent, the harmony which prevailed between it and the King has
naturally led to the charge of servility. Insomuch as it was servile
at all, Parliament faithfully represented its constituents; but the
mere coincidence between the wishes of Henry and those of Parliament
is no proof of servility.[733] That accusation can only be (p. 262)
substantiated by showing that Parliament did, not what it wanted, but
what it did not want, out of deference to Henry. And that has never
been proved. It has never been shown that the nation resented the
statutes giving Henry's proclamations the force of laws, enabling him
to settle the succession by will, or any of the other acts usually
adduced to prove the subservience of Parliament. When Henry was dead,
Protector Somerset secured the repeal of most of these laws, but he
lost his head for his pains. There is, indeed, no escape from the
conclusion that the English people then approved of a dictatorship,
and that Parliament was acting deliberately and voluntarily when it
made Henry dictator. It made him dictator because it felt that he
would do what it wanted, and better with, than without, extraordinary
powers. The fact that Parliament rejected some of Henry's measures is
strong presumption that it could have rejected more, had it been so
minded. No projects were more dear to Henry's heart than the statutes
of Wills and of Uses, yet both were rejected twice at least in the
Parliament of 1529-36.[734]
[Footnote 733: "Parliament," says Brewer,
"faithfully reflected the King's wishes." It is
equally true to say that the King reflected the
wishes of Parliament; and the accusation of
servility is based on the assumption that
Parliament must either be in chronic opposition to
the Crown or servile. One of Brewer's reasons for
Henry's power is that he "required no grants of
money"! (_L. and P._, iv., Introd., p. dcxlv.).]
[Footnote 734: "Henry," writes Chapuys in 1532,
"has been trying to obtain from Parliament the
grant of a third of the feudal property of deceased
lords, but as yet has got nothing" (_L. and P._,
v., 805). Various other instances are mentioned in
the following pages, and they could doubtless be
multiplied if the Journals of the House of Commons
were extant for this period.]
The general harmony between King and Parliament was based on a
fundamental similarity of interests; the harmony in detail was worked
out, not by the forcible exertion of Henry's will, but by his careful
and skilful manipulation of both Houses. No one was ever a greater
adept in the management of the House of Commons, which is easy (p. 263)
to humour but hard to drive. Parliaments are jealous bodies, but
they are generally pleased with attentions; and Henry VIII. was very
assiduous in the attentions he paid to his lay Lords and Commons. From
1529 he suffered no intermediary to come between Parliament and
himself. Cromwell was more and more employed by the King,[735] but
only in subordinate matters, and when important questions were at
issue Henry managed the business himself. He constantly visited both
Houses and remained within their precincts for hours at a time,[736]
watching every move in the game and taking note of every symptom of
parliamentary feeling. He sent no royal commands to his faithful
Commons; in this respect he was less arbitrary than his daughter,
Queen Elizabeth. He submitted points for their consideration, argued
with them, and frankly gave his reasons. It was always done, of course,
with a magnificent air of royal condescension, but with such grace (p. 264)
as to carry the conviction that he was really pleased to condescend
and to take counsel with his subjects, and that he did so because he
trusted his Parliament, and expected his Parliament to place an equal
confidence in him. Henry VIII. acted more as the leader of both Houses
than as a King; and, like modern parliamentary leaders, he demanded
the bulk of their time for measures which he himself proposed.
[Footnote 735: Cromwell used to report to the King
on the feeling of Parliament; thus in 1534 (_L. and
P._, vii., 51) he tells Henry how far members were
willing to go in the creation of fresh treasons,
"they be contented that deed and writing shall be
treason," but words were to be only misprision;
they refused to include an heir's rebellion or
disobedience in the bill, "as rebellion is already
treason and disobedience is no cause of forfeiture
of inheritance," and they thought "that the King of
Scots should in no wise be named" (there is in the
Record Office a draft of the Treasons Bill of 1534
materially differing from the Act as passed.
Therefore either the bill did not originate with
the Government and was modified under Government
pressure, or it did originate with the Government
and was modified under parliamentary pressure).
This is how Henry's legislation was evolved; there
is no foundation for the assertion that Parliament
merely registered the King's edicts.]
[Footnote 736: _E.g._, _L. and P._, v., 120. At other
times Parliament visited him. "On Thursday last,"
writes one on 8th March, 1534, "the whole
Parliament were with the King at York Place for
three hours" (_ibid._, vii., 304).]
The fact that the legislation of Henry's reign was initiated almost
entirely by Government is not, however, a conclusive proof of the
servility of Parliament. For, though it may have been the theory that
Parliament existed to pass laws of its own conception, such has never
been the practice, except when there has been chronic opposition
between the executive and the legislature. Parliament has generally
been the instrument of Government, a condition essential to strong and
successful administration; and it is still summoned mainly to discuss
such measures as the executive thinks fit to lay before it. Certainly
the proportion of Government bills to other measures passed in Henry's
reign was less than it is to-day. A private member's bill then stood
more chance of becoming law, and a Government bill ran greater risks
of being rejected. That, of course, is not the whole truth. One of the
reasons why Henry's House of Commons felt at liberty to reject bills
proposed by the King, was that such rejection did not involve the fall
of a Government which on other grounds the House wished to support. It
did not even entail a dissolution. Not that general elections possessed
any terrors for sixteenth-century Parliaments. A seat in the House of
Commons was not considered a very great prize. The classes, from (p. 265)
which its members were drawn, were much more bent on the pursuit of
their own private fortunes than on participation in public affairs.
Their membership was not seldom a burden,[737] and the long sessions
of the Reformation Parliament constituted an especial grievance. One
member complained that those sessions cost him equivalent to about
five hundred pounds over and above the wages paid him by his
constituents.[738] Leave to go home was often requested, and the
imperial ambassador records that Henry, with characteristic craft,
granted such licences to hostile members, but refused them to his own
supporters.[739] That was a legitimate parliamentary stratagem. It was
not Henry's fault if members preferred their private concerns to the
interests of Catherine of Aragon or to the liberties of the Catholic
Church.
[Footnote 737: Some at least of the royal
nominations to Parliament were due to the fact that
nothing less than a royal command could produce a
representative at all.]
[Footnote 738: _L. and P._, vii., 302.]
[Footnote 739: _Ibid._, v., 120.]
Henry's greatest advantage lay, however, in a circumstance which
constitutes the chief real difference between the Parliaments of the
sixteenth century and those of to-day. His members of Parliament were
representatives rather than delegates. They were elected as fit and
proper persons to decide upon such questions as should be submitted to
them in the Parliament House, and not merely as fit and proper persons
to register decisions already reached by their constituents. Although
they were in the habit of rendering to their constituents an account
of their proceedings at the close of each session,[740] and although
the fact that they depended upon their constituencies for their wages
prevented their acting in opposition to their constituents' (p. 266)
wishes, they received no precise instructions. They went to Parliament
unfettered by definite pledges. They were thus more susceptible, not
only to pressure, but also to argument; and it is possible that in
those days votes were sometimes affected by speeches. The action of
members was determined, not by previous engagements or party discipline,
but by their view of the merits and necessities of the case before
them. Into that view extraneous circumstances, such as fear of the
King, might to a certain extent intrude; but such evidence as is
available points decisively to the conclusion that co-operation
between the King and Parliament was secured, partly by Parliament
doing what Henry wanted, and partly by Henry doing what Parliament
wanted. Parliament did not always do as the King desired, nor did the
King's actions always commend themselves to Parliament. Most of the
measures of the Reformation Parliament were matters of give and take.
It was due to Henry's skill, and to the circumstances of the time that
the King's taking was always to his own profit, and his giving at the
expense of the clergy. He secured the support of the Commons for his
own particular ends by promising the redress of their grievances
against the bishops and priests. It is said that he instituted the
famous petitions urged against the clergy in 1532, and it is hinted
that the abuses, of which those petitions complained, had no real
existence. No doubt Henry encouraged the Commons' complaints; he had
every reason to do so, but he did not invent the abuses. If the
Commons did not feel the grievances, the King's promise to redress
them would be no inducement to Parliament to comply with the royal
demands. The hostility of the laity to the clergy, arising out (p. 267)
of these grievances, was in fact the lever with which Henry overthrew
the papal authority, and the basis upon which he built his own
supremacy over the Church.
[Footnote 740: _Cf. ibid._, iv., App. 1.]
This anti-ecclesiastical bias on the part of the laity was the
dominant factor in the Reformation under Henry VIII. But the word in
its modern sense is scarcely applicable to the ecclesiastical policy
of that King. Its common acceptation implies a purification of
doctrine, but it is doubtful whether any idea of interfering with
dogma ever crossed the minds of the monarchs, who, for more than a
generation, had been proclaiming the need for a reformation. Their
proposal was to reform the practice of the clergy; and the method they
favoured most was the abolition of clerical privileges and the
appropriation of ecclesiastical property. The Reformation in England,
so far as it was carried by Henry VIII., was, indeed, neither more nor
less than a violent self-assertion of the laity against the immunities
which the Church had herself enjoyed, and the restraints which she
imposed upon others. It was not primarily a breach between the Church
of England and the Roman communion, a repudiation on the part of
English ecclesiastics of a harassing papal yoke; for it is fairly
obvious that under Henry VIII. the Church took no measures against
Rome that were not forced on it by the State. It was not till the
reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth that the Church accorded a consent,
based on conviction, to a settlement originally extorted by force. The
Reformation was rather a final assertion by the State of its authority
over the Church in England. The breach with the Roman Church, the
repudiation of papal influence in English ecclesiastical affairs, was
not a spontaneous clerical movement; it was the effect of the (p. 268)
subjection of the Church to the national temporal power. The Church in
England had hitherto been a semi-independent part of the political
community. It was semi-national, semi-universal; it owed one sort of
fealty to the universal Pope, and another to the national King. The
rising spirit of nationality could brook no divided allegiance; and
the universal gave way to the national idea. There was to be no
_imperium in imperio_, but "one body politic,"[741] with one Supreme
Head. Henry VIII. is reported by Chapuys as saying that he was King,
Emperor and Pope, all in one, so far as England was concerned.[742]
The Church was to be nationalised; it was to compromise its universal
character, and to become the Church _of_ England, rather than a branch
of the Church universal _in_ England.
[Footnote 741: The phrase occurs in Cromwell's
draft bill for the submission of Convocation (_L.
and P._, v., 721).]
[Footnote 742: _Ibid._, v., 361. This was in
reference to Henry's refusal to allow a visitation
of the Cistercian monasteries, of which Chapuys
thought they stood in great need (31st July,
1531).]
The revolution was inevitably effected through the action of the State
rather than that of the Church. The Church, which, like religion
itself, is in essence universal and not national, regarded with
abhorrence the prospect of being narrowed and debased to serve
political ends. The Church in England had moreover no means and no
weapons wherewith to effect an internal reformation independent of the
Papacy; as well might the Court of King's Bench endeavour to reform
itself without the authority of King and Parliament. The whole
jurisdiction of the Church was derived in theory from the Pope; when
Wolsey wished to reform the monasteries he had to seek authority from
Leo X.; the Archbishop of Canterbury held a court at Lambeth and (p. 269)
exercised juridical powers, but he did so as _legatus natus_ of
the Apostolic See, and not as archbishop, and this authority could at
any time be superseded by that of a legate _a latere_, as Warham's was
by Wolsey's. It was not his own but the delegated jurisdiction of
another.[743] Bishops and archbishops were only the channels of a
jurisdiction flowing from a papal fountain. Henry charged Warham in
1532 with _præmunire_ because he had consecrated the Bishop of St.
Asaph before the Bishop's temporalties had been restored.[744] The
Archbishop in reply stated that he merely acted as commissary of the
Pope, "the act was the Pope's act," and he had no discretion of his
own. He was bound to consecrate as soon as the Bishop had been
declared such in consistory at Rome. Chapters might elect, the
Archbishop might consecrate, and the King might restore the
temporalties; but none of these things gave a bishop jurisdiction.
There were in fact two and only two sources of power and jurisdiction,
the temporal sovereign and the Pope; reformation must be effected by
the one or the other. Wolsey had ideas of a national ecclesiastical
reformation, but he could have gone no farther than the Pope, who gave
him his authority, permitted. Had the Church in England transgressed
that limit, it would have become dead in schism, and Wolsey's
jurisdiction would have _ipso facto_ ceased. Hence the fundamental (p. 270)
impossibility of Wolsey's scheme; hence the ultimate resort to the
only alternative, a reformation by the temporal sovereign, which
Wycliffe had advocated and which the Anglicans of the sixteenth
century justified by deriving the royal supremacy from the authority
conceded by the early Fathers to the Roman Emperor--an authority prior
to the Pope's.
[Footnote 743: _Cf._ Maitland, _Roman Canon Law_;
Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_, i.,
90 (Bracton regards the Pope as the Englishman's
"Ordinary"); and Leadam, _Select Cases from the
Star Chamber_, Introd., pp. lxxxvi.-viii.]
[Footnote 744: _L. and P._, v., 1247. A curious
point about this document, unnoticed by the editor,
is that the Bishop of St. Asaph had been
consecrated as far back as 1518, and that he was
the Standish who had played so conspicuous a part
in the early Church and State disputes of Henry's
reign. This is an echo of the "Investiture"
controversy (Luchaire, _Manuel_, pp. 509, 510).]
Hence, too, the agency employed was Parliament and not
Convocation.[745] The representatives of the clergy met of course as
frequently as those of the laity, but their activity was purely
defensive. They suggested no changes themselves, and endeavoured
without much success to resist the innovations forced upon them by
King and by Parliament. They had every reason to fear both Henry and
the Commons. They were conscious that the Church had lost its hold
upon the nation. Its impotence was due in part to its own corruption,
in part to the fact that thriving commercial and industrial classes,
like those which elected Tudor Parliaments, are as a rule impatient of
religious or at least sacerdotal dictation. God and Mammon, in spite
of all efforts at compromise, do not really agree. In 1529, before the
meeting of Parliament, Campeggio had appealed to Henry to prevent the
ruin of the Church; he felt that without State protection the Church
could hardly stand. In 1531 Warham, the successor of Becket and
Langton, excused his compliance with Henry's demands by pleading (p. 271)
_Ira principis mors est_.[746] In the draft of a speech he drew up
just before his death,[747] the Archbishop referred to the case of St.
Thomas, hinted that Henry VIII. was going the way of Henry II., and
compared his policy with the constitutions of Clarendon. The comparison
was extraordinarily apt; Henry VIII. was doing what Henry II. had
failed to do, and the fate that attended the Angevin king might have
befallen the Tudor had Warham been Becket and the Church of the
sixteenth been the same as the Church of the twelfth century. But they
were not, and Warham appealed in vain to the liberties of the Church
granted by Magna Carta, and to the "ill end" of "several kings who
violated them". Laymen, he complained, now "advanced" their own laws
rather than those of the Church. The people, admitted so staunch a
churchman as Pole, were beginning to hate the priests.[748] "There
were," wrote Norfolk, "infinite clamours of the temporalty here in
Parliament against the misuse of the spiritual jurisdiction.... This
realm did never grudge the tenth part against the abuses of the Church
at no Parliament in my days, as they do now."[749]
[Footnote 745: "It was not from Parliament," says
Brewer (_L. and P._, iv., Introd., p. dcxlvii.),
"but from Convocation that the King had to
anticipate any show of independence or opposition."
True, to some extent; but the fact does not prove,
as Brewer alleges, that Convocation was more
independent than Parliament, but that Henry was
doing what Parliament liked and Convocation
disliked.]
[Footnote 746: "The Queen replied that they were
all fine councillors, for when she asked advice of
the Archbishop of Canterbury, he replied that he
would not meddle in these affairs, saying
frequently, _Ira principis mors est_" (Chapuys to
Charles V., 6th June, 1531). Warham was one of the
counsel assigned to the Queen for the divorce
question.]
[Footnote 747: _L. and P._, v., 1247. Warham also
made a formal protest against the legislation of
1529-32 (_ibid._, v., 818). The likeness between
Henry VIII. and Henry II. extended beyond their
policy to their personal characteristics, and the
great Angevin was much in the Tudor's mind at this
period. Chapuys also called Henry VIII.'s attention
to the fate of Henry II. (_ibid._, vii., 94).]
[Footnote 748: _L. and P._, v., App. 10.]
[Footnote 749: _Ibid._, v., 831; _cf._ v., 898,
989, App. 28.]
These infinite clamours and grudging were not the result of the (p. 272)
conscientious rejection of any Catholic or papal doctrine. Englishmen
are singularly free from the bondage of abstract ideas, and they began
their Reformation not with the enunciation of some new truth, but with
an attack on clerical fees. Reform was stimulated by a practical
grievance, closely connected with money, and not by a sense of wrong
done to the conscience. No dogma plays such a part in the English
Reformation as Justification by Faith did in Germany, or Predestination
in Switzerland. Parliament in 1530 had not been appreciably affected
by Tyndale's translation of the Bible or by any of Luther's works.
Tyndale was still an exile in the Netherlands, pleading in vain for
the same toleration in England as Charles V. permitted across the sea.
Frith was in the Tower--a man, wrote the lieutenant, Walsingham, whom
it would be a great pity to lose, if only he could be reconciled[750]--and
Bilney was martyred in 1531. A parliamentary inquiry was threatened in
the latter case, not because Parliament sympathised with Bilney's
doctrine, but because it was said that the clergy had procured his
burning before obtaining the State's consent.[751] Parliament was as
zealous as Convocation against heresy, but wanted the punishment of
heretics left in secular hands.
[Footnote 750: _L. and P._, v., 1458.]
[Footnote 751: _Ibid._, v., 522; vii., 171.]
In this, as in other respects, the King and his Parliament were in the
fullest agreement. Henry had already given proof of his anti-clerical
bias by substituting laymen for churchmen in those great offices of
State which churchmen had usually held. From time immemorial the Lord
Chancellor had been a Bishop,[752] but in 1529 Wolsey was succeeded
by More, and, later on, More by Audley. Similarly, the privy seal (p. 273)
had been held in Henry's reign by three bishops successively, Fox,
Ruthal and Tunstall: now it was entrusted to the hands of Anne
Boleyn's father, the Earl of Wiltshire. Gardiner remained secretary
for the time, but Du Bellay thought his power would have increased had
he abandoned his clerical vows,[753] and he, too, was soon superseded
by Cromwell. Even the clerkship of Parliament was now given up to a
layman. During the first half of Henry's reign clerical influence had
been supreme in Henry's councils; during the second it was almost
entirely excluded. Like his Parliament, he was now impugning the
jurisdiction of the clergy in the matter of heresy; they were doctors,
he said, of the soul, and had nothing to do with the body.[754] He was
even inclining to the very modern theory that marriage is a civil
contract, and that matrimonial suits should therefore be removed from
clerical cognisance.[755] As early as 1529 he ordered Wolsey to
release the Prior of Reading, who had been imprisoned for Lutheranism,
"unless the matter is very heinous".[756] In 1530 he was praising
Latimer's sermons;[757] and in the same year the Bishop of Norwich
complained of a general report in his diocese that Henry favoured
heretical books.[758] "They say that, wherever they go, they hear that
the King's pleasure is that the New Testament in English shall (p. 274)
go forth." There seems little reason to doubt Hall's statement that
Henry now commanded the bishops, who, however, did nothing, to prepare
an English translation of the Bible to counteract the errors of
Tyndale's version.[759] He wrote to the German princes extolling their
efforts towards the reformation of the Church;[760] and many advisers
were urging him to begin a similar movement in England. Anne Boleyn
and her father were, said Chapuys, more Lutheran than Luther himself;
they were the true apostles of the new sect in England.[761]
[Footnote 752: Thomas Beaufort, afterwards Duke of
Exeter, who was Chancellor in 1410-12, and Richard,
Earl of Salisbury, who was Chancellor in 1454-5,
are exceptions.]
[Footnote 753: _L. and P._, iv., 6019.]
[Footnote 754: _Ibid._, v., 1013.]
[Footnote 755: _Ibid._, v., 805; vii., 232. Chapuys
had told him that "all the Parliament could not
make the Princess Mary a bastard, for the
cognisance of cases concerning legitimacy belonged
to ecclesiastical judges"; to which Henry replied
that "he did not care for all the canons which
might be alleged, as he preferred his laws
according to which he should have illegitimacy
judged by lay judges who could also take cognisance
of matrimonial causes".]
[Footnote 756: _L. and P._, iv., 5925.]
[Footnote 757: _Ibid._, iv., 6325.]
[Footnote 758: _Ibid._, iv., 6385.]
[Footnote 759: The net result at the time was a
royal proclamation promising an authorised version
of the Scriptures in English "if the people would
come to a better mind" (_L. and P._, iv., 6487).]
[Footnote 760: _L. and P._, v., App. 7.]
[Footnote 761: _Ibid._, v., 148, 850.]
But, however Lutheran Anne Boleyn may have been, Henry was still true
to the orthodox faith. If he dallied with German princes, and held out
hopes to his heretic subjects, it was not because he believed in the
doctrines of either, but because both might be made to serve his own
ends. He rescued Crome from the flames, not because he doubted or
favoured Crome's heresy, but because Crome appealed from the Church to
the King, and denied the papal supremacy; that, said Henry, is not
heresy, but truth.[762] When he sent to Oxford for the articles on
which Wycliffe had been condemned,[763] it was not to study the great
Reformer's doctrine of the mass, but to discover Wycliffe's reasons
for calling upon the State to purify a corrupt Church, and to digest
his arguments against the temporal wealth of the clergy. When he
lauded the reforms effected by the German princes he was thinking of
their secularisation of ecclesiastical revenues. The spoliation (p. 275)
of the Church was consistent with the most fervent devotion to its
tenets. In 1531 Henry warned the Pope that the Emperor would probably
allow the laity "to appropriate the possessions of the Church, which
is a matter which does not touch the foundations of the faith; and
what an example this will afford to others, it is easy to see".[764]
Henry managed to improve upon Charles's example in this respect. "He
meant," he told Chapuys in 1533, "to repair the errors of Henry II.
and John, who, being in difficulties, had made England and Ireland
tributary to the Pope; he was determined also to reunite to the Crown
the goods which churchmen held of it, which his predecessors could not
alienate to his prejudice; and he was bound to do this by the oath he
had taken at his coronation."[765] Probably it was about this time, or
a little later, that he drew up his suggestions for altering the
coronation oath, and making the royal obligations binding only so far
as the royal conscience thought fit. The German princes had a further
claim to his consideration beyond the example they set him in dealing
with the temporalties of the Church. They might be very useful if his
difference with Charles over Catherine of Aragon came to an open
breach; and the English envoys, who congratulated them on their zeal
for reform, also endeavoured to persuade them that Henry's friendship
might be no little safeguard against a despotic Emperor.
[Footnote 762: _Ibid._, v., 129, 148.]
[Footnote 763: _Ibid._, iv., 6546.]
[Footnote 764: _L. and P._, v., 326.]
[Footnote 765: _Ibid._, vi., 235.]
All these phenomena, the Reformation in Germany, heresy at home, and
the anti-sacerdotal prejudices of his subjects, were regarded by Henry
merely as circumstances which might be made subservient to his own
particular purpose; and the skill with which he used them is a (p. 276)
monument of farsighted statecraft.[766] He did not act on the impulse
of rash caprice. His passions were strong, but his self-control was
stronger; and the breach with Rome was effected with a cold and
calculated cunning, which the most adept disciple of Machiavelli could
not have excelled. He did not create the factors he used; hostility to
the Church had a real objective existence. Henry was a great man; but
the burdens his people felt were not the product of Henry's hypnotic
suggestion. He could only divert those grievances to his own use. He
had no personal dislike to probate dues or annates; he did not pay
them, but the threat of their abolition might compel the Pope to grant
his divorce. Heresy in itself was abominable, but if heretics would
maintain the royal against the papal supremacy, might not their sins
be forgiven? The strength of Henry's position lay in the fact that he
stood between two evenly balanced parties. It is obvious that by
favouring the anti-clericals he could destroy the power of the Church.
It is not so certain, but it is probable that, by supporting the
Church, he could have staved off its ruin so long as he lived.
Parliament might have been urgent, but there was no necessity to call
it together. The Reformation Parliament, which sat for seven years,
would probably have been dissolved after a few weeks had Clement
granted the divorce. It met session after session, to pass one measure
after another, each of which was designed to put fresh pressure on the
Pope. It began with the outworks of the papal fortress; as soon (p. 277)
as one was dismantled, Henry cried "Halt," to see if the citadel
would surrender. When it refused, the attack recommenced. First one,
then another of the Church's privileges and the Pope's prerogatives
disappeared, till there remained not one stone upon another of the
imposing edifice of ecclesiastical liberty and papal authority in
England.
[Footnote 766: _Cf._ A. Zimmermann, "Zur
kirchlichen Politik Heinrichs VIII., nach den
Trennung vom Rom," in _Römische Quartalschrift_,
xiii., 263-283.]
CHAPTER XI. (p. 278)
"DOWN WITH THE CHURCH."
The Reformation Parliament met for its first session on the 3rd of
November, 1529, at the Black Friars' Hall in London.[767] No careful
observer was in any doubt as to what its temper would be with regard
to the Church. It was opened by the King in person, and the new Lord
Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, delivered an address in which he
denounced his predecessor, Wolsey, in scathing terms.[768] Parliament
had been summoned, he said, to reform such things as had been used or
permitted in England by inadvertence. On the following day both Houses
adjourned to Westminster on account of the plague, and the Commons
chose, as their Speaker, Sir Thomas Audley, the future Lord Chancellor.
One of their first duties was to consider a bill of attainder against
Wolsey,[769] and the fate of that measure seems to be destructive of
one or the other of two favourite theories respecting Henry VIII.'s
Parliaments. The bill was opposed in the Commons by Cromwell and
thrown out; either it was not a mere expression of the royal will, or
Parliament was something more than the tool of the Court. For it is
hardly credible that Henry first caused the bill to be introduced,
and then ordered its rejection. The next business was Henry's (p. 279)
request for release from the obligation to repay the loan which Wolsey
had raised; that, too, the Commons refused, except on conditions.[770]
But no such opposition greeted the measures for reforming the
clergy.[771] Bills were passed in the Commons putting a limit on the
fees exacted by bishops for probate, and for the performance of other
duties then regarded as spiritual functions. The clergy were
prohibited from holding pluralities, except in certain cases, but the
act was drawn with astonishing moderation; it did not apply to
benefices acquired before 1530, unless they exceeded the number of
four. Penalties against non-residents were enacted, and an attempt was
made to check the addiction of spiritual persons to commercial
pursuits.
[Footnote 767: _L. and P._, iv., 6043-44.]
[Footnote 768: Hall, _Chronicle_, p. 764.]
[Footnote 769: _L. and P._, iv., 6075.]
[Footnote 770: That it passed at all is often
considered proof of parliamentary servility; it is
rather an illustration of the typical Tudor policy
of burdening the wealthy few in order to spare the
general public. If repayment of the loan were
exacted, fresh taxation would be necessary, which
would fall on many more than had lent the King
money. It was very irregular, but the burden was
thus placed on the shoulders of those individuals
who benefited most by Henry's ecclesiastical and
general policy and were rapidly accumulating
wealth. Taxation on the whole was remarkably light
during Tudor times; the tenths, fifteenths and
subsidies had become fixed sums which did not
increase with the national wealth, and indeed
brought in less and less to the royal exchequer
(see _L. and P._, vii., 344, "considerations why
subsidies in diverse shires were not so good in
Henry's seventh year as in his fifth"; _cf._ vii.,
1490, and xix., ii., 689, where Paget says that
benevolences did not "grieve the common people").]
[Footnote 771: _L. and P._, iv., 6083.]
These reforms seem reasonable enough, but the idea of placing a bound
to the spiritual exaction of probate seemed sacrilege to Bishop
Fisher. "My lords," he cried, "you see daily what bills come hither
from the Common House, and all is to the destruction of the (p. 280)
Church. For God's sake, see what a realm the kingdom of Bohemia was;
and when the Church went down, then fell the glory of the kingdom. Now
with the Commons is nothing but 'Down with the Church!' And all this,
meseemeth, is for lack of faith only."[772] The Commons thought a
limitation of fees an insufficient ground for a charge of heresy, and
complained of Fisher to the King through the mouth of their Speaker.
The Bishop explained away the offensive phrase, but the spiritual
peers succeeded in rejecting the Commons' bills. The way out of the
deadlock was suggested by the King; he proposed a conference between
eight members of either House. The Lords' delegates were half
spiritual, half temporal, peers.[773] Henry knew well enough that the
Commons would vote solidly for the measures, and that the temporal
peers would support them. They did so; the bills were passed; and, on
17th December, Parliament was prorogued. We may call it a trick or
skilful parliamentary strategy; the same trick, played by the _Tiers
État_ in 1789, ensured the success of the French Revolution, and it
was equally effective in England in 1529.
[Footnote 772: Hall, _Chronicle_, p. 766.]
[Footnote 773: _Cf._ Stubbs, _Lectures_, 1887, p.
317.]
These mutterings of the storm fell on deaf ears at Rome. Clement was
deaf, not because he had not ears to hear, but because the clash of
imperial arms drowned more distant sounds. "If any one," wrote the
Bishop of Auxerre in 1531, "was ever in prison or in the power of his
enemies, the Pope is now."[774] He was as anxious as ever to escape
responsibility. "He has told me," writes the Bishop of Tarbes to
Francis I. on the 27th of March, 1530, "more than three times in (p. 281)
secret that he would be glad if the marriage (with Anne Boleyn) was
already made, either by a dispensation of the English legate or
otherwise, provided it was not by his authority, or in diminution of
his power as to dispensation and limitation of Divine law."[775] Later
in the year he made his suggestion that Henry should have two wives
without prejudice to the legitimacy of the children of either. Henry,
however, would listen to neither suggestion.[776] He would be
satisfied with nothing less than the sanction of the highest authority
recognised in England. When it became imperative that his marriage
with Anne should be legally sanctioned, and evident that no such
sanction would be forthcoming from Rome, he arranged that the highest
ecclesiastical authority recognised by law in England should be that
of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
[Footnote 774: _L. and P._, v., 562.]
[Footnote 775: _L. and P._, iv., 6290.]
[Footnote 776: See above p. 207.]
Meanwhile, the exigencies of the struggle drove Clement into
assertions of papal prerogative which would at any time have provoked
an outburst of national anger. On 7th March, 1530, he promulgated a
bull to be affixed to the church doors at Bruges, Tournay and Dunkirk,
inhibiting Henry, under pain of the greater excommunication, from
proceeding to that second marriage, which he was telling the Bishop of
Tarbes he wished Henry would complete.[777] A fortnight later he
issued a second bull forbidding all ecclesiastical judges, doctors,
advocates and others to speak or write against the validity of Henry's
marriage with Catherine.[778] If he had merely desired to prohibit
discussion of a matter under judicial consideration, he should have
imposed silence also on the advocates of the marriage, and not (p. 282)
left Fisher free to write books against the King and secretly send
them to Spain to be printed.[779] On the 23rd of December following it
was decreed in Consistory at Rome that briefs should be granted
prohibiting the Archbishop of Canterbury from taking cognisance of the
suit, and forbidding Henry to cohabit with any other woman than
Catherine, and "all women in general to contract marriage with the
King of England".[780] On the 5th of January, 1531, the Pope inhibited
laity as well as clergy, universities, parliaments and courts of law
from coming to any decision in the case.[781]
[Footnote 777: _L. and P._, iv., 6256.]
[Footnote 778: _Ibid._, iv., 6279.]
[Footnote 779: _L. and P._, iv., 6199, 6596, 6738;
v., 460.]
[Footnote 780: _Ibid._, iv., 6772.]
[Footnote 781: _Ibid._, v., 27.]
To these fulminations the ancient laws of England provided Henry with
sufficient means of reply. "Let not the Pope suppose," wrote Henry to
Clement, "that either the King or his nobles will allow the fixed laws
of his kingdom to be set aside."[782] A proclamation, based on the
Statutes of Provisors, was issued on 12th September, 1530, forbidding
the purchasing from the Court of Rome or the publishing of any thing
prejudicial to the realm, or to the King's intended purposes;[783] and
Norfolk was sent to remind the papal nuncio of the penalties attaching
to the importation of bulls into England without the King's consent.
But the most notorious expedient of Henry's was the appeal to the
universities of Europe, first suggested by Cranmer.[784] Throughout
1530 English agents were busy abroad obtaining decisions from (p. 283)
the universities on the question of the Pope's power to dispense with
the law against marrying a deceased brother's wife. Their success was
considerable. Paris and Orléans, Bourges and Toulouse, Bologna and
Ferrara, Pavia and Padua, all decided against the Pope.[785] Similar
verdicts, given by Oxford and Cambridge, may be as naturally ascribed
to intimidation by Henry, as may the decisions of Spanish universities
in the Pope's favour to pressure from Charles; but the theory that all
the French and Italian universities were bribed is not very credible.
The cajolery, the threats and the bribes were not all on one side; and
in Italy at least the imperial agents would seem to have enjoyed
greater facilities than Henry's. In some individual cases there was,
no doubt, resort to improper inducements; but, if the majority in the
most famous seats of learning in Europe could be induced by filthy
lucre to vote against their conscience, it implies a greater need for
drastic reformation than the believers in the theory of corruption are
usually disposed to admit. Their decisions were, however, given on
general grounds; the question of the consummation of Catherine's
marriage with Arthur seems to have been carefully excluded. How far
that consideration would have affected the votes of the universities
can only be assumed; but it does not appear to have materially
influenced the view taken by Catherine's advocates. They allowed that
Catherine's oath would not be considered sufficient evidence in a
court of law; they admitted the necessity of proving that urgent
reasons existed for the grant of the dispensation, and the only (p. 284)
urgent reason they put forward was an entirely imaginary imminence of
war between Henry VII. and Ferdinand in 1503. Cardinal Du Bellay, in
1534, asserted that no one would be so bold as to maintain in Consistory
that the dispensation ever was valid;[786] and the papalists were
driven to the extreme contention, which was certainly not then
admitted by Catholic Europe, that, whether the marriage with Arthur
was merely a form or not, whether it was or was not against Divine
law, the Pope could, of his absolute power, dispense.[787]
[Footnote 782: _Ibid._, iv., 6759.]
[Footnote 783: _Ibid._, iv., 6615; v., 45.]
[Footnote 784: See the present writer's _Cranmer_,
pp. 39-41. Cranmer's suggestion was made early in
August, 1529, and on the 23rd Du Bellay writes that
Wolsey and the King "appeared to desire very much
that I should go over to France to get the opinions
of the learned men there about the divorce" (_L.
and P._, iv., 5862). In October Stokesley was sent
to France and Croke to Italy (_ibid._, p. 2684);
Cranmer did not start till 1530.]
[Footnote 785: _L. and P._, iv., 6332, 6448, 6491,
6632, 6636.]
[Footnote 786: _L. and P._, vii., App. 12.]
[Footnote 787: _Ibid._, v., 468.]
Pending the result of Henry's appeal to the universities, little was
done in the matter in England. The lords spiritual and temporal signed
in June, 1530, a letter to the Pope urging him to comply with their
King's request for a divorce.[788] Parliament did not meet until 16th
January, 1531, and even then Chapuys reports that it was employed on
nothing more important than cross-bows and hand-guns, the act against
which was not, however, passed till 1534. The previous session had
shown that, although the Commons might demur to fiscal exactions, they
were willing enough to join Henry in any attack on the Church, and the
question was how to bring the clergy to a similar state of
acquiescence. It was naturally a more difficult task, but Henry's
ingenuity provided a sufficient inducement. His use of the statutes of
_præmunire_ was very characteristic. It was conservative, it was
legal, and it was unjust. Those statutes were no innovation designed
to meet his particular case; they had been for centuries the law of
the land; and there was no denying the fact that the clergy had broken
the law by recognising Wolsey as legate. Henry, of course, had (p. 285)
licensed Wolsey to act as legate, and to punish the clergy for an
offence, at which he had connived, was scarcely consistent with
justice; but no King ever showed so clearly how the soundest
constitutional maxims could be used to defeat the pleas of equity; it
was frequently laid down during his reign that no licence from the
King could be pleaded against penalties imposed by statute, and not a
few parliamentary privileges were first asserted by Henry VIII.[789]
So the clergy were cunningly caught in the meshes of the law. Chapuys
declares that no one could understand the mysteries of _præmunire_;
"its interpretation lies solely in the King's head, who amplifies it
and declares it at his pleasure, making it apply to any case he
pleases". He at least saw how _præmunire_ could be made to serve his
purposes.[790]
[Footnote 788: _Ibid._, iv., 6513.]
[Footnote 789: _Cf. L. and P._, iv., 6199. Chapuys
writes on 6th February, 1530, "I am told the King
did not wish the Cardinal's case to be tried by
Parliament, as, if it had been decided against him,
the King could not have pardoned him".]
[Footnote 790: _Ibid._, iv., 6488, 6699.]
These, at the moment, were two. He wanted to extract from the clergy a
recognition of his supremacy over the Church, and he wanted money. He
was always in need of supplies, but especially now, in case war should
arise from the Pope's refusal to grant his divorce; and Henry made it
a matter of principle that the Church should pay for wars due to the
Pope.[791] The penalty for _præmunire_ was forfeiture of goods and
imprisonment, and the King probably thought he was unduly lenient in
granting a pardon for a hundred thousand pounds, when he might (p. 286)
have taken the whole of the clergy's goods and put them in gaol as
well. The clergy objected strongly; in the old days of the Church's
influence they would all have preferred to go to prison, and a
unanimous refusal of the King's demands would even now have baulked
his purpose. But the spirit was gone out of them. Chapuys instigated
the papal nuncio to go down to Convocation and stiffen the backs of
the clergy.[792] They were horrified at his appearance, and besought
him to depart in haste, fearing lest this fresh constitutional breach
should be visited on their heads. Warham frightened them with the
terrors of royal displeasure; and the clerics had to content their
conscience with an Irish bull and a subterfuge. "Silence gives
consent," said the Archbishop when putting the question; "Then are we
all silent," cried the clergy. To their recognition of Henry as
Supreme Head of the Church, they added the salvo "so far as the law of
Christ allows". It was an empty phrase, thought Chapuys, for no one
would venture to dispute with the King the point where his supremacy
ended and that of Christ began;[793] there was in fact "a new Papacy
made here".[794] The clergy repented of the concession as soon as it
was granted; they were "more conscious every day," wrote Chapuys, (p. 287)
"of the great error they committed in acknowledging the King as
sovereign of the Church"; and they made a vain, and not very creditable,
effort to get rejected by spiritual votes in the House of Lords the
measures to which they had given their assent in Convocation.[795] The
Church had surrendered with scarcely a show of fight; henceforth Henry
might feel sure that, whatever opposition he might encounter in other
quarters, the Church in England would offer no real resistance.
[Footnote 791: _Cf. ibid._, vi., 1381 [3], "that if
the Pope attempts war, the King shall have a moiety
of the temporal lands of the Church for his
defence".]
[Footnote 792: _L. and P._, v., 62. Dr. Stubbs
(_Lectures_, 1887, p. 318) represents the nuncio as
being pressed into the King's service, and the
clergy as resisting him as the Commons had done
Wolsey in 1523. But this independence is imaginary;
"it was agreed," writes Chapuys, "between the
nuncio and me that he should go to the said
ecclesiastics in their congregation and recommend
them to support the immunity of the Church.... They
were all utterly astonished and scandalised, and
without allowing him to open his mouth they begged
him to leave them in peace, for they had not the
King's leave to speak with him."]
[Footnote 793: _L. and P._, v., 105.]
[Footnote 794: _Ibid._, v., 112.]
[Footnote 795: _L. and P._, v., 124.]
In Parliament, notwithstanding Chapuys' remark on the triviality of
its business, more than a score of acts were passed, some limiting
such abuses as the right of sanctuary, some dealing in the familiar
way with social evils like the increase of beggars and vagabonds. The
act depriving sanctuary-men, who committed felony, of any further
protection from their sanctuary was recommended to Parliament by the
King in person. So was a curious act making poisoning treason.[796]
There had recently been an attempt to poison Fisher, which the King
brought before the House of Lords. However familiar poisoning might be
at Rome, it was a novel method in England, and was considered so
heinous a crime that the ordinary penalties for murder were thought to
be insufficient. Then the King's pardon to the clergy was embodied in
a parliamentary bill. The Commons perceived that they were not
included, took alarm, and refused to pass the bill. Henry at first
assumed a superior tone; he pointed out that the Commons could not
prevent his pardoning the clergy; he could do it as well under the
Great Seal as by statute. The Commons, however, were not satisfied.
"There was great murmuring among them," says Chapuys, "in the (p. 288)
House of Commons, where it was publicly said in the presence of
some of the Privy Council that the King had burdened and oppressed his
kingdom with more imposts and exactions than any three or four of his
predecessors, and that he ought to consider that the strength of the
King lay in the affections of his people. And many instances were
alleged of the inconveniences which had happened to princes through
the ill-treatment of their subjects."[797] Henry was too shrewd to
attempt to punish this very plain speaking. He knew that his faithful
Commons were his one support, and he yielded at once. "On learning
this," continues Chapuys, "the King granted the exemption which was
published in Parliament on Wednesday last without any reservation."
The two acts for the pardon of the spiritualty and temporalty were
passed concurrently. But, whereas the clergy had paid for their pardon
with a heavy fine and the loss of their independence, the laity paid
nothing at all. The last business of the session was the reading of
the sentences in Henry's favour obtained from the universities.[798]
Parliament was then prorogued, and its members were enjoined to relate
to their constituents that which they had seen and heard.
[Footnote 796: _Ibid._, v., 120.]
[Footnote 797: _L. and P._, v., 171. This and other
incidents (see p. 289) form a singular comment on
Brewer's assertion (_ibid._, iv., Introd., p.
dcxlvii.) that "there is scarcely an instance on
record, in this or any succeeding Parliament
throughout the reign, of a parliamentary patriot
protesting against a single act of the Crown,
however unjust and tyrannical it might be".]
[Footnote 798: _L. and P._, v., 171.]
Primed by communion with their neighbours, members of Parliament
assembled once more on 15th January, 1532, for more important (p. 289)
business than they had yet transacted. Every effort was made to secure
a full attendance of Peers and Commons; almost all the lords would be
present, thought Chapuys, except Tunstall, who had not been summoned;
Fisher came without a summons, and apparently no effort was made to
exclude him.[799] The readiness of the Commons to pass measures
against the Church, and their reluctance to consent to taxation, were
even more marked than before. Their critical spirit was shown by their
repeated rejection of the Statutes of Wills and Uses designed by Henry
to protect from evasion his feudal rights, such as reliefs and primer
seisins.[800] This demand, writes Chapuys,[801] "has been the occasion
of strange words against the King and the Council, and in spite of all
the efforts of the King's friends, it was rejected".[802] In the
matter of supplies they were equally outspoken; they would only grant
one-tenth and one-fifteenth, a trifling sum which Henry refused to
accept.[803] It was during this debate on the question of supplies
that two members moved that the King be asked to take back Catherine
as his wife.[804] They would then, they urged, need no fresh armaments
and their words are reported to have been well received by the House.
The Commons were not more enthusiastic about the bill restraining the
payment of annates to the Court at Rome.[805] They did not pay (p. 290)
them; their grievance was against bishops in England, and they saw
no particular reason for relieving those prelates of their financial
burdens. Cromwell wrote to Gardiner that he did not know how the
annates bill would succeed;[806] and the King had apparently to use
all his persuasion to get the bill through the Lords and the Commons.
Only temporal lords voted for it in the Upper House, and, in the
Lower, recourse was had to the rare expedient of a division.[807] In
both Houses the votes were taken in the King's presence. But it is
almost certain that his influence was brought to bear, not so much in
favour of the principle of the bill, as of the extremely ingenious
clause which left the execution of the Act in Henry's discretion, and
provided him with a powerful means of putting pressure on the Pope.
That was Henry's statement of the matter. He told Chapuys, before the
bill was passed, that the attack on annates was being made without his
consent;[808] and after it had been passed he instructed his
representatives at Rome to say that he had taken care to stop the
mouth of Parliament and to have the question of annates referred to
his decision.[809] "The King," writes the French envoy in England at
the end of March, "has been very cunning, for he has caused the nobles
and people to remit all to his will, so that the Pope may know that,
if he does nothing for him, the King has the means of punishing
him."[810] The execution of the clauses providing for the (p. 291)
confirmation and consecration of bishops without recourse to Rome was
also left at Henry's option.
[Footnote 799: _L. and P._, v., 737.]
[Footnote 800: Henry had ordered Cromwell to have a
bill with this object ready for the 1531 session
(_L. and P._, v., 394), and another for the
"augmentation of treasons"; apparently neither then
proved acceptable to Parliament.]
[Footnote 801: _L. and P._, v., 805.]
[Footnote 802: _Ibid._, v., 989.]
[Footnote 803: _Ibid._, v., 1046.]
[Footnote 804: _Ibid._, v., 989. This was in May
during the second part of the session, after the
other business had been finished; redress of
grievances constitutionally preceded supply.]
[Footnote 805: Annates were attacked first, partly
because they were the weakest as well as the most
sensitive part in the papal armour; there was no
law in the _Corpus Juris Canonici_ requiring the
payment of annates (Maitland in _Engl. Hist. Rev._,
xvi., 43).]
[Footnote 806: _L. and P._, v., 723.]
[Footnote 807: _Ibid._, v., 898.]
[Footnote 808: _Ibid._, v., 832.]
[Footnote 809: _Ibid._, v., 886.]
[Footnote 810: _L. and P._, v., 150. This letter is
misplaced in _L. and P._; it should be under 23rd
March, 1532, instead of 1531. The French envoy,
Giles de la Pommeraye, did not arrive in England
till late in 1531, and his letter obviously refers
to the proceedings in Parliament in March, 1532;
_cf._ v., 879.]
But no pressure was needed to induce the Commons to attack abuses, the
weight of which they felt themselves. Early in the session they were
discussing the famous petition against the clergy, and, on 28th
February, Norfolk referred to the "infinite clamours" in Parliament
against the Church.[811] The fact that four corrected drafts of this
petition are extant in the Record Office, is taken as conclusive proof
that it really emanated from the Court.[812] But the drafts do not
appear to be in the known hand of any of the Government clerks. The
corrections in Cromwell's hand doubtless represent the wishes of the
King; but, even were the whole in Cromwell's hand, it would be no bar
to the hypothesis that Cromwell reduced to writing, for the King's
consideration, complaints which he heard from independent members in
his place in Parliament. The fact that nine-tenths of our modern
legislation is drawn up by Government draughtsmen, cannot be accepted
as proof that that legislation represents no popular feeling. On the
face of them, these petitions bear little evidence of Court dictation;
the grievances are not such as were felt by Henry, whose own demands
of the clergy were laid directly before Convocation, without any (p. 292)
pretence that they really came from the Commons. Some are similar
to those presented to the Parliament of 1515; others are directed
against abuses which recent statutes had sought, but failed, to
remedy. Such were the citation of laymen out of their dioceses, the
excessive fees taken in spiritual courts, the delay and trouble in
obtaining probates. Others complained that the clergy in Convocation
made laws inconsistent with the laws of the realm; that the ordinaries
delayed instituting parsons to their benefices; that benefices were
given to minors; that the number of holy-days, especially in
harvest-time, was excessive; and that spiritual men occupied temporal
offices. The chief grievance seems to have been that the ordinaries
cited poor men before the spiritual courts without any accuser being
produced, and then condemned them to abjure or be burnt. Henry,
reported Chapuys, was "in a most gracious manner" promising to support
the Commons against the Church "and to mitigate the rigours of the
inquisition which they have here, and which is said to be more severe
than in Spain".[813]
[Footnote 811: _Ibid._, v., 831.]
[Footnote 812: _Ibid._, v., 1017-23. If the Court
was responsible for all the documents complaining
of the clergy drawn up at this time, it must have
been very active. See others in _L. and P._, v.,
49, App. 28, vi., 122.]
[Footnote 813: _L. and P._, v., 989.]
After debating these points in Parliament, the Commons agreed that
"all the griefs, which the temporal men should be grieved with, should
be put in writing and delivered to the King"; hence the drafts in the
Record Office. The deputation, with the Speaker at its head, presented
the complaints to Henry on 18th March. Its reception is quite
unintelligible on the theory that the grievances existed only in the
King's imagination. Henry was willing, he said, to consider the
Commons' petition. But, if they expected him to comply with their
wishes, they must make some concession to his; and he recommended (p. 293)
them to forgo their opposition to the bills of Uses and Wills, to
which the Lords had already agreed. After Easter he sent the Commons'
petition to Convocation; the clergy appealed to the King for
protection. Henry had thus manoeuvred himself into the position of
mediator, in which he hoped, but in vain, to extract profit for
himself from both sides.[814] From Convocation he demanded submission
to three important claims; the clergy were to consent to a reform of
ecclesiastical law, to abdicate their right of independent legislation,
and to recognise the necessity of the King's approval for existing
canons. These demands were granted. As usual, Henry was able to get
what he wanted from the clergy; but from the Commons he could get no
more than they were willing to give. They again rejected the bills of
Uses and Wills, and would only concede the most paltry supplies. But
they passed with alacrity the bills embodying the submission of the
clergy. These were the Church's concessions to Henry, but it must bend
the knee to the Commons as well, and other measures were passed
reforming some of the points in their petition. Ordinaries were
prohibited from citing men out of their proper dioceses, and benefit
of clergy was denied to clerks under the order of sub-deacon who
committed murder, felony, or petty treason; the latter was a slight
extension of a statute passed in 1512. The bishops, however, led by
Gardiner and aided by More,[815] secured in the House of Lords (p. 294)
the rejection of the concessions made by the Church to the King,
though they passed those made to the Commons. Parliament, which had
sat for the unusual space of four months, was prorogued on the 14th of
May; two days later, More resigned the chancellorship and Gardiner
retired in disfavour to Winchester.
[Footnote 814: Stubbs, _Lectures_, 1887, pp.
320-24; Hall, pp. 784, 785; see also _Lords'
Journals_, 1532.]
[Footnote 815: _L. and P._, v., 1013. More had, as
Henry knew, been all along opposed to the divorce,
but as More gratefully acknowledged, the King only
employed those whose consciences approved of the
divorce on business connected with it (vii., 289).]
* * * * *
Meanwhile the divorce case at Rome made little progress. In the
highest court in Christendom the facilities afforded for the law's
delays were naturally more extended than before inferior tribunals;
and two years had been spent in discussing whether Henry's
"excusator," sent merely to maintain that the King of England could
not be cited to plead before the Papal Court, should be heard or not.
Clement was in suspense between two political forces. In December,
1532, Charles was again to interview the Pope, and imperialists in
Italy predicted that his presence would be as decisive in Catherine's
favour as it had been three years before. But Henry and Francis had,
in October, exhibited to the world the closeness of their friendship
by a personal interview at Boulogne.[816] No pomp or ceremony, like
that of the Field of Cloth of Gold, dazzled men's eyes; but the union
between the two Kings was never more real. Neither Queen was present;
Henry would not take Catherine, and he objected so strongly to Spanish
dress that he could not endure the sight of Francis's Spanish
Queen.[817] Anne Boleyn, recently created Marquis (so she was styled,
to indicate the possession of the peerage in her own right) of (p. 295)
Pembroke,[818] took Catherine's place; and plans for the promotion of
the divorce formed the staple of the royal discussions. Respect for
the power of the two Kings robbed the subsequent interview between
Emperor and Pope of much of its effect; and before Charles and Clement
parted, the Pope had secretly agreed to accord a similar favour to
Francis; he was to meet him at Nice in the following summer. Long
before then the divorce had been brought to a crisis. By the end of
January Henry knew that Anne Boleyn was pregnant. Her issue must at
any cost be made legitimate. That could only be done by Henry's
divorce from Catherine, and by his marriage with Anne Boleyn.[819]
There was little hope of obtaining these favours from Rome. Therefore
it must be done by means of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and to
remove all chance of disputing his sentence, the Court of the
Archbishop of Canterbury must, before his decision was given, be
recognised as the supreme tribunal for English ecclesiastical cases.
[Footnote 816: See P.A. Hamy, _Entrevue de François
I. avec Henri VIII., à Boulogne en 1532_. Paris,
1898.]
[Footnote 817: _L. and P._, v., 1187.]
[Footnote 818: _L. and P._, v., 1274.]
[Footnote 819: In 1529 Du Bellay had written _si le
ventre croist, tout sera gasté_ (_L. and P._, iv.,
5679).]
These circumstances, of which not a hint was suffered to transpire in
public, dictated Henry's policy during the early months of 1533. Never
was his skill more clearly displayed; he was, wrote Chapuys in
December, 1532, practising more than ever with his Parliament,[820]
though he received the Spanish ambassador "as courteously as
ever".[821] The difficulties with which he was surrounded might have
tried the nerve of any man, but they only seemed to render Henry's
course more daring and steady. The date of his marriage with Anne
Boleyn is even now a matter of conjecture.[822] Cranmer repudiated (p. 296)
the report that he performed the ceremony.[823] He declares he did not
know of it until a fortnight after the event, and says it took place
about St. Paul's Day (25th January). A more important question was the
individuality of the archbishop who was to pronounce the nullity of
Henry's marriage with Catherine of Aragon. He must obviously be one on
whom the King could rely. Fortunately for Henry, Archbishop Warham had
died in August, 1532. His successor was to be Thomas Cranmer, who had
first suggested to Henry the plan of seeking the opinions of the
universities on the divorce, and was now on an embassy at the
Emperor's Court. No time was to be lost. Henry usually gathered a rich
harvest during the vacancy of great bishoprics, but now Canterbury was
to be filled up without any delay, and the King even lent Cranmer
1,000 marks to meet his expenses.[824] But would the Pope be so
accommodating as to expedite the bulls, suspecting, as he must have
done, the object for which they were wanted?
[Footnote 820: _L. and P._, v., 1633.]
[Footnote 821: _Ibid._, v., 1579.]
[Footnote 822: Cranmer, _Works_, ii., 246. The
antedating of the marriage to 14th November, 1532,
by Hall and Holinshed was doubtless due to a desire
to shield Anne's character; Stow gives the correct
date.]
[Footnote 823: See the present writer's _Cranmer_,
p. 60 _n._]
[Footnote 824: _L. and P._, vi., 131.]
For this contingency also Henry had provided; and he was actually
using the Pope as a means for securing the divorce. An appearance of
friendship with Clement was the weapon he now employed with the
greatest effect. The Pope was discussing with the French ambassadors a
proposal to remit the divorce case to some neutral spot, such as
Cambrai, and delaying that definite sentence in Catherine's favour
which imperialists had hoped that his interview with Charles would (p. 297)
precipitate;[825] the papal nuncio was being feasted in England,
and was having suspiciously amicable conferences with members of
Henry's council. Henry himself was writing to Clement in the most
cordial terms; he had instructed his ambassadors in 1531 to "use all
gentleness towards him,"[826] and Clement was saying that Henry was of
a better nature and more wise than Francis I.[827] Henry was now
willing to suspend his consent to the general council, where the Pope
feared that a scheme would be mooted for restoring the papal States to
the Emperor;[828] and he told the papal nuncio in England that, though
he had studied the question of the Pope's authority and retracted his
defence of the Holy See,[829] yet possibly Clement might give him
occasion to probe the matter further still, and to reconfirm what he
had originally written.[830] Was he not, moreover, withholding his
assent from the Act of Annates, which would deprive the Pope of large
revenues? Backed by this gentle hint, Henry's request not merely for
Cranmer's bulls, but for their expedition without the payment of the
usual 10,000 marks, reached Rome. The cardinals were loth to forgo
their perquisites for the bulls, but the annates of all England were
more precious still, and, on 22nd February, Consistory decided to do
what Henry desired.
[Footnote 825: _L. and P._, vi., 26. The interview
took place at Bologna in December, 1532.]
[Footnote 826: _Ibid._, v., 326.]
[Footnote 827: _Ibid._, v., 555.]
[Footnote 828: _Ibid._, vi., 89, 212.]
[Footnote 829: _E.g._, _ibid._, v., 820, where Henry
tells Tunstall that to follow the Pope is to
forsake Christ, that it was no schism to separate
from Rome, and that "God willing, we shall never
separate from the universal body of Christian men,"
and admits that he was misled in his youth to make
war upon Louis XII. by those who sought only their
own pomp, wealth and glory.]
[Footnote 830: _Ibid._, vi., 296.]
The same deceptive appearance of concord between King and Pope (p. 298)
was employed to lull both Parliament and Convocation. The delays
in the divorce suit disheartened Catherine's adherents. The Pope,
wrote Chapuys, would lose his authority little by little, unless the
case were decided at once;[831] every one, he said, cried out "au
murdre" on Clement for his procrastination on the divorce, and for the
speed with which he granted Cranmer's bulls.[832] There was a general
impression that "he would betray the Emperor," and "many think that
there is a secret agreement between Henry and the Pope".[833] That
idea was sedulously fostered by Henry. Twice he took the Pope's nuncio
down in state to Parliament to advertise the excellent terms upon
which he stood with the Holy See.[834] In the face of such evidence,
what motive was there for prelates and others to reject the demands
which Henry was pressing upon them? The Convocations of Canterbury and
York repeated the submission of 1532, and approved, by overwhelming
majorities, of two propositions: firstly, that, as a matter of law,
the Pope was not competent to dispense with the obstacle to a marriage
between a man and his deceased brother's wife, when the previous
marriage had been consummated; and secondly, that, as a matter of
fact, the marriage between Catherine and Prince Arthur had been so
consummated.[835] In Parliament, the Act forbidding Appeals to
Rome,[836] and providing for the confirmation and consecration of (p. 299)
bishops without recourse to the Papal Court, was discussed. It was,
like the rest of Henry's measures, based on a specious conservative
plea. General councils had, the King said, decreed that suits should
be determined in the place in which they originated;[837] so there was
no need for appeals to go out of England. Such opposition as it
encountered was based on no religious principle. Commercial interests
were the most powerful impulse of the age, and the Commons were afraid
that the Act of Appeals might be followed by a papal interdict. They
did not mind the interdict as depriving them of religious consolations,
but they dreaded lest it might ruin their trade with the Netherlands.[838]
Henry, however, persuaded them that the wool trade was as necessary to
Flemings as it was to Englishmen, and that an interdict would prove no
more than an empty threat. He was careful to make no other demands
upon the Commons. No subsidies were required; no extension of royal
prerogative was sought; and eventually the Act of Appeals was passed
with a facility that seems to have created general surprise.[839]
[Footnote 831: _L. and P._, vi., 142.]
[Footnote 832: _Ibid._, vi., 296.]
[Footnote 833: _Ibid._, vi., 89.]
[Footnote 834: _Ibid._, vi., 142, 160. The nuncio
sat on Henry's right and the French ambassador on
his left, this trinity illustrating the league
existing between Pope, Henry and Francis.]
[Footnote 835: _Ibid._, vi., 276, 311, 317, 491.]
[Footnote 836: The germ of this Act may be found in
a despatch from Henry dated 7th October, 1530; that
the system of appeals had been subject to gross
abuse is obvious from the fact that the Council of
Trent prohibited it (_Cambridge Modern Hist._, ii.,
671).]
[Footnote 837: _L. and P._, vi., 1489.]
[Footnote 838: _Ibid._, vi., 296.]
[Footnote 839: _Ibid._, XII., ii., 952.]
Henry's path was now clear. Cranmer was archbishop and _legatus natus_
with a title which none could dispute. By Act of Parliament his court
was the final resort for all ecclesiastical cases. No appeals from his
decision could be lawfully made. So, on 11th April, before he was yet
consecrated, he besought the King's gracious permission to determine
his "great cause of matrimony, because much bruit exists among the
common people on the subject".[840] No doubt there did; but that (p. 300)
was not the cause for the haste. Henry was pleased to accede to this
request of the "principal minister of our spiritual jurisdiction";
and, on the 10th of May, the Archbishop opened his Court at Dunstable.
Catherine, of course, could recognise no authority in Cranmer to try a
cause that was before the papal curia. She was declared contumacious,
and, on the 23rd, the Archbishop gave his sentence. Following the line
of Convocation, he pronounced that the Pope had no power to license
marriages such as Henry's, and that the King and Catherine had never
been husband and wife.[841] Five days later, after a secret investigation,
he declared that Henry and Anne Boleyn were lawfully married, and on
Whitsunday, the 1st of June, he crowned Anne as Queen in Westminster
Abbey.[842] Three months later, on Sunday, the 7th of September,
between three and four in the afternoon, Queen Anne gave birth to a
daughter at Greenwich.[843] The child was christened on the following
Wednesday by Stokesley, Bishop of London, and Cranmer stood godfather.
Chapuys scarcely considered the matter worth mention. The King's
_amie_ had given birth to a bastard, a detail of little importance to
any one, and least of all to a monarch like Charles V.[844] (p. 301)
Yet the "bastard" was Queen Elizabeth, and the child, thus ushered
into a contemptuous world, lived to humble the pride of Spain, and to
bear to a final triumph the banner which Henry had raised.
[Footnote 840: Cranmer, _Works_, ii., 237.]
[Footnote 841: _Ibid._, ii., 241, 244; _L. and P._,
vi., 332, 469, 470, 525. This sentence did not
bastardise the Princess Mary according to Chapuys,
for "even if the marriage were null, the Princess
was legitimate owing to the lawful ignorance of her
parents. The Archbishop of Canterbury had foreseen
this and had not dared to be so shameless as to
declare her a bastard" (_ibid._, vii., 94).]
[Footnote 842: See _Tudor Tracts_ edited by the
present writer, 1903, pp. 10-28, and _L. and P._,
vi., 561, 563, 584, 601.]
[Footnote 843: _L. and P._, vi., 1089, 1111.]
[Footnote 844: _L. and P._, vi., 1112.]
CHAPTER XII. (p. 302)
"THE PREVAILING OF THE GATES OF HELL."
That victorious issue of the Tudor struggle with the power, against
which Popes proclaimed that the gates of hell should not prevail, was
distant enough in 1533. Then the Tudor monarch seemed rushing headlong
to irretrievable ruin. Sure of himself and his people, and feeling no
longer the need of Clement's favour, Henry threw off the mask of
friendship, and, on the 9th of July, confirmed, by letters patent, the
Act of Annates.[845] Cranmer's proceedings at Dunstable, Henry's
marriage, and Anne's coronation, constituted a still more flagrant
defiance of Catholic Europe. The Pope's authority was challenged with
every parade of contempt. He could do no less than gather round him
the relics of his dignity and prepare to launch against Henry the
final ban of the Church.[846] So, on the 11th of July, the sentence of
the greater excommunication was drawn up. Clement did not yet, (p. 303)
nor did he ever, venture to assert his claims to temporal supremacy in
Christendom, by depriving the English King of his kingdom; he thought
it prudent to rely on his own undisputed prerogative. His spiritual
powers seemed ample; and he applied to himself the words addressed to
the Prophet Jeremiah, "Behold, I have set thee above nations and
kingdoms that thou mayest root up and destroy, build and plant, a lord
over all kings of the whole earth and over all peoples bearing
rule".[847] In virtue of this prerogative Henry was cut off from the
Church while he lived, removed from the pale of Christian society, and
deprived of the solace of the rites of religion; when he died, he must
lie without burial, and in hell suffer torment for ever.[848]
[Footnote 845: _L. and P._, vi., 793.]
[Footnote 846: _Ibid._, vi., 807, App. 3; vii.,
185. The declaration of it was at the same time
suspended until September, and the delicate
question of entrusting the _executoriales_ to
princes who repudiated the honour caused further
delays. The bull of excommunication was eventually
dated 30th August, 1535 (ix., 207); and a bull
depriving Henry of his kingdom was sanctioned,
printed and prepared for publication (x., Introd.,
p. xv., Nos. 82, 107), but first Francis and then
Charles put difficulties in the way. In December,
1538, Paul III., now that he, Charles and Francis
were united in the bond of friendship, published
with additions the bull of August, 1535 (XIII.,
ii., 1087, Introd., p. xli.). Even then no bull of
deprivation was published. Apparently that was an
honour reserved for Henry's daughter.]
[Footnote 847: Jeremiah i. 10. The Vulgate text
adopted in Papal bulls differs materially from that
in the English Authorised Version.]
[Footnote 848: See the text in Burnet, ed. Pocock,
iv., 318-31.]
What would be the effect of this terrific anathema? The omens looked
ill for the English King. If he had flouted the Holy See, he had also
offended the temporal head of Christendom. The Emperor's aunt had been
divorced, his cousin's legitimacy had been impugned, and the
despatches of his envoy, Chapuys, were filled with indignant
lamentations over the treatment meted out to Catherine and to her
daughter. Both proud and stubborn women, they resolutely refused to
admit in any way the validity of Henry's acts and recent legislation.
Catherine would rather starve as Queen, than be sumptuously clothed
and fed as Princess Dowager. Henry would give her anything she asked,
if she would acknowledge that she was not the Queen, nor her daughter
the Princess; but her bold resistance to his commands and wishes (p. 304)
brought out all the worst features of his character.[849] His anger
was not the worst the Queen and her daughter had to fear; he still
preserved a feeling of respect for Catherine and of affection for
Mary. "The King himself," writes Chapuys, "is not ill-natured; it is
this Anne who has put him in this perverse and wicked temper, and
alienates him from his former humanity."[850] The new Queen's jealous
malignity passed all bounds. She caused her aunt to be made governess
to Mary, and urged her to box her charge's ears; and she used every
effort to force the Princess to serve as a maid upon her little
half-sister, Elizabeth.[851]
[Footnote 849: _L. and P._, vi., 805, 1186.]
[Footnote 850: _Ibid._, vi., 351; vii., 171, 871;
_cf._ v., 216, where Chapuys says Anne hated the
Princess Mary more than she did Queen Catherine
because she saw that Henry had some affection for
Mary, and praised her in Anne's presence. At the
worst Henry's manners were generally polite; on one
occasion, writes Chapuys, "when the King was going
to mount his horse, the Princess went on to a
terrace at the top of the house to see him. The
King, either being told of it or by chance, turned
round, and seeing her on her knees with her hands
joined, bowed to her and put his hand to his hat.
Then all those present who had not dared to raise
their heads to look at her [surely they may not
have seen her] rejoiced at what the King had done,
and saluted her reverently with signs of good-will
and compassion" (_ibid._, vii., 83).]
[Footnote 851: _Ibid._, vii., 171.]
This humiliation was deeply resented by the people, who, says Chapuys,
though forbidden, on pain of their lives, to call Catherine Queen,
shouted it at the top of their voices.[852] "You cannot imagine," he
writes a few weeks later to Charles, "the great desire of all this
people that your Majesty should send men. Every day I have been
applied to about it by Englishmen of rank, wit and learning, (p. 305)
who give me to understand that the last King Richard was never so much
hated by his people as this King."[853] The Emperor, he went on, had a
better chance of success than Henry VII., and Ortiz at Rome was
cherishing the belief that England would rise against the King for his
contumacy and schismatic disobedience.[854] Fisher was urgent that
Charles should prepare an invasion of England; the young Marquis of
Exeter, a possible claimant to the throne, was giving the same
advice.[855] Abergavenny, Darcy and other peers brooded in sullen
discontent. They were all listening to the hysterical ravings of
Elizabeth Barton,[856] the Nun of Kent, who prophesied that Henry had
not a year to live. Charles's emissaries were busy in Ireland, where
Kildare was about to revolt. James V. of Scotland was hinting at his
claims to the English crown, should Henry be deprived by the
Pope;[857] and Chapuys was divided in mind whether it would be better
to make James the executor of the papal sentence, or marry Mary to
some great English noble, and raise an internal rebellion.[858] At
Catherine's suggestion he recommended to the Emperor Reginald Pole, a
grandson of George, Duke of Clarence, as a suitor for Mary's hand; and
he urged, on his own account, Pole's claims to the English
throne.[859] Catherine's scruples, not about deposing her husband, or
passing over the claims of Henry's sisters, but on the score of Edward
IV.'s grandson, the Marquis of Exeter, might, thought Chapuys, (p. 306)
be removed by appealing to the notorious sentence of Bishop Stillington,
who, on the demand of Richard III., had pronounced Edward IV.'s
marriage void and his children illegitimate.[860] Those who had been
the King's firm supporters when the divorce first came up were some of
them wavering, and others turning back.[861] Archbishop Lee, Bishops
Tunstall and Gardiner, and Bennet,[862] were now all in secret or open
opposition, and even Longland was expressing to Chapuys regrets that
he had ever been Henry's confessor;[863] like other half-hearted
revolutionists, they would never have started at all, had they known
how far they would have to go, and now they were setting their sails
for an adverse breeze. It was the King, and the King alone, who kept
England on the course which he had mapped out. Pope and Emperor were
defied; Europe was shocked; Francis himself disapproved of the breach
with the Church; Ireland was in revolt; Scotland, as ever, was
hostile; legislation had been thrust down the throats of a
recalcitrant Church, and, we are asked to believe, of a no less
unwilling House of Commons, while the people at large were seething
with indignation at the insults heaped upon the injured Queen and her
daughter. By all the laws of nature, of morals, and of politics, it
would seem, Henry was doomed to the fate of the monarch in the Book of
Daniel the Prophet,[864] who did according to his will and exalted and
magnified himself above every god; who divided the land for gain, and
had power over the treasures of gold and silver; who was troubled by
tidings from the east and from the north; who went forth with (p. 307)
great fury to destroy and utterly make away many, and yet came to
his end, and none helped him.
[Footnote 852: _Ibid._, vi., 918.]
[Footnote 853: _L. and P._, vi., 508; vii., 121.]
[Footnote 854: _Ibid._, v., 1324.]
[Footnote 855: _Ibid._, v., 416.]
[Footnote 856: See _Transactions of the Royal Hist.
Soc._, N.S., xviii.; _L. and P._, vi., 1419, 1445,
1464, 1467, 1468.]
[Footnote 857: _L. and P._, v., 609, 807; vi., 815,
821.]
[Footnote 858: _Ibid._, vi., 446, 541; vii., 114.]
[Footnote 859: _Ibid._, vi., 1164.]
[Footnote 860: _L. and P._, vii., 1368.]
[Footnote 861: Even Norfolk, and Suffolk and his
wife wanted to dissuade Henry in 1531 from
persisting in the divorce (_ibid._, v., 287).]
[Footnote 862: _Ibid._, v., 696.]
[Footnote 863: _Ibid._, vii., 14.]
[Footnote 864: Daniel xi., 36-45.]
All these circumstances, real and alleged, would be quite convincing
as reasons for Henry's failure; but they are singularly inconclusive
as explanations of his success, of the facts that his people did not
rise and depose him, that no Spanish Armada disgorged its host on
English shores, and that, for all the papal thunderbolts, Henry died
quietly in his bed fourteen years later, and was buried with a pomp
and respect to which Popes themselves were little accustomed. He may
have stood alone in his confidence of success, and in his penetration
through these appearances into the real truth of the situation behind.
That, from a purely political or non-moral point of view, is his chief
title to greatness. He knew from the beginning what he could do; he
had counted the cost and calculated the risks; and, writes Russell in
August, 1533, "I never saw the King merrier than he is now".[865] As
early as March, 1531, he told Chapuys that if the Pope issued 10,000
excommunications he would not care a straw for them.[866] When the
papal nuncio first hinted at excommunication and a papal appeal to the
secular arm, Henry declared that he cared nothing for either.[867] He
would open the eyes of princes, he said, and show them how small was
really the power of the Pope;[868] and "when the Pope had done what he
liked on his side, Henry would do what he liked here".[869] That
threat, at least, he fulfilled with a vengeance. He did not fear the
Spaniards; they might come, he said (as they did in 1588), but (p. 308)
perhaps they might not return.[870] England, he told his subjects,
was not conquerable, so long as she remained united;[871] and the
patriotic outburst with which Shakespeare closes "King John" is but an
echo and an expansion of the words of Henry VIII.
This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself....
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.
[Footnote 865: _L. and P._, vi., 948.]
[Footnote 866: _Ibid._, v., 148.]
[Footnote 867: _Ibid._, v., 738.]
[Footnote 868: _Ibid._, v., 1292.]
[Footnote 869: _Ibid._, v., 287.]
[Footnote 870: _L. and P._, vi., 1479.]
[Footnote 871: _Ibid._, vi., 324.]
The great fear of Englishmen was lest Charles should ruin them by
prohibiting the trade with Flanders. "Their only comfort," wrote
Chapuys, "is that the King persuades the people that it is not in your
Majesty's power to do so."[872] Henry had put the matter to a
practical test, in the autumn of 1533, by closing the Staple at
Calais.[873] It is possible that the dispute between him and the
merchants, alleged as the cause for this step, was real; but the King
could have provided his subjects with no more forcible object-lesson.
Distress was felt at once in Flanders; complaints grew so clamorous
that the Regent sent an embassy post-haste to Henry to remonstrate,
and to represent the closing of the Staple as an infraction of
commercial treaties. Henry coldly replied that he had broken no
treaties at all; it was merely a private dispute between his merchants
and himself, in which foreign powers had no ground for intervention.
The envoys had to return, convinced against their will. The Staple at
Calais was soon reopened, but the English King was able to (p. 309)
demonstrate to his people that the Flemings "could not do without
England's trade, considering the outcry they made when the Staple of
Calais was closed for only three months".
[Footnote 872: _Ibid._, vi., 1460.]
[Footnote 873: _Ibid._, vi., 1510, 1523, 1571.]
Henry, indeed, might almost be credited with second-sight into the
Emperor's mind. On 31st May, 1533, Charles's council discussed the
situation.[874] After considering Henry's enormities, the councillors
proceeded to deliberate on the possible remedies. There were three:
justice, force and a combination of both. The objections to relying on
methods of justice, that is, on the papal sentence, were, firstly,
that Henry would not obey, and secondly, that the Pope was not to be
trusted. The objections to the employment of force were, that war
would imperil the whole of Europe, and especially the Emperor's
dominions, and that Henry had neither used violence towards Catherine
nor given Charles any excuse for breaking the Treaty of Cambrai.
Eventually, it was decided to leave the matter to Clement. He was to
be urged to give sentence against Henry, but on no account to lay
England under an interdict, as that "would disturb her intercourse
with Spain and Flanders. If, therefore, an interdict be resorted to,
it should be limited to one diocese, or to the place where Henry
dwells."[875] Such an interdict might put a premium on assassination,
but otherwise neither Henry nor his people were likely to care much
about it. The Pope should, however, be exhorted to depose the English
King; that might pave the way for Mary's accession and for the
predominance in England of the Emperor's influence; but the execution
of the sentence must not be entrusted to Charles.[876] It would (p. 310)
be excellent if James V. or the Irish would undertake to beard the
lion in his den, but the Emperor did not see his way clear to
accepting the risk himself.
[Footnote 874: _L. and P._, vi., 568.]
[Footnote 875: _Ibid._, vi., 570.]
[Footnote 876: In January, 1534, Charles's
ambassador at Rome repudiated the Pope's statement
that the Emperor had ever offered to assist in the
execution of the Pope's sentence (_L. and P._,
vii., 96).]
Charles was, indeed, afraid, not merely of Henry, but of Francis, who
was meditating fresh Italian schemes; and various expedients were
suggested to divert his attention in other directions. He might be
assisted in an attack upon Calais. "Calais," was Charles's cautious
comment, "is better as it is, for the security of Flanders."[877] The
Pope hinted that the grant of Milan would win over Francis. It
probably would; but Charles would have abandoned half a dozen aunts
rather than see Milan in French possession. His real concern in the
matter was not the injustice to Catherine, but the destruction of the
prospect of Mary's succession. That was a tangible political interest,
and Charles was much less anxious to have Henry censured than to have
Mary's legitimate claim to the throne established.[878] He was a great
politician, absolutely impervious to personal wrong when its remedy
conflicted with political interests. "Though the Emperor," he said,
"is bound to the Queen, this is a private matter, and public
considerations must be taken into account." And public considerations,
as he admitted a year later, "compelled him to conciliate (p. 311)
Henry".[879] So he refused Chapuys' request to be recalled lest his
presence in England should lead people to believe that Charles had
condoned Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn,[880] and dissuaded
Catherine from leaving England.[881] The least hint to Francis of any
hostile intent towards Henry would, thought Charles, be at once
revealed to the English King, and the two would join in making war on
himself. War he was determined to avoid, for, apart from the ruin of
Flanders, which it would involve, Henry and Francis had long been
intriguing with the Lutherans in Germany. A breach might easily
precipitate civil strife in the Empire; and, indeed, in June, 1534,
Würtemberg was wrested from the Habsburgs by Philip of Hesse with the
connivance of France. Francis, too, was always believed to have a
working agreement with the Turk; Barbarossa was giving no little cause
for alarm in the Mediterranean; while Henry on his part had established
close relations with Lübeck and Hamburg, and was fomenting dissensions
in Denmark, the crown of which he was offered but cautiously (p. 312)
declined.[882]
[Footnote 877: _Ibid._, vi., 774. The sense of this
passage is spoilt in _L. and P._ by the comma being
placed after "better" instead of after "is".]
[Footnote 878: Control over England was the great
objective of Habsburg policy. In 1513 Margaret of
Savoy was pressing Henry to have the succession
settled on his sister Mary, then betrothed to
Charles himself (_ibid._, i., 4833).]
[Footnote 879: _L. and P._, vii., 229. All that
Charles thought practicable was to "embarrass Henry
in his own kingdom, and to execute what the Emperor
wrote to the Irish chiefs" (_cf._ vii., 342, 353).]
[Footnote 880: _Ibid._, vi., 351. Charles's conduct
is a striking vindication of Wolsey's foresight in
1528, when he told Campeggio that the Emperor would
not wage war over the divorce of Catherine, and
said there would be a thousand ways of keeping on
good terms with him (Ehses, _Römische Dokumente_,
p. 69; _L. and P._, iv., 4881). Dr. Gairdner thinks
Wolsey was insincere in this remark (_English Hist.
Rev._, xii., 242), but he seems to have gauged
Charles V.'s character and embarrassments
accurately.]
[Footnote 881: _L. and P._, vi., 863. Her departure
would have prejudiced Mary's claim to the throne,
but Charles's advice was particularly callous in
view of the reports which Chapuys was sending
Charles of her treatment.]
[Footnote 882: _L. and P._, vii., 737, 871, 957-58,
and vol. viii., _passim_; _cf._ C.F. Wurm, _Die
politischen Beziehungen Heinrichs VIII. zu Mercus
Meyer und Jürgen Wullenwever_, Hamburg, 1852.]
This incurable jealousy between Francis and Charles made the French
King loth to weaken his friendship with Henry. The English King was
careful to impress upon the French ambassador that he could, in the
last resort, make his peace with Charles by taking back Catherine and
by restoring Mary to her place in the line of succession.[883] Francis
had too poignant a recollection of the results of the union between
Henry and Charles from 1521 to 1525 ever to risk its renewal. The age
of the crusades and chivalry was gone; commercial and national rivalries
were as potent in the sixteenth century as they are to-day. Then, as
in subsequent times, mutual suspicions made impossible an effective
concert of Europe against the Turk. The fall of Rhodes and the death
of one of Charles's brothers-in-law at Mohacz and the expulsion of
another from the throne of Denmark had never been avenged, and, in
1534, the Emperor was compelled to evacuate Coron.[884] If Europe
could not combine against the common enemy of the Faith, was it likely
to combine against one who, in spite of all his enormities, was still
an orthodox Christian? And, without a combination of princes to
execute them, papal censures, excommunications, interdicts, and all
the spiritual paraphernalia, served only to probe the hollowness of
papal pretensions, and to demonstrate the deafness of Europe to the
calls of religious enthusiasm. In Spain, at least, it might have been
thought that every sword would leap from its scabbard at a summons (p. 313)
from Charles on behalf of the Spanish Queen. "Henry," wrote Chapuys,
"has always fortified himself by the consent of Parliament."[885] It
would be well, he thought, if Charles would follow suit, and induce
the Cortes of Aragon and Castile, "or at least the grandees," to offer
their persons and goods in Catherine's cause. Such an offer, if
published in England, "will be of inestimable service". But here comes
the proof of Charles's pitiful impotence; in order to obtain this
public offer, the Emperor was "to give them privately an exemption
from such offer and promise of persons and goods". It was to be one
more pretence like the others, and unfortunately for the Pope and for
the Emperor, Henry had an inconvenient habit of piercing disguises.
[Footnote 883: _L. and P._, vi., 1572.]
[Footnote 884: _Ibid._, vii., 670.]
[Footnote 885: _L. and P._, vi., 720.]
The strength of Henry's position at home was due to a similar lack of
unity among his domestic enemies. If the English people had wished to
depose him, they could have effected their object without much
difficulty. In estimating the chances of a possible invasion, it was
pointed out how entirely dependent Henry was upon his people: he had
only one castle in London, and only a hundred yeomen of the guard to
defend him.[886] He would, in fact, have been powerless against a
united people or even against a partial revolt, if well organised and
really popular. There was chronic discontent throughout the Tudor
period, but it was sectional. The remnants of the old nobility always
hated Tudor methods of government, and the poorer commons were sullen
at their ill-treatment by the lords of the land; but there was no
concerted basis of action between the two. The dominant class (p. 314)
was commercial, and it had no grievance against Henry, while it feared
alike the lords and the lower orders. In the spoliation of the Church
temporal lords and commercial men, both of whom could profit thereby,
were agreed; and nowhere was there much sympathy with the Church as an
institution apart from its doctrine. Chapuys himself admits that the
act, depriving the clergy of their profits from leases, was passed "to
please the people";[887] and another conservative declared that, if
the Church were deprived of all its temporal goods, many would be glad
and few would bemoan.[888] Sympathy with Catherine and hatred of Anne
were general, but people thought, like Charles, that these were
private griefs, and that public considerations must be taken into
account. Englishmen are at all times reluctant to turn out one
Government until they see at least the possibility of another to take
its place, and the only alternative to Henry VIII. was anarchy. The
opposition could not agree on a policy, and they could not agree on a
leader. There were various grandchildren of Edward IV. and of
Clarence, who might put forward distant claims to the throne; and
there were other candidates in whose multitude lay Henry's safety. It
was quite certain that the pushing of any one of these claimants would
throw the rest on Henry's side. James V., whom at one time Chapuys
favoured, knew that a Scots invasion would unite the whole of England
against him; and Charles was probably wise in rebuking his
ambassador's zeal, and in thinking that any attempt on his own part
would be more disastrous to himself than to Henry.[889] For all (p. 315)
this, the English King was, as Chapuys remarks, keeping a very
watchful eye on the countenance of his people,[890] seeing how far he
could go and where he must stop, and neglecting no precaution for the
peace and security of himself and his kingdom. Acts were passed to
strengthen the navy, improvements in arms and armament were being
continually tested, and the fortifications at Calais, on the Scots
Borders and elsewhere were strengthened. Wales was reduced to law and
order, and, through the intermediation of Francis, a satisfactory
peace was made with Scotland.[891]
[Footnote 886: _Ibid._, vi., App. 7.]
[Footnote 887: _L. and P._, vii., 114.]
[Footnote 888: _Ibid._, vii., 24.]
[Footnote 889: Chapuys is quite plaintive when he
hints at the advantages which might follow if only
"your Majesty were ever so little angry" with Henry
VIII. (_L. and P._, vii., 114). A few days later he
"apologises for his previous letters advocating
severity" (_ibid._, vii., 171).]
[Footnote 890: _Ibid._, vi., 351.]
[Footnote 891: _Ibid._, vi., 729, 1161. One of
Henry's baits to James V. was a suggestion that he
would get Parliament to entail the succession on
James if his issue by Anne Boleyn failed (_ibid._,
vii., 114).]
* * * * *
Convinced of his security from attack at home and abroad, Henry
proceeded to accomplish what remained for the subjugation of the
Church in England and the final breach with Rome. Clement had no
sooner excommunicated Henry than he began to repent; he was much more
alarmed than the English King at the probable effects of his sentence.
Henry at once recalled his ambassadors from Rome, and drew up an
appeal to a General Council.[892] The Pope feared he would lose
England for ever. Even the Imperialists proved but Job's comforters,
and told him that, after all, it was only "an unprofitable (p. 316)
island,"[893] the loss of which was not to be compared with the
renewed devotion of Spain and the Emperor's other dominions; possibly
they assured him that there would never again be a sack of Rome.
Clement delayed for a time the publication of the sentence against
Henry, and in November he went to his interview with Francis I. at
Marseilles.[894] While he was there, Bonner intimated to him Henry's
appeal to a General Council. Clement angrily rejected the appeal as
frivolous, and Francis regarded this defiance of the Pope as an
affront to himself in the person of his guest, and as the ruin of his
attempts to reconcile the two parties. "Ye have clearly marred all,"
he said to Gardiner; "as fast as I study to win the Pope, you study to
lose him,"[895] and he declared that, had he known of the intimation
beforehand, it should never have been made. Henry, however, had no
desire that the Pope should be won.[896] He was, he told the French
ambassador, determined to separate from Rome; "he will not, in
consequence of this, be less Christian, but more so, for in everything
and in every place he desires to cause Jesus Christ to be recognised,
who alone is the patron of Christians; and he will cause the Word to
be preached, and not the canons and decrees of the Pope."[897]
[Footnote 892: _Ibid._, vi., 721, 979, 980, 998.]
[Footnote 893: _L. and P._, vi., 997.]
[Footnote 894: He is said, while there, to have
privately admitted to Francis that the dispensation
of Julius II. was invalid (_ibid._, vii., 1348,
App. 8).]
[Footnote 895: _Ibid._, vi., 1425, 1426, 1427.]
[Footnote 896: On his side he was angry with
Francis for telling the Pope that Henry would side
against the Lutherans; he was afraid it might spoil
his practices with them (_ibid._, vi., 614, 707);
the Lübeckers had already suggested to Henry VIII.
that he should seize the disputed throne of Denmark
(_ibid._, vi., 428; _cf._ the present writer in
_Cambridge Modern History_, ii., 229).]
[Footnote 897: _L. and P._, vi., 1435, 1479.]
Parliament was to meet to effect this purpose in January, 1534, (p. 317)
and during the previous autumn there are the first indications,
traceable to Cromwell's hand, of an attempt to pack it. He drew up a
memorandum of such seats as were vacant from death or from other
causes; most of the new members appear to have been freely elected,
but four vacancies were filled by "the King's pleasure."[898] More
extensive and less doubtful was the royal interference in the election
of abbots. Many abbeys fell vacant in 1533, and in every case
commissioners were sent down to secure the election of the King's
nominee; in many others, abbots were induced to resign, and fresh (p. 318)
ones put in their place.[899] It is not clear that the main object was
to pack the clerical representation in the House of Lords, because
only a few of these abbots had seats there, the abbots gave much less
trouble than the bishops in Parliament, and Convocation, where they
largely outnumbered the bishops, was much more amenable than the House
of Peers, where the bishops' votes preponderated. It is more probable
that the end in view was already the dissolution of the monasteries by
means of surrender. Cromwell, who was now said to "rule everything,"[900]
was boasting that he would make his King the richest monarch in
Christendom, and his methods may be guessed from his praise of the
Sultan as a model to other princes for the authority he wielded over
his subjects.[901] Henry, however, was fortunate in 1533, even in the
matter of episcopal representation. He had, since the fall of Wolsey,
had occasion to fill up the Sees of York, Winchester, London, Durham
and Canterbury; and in this year five more became vacant: Bangor, Ely,
Coventry and Lichfield by death, and Salisbury and Worcester through
the deprivation by Act of Parliament of their foreign and absentee
pastors, Campeggio and Ghinucci.[902] Of the other bishops, Clerk of
Bath and Wells, and Longland of Lincoln, had been active in the
divorce, which, indeed, Longland, the King's confessor, was said to
have originally suggested about the year 1523; the Bishops of Norwich
and of Chichester were both over ninety years of age.[903] (p. 319)
Llandaff was Catherine's confessor, a Spaniard who could not speak a
word of English. On the whole bench there was no one but Fisher of
Rochester who had the will or the courage to make any effective stand
on behalf of the Church's liberty.
[Footnote 898: _L. and P._, vi., 1382; vii., 56. A
whole essay might be written on this latter brief
document; it is not, what it purports to be, a list
of knights of the shires who had died since the
beginning of Parliament, for the names are those of
living men. Against most of the constituencies two
or three names are placed; Dr. Gairdner suggests
that these are the possible candidates suggested by
Cromwell and to be nominated by the King. But why
is "the King's pleasure" placed opposite only three
vacancies, if the whole twenty-eight were to be
filled on his nomination? The names are probably
those of influential magnates in the neighbourhood
who would naturally have the chief voice in the
election; and thus they would correspond with the
vacancies, _e.g._, Hastings, opposite which is
placed "Not for the Warden of the Cinque Ports,"
and Southwark, for which there is a similar note
for the Duke of Suffolk. It is obvious that the
King could not fill up all the vacancies by
nomination; for opposite Worcester town, where
_both_ members, Dee and Brenning, had died, is
noted, "the King to name _one_". It is curious to
find "the King's pleasure" after Winchester city,
as that was one of the constituencies for which
Gardiner as bishop afterwards said he was wont to
nominate burgesses (Foxe, ed. Townsend, vi., 54).
It must also be remembered that these were
bye-elections and possibly a novelty. In 1536 the
rebels demand that "if a knight or burgess died
during Parliament his room should continue void to
the end of the same" (_L. and P._, xi., 1182
[17]). In the seventeenth century
supplementary members were chosen for the Long
Parliament to fill possible vacancies; there were
no bye-elections.]
[Footnote 899: _L. and P._, vi., 716, 816, 847,
1007, 1056, 1057, 1109 (where by the Bishopric of
"Chester" is meant Coventry and Lichfield, and not
Chichester, as suggested by the editor; the See of
Coventry and Lichfield was often called Chester
before the creation of the latter see), 1239, 1304,
1376, 1408, 1513; vii., 108, 257, 297, 344, 376.]
[Footnote 900: _Ibid._, vi., 1445.]
[Footnote 901: _Ibid._, vii., 1554.]
[Footnote 902: _Ibid._, vii., 48, 54, 634.]
[Footnote 903: _L. and P._, vii., 171.]
Before Parliament met Francis sent Du Bellay, Bishop of Paris, to
London to make one last effort to keep the peace between England and
Rome. Du Bellay could get no concessions of any value from Henry. All
the King would promise was that, if Clement would before Easter
declare his marriage with Catherine null and that with Anne valid, he
would not complete the extirpation of the papal authority.[904] Little
enough of that remained, and Henry himself had probably no expectation
and no wish that his terms should be accepted. Long before Du Bellay
had reached Rome, Parliament was discussing measures designed to
effect the final severance. Opposition was of the feeblest character
alike in Convocation and in both Houses of Parliament. Chapuys himself
gloomily prophesied that there would be no difficulty in getting the
principal measures, abolishing the Pope's authority and arranging for
the election of bishops, through the House of Lords.[905] The second
Act of Appeals embodied the concessions made by Convocation in 1532
and rejected that year in the House of Lords. Convocation was neither
to meet nor to legislate without the King's assent; Henry might
appoint a royal commission to reform the canon law;[906] appeals were
to be permitted to Chancery from the Archbishop's Court;[907] (p. 320)
abbeys and other religious houses, which had been exempt from
episcopal authority, were placed immediately under the jurisdiction of
Chancery. A fresh Act of Annates defined more precisely the new method
of electing bishops, and provided that, if the Chapter did not elect
the royal nominee within twelve days, the King might appoint him by
letters patent. A third act forbade the payment of Peter-pence and
other impositions to the Court of Rome, and handed over the business
of dispensations and licences to the Archbishop of Canterbury; at the
same time it declared that neither King nor realm meant to vary from
the articles of the Catholic Faith of Christendom.
[Footnote 904: _Ibid._, vii., App. 13.]
[Footnote 905: _Ibid._, vii., 171; _cf._ XII., ii.,
952.]
[Footnote 906: This commission was not appointed
till 1551: see the present writer's _Cranmer_, pp.
280-4.]
[Footnote 907: 25 Henry VIII., c. 19. The first
suggestion appears to have been "to give the
Archbishop of Canterbury the seal of Chancery, and
pass bulls, dispensations and other provisions
under it" (_L. and P._, vii., 14; _cf._ vii., 57);
his title was changed from _Apostolicæ Sedis
legatus_ to _Metropolitanus_ (_ibid._, vii.,
1555).]
Another act provided that charges of heresy must be supported by two
lay witnesses, and that indictments for that offence could only be made
by lay authorities. This, like the rest of Henry's anti-ecclesiastical
legislation, was based on popular clamour. On the 5th of March the
whole House of Commons, with the Speaker at their head, had waited on
the King at York Place and expatiated for three hours on the
oppressiveness of clerical jurisdiction. At length it was agreed that
eight temporal peers, eight representatives of the Lower House and
sixteen bishops "should discuss the matter and the King be umpire"[908]--a
repetition of the plan of 1529 and a very exact reflection of Henry's
methods and of the Church-and-State situation during the Reformation
Parliament.
[Footnote 908: _L. and P._, vii., 304, 393, 399;
the provision about two witnesses was in 1547
extended to treason.]
The final act of the session, which ended on 30th March, was a (p. 321)
constitutional innovation of the utmost importance. From the earliest
ages the succession to the crown had in theory been determined, first
by election, and then by hereditary right. In practice it had often
been decided by the barbarous arbitrament of war. For right is vague,
it may be disputed, and there was endless variety of opinion as to the
proper claimant to the throne if Henry should die. So vague right was
to be replaced by definite law, which could not be disputed, but
which, unlike right, could easily be changed. The succession was no
longer to be regulated by an unalterable principle, but by the popular
(or royal) will expressed in Acts of Parliament.[909] The first of a
long series of Acts of Succession was now passed to vest the succession
to the crown in the heirs of the King by Anne Boleyn; clauses were
added declaring that persons who impugned that marriage by writing,
printing, or other deed were guilty of treason, and those who impugned
it by words, of misprision. The Government proposal that both classes
of offenders should be held guilty of treason was modified by the
House of Commons.[910]
[Footnote 909: The succession to the crown was one
of the last matters affected by the process of
substituting written law for unwritten right which
began with the laws of Ethelbert of Kent. There had
of course been _ex post facto_ acts recognising
that the crown was vested in the successful
competitor.]
[Footnote 910: _L. and P._, vii., 51.]
On 23rd March, a week before the prorogation of Parliament, and seven
years after the divorce case had first begun, Clement gave sentence at
Rome pronouncing valid the marriage between Catherine and Henry.[911]
The decision produced not a ripple on the surface of English affairs;
Henry, writes Chapuys, took no account of it and was making as (p. 322)
good cheer as ever.[912] There was no reason why he should not.
While the imperialist mob at Rome after its kind paraded the streets
in crowds, shouting "Imperio et Espagne," and firing _feux-de-joie_
over the news, the imperialist agent was writing to Charles that the
judgment would not be of much profit, except for the Emperor's honour
and the Queen's justification, and was congratulating his master that
he was not bound to execute the sentence.[913] Flemings were tearing
down the papal censures from the doors of their churches,[914] and
Charles was as convinced as ever of the necessity of Henry's
friendship. He proposed to the Pope that some one should be sent from
Rome to join Chapuys in "trying to move the King from his error"; and
Clement could only reply that "he thought the embassy would have no
effect on the King, but that nothing would be lost by it, and it would
be a good compliment!"[915] Henry, however was less likely to be
influenced by compliments, good or bad, than by the circumstance that
neither Pope nor Emperor was in a position to employ any ruder
persuasive. There was none so poor as to reverence a Pope, and, when
Clement died six months later, the Roman populace broke into the
chamber where he lay and stabbed his corpse; they were with difficulty
prevented from dragging it in degradation through the streets.[916]
Such was the respect paid to the Supreme Pontiff in the Holy City, and
deference to his sentence was not to be expected in more distant
parts.
[Footnote 911: _Ibid._, vii., 362.]
[Footnote 912: _L. and P._, vii., 469.]
[Footnote 913: _Ibid._, vii., 368.]
[Footnote 914: _Ibid._, vii., 184.]
[Footnote 915: _Ibid._, vii., 804.]
[Footnote 916: _Ibid._, vii., 1262.]
Henry's political education was now complete; the events of the last
five years had proved to him the truth of the assertion, with (p. 323)
which he had started, that the Pope might do what he liked at Rome,
but that he also could do what he liked in England, so long as he
avoided the active hostility of the majority of his lay subjects. The
Church had, by its actions, shown him that it was powerless; the Pope
had proved the impotence of his spiritual weapons; and the Emperor had
admitted that he was both unable and unwilling to interfere. Henry had
realised the extent of his power, and the opening of his eyes had an
evil effect upon his character. Nothing makes men or Governments so
careless or so arbitrary as the knowledge that there will be no
effective opposition to their desires. Henry, at least, never grew
careless; his watchful eye was always wide open. His ear was always
strained to catch the faintest rumbling of a coming storm, and his
subtle intellect was ever on the alert to take advantage of every turn
in the diplomatic game. He was always efficient, and he took good care
that his ministers should be so as well. But he grew very arbitrary;
the knowledge that he could do so much became with him an irresistible
reason for doing it. Despotic power is twice cursed; it debases the
ruler and degrades the subject; and Henry's progress to despotism may
be connected with the rise of Thomas Cromwell, who looked to the Great
Turk as a model for Christian princes.[917] Cromwell became secretary
in May, 1534; in that month Henry's security was enhanced by the (p. 324)
definitive peace with Scotland,[918] and he set to work to enforce
his authority with the weapons which Parliament had placed in his
hands. Elizabeth Barton, and her accomplices, two Friars Observants,
two monks, and one secular priest, all attainted of treason by Act of
Parliament, were sent to the block.[919] Commissioners were sent
round, as Parliament had ordained, to enforce the oath of succession
throughout the land.[920] A general refusal would have stopped Henry's
career, but the general consent left Henry free to deal as he liked
with the exceptions. Fisher and More were sent to the Tower. They were
willing to swear to the succession, regarding that as a matter within
the competence of Parliament, but they refused to take the oath
required by the commissioners;[921] it contained, they alleged, a
repudiation of the Pope not justified by the terms of the statute. Two
cartloads of friars followed them to the Tower in June, and the Order
of Observants, in whose church at Greenwich Henry had been baptised
and married, and of whom in his earlier years he had written in terms
of warm admiration, was suppressed altogether.[922]
[Footnote 917: "The Lord Cromwell," says Bishop
Gardiner, "had once put in the King our late
sovereign lord's head, to take upon him to have his
will and pleasure regarded for a law; for that, he
said, was to be a very King," and he quoted the
_quod principi placuit_ of Roman civil law.
Gardiner replied to the King that "to make the laws
his will was more sure and quiet" and "agreeable
with the nature of your people". Henry preferred
Gardiner's advice (Foxe, ed. Townsend, vi., 46).]
[Footnote 918: _L. and P._, vii., 483, 647.]
[Footnote 919: _Ibid._, vii., 522.]
[Footnote 920: _Ibid._, vii., 665.]
[Footnote 921: _Ibid._, vii., 499.]
[Footnote 922: _Ibid._, vii., 841, 856. The order
had been particularly active in opposition to the
divorce (_ibid._, iv., 6156; v., 266.)]
In November Parliament[923] reinforced the Act of Succession by laying
down the precise terms of the oath, and providing that a certificate
of refusal signed by two commissioners was as effective as the
indictment of twelve jurors. Other acts empowered the King to repeal
by royal proclamation certain statutes regulating imports and exports.
The first-fruits and tenths, of which the Pope had been already (p. 325)
deprived, were now conferred on the King as a fitting ecclesiastical
endowment for the Supreme Head of the Church. That title, granted him
four years before by both Convocations, was confirmed by Act of
Parliament; its object was to enable the King as Supreme Head to
effect the "increase of virtue in Christ's Religion within this Realm
of England, and to repress and extirp all Errors, Heresies and other
Enormities, and Abuses heretofore used in the same". The Defender of
the Faith was to be armed with more than a delegate power; he was to
be supreme in himself, the champion not of the Faith of any one else,
but of his own; and the qualifying clause, "as far as the law of
Christ allows," was omitted. His orthodoxy must be above suspicion, or
at least beyond the reach of open cavil in England. So new treasons
were enacted, and any one who called the King a heretic, schismatic,
tyrant, infidel, or usurper, was rendered liable to the heaviest
penalty which the law could inflict. As an earnest of the royal and
parliamentary desire for an increase of virtue in religion, an act was
concurrently passed providing for the creation of a number of
suffragan bishops.[924]
[Footnote 923: _Ibid._, vii., 1377.]
[Footnote 924: These were not actually created till
1540; the way in which Henry VIII. sought statutory
authority for every conceivable thing is very
extraordinary. There seems no reason why he could
not have created these bishoprics without
parliamentary authority.]
Henry was now Pope in England with powers no Pope had possessed.[925]
The Reformation is variously regarded as the liberation of the (p. 326)
English Church from the Roman yoke it had long impatiently borne,
as its subjection to an Erastian yoke which it was henceforth, with
more or less patience, long to bear, or as a comparatively unimportant
assertion of a supremacy which Kings of England had always enjoyed.
The Church is the same Church, we are told, before and after the
change; if anything, it was Protestant before the Reformation, and
Catholic after. It is, of course, the same Church. A man may be
described as the same man before and after death, and the business of
a coroner's jury is to establish the identity; but it does not ignore
the vital difference. Even Saul and Paul were the same man. And the
identity of the Church before and after the legislation of Henry VIII.
covers a considerable number of not unimportant changes. It does not,
however, seem strictly accurate to say that Henry either liberated or
enslaved the Church. Rather, he substituted one form of despotism for
another, a sole for a dual control; the change, complained a reformer,
was merely a _translatio imperii_.[926] The democratic movement within
the Church had died away, like the democratic movements in national
and municipal politics, before the end of the fifteenth century. It
was never merry with the Church,[927] complained a Catholic in 1533,
since the time when bishops were wont to be chosen by the Holy Ghost
and by their Chapters.
[Footnote 925: With limitations, of course. Henry's
was only a _potestas jurisdictionis_ not a
_potestas ordinis_ (see Makower, _Const. Hist. of
the Church of England_, and the present writer's
_Cranmer_, pp. 83, 84, 95, 232, 233). Cranmer
acknowledged in the King also a _potestatem
ordinis_, just as Cromwell would have made him the
sole legislator in temporal affairs; Henry's
unrivalled capacity for judging what he could and
could not do saved him from adopting either
suggestion.]
[Footnote 926: _L. and P._, XIV., ii., p. 141.]
[Footnote 927: _Ibid._, vi., 797 [2];
a Venetian declared that Huguenotism was
"due to the abolition of the election of the
clergy" (Armstrong, _Wars of Religion_, p. 11).]
Since then the Church had been governed by a partnership between King
and Pope, without much regard for the votes of the shareholders. It
was not Henry who first deprived them of influence; neither did (p. 327)
he restore it. What he did was to eject his foreign partner,
appropriate his share of the profits, and put his part of the business
into the hands of a manager. First-fruits and tenths were described as
an intolerable burden; but they were not abolished; they were merely
transferred from the Pope to the King. Bishops became royal nominees,
pure and simple, instead of the joint nominees of King and Pope. The
supreme appellate jurisdiction in ecclesiastical causes was taken away
from Rome, but it was not granted the English Church to which in truth
it had never belonged.[928] Chancery, and not the Archbishop's Court,
was made the final resort for ecclesiastical appeals. The authority,
divided erstwhile between two, was concentrated in the hands of one;
and that one was thus placed in a far different position from that
which either had held before.
[Footnote 928: For one year, indeed, Cranmer
remained _legatus natus_, and by a strange anomaly
exercised a jurisdiction the source of which had
been cut off. Stokesley objected to Cranmer's use
of that style in order to escape a visitation of
his see, and Gardiner thought it an infringement of
the royal prerogative. It was abolished in the
following year.]
The change was analogous to that in Republican Rome from two consuls
to one dictator. In both cases the dictatorship was due to exceptional
circumstances. There had long been a demand for reform in the Church
in England as well as elsewhere, but the Church was powerless to
reform itself. The dual control was in effect, as dual controls often
are, a practical anarchy. The condition of the Church before the
Reformation may be compared with that of France before the Revolution.
In purely spiritual matters the Pope was supreme: the conciliar
movement of the fifteenth century had failed. The Pope had (p. 328)
gathered all powers to himself, in much the same way as the French
monarch in the eighteenth century had done; and the result was the
same, a formal despotism and a real anarchy. Pope and Monarch were
crushed by the weight of their own authority; they could not reform,
even when they wanted to. From 1500 to 1530 almost every scheme,
peaceful or bellicose, started in Europe was based on the plea that
its ultimate aim was the reform of the Church; and so it would have
continued, _vox et præterea nihil_, had not the Church been galvanised
into action by the loss of half its inheritance.
In England the change from a dual to a sole control at once made that
control effective, and reform became possible. But it was a reform
imposed on the Church from without and by means of the exceptional
powers bestowed on the Supreme Head. Hence the burden of modern
clerical criticism of the Reformation. Objection is raised not so much
to the things that were done, as to the means by which they were
brought to pass, to the fact that the Church was forcibly reformed by
the State, and not freed from the trammels of Rome, and then left to
work out its own salvation. But such a solution occurred to few at
that time; the best and the worst of Henry's opponents opposed him on
the ground that he was divorcing the Church in England from the Church
universal. Their objection was to what was done more than to the way
in which it was done; and Sir Thomas More would have fought the
Reformation quite as strenuously had it been effected by the
Convocations of Canterbury and York. On the other side there was
equally little thought of a Reformation by clerical hands. Henry (p. 329)
and Cromwell carried on and developed the tradition of the Emperor
Frederick II. and Peter de Vinea,[929] of Philippe le Bel and
Pierre Dubois, of Lewis the Bavarian and Marsiglio of Padua[930] who
maintained the supremacy of the temporal over the spiritual power and
asserted that the clergy wielded no jurisdiction and only bore the
keys of heaven in the capacity of turnkeys.[931] It was a question of
the national State against the universal Church. The idea of a
National Church was a later development, the result and not the cause
of the Reformation.
[Footnote 929: The comparison has been drawn by
Huillard-Bréholles in his _Vie et Correspondence de
Pierre de la Vigne_, Paris, 1865.]
[Footnote 930: Marsiglio's _Defensor Pacis_ was a
favourite book with Cromwell who lent a printer £20
to bring out an English edition of it in 1535 (see
the present writer in _D.N.B., s.v._ Marshall,
William). Marshall distributed twenty-four copies
among the monks of Charterhouse to show them how
the Christian commonwealth had been "unjustly
molested, vexed and troubled by the spiritual and
ecclesiastical tyrant". See also Maitland, _English
Law and the Renaissance_, pp. 14, 60, 61.]
[Footnote 931: _Defensor Pacis_, ii., 6.]
Henry's dictatorship was also temporary in character. His supremacy
over the Church was royal, and not parliamentary. It was he, and not
Parliament, who had been invested with a semi-ecclesiastical nature.
In one capacity he was head of the State, in another, head of the
Church. Parliament and Convocation were co-ordinate one with another,
and subordinate both to the King. The Tudors, and especially Elizabeth,
vehemently denied to their Parliaments any share in their ecclesiastical
powers. Their supremacy over the Church was their own, and, as a
really effective control, it died with them. As the authority of the
Crown declined, its secular powers were seized by Parliament; (p. 330)
its ecclesiastical powers fell into abeyance between Parliament and
Convocation. Neither has been able to vindicate an exclusive claim to
the inheritance; and the result of this dual claim to control has been
a state of helplessness, similar in some respects to that from which
the Church was rescued by the violent methods of Henry VIII.[932]
[Footnote 932: A much neglected but very important
constitutional question is whether the King _quâ_
Supreme Head of the Church was limited by the same
statute and common law restrictions as he was _quâ_
temporal sovereign. Gardiner raised the question in
a most interesting letter to Protector Somerset in
1547 (Foxe, vi., 42). It had been provided, as Lord
Chancellor Audley told Gardiner, that no spiritual
law and no exercise of the royal supremacy should
abate the common law or Acts of Parliament; but
within the ecclesiastical sphere there were no
limits on the King's authority. The Popes had not
been fettered, _habent omnia jura in suo scrinio_;
and their jurisdiction in England had been
transferred whole and entire to the King. Henry was
in fact an absolute monarch in the Church, a
constitutional monarch in the State; he could
reform the Church by injunction when he could not
reform the State by proclamation. There was
naturally a tendency to confuse the two capacities
not merely in the King's mind but in his
opponents'; and some of the objections to the
Stuarts' dispensing practice, which was exercised
chiefly in the ecclesiastical sphere, seem due to
this confusion. Parliament in fact, as soon as the
Tudors were gone, began to apply common law and
statute law limitations to the Crown's
ecclesiastical prerogative.]
CHAPTER XIII. (p. 331)
THE CRISIS.
Henry's title as Supreme Head of the Church was incorporated in the
royal style by letters patent of 15th January, 1535,[933] and that
year was mainly employed in compelling its recognition by all sorts
and conditions of men. In April, Houghton, the Prior of the Charterhouse,
a monk of Sion, and the Vicar of Isleworth, were the first victims
offered to the Supreme Head. But the machinery supplied by Parliament
was barely sufficient to bring the penalties of the statute to bear on
the two most illustrious of Henry's opponents, Fisher and More. Both
had been attainted of misprision of treason by Acts of Parliament in
the previous autumn; but those penalties extended no further than to
lifelong imprisonment and forfeiture of goods. Their lives could only
be exacted by proving that they had maliciously attempted to deprive
Henry of his title of Supreme Head;[934] their opportunities in the
Tower for compassing that end were limited; and it is possible (p. 332)
that they would not have been further molested, but for the
thoughtlessness of Clement's successor, Paul III. Impotent to effect
anything against the King, the Pope did his best to sting Henry to
fury by creating Fisher a cardinal on 20th May. He afterwards
explained that he meant no harm, but the harm was done, and it
involved Fisher's friend and ally, Sir Thomas More. Henry declared
that he would send the new cardinal's head to Rome for the hat; and he
immediately despatched commissioners to the Tower to inform Fisher and
More that, unless they acknowledged the royal supremacy, they would be
put to death as traitors.[935] Fisher apparently denied the King's
supremacy, More refused to answer; he was, however, entrapped during a
conversation with the Solicitor-General, Rich, into an admission that
Englishmen could not be bound to acknowledge a supremacy over the
Church in which other countries did not concur. In neither case was it
clear that they came within the clutches of the law. Fisher, indeed,
had really been guilty of treason. More than once he had urged Chapuys
to press upon Charles the invasion of England, a fact unknown,
perhaps, to the English Government.[936] The evidence it had (p. 333)
collected was, however, considered sufficient by the juries which
tried the prisoners; Fisher went to the scaffold on 22nd June, and
More on 6th July. Condemned justly or not by the law, both sought
their death in a quarrel which is as old as the hills and will last
till the crack of doom. Where shall we place the limits of conscience,
and where those of the national will? Is conscience a luxury which
only a king may enjoy in peace? Fisher and More refused to accommodate
theirs to Acts of Parliament, but neither believed conscience to be
the supreme tribunal.[937] More admitted that in temporal matters his
conscience was bound by the laws of England; in spiritual matters the
conscience of all was bound by the will of Christendom; and on that
ground both Fisher and he rejected the plea of conscience when urged
by heretics condemned to the flames. The dispute, indeed, passes the
wit of man to decide. If conscience must reign supreme, all government
is a _pis aller_, and in anarchy the true millennium must be found. If
conscience is deposed, man sinks to the level of the lower creation.
Human society can only be based on compromise, and compromise itself
is a matter of conscience. Fisher and More protested by their death
against a principle which they had practised in life; both they and
the heretics whom they persecuted proclaimed, as Antigone had done
thousands of years before,[938] that they could not obey laws (p. 334)
which they could not believe God had made.
[Footnote 933: _L. and P._, viii., 52; Rymer, xiv.,
549.]
[Footnote 934: The general idea that Fisher and
More were executed for refusing to take an oath
prescribed in the Act of Supremacy is technically
inaccurate. No oath is there prescribed, and not
till 1536 was it made high treason to refuse to
take the oath of supremacy; even then the oath was
to be administered only to civil and ecclesiastical
officers. The Act under which they were executed
was 26 Henry VIII., c. 13, and the common mistake
arises from a confusion between the oath to the
succession and the oath of supremacy.]
[Footnote 935: _L. and P._, viii., 876.]
[Footnote 936: _L. and P._, iv., 6199; vi., 1164,
1249. He told Chapuys that if Charles invaded
England he would be doing "a work as agreeable to
God as going against the Turk," and suggested that
the Emperor should make use of Reginald Pole "to
whom, according to many, the kingdom would belong"
(Chapuys to Charles, 27th September, 1533). Again,
says Chapuys, "the holy Bishop of Rochester would
like you to take active measures immediately, as I
wrote in my last; which advice he has sent to me
again lately to repeat" (10th October, 1533). Canon
Whitney, in criticising Froude (_Engl. Hist. Rev._,
xii., 353), asserts that "nothing Chapuys says
justifies the charge against Fisher!"]
[Footnote 937: This statement has been denounced as
"astounding" in a Roman Catholic periodical; yet if
More believed individual conscience (_i.e._,
private judgment) to be superior to the voice of
the Church, how did he differ from a Protestant?
The statement in the text is merely a paraphrase of
More's own, where he says that men are "not bound
on pain of God's displeasure to change their
conscience for any particular law made anywhere
_except by a general council or a general faith
growing by the working of God universally through
all Christian nations_" (More's _English Works_, p.
1434; _L. and P._, vii., 432).]
[Footnote 938: [Greek: Ou gar ti moi Zeus ên ho
kêruxas tade oud hê xunoikos tôn katô theôn Dikê.]
Sophocles, _Antigone_, 450.]
It was the personal eminence of the victims rather than the merits of
their case that made Europe thrill with horror at the news of their
death; for thousands of others were sacrificing their lives in a
similar cause in most of the countries of Christendom. For the first
and last time in English history a cardinal's head had rolled from an
English scaffold; and Paul III. made an effort to bring into play the
artillery of his temporal powers. As supreme lord over all the princes
of the earth, he arrogated to himself the right to deprive Henry VIII.
of his kingdom; and he sent couriers to the various courts to seek
their co-operation in executing his judgment. But the weapons of
Innocent III. were rusty with age. Francis denounced the Pope's claim
as a most impudent attack on monarchical dignity; and Charles was
engaged in the conquest of Tunis. Thus Henry was able to take a high
tone in reply to the remonstrances addressed to him, and to proceed
undisturbed with the work of enforcing his royal supremacy. The autumn
was occupied mainly by a visitation of the monasteries and of the
universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the schoolmen, Thomas Aquinas,
Duns Scotus and others were deposed from the seat of authority they
had held for so many centuries, and efforts were made to substitute
studies like that of the civil law, more in harmony with the King's
doctrine and with his views of royal authority.
The more boldly Henry defied the Fates, the more he was favoured by
Fortune. "Besides his trust in his subjects," wrote Chapuys in (p. 335)
1534, "he has great hope in the Queen's death;"[939] and the year
1536 was but eight days old when the unhappy Catherine was released
from her trials, resolutely refusing to the last to acknowledge in any
way the invalidity of her marriage with Henry. She had derived some
comfort from the papal sentence in her favour, but that was not
calculated to soften the harshness with which she was treated. Her
pious soul, too, was troubled with the thought that she had been the
occasion, innocent though she was, of the heresies that had arisen in
England, and of the enormities which had been practised against the
Church. Her last days were cheered by a visit from Chapuys,[940] who
went down to Kimbolton on New Year's Day and stayed until the 5th of
January, when the Queen seemed well on the road to recovery. Three
days later she passed away, and on the 29th she was buried with the
state of a princess dowager in the church of the Benedictine abbey at
Peterborough. Her physician told Chapuys that he suspected poison, but
the symptoms are now declared, on high medical authority, to have been
those of cancer of the heart.[941] The suspicion was the natural
result of the circumstance that her death relieved the King of a
pressing anxiety. "God be praised!" he exclaimed, "we are free from
all suspicion of war;"[942] and on the following day he proclaimed his
joy by appearing at a ball, clad in yellow from head to foot.[943] Every
inch a King, Henry VIII. never attained to the stature of a gentleman,
but even Bishop Gardiner wrote that by Queen Catherine's death (p. 336)
"God had given sentence" in the divorce suit between her and the King.[944]
[Footnote 939: _L. and P._, vii., 83.]
[Footnote 940: _Ibid._, x., 28, 59, 60, 141.]
[Footnote 941: Dr. Norman Moore in _Athenæum_,
1885, i., 152, 215, 281.]
[Footnote 942: _L. and P._, x., 51.]
[Footnote 943: _Ibid._ Hall only tells his readers
that Anne Boleyn wore yellow for the mourning
(_Chronicle_, p. 818).]
[Footnote 944: _L. and P._, x., 256.]
A week later, the Reformation Parliament met for its seventh and last
session. It sat from 4th February to 14th April, and in those ten
weeks succeeded in passing no fewer than sixty-two Acts. Some were
local and some were private, but the residue contained not a few of
public importance. The fact that the King obtained at last his Statute
of Uses[945] may indicate that Henry's skill and success had so
impressed Parliament, that it was more willing to acquiesce in his
demands than it had been in its earlier sessions. But, if the drafts
in the Record Office are to be taken as indicating the proposals of
Government, and the Acts themselves are those proposals as modified in
one or other House, Parliament must have been able to enforce views of
its own to a certain extent; for those drafts differ materially from
the Acts as finally passed.[946] Not a few of the bills were welcome,
if unusual, concessions to the clergy. They were relieved from paying
tenths in the year they paid their first-fruits. The payment of
tithes, possibly rendered doubtful in the wreck of canon law, was
enjoined by Act of Parliament. An attempt was made to deal with the
poor, and another, if not to check enclosures, at least to extract
some profit for the King from the process. It was made high treason to
counterfeit the King's sign-manual, privy signet, or privy seal; and
Henry was empowered by Parliament, as he had before been by (p. 337)
Convocation, to appoint a commission to reform the canon law. But the
chief acts of the session were for the dissolution of the lesser
monasteries and for the erection of a Court of Augmentations in order
to deal with the revenues which were thus to accrue to the King.
[Footnote 945: This Act has generally been
considered a failure, but recent research does not
confirm this view (see Joshua Williams, _Principles
of the Law of Real Property_, 18th ed., 1896).]
[Footnote 946: _L. and P._, x., 246.]
The way for this great revolution had been carefully prepared during
the previous autumn and winter. In virtue of his new and effective
supremacy, Henry had ordered a general visitation of the monasteries
throughout the greater part of the kingdom; and the reports of these
visitors were made the basis of parliamentary action. On the face of
them they represent a condition of human depravity which has rarely
been equalled;[947] and the extent to which those reports are worthy
of credit will always remain a point of contention. The visitors
themselves were men of doubtful character; indeed, respectable men
could hardly have been persuaded to do the work. Their methods were
certainly harsh; the object of their mission was to get up a case for
the Crown, and they probably used every means in their power to induce
the monks and the nuns to incriminate themselves. Perhaps, too, an
entirely false impression may be created by the fact that in most
cases only the guilty are mentioned; the innocent are often passed
over in silence, and the proportion between the two is not recorded.
Some of the terms employed in the reports are also open to dispute; it
is possible that in many instances the stigma of unchastity (p. 338)
attached to a nun merely meant that she had been unchaste before
entering religion,[948] and it is known that nunneries were considered
the proper resort for ladies who had not been careful enough of their
honour.
[Footnote 947: See the documents in _L. and P._,
vols. ix., x. The most elaborate criticism of the
Dissolution is contained in Gasquet's _Henry VIII.
and the Monasteries_, 2 vols., 4th ed. 1893; some
additional details and an excellent monastic map
will be found in Gairdner's _Church History_,
1902.]
[Footnote 948: "Religion" of course in the middle
ages and sixteenth century was a term almost
exclusively applied to the monastic system, and the
most ludicrous mistakes are often made from
ignorance of this fact; "religiosi" are sharply
distinguished from "clerici".]
On the other hand, the lax state of monastic morality does not depend
only upon the visitors' reports; apart from satires like those of
Skelton, from ballads and from other mirrors of popular opinion or
prejudice, the correspondence of Henry VIII.'s reign is, from its
commencement, full of references, by bishops and other unimpeachable
witnesses, to the necessity of drastic reform. In 1516, for instance,
Bishop West of Ely visited that house, and found such disorder that he
declared its continuance would have been impossible but for his
visitation.[949] In 1518 the Italian Bishop of Worcester writes from
Rome that he had often been struck by the necessity of reforming the
monasteries.[950] In 1521 Henry VIII., then at the height of his zeal
for the Church, thanks the Bishop of Salisbury for dissolving the
nunnery of Bromehall because of the "enormities" practised there.[951]
Wolsey felt that the time for reform had passed, and began the process
of suppression, with a view to increasing the number of cathedrals and
devoting other proceeds to educational endowments. Friar Peto,
afterwards a cardinal, who had fled abroad to escape Henry's anger for
his bold denunciation of the divorce, and who had no possible (p. 339)
motive for cloaking his conscientious opinion, admitted that there
were grave abuses, and approved of the dissolution of monasteries, if
their endowments were used for proper ends.[952] There is no need to
multiply instances, because a commission of cardinals, appointed by
Paul III. himself, reported in 1537 that scandals were frequent in
religious houses.[953] The reports of the visitors, too, can hardly be
entirely false, though they may not be entirely true. The charges they
make are not vague, but very precise. They specify names of the
offenders, and the nature of their offences; and an air of verisimilitude,
if nothing more, is imparted to the condemnations they pronounce
against the many, by the commendations they bestow on the few.[954]
[Footnote 949: _L. and P._, ii., 1733.]
[Footnote 950: _Ibid._, ii., 4399.]
[Footnote 951: _Ibid._, iii., 1863; see also iii.,
77, 533, 567, 569, 600, 693, 1690; iv. 4900.]
[Footnote 952: _D.N.B._, xlv., 89. Chapuys had
stated in 1532 that the Cistercian monasteries were
greatly in need of dissolution (_L. and P._, iii.,
361).]
[Footnote 953: _Cambridge Modern History_, ii.,
643.]
[Footnote 954: Nor, of course, were the symptoms
peculiar to England; it is absurd to attribute the
dissolution of the monasteries solely to Henry
VIII. and Cromwell, because monasteries were
dissolved in many countries of Europe, Catholic as
well as Protestant. So, too, the charges are not
naturally incredible, because the kind of vice
alleged against the monks has unfortunately been
far from unknown wherever and whenever numbers of
men, young or middle-aged, have lived together in
enforced celibacy.]
Probably the staunchest champion of monasticism would acknowledge that
in the reign of Henry VIII. there was at least a plausible case for
mending monastic morals. But that was not then the desire of the
Government of Henry VIII.; and the case for mending their morals was
tacitly assumed to be the same as a case for ending the monasteries.
It would be unjust to Henry to deny that he had always shown himself
careful of the appearance, at least, of morality in the Church; but
it requires a robust faith in the King's disinterestedness to (p. 340)
believe that dissolution was not the real object of the visitation,
and that it was merely forced upon him by the reports of the visitors.
The moral question afforded a good excuse, but the monasteries fell,
not so much because their morals were lax, as because their position
was weak. Moral laxity contributed no doubt to the general result, but
there were other causes at work. The monasteries themselves had long
been conscious that their possession of wealth was not, in the eyes of
the middle-class laity, justified by the use to which it was put; and,
for some generations at least, they had been seeking to make friends
with Mammon by giving up part of their revenues, in the form of
pensions and corrodies to courtiers, in the hope of being allowed to
retain the remainder.[955] It had also become the custom to entrust
the stewardship of their possessions to secular hands; and, possibly
as a result, the monasteries were soon so deeply in debt to the
neighbouring gentry that their lay creditors saw no hope of recovering
their claims except by extensive foreclosures.[956] There had certainly
been a good deal of private spoliation before the King gave the practice
a national character. The very privileges of the monasteries were now
turned to their ruin. Their immunity from episcopal jurisdiction
deprived them of episcopal aid; their exemption from all authority,
save that of the Pope, left them without support when the papal
jurisdiction was abolished. Monastic orders knew no distinction (p. 341)
of nationality. The national character claimed for the mediæval Church
in England could scarcely cover the monasteries, and no place was
found for them in the Church when it was given a really national garb.
[Footnote 955: See Fortescue, _Governance of
England_, ed. Plummer, cap. xviii., and notes, pp.
337-40.]
[Footnote 956: _E.g._, Christ Church, London, which
surrendered to Henry in 1532, was deeply in debt to
him (_L. and P._, v., 823).]
Their dissolution is probably to be connected with Cromwell's boast
that he would make his king the richest prince in Christendom. That
was not its effect, because Henry was compelled to distribute the greater
part of the spoils among his nobles and gentry. One rash reformer
suggested that monastic lands should be devoted to educational
purposes;[957] had that plan been followed, education in England would
have been more magnificently endowed than in any other country of the
world, and England might have become a democracy in the seventeenth
century. From this point of view Henry spoilt one of the greatest
opportunities in English history; from another, he saved England from
a most serious danger. Had the Crown retained the wealth of the
monasteries, the Stuarts might have made themselves independent of
Parliament. But this service to liberty was not voluntary on Henry's
part. The dissolution of the monasteries was in effect, and probably
in intention, a gigantic bribe to the laity to induce them to
acquiesce in the revolution effected by Henry VIII. When he was gone,
his successors might desire, or fail to prevent, a reaction; something
more permanent than Henry's iron hand was required to support the (p. 342)
fabric he had raised. That support was sought in the wealth of the
Church. The prospect had, from the very opening of the Reformation
Parliament, been dangled before the eyes of the new nobles, the
members of Parliament, the justices of the peace, the rich merchants
who thirsted for lands wherewith to make themselves gentlemen. Chapuys
again and again mentions a scheme for distributing the lands of the
Church among the laity as a project for the ensuing session; but their
time was not yet; not until their work was done were the labourers to
reap their reward.[958] The dissolution of the monasteries harmonised
well with the secular principles of these predominant classes. The
monastic ideal of going out of the world to seek something, which
cannot be valued in terms of pounds, shillings and pence, is abhorrent
to a busy, industrial age; and every principle is hated most at the
time when it most is needed.
[Footnote 957: _The Complaynt of Roderick Mors_
(Early Eng. Text Soc.), pp. 47-52. The author,
Henry Brinkelow (see _D.N.B._, vi., 346), also
suggested that both Houses of Parliament should sit
together as one assembly "for it is not rytches or
autoryte that bringeth wisdome" (_Complaynt_, p.
8). Some of the political literature of the later
part of Henry's reign is curiously modern in its
ideas.]
* * * * *
Intimately associated as they were in their lives, Catherine of Aragon
and Anne Boleyn were not long divided by death; and, piteous as is the
story of the last years of Catherine, it pales before the hideous
tragedy of the ruin of Anne Boleyn. "If I have a son, as I hope shortly,
I know what will become of her," wrote Anne of the Princess Mary.[959]
On 29th January, 1536, the day of her rival's funeral, Anne Boleyn was
prematurely delivered of a dead child, and the result was fatal to
Anne herself. This was not her first miscarriage,[960] and Henry's (p. 343)
old conscience began to work again. In Catherine's case the path of
his conscience was that of a slow and laborious pioneer; now it moved
easily on its royal road to divorce. On 29th January, Chapuys, ignorant
of Anne's miscarriage, was retailing to his master a court rumour that
Henry intended to marry again. The King was reported to have said that
he had been seduced by witchcraft when he married his second queen,
and that the marriage was null for this reason, and because God would
not permit them to have male issue.[961] There was no peace for her
who supplanted her mistress. Within six months of her marriage Henry's
roving fancy had given her cause for jealousy, and, when she complained,
he is said to have brutally told her she must put up with it as her
betters had done before.[962] These disagreements, however, were
described by Chapuys as mere lovers' quarrels, and they were generally
followed by reconciliations, after which Anne's influence seemed (p. 344)
as secure as ever. But by January, 1536, the imperial ambassador and
others were counting on a fresh divorce. The rumour grew as spring
advanced, when suddenly, on 2nd May, Anne was arrested and sent to the
Tower. She was accused of incest with her brother, Lord Rochford, and
of less criminal intercourse with Sir Francis Weston, Henry Norris,
William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton. All were condemned by juries to
death for high treason on 12th May. Three days later Anne herself was
put on her trial by a panel of twenty-six peers, over which her uncle,
the Duke of Norfolk, presided.[963] They returned a unanimous verdict
of guilty, and, on the 19th, the Queen's head was struck off with the
sword of an executioner brought for the purpose from St. Omer.[964]
[Footnote 958: "The King," says Chapuys in
September, 1534, "will distribute among the
gentlemen of the kingdom the greater part of the
ecclesiastical revenues to gain their good-will"
(_L. and P._, vii., 1141).]
[Footnote 959: _Ibid._, x., 307.]
[Footnote 960: Anne was pregnant in Feb., 1534,
when Henry told Chapuys he thought he should have a
son soon (_L. and P._, vii., 232; _cf._, vii.,
958).]
[Footnote 961: _Ibid._, x., 199.]
[Footnote 962: _Ibid._, vi., 1054, 1069. As early
as April, 1531, Chapuys reports that Anne "was
becoming more arrogant every day, using words and
authority towards the King of which he has several
times complained to the Duke of Norfolk, saying
that she was not like the Queen [Catherine] who
never in her life used ill words to him" (_ibid._,
v., 216). In Sept., 1534, Henry was reported to be
in love with another lady (_ibid._, vii., 1193,
1257). Probably this was Jane Seymour, as the
lady's kindness to the Princess Mary--a marked
characteristic of Queen Jane--is noted by Chapuys.
This intrigue, we are told, was furthered by many
lords with the object of separating the King from
Anne Boleyn, who was disliked by the lords on
account of her pride and that of her kinsmen and
brothers (_ibid._, vii., 1279). Henry's behaviour
to the Princess was becoming quite benevolent, and
Chapuys begins to speak of his "amiable and cordial
nature" (_ibid._, vii., 1297).]
[Footnote 963: In 1533 Anne had accused her uncle
of having too much intercourse with Chapuys and of
maintaining the Princess Mary's title to the throne
(_L. and P._, vi., 1125).]
[Footnote 964: _Ibid._, x., 902, 910, 919. The
Regent Mary of the Netherlands writes: "That the
vengeance might be executed by the Emperor's
subjects, he sent for the executioner of St. Omer,
as there were none in England good enough"
(_ibid._, x., 965). It is perhaps well to be
reminded that even at this date there were more
practised executioners in the Netherlands than in
England.]
Two days before Anne's death her marriage with Henry had been declared
invalid by a court of ecclesiastical lawyers with Cranmer at its head.
The grounds of the sentence are not stated, but there may have been
two--the alleged precontract with the Earl of Northumberland, which
the Earl denied on oath and on the sacrament, and the previous
affinity between Anne and Henry arising from the King's relations with
Mary Boleyn. The latter seems the more probable. Henry had obtained of
Clement VII. a dispensation from this disability; but the Pope's
power to dispense had since been repudiated, while the canonical (p. 345)
objection remained and was given statutory authority in this very
year.[965] The effects of this piece of wanton injustice were among
the troubles which Henry bequeathed to Queen Elizabeth; the sole
advantage to Henry was that his infidelities to Anne ceased to be
breaches of the seventh commandment. The justice of her sentence to
death is also open to doubt. Anne herself went to the block boldly
proclaiming her innocence.[966] Death she regarded as a relief from an
intolerable situation, and she "laughed heartily," writes the Lieutenant
of the Tower as she put her hands round her "little neck," and thought
how easy the executioner's task would be.[967] She complained when the
day of her release from this world was deferred, and regretted that so
many innocent persons should suffer through her. Of her accomplices,
none confessed but Smeaton, though Henry is said, before Anne's
arrest, to have offered Norris a pardon if he would admit his crime.
On the other hand, her conduct must have made the charges plausible.
Even in those days, when justice to individuals was regarded as dust
if weighed in the balance against the real or supposed interests of
the State, it is not credible that the juries should have found her
accomplices guilty, that twenty-six peers, including her uncle, (p. 346)
should have condemned Anne herself, without some colourable justification.
If the charges were merely invented to ruin the Queen, one culprit
besides herself would have been enough. To assume that Henry sent four
needless victims to the block is to accuse him of a lust for
superfluous butchery, of which even he, in his most bloodthirsty
moments, was not capable.[968]
[Footnote 965: This Act indirectly made Elizabeth a
bastard and Henry's marriage with Anne invalid,
(_cf._ Chapuys to Granvelle _L. and P._, x., 909).
The Antinomian theory of marital relations, which
Chapuys ascribes to Anne, was an Anabaptist
doctrine of the time. Chapuys calls Anne a
Messalina, but he of course was not an impartial
witness.]
[Footnote 966: According to some accounts, but a
Spaniard who writes as an eye-witness says she
cried "mercy to God and the King for the offence
she had done" (_L. and P._, x., 911).]
[Footnote 967: _Ibid._, x., 910.]
[Footnote 968: The execution of Anne was welcomed
by the Imperialists and Catholics, and it is
possible that it was hastened on by rumours of
disquiet in the North. A few days later the nobles
and gentry who were in London were ordered to
return home to put the country in a state of
defence (_L. and P._, x., 1016).]
On the day that his second queen was beheaded, Henry obtained from
Cranmer a special licence to marry a third.[969] He was betrothed on
the morrow and privately married "in the Queen's closet at York Place"
on the 30th of May. The lady of his choice was Jane, daughter of Sir
John Seymour of Wolf Hall in Wiltshire.[970] She was descended on her
mother's side from Edward III., and Cranmer had to dispense with a
canonical bar to the marriage arising from her consanguinity to the
King in the third and fourth degrees. She had been lady-in-waiting to
the two previous queens, and her brother, Sir Edward Seymour, the
future Protector, had for years been steadily rising in Henry's
favour. In October, 1535, the King had paid a visit to Wolf Hall, and
from that time his attentions to Jane became marked. She seems to have
received them with real reluctance; she refused a purse of gold and
returned the King's letters unopened.[971] She even obtained a (p. 347)
promise from Henry that he would not speak with her except in the
presence of others, and the King ejected Cromwell from his rooms in
the Palace in order to bestow them on Sir Edward Seymour, and thus to
provide a place where he and Jane could converse without scandal. All
this modesty has, of course, been attributed to prudential and
ambitious motives, which were as wise as they were successful. But
Jane seems to have had no enemies, except Alexander Aless, who
denounced her to Luther as an enemy to the Gospel, probably because
she extinguished the shining light of Anne Boleyn.[972] Cardinal Pole
described her as "full of goodness,"[973] and she certainly did her
best to reconcile Henry with his daughter the Princess Mary, whose
treatment began to improve from the fall of Anne Boleyn. "She is,"
writes Chapuys, "of middle stature, and no great beauty; so fair that
one would call her rather pale than otherwise."[974] But all agreed in
praising her intelligence. She had neither Catherine's force of
character nor the temper of Anne Boleyn; she was a woman of gentle
spirit, striving always to mitigate the rigour of others; her brief
married life was probably happier than that of any other of Henry's
Queens; and her importance is mainly due to the fact that she bore to
Henry his only legitimate son.
[Footnote 969: _Ibid._ x., 915, 926, 993, 1000.
There is a persistent fable that they were married
on the day or the day after Anne's execution; Dr.
Gairdner says it is repeated "in all histories".]
[Footnote 970: See _Wilts Archæol. Mag._, vols xv.,
xvi., documents printed from the _Longleat MSS._]
[Footnote 971: _L. and P._, x., 245.]
[Footnote 972: Luther, _Briefe_, v., 22; _L. and
P._, xi., 475.]
[Footnote 973: Strype, _Eccl. Memorials_, I., ii.,
304.]
[Footnote 974: _L. and P._, x., 901.]
The disgrace of Anne Boleyn necessitated the summons of a fresh
Parliament to put the succession to the crown on yet another basis.
The Long Parliament had been dissolved on 14th April; another was
called to meet on the 8th of June. The eighteen acts passed during its
six weeks' session illustrate the parallel development of the (p. 348)
Reformation and of the royal autocracy. The Act of Succession made
Anne's daughter, Elizabeth, a bastard, without declaring Catherine's
daughter, Mary, legitimate, and settled the crown on Henry's
prospective issue by Jane. A unique clause empowered the King to
dispose of the crown at will, should he have no issue by his present
Queen.[975] Probably he intended it, in that case, for the Duke of
Richmond; but the Duke's days were numbered, and four days after the
dissolution of Parliament he breathed his last. The royal prerogative
was extended by a statute enabling a king, when he reached the age of
twenty-four, to repeal by proclamation any act passed during his
minority; and the royal caste was further exalted by a statute making
it high treason for any one to marry a king's daughter, legitimate or
not, his sister, his niece, or his aunt on the father's side, without
royal licence. The reform of clerical abuses was advanced by an act to
prevent non-residence, and by another to obviate the delay in
instituting to benefices practised by bishops with a view to (p. 349)
keeping the tithes of the vacant benefice in their own hands. The
breach with Rome was widened still further by a statute, declaring all
who extolled the Pope's authority to be guilty of _præmunire_,
imposing an oath of renunciation on all lay and clerical officers, and
making the refusal of that oath high treason. Thus the hopes of a
reaction built on the fall of those "apostles of the new sect," Anne
Boleyn and her relatives, were promptly and roughly destroyed.
[Footnote 975: Parliament prefered to risk the
results of Henry's nomination to the risk of civil
war, which would inevitably have broken out had
Henry died in 1536. Hobbes, it may be noted, made
this power of nomination an indispensable attribute
of the sovereign, and if the sovereign be
interpreted as the "King in Parliament" the theory
is sound constitutionalism and was put in practice
in 1701 as well as in 1536. But the limitations on
Henry's power of bequeathing the crown have
generally been forgotten; he never had power to
leave the crown away from Edward VI., that is, away
from the only heir whose legitimacy was undisputed.
The later acts went further, and entailed the
succession upon Mary and Elizabeth unless Henry
wished otherwise--which he did not. The preference
of the Suffolk to the Stuart line may have been due
to (1) the common law forbidding aliens to inherit
English land (_cf. L. and P._, vii., 337); (2) the
national dislike of the Scots; (3) a desire to
intimate to the Scots that if they would not unite
the two realms by the marriage of Edward and Mary,
they should not obtain the English crown by
inheritance.]
Henry's position had been immensely strengthened alike by the death of
Catherine of Aragon and by the fall of Anne Boleyn; and on both
occasions he had expressed his appreciation of the fact in the most
indecent and heartless manner. He was now free to marry whom he liked,
and no objection based on canon or on any other law could be raised to
the legitimacy of his future issue; whether the Pope could dispense or
not, it made no difference to Edward VI.'s claim to the throne. The
fall of Anne Boleyn, in spite of some few rumours that she might have
been condemned on insufficient evidence, was generally popular; for
her arrogance and that of her family made them hated, and they were
regarded as the cause of the King's persecution of Catherine, of Mary,
and of those who maintained their cause. Abroad the effect was still
more striking. The moment Henry heard of Catherine's death, he added a
postscript to Cromwell's despatch to the English ambassadors in
France, bidding them to take a higher tone with Francis, for all cause
of difference had been removed between him and Charles V.[976] The
Emperor secretly believed that his aunt had been poisoned,[977] but
that private grief was not to affect his public policy; and Charles,
Francis, and even the Pope, became more or less eager competitors (p. 350)
for Henry's favour. The bull of deprivation, which had been drawn up
and signed, became a dead letter, and every one was anxious to disavow
his share in its promotion. Charles obtained the suspension of its
publication, made a merit of that service to Henry, and tried to
represent that it was Francis who, with his eyes on the English crown,
had extorted the bull from the Pope.[978] Paul III. himself used words
to the English envoy at Rome, which might be interpreted as an apology
for having made Fisher a cardinal and having denounced his and More's
execution.[979]
[Footnote 976: _L. and P._, x., 54.]
[Footnote 977: _Ibid._, x., 230.]
[Footnote 978: _L. and P._, x., 887.]
[Footnote 979: _Ibid._, x., 977.]
Henry had been driven by fear of Charles in the previous year to make
further advances than he relished towards union with the German
princes; but the Lutherans could not be persuaded to adopt Henry's
views of the mass and of his marriage with Catherine; and now he was
glad to substitute an understanding with the Emperor for intrigues
with the Emperor's subjects.[980] Cromwell and the council were,
indeed, a little too eager to welcome Chapuys' professions of friendship
and to entertain his demands for help against Francis. Henry allowed
them to go on for a time; but Cromwell was never in Wolsey's position,
and the King was not inclined to repeat his own and the Cardinal's
errors of 1521. He had suffered enough from the prostration of France
and the predominance of Charles; and he was anxious now that neither
should be supreme. So, when the imperial ambassador came expecting
Henry's assent, he, Cromwell and the rest of the council were (p. 351)
amazed to hear the King break out into an uncompromising defence
of the French King's conduct in invading Savoy and Piedmont.[981] That
invasion was the third stroke of good fortune which befel Henry in
1536. As Henry and Ferdinand had, in 1512, diverted their arms from
the Moors in order to make war on the Most Christian King, so, in
1536, the Most Christian King and the sovereign, who was at once King
Catholic and the temporal head of Christendom, instead of turning
their arms against the monarch who had outraged and defied the Church,
turned them against one another. Francis had never lost sight of
Milan; he had now recovered from the effects of Pavia; and in the
spring of 1536 he overran Savoy and Piedmont. In April the Emperor
once more visited Rome, and on the 17th he delivered a famous oration
in the papal Consistory.[982] In that speech he denounced neither
Luther nor Henry VIII.; he reserved his invectives for Francis I.
Unconsciously he demonstrated once and for all that unity of faith was
impotent against diversity of national interests, and that, whatever
deference princes might profess to the counsels of the Vicar of
Christ, the counsels they would follow would be those of secular
impulse.
[Footnote 980: _Cf._ Stern, _Heinrich VIII. und der
Schmalkaldische Bund_, and P. Singer, _Beziehung
des Schmalkald. Bundes zu England_. Greifswald,
1901.]
[Footnote 981: _L. and P._, x., 699.]
[Footnote 982: _Ibid._, x., 678, 684, 968.]
* * * * *
Henry was thus left to deal with the great domestic crisis of his
reign without intervention from abroad. The dissolution of the
monasteries inevitably inflicted considerable hardship on a numerous
body of men. It had been arranged that the inmates of the dissolved
religious houses should either be pensioned or transferred to other
monasteries; but, although the pensions were adequate and (p. 352)
sometimes even generous in scale,[983] and although the commissioners
themselves showed a desire to prevent unnecessary trouble by obtaining
licences for many houses to continue for a time,[984] the monks found
some difficulty in obtaining their pensions, and Chapuys draws a
moving picture of their sufferings as they wandered about the country,
seeking employment in a market that was already overstocked with
labour, and endeavouring to earn a livelihood by means to which they
had never been accustomed.[985] They met with no little sympathy from
the commons, who were oppressed with a like scarcity of work, and who
had looked to the monasteries for such relief as charity could afford.
Nowhere were these feelings so strong as in the north of England, and
there the commissioners for dissolving the monasteries were often met
with open resistance. Religious discontent was one of the motives for
revolt, but probably the rebels were drawn mainly[986] from evicted
tenants, deprived of their holdings by enclosures or by the conversion
of land from tillage to pasture, men who had nothing to lose and
everything to gain by a general turmoil. In these men the wandering
monks found ready listeners to their complaints, and there were (p. 353)
others, besides the monks, who eagerly turned to account the prevailing
dissatisfaction. The northern lords, Darcy and Hussey, had for years
been representing to Chapuys the certainty of success if the Emperor
invaded England, and promising to do their part when he came. Darcy
had, at Christmas 1534, sent the imperial ambassador a sword as an
intimation that the time had come for an appeal to its arbitrament;
and he was seeking Henry's licence to return to his house in Yorkshire
in order to raise "the crucifix" as the standard of revolt.[987] The
King, however, was doubtful of Darcy's loyalty, and kept him in London
till early in 1536. It would have been well had he kept him longer.
[Footnote 983: _E.g._, the Prioress of Tarent
received £100 a year, the Abbot of Evesham, £240
(Gasquet, ii., 230, 310); these sums must be
multiplied by ten to bring them to their present
value. Most of these lavish pensions were doubtless
given as bribes or rewards for the surrender of
monasteries.]
[Footnote 984: _L. and P._, xi., 385, 519.]
[Footnote 985: _Ibid._, xi., 42.]
[Footnote 986: The exact proportion is of course
difficult to determine; Mr. E.F. Gay in an
admirable paper (_Trans. Royal Hist. Soc._, N.S.,
xviii., 208, 209) thinks that I have exaggerated
the part played by the propertyless class in the
rebellion. They were undoubtedly present in large
numbers; but my remark is intended to guard against
the theory that the grievances were entirely
religious, not to exclude those grievances; and the
northern lords were of course notable examples of
the discontent of the propertied class.]
[Footnote 987: _L. and P._, vii., 1206; viii., 48.]
Towards the end of the summer rumours[988] were spread among the
commons of the North that heavy taxes would be levied on every burial,
wedding and christening, that all cattle would be marked and pay a
fine to the King, and that all unmarked beasts would be forfeit;
churches within five miles of each other were to be taken down as
superfluous, jewels and church plate confiscated; taxes were to be
paid for eating white bread, goose, or capon; there was to be a rigid
inquisition into every man's property; and a score of other absurdities
gained currency, obviously invented by malicious and lying tongues.
The outbreak began at Caistor, in Lincolnshire, on the 3rd of October,
with resistance, not to the commissioners for dissolving the
monasteries, but to those appointed to collect the subsidy granted by
Parliament. The rebels entered Lincoln on the 6th; they could, they
said, pay no more money; they demanded the repeal of religious
changes, the restoration of the monasteries, the banishment of (p. 354)
heretics like Cranmer and Latimer, and the removal of low-born
advisers such as Cromwell and Rich from the council.[989] The
mustering of an army under Suffolk and the denial by heralds and
others that the King had any such intentions as were imputed to him,
induced the commons to go home; the reserves which Henry was
collecting at Ampthill were disbanded; and the commotion was over in
less than a fortnight.
[Footnote 988: _Ibid._, xi., 768, 826[2].]
[Footnote 989: _L. and P._, xi., 786, 1182, 1244,
1246.]
The Lincolnshire rebels, however, had not dispersed when news arrived
of a much more serious rising which affected nearly the whole of
Yorkshire. It was here that Darcy and his friends were most powerful;
but, though there is little doubt that they were the movers, the
ostensible leader was Robert Aske, a lawyer. Even here the rebellion
was little more than a magnified riot, which a few regiments of
soldiers could soon have suppressed. The rebels professed complete
loyalty to Henry's person; they suggested no rival candidate for the
throne; they merely demanded a change of policy, which they could not
enforce without a change of government. They had no means of effecting
that change without deposing Henry, which they never proposed to do,
and which, had they done it, could only have resulted in anarchy. The
rebellion was formidable mainly because Henry had no standing army; he
had to rely almost entirely on the goodwill or at least acquiescence
of his people. Outside Yorkshire the gentry were willing enough;
possibly they had their eyes on monastic rewards; and they sent to
Cambridge double[990] or treble the forces Henry demanded, which (p. 355)
they could hardly have done had their tenants shown any great sympathy
with the rebellion. But transport in those days was more difficult
even than now; and before the musters could reach the Trent, Darcy,
after a show of reluctance, yielded Pomfret Castle to the rebels and
swore to maintain their cause. Henry was forced, much against his
will, to temporise. To pardon or parley with rebels he thought would
distain his honour.[991] If Norfolk was driven to offer a pardon, he
must on no account involve the King in his promise.
[Footnote 990: Surrey to Norfolk, 15th Oct., xi.,
727, 738.]
[Footnote 991: _L. and P._, xi., 864.]
Norfolk apparently had no option. An armistice was accordingly
arranged on the 27th of October, and a deputation came up to lay the
rebels' grievances before the King. It was received graciously, and
Henry's reply was a masterly piece of statecraft.[992] He drew it up
"with his own hand, and made no creature privy thereto until it was
finished". Their complaints about the Faith were, he said, "so general
that hard they be to be answered," but he intended always to live and
to die in the faith of Christ. They must specify what they meant by
the liberties of the Church, whether they were lawful or unlawful
liberties; but he had done nothing inconsistent with the laws of God
and man. With regard to the Commonwealth, what King had kept his
subjects so long in wealth and peace, ministering indifferent justice,
and defending them from outward enemies? There were more low-born
councillors when he came to the throne than now; then there were "but
two worth calling noble.[993] Others, as the Lords Marny and Darcy,
were scant well-born gentlemen, and yet of no great lands till (p. 356)
they were promoted by us. The rest were lawyers and priests.... How
came you to think that there were more noble men in our Privy Council
then than now?" It did not become them to dictate to their sovereign
whom he should call to his Council; yet, if they could prove, as they
alleged, that certain of the Council were subverters of God's law and
the laws of the realm, he would proceed against them. Then, after
denouncing their rebellion and referring to their request for pardon,
he says: "To show our pity, we are content, if we find you penitent,
to grant you all letters of pardon on your delivering to us ten such
ringleaders of this rebellion as we shall assign to you. Now note the
benignity of your Prince, and how easily bloodshed may be eschewed.
Thus I, as your head, pray for you, my members, that God may enlighten
you for your benefit."
[Footnote 992: _Ibid._, xi., 957.]
[Footnote 993: The records of the Privy Council for
the greater part of Henry's reign have disappeared,
and only a rough list of his privy Councillors can
be gathered from the _Letters and Papers_. Surrey,
of course, was one of the two nobles, and probably
Shrewsbury was the other, though Oxford, whose
peerage was older than theirs, seems also to have
been a member of the Privy Council (_L. and P._,
i., 51). The complaint of the rebels applied to the
whole Tudor period; at Henry's death no member of
his Privy Council held a peerage twelve years old.]
A conference was held at Doncaster in December,[994] and towards the
end of the year Aske came at Henry's invitation to discuss the
complaints with him.[995] No one could be more gracious than the King,
when he chose; no one could mask his resentment more completely, when
he had an object to gain. It was important to win over Aske, and
convince him that Henry had the interests of the rebels at heart. So
on Aske were lavished all the royal arts. They were amply (p. 357)
rewarded. In January, 1537, the rebel leader went down to Yorkshire
fully convinced of the King's goodwill, and anxious only that the
commons should observe his conditions.[996] But there were wilder
spirits at work over which he had little control. They declared that
they were betrayed. Plots were formed to seize Hull and Scarborough;
both were discovered.[997] Aske, Constable, and other leaders of the
original Pilgrimage of Grace exerted themselves to stay this outbreak
of their more violent followers; and between moderates and extremists
the whole movement quickly collapsed. The second revolt gave Henry an
excuse for recalling his pardon, and for exacting revenge from all who
had been implicated in either movement. Darcy deserved little pity;
the earliest in his treason, he continued the game to the end; but
Aske was an honest man, and his execution, condemned though he was by
a jury, was a violent act of injustice.[998] Norfolk was sent to the
North on a Bloody Assize,[999] and if neither he nor the King was a
Jeffreys, the rebellion was stamped out with a good deal of superfluous
cruelty. Henry was resolved to do the work once and for all, and he
based his system on terror. His measures for the future government of
the North, now threatened by James V., were, however, wise on the
whole. He would put no more nobles in places of trust; the office of
Warden of the Marches he took into his own hands, appointing three
deputies of somewhat humble rank for the east, middle and west
marches.[1000] A strong Council of the North was appointed to (p. 358)
sit at York, under the presidency of Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, and
with powers almost as extensive as those of the Privy Council at
London; and henceforth Henry had little trouble from disaffection in
England.[1001]
[Footnote 994: _L. and P._, xi., 1244-46.]
[Footnote 995: _Ibid._, xi., 1306.]
[Footnote 996: _L. and P._, XII., i., 20, 23, 43,
44, 46.]
[Footnote 997: _Ibid._, XII., i., 46, 64, 102, 104,
141, 142.]
[Footnote 998: Henry, says Dr. Gairdner, examined
"the evidence sent up to him in the spirit of a
detective policeman" (XII., i., p. xxix.).]
[Footnote 999: _L. and P._, XII., i., 227, 228,
401, 402, 416, 457, 458, 468, 478, 498.]
[Footnote 1000: _L. and P._, XII., i., 594, 595,
636, 667. Norfolk thought Henry's plan was to
govern the North by the aid of thieves and
murderers.]
[Footnote 1001: Much of the correspondence of this
Council found its way to Hamilton Palace in
Scotland, and thence to Germany; it was purchased
for the British Museum in 1889 and now comprises
_Addit. MSS._, 32091, 32647-48, 32654 and 32657
(printed as _Hamilton Papers_, 2 vols., 1890-92).]
With one aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace he had yet to deal. The
opportunity had been too good for Paul III. to neglect; and early in
1537 he had sent a legate _a latere_ to Flanders to do what he could
to abet the rebellion.[1002] His choice fell on Reginald Pole, the son
of the Countess of Salisbury and grandson of George, Duke of Clarence.
Pole had been one of Henry's great favourites; the King had paid for
his education, given him, while yet a layman, rich church preferments,
and contributed the equivalent of about twelve hundred pounds a year
to enable him to complete his studies in Italy.[1003] In 1530 Pole was
employed to obtain opinions at Paris favourable to Henry's divorce,[1004]
and was offered the Archbishopric of York. He refused from
conscientious scruples,[1005] sought in vain to turn the King from his
evil ways, and, in 1532, left England; they parted friends, and Henry
continued Pole's pensions. While Pole was regarding with increasing
disgust the King's actions, Henry still hoped that Pole was on his (p. 359)
side, and, in 1536, in answer to Henry's request for his views, Pole
sent his famous treatise _De Unitate Ecclesiæ_. His heart was better
than his head; he thought Henry had been treated too gently, and that
the fulmination of a bull of excommunication earlier in his course
would have stopped his headlong career. To repair the Pope's omissions,
Pole now proceeded to administer the necessary castigation; "flattery,"
he said, "had been the cause of all the evil". Even his friend,
Cardinal Contarini, thought the book too bitter, and among his family
in England it produced consternation.[1006] Some of them were hand in
glove with Chapuys, who had suggested Pole to Charles as a candidate
for the throne; and his book might well have broken the thin ice on
which they stood. Henry, however, suppressed his anger and invited
Pole to England; he, perhaps wisely, refused, but immediately
afterwards he accepted the Pope's call to Rome, where he was made
cardinal,[1007] and sent to Flanders as legate to foment the northern
rebellion.
[Footnote 1002: _L. and P._, XII., i., 367, 368,
779.]
[Footnote 1003: _Ibid._, ii., 3943 (reference
misprinted in _D.N.B._, xlvi., 35, as 3493); iii.,
1544.]
[Footnote 1004: _Ibid._, iv., 6003, 6252, 6383,
6394, 6505.]
[Footnote 1005: _Ibid._, v., 737.]
[Footnote 1006: _L. and P._, x., 420, 426; xi., 72,
93, 156.]
[Footnote 1007: On 22nd December, 1536 (_Ibid._,
xi., 1353).]
He came too late to do anything except exhibit his own and the papal
impotence. The rebellion was crushed before his commission was signed.
As Pole journeyed through France, Henry sent to demand his extradition
as a traitor.[1008] With that request Francis could hardly comply, but
he ordered the legate to quit his dominions. Pole sought refuge in
Flanders, but was stopped on the frontier. Charles could no more than
Francis afford to offend the English King, and the cardinal-legate was
informed that he might visit the Bishop of Liège, but only if he (p. 360)
went in disguise.[1009] Never, wrote Pole to the Regent, had a papal
legate been so treated before. Truly Henry had fulfilled his boast
that he would show the princes of Europe how small was the power of a
Pope. He had obliterated every vestige of papal authority in England
and defied the Pope to do his worst; and now, when the Pope attempted
to do it, his legate was chased out of the dominions of the faithful
sons of the Church at the demand of the excommunicate King. Henry had
come triumphant out of perils which every one else believed would
destroy him. He had carried England through the greatest revolution in
her history. He had crushed the only revolt which that revolution
evoked at home; and abroad the greatest princes of Europe had shown
that they valued as nothing the goodwill of the Pope against that of
Henry VIII.
[Footnote 1008: _Ibid._ XII., i., 760, 939, 987,
988, 996.]
[Footnote 1009: _L. and P._, XII., i., 997, 1061,
1135, 1167, 1174.]
The culminating point in his good fortune was reached in the following
autumn. On the 12th of October, 1537, Queen Jane gave birth to a son.
Henry had determined that, had he a son by Anne Boleyn, the child
should be named Henry after himself, or Edward after his grandfather,
Edward IV. Queen Jane's son was born on the eve of the feast of St.
Edward, and that fact decided the choice of his name. Twelve days
later the mother, who had never been crowned, passed away.[1010] She,
alone of Henry's wives, was buried with royal pomp in St. George's
Chapel at Windsor; and to her alone the King paid the compliment (p. 361)
of mourning. His grief was sincere, and for the unusual space of more
than two years he remained without a wife. But Queen Jane's death was
not to be compared in importance with the birth of Edward VI. The
legitimate male heir, the object of so many desires and the cause of
so many tragedies, had come at last to fill to the brim the cup of
Henry's triumph. The greatest storm and stress of his reign was
passed. There were crises to come, which might have been deemed
serious in a less troubled reign, and they still needed all Henry's
wary cunning to meet; Francis and Charles were even now preparing to
end a struggle from which only Henry drew profit; and Paul was hoping
to join them in war upon England. Yet Henry had weathered the worst of
the gale, and he now felt free to devote his energies to the extension
abroad of the authority which he had established so firmly at home.
[Footnote 1010: The fable that the Cæsarean
operation was performed on her, invented or
propagated by Nicholas Sanders, rests upon the
further error repeated by most historians that
Queen Jane died on the 14th of October, instead of
the 24th (see Nichols, _Literary Remains of Edward
VI._, pp. xxiv., xxv.).]
CHAPTER XIV. (p. 362)
REX ET IMPERATOR.
Notwithstanding the absence of "Empire" and "Emperor" from the various
titles which Henry VIII. possessed or assumed, he has more than one
claim to be reputed the father of modern imperialism. It is not till a
year after his death that we have any documentary evidence of an
intention on the part of the English Government to unite England and
Scotland into one Empire, and to proclaim their sovereign the Emperor
of Great Britain.[1011] But a marriage between Edward VI. and Mary,
Queen of Scots, by which it was sought to effect that union, had been
the main object of Henry's efforts during the closing years of his
reign, and the imperial idea was a dominant note in Henry's mind. No
king was more fond of protesting that he wore an imperial crown and
ruled an imperial realm. When, in 1536, Convocation declared England
to be "an imperial See of itself," it only clothed in decent and
formal language Henry's own boast that he was not merely King, but
Pope and Emperor, in his own domains. The rest of Western Europe was
under the temporal sway of Cæsar, as it was under the spiritual sway
of the Pope; but neither to one nor to the other did Henry owe any
allegiance.[1012]
[Footnote 1011: Odet de Selve, _Corresp. Pol._, p.
268.]
[Footnote 1012: This was part of the revived
influence of the Roman Civil Law in England which
Professor Maitland has sketched in his _English
Law and the Renaissance_, 1901. But the influence
of these ideas extended into every sphere, and not
least of all into the ecclesiastical. Englishmen,
said Chapuys, were fond of tracing the King's
imperial authority back to a grant from the Emperor
Constantine--giving it thus an antiquity as great
and an origin as authoritative as that claimed for
the Pope by the false _Donation of Constantine_
(_L. and P._, v., 45; vii., 232). This is the
meaning of Henry's assertion that the Pope's
authority in England was "usurped," not that it was
usurped at the expense of the English national
Church, but at the expense of his prerogative. So,
too, we find instructive complaints from a
different sort of reformers that the reformation as
effected by Henry VIII. was merely a _translatio
imperii_ (_ibid._, XIV., ii., 141). Henry VIII.'s
encouragement of the civil law was the natural
counterpart of the prohibition of its study by Pope
Honorius in 1219 and Innocent IV. in 1254 (Pollock
and Maitland, i., 102, 103).]
For the word "imperial" itself he had shown a marked (p. 363)
predilection from his earliest days. _Henry Imperial_ was the name of
the ship in which his admiral hoisted his flag in 1513, and "Imperial"
was the name given to one of his favourite games. But, as his reign
wore on, the word was translated into action, and received a more
definite meaning. To mark his claim to supreme dignity, he assumed the
style of "His Majesty" instead of that of "His Grace," which he had
hitherto shared with mere dukes and archbishops; and possibly "His
Majesty" banished "His Grace" from Henry's mind no less than it did
from his title. The story of his life is one of consistent, and more
or less orderly, evolution. For many years he had been kept in
leading-strings by Wolsey's and other clerical influences. The first
step in his self-assertion was to emancipate himself from this
control, and to vindicate his authority within the precincts of his
Court. His next was to establish his personal supremacy over Church
and State in England; this was the work of the Reformation Parliament
between 1529 and 1536. The final stage in the evolution was to (p. 364)
make his rule more effective in the outlying parts of England, on
the borders of Scotland, in Wales and its Marches, and then to extend
it over the rest of the British Isles.
The initial steps in the process of expanding the sphere of royal
authority had already been taken. The condition of Wales exercised the
mind of King and Parliament, even in the throes of the struggle with
Rome.[1013] The "manifold robberies, murders, thefts, trespasses,
riots, routs, embraceries, maintenances, oppressions, ruptures of the
peace, and many other malefacts, which be there daily practised,
perpetrated, committed and done," obviously demanded prompt and swift
redress, unless the redundant eloquence of parliamentary statutes
protested too much; and, in 1534, several acts were passed restraining
local jurisdictions, and extending the authority of the President and
Council of the Marches.[1014] Chapuys declared that the effect of
these acts was to rob the Welsh of their freedom, and he thought that
the probable discontent might be turned to account by stirring an
insurrection in favour of Catherine of Aragon and of the Catholic
faith.[1015] If, however, there was discontent, it did not make (p. 365)
itself effectively felt, and, in 1536, Henry proceeded to complete the
union of England and Wales. First, he adapted to Wales the institution
of justices of the peace, which had proved the most efficient
instrument for the maintenance of his authority in England. A more
important statute followed. Recalling the facts that "the rights,
usages, laws and customs" in Wales "be far discrepant from the laws
and customs of this realm," that its people "do daily use a speech
nothing like, nor consonant to, the natural mother-tongue used within
this realm," and that "some rude and ignorant people have made
distinction and diversity between the King's subjects of this realm"
and those of Wales, "His Highness, of a singular zeal, love and
favour" which he bore to the Welsh, minded to reduce them "to the
perfect order, notice and knowledge of his laws of this realm, and
utterly to extirp, all and singular, the sinister usages and customs
differing from the same". The Principality was divided into shires,
and the shires into hundreds; justice in every court, from the highest
to the lowest, was to be administered in English, and in no other
tongue; and no one who spoke Welsh was to "have or enjoy any manner of
Office or Fees" whatsoever. On the other hand, a royal commission was
appointed to inquire into Welsh laws, and such as the King thought
necessary might still be observed; while the Welsh shires and boroughs
were to send members to the English Parliament. This statute was, to
all effects and purposes, the first Act of Union in English history.
Six years later a further act reorganised and developed the
jurisdiction of the Council of Wales and the Marches. Its functions
were to be similar to those of the Privy Council in London, of (p. 366)
which the Council of Wales, like that of the already established
Council of the North, was an offshoot. Its object was to maintain
peace with a firm hand in a specially disorderly district; and the
powers, with which it was furnished, often conflicted with the common
law of England,[1016] and rendered the Council's jurisdiction, like
that of other Tudor courts, a grievance to Stuart Parliaments.
[Footnote 1013: Cromwell has a note in 1533, "for
the establishing of a Council in the Marches of
Wales" (_L. and P._, vi., 386), and there had been
numerous complaints in Parliament about their
condition (_ibid._, vii., 781). Henry was a great
Unionist, though Separatist as regards his wives
and the Pope.]
[Footnote 1014: See an admirable study by Miss
C.A.J. Skeel, _The Council in the Marches of
Wales_, 1904. Cromwell's great constitutional idea
was government by council rather than by
Parliament; in 1534 he had a scheme for including
in the King's Ordinary Council (not of course the
Privy Council) "the most assured and substantial
gentlemen in every shire" (_L. and P._, vii., 420;
_cf._ his draft bill for a new court of
conservators of the commonwealth and the more rigid
execution of statutes, vii., 1611).]
[Footnote 1015: _L. and P._, vii., 1554.]
[Footnote 1016: _Cf._ Maitland, _English Law and
the Renaissance_, p. 70; Lee to Cromwell: "if we
should do nothing but as the common law will, these
things so far out of order will never be redressed"
(_D.N.B._, xxxii., 375; the letter is dated 18th
July, 1538, by the _D.N.B._ and Maitland, but
there is no letter of that date from Roland Lee in
_L. and P._; probably the sentence occurs in Lee's
letter of 18th July, 1534, or that of 18th July,
1535 (_L. and P._, vii., 988, viii., 1058), though
the phrase is not given in _L. and P._).]
But Ireland demanded even more than Wales the application of Henry's
doctrines of union and empire; for if Wales was thought by Chapuys to
be receptive soil for the seeds of rebellion, sedition across St.
George's Channel was ripe unto the harvest. Irish affairs, among other
domestic problems, had been sacrificed to Wolsey's passion for playing
a part in Europe, and on the eve of his fall English rule in Ireland
was reported to be weaker than it had been since the Conquest. The
outbreak of war with Charles V., in 1528, was followed by the first
appearance of Spanish emissaries at the courts of Irish chiefs, and
from Spanish intrigue in Ireland Tudor monarchs were never again to be
free. In the autumn of 1534 the whole of Ireland outside the pale
blazed up in revolt. Sir William Skeffington succeeded in crushing the
rebellion; but Skeffington died in the following year, and his
successor, Lord Leonard Grey, failed to overcome the difficulties
caused by Irish disaffection and by jealousies in his council. His
sister was wife of Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare, and the (p. 367)
revolt of the Geraldines brought Grey himself under suspicion. He was
accused by his council of treason; he returned to England in 1540,
declaring the country at peace. But, before he had audience with
Henry, a fresh insurrection broke out, and Grey was sent to the Tower;
thence, having pleaded guilty to charges of treason, he trod the usual
path to the block.
Henry now adopted fresh methods; he determined to treat Ireland in
much the same way as Wales. A commission, appointed in 1537, had made
a thorough survey of the land, and supplied him with the outlines of
his policy. As in Wales, the English system of land tenure, of justice
and the English language were to supersede indigenous growths; the
King's supremacy in temporal and ecclesiastical affairs was to be
enforced, and the whole of the land was to be gradually won by a
judicious admixture of force and conciliation.[1017] The new deputy,
Sir Anthony St. Leger, was an able man, who had presided over the
commission of 1537. He landed at Dublin in 1541, and his work was
thoroughly done. Henry, no longer so lavish with his money as in
Wolsey's days, did not stint for this purpose.[1018] The Irish
Parliament passed an act that Henry should be henceforth styled King,
instead of Lord, of Ireland; and many of the chiefs were induced to
relinquish their tribal independence in return for glittering
coronets. By 1542 Ireland had not merely peace within her own borders,
but was able to send two thousand kernes to assist the English on the
borders of Scotland; and English rule in Ireland was more widely and
more firmly established than it had ever been before.
[Footnote 1017: See R. Dunlop in _Owens College
Studies_, 1901, and the _Calendar of Carew MSS._
and _Calendar of Irish State Papers_, vol. i.]
[Footnote 1018: _L. and P._, xvi., 43, 77.]
Besides Ireland and Wales, there were other spheres in which Henry (p. 368)
sought to consolidate and extend the Tudor methods of government. The
erection, in 1542, of the Courts of Wards and Liveries, of First-fruits
and Tenths, and the development of the jurisdiction of the Star
Chamber and of the Court of Requests,[1019] were all designed to
further two objects dear to Henry's heart, the efficiency of his
administration and the exaltation of his prerogative. It was
thoroughly in keeping with his policy that the parliamentary system
expanded concurrently with the sphere of the King's activity. Berwick
had first been represented in the Parliament of 1529,[1020] and a
step, which would have led to momentous consequences, had the idea, on
which it was based, been carried out, was taken in 1536, when two
members were summoned from Calais. There was now only one district
under English rule which was not represented in Parliament, and that
was the county of Durham, known as _the_ bishopric, which still
remained detached from the national system. It was left for Oliver
Cromwell to complete England's parliamentary representation by
summoning members to sit for that palatine county.[1021] This was not
the only respect in which the Commonwealth followed in the footsteps
of Henry VIII., for the Parliament of 1542, in which members from
Wales and from Calais are first recorded as sitting,[1022] passed an
"Act for the Navy," which provided that goods could only be (p. 369)
imported in English ships. It was, however, in his dealings with
Scotland that Henry's schemes for the expansion of England became most
marked; but, before he could develop his plans in that direction, he
had to ward off a recrudescence of the danger from a coalition of
Catholic Europe.
[Footnote 1019: _L. and P._, xvi., 28; _cf._
Leadam, _Court of Requests_, Selden Soc., Introd.]
[Footnote 1020: _Official Return of Members of
Parliament_, i., 369.]
[Footnote 1021: See G.T. Lapsley, _The County
Palatine of Durham_, in _Harvard Historical
Series_.]
[Footnote 1022: There are no records in the
_Official Return_ for 1536 and 1539, but Calais had
been granted Parliamentary representation by an Act
of the previous Parliament (27 Hen. VIII., Private
Acts, No. 9; _cf. L. and P._, x., 1086).]
* * * * *
In spite of Henry's efforts to fan the flames of strife[1023] between
the Emperor and the King of France, the war, which had prevented
either monarch from countenancing the mission of Cardinal Pole or from
profiting by the Pilgrimage of Grace, was gradually dying down in the
autumn of 1537; and, in order to check the growing and dangerous
intimacy between the two rivals, Henry was secretly hinting to both
that the death of his Queen had left him free to contract a marriage
which might bind him for ever to one or the other.[1024] To Francis he
sent a request for the hand of Mary of Guise, who had already been
promised to James V. of Scotland. He refused to believe that the Scots
negotiations had proceeded so far that they could not be set aside for
so great a king as himself, and he succeeded in convincing the lady's
relatives that the position of a Queen of England provided greater
attractions than any James could hold out.[1025] Francis, however,
took matters into his own hands, and compelled the Guises to fulfil
their compact with the Scottish King. Nothing daunted, Henry asked for
a list of other French ladies eligible for the matrimonial prize. (p. 370)
He even suggested that the handsomest of them might be sent, in the
train of Margaret of Navarre, to Calais, where he could inspect them
in person.[1026] "I trust to no one," he told Castillon, the French
ambassador, "but myself. The thing touches me too near. I wish to see
them and know them some time before deciding."[1027] This idea of
"trotting out the young ladies like hackneys"[1028] was not much
relished at the French Court; and Castillon, to shame Henry out of the
indelicacy of his proposal, made an ironical suggestion for testing
the ladies' charms, the grossness of which brought the only recorded
blush to Henry's cheeks.[1029] No more was said of the beauty-show;
and Henry declared that he did not intend to marry in France or in
Spain at all, unless his marriage brought him a closer alliance with
Francis or Charles than the rivals had formed with each other.
[Footnote 1023: Vols. xii. and xiii. of the _L. and
P._ are full of these attempts.]
[Footnote 1024: For the negotiations with France
from 1537 onwards see Kaulek, _Corresp. de MM.
Castillon et Marillac_, Paris, 1885.]
[Footnote 1025: _L. and P._, XIII., i., 165, 273.]
[Footnote 1026: Is this another trace of
"Byzantinism"? It was a regular custom at the
Byzantine and other Oriental Courts to have a
"concourse of beauty" for the Emperor's benefit
when he wished to choose a wife (_Histoire
Générale_, i., 381 n., v., 728); and the story of
Theophilus and Theodora is familiar (Finlay, ii.,
146-47).]
[Footnote 1027: _L. and P._, XIII., ii., 77;
Kaulek, p. 80.]
[Footnote 1028: _Ibid._, XII., ii., 1125; XIII.,
ii., p. xxxi.]
[Footnote 1029: _Ibid._, XIII., ii., 77.]
While these negotiations for obtaining the hand of a French princess
were in progress, Henry set on foot a similar quest in the Netherlands.
Before the end of 1537 he had instructed Hutton, his agent, to report
on the ladies of the Regent Mary's Court;[1030] and Hutton replied
that Christina of Milan was said to be "a goodly personage and of
excellent beauty". She was daughter of the deposed King of Denmark and
of his wife, Isabella, sister of Charles V.; at the age of thirteen
she had been married to the Duke of Milan, but she was now a (p. 371)
virgin widow of sixteen, "very tall and competent of beauty, of favour
excellent and very gentle in countenance".[1031] On 10th March, 1538,
Holbein arrived at Brussels for the purpose of painting the lady's
portrait, which he finished in a three hours' sitting.[1032]
Christina's fascinations do not seem to have made much impression on
Henry; indeed, his taste in feminine beauty cannot be commended. There
is no good authority for the alleged reply of the young duchess
herself, that, if she had two heads, she would willingly place one of
them at His Majesty's disposal.[1033] Henry had, as yet, beheaded only
one of his wives, and even if the precedent had been more firmly
established, Christina was too wary and too polite to refer to it in
such uncourtly terms. She knew that the disposal of her hand did not
rest with herself, and though the Emperor sent powers for the
conclusion of the match, neither he nor Henry had any desire to see it
concluded. The cementing of his friendship with Francis freed Charles
from the need of Henry's goodwill, and impelled the English King to
seek elsewhere for means to counter-balance the hostile alliance.
[Footnote 1030: _Ibid._, XII., ii., 1172.]
[Footnote 1031: _L. and P._, XII., ii., Pref. p.
xxviii., No. 1187.]
[Footnote 1032: _Ibid._, XIII., i., 380, 507. The
magnificent portrait of Christina belonging to the
Duke of Norfolk, and now on loan at the National
Gallery, must have been painted by Holbein
afterwards.]
[Footnote 1033: It may have crystallised from some
such rumour as is reported in _L. and P._, XIV.,
ii., 141. "Marry," says George Constantyne, "she
sayeth that the King's Majesty was in so little
space rid of the Queens that she dare not trust his
Council, though she durst trust his Majesty; for
her council suspecteth that her great-aunt was
poisoned, that the second was innocently put to
death, and the third lost for lack of keeping in
her childbed." Constantyne added that he was not
sure whether this was Christina's answer or Anne of
Cleves'.]
The Emperor and the French King had not been deluded by English (p. 372)
intrigues, nor prevented from coming together by Henry's desire to
keep them apart. Charles, Francis, and Paul III. met at Nice in June,
1538, and there the Pope negotiated a ten years' truce. Henceforth
they were to consider their interests identical, and their ambassadors
in England compared notes in order to defeat more effectively Henry's
skilful diplomacy.[1034] The moment seemed ripe for the execution of
the long-cherished project for a descent upon England. Its King had
just added to his long list of offences against the Church by despoiling
the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury and burning the bones of the
saint. The saint was even said to have been put on his trial in
mockery, declared contumacious, and condemned as a traitor.[1035] If
the canonised bones of martyrs could be treated thus, who would, for
the future, pay respect to the Church or tribute at its shrines? At
Rome a party, of which Pole was the most zealous, proclaimed that the
real Turk was Henry, and that all Christian princes should unite to
sweep him from the face of God's earth, which his presence had too
long defiled. Considering the effect of Christian leagues against the
Ottoman, the English Turk was probably not dismayed. But Paul III. and
Pole were determined to do their worst. The Pope resolved to publish
the bull of deprivation, which had been drawn up in August, 1535,
though its execution had hitherto been suspended owing to papal (p. 373)
hopes of Henry's amendment and to the request of various princes. Now
the bull was to be published in France, in Flanders, in Scotland and
in Ireland. Beton was made a cardinal and sent home to exhort James V.
to invade his uncle's kingdom,[1036] while Pole again set out on his
travels to promote the conquest of his native land.[1037]
[Footnote 1034: _L. and P._, XIII., ii., 232, 277,
914, 915.]
[Footnote 1035: The burning of the bones is stated
as a fact in the Papal Bull of December, 1538 (_L.
and P._, XIII., ii., 1087; see Pref., p. xvi., n.);
but the documents printed in Wilkins's _Concilia_,
iii., 835, giving an account of an alleged trial of
the body of St. Thomas are forgeries (_L. and P._,
XIII., ii., pp. xli., xlii., 49). A precedent might
have been found in Pope Stephen VI.'s treatment of
his predecessor, Formosus (_Hist. Générale_, i.,
536).]
[Footnote 1036: _L. and P._, XIII., ii., 1108-9,
1114-16, 1130, 1135-36.]
[Footnote 1037: _Ibid._, XIII., ii., 950, 1110.]
It was on Pole's unfortunate relatives that the effects of the threatened
bull were to fall. Besides the Cardinal's treason, there was another
motive for proscribing his family. He and his brothers were grandchildren
of George, Duke of Clarence; years before, Chapuys had urged Charles
V. to put forward Pole as a candidate for the throne; and Henry was as
convinced as his father had been that the real way to render his
Government secure was to put away all the possible alternatives. Now
that he was threatened with deprivation by papal sentence, the need
became more urgent than ever. But, while the proscription of the Poles
was undoubtedly dictated by political reasons, their conduct enabled
Henry to effect it by legal means. There was no doubt of the
Cardinal's treason; his brother, Sir Geoffrey, had often taken counsel
with Charles's ambassador, and discussed plans for the invasion of
England;[1038] and even their mother, the aged Countess of Salisbury,
although she had denounced the Cardinal as a traitor and had lamented
the fact that she had given him birth, had brought herself within the
toils by receiving papal bulls and corresponding with traitors.[1039]
The least guilty of the family appears to have been the Countess's
eldest son, Lord Montague;[1040] but he, too, was involved in (p. 374)
the common ruin. Plots were hatched for kidnapping the Cardinal and
bringing him home to stand his trial for treason. Sir Geoffrey was
arrested in August, 1538, was induced, or forced, to turn King's
evidence, and as a reward was granted his miserable, conscience-struck
life.[1041] The Countess was spared for a while, but Montague mounted
the scaffold in December.
[Footnote 1038: _Ibid._, vii., 1368; viii., 750.]
[Footnote 1039: _Ibid._, XIII., ii., 835, 838,
855.]
[Footnote 1040: He had, however, been sending
information to Chapuys as early as 1534 (_L. and
P._, vii., 957), when Charles V. was urged to make
use of him and of Reginald Pole (_ibid._, vii.,
1040; _cf. ibid._, XIII., ii., 702, 830, 954).]
[Footnote 1041: _Ibid._, XIII., pt. ii., _passim_.
He attempted to commit suicide (_ibid._, 703).]
With Montague perished his cousin, the Marquis of Exeter, whose
descent from Edward IV. was as fatal to him as their descent from
Clarence was to the Poles. The Marquis was the White Rose, the next
heir to the throne if the line of the Tudors failed. His father, the
Earl of Devonshire, had been attainted in the reign of Henry VII.; but
Henry VIII. had reversed the attainder, had treated the young Earl
with kindness, had made him Knight of the Garter and Marquis of
Exeter, and had sought in various ways to win his support. But his
dynastic position and dislike of Henry's policy drove the Marquis into
the ranks of the discontented. He had been put in the Tower, in 1531,
on suspicion of treason; after his release he listened to the
hysterics of Elizabeth Barton, intrigued with Chapuys, and corresponded
with Reginald Pole;[1042] and in Cornwall, in 1538, men conspired to
make him King.[1043] Less evidence than this would have (p. 375)
convinced a jury of peers in Tudor times of the expediency of Exeter's
death; and, on the 9th of December, his head paid the price of his
royal descent.
[Footnote 1042: _Ibid._, v., 416; vi., 1419, 1464.]
[Footnote 1043: _Ibid._, XIII., ii., 802, 961.]
These executions do not seem to have produced the faintest symptoms of
disgust in the popular mind. The threat of invasion evoked a national
enthusiasm for defence. In August, 1538, Henry went down to inspect
the fortifications he had been for years erecting at Dover; masonry
from the demolished monasteries was employed in dotting the coast with
castles, such as Calshot and Hurst, which were built with materials
from the neighbouring abbey of Beaulieu. Commissioners were sent to
repair the defences at Calais and Guisnes, on the Scottish Borders,
along the coasts from Berwick to the mouth of the Thames, and from the
Thames to Lizard Point.[1044] Beacons were repaired, ordnance was
supplied wherever it was needed, lists of ships and of mariners were
drawn up in every port, and musters were taken throughout the kingdom.
Everywhere the people pressed forward to help; in the Isle of Wight
they were lining the shores with palisades, and taking every
precaution to render a landing of the enemy a perilous enterprise.[1045]
In Essex they anticipated the coming of the commissioners by digging
dykes and throwing up ramparts; at Harwich the Lord Chancellor saw
"women and children working with shovels at the trenches and bulwarks".
Whatever we may think of the roughness and rigour of Henry's rule, his
methods were not resented by the mass of his people. He had not lost
his hold on the nation; whenever he appealed to his subjects in a time
of national danger, he met with an eager response; and, had the (p. 376)
schemers abroad, who idly dreamt of his expulsion from the throne,
succeeded in composing their mutual quarrels and launching their bolt
against England, there is no reason to suppose that its fate would
have differed from that of the Spanish Armada.
[Footnote 1044: _L. and P._, XIV., i., 478, 533,
630, 671, 762, 899.]
[Footnote 1045: _Ibid._, XIV., i., 540, 564, 573,
615, 655, 682, 711, 712.]
In spite of the fears of invasion which prevailed in the spring of
1539, Pole's second mission had no more success than the first;[1046]
and the hostile fleet, for the sight of which the Warden of the Cinque
Ports was straining his eyes from Dover Castle, never came from the
mouths of the Scheldt and the Rhine; or rather, the supposed Armada
proved to be a harmless convoy of traders.[1047] The Pope himself, on
second thoughts, withheld his promised bull. He distrusted its
reception at the hands of his secular allies, and dreaded the contempt
and ridicule which would follow an open failure.[1048] Moreover, at
the height of his fervour against Henry, he could not refrain from
attempts to extend his temporal power, and his seizure of Urbino
alienated Francis and afforded Henry some prospect of creating an
anti-papal party in Italy.[1049] Francis would gladly join in a
prohibition of English commerce, if Charles would only begin; but
without Charles he could do nothing, and, even when his amity with the
Emperor was closest, he was compelled, at Henry's demand, to punish
the French priests who inveighed against English enormities.[1050] To
Charles, however, English trade was worth more than to Francis, (p. 377)
and the Emperor's subjects would tolerate no interruption of their
lucrative intercourse with England. With the consummate skill which he
almost invariably displayed in political matters, Henry had, in 1539,
when the danger seemed greatest, provided the Flemings with an
additional motive for peace. He issued a proclamation that, for seven
years, their goods should pay no more duty than those of the English
themselves;[1051] and the thrifty Dutch were little inclined to stop,
by a war, the fresh stream of gold. The Emperor, too, had more urgent
matters in hand. Henry might be more of a Turk than the Sultan
himself, and the Pope might regard the sack of St. Thomas's shrine
with more horror than the Turkish defeat of a Christian fleet; but
Henry was not harrying the Emperor's coasts, nor threatening to
deprive the Emperor's brother of his Hungarian kingdom; and Turkish
victories on land and on sea gave the imperial family much more
concern than all Henry's onslaughts on the saints and their relics.
And, besides the Ottoman peril, Charles had reason to fear the
political effects of the union between England and the Protestant
princes of Germany, for which the religious development in England was
paving the way, and which an attack on Henry would at once have
cemented.
[Footnote 1046: _L. and P._, XIV., i., Introd., pp.
xi.-xiii.]
[Footnote 1047: _Ibid._, XIV., i., 714, 728, 741,
767.]
[Footnote 1048: _Cf. ibid._, XIV., i., 1011, 1013;
ii., 99.]
[Footnote 1049: _Ibid._, XIV., i., 27, 37, 92, 98,
104, 114, 144, 188, 235, 884; ii., 357.]
[Footnote 1050: _L. and P._, XIV., i., 37, 92,
371.]
[Footnote 1051: _L. and P._, XIV., i., 373.]
* * * * *
The powers conferred upon Henry as Supreme Head of the Church were not
long suffered to remain in abeyance. Whatever the theory may have
been, in practice Henry's supremacy over the Church was very different
from that which Kings of England had hitherto wielded; and from the
moment he entered upon his new ecclesiastical kingdom, he set (p. 378)
himself not merely to reform practical abuses, such as the excessive
wealth of the clergy, but to define the standard of orthodox faith,
and to force his subjects to embrace the royal theology. The Catholic
faith was to hold good only so far as the Supreme Head willed; the
"King's doctrine" became the rule to which "_our_ Church of England,"
as Henry styled it, was henceforth to conform; and "unity and concord
in opinion" were to be established by royal decree.
The first royal definition of the faith was embodied in ten articles
submitted to Convocation in 1536. The King was, he said, constrained
by diversity of opinions "to put his own pen to the book and conceive
certain articles... thinking that no person, having authority from
him, would presume to say a word against their meaning, or be remiss
in setting them forth".[1052] His people, he maintained, whether peer
or prelate, had no right to resist his temporal or spiritual commands,
whatever they might be. Episcopal authority had indeed sunk low. When
Convocation was opened, in 1536, a layman, Dr. William Petre,
appeared, and demanded the place of honour above all bishops and
archbishops in their assembly. Pre-eminence belonged, he said, to the
King as Supreme Head of the Church; the King had appointed Cromwell
his Vicar-general; and Cromwell had named him, Petre, his
proctor.[1053] The claim was allowed, and the submissive clergy found
little fault with the royal articles of faith, though they mentioned
only three sacraments, baptism, penance and the sacrament of the
altar, denounced the abuse of images, warned men against excessive (p. 379)
devotion to the saints, and against believing that "ceremonies have
power to remit sin," or that masses can deliver souls from purgatory.
Finally, Convocation transferred from the Pope to the Christian
princes the right to summon a General Council.[1054]
[Footnote 1052: _L. and P._, xi., 1110; _cf.
ibid._, 59, 123, 377, 954.]
[Footnote 1053: Wilkins, _Concilia_, iii., 803.]
[Footnote 1054: Fuller, _Church History_, ed. 1845,
iii., 145-59; Burnet, _Reformation_, ed. Pocock,
iv., 272-90; Strype, _Cranmer_, i., 58-62.]
With the _Institution of a Christian Man_, issued in the following
year, and commonly called _The Bishops' Book_, Henry had little to do.
The bishops debated the doctrinal questions from February to July,
1537, but the King wrote, in August, that he had had no time to
examine their conclusions.[1055] He trusted, however, to their wisdom,
and agreed that the book should be published and read to the people on
Sundays and holy-days for three years to come. In the same year he
permitted a change, which inevitably gave fresh impulse to the
reforming movement in England and destroyed every prospect of that
"union and concord in opinions," on which he set so much store. Miles
Coverdale was licensed to print an edition of his Bible in England,
with a dedication to Queen Jane Seymour; and, in 1538, a second
English version was prepared by John Rogers, under Cranmer's
authority, and published as Matthew's Bible.[1056] This was the Bible
"of the largest volume" which Cromwell, as Henry's Vicegerent, ordered
to be set up in all churches. Every incumbent was to encourage his
parishioners to read it; he was to recite the Paternoster, the Creed
and the Ten Commandments in English, that his flock might learn (p. 380)
them by degrees; he was to require some acquaintance with the
rudiments of the faith, as a necessary condition from all before they
could receive the Sacrament of the Altar; he was to preach at least
once a quarter; and to institute a register of births, marriages and
deaths.[1057]
[Footnote 1055: _L. and P._, XII., ii., 618;
Cranmer, _Works_, ii., 469; _cf._ Jenkyns,
_Cranmer_, ii., 21; and Cranmer, _Works_, ii., 83,
359, 360.]
[Footnote 1056: See the present writer's _Cranmer_,
pp. 110-13; Dixon, _Church History_, ii., 77-79.]
[Footnote 1057: See these _injunctions_ in Burnet,
iv., 341-46; Wilkins, _Concilia,_ iii., 815.]
Meanwhile, a vigorous assault was made on the strongholds of
superstition; pilgrimages were suppressed, and many wonder-working
images were pulled down and destroyed. The famous Rood of Boxley, a
figure whose contortions had once imposed on the people, was taken to
the market-place at Maidstone,[1058] and the ingenious mechanism,
whereby the eyes and lips miraculously opened and shut, was exhibited
to the vulgar gaze.[1059] Probably these little devices had already
sunk in popular esteem, for the Blood of St. Januarius could not be
treated at Naples to-day in the same cavalier fashion as the Blood of
Hailes was in England in 1538,[1060] without a riot. But the exposure
was a useful method of exciting popular indignation against the monks,
and it filled reformers with a holy joy. "Dagon," wrote one to
Bullinger, "is everywhere falling in England. Bel of Babylon has been
broken to pieces."[1061] The destruction of the images was a preliminary
skirmish in the final campaign against the monks. The Act of 1536 (p. 381)
had only granted to the King religious houses which possessed an
endowment of less than two hundred pounds a year; the dissolution of
the greater monasteries was now gradually effected by a process of
more or less voluntary surrender. In some cases the monks may have
been willing enough to go; they were loaded with debt, and harassed by
rules imposed by Cromwell, which would have been difficult to keep in
the palmiest days of monastic enthusiasm; and they may well have
thought that freedom from monastic restraint, coupled with a pension,
was a welcome relief, especially when resistance involved the anger of
the prince and liability to the penalties of elastic treasons and of a
_præmunire_ which no one could understand. So, one after another, the
great abbeys yielded to the persuasions and threats of the royal
commissioners. The dissolution of the Mendicant Orders and of the
Knights of St. John dispersed the last remnants of the papal army as
an organised force in England, though warfare of a kind continued for
many years.
[Footnote 1058: _L. and P._, XIII., i., 231, 348.]
[Footnote 1059: Father Bridgett in his _Blunders
and Forgeries_ repudiates the idea that these
"innocent toys" had been put to any superstitious
uses.]
[Footnote 1060: _L. and P._, XIII., i., 347, 564,
580; ii., 186, 409, 488, 709, 710, 856.]
[Footnote 1061: John Hoker of Maidstone to
Bullinger in Burnet (ed. Pocock, vi., 194, 195).]
These proceedings created as much satisfaction among the Lutherans of
Germany as they did disgust at Rome, and an alliance between Henry and
the Protestant princes seemed to be dictated by a community of religious,
as well as of political, interests. The friendship between Francis and
Charles threatened both English and German liberties, and it behoved
the two countries to combine against their common foe. Henry's manifesto
against the authority of the Pope to summon a General Council had been
received with rapture in Germany; at least three German editions were
printed, and the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse urged on
him the adoption of a common policy.[1062] English envoys were (p. 382)
sent to Germany with this purpose in the spring of 1538, and German
divines journeyed to England to lay the foundation of a theological
union.[1063] They remained five months, but failed to effect an
agreement.[1064] To the three points on which they desired further
reform in England, the Communion in both kinds, the abolition of
private masses and of the enforced celibacy of the clergy, Henry
himself wrote a long reply,[1065] maintaining in each case the
Catholic faith. But the conference showed that Henry was for the time
anxious to be conciliatory in religious matters, while from a political
point of view the need for an alliance grew more urgent than ever. All
Henry's efforts to break the amity between Francis and Charles had
failed; his proposals of marriage to imperial and French princesses
had come to nothing; and, in the spring of 1539, it was rumoured that
the Emperor would further demonstrate the indissolubility of his
intimacy with the French King by passing through France from Spain to
Germany, instead of going, as he had always hitherto done, by sea, or
through Italy and Austria. Cromwell seized the opportunity and
persuaded Henry to strengthen his union with the Protestant princes by
seeking a wife from a German house.
[Footnote 1062: Gairdner, _Church History_, p. 195;
_L. and P._, XII., i., 1310; ii. 1088-89.]
[Footnote 1063: _L. and P._, XIII., i., 352, 353,
367, 645, 648-50, 1102, 1166, 1295, 1305, 1437.]
[Footnote 1064: _Ibid._, XIII., ii., 741; Cranmer,
_Works_, ii., 397; Burnet, i., 408; Strype, _Eccl.
Mem._, i., App. Nos. 94-102.]
[Footnote 1065: Burnet, iv., 373.]
This policy once adopted, the task of selecting a bride was easy. As
early as 1530[1066] the old Duke of Cleves had suggested some (p. 383)
marriage alliance between his own and the royal family of England. He
was closely allied to the Elector of Saxony, who had married Sibylla,
the Duke of Cleves' daughter; and the young Duke, who was soon to
succeed his father, had also claims to the Duchy of Guelders. Guelders
was a thorn in the side of the Emperor; it stood to the Netherlands in
much the same relation as Scotland stood to England, and when there
was war between Charles and Francis Guelders had always been one of
the most useful pawns in the French King's hands. Hence an alliance
between the German princes, the King of Denmark, who had joined their
political and religious union, Guelders and England would have
seriously threatened the Emperor's hold on his Dutch dominions.[1067]
This was the step which Henry was induced to take, when he realised
that Charles's friendship with France remained unbroken, and that the
Emperor had made up his mind to visit Paris. Hints of a marriage
between Henry and Anne of Cleves[1068] were thrown out early in 1539;
the only difficulty, which subsequently proved very convenient, was
that the lady had been promised to the son of the Duke of (p. 384)
Lorraine. The objection was waived on the ground that Anne herself had
not given her consent; in view of the advantages of the match and of
the Duke's financial straits, Henry agreed to forgo a dowry; and, on
the 6th of October, the treaty of marriage was signed.[1069]
[Footnote 1066: _L. and P._, iv., 6364.]
[Footnote 1067: See the present writer in
_Cambridge Modern History_, ii., 236, 237. The Duke
of Cleves was not a Lutheran or a Protestant, as is
generally assumed. He had established a curious
Erasmian compromise between Protestantism and Roman
Catholicism, which bears some resemblance to the
ecclesiastical policy pursued by Henry VIII., and
by the Elector Joachim II. of Brandenburg; and the
marriage of Anne with Henry did not imply so great
a change in ecclesiastical policy as has usually
been supposed. The objections to it were really
more political than religious; the Schmalkaldic
League was a feeble reed to lean upon, although its
feebleness was not exposed until 1546-47.]
[Footnote 1068: _L. and P._, XIV., i., 103; _cf._
Bouterwek, _Anna von Cleve_; Merriman, _Cromwell_,
chap. xiii.; and articles on the members of the
Cleves family in the _Allgemeine Deutsche
Biographie_.]
[Footnote 1069: _L. and P._, XIV., ii., 285, 286.]
Anne of Cleves had already been described to Henry by his ambassador,
Dr. Wotton, and Holbein had been sent to paint her portrait (now in
the Louvre), which Wotton pronounced "a very lively image".[1070] She
had an oval face, long nose, chestnut eyes, a light complexion, and
very pale lips. She was thirty-four years old, and in France was
reported to be ugly; but Cromwell told the King that "every one
praised her beauty, both of face and body, and one said she excelled
the Duchess of Milan as the golden sun did the silver moon".[1071]
Wotton's account of her accomplishments was pitched in a minor key.
Her gentleness was universally commended, but she spent her time
chiefly in needlework. She knew no language but her own; she could
neither sing nor play upon any instrument, accomplishments which were
then considered by Germans to be unbecoming in a lady.[1072] On the
12th of December, 1539, she arrived at Calais; but boisterous weather
and bad tides delayed her there till the 27th. She landed at Deal (p. 385)
and rode to Canterbury. On the 30th she proceeded to Sittingbourne,
and thence, on the 31st, to Rochester, where the King met her in
disguise.[1073] If he was disappointed with her appearance, he
concealed the fact from the public eye. Nothing marred her public
reception at Greenwich on the 3rd, or was suffered to hinder the
wedding, which was solemnised three days later.[1074] Henry "lovingly
embraced and kissed" his bride in public, and allowed no hint to reach
the ears of any one but his most intimate counsellors of the fact that
he had been led willingly or unwillingly into the most humiliating
situation of his reign.
[Footnote 1070: _Ibid._, XIV., ii., 33. Holbein did
not paint a flattering portrait any more than
Wotton told a flattering tale; if Henry was
deceived in the matter it was by Cromwell's
unfortunate assurances. As a matter of fact Anne
was at least as good looking as Jane Seymour, and
Henry's taste in the matter of feminine beauty was
not of a very high order. Bishop Stubbs even
suggests that their appearance was "if not a
justification, at least a colourable reason for
understanding the readiness with which he put them
away" (_Lectures_, 1887, p. 284).]
[Footnote 1071: _L. and P._, XIV., i., 552.]
[Footnote 1072: _Ibid._, XIV., ii., 33.]
[Footnote 1073: _L. and P._, XIV., ii., 664, 674,
677, 726, 732, 753, 754, 769.]
[Footnote 1074: Hall, _Chronicle_, p. 836.]
Such was, in reality, the result of his failure to act on the
principle laid down by himself to the French ambassador two years
before. He had then declared that the choice of a wife was too
delicate a matter to be left to a deputy, and that he must see and
know a lady some time before he made up his mind to marry her. Anne of
Cleves had been selected by Cromwell, and the lady, whose beauty was,
according to Cromwell, in every one's mouth, seemed to Henry no better
than "a Flanders mare".[1075] The day after the interview at Rochester
he told Cromwell that Anne was "nothing so well as she was spoken of,"
and that, "if he had known before as much as he knew then, she should
not have come within his realm". He demanded of his Vicegerent what
remedy he had to suggest, and Cromwell had none. Next day Cranmer,
Norfolk, Suffolk, Southampton and Tunstall were called in with (p. 386)
no better result. "Is there none other remedy," repeated Henry, "but
that I must needs, against my will, put my neck in the yoke?"[1076]
Apparently there was none. The Emperor was being fêted in Paris; to
repudiate the marriage would throw the Duke of Cleves into the arms of
the allied sovereigns, alienate the German princes, and leave Henry
without a friend among the powers of Christendom. So he made up his
mind to put his neck in the yoke and to marry "the Flanders mare".
[Footnote 1075: Burnet, i., 434. The phrase appears
to have no extant contemporary authority, but
Burnet is not, as a rule, imaginative, and many
records have been destroyed since he wrote.]
[Footnote 1076: Cromwell to Henry VIII., in
Merriman, ii., 268-72.]
* * * * *
Henry, however, was never patient of matrimonial or other yokes, and
it was quite certain that, as soon as he could do so without serious
risk, he would repudiate his unattractive wife, and probably other
things besides. For Anne's defects were only the last straw added to
the burden which Henry bore. He had not only been forced by
circumstances into marriage with a wife who was repugnant to him, but
into a religious and secular policy which he and the mass of his
subjects disliked. The alliance with the Protestant princes might be a
useful weapon if things came to the worst, and if there were a joint
attack on England by Francis and Charles; but, on its merits, it was
not to be compared to a good understanding with the Emperor; and Henry
would have no hesitation in throwing over the German princes when once
he saw his way to a renewal of friendship with Charles. He would
welcome, even more, a relief from the necessity of paying attention to
German divines. He had never wavered in his adhesion to the cardinal
points of the Catholic faith. He had no enmity to Catholicism, provided
it did not stand in his way. The spiritual jurisdiction of Rome (p. 387)
had been abolished in England because it imposed limits on Henry's own
authority. Some of the powers of the English clergy had been destroyed,
partly for a similar reason, and partly as a concession to the laity.
But the purely spiritual claims of the Church remained unimpaired; the
clergy were still a caste, separate from other men, and divinely
endowed with the power of performing a daily miracle in the conversion
of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Even
when the Protestant alliance seemed most indispensable, Henry
endeavoured to convince Lutherans of the truth of the Catholic
doctrine of the mass, and could not refrain from persecuting heretics
with a zeal that shook the confidence of his reforming allies. His
honour, he thought, was involved in his success in proving that he,
with his royal supremacy, could defend the faith more effectively than
the Pope, with all his pretended powers; and he took a personal
interest in the conversion and burning of heretics. Several instances
are recorded of his arguing a whole day with Sacramentaries,[1077]
exercises which exhibited to advantage at once the royal authority and
the royal learning in spiritual matters. His beliefs were not due to
caprice or to ignorance; probably no bishop in his realm was more
deeply read in heterodox theology.[1078] He was constantly on the (p. 388)
look-out for books by Luther and other heresiarchs, and he kept quite
a respectable theological library at hand for private use. The
tenacity with which he clung to orthodox creeds and Catholic forms was
not only strengthened by study but rooted in the depths of his
character. To devout but fundamentally irreligious men, like Henry
VIII. and Louis XIV., rites and ceremonies are a great consolation;
and Henry seldom neglected to creep to the Cross on Good Friday, to
serve the priest at mass, to receive holy bread and holy water every
Sunday, and daily to use "all other laudable ceremonies".[1079]
[Footnote 1077: _E.g._, _L. and P._, v., 285;
XIII., ii., 849, Introd., p. xxviii. Sir John
Wallop admired the "charitable dexterity" with
which Henry treated them (_ibid._, xv., 429).]
[Footnote 1078: When a book was presented to him
which he had not the patience to read he handed it
over to one of his lords-in-waiting to read; he
then took it back and gave it to be examined to
some one of an entirely different way of thinking,
and made the two discuss its merits, and upon that
discussion formed his own opinion (Cranmer to
Wolfgang Capito, _Works_, ii., 341; the King, says
Cranmer, "is a most acute and vigilant observer").
Henry was also, according to modern standards,
extraordinarily patient of theological discourses;
when Cranmer obtained for Latimer an appointment to
preach at Court, he advised him not to preach more
than an hour or an hour and a half lest the King
and Queen should grow weary! (_L. and P._, vii.,
29).]
[Footnote 1079: _L. and P._, XIV., i., 967, an
interesting letter which also records how the King
rowed up and down the Thames in his barge for an
hour after evensong on Holy Thursday "with his
drums and fifes playing".]
With such feelings at heart, a union with Protestants could never for
Henry be more than a _mariage de convenance_; and in this, as in other
things, he carried with him the bulk of popular sympathy. In 1539 it
was said that no man in London durst speak against Catholic usages,
and, in Lent of that year, a man was hanged, apparently at the
instance of the Recorder of London, for eating flesh on a Friday.[1080]
The attack on the Church had been limited to its privileges and to its
property; its doctrine had scarcely been touched. The upper classes
among the laity had been gorged with monastic spoils; they were
disposed to rest and be thankful. The middle classes had been (p. 389)
satisfied to some extent by the restriction of clerical fees, and by
the prohibition of the clergy from competing with laymen in profitable
trades, such as brewing, tanning, and speculating in land and houses.
There was also the general reaction which always follows a period of
change. How far that reaction had gone, Henry first learnt from the
Parliament which met on the 28th of April, 1539.
[Footnote 1080: _Ibid._, i., 967. This had been
made a capital offence as early as the days of
Charlemagne (Gibbon, ed. 1890, iii., 450 n.).]
The elections were characterised by more court interference than is
traceable at any other period during the reign, though even on this
occasion the evidence is fragmentary and affects comparatively few
constituencies.[1081] It was, moreover, Cromwell and not the King who
sought to pack the House of Commons in favour of his own particular
policy; and the attempt produced discontent in various constituencies
and a riot in one at least.[1082] The Earl of Southampton was (p. 390)
required to use his influence on behalf of Cromwell's nominees at
Farnham, although that borough was within the Bishop of Winchester's
preserves.[1083] So, too, Cromwell's henchman, Wriothesley, was
returned for the county of Southampton in spite of Gardiner's
opposition. Never, till the days of the Stuarts, was there a more
striking instance of the futility of these tactics; for the House of
Commons, which Cromwell took so much pains to secure, passed, without
a dissentient, the Bill of Attainder against him; and before it was
dissolved, the bishop, against whose influence Cromwell had especially
exerted himself, had taken Cromwell's place in the royal favour. There
was, indeed, no possibility of stemming the tide which was flowing
against the Vicegerent and in favour of the King; and Cromwell was
forced to swim with the stream in the vain hope of saving himself from
disaster.
[Footnote 1081: In 1536 Henry had sent round a
circular to the sheriffs; but its main object was
to show that another Parliament was indispensable,
to persuade the people that "their charge and time,
which will be very little and short, would be well
spent," and to secure "that persons are elected who
will serve, and for their worship and qualities be
most meet for this purpose" (_L. and P._, x., 815).
The sheriffs in fact were simply to see that the
burden was placed on those able and willing to bear
it. The best illustration of the methods adopted
and of the amount of liberty of election exercised
by the constituents may be found in Southampton's
letter to Cromwell (_ibid._, XIV., i., 520). At
Guildford he told the burgesses they must return
two members, which would be a great charge to the
town, "but that if they followed my advice it would
cost little or nothing, for I would provide able
men to supply the room". They said that one Daniel
Modge wanted one of the seats, but Southampton
might arrange for the other. About the Sussex
election he was doubtful, but various friends had
promised to do their parts. Farnham, he said,
returned burgesses (though it does not appear in
the _Official Return_), but that was the bishop's
town, "and my Lord Chamberlain is his steward
there; so I forbear to meddle".]
[Footnote 1082: _L. and P._, XIV., i., 662, 800,
808. By a singular fatality the returns for this
Parliament have been lost, so there is no means of
ascertaining how many of these nominees were
actually elected.]
[Footnote 1083: _Ibid._, XIV., i., 573, and
"although he fears my lord of Winchester has
already moved men after his own desires". He also
spoke with Lord St. John about knights of the shire
for Hampshire, and St. John "promised to do his
best". Finally he enclosed a "schedule of the best
men of the country picked out _by them_, that
Cromwell may pick whom he would have chosen".]
The principal measure passed in this Parliament was the Act of Six
Articles, and it was designed to secure that unity and concord in
opinions which had not been effected by the King's injunctions. The
Act affirmed the doctrine of Transubstantiation, declared that the
administration of the Sacrament in both kinds was not necessary, that
priests might not marry, that vows of chastity were perpetual, that
private masses were meet and necessary, and auricular confession (p. 391)
was expedient and necessary. Burning was the penalty for once denying
the first article, and a felon's death for twice denying any of the
others. This was practically the first Act of Uniformity, the earliest
definition by Parliament of the faith of the Church. It showed that
the mass of the laity were still orthodox to the core, that they could
persecute as ruthlessly as the Church itself, and that their only
desire was to do the persecution themselves. The bill was carried
through Parliament by means of a coalition of King and laity[1084]
against Cromwell and a minority of reforming bishops, who are said
only to have relinquished their opposition at Henry's personal
intervention;[1085] and the royal wishes were communicated, when the
King was not present in person, through Norfolk and not through the
royal Vicegerent.
[Footnote 1084: "We of the temporality," writes a
peer, "have been all of one mind" (_L. and P._,
XIV., i., 1040; Burnet, vi., 233; _Narratives of
the Reformation_, p. 248).]
[Footnote 1085: See the present writer's _Cranmer_,
p. 129 n. Cranmer afterwards asserted (_Works_,
ii., 168) that the Act would never have passed
unless the King had come personally into the
Parliament house, but that is highly improbable.]
It was clear that Cromwell was trembling to his fall. The enmity shown
in Parliament to his doctrinal tendencies was not the result of royal
dictation; for even this Parliament, which gave royal proclamations
the force of law, could be independent when it chose. The draft of the
Act of Proclamations, as originally submitted to the House of Commons,
provoked a hot debate, was thrown out, and another was substituted
more in accord with the sense of the House.[1086] Parliament could
have rejected the second as easily as it did the first, had it (p. 392)
wished. Willingly and wittingly it placed this weapon in the royal
hands,[1087] and the chief motive for its action was that overwhelming
desire for "union and concord in opinion" which lay at the root of the
Six Articles. Only one class of offences against royal proclamations
could be punished with death, and those were offences "against any
proclamation to be made by the King's Highness, his heirs or successors,
for or concerning any kind of heresies against Christian doctrine".
The King might define the faith by proclamations, and the standard of
orthodoxy thus set up was to be enforced by the heaviest legal
penalties. England, thought Parliament, could only be kept united
against her foreign foes by a rigid uniformity of opinion; and that
uniformity could only be enforced by the royal authority based on lay
support, for the Church was now deeply divided in doctrine against
itself.
[Footnote 1086: Husee (_L. and P._, XIV., i., 1158)
says the House had been fifteen days over this
bill; _cf. Lords' Journals_, 1539.]
[Footnote 1087: Parliament is sometimes represented
as having almost committed constitutional suicide
by this Act; but _cf._ Dicey, _Law and Custom of
the Constitution_, p. 357, "Powers, however
extraordinary, which are conferred or sanctioned by
statute, are never really unlimited, for they are
confined by the words of the Act itself, and what
is more by the interpretation put upon the statute
by the judges". There was a world of difference
between this and the prerogative independent of
Parliament claimed by the Stuarts. Parliament was
the foundation, not the rival, of Henry's
authority.]
Such was the temper of England at the end of 1539. Cromwell and his
policy, the union with the German princes and the marriage with Anne
of Cleves were merely makeshifts. They stood on no surer foundation
than the passing political need of some counterpoise to the alliance
of Francis and Charles. So long as that need remained, the marriage
would hold good, and Henry would strive to dissemble; but not a moment
longer. The revolution came with startling rapidity; in April, (p. 393)
1540, Marillac, the French ambassador, reported that Cromwell was
tottering.[1088] The reason was not far to seek. No sooner had the
Emperor passed out of France, than he began to excuse himself from
fulfilling his engagements to Francis. He was resolute never to yield
Milan, for which Francis never ceased to yearn. Charles would have
found Francis a useful ally for the conquest of England, but his own
possessions were now threatened in more than one quarter, and especially
by the English and German alliance. Henry skilfully widened the breach
between the two friends, and, while professing the utmost regard for
Francis, gave Charles to understand that he vastly preferred the
Emperor's alliance to that of the Protestant princes. Before April he
had convinced himself that Charles was more bent on reducing Germany
and the Netherlands to order than on any attempt against England, and
that the abandonment of the Lutheran princes would not lead to their
combination with the Emperor and Francis. Accordingly he returned a
very cold answer when the Duke of Cleves's ambassadors came, in May,
to demand his assistance in securing for the Duke the Duchy of
Guelders.[1089]
[Footnote 1088: _L. and P._, xv., 486.]
[Footnote 1089: _Ibid._, xv., 735.]
Cromwell's fall was not, however, effected without some violent
oscillations, strikingly like the quick changes which preceded the
ruin of Robespierre during the Reign of Terror in France. The Vicegerent
had filled the Court and the Government with his own nominees; at
least half a dozen bishops, with Cranmer at their head, inclined to
his theological and political views; Lord Chancellor Audley and the
Earl of Southamton were of the same persuasion; and a small but (p. 394)
zealous band of reformers did their best, by ballads and sermons, to
prove that the people were thirsting for further religious change. The
Council, said Marillac, was divided, each party seeking to destroy the
other. Henry let the factions fight till he thought the time was come
for him to intervene. In February, 1540, there was a theological encounter
between Gardiner and Barnes, the principal agent in Henry's dealings
with the Lutherans, and Barnes was forced to recant;[1090] in April
Gardiner and one or two conservatives, who had long been excluded from
the Council, were believed to have been readmitted;[1091] and it was
reported that Tunstall would succeed Cromwell as the King's
Vicegerent.[1092] But a few days later two of Cromwell's satellites,
Wriothesley and Sadleir, were made Secretaries of State; Cromwell
himself was created Earl of Essex; and, in May, the Bishop of
Chichester and two other opponents of reform were sent to the
Tower.[1093] At last Henry struck. On the 10th of June Cromwell was
arrested; he had, wrote the Council, "not only been counterworking the
King's aims for the settlement of religion, but had said that, if the
King and the realm varied from his opinions, he would withstand them,
and that he hoped in another year or two to bring things to that frame
that the King could not resist it".[1094] His cries for mercy evoked
no response in that hardened age.[1095] Parliament condemned him
unheard, and, on the 28th of July, he was beheaded.
[Footnote 1090: _L. and P._, xv., 306, 312, 334.]
[Footnote 1091: _Ibid._, xv., 486, 804.]
[Footnote 1092: _Ibid._, XIV., ii., 141.]
[Footnote 1093: _Ibid._, xv., 737.]
[Footnote 1094: Burnet, iv., 415-23; _L. and P._,
xv., 765-67.]
[Footnote 1095: Merriman, _Cromwell_, ii., 268,
273.]
Henry had in reality come to the conclusion that it was safe to (p. 395)
dispense with Anne of Cleves and her relatives; and with his will
there was easily found a way. His case, as stated by himself, was, as
usual, a most ingenious mixture of fact and fiction, reason and
sophistry. His "intention" had been defective, and therefore his
administration of the sacrament of marriage had been invalid. He was
not a free agent because fear of being left defenceless against
Francis and Charles had driven him under the yoke. His marriage had
only been a conditional form. Anne had never received a release from
her contract with the son of the Duke of Lorraine; Henry had only gone
through the ceremony on the assumption that that release would be
forthcoming; and actuated by this conscientious scruple, he had
refrained from consummating the match. To give verisimilitude to this
last statement, he added the further detail that he found his bride
personally repugnant. He therefore sought from "our" Church a
declaration of nullity. Anne was prudently ready to submit to its
decision; and, through Convocation, Henry's Church, which in his view
existed mainly to transact his ecclesiastical business, declared, on
the 7th of July, that the marriage was null and void.[1096] Anne
received a handsome endowment of four thousand pounds a year in lands,
was given two country residences, and lived on amicable terms with
Henry[1097] and his successors till 1558, when she died and was buried
in Westminster Abbey.
[Footnote 1096: For the canonical reasons on which
this decision was based, see the present writer's
_Cranmer_, pp. 140, 141.]
[Footnote 1097: "She is," writes Marillac in
August, "as joyous as ever, and wears new dresses
every day" (xv., 976; _cf._ Wriothesley
_Chronicle_, i., 120).]
Henry's neck was freed from the matrimonial yoke and the German (p. 396)
entanglement. The news was promptly sent to Charles, who remarked that
Henry would always find him his loving brother and most cordial
friend.[1098] At Antwerp it was said that the King had alienated the
Germans, but gained the Emperor and France in their stead.[1099]
Luther declared that "Junker Harry meant to be God and to do as
pleased himself";[1100] and Melancthon, previously so ready to find
excuses, now denounced the English King as a Nero, and expressed a
wish that God would put it into the mind of some bold man to
assassinate him.[1101] Francis sighed when he heard the news,
foreseeing a future alliance against him,[1102] but the Emperor's
secretary believed that God was bringing good out of all these
things.[1103]
[Footnote 1098: _L. and P._, xv., 863.]
[Footnote 1099: _Ibid._, xv., 932.]
[Footnote 1100: _Ibid._, xvi., 106.]
[Footnote 1101: _Ibid._, xvi., Introd., p. ii. n.]
[Footnote 1102: _Ibid._, xv., 870.]
[Footnote 1103: _Ibid._, xv., 951.]
CHAPTER XV. (p. 397)
THE FINAL STRUGGLE.
The first of the "good things" brought out of the divorce of Anne of
Cleves was a fifth wife for the much-married monarch. Parliament,
which had petitioned Henry to solve the doubts troubling his subjects
as to the validity (that is to say, political advantages) of his union
with Anne, now besought him, "for the good of his people," to enter
once more the holy state of matrimony, in the hope of more numerous
issue. The lady had been already selected by the predominant party,
and used as an instrument in procuring the divorce of her predecessor
and the fall of Cromwell; for, if her morals were something lax,
Catherine Howard's orthodoxy was beyond dispute. She was niece of
Cromwell's great enemy, the Duke of Norfolk; and it was at the house
of Bishop Gardiner that she was first given the opportunity of
subduing the King to her charms.[1104] She was to play the part in the
Catholic reaction that Anne Boleyn had done in the Protestant
revolution. Both religious parties were unfortunate in the choice of
their lady protagonists. Catherine Howard's father, in spite of his
rank, was very penurious, and his daughter's education had been
neglected, while her character had been left at the mercy of any (p. 398)
chance tempter. She had already formed compromising relations with
three successive suitors. Her music master, Mannock, boasted that she
had promised to be his mistress; a kinsman, named Dereham, called her
his wife; and she was reported to be engaged to her cousin,
Culpepper.[1105] Marillac thought her beauty was commonplace;[1106]
but that, to judge by her portraits, seems a disparaging verdict. Her
eyes were hazel, her hair was auburn, and Nature had been at least as
kind to her as to any of Henry's wives. Even Marillac admitted that
she had a very winning countenance. Her age is uncertain, but she had
almost certainly seen more than the twenty-one years politely put down
to her account. Her marriage, like that of Anne Boleyn, was private.
Marillac thought she was already wedded to Henry by the 21st of July,
and the Venetian ambassador at the Court of Charles V. said that the
ceremony took place two days after the sentence of Convocation (7th
July).[1107] That may be the date of the betrothal, but the marriage
itself was privately celebrated at Oatlands on the 28th of July,[1108]
and Catherine was publicly recognised as Queen at Hampton Court (p. 399)
on the 8th of August, and prayed for as such in the churches on the
following Sunday.
[Footnote 1104: _Original Letters_, Parker Society,
i., 202. _cf. L. and P._, xv., 613 [12].
Winchester, says Marillac, "was one of the
principal authors of this last marriage, which led
to the ruin of Cromwell" (_ibid._, xvi., 269).]
[Footnote 1105: _L. and P._, xvi., 1334.]
[Footnote 1106: So says the _D.N.B._, ix., 308;
but in _L. and P._, xv., 901, Marillac describes
her as "a lady of great beauty," and in xvi., 1366,
he speaks of her "beauty and sweetness".]
[Footnote 1107: _Venetian Cal._, v., 222.]
[Footnote 1108: This is the date given by Dr.
Gairdner in _D.N.B._, ix., 304, and is probably
correct, though Dr. Gairdner himself gives 8th
August in his _Church History_, 1902, p. 218.
Wriothesley (_Chron._, i., 121) also says 8th
August, but Hall (_Chron._, p. 840) is nearer the
truth when he says: "The eight day of August was
the Lady Katharine Howard... _shewed openly as
Queen_ at Hampton court". The original authority
for the 28th July is the 3rd Rep. of the Deputy
Keeper of Records, App. ii., 264, _viz._, the
official record of her trial.]
The King was thoroughly satisfied with his new marriage from every
point of view. The reversal of the policy of the last few years, which
he had always disliked and for which he avoided responsibility as well
as he could, relieved him at once from the necessity of playing a part
and from the pressing anxiety of foreign dangers. These troubles had
preyed upon his mind and impaired his health; but now, for a time, his
spirits revived and his health returned. He began to rise every
morning, even in the winter, between five and six, and rode for four
or five hours. He was enamoured of his bride; her views and those of
her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, and of her patron, Bishop Gardiner,
were in much closer accord with his own than Anne Boleyn's or
Cromwell's had been. Until almost the close of his reign Norfolk was
the chief instrument of his secular policy, while Gardiner represented
his ecclesiastical views;[1109] but neither succeeded to the place
which Wolsey had held and Cromwell had tried to secure. Henceforth the
King had no Prime Minister; there was no second Vicegerent, and the
praise or the blame for his policy can be given to no one but Henry.
[Footnote 1109: It was popularly thought that Henry
called Gardiner "his own bishop" (_L. and P._,
XIV., i., 662).]
That policy was, in foreign affairs, a close adherence to the Emperor,
partly because it was almost universally held to be the safest course
for England to pursue, and partly because it gave Henry a free hand
for the development of his imperialist designs on Scotland. In domestic
affairs the predominant note was the extreme rigour with which the
King's secular autocracy, his supremacy over the Church, and the (p. 400)
Church's orthodox doctrine were imposed on his subjects. Although the
Act of Six Articles had been passed in 1539, Cromwell appears to have
prevented the issue of commissions for its execution. This culpable
negligence did not please Parliament, and, just before his fall,
another Act was passed for the more effective enforcement of the Six
Articles. One relaxation was found necessary; it was impossible to
inflict the death penalty on "incontinent"[1110] priests, because
there were so many. But that was the only indulgence granted. Two days
after Cromwell's death, a vivid illustration was given of the spirit
which was henceforth to dominate the Government. Six men were executed
at the same time; three were priests, condemned to be hanged as
traitors for denying the royal supremacy; three were heretics,
condemned to be burnt for impugning the Catholic faith.[1111]
[Footnote 1110: 32 Henry VIII., c. 10. Married
priests of course would come under this opprobrious
title.]
[Footnote 1111: Wriothesley, _Chron._, i., 120,
121.]
And yet there was no peace. Henry, who had succeeded in so much, had,
with the full concurrence of the majority of his people, entered upon
a task in which he was foredoomed to failure. Not all the whips with
six strings, not all the fires at Smithfield, could compel that unity
and concord in opinion which Henry so much desired, but which he had
unwittingly done so much to destroy. He might denounce the diversities
of belief to which his opening of the Bible in English churches had
given rise; but men, who had caught a glimpse of hidden verities,
could not all be forced to deny the things which they had seen. The
most lasting result of Henry's repressive tyranny was the stimulus it
gave to reform in the reign of his son, even as the persecutions (p. 401)
of Mary finally ruined in England the cause of the Roman Church.
Henry's bishops themselves could scarcely be brought to agreement.
Latimer and Shaxton lost their sees; but the submission of the rest
did not extend to complete recantation, and the endeavour to stretch
all his subjects on the Procrustean bed of Six Articles was one of
Henry's least successful enterprises.[1112] It was easier to sacrifice
a portion of his monastic spoils to found new bishoprics. This had
been a project of Wolsey's, interrupted by the Cardinal's fall.
Parliament subsequently authorised Henry to erect twenty-six sees; he
actually established six, the Bishoprics of Peterborough, Oxford,
Chester, Gloucester, Bristol and Westminster. Funds were also provided
for the endowment, in both universities, of Regius professorships of
Divinity, Hebrew, Greek, Civil Law and Medicine; and the royal
interest in the advancement of science was further evinced by the
grant of a charter to the College of Surgeons, similar to that
accorded early in the reign to the Physicians.[1113]
[Footnote 1112: Henry soon recognised this himself,
and a year after the Act was passed he ordered that
"no further persecution should take place for
religion, and that those in prison should be set at
liberty on finding security for their appearance
when called for" (_L. and P._, xvi., 271). Cranmer
himself wrote that "within a year or a little more"
Henry "was fain to temper his said laws, and
moderate them in divers points; so that the Statute
of Six Articles continued in force little above the
space of one year" (_Works_, ii., 168). The idea
that from 1539 to 1547 there was a continuous and
rigorous persecution is a legend derived from Foxe;
there were outbursts of rigour in 1540, 1543, and
1546, but except for these the Six Articles
remained almost a dead letter (see _L. and P._,
XVIII., i., Introd., p. xlix.; pt. ii., Introd., p.
xxxiv.; _Original Letters_, Parker Society, ii.,
614, 627; Dixon, _Church Hist._, vol. ii., chaps,
x., xi.).]
[Footnote 1113: In 1518 (_L. and P._, ii., 4450).]
Disloyalty, meanwhile, was no more extinct than diversity in (p. 402)
religious opinion. Early in 1541 there was a conspiracy under Sir John
Neville, in Lincolnshire, and about the same time there were signs
that the Council itself could not be immediately steadied after the
violent disturbances of the previous year. Pate, the ambassador at the
Emperor's Court, absconded to Rome in fear of arrest, and his uncle,
Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, was for a time in confinement; Sir John
Wallop, Sir Thomas Wyatt, diplomatist and poet, and his secretary, the
witty and cautious Sir John Mason, were sent to the Tower; both
Cromwell's henchmen, Wriothesley and Sadleir, seem to have incurred
suspicion.[1114] Wyatt, Wallop and Mason were soon released, while
Wriothesley and Sadleir regained favour by abjuring their former
opinions; but it was evident that the realisation of arbitrary power
was gradually destroying Henry's better nature. His suspicion was
aroused on the slightest pretext, and his temper was getting worse.
Ill-health contributed not a little to this frame of mind. The ulcer
on his leg caused him such agony that he sometimes went almost black
in the face and speechless from pain.[1115] He was beginning to look
grey and old, and was growing daily more corpulent and unwieldy. He
had, he said, on hearing of Neville's rebellion, an evil people to
rule; he would, he vowed, make them so poor that it would be out of
their power to rebel; and, before he set out for the North to
extinguish the discontent and to arrange a meeting with James V., he
cleared the Tower by sending all its prisoners, including the aged (p. 403)
Countess of Salisbury, to the block.
[Footnote 1114: _L. and P._, xvi., 449, 461, 466,
467, 469, 470, 474, 482, 488, 506, 523, 534, 611,
640, 641; _cf._ the present writer in _D.N.B._, on
Mason and Wriothesley.]
[Footnote 1115: _Ibid._, XIV., ii., 142; xvi., 121,
311, 558, 589, 590; _D.N.B._, xxvi., 89.]
A greater trial than the failure of James to accept his invitation to
York awaited Henry on his return from the North. Rumours of Catherine
Howard's past indiscretions had at length reached the ears of the
Privy Council. On All Saints' Day, 1541, Henry directed his confessor,
the Bishop of Lincoln, to give thanks to God with him for the good
life he was leading and hoped to lead with his present Queen,[1116]
"after sundry troubles of mind which had happened to him by
marriages".[1117] At last he thought he had reached the haven of
domestic peace, whence no roving fancy should tempt him to stray.
Twenty-four hours later Cranmer put in his hand proofs of the Queen's
misconduct. Henry refused to believe in this rude awakening from his
dreams; he ordered a strict investigation into the charges. Its
results left no room for doubt. Dereham confessed his intercourse;
Mannock admitted that he had taken liberties; and, presently, the
Queen herself acknowledged her guilt. The King was overwhelmed with
shame and vexation; he shed bitter tears, a thing, said the Council,
"strange in his courage". He "has wonderfully felt the case of the
Queen," wrote Chapuys;[1118] "he took such grief," added Marillac,
"that of late it was thought he had gone mad".[1119] He seems to have
promised his wife a pardon, and she might have escaped with nothing
worse than a divorce, had not proofs come to light of her misconduct
with Culpepper after her marriage with Henry, and even during their
recent progress in the North. This offence was high treason, and (p. 404)
could not be covered by the King's pardon for Catherine's pre-nuptial
immorality. Henry, however, was not at ease until Parliament, in
January, 1542, considerately relieved him of all responsibility. The
faithful Lords and Commons begged him not to take the matter too
heavily, but to permit them freely to proceed with an Act of Attainder,
and to give his assent thereto by commission under the great seal
without any words or ceremony, which might cause him pain. Thus
originated the practice of giving the royal assent to Acts of
Parliament by commission.[1120] Another innovation was introduced into
the Act of Attainder, whereby it was declared treason for any woman to
marry the King if her previous life had been unchaste; "few, if any,
ladies now at Court," commented the cynical Chapuys, "would henceforth
aspire to such an honour".[1121] The bill received the royal assent on
the 11th of February, Catherine having declined Henry's permission to
go down to Parliament and defend herself in person. On the 10th she
was removed to the Tower, being dressed in black velvet and treated
with "as much honour as when she was reigning".[1122] Three days later
she was beheaded on the same spot where the sword had severed the fair
neck of Anne Boleyn.
[Footnote 1116: _L. and P._, xvi., 1334.]
[Footnote 1117: Herbert, _Life and Reign_, ed.
1672, p. 534.]
[Footnote 1118: _Ibid._, xvi., 1403.]
[Footnote 1119: _Ibid._, xvi., 1426.]
[Footnote 1120: _Lords' Journals_, pp. 171, 176.]
[Footnote 1121: _L. and P._, xvii., 124.]
[Footnote 1122: _Ibid._]
Thus ended one of the "good things" which had come out of the
repudiation of Anne of Cleves. Other advantages were more permanent.
The breach between Francis and Charles grew ever wider. In 1541 the
French King's ambassadors to the Turk were seized and executed by (p. 405)
the order of the imperial governor of Milan.[1123] The outrage brought
Francis's irritation to a head. He was still pursuing the shadow of a
departed glory and the vain hope of dominion beyond the Alps. He had
secured none of the benefits he anticipated from the imperial
alliance; his interviews with Charles and professions of friendship
were lost on that heartless schemer, and he realised the force of
Henry's gibe at his expectations from Charles. "I have myself," said
Henry, "held interviews for three weeks together with the Emperor."
Both sovereigns began to compete for England's favour. The French,
said Chapuys, "now almost offer the English _carte blanche_ for an
alliance";[1124] and he told Charles that England must, at any price,
be secured in the imperial interest. In June, 1542, Francis declared
war on the Emperor, and, by the end of July, four French armies were
invading or threatening Charles's dominions. Henry, in spite of all
temptations, was not to be the tool of either; he had designs of his
own; and the breach between Francis and Charles gave him a unique
opportunity for completing his imperialist projects, by extending his
sway over the one portion of the British Isles which yet remained
independent.
[Footnote 1123: _L. and P._, xvi., 984, 991, 1042.]
[Footnote 1124: _Ibid._, xvii., 124.]
* * * * *
As in the case of similar enterprises, Henry could easily find
colourable pretexts for his attack on Scots independence.[1125] Beton
had been made cardinal with the express objects of publishing in
Scotland the Pope's Bull against Henry, and of instigating James (p. 406)
V. to undertake its execution; and the Cardinal held a high place in
the Scots King's confidence. James had intrigued against England with
both Charles V. and Francis I., and hopes had been instilled into his
mind that he had only to cross the Border to be welcomed, at least in
the North, as a deliverer from Henry's oppression. Refugees from the
Pilgrimage of Grace found shelter in Scotland, and the ceaseless
Border warfare might, at any time, have provided either King with a
case for war, if war he desired. The desire varied, of course, with
the prospects of success. James V. would, without doubt, have invaded
England if Francis and Charles had begun an attack, and if a general
crusade had been proclaimed against Henry. So, too, war between the
two European rivals afforded Henry some chance of success, and placed
in his way an irresistible temptation to settle his account with
Scotland. He revived the obsolete claim to suzerainty, and pretended
that the Scots were rebels.[1126] Had not James V., moreover, refused
to meet him at York to discuss the questions at issue between them?
Henry might well have maintained that he sought no extension of
territory, but was actuated solely by the desire to remove the (p. 407)
perpetual menace to England involved in the presence of a foe on
his northern Borders, in close alliance with his inveterate enemy
across the Channel. He seems, indeed, to have been willing to conclude
peace, if the Scots would repudiate their ancient connection with
France; but this they considered the sheet-anchor of their safety, and
they declined to destroy it. They gave Henry greater offence by
defeating an English raid at Halidon Rig, and the desire to avenge a
trifling reverse became a point of honour in the English mind and a
powerful factor in English policy.
[Footnote 1125: For relations with Scotland see the
_Hamilton Papers_, 2 vols., 1890-92; Thorp's
_Scottish Calendar_, vol. i., 1858, and the much
more satisfactory _Calendar_ edited by Bain, 1898.
A few errors in the _Hamilton Papers_ are pointed
out in _L. and P._, vols. xvi.-xix.]
[Footnote 1126: This had been asserted by Henry as
early as 1524; Scotland was only to be included in
the peace negotiations of that year as "a fief of
the King of England"; it was to be recognised that
_supremum ejus dominium_ belonged to Henry, as did
the guardianship of James and government of the
kingdom during his minority (_Sp. Cal._, ii., 680).
For the assertion of supremacy in 1543 see the
present writer's _England under Somerset_, p. 173;
_L. and P._, xvii., 1033. In 1527 Mendoza declared
that all wise people in England preferred a project
for marrying the Princess Mary to James V. to her
betrothal to Francis I. or the Dauphin (_Sp. Cal._,
iii., 156) and that the Scots match was the one
really intended by Henry (_ibid._, p. 192; _cf. L.
and P._, v., 1078, 1286).]
The negotiations lasted throughout the summer of 1542. In October
Norfolk crossed the Borders. The transport broke down; the commissariat
was most imperfect; and Sir George Lawson of Cumberland was unable to
supply the army with sufficient beer.[1127] Norfolk had to turn back
at Kelso, having accomplished nothing beyond devastation.[1128] James
now sought his revenge. He replied to Norfolk's invasion on the East
by throwing the Scots across the Borders on the West. The Warden was
warned by his spies, but he had only a few hundreds to meet the
thousands of Scots. But, if Norfolk's invasion was an empty parade,
the Scots attempt was a fearful rout. Under their incompetent leader,
Oliver Sinclair, they got entangled in Solway Moss; enormous numbers
were slain or taken prisoners, and among them were some of the greatest
men in Scotland. James died broken-hearted at the news, leaving his
kingdom to the week-old infant, Mary, Queen of Scots.[1129] The triumph
of Flodden Field was repeated; a second Scots King had fallen; (p. 408)
and, for a second time in Henry's reign, Scotland was a prey to the
woes of a royal minority.
[Footnote 1127: _L. and P._, xvii., 731, 754, 771.]
[Footnote 1128: _Ibid._, xvii., 996-98, 1000-1,
1037.]
[Footnote 1129: See _Hamilton Papers_, vol. i., pp.
lxxxiii.-vi.; and the present writer in _D.N.B.,
s.v._ "Wharton, Thomas," who commanded the
English.]
Within a few days of the Scots disaster, Lord Lisle (afterwards Duke
of Northumberland) expressed a wish that the infant Queen were in
Henry's hands and betrothed to Prince Edward, and a fear that the
French would seek to remove her beyond the seas.[1130] To realise the
hope and to prevent the fear were the main objects of Henry's foreign
policy for the rest of his reign. Could he but have secured the
marriage of Mary to Edward, he would have carried both England and
Scotland many a weary stage along the path to Union and to Empire.
But, unfortunately, he was not content with this brilliant prospect
for his son. He grasped himself at the Scottish crown; he must be not
merely a suzerain shadow, but a real sovereign. The Scottish peers,
who had been taken at Solway Moss, were sworn to Henry VIII., "to set
forth his Majesty's title that he had to the realm of Scotland".[1131]
Early in 1543 an official declaration was issued, "containing the just
causes and considerations of this present war with the Scots, wherein
also appeareth the true and right title that the King's most royal
Majesty hath to the sovereignty of Scotland"; while Parliament
affirmed that "the late pretensed King of Scots was but an usurper of
the crown and realm of Scotland," and that Henry had "now at this
present (by the infinite goodness of God), a time apt and propice for
the recovery of his said right and title to the said crown and realm
of Scotland".[1132] The promulgation of these high-sounding pretensions
was fatal to the cause which Henry had at heart. Henry VII. had (p. 409)
pursued the earlier and wiser part of the Scottish policy of Edward
I., namely, union by marriage; Henry VIII. resorted to his later
policy and strove to change a vague suzerainty into a defined and
galling sovereignty. Seeing no means of resisting the victorious
English arms, the Scots in March, 1543, agreed to the marriage between
Henry's son and their infant Queen. But to admit Henry's extravagant
claims to Scottish sovereignty was quite a different matter. The mere
mention of them was sufficient to excite distrust and patriotic
resentment. The French Catholic party led by Cardinal Beton was
strengthened, and, when Francis declared that he would never desert
his ancient ally, and gave an earnest of his intentions by sending
ships and money and men to their aid, the Scots repudiated their
compact with England, and entered into negotiations for marrying their
Queen to a prince in France.[1133]
[Footnote 1130: _L. and P._, xvii., 1221, 1233.]
[Footnote 1131: Wriothesley, _Chron._, i., 140.]
[Footnote 1132: 35 Hen. VIII., c. 27.]
[Footnote 1133: _L. and P._, vol. xviii.,
_passim_.]
Such a danger to England must at all costs be averted. Marriages
between Scots kings and French princesses had never boded good to
England; but the marriage of the Queen of Scotland to a French prince,
and possibly to one who might succeed to the French throne, transcended
all the other perils with which England could be threatened. The union
of the Scots and French crowns would have destroyed the possibility of
a British Empire. Henry had sadly mismanaged the business through
vaulting ambition, but there was little fault to be found with his
efforts to prevent the union of France and Scotland; and that was the
real objective of his last war with France. His aim was not mere
military glory or the conquest of France, as it had been in his (p. 410)
earlier years under the guidance of Wolsey; it was to weaken or
destroy a support which enabled Scotland to resist the union with
England, and portended a union between Scotland and France. The
Emperor's efforts to draw England into his war with France thus met
with a comparatively ready response. In May, 1543, a secret treaty
between Henry and Charles was ratified; on the 22nd of June a joint
intimation of war was notified to the French ambassador; and a
detachment of English troops, under Sir John Wallop and Sir Thomas
Seymour, was sent to aid the imperialists in their campaign in the
north of France.
Before hostilities actually broke out, Henry wedded his sixth and last
wife. Catherine Parr was almost as much married as Henry himself.
Thirty-one years of age in 1543, she had already been twice made a
widow; her first husband was one Edward Borough, her second, Lord
Latimer. Latimer had died at the end of 1542, and Catherine's hand was
immediately sought by Sir Thomas Seymour, Henry's younger brother-in-law.
Seymour was handsome and won her heart, but he was to be her fourth,
and not her third, husband; her will "was overruled by a higher
power," and, on the 12th of July, she was married to Henry at Hampton
Court.[1134] Catherine was small in stature, and appears to have made
little impression by her beauty; but her character was beyond
reproach, and she exercised a wholesome influence on Henry during his
closing years. Her task can have been no light one, but her tact
overcame all difficulties. She nursed the King with great devotion,
and succeeded to some extent in mitigating the violence of his (p. 411)
temper. She intervened to save victims from the penalties of the
Act of Six Articles; reconciled Elizabeth with her father; and was
regarded with affection by both Henry's daughters. Suspicions of her
orthodoxy and a theological dispute she once had with the King are
said to have given rise to a reactionary plot against her.[1135] "A
good hearing it is," Henry is reported as saying, "when women become
such clerks; and a thing much to my comfort to come in mine old days
to be taught by my wife!" Catherine explained that her remarks were
only intended to "minister talk," and that it would be unbecoming in
her to assert opinions contrary to those of her lord. "Is it so,
sweetheart?" said Henry; "then are we perfect friends;" and when Lord
Chancellor Wriothesley came to arrest her, he was, we are told, abused
by the King as a knave, a beast and a fool.
[Footnote 1134: _D.N.B._, ix., 309.]
[Footnote 1135: Foxe, ed. Townsend, v., 553-61.]
* * * * *
The winter of 1543-44 and the following spring were spent in preparations
for war on two fronts.[1136] The punishment of the Scots for repudiating
their engagements to England was entrusted to the skilful hands of
Henry's brother-in-law, the Earl of Hertford; while the King himself
was to renew the martial exploits of his youth by crossing the Channel
and leading an army in person against the French King. The Emperor was
to invade France from the north-east; the two monarchs were then to
effect a junction and march on Paris. There is, however, no instance
in the first half of the sixteenth century of two sovereigns (p. 412)
heartily combining to secure any one object whatever. Charles and
Henry both wanted to extract concessions from Francis, but the
concessions were very different, and neither monarch cared much for
those which the other demanded. Henry's ultimate end related to
Scotland, Charles's to Milan and the Lutherans. The Emperor sought to
make Francis relinquish his claim to Milan and his support of the
German princes; Henry was bent on compelling him to abandon the cause
of Scottish independence. If Charles could secure his own terms, he
would, without the least hesitation, leave Henry to get what he could
by himself; and Henry was equally ready to do Charles a similar turn.
His suspicions of the Emperor determined his course; he was resolved
to obtain some tangible result; and, before he would advance any
farther, he sat down to besiege Boulogne. Its capture had been one of
the objects of Suffolk's invasion of 1523, when Wolsey and his imperialist
allies had induced Henry to forgo the design. The result of that folly
was not forgotten. Suffolk, his ablest general, now well stricken in
years, was there to recall it; and, under Suffolk's directions, the
siege of Boulogne was vigorously pressed. It fell on the 14th of
September. Charles, meanwhile, was convinced that Boulogne was all
Henry wanted, and that the English would never advance to support him.
So, five days after the fall of Boulogne, he made his peace with
Francis.[1137] Henry, of course, was loud in his indignation; the
Emperor had made no effort to include him in the settlement, and
repeated embassies were sent in the autumn to keep Charles to the (p. 413)
terms of his treaty with England, and to persuade him to renew the war
in the following spring.
[Footnote 1136: See for the Scottish war the
_Hamilton Papers_, and for the war in France
_Spanish Cal._, vol. vii., and _L. and P._, vol.
xix., pt. ii. (to December, 1544).]
[Footnote 1137: For Charles's motives see the
present writer in _Cambridge Modern History_, ii.,
245, 246.]
His labours were all in vain, and Henry, for the first time in his
life was left to face an actual French invasion of England. The horizon
seemed clouded at every point. Hertford, indeed, had carried out his
instructions in Scotland with signal success. Leith had been burnt and
Edinburgh sacked. But, as soon as he left for Boulogne, things went
wrong in the North, and, in February, 1545, Evers suffered defeat from
the Scots at Ancrum Moor. Now, when Henry was left without an ally,
when the Scots were victorious in the North, when France was ready to
launch an Armada against the southern coasts of England, now, surely,
was the time for a national uprising to depose the bloodthirsty
tyrant, the enemy of the Church, the persecutor of his people.
Strangely enough his people did, and even desired, nothing of the
sort. Popular discontent existed only in the imagination of his
enemies; Henry retained to the last his hold over the mind of his
people. Never had they been called to pay such a series of loans,
subsidies and benevolences; never did they pay them so cheerfully. The
King set a royal example by coining his plate and mortgaging his
estates at the call of national defence; and, in the summer, he went
down in person to Portsmouth to meet the threatened invasion. The
French attack had begun on Boulogne, where Norfolk's carelessness had
put into their hands some initial advantages. But, before dawn, on the
6th of February, Hertford sallied out of Boulogne with four thousand
foot and seven hundred horse. The French commander, Maréchal du Biez,
and his fourteen thousand men were surprised, and they left their (p. 414)
stores, their ammunition and their artillery in the hands of their
English foes.[1138]
[Footnote 1138: Herbert, ed. 1672, p. 589; Hall, p.
862.]
Boulogne was safe for the time, but a French fleet entered the Solent,
and effected a landing at Bembridge. Skirmishing took place in the
wooded, undulating country between the shore and the slopes of
Bembridge Down; the English retreated and broke the bridge over the
Yar. This checked the French advance, though a force which was stopped
by that puny stream could not have been very determined. A day or two
later the French sent round a party to fill their water-casks at the
brook which trickles down Shanklin Chine; it was attacked and cut to
pieces.[1139] They then proposed forcing their way into Portsmouth
Harbour, but the mill-race of the tide at its mouth, and the mysteries
of the sandbanks of Spithead deterred them; and, as a westerly breeze
sprang up, they dropped down before it along the Sussex coast. The
English had suffered a disaster by the sinking of the _Mary Rose_ with
all hands on board, an accident repeated on the same spot two
centuries later, in the loss of the _Royal George_. But the Admiral,
Lisle, followed the French, and a slight action was fought off
Shoreham; the fleets anchored for the night almost within gunshot,
but, when dawn broke, the last French ship was hull-down on the
horizon. Disease had done more than the English arms, and the French
troops landed at the mouth of the Seine were the pitiful wreck of an
army.[1140]
[Footnote 1139: Du Bellay, _Memoirs_, pp. 785-9.]
[Footnote 1140: _State Papers_, ed. 1830-51, i.,
794, 816.]
France could hope for little profit from a continuance of the war, (p. 415)
and England had everything to gain by its conclusion. The terms of
peace were finally settled in June, 1546.[1141] Boulogne was to remain
eight years in English hands, and France was then to pay heavily for
its restitution. Scotland was not included in the peace. In September,
1545, Hertford had revenged the English defeat at Ancrum Moor by a
desolating raid on the Borders;[1142] early in 1546 Cardinal Beton,
the soul of the French party, was assassinated, not without Henry's
connivance; and St. Andrews was seized by a body of Scots Protestants
in alliance with England. Throughout the autumn preparation was being
made for a fresh attempt to enforce the marriage between Edward and
Mary;[1143] but the further prosecution of that enterprise was
reserved for other hands than those of Henry VIII. He left the
relations between England and Scotland in no better state than he
found them. His aggressive imperialism paid little heed to the
susceptibilities of a stubborn, if weaker, foe; and he did not, like
Cromwell, possess the military force to crush out resistance. He would
not conciliate and he could not coerce.
[Footnote 1141: _State Papers_, ed. 1830-51, i.,
877, 879; Odet de Selve, pp. 31, 34.]
[Footnote 1142: _State Papers_, v., 448-52;
_Harleian MS._, 284; _Original Letters_, i., 37.]
[Footnote 1143: Odet de Selve, _Corresp.
Politique_, 1886, pp. 50-120, _passim_.]
* * * * *
Meanwhile, amid the distractions of his Scottish intrigues, of his
campaign in France, and of his defence of England, the King was engaged
in his last hopeless endeavour to secure unity and concord in religious
opinion. The ferocious Act of Six Articles had never been more than
fitfully executed; and Henry refrained from using to the full the powers
with which he had been entrusted by Parliament. The fall of (p. 416)
Catherine Howard may have impaired the influence of her uncle, the
Duke of Norfolk, who had always expressed his zeal for the burning of
heretics; and the reforming party was rapidly growing in the nation at
large, and even within the guarded precincts of the King's Privy
Council. Cranmer retained his curious hold over Henry's mind; Hertford
was steadily rising in favour; Queen Catherine Parr, so far as she
dared, supported the New Learning; the majority of the Council were
prepared to accept the authorised form of religion, whatever it might
happen to be, and, besides the Howards, Gardiner was the only convinced
and determined champion of the Catholic faith. Even at the moment of
Cromwell's fall, there was no intention of undoing anything that had
already been done; Henry only determined that things should not go so
fast, especially in the way of doctrinal change, as the Vicegerent
wished, for he knew that unity was not to be sought or found in that
direction. But, between the extremes of Lutheranism and the _status
quo_ in the Church, there was a good deal to be done, in the way of
reform, which was still consistent with the maintenance of the Catholic
faith. In May, 1541, a fresh proclamation was issued for the use of
the Bible.[1144] He had, said the King, intended his subjects to read
the Bible humbly and reverently for their instruction, not reading
aloud in time of Holy Mass or other divine service, nor, being laymen,
arguing thereon; but, at the same time, he ordered all curates and
parishioners who had failed to obey his former injunctions to provide
an English Bible for their Church without delay. Two months later
another proclamation followed, regulating the number of saints' (p. 417)
days; it was characteristic of the age that various saints' days were
abolished, not so much for the purpose of checking superstition, as
because they interfered with the harvest and other secular business.[1145]
Other proclamations came forth in the same year for the destruction of
shrines and the removal of relics. In 1543 a general revision of
service-books was ordered, with a view to eradicating "false legends"
and references to saints not mentioned in the Bible, or in the
"authentical doctors".[1146] The Sarum Use was adopted as the standard
for the clergy of the province of Canterbury, and things were steadily
tending towards that ideal uniformity of service as well as of
doctrine, which was ultimately embodied in various Acts of Uniformity.
Homilies, "made by certain prelates," were submitted to Convocation,
but the publication of them, and of the rationale of rites and
ceremonies, was deferred to the reign of Edward VI.[1147] The greatest
of all these compositions, the Litany, was, however, sanctioned in
1545.[1148]
[Footnote 1144: _L. and P._, xvi., 819; Burnet,
iv., 509.]
[Footnote 1145: _L. and P._, xvi., 978, 1022,
1027.]
[Footnote 1146: _Ibid._, xvi., 1262; xvii., 176.]
[Footnote 1147: See the present writer's _Cranmer_,
pp. 166-72.]
[Footnote 1148: _Ibid._, pp. 172-75.]
The King had more to do with the _Necessary Doctrine_, commonly called
the "King's Book" to distinguish it from the Bishops' Book of 1537,
for which Henry had declined all responsibility. Henry, indeed, had
urged on its revision, he had fully discussed with Cranmer the
amendments he thought the book needed, and he had brought the bishops
to an agreement, which they had vainly sought for three years by
themselves. It was the King who now "set forth a true and perfect
doctrine for all his people".[1149] So it was fondly styled by (p. 418)
his Council. A modern high-churchman[1150] asserts that the King's
Book taught higher doctrine than the book which the bishops had
drafted six years before, but that "it was far more liberal and better
composed". Whether its excellences amounted to "a true and perfect
doctrine" or not, it failed of its purpose. The efforts of the old and
the new parties were perpetually driving the Church from the _Via
Media_, which Henry marked out. On the one hand, we have an act
limiting the use of the Bible to gentlemen and their families, and
plots to catch Cranmer in the meshes of the Six Articles.[1151] On the
other, there were schemes on the part of some of the Council to entrap
Gardiner, and we have Cranmer's assertion[1152] that, in the last
months of his reign, the King commanded him to pen a form for the
alteration of the Mass into a Communion, a design obviously to be
connected with the fact that, in his irritation at Charles's desertion
in 1544, and fear that his neutrality might become active hostility,
Henry had once more entered into communication with the Lutheran
princes of Germany.[1153]
[Footnote 1149: _L. and P._, XVIII., i., 534.]
[Footnote 1150: Canon Dixon.]
[Footnote 1151: See the present writer's _Cranmer_,
pp. 144-60.]
[Footnote 1152: Foxe, on the authority of Cranmer's
secretary, Morice, in _Acts and Monuments_, v.,
563, 564; it receives some corroboration from
Hooper's letter to Bullinger in _Original Letters_,
i., 41.]
[Footnote 1153: See Hasenclever, _Die Politik der
Schmalkaldener vor Ausbruch des Schmalkaldischen
Krieges_, 1901.]
The only ecclesiastical change that went on without shadow of turning
was the seizure of Church property by the King; and it is a matter of
curious speculation as to where he would have stayed his hand had he
lived much longer. The debasement of the coinage had proceeded apace
during his later years to supply the King's necessities, and, (p. 419)
for the same purpose, Parliament, in 1545, granted him all chantries,
hospitals and free chapels. That session ended with Henry's last
appearance before his faithful Lords and Commons, and the speech he
then delivered may be regarded as his last political will and
testament.[1154] He spoke, he said, instead of the Lord Chancellor,
"because he is not so able to open and set forth my mind and meaning,
and the secrets of my heart, in so plain and ample manner, as I myself
am and can do". He thanked his subjects for their commendation,
protested that he was "both bare and barren" of the virtues a prince
ought to have, but rendered to God "most humble thanks" for "such
small qualities as He hath indued me withal.... Now, since I find such
kindness in your part towards me, I cannot choose but love and favour
you; affirming that no prince in the world more favoureth his subjects
than I do you, nor no subjects or Commons more love and obey their
Sovereign Lord, than I perceive you do; for whose defence my treasure
shall not be hidden, nor my person shall not be unadventured. Yet,
although I wish you, and you wish me, to be in this perfect love and
concord, this friendly amity cannot continue, except both you, my
Lords Temporal and my Lords Spiritual, and you, my loving subjects,
study and take pains to amend one thing, which surely is amiss and far
out of order; to the which I most heartily require you. Which is, that
Charity and Concord is not amongst you, but Discord and Dissension
beareth rule in every place. Saint Paul saith to the Corinthians, the
thirteenth chapter, _Charity is gentle, Charity is not envious,_
_Charity is not proud_, and so forth. Behold then, what love and (p. 420)
charity is amongst you, when one calleth another heretic and
anabaptist, and he calleth him again papist, hypocrite and Pharisee?
Be these tokens of Charity amongst you? Are these signs of fraternal
love amongst you? No, no, I assure you that this lack of charity among
yourselves will be the hindrance and assuaging of the perfect love
betwixt us, except this wound be salved and clearly made whole.... I
hear daily that you of the Clergy preach one against another, without
charity or discretion; some be too stiff in their old _Mumpsimus_,
others be too busy and curious in their new _Sumpsimus_. Thus all men
almost be in variety and discord, and few or none preach truly and
sincerely the Word of God.... Yet the Temporalty be not clear and
unspotted of malice and envy. For you rail on Bishops, speak
slanderously of Priests, and rebuke and taunt preachers, both contrary
to good order and Christian fraternity. If you know surely that a
Bishop or Preacher erreth, or teacheth perverse doctrine, come and
declare it to some of our Council, or to us, to whom is committed by
God the high authority to reform such causes and behaviours. And be
not judges of yourselves of your fantastical opinions and vain
expositions.... I am very sorry to know and to hear how unreverently
that most precious jewel, the Word of God, is disputed, rhymed, sung,
and jangled in every Ale-house and Tavern.... And yet I am even as
much sorry that the readers of the same follow it in doing so faintly
and so coldly. For of this I am sure, that charity was never so faint
amongst you, and virtuous and godly living was never less used, nor
God Himself among Christians was never less reverenced, honoured, (p. 421)
or served. Therefore, as I said before, be in charity one with another
like brother and brother; love, dread, and serve God; to which I, as
your Supreme Head and Sovereign Lord, exhort and require you; and then
I doubt not but that love and league, that I spake of in the
beginning, shall never be dissolved or broke betwixt us."
[Footnote 1154: Hall, _Chron._, pp. 864-66; Foxe,
ed. Townsend, v., 534-36; Herbert, ed. 1672, pp.
598-601.]
* * * * *
The bond betwixt Henry and his subjects, which had lasted thirty-eight
years, and had survived such strain as has rarely been put on the
loyalty of any people, was now to be broken by death. The King was
able to make his usual progress in August and September, 1546; from
Westminster he went to Hampton Court, thence to Oatlands, Woking and
Guildford, and from Guildford to Chobham and Windsor, where he spent
the month of October. Early in November he came up to London, staying
first at Whitehall and then at Ely Place. From Ely Place he returned,
on the 3rd of January, 1547, to Whitehall, which he was never to leave
alive.[1155] He is said to have become so unwieldy that he could
neither walk nor stand, and mechanical contrivances were used at
Windsor and his other palaces for moving the royal person from room to
room. His days were numbered and finished, and every one thought of
the morrow. A child of nine would reign, but who should rule? Hertford
or Norfolk? The party of reform or that of reaction? Henry had
apparently decided that neither should dominate the other, and
designed a balance of parties in the council he named for his
child-successor.[1156]
[Footnote 1155: This itinerary is worked out from
the _Acts of the Privy Council_, ed. Dasent, vol.
i.]
[Footnote 1156: This is the usual view, but it is a
somewhat doubtful inference. Henry's one object was
the maintenance of order and his own power; he
would never have set himself against the nation as
a whole, and there are indications that at the end
of his reign he was preparing to accept the
necessity of further changes. The fall of the
Howards was due to the fear that they would cause
trouble in the coming minority of Edward VI. Few
details are known of the party struggle in the
Council in the autumn of 1546, and they come from
Selve's _Correspondance_ and the new volume (1904)
of the _Spanish Calendar_ (1545-47). These should
be compared with Foxe, vol. v.]
Suddenly the balance upset. On the 12th of December, 1546, (p. 422)
Norfolk and his son, the Earl of Surrey, were arrested for treason and
sent to the Tower. Endowed with great poetic gifts, Surrey had even
greater defects of character. Nine years before he had been known as
"the most foolish proud boy in England".[1157] Twice he had been
committed to prison by the Council for roaming the streets of the city
at night and breaking the citizens' windows,[1158] offences venial in
the exuberance of youth, but highly unbecoming in a man who was nearly
thirty, who aspired to high place in the councils of the realm, and
who despised most of his colleagues as upstarts. His enmity was
specially directed against the Prince's uncles, the Seymours. Hertford
had twice been called in to retrieve Surrey's military blunders.
Surrey made improper advances to Hertford's wife, but repudiated with
scorn his father's suggestion for a marriage alliance between the two
families.[1159] His sister testified that he had advised her to become
the King's mistress, with a view to advancing the Howard interests.
Who, he asked, should be Protector, in case the King died, but his
father? He quartered the royal arms with his own, in spite of the (p. 423)
heralds' prohibition. This at once roused Henry's suspicions; he
knew that, years before, Norfolk had been suggested as a possible
claimant to the throne, and that a marriage had been proposed between
Surrey and the Princess Mary.
[Footnote 1157: _L. and P._, XIV., ii., 141.]
[Footnote 1158: _Acts of the Privy Council_, i.,
104; Bapst, _Deux Gentilshommes poètes à la cour
d'Henri VIII._, p. 269.]
[Footnote 1159: See the present writer in _D.N.B.,
s.v._ "Seymour, Edward"; _cf._ Herbert, pp.
625-33. G.F. Nott in his life of Surrey prefixed
to his edition of the poet's works takes too
favourable a view of his conduct.]
The original charge against Surrey was prompted by personal and local
jealousy, not on the part of the Seymours, but on that of a member of
Surrey's own party. It came from Sir Richard Southwell, a Catholic and
a man of weight and leading in Norfolk, like the Howards themselves;
he even appears to have been brought up with Surrey, and for many
years had been intimate with the Howard family. When Surrey was called
before the Council to answer Southwell's charges, he wished to fight
his accuser, but both were committed to custody. The case was
investigated by the King himself, with the help of another Catholic,
Lord Chancellor Wriothesley. The Duke of Norfolk confessed to
technical treason in concealing his son's offences, and was sent to
the Tower. On the 13th of January, 1547, Surrey was found guilty by a
special commission sitting at the Guildhall;[1160] a week later he was
beheaded.[1161] On the 18th Parliament met to deal with the Duke; by
the 24th a bill of attainder had passed all its stages and awaited
only the King's assent. On Thursday, the 27th, that assent was given
by royal commission.[1162] Orders are said to have been issued for the
Duke's execution the following morning.
[Footnote 1160: See an account of his trial in
_Stowe MS._, 396.]
[Footnote 1161: Wriothesley, _Chron._ i., 177, says
19th January; other authorities give the 21st.]
[Footnote 1162: _Lords' Journals_, p. 289.]
That night Norfolk lay doomed in his cell in the Tower, and Henry (p. 424)
VIII. in his palace at Westminster. The Angel of Death hovered over
the twain, doubting which to take. Eighteen years before, the King had
said that, were his will opposed, there was never so noble a head in
his kingdom but he would make it fly.[1163] Now his own hour was come,
and he was loth to hear of death. His physicians dared not breathe the
word, for to prophesy the King's decease was treason by Act of
Parliament. As that long Thursday evening wore on, Sir Anthony Denny,
chief gentleman of the chamber, "boldly coming to the King, told him
what case he was in, to man's judgment not like to live; and therefore
exhorted him to prepare himself to death".[1164] Sensible of his
weakness, Henry "disposed himself more quietly to hearken to the words
of his exhortation, and to consider his life past; which although he
much abused, 'yet,' said he, 'is the mercy of Christ able to pardon me
all my sins, though they were greater than they be'". Denny then asked
if he should send for "any learned man to confer withal and to open
his mind unto". The King replied that if he had any one, it should be
Cranmer; but first he would "take a little sleep; and then, as I feel
myself, I will advise upon the matter". And while he slept, Hertford
and Paget paced the gallery outside, contriving to grasp the reins of
power as they fell from their master's hands.[1165] When the King woke
he felt his feebleness growing upon him, and told Denny to send for
Cranmer. The Archbishop came about midnight: Henry was speechless, and
almost unconscious. He stretched out his hand to Cranmer, and (p. 425)
held him fast, while the Archbishop exhorted him to give some token
that he put his trust in Christ. The King wrung Cranmer's hand with
his fast-ebbing strength, and so passed away about two in the morning,
on Friday, the 28th of January, 1547. He was exactly fifty-five years
and seven months old, and his reign had lasted for thirty-seven years
and three-quarters.
[Footnote 1163: _L. and P._, iv., 4942.]
[Footnote 1164: Foxe, ed. Townsend, v., 692;
Fuller, _Church History_, 1656, pp. 252-55.]
[Footnote 1165: _Cotton MS_., Titus, F. iii.;
Strype, _Eccl. Mem_., II., ii., 430.]
"And for my body," wrote Henry in his will,[1166] "which when the soul
is departed, shall then remain but as a _cadaver_, and so return to
the vile matter it was made of, were it not for the crown and dignity
which God hath called us unto, and that We would not be counted an
infringer of honest worldly policies and customs, when they be not
contrary to God's laws, We would be content to have it buried in any
place accustomed to Christian folks, were it never so vile, for it is
but ashes, and to ashes it shall return. Nevertheless, because We
would be loth, in the reputation of the people, to do injury to the
Dignity, which We are unworthily called unto, We are content to will
and order that Our body be buried and interred in the choir of Our
college of Windsor." On the 8th of February, in every parish church in
the realm, there was sung a solemn dirge by night, with all the bells
ringing, and on the morrow a Requiem mass for the soul of the
King.[1167] Six days later his body "was solemnly with great honour
conveyed in a chariot towards Windsor," and the funeral procession
stretched four miles along the roads. That night the body lay at (p. 426)
Sion under a hearse, nine storeys high. On the 15th it was taken to
Windsor, where it was met by the Dean and choristers of the Chapel
Royal, and by the members of Eton College. There in the castle it
rested under a hearse of thirteen storeys; and on the morrow it was
buried, after mass, in the choir of St. George's Chapel.
[Footnote 1166: The original is in the Record
Office; a copy of it was made for each executor,
and it has been often printed; see _England under
Protector Somerset_, p. 5 n.]
[Footnote 1167: Wriothesley, _Chron._, i., 181.]
Midway between the stalls and the Altar the tomb of Queen Jane Seymour
was opened to receive the bones of her lord. Hard by stood that
mausoleum "more costly than any royal or papal monument in the
world,"[1168] which Henry VII. had commenced as a last resting-place
for himself and his successors, but had abandoned for his chapel in
Westminster Abbey. His son bestowed the building on Wolsey, who
prepared for his own remains a splendid cenotaph of black and white
marble. On the Cardinal's fall Henry VIII. designed both tomb and
chapel for himself _post multos et felices annos_.[1169] But King and
Cardinal reaped little honour by these strivings after posthumous
glory. The dying commands of the monarch, whose will had been
omnipotent during his life, remained unfulfilled; the memorial chapel
was left incomplete; and the monument of marble was taken down,
despoiled of its ornaments and sold in the Great Rebellion. At length,
in a happier age, after more than three centuries of neglect, the
magnificent building was finished, but not in Henry's honour; it was
adorned and dedicated to the memory of a prince in whose veins there
flowed not a drop of Henry's blood.
[Footnote 1168: _L. and P._, iv., Introd., p.
dcxviii.]
[Footnote 1169: _Ibid.; cf._ Pote, _Hist. of
Windsor Castle_, 1749.]
CHAPTER XVI. (p. 427)
CONCLUSION.
So died and so was buried the most remarkable man who ever sat on the
English throne. His reign, like his character, seems to be divided
into two inconsistent halves. In 1519 his rule is pronounced more
suave and gentle than the greatest liberty anywhere else; twenty years
later terror is said to reign supreme. It is tempting to sum up his
life in one sweeping generalisation, and to say that it exhibits a
continuous development of Henry's intellect and deterioration of his
character. Yet it is difficult to read the King's speech in Parliament
at the close of 1545, without crediting him with some sort of ethical
ideas and aims; his life was at least as free from vice during the
last, as during the first, seven years of his reign; in seriousness of
purpose and steadfastness of aim it was immeasurably superior; and at
no time did Henry's moral standard vary greatly from that of many whom
the world is content to regard as its heroes. His besetting sin was
egotism, a sin which princes can hardly, and Tudors could nowise,
avoid. Of egotism Henry had his full share from the beginning; at
first it moved in a limited, personal sphere, but gradually it
extended its scope till it comprised the whole realm of national
religion and policy. The obstacles which he encountered in (p. 428)
prosecuting his suit for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon were the
first check he experienced in the gratification of a personal whim,
and the effort to remove those impediments drew him on to the
world-wide stage of the conflict with Rome. He was ever proceeding
from the particular to the general, from an attack on a special
dispensation to an attack on the dispensing power of the Pope, and
thence to an assault on the whole edifice of papal claims. He started
with no desire to separate England from Rome, or to reform the
Anglican Church; those aims he adopted, little by little, as
subsidiary to the attainment of his one great personal purpose. He
arrived at his principles by a process of deduction from his own
particular case.
As Henry went on, his "quick and penetrable eyes," as More described
them, were more and more opened to the extent of what he could do; and
he realised, as he said, how small was the power of the Pope. Papal
authority had always depended on moral influence and not on material
resources. That moral influence had long been impaired; the sack of
Rome in 1527 afforded further demonstration of its impotence; and,
when Clement condoned that outrage, and formed a close alliance with
the chief offender, the Papacy suffered a blow from which it never
recovered. Temporal princes might continue to recognise the Pope's
authority, but it was only because they chose, and not because they
were compelled so to do; they supported him, not as the divinely
commissioned Vicar of Christ, but as a useful instrument in the
prosecution of their own and their people's desires. It is called a
theological age, but it was also irreligious, and its principal (p. 429)
feature was secularisation. National interests had already become the
dominant factor in European politics; they were no longer to be made
subservient to the behests of the universal Church. The change was
tacitly or explicitly recognised everywhere; and _cujus regio, ejus
religio_ was the principle upon which German ecclesiastical politics
were based at the Peace of Augsburg. It was assumed that each prince
could do what he liked in his own country; they might combine to make
war on an excommunicate king, but only if war suited their secular
policy; and the rivalry between Francis and Charles was so keen, that
each set greater store upon Henry's help than upon his destruction.
Thus the breach with Rome was made a possible, though not an easy,
task; and Henry was left to settle the matter at home with little to
fear from abroad, except threats which he knew to be empty. England
was the key of the situation, and in England must be sought the chief
causes of Henry's success. If we are to believe that Henry's policy
was at variance with the national will, his reign must remain a
political mystery, and we can offer no explanation of the facts that
Henry was permitted to do his work at all, and that it has stood so
long the test of time. He had, no doubt, exceptional facilities for
getting his way. His dictatorship was the child of the Wars of the
Roses, and his people, conscious of the fact that Henry was their only
bulwark against the recurrence of civil strife, and bound up as they
were in commercial and industrial pursuits, were willing to bear with
a much more arbitrary government than they would have been in less
perilous times. The alternatives may have been evil, but the choice
was freely made. No government, whatever its form, whatever its (p. 430)
resources, can permanently resist the national will; every nation
has, roughly speaking, the government it deserves and desires, and a
popular vote would never in Henry's reign have decreed his deposition.
The popular mind may be ill-informed, distorted by passion and
prejudice, and formed on selfish motives. Temporarily, too, the
popular will may be neutralised by skilful management on the part of
the government, by dividing its enemies and counterworking their
plans; and of all those arts Henry was a past master. But such
expedients cannot prevail in the end; in 1553 the Duke of
Northumberland had a subtle intellect and all the machinery of Tudor
government at his disposal; Queen Mary had not a man, nor a shilling.
Yet Mary, by popular favour, prevailed without shedding a drop of
blood. Henry himself was often compelled to yield to his people.
Abject self-abasement on their part and stupendous power of will on
Henry's, together provide no adequate solution for the history of his
reign.
With all his self-will, Henry was never blind to the distinction
between what he could and what he could not do. Strictly speaking, he
was a constitutional king; he neither attempted to break up
Parliament, nor to evade the law. He combined in his royal person the
parts of despot and demagogue, and both he clothed in Tudor grace and
majesty. He led his people in the way they wanted to go, he tempted
them with the baits they coveted most, he humoured their prejudices
against the clergy and against the pretensions of Rome, and he used
every concession to extract some fresh material for building up his
own authority. He owed his strength to the skill with which he (p. 431)
appealed to the weaknesses of a people, whose prevailing characteristics
were a passion for material prosperity and an absolute indifference to
human suffering. "We," wrote one of Henry's Secretaries of State, "we,
which talk much of Christ and His Holy Word, have, I fear me, used a
much contrary way; for we leave fishing of men, and fish again in the
tempestuous seas of this world for gain and wicked Mammon."[1170] A
few noble examples, Catholic and Protestant, redeemed, by their blood,
the age from complete condemnation, but, in the mass of his subjects,
the finer feelings seem to have been lost in the pursuit of wealth.
There is no sign that the hideous tortures inflicted on men condemned
for treason, or the equally horrible sufferings of heretics burnt at
the stake, excited the least qualm of compassion in the breast of the
multitude; the Act of Six Articles seems to have been rather a popular
measure, and the multiplication of treasons evoked no national
protest.
[Footnote 1170: Sir William Petre in Tytler's
_Edward VI. and Mary_, i., 427.]
Henry, indeed, was the typical embodiment of an age that was at once
callous and full of national vigour, and his failings were as much a
source of strength as his virtues. His defiance of the conscience of
Europe did him no harm in England, where the splendid isolation of
_Athanasius contra mundum_ is always a popular attitude; and even his
bitterest foes could scarce forbear to admire the dauntless front he
presented to every peril. National pride was the highest motive to
which he appealed. For the rest, he based his power on his people's
material interests, and not on their moral instincts. He took no such
hold of the ethical nature of men as did Oliver Cromwell, but he (p. 432)
was liked none the less for that; for the nation regarded Cromwell,
the man of God, with much less favour than Charles II., the man of
sin; and statesmen who try to rule on exclusively moral principles are
seldom successful and seldom beloved. Henry's successor, Protector
Somerset, made a fine effort to introduce some elements of humanity
into the spirit of government; but he perished on the scaffold, while
his colleagues denounced his gentleness and love of liberty, and
declared that his repeal of Henry's savage treason-laws was the worst
deed done in their generation.[1171]
[Footnote 1171: Sir John Mason, quoted in Froude,
iv., 306 n.]
The King avoided the error of the Protector; he was neither behind nor
before the average man of the time; he appealed to the mob, and the
mob applauded. _Salus populi_, he said in effect, _suprema lex_, and
the people agreed; for that is a principle which suits demagogues no
less than despots, though they rarely possess Henry's skill in working
it out. Henry, it is true, modified the maxim slightly by substituting
prince for people, and by practising, before it was preached, Louis
XIV.'s doctrine that _L'État, c'est moi_. But the assumption that the
welfare of the people was bound up with that of their King was no idle
pretence; it was based on solid facts, the force of which the people
themselves admitted. They endorsed the tyrant's plea of necessity. The
pressure of foreign rivalries, and the fear of domestic disruption,
convinced Englishmen of the need for despotic rule, and no consideration
whatever was allowed to interfere with the stability of government;
individual rights and even the laws themselves must be overridden, if
they conflicted with the interests of the State. Torture was illegal
in England, and men were proud of the fact, yet, in cases of (p. 433)
treason, when the national security was thought to be involved, torture
was freely used, and it was used by the very men who boasted of
England's immunity. They were conscious of no inconsistency; the
common law was very well as a general rule, but the highest law of all
was the welfare of the State.
This was the real tyranny of Tudor times; men were dominated by the
idea that the State was the be-all and end-all of human existence. In
its early days the State is a child; it has no will and no ideas of
its own, and its first utterances are merely imitation and repetition.
But by Henry VIII.'s reign the State in England had grown to lusty
manhood; it dismissed its governess, the Church, and laid claim to
that omnipotence and absolute sovereignty which Hobbes regretfully
expounded in his _Leviathan_.[1172] The idea supplied an excuse to
despots and an inspiration to noble minds. "Surely," wrote a genuine
patriot in 1548,[1173] "every honest man ought to refuse no pains, no
travail, no study, he ought to care for no reports, no slanders, no
displeasure, no envy, no malice, so that he might profit the commonwealth
of his country, for whom next after God he is created." The service of
the State tended, indeed, to encroach on the service of God, and to
obliterate altogether respect for individual liberty. Wolsey on his
death-bed was visited by qualms of conscience, but, as a rule, victims
to the principle afford, by their dying words, the most striking (p. 434)
illustrations of the omnipotence of the idea. Condemned traitors are
concerned on the scaffold, not to assert their innocence, but to
proclaim their readiness to die as an example of obedience to the law.
However unfair the judicial methods of Tudor times may seem to us, the
sufferers always thank the King for granting them free trial. Their
guilt or innocence is a matter of little moment; the one thing needful
is that no doubt should be thrown on the inviolability of the will of
the State; and the audience commend them. They are not expected to
confess or to express contrition, but merely to submit to the decrees
of the nation; if they do that, they are said to make a charitable and
godly end, and they deserve the respect and sympathy of men; if not,
they die uncharitably, and are held up to reprobation.[1174] To an age
like that there was nothing strange in the union of State and (p. 435)
Church and the supremacy of the King over both; men professed Christianity
in various forms, but to all men alike the State was their real
religion, and the King was their great High Priest. The sixteenth
century, and especially the reign of Henry VIII., supplies the most
vivid illustration of the working, both for good and for evil, of the
theory that the individual should be subordinate in goods, in life and
in conscience to the supreme dictates of the national will. This
theory was put into practice by Henry VIII. long before it was made
the basis of any political philosophy, just as he practised
Erastianism before Erastus gave it a name.
[Footnote 1172: The _Leviathan_ is the best
philosophical commentary on the Tudor system;
Hobbes was Tudor and not Stuart in all his ideas,
and his assertion of the Tudor _de facto_ theory of
monarchy as against the Stuart _de jure_ theory
brought him into disfavour with Cavaliers.]
[Footnote 1173: John Hales in _Lansdowne MS._, 238;
_England under Protector Somerset_, p. 216.]
[Footnote 1174: _L. and P._, x., 920; "all which
died charitably," writes Husee of Anne Boleyn and
her fellow-victims; Rochford "made a very catholic
address to the people saying he had not come there
to preach but to serve as a mirror and example,
acknowledging his sins against God and the King"
(_ibid._, x., 911; _cf._ xvii., 124). Cromwell and
Somerset had more cause to complain of their fate
than other statesmen of the time, yet Cromwell on
the scaffold says: "I am by the law condemned to
die, and thank my Lord God that hath appointed me
this death for mine offence.... I have offended my
prince, for the which I ask him heartily
forgiveness" (Foxe, v., 402). And Somerset says: "I
am condemned by a law whereunto I am subject, as we
all; and therefore to show obedience I am content
to die" (Ellis, _Orig. Letters_, II., ii., 215;
_England under Somerset_, p. 308). Compare
Buckingham in Shakespeare, "_Henry VIII._," Act
II., Sc. i.:--
"I bear the law no malice for my death
... my vows and prayers
Yet are the King's; and till my soul forsake
Shall cry for blessings on him."]
The devotion paid to the State in Tudor times inevitably made expediency,
and not justice or morality, the supreme test of public acts. The
dictates of expediency were, indeed, clothed in legal forms, but laws
are primarily intended to secure neither justice nor morality, but the
interests of the State; and the highest penalty known to the law is
inflicted for high treason, a legal and political crime which does not
necessarily involve any breach whatever of the code of morals.
Traitors are not executed because they are immoral, but because they
are dangerous. Never did a more innocent head fall on the scaffold
than that of Lady Jane Grey; never was an execution more fully
justified by the law. The contrast was almost as flagrant in many a
State trial in the reign of Henry VIII.; no king was so careful of
law,[1175] but he was not so careful of justice. Therein lay his
safety, for the law takes no cognisance of injustice, unless the
injustice is also a breach of the law, and Henry rarely, if ever, (p. 436)
broke the law. Not only did he keep the law, but he contrived that the
nation should always proclaim the legality of his conduct. Acts of
attainder, his favourite weapon, are erroneously supposed to have been
the method to which he resorted for removing opponents whose conviction
he could not obtain by a legal trial. But acts of attainder were, as a
rule, supplements to, not substitutes for, trials by jury;[1176] many
were passed against the dead, whose goods had already been forfeited
to the King as the result of judicial verdicts. Moreover, convictions
were always easier to obtain from juries than acts of attainder from
Parliament. It was simplicity itself to pack a jury of twelve, and
even a jury of peers; but it was a much more serious matter to pack
both Houses of Parliament. What then was the meaning and use of acts
of attainder? They were acts of indemnity for the King. People might
cavil at the verdict of juries; for they were only the decisions of a
handful of men; but who should impugn the voice of the whole body
politic expressed in its most solemn, complete and legal form? There
is no way, said Francis to Henry in 1532, so safe as by Parliament,[1177]
and one of Henry's invariable methods was to make the whole (p. 437)
nation, so far as he could, his accomplice. For pardons and acts of
grace the King was ready to assume the responsibility; but the nation
itself must answer for rigorous deeds. And acts of attainder were
neither more nor less than deliberate pronouncements, on the part of
the people, that it was expedient that one man should die rather than
that the whole nation should perish or run any risk of danger.
[Footnote 1175: "I never knew," writes Bishop
Gardiner a few months after Henry's death, "man
committed to prison for disagreeing to any doctrine
unless the same doctrine were established by a law
of the realm before" (Foxe, ed. Townsend, vi.,
141).]
[Footnote 1176: The Countess of Salisbury and
Cromwell are the two great exceptions.]
[Footnote 1177: _L. and P._, vi., 954. It may be
reading too much into Francis I.'s words, but it is
tempting to connect them with Machiavelli's opinion
that the French _parlement_ was devised to relieve
the Crown of the hostility aroused by curbing the
power of the nobles (_Il Principe_ c. 19). A closer
parallel to the policy of Henry VIII. may be found
in that which Tacitus attributes to Tiberius with
regard to the Senate; "he must devolve on the
Senate the odious duty of trial and condemnation
and reserve only the credit of clemency for
himself" (Furneaux, _Tacitus_, Introd.).]
History, in a democratic age, tends to become a series of popular
apologies, and is inclined to assume that the people can do no wrong;
some one must be the scapegoat for the people's sins, and the national
sins of Henry's reign are all laid on Henry's shoulders. But the
nation in the sixteenth century deliberately condoned injustice, when
injustice made for its peace. It has done so before and after, and may
possibly do so again. It is easy in England to-day to denounce the
cruel sacrifices imposed on individuals in the time of Henry VIII. by
their subordination in everything to the interests of the State; but,
whenever and wherever like dangers have threatened, recourse has been
had to similar methods, to government by proclamation, to martial law,
and to verdicts based on political expediency.
The contrast between morals and politics, which comes out in Henry's
reign as a terrible contradiction, is inherent in all forms of human
society. Politics, the action of men in the mass, are akin to the
operation of natural forces; and, as such, they are neither moral nor
immoral; they are simply non-moral. Political movements are often as
resistless as the tides of the ocean; they carry to fortune, and they
bear to ruin, the just and the unjust with heedless impartiality. Cato
and Brutus striving against the torrent of Roman imperialism, (p. 438)
Fisher and More seeking to stem the secularisation of the Church, are
like those who would save men's lives from the avalanche by preaching
to the mountain on the text of the sixth commandment. The efforts of
good men to avert a sure but cruel fate are the truest theme of the
Tragic Muse; and it is possible to represent Henry's reign as one long
nightmare of "truth for ever on the scaffold, wrong for ever on the
throne"; for Henry VIII. embodied an inevitable movement of politics,
while Fisher and More stood only for individual conscience.
That is the secret of Henry's success. He directed the storm of a
revolution which was doomed to come, which was certain to break those
who refused to bend, and which may be explained by natural causes, but
cannot be judged by moral considerations. The storm cleared the air
and dissipated many a pestilent vapour, but it left a trail of wreck
and ruin over the land. The nation purchased political salvation at
the price of moral debasement; the individual was sacrificed on the
altar of the State; and popular subservience proved the impossibility
of saving a people from itself. Constitutional guarantees are
worthless without the national will to maintain them; men lightly
abandon what they lightly hold; and, in Henry's reign, the English
spirit of independence burned low in its socket, and love of freedom
grew cold. The indifference of his subjects to political issues
tempted Henry along the path to tyranny, and despotic power developed
in him features, the repulsiveness of which cannot be concealed by the
most exquisite art, appealing to the most deep-rooted prejudice. He
turned to his own profit the needs and the faults of his people, as
well as their national spirit. He sought the greatness of England, (p. 439)
and he spared no toil in the quest; but his labours were spent for no
ethical purpose. His aims were selfish; his realm must be strong,
because he must be great. He had the strength of a lion, and like a
lion he used it.
Yet it is probable that Henry's personal influence and personal action
averted greater evils than those they provoked. Without him, the storm
of the Reformation would still have burst over England; without him,
it might have been far more terrible. Every drop of blood shed under
Henry VIII. might have been a river under a feebler king. Instead of a
stray execution here and there, conducted always with a scrupulous
regard for legal forms, wars of religion might have desolated the land
and swept away thousands of lives. London saw many a hideous sight in
Henry's reign, but it had no cause to envy the Catholic capitals which
witnessed the sack of Rome and the massacre of St. Bartholomew; for
all Henry's iniquities, multiplied manifold, would not equal the
volume of murder and sacrilege wrought at Rome in May, 1527, or at
Paris in August, 1572.[1178] From such orgies of violence and crime,
England was saved by the strong right arm and the iron will of her
Tudor king. "He is," said Wolsey after his fall,[1179] "a prince of
royal courage, and he hath a princely heart; and rather than he (p. 440)
will miss or want part of his appetite he will hazard the loss of
one-half of his kingdom." But Henry discerned more clearly than Wolsey
the nature of the ground on which he stood; by accident, or by design,
his appetite conformed to potent and permanent forces; and, wherein it
did not, he was, in spite of Wolsey's remark, content to forgo its
gratification. It was not he, but the Reformation, which put the
kingdoms of Europe to the hazard. The Sphinx propounded her riddle to
all nations alike, and all were required to answer. Should they cleave
to the old, or should they embrace the new? Some pressed forward,
others held back, and some, to their own confusion, replied in dubious
tones. Surrounded by faint hearts and fearful minds, Henry VIII.
neither faltered nor failed. He ruled in a ruthless age with a
ruthless hand, he dealt with a violent crisis by methods of blood and
iron, and his measures were crowned with whatever sanction worldly
success can give. He is Machiavelli's _Prince_ in action. He took his
stand on efficiency rather than principle, and symbolised the
prevailing of the gates of Hell. The spiritual welfare of England
entered into his thoughts, if at all, as a minor consideration; but,
for her peace and material comfort it was well that she had as her
King, in her hour of need, a man, and a man who counted the cost, who
faced the risk, and who did with his might whatsoever his hand found
to do.
[Footnote 1178: In three months of "peace" in 1568
over ten thousand persons are said to have been
slain in France (_Cambr. Mod. Hist._, ii., 347). At
least a hundred thousand were butchered in the
Peasants' War in Germany in 1525-6, and thirty
thousand Anabaptists are said to have suffered in
Holland and Friesland alone between 1523 and 1546.
Henry VIII.'s policy was _parcere subjectis et
debellare superbos_, to protect the many humble and
destroy the mighty few.]
[Footnote 1179: _L. and P._, iv., Introd., p.
dcxvi.]
INDEX. (p. 441)
A.
Abbeville, 142.
Abergavenny, Baron. _See_ Neville, George.
Abingdon, 128.
Acts of Succession. _See_ Succession.
Adrian VI., Pope, 155, 156 _n_, 161, 162.
Agnadello, battle of, 52, 53.
Agostini, Augustine, 247, 248 _n_.
Albany, Duke of. _See_ Stewart, John.
Albret, Jean d', 85, 93, 136, 144.
Aless, Alexander, 347.
Alexander VI., Pope, 212, 229.
Amicable Loan, 165, 243.
Ampthill, 354.
Ancona, Peter, Cardinal of, 212.
Ancrum Moor, battle of, 413, 415.
André, Bernard, 20 and _note_, 21.
Angus, Earl of. _See_ Douglas, Archibald.
Annates, 290 and _note_, 297, 302, 320. _See also_ First-fruits.
Anne Boleyn. _See_ Boleyn.
---- of Brittany, wife of Louis XII., 74, 212, 217.
---- of Cleves, suggested marriage of, 383, 384;
arrival in England and marriage, 385, 386;
repudiation of, 210, 392, 395, 397, 404.
---- of Hungary, 51.
Antigone, 333.
Antwerp, 396.
Apparel, Act of, 128.
Appeals, Acts of, 298, 299, 319.
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 123, 334.
Aragon, 26, 28, 31, 51, 93, 104, 313.
------ Catherine of. _See_ Catherine.
------ Ferdinand of. _See_ Ferdinand.
Arc, Jeanne d', 65.
Ardres, 64, 141, 143.
Armada, Spanish, 249, 307, 376.
Army, Henry VIII.'s, 3, 109, 313, 315, 354;
wages of, 57, 58;
commissariat difficulties, 68, 69;
invasions of France, 64, 80, 160, 161.
Arthur, King, 14.
------ Prince of Wales, 11, 14, 38, 48, 283, 284.
Artois, 93, 157.
Ashton, Christopher, 11.
Aske, Robert, 354, 356, 357.
Athequa, George, Bishop of Llandaff, 319.
Attainder, use and meaning of, 36, 37, 390, 404, 423, 436.
Audley, Edmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 338.
------ Sir Thomas, Speaker and Lord Audley of Walden, 273, 278,
330 _n_, 393.
Augmentations, Court of. _See_ Court.
Augsburg, Peace of, 429.
Austria, 26, 30, 51, 104, 382.
Auxerre, Bishop of. _See_ Dinteville, François de.
B.
Bacon, Francis, Lord Verulam, 44.
Badajos, Bishop of, 73.
Badoer, Piero, 49, 53, 67, 78, 109.
Bagnal, Sir Henry, 253 _n_.
Bainbridge, Christopher, Cardinal and Archbishop of York, 1 _n_, 53,
55, 89, 229.
Bangor, Bishopric of, 318.
------ Bishop of. _See_ Skeffington, Thomas.
Barbarossa, 311.
Barcelona, Treaty of, 225, 226.
Barnes, Robert, 193, 394.
Barton, Elizabeth, 305, 324, 374.
Bath and Wells, Bishops of. _See_ Clerk, John; Hadrian de Castello;
Stillington, Robert.
Bavaria, Albert of, 28.
Bayard, Chevalier, 54.
Beaton, David, Cardinal, 373, 405, 409, 415.
Beaufort, Edmund, second Duke of Somerset, 6.
-------- Henry, Bishop of Winchester, 6.
-------- John, Earl of Somerset, 6.
-------- John, first Duke of Somerset, 6.
-------- Lady Margaret, 6, 8, 10, 20, 24.
-------- Thomas, Duke of Exeter, 6, 272 _n_.
Beauforts, the, 6, 8.
Beaulieu, 11, 375.
Becket, Thomas à, Archbishop of Canterbury, 106, 270, 271, 372, 377.
Bedford, Earl of. _See_ Russell, John.
Belgrade, surrender of, 164.
Bembridge, 414.
Bennet, Dr. William, 207.
Berlin, 68.
Bermondsey Abbey, 5, 10.
Berwick, 368, 375.
Biez, Maréchal Oudart du, 413.
Bilney, Thomas, 272.
_Bishops' Book_, or _Institution of a Christian Man_, 379, 417.
Blackheath, Cornishmen defeated at, 11.
Bloody Assize, 357.
Blount, Elizabeth, 47, 183, 185, 210.
------ William, fourth Baron Mountjoy, 22-24, 183.
Boerio, Dr. Baptista, 22.
Boleyn, Anne, Henry's passion for, 173, 186-192, 209;
her "Lutheranism," 203-205, 237, 274, 347, 349, 397, 399;
canonical obstacles to her marriage with Henry VIII., 206,
208;
her unpopularity, 250, 314;
accompanies Henry to France, 294, 295;
her marriage, 281, 300, 319, 398;
coronation, 300;
unkindness to Princess Mary, 304 and _note_;
her issue, 300, 315 _n_, 321, 342, 343, 348, 360;
nullity of her marriage, 210, 344, 345;
her trial and death, 233, 344-346, 404, 434 _n_.
------ George, Viscount Rochford, 344, 434 _n_.
------ Mary, 185, 188, 208, 344.
------ Thomas, Earl of Wiltshire, 138, 188, 203, 273.
Bologna, 55, 86, 88, 283, 297 _n_.
Bolton, William, prior of St. Bartholomew, 237.
Bonner, Edmund, Bishop of London, 316.
------ Humphrey, 234 _n_.
Bordeaux, 131, 156.
Borough, Edward, Lord, 410.
Bosworth, battle of, 3, 7, 9, 11, 49, 79.
Boulogne, 68, 294;
besieged, 133, 160, 412-415.
Bourbon, Charles, Duc de, 151, 158 and _note_, 159, 160, 162, 163,
171, 176.
Bourges, 283.
Boxley, Rood of, 380.
Bradshaw, Thomas, 259 _n_.
Brandenburg, Margrave of, 100.
Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk, his family, 79;
promotion and suggested marriage, 80;
his previous wives, 80, 81, 199, 205;
embassy to France, 81, 85, 86;
marriage to Mary Tudor, 3, 15, 37, 82, 83;
Henry's displeasure, 82, 83;
his favour with Henry, 84;
tilts with the King, 41, 95;
army under, 159, 160, 162, 354, 412;
claim to the throne, 181;
objects to legatine courts, 223;
other references, 2 _n_, 111, 116, 246, 385.
------- William, 79.
Bray, 160.
Brereton, William, 344.
Brescia, 61.
Brest, blockade of, 63.
Brewer, John Sherren, 84 _n_, 189 _n_, 192 _n_, 197 _n_, 234 _n_,
249 _n_, 252 _n_, 261 _n_, 270 _n_.
Brian, Sir Francis, 203.
Brinkelow, Henry, 256, 257 _n_.
Bristol, 401.
Brittany, 30, 31.
Browne, Ann, 199.
Bruges, 111, 145, 146, 155, 281.
Brussels, 94.
Brydges, John, 260 _n_.
Buckingham, Duke of. _See_ Stafford, Edward.
Bullinger, Henry, 380.
Buonarotti, Michael Angelo, 44.
Burgundy, 26, 27, 30, 51, 104, 136, 168. _See also_ Netherlands.
Butler, Piers, Earl of Ormond, 189.
------ Thomas, Earl of Ormond, 187.
Byzantinism, 180 _n_, 370 _n_.
C.
Cadwallader, 5.
Caistor, 353.
Calais, 63-65, 74, 83, 93, 97, 112, 114, 129, 131, 139, 140, 142-146,
154, 159, 160, 203, 224, 254 _n_, 308-310, 315, 370, 375, 384;
parliamentary representation of, 368.
Calshot Castle, 375.
Cambrai, 94, 296.
------ League of (1508), 29, 52, 53, 90, 98.
------ Peace of (1529), 224, 246, 250, 309.
Cambridge, 20, 49, 77, 283, 334, 354.
Campeggio, Lorenzo, Cardinal, 97, 112, 155, 184, 185 _n_, 186, 190, 204,
206 _n_, 211, 215-218, 219 _n_, 220 _n_, 222, 223,
225, 237, 238, 247, 270, 311 _n_, 318.
Canon Law, 6, 117, 200, 336, 337, 349.
Canterbury, 106, 140, 143, 260 _n_, 372.
---------- Archbishopric of, 16, 296, 298, 318, 329, 417.
---------- Archbishops of. _See_ Becket, Thomas à; Cranmer, Thomas;
Langton, Stephen; Pole, Reginald; Warham,
William.
Capua, Archbishop of, 225.
Carroz, Luis, 49, 59, 61 _n_, 62, 67, 70, 76 and _note_, 132, 192.
Casale, Giovanni, 170, 207, 211, 224, 226.
Castello, Hadrian de. _See_ Hadrian.
Castile, 26-29, 51, 52, 72, 75, 92, 104, 167, 176, 313.
------- Isabella of. _See_ Isabella.
------- _See also_ Philip of Burgundy and Juaña.
Castillon, Louis de Perreau, Sieur de, 370.
Catherine of Aragon, marriage to Prince Arthur, 11, 14, 48, 283;
proposals for second marriage of, 26, 27;
betrothed to Henry VIII., 27;
possibly taught Henry Spanish, 22;
marriage deferred, 28;
marriage to Henry VIII., 45, 46;
coronation, 46;
commissioned as Ferdinand's ambassador, 51;
regent in England, 65;
ally of Charles V., 137;
attends Field of Cloth of Gold, 141, 142;
legality of her marriage questioned, 173, 174, 281;
premature death of her children, 174-177;
divorce threatened, 76, 176;
ceases to bear children, 178-181;
her conscience, 178;
purity and courage of, 192, 193;
divorce unjust to her, 193, 212;
proceedings against her, 202;
correspondence with Charles, 220;
protests in person against the Legates' Court, 221;
her popularity, 250, 314;
championed by Charles, 226, 294;
alleged nullity of her marriage, 296, 319;
sentence by Cranmer, 300;
her treatment by Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, 303,
304, 309, 310, 311 _n_;
dissuaded by Charles V. from leaving England, 311;
Pope pronounces her marriage valid, 321;
her death, 335, 336, 342;
other references to, 51 _n_, 70, 106, 200, 208, 210,
216, 251, 259, 265, 275, 282, 289,
304 _n_, 305, 312, 313, 327,
347-350, 364, 428.
--------- of France, Queen of Henry V., 5.
--------- sister of Charles V., Queen of Portugal, 100.
--------- Howard, character before her marriage, 397;
her marriage, 398, 399;
misconduct, 403;
death, 404;
her fall impairs Duke of Norfolk's influence, 416.
--------- Parr, her previous marriages, 410;
marriage to Henry, 410;
her tact, 411;
favour towards New Learning, 416.
Caxton, William, 20.
Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, 38.
Cervia, 224, 226.
Chancery, _See_ Courts.
Chapuys, Eustace, 114 _n_, 132, 185, 192 _n_, 194, 197 _n_, 247, 248 _n_,
262, 268, 271 _n_, 273 _n_, 274, 275, 284 _sqq._,
285 _n_, 295, 298, 300, 303, 304 and _note_, 305-308,
311, 313-315 and _note_, 319, 321, 332, 335, 339 _n_,
342 _n_, 343, 345 _n_, 350, 352, 359, 362 _n_, 364,
366, 373, 374, 403, 405.
Charlemagne, 52, 76.
Charles I. of England, 25 _n_, 258, 259.
------- II., 186, 432.
------- V., Emperor, suggested marriage to Mary Tudor, 26, 28, 45, 48, 65,
72-81, 83;
heir to both grandfathers, 51 and _note_;
assumes government of the Netherlands, 85;
succeeds Ferdinand, 73, 92, 93;
enters into Treaty of Noyon, 93;
difficulties in Spain, 96;
election as Emperor, 100-105;
treated by Wolsey as an equal, 111;
pensions to Wolsey, 115, 116;
his foreign possessions, 136;
reasons for peace with England, 137;
invitation to visit England, 139;
second meeting with Henry, 143;
war with France, 144, 148;
Wolsey's mediation between Francis and Charles,
145-147;
proposed marriage to Mary of England, 143, 146, 156;
Wolsey sides with Charles, 148-152;
battle of Pavia, 154;
influence on papal elections, 154, 155;
promises to aid Wolsey's candidature for the Papacy,
161, 162;
joins England against France, 159;
his supremacy in Europe, 163, 164;
marriage with Isabella of Portugal, 167;
plans for deposing Henry, 180;
his morals, 186;
champions his aunt's cause, 202, 225, 294;
peace with Henry, 224;
Treaty of Barcelona, 226;
appeal to a general council, 230 _n_;
appealed to by Wolsey, 247;
alliance with Clement, 249, 295, 297;
alliance with Francis, 250, 371, 381, 382, 392;
objects to carry out the papal sentence, 309, 310;
rivalry with Francis, 108, 312, 429;
anxious for Henry's friendship, 322, 359;
engaged in conquering Tunis, 334;
meeting with Francis and Paul III., 372;
breach with Francis, 404, 405;
intrigues with James V. of Scotland, 406;
secret treaty with Henry, 410;
peace with Francis, 412;
other references to, 76, 78, 88, 98, 108, 118, 132,
158, 193-196, 197 _n_, 201, 204, 206, 207,
212, 216, 223, 251, 261, 275, 283, 295, 301,
302 _n_, 304, 308, 311 _n_, 314, 332, 349,
361, 366, 370, 373, 376, 377, 383, 386, 393,
396, 398.
------- VIII. of France, 10, 30.
------- the Bold, 30, 51 _n_, 136.
Charlotte, daughter of Francis I., 93, 143.
Chester, Bishopric of, 318, 401.
Chichester, Bishop of. _See_ Sampson, Richard.
---------- Bishopric of, 319.
Chieregati, 95, 96, 113, 121, 135.
Chièvres, William de Croy, Lord of, 85, 183.
Chobham, 421.
Christina of Milan, 370, 371 and _note_, 384.
Cinque Ports, 16.
Civil Law, 38, 334, 362 _n_.
Clarence, Duke of. _See_ George.
Clarendon, Constitutions of, 271.
Claude, Queen of France, 188.
Clement VII., Pope, his policy as Cardinal de Medici, 148, 152-154, 230;
proclaimed Pope, 162 _n_;
forms the Holy League, 168;
his imperial interests, 169;
confirmed Suffolk's divorce, 199;
his captivity, 201;
gives Wolsey legatine powers, 202;
warned by Wolsey that his fall means ruin to the
Church in England, 204-206, 211, 212, 237;
suggests two wives for Henry, 207;
anxious to avoid responsibility, 213;
urges Catherine to enter a nunnery, 213 and _note_,
214;
commission to Campeggio and Wolsey to try the divorce,
214, 215, 221;
his indecision, 216, 224-227, 280, 294;
instructs Campeggio to procrastinate, 216, 222;
refuses to declare the brief a forgery, 220;
his motives for siding against Henry VIII., 224, 225;
his treaty with the Emperor, 225, 226;
revokes his commission to Campeggio and Wolsey, 226,
227;
bull of 1530, 281, 282;
interviews Charles, 295;
apparent friendship with Henry VIII., 296, 297;
delays in the divorce suit, 298;
prepares the final ban of the Church against
Henry VIII., 302, 303, 316;
pronounces Catherine's marriage valid, 321;
his dispensation for the marriage of Anne Boleyn,
208-210, 344;
his death, 322;
other references to, 187 _n_, 210, 218, 230 _n_, 247,
276, 309, 319, 428.
Clerk, John, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 154, 155, 161, 197 _n_, 318, 338.
Cleves, Anne of. _See_ Anne.
------ Duke John of, father of Anne of Cleves, 382, 383.
------ Duke William of, brother of Anne, 383, 386, 393.
Coinage, debasement of, 418.
Coire, 99.
Colet, John, Dean of St. Paul's, 134.
Commons, House of. _See also_ Parliament.
------- ----- More pleads its privileges, 165, 259;
throws out attainder against Wolsey, 246;
packing of, 252 _sqq._;
free speech in, 259, 288, 289;
powers of, 259 _n_;
feared by the Church, 270, 280;
Audley chosen Speaker, 278;
refuses to remit Henry's loan, 279;
attacks abuses, 291;
passes Act of Appeals, 299;
waits on Henry, 320;
passes attainder against Cromwell, 390;
opposition to Cromwell, 391.
Conquêt, 63.
Constable, Sir Robert, 357.
Constantine, the Emperor, 363 _n_.
Contarini, Cardinal, 153, 318, 359.
Copley, Sir Roger, 253.
Cork, 10.
Corneto, 215.
Cornwall, Dukes of. _See_ Arthur, Prince, and Henry VIII.
Coron, 312.
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 49, 206 _n_.
Council, Ordinary, 364 _n_.
------- government by, 364 _n_.
------- Privy, 288, 289, 356, 365, 403, 416.
------- of the North, 358, 366.
------- of Wales, 364 _n_, 365, 366.
------- of Trent, 299.
Court of Augmentations, 337.
----- Chancery, 319, 320, 327.
----- Requests, 38, 368.
----- Star Chamber, 35, 38, 119, 120, 368.
----- Wards and Liveries, 368.
Courtenay, Henry, Marquis of Exeter, 183, 305, 374, 375.
--------- Sir William, 374.
Coventry and Lichfield, Bishopric of, 318.
Coverdale, Miles, 379.
Cowes, 57.
Cradock, Sir Matthew, 11.
Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, suggests an appeal to the
Universities, 282;
appointed Archbishop, 296;
expedition of his bulls, 296-298;
his court made final, 299;
declares Catherine's marriage void and Anne's valid,
300, 302;
crowns Anne as queen, 300;
declares Anne's marriage invalid, 344;
licenses Henry to marry a third wife, 346;
informs Henry of Catherine Howard's misconduct, 403;
his hold on Henry, 416;
discusses the _King's Book_ with Henry, 417;
is attacked, 418;
sent for in Henry's illness, 424, 425;
other references to, 191, 197 _n_, 230 _n_, 282 and
_note_, 325 _n_, 327 and _note_, 354,
379, 385, 391 _n_, 393, 401 _n_.
Croke, Richard, 282 _n_.
Crome, Edward, 274.
Cromwell, Oliver, 368, 432.
-------- Thomas, Earl of Essex, humble birth, 38, 42;
rising to notice, 159;
opposes Wolsey's attainder in the Commons, 246, 278;
his agents, 254;
his interference in elections, 260 and _note_, 261, 317;
reports on Parliament to the King, 263 _n_;
becomes secretary, 273, 323;
prepares bills for Parliament, 289 _n_, 291;
said to "rule everything," 318;
anxious to make Henry despotic, 323 and _note_, 329;
anxious to make Henry rich, 341;
never in Wolsey's position, 350;
anxious for government by council, 364;
appointed vicar-general, 378;
vicegerent, 379;
induces Henry to marry Anne of Cleves, 384, 385;
packs Parliament in favour of his own policy, 392;
his fall, 397, 416;
created Earl of Essex;
his death, 2, 394;
other references to, 290, 325 _n_, 339 _n_, 349, 354,
366 _n_, 381, 399, 400, 434 _n_, 436 _n_.
Crowley, Robert, 257 _n._
Crown, succession to the. _See_ Succession.
Culpepper, Thomas, 398, 403.
D.
Dacre, Thomas, Lord Dacre of the North, 156, 157, 247 _n_.
Dante, 29.
Darcy, Thomas, Baron Darcy, 305, 353-355, 357.
Deal, 385.
Denmark, 312.
Denny, Sir Anthony, 424.
Deptford, 126.
Derby, Earl of. _See_ Stanley, Thomas.
Dereham, Francis, 398, 403.
Derknall, Robert, 260 _n_.
D'Ewes, Giles, 20 and _note_, 21.
Dinteville, François de, Bishop of Auxerre, 280.
Dispensation, papal power of, 173, 174, 176, 193, 207-209, 212, 213, 218,
219, 284, 344;
transferred to Cranmer, 320, 346.
Divorce, the law of, 173 _n_, 208, 218, 219, 344, 345, 395.
------- of Catherine of Aragon, first suggestion of, 76, 173, 176,
197 and _note_;
origin of, 173;
causes of, 179, 183, 186;
motives for, 177-179, 189;
Wolsey's attitude towards, 204, 205;
commission to try, 214 _sqq._, 214 _n_;
its influence on the Reformation, 232, 238, 428;
disliked by the people, 250, 251;
decision of the Universities, 283, 284, 296, 358;
its injustice to Catherine, 192, 193;
sentence of divorce, 187.
------- of Anne Boleyn, 344.
------- of Anne of Cleves, 395.
------- other instances of, 199, 200, 209 _n_, 212.
Dodieu, Claude, 196.
Doncaster, 356.
Doria, 216.
Dorset, Marquis of. _See_ Grey, Sir Thomas.
Douglas, Archibald, sixth Earl of Angus, 88, 200.
Dourlens, 157.
Dover, 139, 140, 375.
----- Castle, 16, 375.
Drogheda, Parliament of, 18.
Du Bellay, John, Bishop of Bayonne, 185 _n_, 196, 197, 203 _n_, 223-225,
237, 244, 246, 273, 282 _n_, 284, 295 _n_, 319.
Dublin, 9, 367.
Dubois, Pierre, 329.
Dudley, Edmund, 2 _n_, 44, 48.
------ John, Viscount Lisle, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, 261, 408,
414, 430.
Dunkirk, 281.
Dunstable, 300, 302.
Du Prat, Cardinal Antoine, 145.
Durham, Bishopric of, 318.
------ Bishops of. _See_ Ruthal, Thomas; Tunstall, Cuthbert.
Dymock, Sir Robert, 46.
E.
Edinburgh, 69, 413.
--------- Duke of, 18 _n_.
Education under Henry VII., 19, 20.
Edward I., 37, 187.
------ III., 180, 182, 346.
------ IV., beheads Owen Tudor, 5;
his right to the throne, 7;
his descendants and their claims, 8, 9, 181, 183, 305, 314;
his daughter Elizabeth marries Henry VII., 13;
his tastes, 15, 39;
his marriage pronounced void, 306.
------ VI., birth at Greenwich, 16, 360, 361;
forward as a pupil, 19, 267;
proposed marriage of, 348, 362, 408, 409, 415;
his claim to the throne, 349;
his early death, 12;
homilies printed in his reign, 417.
------ Earl of Warwick, 9, 11, 179.
Eleanor, daughter of Philip of Burgundy, Queen of Portugal, 26, 168, 196,
197 _n_.
Elizabeth, Queen, born at Greenwich, 16, 300, 301;
forward as a pupil, 19;
foundress of Jesus College, Oxford, 21 _n_;
contended for the supremacy of the State, 233;
arbitrary with Parliament, 263, 329;
pronounced illegitimate, 343 and _note_, 348 and note;
claim to the throne, 348 _n_;
other references to, 35, 191, 267, 304, 411.
--------- of York, married to Henry VII., 13;
described by Erasmus, 20.
Ely, Bishop of. _See_ West, Nicholas.
--- Bishopric of, 318.
Embrun, 86.
Emmanuel, King of Portugal, 167.
Emperors. _See_ Maximilian I. and Charles V.
Empire, Holy Roman, 32, 101, 108.
Empson, Sir Richard, 2 _n_, 44, 48.
Enclosure movement, 119, 120, 256, 352.
Erasmus, Desiderius, his description of Elizabeth of York, 20 and _note_;
of Henry VIII., 22, 23, 40, 106, 122, 123, 125;
other references to, 19 and _note_, 89, 115 _n_,
134, 183, 236.
Essex, Earl of. _See_ Cromwell, Thomas.
Este, Alfonso d', 153.
---- Isabella d', 135.
Estrada, Duke of, 26.
Étaples, Treaty of, 48, 75.
Eton College, 426.
Evers, William, Lord, 413.
Exeter, Marquis of. _See_ Courtenay, Henry.
------ Bishops of. _See_ Fox, Richard; Coverdale, Miles.
F.
Falier, Ludovico, 179.
Farnham, 370.
Ferdinand of Aragon, his negotiations for Catherine's marriage, 11, 14,
26, 45, 47;
claims Castile, 27;
his methods of government, 37;
advises Henry VIII., 43, 50;
his schemes for the aggrandisement of his family,
50-52, 60;
attacks the Moors, 55;
makes peace with them and attacks France, 56;
conquers Navarre, 57, 58;
betrays Henry, 59-62;
his duplicity, 61, 70, 72, 73;
his death, 92;
other references to, 28-30, 51 _n_, 52-54, 67,
75-77, 85, 88, 100, 105, 107, 145, 174-176,
179, 284, 351.
--------- Archduke and Emperor, 51 and _note_, 52-54, 61 _n_, 71, 76,
94, 101.
Ferrara, 100, 153, 159, 283.
Ferrers, Sir Edward, 252 _n_.
Ferrers' case, 258, 259.
_Fidei Defensor_, 107, 126, 325.
Field of Cloth of Gold, 141-143, 151, 294.
First-fruits and Tenths, 324, 327, 336, 368.
Fisher, John, Cardinal Bishop of Rochester, preaches Henry VII.'s
funeral sermon, 43, 44;
denounces Luther's books, 125;
defends the validity of Catherine's marriage, 222, 236, 282;
his treasonable practices, 282, 305;
sent to the Tower, 324;
attainted, 331-333;
created Cardinal, 332;
death, 333;
other references to, 1 _n_, 50, 150, 279, 280, 287, 289,
319, 331 _n_, 350, 438.
Fitzgerald, Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, 9, 11, 149, 305, 366, 367.
Fitzroy, Henry, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, 183-185, 197, 213, 348.
Fitzwilliam, Sir William, Earl of Southampton, 144, 146, 147, 157, 203,
254 _n_, 385, 389 _n_, 390, 393.
Flanders, 52, 93, 140, 144, 223, 224, 308-311, 358, 359, 373.
_See also_ Burgundy and Netherlands.
Flodden Field, 49, 66, 80, 87, 200, 408.
Florence, 51, 86, 226.
Floyd's case, 259 _n_.
Foix, Germaine de, 29, 100.
---- Odet de. _See_ Lautrec.
Fox, Richard, Bishop of Exeter, afterwards Bishop of Winchester,
baptises Henry VIII., 16;
his fortunes linked with the Tudors, 48;
chancellor of Cambridge, 49;
founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 49;
an intimate counsellor of Henry VIII., 49;
retires to his diocese, 92;
debates the legality of Henry's marriage, 174, 198;
death, 117;
other references to, 62, 98, 109, 114, 158, 159, 273.
Foxe, Edward, Bishop of Hereford, 211, 214.
---- John, martyrologist, 191.
France, unity of, 30, 31;
Roman law in, 32;
English antipathy to, 53;
invasion of, 57, 60, 62-66;
friendship with Venice, 61;
truce with Venice, 60;
war against, 64, 65;
campaigns in, 68, 69;
Suffolk's embassy to, 85;
Wolsey's embassy to, 112, 144-146;
treaty with England, 138;
Henry's visit to, 140-143;
war with Spain, 144;
English pretence to the crown of, 149, 150, 158;
suggested assembly of cardinals in, 201;
alliance with England, 223;
threatens Italy from the North, 51, 228, 229;
other references to, 29, 108, 181, 204, 220, 370, 373, 393.
------ Catherine of. _See_ Catherine.
------ Kings of. _See_ Charles VIII., Francis I., Louis XI., Louis XII.
Francis, Duke of Angoulême, afterwards Francis I. of France,
description of, 39, 78;
relations with Mary Tudor, 78-83;
designs on Milan, 85, 86;
omnipotence in Italy, 93;
joins second League of Cambrai, 94;
is deceived by Charles V., 96;
his efforts to be elected Emperor, 98-104;
rivalry with Charles V., 108, 312, 429;
his pensions to Wolsey, 115, 116;
his claim to Naples, 136;
Wolsey's opposition to, 137 and _note_;
is anxious for a personal interview with Henry VIII.,
138, 139;
meets Henry VIII. at the Field of Cloth of Gold, 141-143;
his war with Charles V., 144-148;
his immorality, 150, 186;
his influence on the papal election, 154, 155;
is convinced of English hostility, 156;
English make war on, 157, 158;
his defeat at Pavia, 30, 163, 164;
signs Treaty of Madrid, 168;
suggested marriage to Princess Mary, 195-197 _n_;
his defeat at Landriano, 226;
is appealed to by Wolsey, 247;
his alliance with Charles V., 250;
his meeting with Henry at Boulogne (1532), 294;
disapproves of Henry's breach with the Church, 306;
meditates fresh Italian schemes, 310, 351;
his meeting with Clement at Marseilles (1533), 316;
orders Pole to leave France, 359;
his friendship with Charles V., 371, 381, 382, 392;
his meeting with Charles V. and Paul III. (1538), 372;
his breach with Charles V., 404, 405;
intrigues with James V., 406, 409;
his peace with Henry (1546), 412;
his advice about Parliament, 436;
other references to, 81, 88, 94, 97, 127, 129 _n_, 137,
151, 162, 163 _n_, 169, 173, 193, 216, 225, 280,
297, 302 _n_, 311, 315, 334, 349, 361, 369, 370,
376, 377, 383, 386, 393, 396.
------ Dauphin of France, 138, 143, 148.
Frederick II., Emperor, 329.
Frith, John, 272.
Fuentarabia, 160.
G.
Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Winchester,
goes to Rome to obtain a commission to try the divorce
case in England, 214, 220;
would be more powerful if he abandoned his order, 237,
273;
his pocket-boroughs, 254 and _note_, 317, 390;
secretary, 273;
led the bishops in the House of Lords to reject the
concessions made to the King by the Church, 293;
retires to Winchester, 294;
his opposition to the divorce, 306;
on parliamentary liberties, 259;
on the limits of Henry's power, 323 _n_, 330;
encounters Barnes in a theological discussion, 394;
patron of Catherine Howard, 397, 399;
champion of the Catholic faith, 416, 418;
other references to, 211, 259, 290, 316, 327 _n_, 336,
435 _n_.
Gattinara, Mercurio, 147.
Gatton, 253 and _note_.
Gaunt, John of, 6, 180.
Genoa, 51, 70, 71, 76, 147, 168.
George, Duke of Clarence, 8, 18, 305, 314, 358, 373.
Germany, 30-32, 69, 101, 104, 124, 139, 272, 311, 381, 382, 393, 418.
Ghinucci, Girolamo, Bishop of Worcester, 202, 206, 207, 218, 318, 338.
Giglis, Silvester de, Bishop of Worcester, 86, 229.
Giustinian, Sebastian, Venetian ambassador, 67, 72, 77 _n_, 87, 88, 92,
97, 98, 102, 106, 108, 109 and _note_, 110-115,
118, 121, 127, 129, 132, 177, 181, 240.
Gloucester, 40.
Gordon, Lady Catherine, 11 and _note_.
Grammont, Gabriel de, Bishop of Tarbes, 173, 195-197, 280, 281.
Gravelines, 143.
Greenwich, 15, 16, 22, 46, 83, 86, 134, 239, 300, 324, 385.
Grey, Lady Jane, 19, 435.
---- Lord Leonard, 366, 367.
---- Thomas, second Marquis of Dorset, 37 _n_, 57.
Guelders, 54, 144, 168, 383, 393.
Guienne, 57, 58, 61, 62.
Guildford, 389, 421.
Guinegate, 64, 65.
Guipuscoa, 57.
Guisnes, 129, 140, 141, 375.
Gustavus Vasa, King of Sweden, 238.
H.
Hadrian de Castello, Cardinal Bishop of Bath and Wells, 97, 112, 115.
Hailes, Blood of, 380.
Hales, John, 433 _n_.
Halidon Rig, 407.
Hamburg, 311.
Hampton Court, 140, 239, 398, 410, 421.
Harwich, 375.
Henry II., 4, 271 and _note_, 275.
----- IV., 4, 6, 15, 180, 232.
----- IV. of Castile, 207.
----- V., 53, 66.
----- VI., 5, 7.
----- VII., his descent, 5-8;
his birth, 7;
His claim to the throne recognised by Parliament, 8, 13;
Yorkist rivals to, 9;
his sons and daughters, 13;
marriage, 13;
bestows Greenwich on his wife, 15;
sends Arthur and Catherine to Ludlow Castle, 14;
centralising policy, 17;
Irish policy, 18;
Renaissance under, 20;
praised by Erasmus, 23;
his theological conservatism, 24;
proposes marriages for his children, 26;
discusses Catherine's dower, 26;
suggests marrying her himself, 27;
entertains Philip of Burgundy, 27;
designs on Castile, 28, 29;
his suggested marriage with Margaret of Savoy, 28, 48;
his methods of government, 36-38;
last advice to his son, 43;
death, 43;
funeral and tomb, 44;
his treasure, 149, 245, 246;
other references to, 79, 80, 173, 178, 180, 182, 183, 232,
284, 374, 409, 426.
----- VIII., his descent and parentage, 5;
birth, 15;
baptised and said to have been destined for a clerical career,
16;
offices and titles, 16, 17;
his tutors, 20-22;
his handwriting, 21;
studies languages, 22;
is visited by Erasmus, 22, 23;
corresponds with Erasmus, 23;
studies theology, 24;
is devoted to music, 24;
his minstrels, 24;
his choristers and compositions, 25, 47;
becomes heir-apparent and Duke of Cornwall, 25;
created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, 25;
suggested matrimonial alliances, 26;
is betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, 27;
protests against the marriage, 28;
methods of government, 36;
decay of the peerage under, 37;
the ministers of, 38, 48-50;
peaceful accession, 43;
executes Dudley and Empson, 44;
marriage to Catherine, 45, 46;
coronation, 46, 48;
intervenes in favour of Venice, 53;
renews his father's treaties, 54;
his first crusade, 55;
joins Ferdinand against France, 56;
unsuccessfully attacks Guienne, 57, 58;
his league with Maximilian, 61 and _note_;
his desertion by Ferdinand, 61-63;
his success in France, 64-66;
the pacific character of his reign, 67, 68;
makes the Treaty of Lille, 69;
his honesty, 72, 73;
discovers duplicity of his allies, 73, 74;
makes peace with France, 74, 75;
his promotion of Charles Brandon, 80;
anger at Brandon's marriage to Mary Tudor exaggerated, 82-84;
rivalry with Francis I., 86, 87;
claims title of "Protector of Scotland," 87, 88;
is suggested as Emperor, 99, 102-104;
allows Wolsey much power, 109 _sqq._;
his services to the Papacy, 107;
his book against Luther, 123-126;
receives title of _Fidei Defensor_, 126;
his political activity, 128-131;
his meeting with Charles, 139, 140;
his meeting with Francis at the Field of Cloth of Gold,
141-143;
his second meeting with Charles, 143;
his rights to the crown of France, 149, 158;
his recourse to war loans, 164, 165;
doubts the legality of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon,
173, 174, 195-199, 219;
the premature death of his children, 174-177, 182;
his passion for Anne Boleyn, 189-192;
his conscience, 193, 194, 209, 218;
his first steps towards divorce, 198-201;
his justification for expecting divorce, 199, 200;
licence to commit bigamy, 206;
ceases to work in harmony with Wolsey, 203, 204;
his canonical affinity to Anne Boleyn, 206-208, 344;
is urged by Clement to settle the divorce for himself, 213;
attends the Legates' Court in person, 221;
praises Catherine, 221, 222;
finds the impossibility of obtaining a favourable verdict at
Rome, 226;
breaks with Rome, 228, 231, 428, 429;
appeals to a General Council, 230;
contends for the supremacy of the State, 233;
his support necessary to the Church, 238;
makes peace with Charles, 224;
reproves Wolsey, 242, 243;
the difference between the results of his policy and Wolsey's,
244, 245;
the difficulty of his position, 250;
his divorce interwoven with the question of papal jurisdiction
in England, 251;
he summons Parliament, 251 _sqq._;
his harmony with Parliament, 256, 261 _sqq._;
his observance of the constitution and parliamentary
privileges, 258, 430, 435, 436;
his interest in Parliament, 263;
encourages the Commons to bring complaints to him, 266;
his recognition as "Supreme Head," 268, 286, 325, 328,
330 _n_, 331;
is compared to Henry II., 271 and _note_;
his anti-clerical bias, 272, 273, 285;
his position between two parties, 276;
decisions of the Universities, 283, 284, 288;
his influence with Parliament, 284, 285, 287 _sqq._;
meets Francis at Boulogne, 294;
his marriage with Anne Boleyn, 295, 296, 300;
Cranmer pronounces the divorce, 296, 300, 302;
sentence of greater excommunication drawn up against him, 303;
his treatment of Catherine, 303, 304;
his position abroad, 305 _sqq._;
closes the Staple at Calais, 308;
his position at home, 313;
his episcopal appointments, 318;
his marriage to Catherine pronounced valid by Clement, 321;
becomes more despotic, 322, 323;
sends Fisher and More to the Tower, and the Friars Observants
to the block, 324;
position as Supreme Head of the Church, 325-330;
executes Fisher and More, 331-334;
rejoices at Catherine's death, 335;
obtains the Statute of Uses, 336;
orders a general visitation of the monasteries, 337-339;
dissolves the monasteries and divides monastic spoils with
the laity, 341;
dislikes, divorces, and beheads Anne Boleyn, 343-346;
marries Jane Seymour, 346, 347;
power to bequeath the crown given him by Parliament (_see_
Acts of Succession), 348;
his position strengthened by the death of Catherine and of
Anne Boleyn, 349, 350;
refuses to side against Francis I., 350, 351;
deals with the Pilgrimage of Grace, 355;
his answer to the rebels, 356;
conference with Aske, 357;
establishes Council of the North, 358;
his relations with Cardinal Pole, 358, 359;
his good fortune culminates in the birth of Edward VI., 360,
361;
development of his intellect, 363, 364;
completes the Union of England and Wales, 365, 366;
establishes peace in Ireland, 367;
thinks of marrying a French princess, 369, 370;
and then of Christina of Milan, 370, 371;
desecrates the shrine of St. Thomas, 372;
is excommunicated by the Pope, 373;
removes possible claimants to the throne, 374, 375;
and takes other measures for defence, 375-377;
issues the Ten Articles, 378, and _The Bishops' Book_, 379;
permits the Bible in English and destroys images, 379, 380;
and dissolves the greater monasteries, 381;
issues a manifesto against the Pope's authority to summon a
General Council, and enters into negotiations with
the German princes, 381, 382;
marries Anne of Cleves, 382-386;
but remains a Catholic at heart, 387-389;
and presses the Six Articles, 390;
repudiates the German alliance, 393;
ruins Cromwell, 394;
and divorces Anne, 395;
marries Catherine Howard, 398, 399;
renews his alliance with Charles V. and represses heresy, 400;
erects new bishoprics and endows new professorships, 401;
executes the Countess of Salisbury and Catherine Howard, 403,
404;
makes war on Scotland, renewing his feudal claims to that
kingdom, 406 _sqq._;
joins Charles V. against France, 409, 410;
marries Catherine Parr, 410;
invades France and captures Boulogne, 412;
is deserted by Charles, and left to face alone the French
invasion, 413;
on its failure makes peace with France, 415;
issues various religious proclamations and _The King's Book_,
416, 417;
debases the coinage and appropriates the lands of chantries,
418, 419;
his last speech to Parliament, 419, 420;
his illness, 424;
and death, 425;
will and burial, 426.
----- ---- descriptions of, as a child, 19;
on his accession, 39;
by Mountjoy, 40;
by Sir Thomas More, 48, 428;
by Falier in 1529, 240;
in 1541, 402.
----- ---- his popularity, 35, 38;
his accomplishments, 22, 25, 39, 40, 239;
his athletic prowess, 39-41, 95, 239;
his display of wealth, 96;
his love of pleasure in the beginning of his reign, 46-48;
his morality, 185-187;
his love of gambling, 241;
his hasty temper, 132, 133;
his hardening of character, 240, 323, 402;
his affection for Mary, 304;
his egotism, 427;
his imperial ideas, 362-364;
his piety, 105, 106, 274;
his illnesses, 240 and _note_, 402, 424.
----- ---- gradual evolution of his character, 427, 428;
causes of his dictatorship, 429;
a constitutional king, 430;
the typical embodiment of his age, 431;
careful of law, but careless of justice, 435;
use of Acts of Attainder, 436;
imitates Tiberius, 436 _n_;
illustrates the contrast between morals and politics, 437, 438;
character of his aims, 439;
comparison of the good and evil that he did, 439, 440.
"Henry VIII." by Shakespeare, 110, 116 _n_, 197 _n_, 434 _n_.
Henry of Navarre, 186.
Herbert, Lord, of Cherbury, 16.
Hereford, Bishops of. _See_ Foxe, Edward, and Bonner, Edmund.
Hertford, Earl of. _See_ Seymour, Edward.
Hildebrand, 233.
Hobbes, Thomas, 433.
Holbein, Hans, 140, 371, 384 and _note_.
Holy League (of 1511), 55, 64, 88, 107.
---- ----- (of 1526), 168-170, 225.
---- Roman Empire. _See_ Empire.
Horsey, Dr. William, Chancellor of London, 236 and _note_.
Houghton, John, 331.
Howard, Admiral Sir Edmund, 63.
------ Catherine. _See_ Catherine.
------ Henry, Earl of Surrey, poet, 21, 422, 423.
------ Thomas I., Earl of Surrey, afterwards second Duke of Norfolk, one
of the four dukes in Henry VIII.'s reign, 2 _n_;
Lord High Treasurer, 49;
wins Flodden and is made Duke of Norfolk, 68, 80;
his opinions on the imperial election, 102;
his pensions, 116.
------ Thomas II., Earl of Surrey, afterwards third Duke of Norfolk, was
one of the four dukes in Henry VIII.'s reign, 2 _n_;
his military campaigns, 157, 413, 422;
his relationship to Anne Boleyn, 203, 343 _n_;
takes the seal from Wolsey, 246;
his pocket-boroughs, 253;
speaks of the "infinite clamours" against the Church, 271,
291;
sent to the papal nuncio, 282;
talks to Sir Thomas More of the fickleness of princes, 248;
presides at Anne Boleyn's trial, 344;
is sent to the North, 355, 357, 358 _n_, 407;
mouthpiece of the King in Parliament, 391;
his relationship to Catherine Howard, 397, 399, 416;
possibility of ruling during Edward VI.'s minority, 421;
is attainted, 423, 424.
Hull, 357.
Hungary, 51, 226 _n_.
Hunne, Richard, 236 _n_.
Hurst Castle, 375.
Hussey, Sir John, Baron Hussey, 353.
Hutton, John, 370.
I.
Imperialism, Henry VIII.'s, 362, 363.
Indies, the, 51, 104.
Innocent III., 334.
Inquisition, the, 292.
_Institution of a Christian Man_. See _Bishops' Book_.
_Intercursus Magnus_, 48.
Ireland, Yorkist influence in, 9;
rebellions in, 10, 11, 305, 306, 366, 367;
Henry VIII. made Lord-Lieutenant of, 17;
Henry VII.'s policy in, 18;
English hold over, 245, 250;
tributary to the Pope, 275;
English rule firmly established in, 367;
other references to, 131, 150, 373.
Irish Parliament. _See_ Parliament.
Isabella of Castile, 11, 14, 26, 27, 30, 51 _n_, 370.
Isabella of Portugal, 96, 167.
Italy, 29-31, 51, 53, 56, 58, 60, 66, 67, 69-71, 76, 90, 93, 94, 100,
104, 105, 114, 144, 148, 154, 159, 164, 168, 170, 215, 216, 224,
225, 227, 228, 251, 294, 358, 376, 382.
J.
James II., 186.
----- IV. of Scotland, 11, 12, 22, 48, 65, 66, 87, 88, 105, 200, 229, 234.
----- V. of Scotland, 13, 180, 305, 314, 315 _n_, 357, 369, 373, 402-403,
406.
Jane Seymour, Henry's attentions to, 343 _n_, 346-348;
her marriage to Henry, 346;
birth of her son, 360;
her death and burial, 360, 361;
other references to, 379, 384 _n_, 426.
Jesus College, Oxford, 21 _n_.
John, King, 275.
Juaña, Queen of Castile, 27, 28, 51 and _note_, 52, 93 _n_.
Julius II., his warlike tendencies, 1 _n_, 52, 53, 228;
grants the dispensation for Henry VIII. to marry his
brother's widow, 26, 45, 173, 193, 316 _n_;
joins the League of Cambrai, 29;
renews his treaties with Henry VIII., 54;
is besieged by Louis at Bologna, 55, 56, 106, 107;
Ferdinand's relations with, 59, 60;
supposed existence of a brief of, 218;
is succeeded by the peaceful Leo, 69;
other reference to, 176.
K.
Keilway, Robert, 234 _n_.
Kelso, 407.
Kent, 11, 252.
Kildare, Earl of. _See_ Fitzgerald, Gerald.
Kimbolton, 335.
"King John," Shakespeare's, 35, 308.
_King's Book, The_, 417, 418.
Knight, Dr. William, 94, 189, 206 and _note_, 207, 208, 210, 214.
L.
Ladislaus of Hungary, 90.
Lambeth, 120.
Lancastrian claim to the throne, 7, 8, 32, 180 _n_.
----------- rule, 32, 33.
Landriano, battle of, 226.
Langton, Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, 270.
Lark, Peter, prebendary of St. Stephen's, 117, 118 _n_.
Latimer, Hugh, Bishop of Worcester, 273, 354, 401.
Lautrec, Odet de Foix, Sieur de, 215, 216, 224.
Lawson, Sir George, 407.
Lee, Edward, Archbishop of York, sent to Spain to examine the forged
brief, 218;
opposition to the divorce, 306;
letter to Cromwell, 366 _n_.
Leicester, 248.
Leith, 413.
Leo X., his election as Pope, 229;
styles Henry defender of the faith, 3, 126;
gives Henry permission to bury James IV. who was excommunicate, 66;
becomes Pope, 69;
makes Wolsey a cardinal, 77 and _note_;
interview with Francis, 86;
forms a Holy League, 88, 107;
sends Campeggio to England, 97;
desires neither Francis nor Charles as Emperor, 101, 102, 104;
refuses preferment to Spanish inquisitors, 105;
intercedes for Polydore Vergil, 112;
issues bull against Luther, 124;
receives Henry's book, 126;
negotiates with Charles, 147;
is anxious for family aggrandisement, 153;
death, 154;
supposed attempt to poison, 230;
efforts at reform, 234 _n_, 268;
other references to, 70, 100, 108, 121, 146, 234 _n_.
_Leviathan, The_, by Hobbes, 433.
Lewis the Bavarian, 329.
Lewisham, 15.
Leyva, Antonio de, 163.
Lichfield, Bishopric of, 318.
Lille, 65, 69, 80.
Lincoln, 353.
------- Earl of. _See_ Pole, John de la.
------- Bishops of. _See_ Longland, John; Wolsey, Thomas.
Lisle, Viscount. _See_ Dudley, John.
Llandaff, Bishop of. _See_ Athequa, George.
Lollardy, 232.
London, 11, 52, 128, 129, 147, 165, 166, 177, 187, 221, 225, 236, 247,
253, 260, 298, 313, 318, 319, 353, 358, 366, 388, 421, 439.
------ Bishops of. _See_ Bonner, Edmund; Stokesley, John; and Tunstall,
Cuthbert.
------ Treaty of (1518), 110, 138, 144, 147.
Longland, John, Bishop of Lincoln, confessor to Henry VIII., 198 _n_, 306,
403;
defends the divorce in the House of Lords, 259 _n_, 318;
for a time is in confinement, 402.
Longueville, Duc de, 64, 74.
Lords, House of. _See also_ Parliament.
----- ----- passes attainder against Wolsey, 246;
freedom of speech in, 259 _n_;
clerical representation in, 287, 318;
is anxious to abolish the Pope's authority, 319;
Henry's last address to, 419-421;
passes bills of Wills and Uses, 293.
Louis XI., 30, 136.
----- XII., joins in League of Cambrai, 29;
anxious to prevent Catherine's marriage to Henry, 45;
at peace with Henry, 47;
besieges the Pope in Bologna, 55, 106, 107;
his impiety denounced, 56;
his secret negotiations with Ferdinand, 59, 60;
rumours of his intention to proclaim the White Rose King of
England, 64;
agrees to Ferdinand's Italian plans, 70, 71;
makes peace with Henry, 74;
marries Mary Tudor, 74;
anxious to attack Spain, 75;
his death, 78, 79;
other references to, 52, 53, 62, 81, 87, 176, 212, 297 _n_.
----- XIV., 432.
Louise of Savoy, 138, 150, 167, 201, 224.
Lovell, Francis, first Viscount Lovell, 9, 10, 50.
Lübeck, 311.
Ludlow Castle, 14.
Luke, Ann, 16.
Luther, Martin, Henry's book against, 24, 123, 124, 126;
his books burned in St. Paul's Churchyard, 125;
his books, 272, 388;
Pope's bull against, 124;
other references to, 193 _n_, 351.
Lydgate, John, 21.
M.
Macerata, Dr., 161.
Machiavelli, Nicholas, 69, 276, 436 _n_, 440.
Madrid, 68.
------ Treaty of, 168.
Magna Carta, 35 and _note_, 271.
Maidstone, 380.
Mainz, Archbishop of, 100.
Manners, Edward, third Earl of Rutland, 253 _n_.
Mannock, Henry, 398, 403.
Mantua, Marquis of, 86.
Manuel, Don Juan, 154.
Marck, Robert de la, 144, 168.
Margaret of Burgundy, 9, 10, 51 _n_.
-------- of Navarre, 370.
-------- of Savoy, 27, 28, 45, 48, 65, 73, 80, 81, 89, 139, 224.
-------- Tudor, Queen of Scotland, her children, 12, 13;
visited as a child by Erasmus, 22;
increases English influence in Scotland, 87, 88;
divorce granted to, 200, 212;
is lectured on her sinfulness by Henry, 209, 210;
Mary's issue preferred to her's, 84, 348.
Marguerite de Valois, 28, 146.
Marignano, battle of, 86, 89, 132.
Marillac, Charles de, 393-395, 397, 398, 403.
Marny, Harry, Lord Marny, 50, 355.
Marseilles, 162, 316.
Marsiglio of Padua, 329 and _note_.
Martyr, Peter, of Angera, 66, 176.
Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, 30, 51 _n_.
---- of Guise, 369.
---- Queen of England, her birth, 176;
her claim to the throne, 179, 180, 309, 310, 312, 344,
348 _n_;
proposed marriages for, 97, 138, 143, 146, 148, 156, 167,
168, 173, 177, 185, 195-197, 213, 305, 422;
her legitimacy, 273, 300 _n_, 348;
Henry's affection for, 304 and _note_;
treatment of, 304, 347, 349;
accession, 430;
conscience of, 194;
persecutions of, 401;
childlessness 12;
other references to, 261, 342.
---- Queen of Scots, 348, 362, 407-409, 415.
---- Regent of the Netherlands (sister of Charles V.), 344 _n_, 370.
---- Tudor, daughter of Henry VII., is visited as a child by Erasmus, 22;
proposed marriages for, 26, 28, 29, 45, 65, 71-74;
marriage to Louis XII., 74, 107, 188;
her appearance, 78;
her marriage to Suffolk, 78-85, 83 _n_;
her children to succeed to the crown by Henry's will, before
those of her elder sister Margaret, 84, 348;
other reference to, 212.
Mason, Sir John, 402, 432 _n_.
Matilda, Empress, 179, 180.
Matthew's Bible, 379.
Maximilian I., Emperor, his designs on Castile, 28, 29;
marries Mary of Burgundy, 30;
the lands of, 51;
his alliance with Henry, 61 and _note_;
serves as a private soldier, 64, 65;
signs the Treaty of Lille, 69;
his intended attack on Venice, 70, 71;
renews his truce with France, 70, 71;
makes a secret treaty with Ferdinand, 72;
his perfidy, 74;
joins the Holy League, 88;
his Milan expedition, 89-91, 93;
shifts for money, 89-91;
joins second League of Cambrai, 94;
failing health, 98;
death, 99;
other references to, 51 _n_, 52, 53, 55, 56, 59, 69, 72,
73, 75, 77, 81, 101, 105, 108, 133.
May Day Riots, 119, 135.
Medici, Cardinal de. _See_ Clement VII.
------ Lorenzo de, 86.
Melancthon, Philip, 396.
Melfi, 215.
Membrilla, 50.
Memo, Dionysius, 25.
Mendoza, Inigo de, Bishop of Burgos, imperial ambassador, 114 _n_, 132,
202, 203, 220.
Michelet, Jules, 32, 36, 142 _n_.
Milan, 51, 52, 61, 66, 70, 71, 75, 76, 78, 85, 86, 89-91, 93, 99, 101,
107, 108, 115, 116 _n_, 136, 147, 154, 155, 163, 168, 310, 351,
393, 404, 412.
Military science in the sixteenth century, 68, 69.
Modena, 153.
Mohacz, battle of, 164, 312.
Monarchy, mediæval and modern, 29-32.
Monasteries, condition of, 338-340; visitation of, 337 _sqq._;
dissolution of, 339, 341, 342.
Moncada, Hugo de, 170, 171, 215.
Montdidier, 160.
Montmorenci, Anne de, grand master of France, 203 _n_, 247 _n_.
More, Sir Thomas, Lord Chancellor, 2, 273;
visits Henry with Erasmus, 22, 23, 42;
a friend of Richard Pace, 89;
opposes the divorce, 293 _n_;
resigns chancellorship, 294;
anxious for peace, 158, 159;
as Speaker, defends the liberty of the House of Commons,
165;
his persecution of heretics, 194 and _note_;
denounces Wolsey, 278;
is sent to the Tower, 324;
attainted, 331;
refuses to acknowledge the royal supremacy, 332;
death, 333;
other references to, 110, 133, 150 and _note_, 236, 248,
293, 328, 331 _n_, 350, 428, 438.
Morlaix, 157.
Mortimer, Margaret, 199, 200.
Mortimer's Cross, 5.
Morton's fork, 49.
Mountjoy, Lord. _See_ Blount, William.
Muxetula, J.A., Spanish ambassador, 215.
N.
Najera, Abbot of, 163.
Naples, 29, 51, 52, 71, 93, 100, 101, 104, 136, 147, 168, 215, 216, 225,
230 _n_, 380.
Napoleon Bonaparte, 154.
Nassau, Henry, Count of, 144.
Navarre, 29, 57-59, 75, 85, 93, 96, 136, 144, 147, 148, 168.
Navy, the, 57, 63, 109, 122, 126, 127, 157, 315, 369, 375.
---- the French, 145, 413.
_Necessary Doctrine, The._ See _King's Book_.
Nero, Henry VIII. compared to, 172.
Netherlands, the, commercial treaty with, 27;
Margaret of Savoy regent of, 27, 28, 65;
joined to Austria, 30;
aided by Henry, 54;
armies in, 69;
Charles assumes government of, 85;
Maximilian joins Charles in, 93;
wool-market of, 137, 299;
protection of, 156;
union with Spain, 181;
executioners in, 344 _n_;
other references to, 96, 104, 272, 370, 383, 393.
_See also_ Burgundy and Flanders.
Neville, George, third Baron Abergavenny, 305.
------- Sir John, 402.
------- John, Baron Latimer, 410.
Newgate Prison, 5.
Nice, 295, 372.
Nix, Richard, Bishop of Norwich, 273, 319.
Nonsuch Palace, 239.
Norfolk, Dukes of. _See_ Howard.
Normandy, 148, 150.
Norris, Henry, 343, 345.
Northumberland, Duke of. _See_ Dudley, John.
-------------- Earl of. _See_ Percy, Henry.
Norwich, Bishop of. _See_ Nix, Richard.
Nottingham, 248.
Novara, French defeat at, 66.
Noyon, Treaty of, 93, 94, 147.
O.
Oatlands, 398, 421.
Orléans, Louis d'. _See_ Longueville, Duc de.
------- Charles, Duc d', son of Francis I., 168.
------- 283.
Ortiz, Dr. Pedro, Imperial ambassador, 305.
Oxford, 9, 49, 123, 243, 254, 255, 274, 283, 334, 401.
------ Earl of. _See_ Vere.
P.
Pace, Richard, Dean of St. Paul's, his mission to Maximilian, 90, 91, 99;
mission to the Electors, 102, 103;
his treatment by Wolsey, 114 and _note_, 116, 129, 130,
155, 161;
other references to, 77 _n_, 89, 121, 123, 124, 128, 152,
159, 230, 236, 237.
Padua, 283, 329.
Paget, William, first Baron Paget of Beaudesert, 194, 424.
Papacy, the, its triumph over general councils, 174, 328;
its corruption in sixteenth century, 154, 229;
becomes increasingly Italian, 153, 226, 229, 230;
Englishmen excluded from, 230;
confusion of temporal and spiritual interests, 153, 228-231;
its subservience to Charles V., 153, 169, 216, 224, 225.
Papal Curia, 230, 294, 300.
----- powers of dispensation. _See_ Dispensation.
Paris, 65, 68, 83 and _note_, 127, 141, 283, 358, 386, 411, 439.
Parlement, the French, 436 _n_.
Parliament, discredited by failure of Lancastrian experiment, 32-34;
distrusted by Wolsey, 120, 235, 258;
revived by Henry VIII. as an instrument of government, 236,
257, 264;
Henry's treatment of, 258, 260, 262, 263 and _note_, 264-266;
how far packed (in 1529, 1534, 1536, 1539), 252 _sqq._,
252 _n_, 260 and _note_, 261, 389, 390;
elections and royal nominations to, 252, 261, 368, 389, 390;
extensive powers of, 259 _n_;
freedom of speech in, 235, 259, 260, 288;
Strode and Ferrers' cases, 259;
resists Wolsey's demands (1523), 165;
independence under Henry VIII., 259 and _note_, 262, 264;
refuses to grant taxes, 260;
rejects Statutes of Wills and Uses, 262, 289, 293;
rejects bill against Wolsey, 246, 278;
rejects first draft of Proclamations Act, 391;
refuses taxes, 246, 260, 289;
criticises Henry's divorce, 259, 260, 289;
modifies Government measures, 263 _n_;
but supports Henry against the Church and the Papacy, 266, 267;
complains of clerical exactions and jurisdiction, 235;
and passes measures against them, 279, 289, 293;
passes the Act of Annates, 289, 290;
Act of Appeals, 298, 299, 319;
Act of Supremacy, 325;
Acts of Succession (_see_ Succession);
other references to, 2, 8, 13, 35, 159, 166, 234, 238, 250,
257, 270, 272, 273, 284, 286, 313, 315 _n_, 329, 336,
337, 341, 348 and _note_, 392, 400, 401, 419-421, 427,
430.
_See also_ Lords, House of, and Commons, House of.
---------- of Drogheda, 18.
---------- Irish, 367.
Parr, Catherine. _See_ Catherine.
Pasqualigo, 66, 73, 79, 86, 240.
Passages, 57.
Paston, John, 253 _n_.
Paul III. publishes bull against Henry, 302;
creates Fisher a cardinal, 332, 350;
finds himself powerless to deprive Henry of his kingdom, 334;
sends Pole to Flanders, 358, 372;
other references to, 339, 361.
Pavia, 154, 163, 169, 216, 283, 351.
Peerage, decay of the, 37.
Percy, Henry, Lord Percy, afterwards Earl of Northumberland, 188, 344.
Pescara, Marquis de, 163.
Peter's pence, 320.
Peterborough, 335, 401.
Petit, John, M.P. for London, 260.
Peto, Cardinal William, 338.
Petre, Dr. William, 378, 431 _n_.
Philip of Burgundy, King of Castile, 23, 26, 27, 38, 51 and _note_,
93 _n_, 137.
------ of Hesse, 311.
------ IV., 329.
Philippa, granddaughter of Edward III., 180.
Physicians, College of, 401.
Piedmont, 351.
Pilgrimage of Grace, 357, 358, 369, 406.
Pisa, 55, 69.
Plantagenets, the, 4.
Plymouth, 14, 55.
Pole, Edmund de la, Earl of Suffolk, the White Rose, 27, 38, 43, 44, 64.
---- Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, 358, 373, 403, 436 _n_.
---- Sir Geoffrey, 373, 374.
---- Sir Henry, Baron Montague, 374.
---- John de la, Earl of Lincoln, 10, 44.
---- Reginald, Cardinal, 1, 305, 332 _n_, 358-360, 369, 372-374, 376.
---- Richard de la, 44.
Pommeraye, Giles de la, 291 _n_.
Pontefract, 248, 355.
Popes. _See_ Adrian VI.;
Alexander VI.;
Clement VII.;
Julius II.;
Leo X.;
Paul III.
Portsmouth, 413, 414.
Portugal, King of. _See_ Emmanuel.
-------- Queens of. _See_ Catherine, Eleanor, Isabella.
Poynings, Sir Edward, 18, 50.
Poynings' Law, 18.
_Præmunire_, 35 _n_, 120, 234, 246, 284, 285, 349, 381.
Praet, Louis de Flandre, Sieur de, 113.
Prester John, 229.
Privy Council. _See_ Council.
Proclamations, Act of, 391.
Protestantism, 194, 232, 272, 326, 380-382, 387, 416.
Provence, 30, 162.
Provisors, Statute of, 282.
Q.
Quignon, Cardinal, 202.
R.
Ravenna, 224, 226.
Reading, Prior of, 273.
Reformation, the, partly due to the divorce, 232, 233;
partly due to the anti-ecclesiastical bias of the laity,
267 _sqq._, 272;
different aspects of, 325-329;
not due to Henry VIII., 439, 440;
other references to, 275, 348.
Reggio, 153.
Reigate, 253 _n_.
Renaissance, the, under Henry VII., 20, 31.
Renard, Simon, 261.
Renée, daughter of Louis XII., 61 _n_, 71, 85, 100, 202, 205, 206.
Rhodes, 164, 312.
Rich, Sir Richard, first Baron Rich, 332, 354.
Richard III., 4, 7, 10, 49, 80, 158, 165, 305, 306.
------- Duke of York, 9, 18, 19.
Richmond, 20 _n_, 43, 44.
-------- Duke of. _See_ Fitzroy, Henry.
-------- Earl of. _See_ Henry VII. and Tudor, Edmund.
Rochester, 385.
--------- Bishop of. _See_ Fisher, John.
Rogers, John, 379.
Roman Empire, Holy. _See_ Empire.
----- law, 3, 32, 38, 323 _n_, 362.
Rome, 1, 12, 17, 69, 74, 89, 93, 99, 115, 119, 126, 132, 162, 186, 191,
197 _n_, 200, 202, 205, 206, 208, 211, 238, 249, 251, 267, 269,
276, 282, 287, 290, 291, 294, 295, 297, 305, 315, 316, 319, 320-323,
349, 350, 351, 359, 364, 372, 381, 387, 402, 428-430, 439.
Rose, Red and White, union of, 13.
---- the White. _See_ Pole, Edmund de la, and Courtenay, Henry.
Roses, Wars of the, 5, 6, 181, 429.
Rovere, Francis Maria della, Duke of Urbino, 153.
Royal marriages, 37.
Roye, 160.
Russell, John, first Earl of Bedford, 307.
Ruthal, Thomas, Bishop of Durham, one of Henry's ministers, 49, 127;
appointed privy seal, 92, 273;
death, 116, 117.
Rutland, Earl of. _See_ Manners, Edward.
S.
Sack of Rome, 171, 172, 178, 200, 212, 216, 226, 230, 316, 428, 439.
Sadleir, Sir Ralph, 394, 402.
Sagudino, 95.
St. Albans, 6, 117.
--- Andrews, 88, 248, 415.
--- Angelo, 170, 171.
--- Asaph, Bishop of. _See_ Standish, Henry.
--- Bartholomew Massacre, 439.
--- Januarius, 380.
--- John, 172.
--- ---- Knights of, 164, 381.
--- Leger, Sir Anthony, 367.
--- Mathias, 163.
--- Omer, 344 and _note_.
--- Paul, 194, 296, 326.
--- Paul's Cathedral, 14, 43, 66, 125.
--- Peter's, 170, 171.
--- Pol, Francis de Bourbon, Count of, 225.
Salisbury, Bishopric of, 318.
--------- Bishops of. _See_ Audley, Edmund;
Shaxton, Nicholas.
--------- Countess of. _See_ Pole, Margaret.
Sampson, Richard, Bishop of Chichester, 394.
Sandwich, 140.
Sandys, Sir William, 131.
Sanga, Gio. Batt., 206, 213 _n_, 216, 225.
Sarpi, Paolo, 16 _n_.
_Sarum Use, The_, 417.
Savoy, Louise of. _See_ Louise.
----- Margaret of. _See_ Margaret.
Saxony, Duke of, 103, 383.
Scarborough, 357.
Schwartz, Martin, 10.
Scotland, Henry VIII.'s claim to suzerainty over, 406 _n_, 408, 409;
war with, 11, 405-408;
Roman law in, 32;
infant king of, 69;
English influence in, 88;
Albany leaves, 97;
English interests in, 149, 150;
Albany again in, 156;
peace with, 315, 324;
other references to, 159, 250, 369, 375, 383, 399.
Scottish borders, 11, 17, 66, 157, 315, 362, 364, 375.
Scotus, Duns, 123, 334.
Selim, Sultan, 164.
Sessa, Duke of, 169.
Seymour, Edward, Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, Scottish
expeditions, 69, 411, 413, 415;
rises in Henry's favour, 346, 416, 422;
commands in France, 413;
speech at his execution, 434 _n_.
------- Queen Jane. _See_ Jane.
------- Sir John of Wolf Hall, 346.
------- Sir Thomas, 410.
Sforza, Francesco Maria, 66, 76, 89.
Shakespeare, William, 21, 35, 110, 114, 116 _n_, 197 _n_, 308, 434 _n_.
Shanklin Chine, 414.
Shaxton, Nicholas, Bishop of Salisbury, 401.
Sheen, 43.
Sheffield, Sir Robert, 113.
Ships:--
_Great Harry_ or _Henry Grace à Dieu_, 140.
_Henry Imperial_, 63, 363.
_Katherine Pleasaunce_, 140.
_Mary Rose_, 157, 414.
_Princess Mary_, 127.
_Royal George_, 414.
Shoreham, 414.
Shrewsbury, 252 _n_.
---------- Earl of. _See_ Talbot, George.
Sibylla of Cleves, 383.
Sicily, 230 _n_.
Simnel, Lambert, 9, 10, 18.
Sinclair, Oliver, 407.
Sittingbourne, 385.
Six Articles, The, 390, 392, 400, 401, 411, 415, 418, 431.
Skeffington, Thomas, Bishop of Bangor, 114 _n_.
----------- Sir William, 366.
Skelton, John, 19, 21 and _note_, 66, 338.
Smeaton, Mark, 344, 345.
Smithfield, 400.
Solway Moss, 407, 408.
Somerset, Charles, Lord Herbert, afterwards Earl of Worcester, 50, 110,
122.
-------- Duke of. _See_ Seymour, Edward.
Southampton, 52, 57, 127, 390.
----------- Earls of. _See_ Fitzwilliam, Sir William; Wriothesley,
Sir Thomas.
Southwell, Sir Richard, 423.
Spain, 31, 32, 57, 69, 73, 75, 78, 94, 95, 101, 104, 108, 137, 139, 143,
156, 159, 162, 166, 167, 178, 181, 201, 218, 223, 228, 292, 301,
309, 312, 316, 370, 382.
Spanish alliance, 26, 143, 410.
Spithead, 414.
Spurs, battle of, 64, 65, 74.
Stafford, Edward, third Duke of Buckingham, 9, 37 _n_, 38, 50, 111, 118,
179, 181, 182, 248, 434 _n_.
-------- Henry, Earl of Wiltshire, 50.
Stafileo, Dean of the Rota, 197 _n_.
Standish, Henry, Bishop of St. Asaph, 130, 234-236, 259 _n_, 269.
Stanley, Thomas, first Earl of Derby, 8.
------- Sir William, 10.
Star Chamber. _See_ Court.
Stephen, King, 180.
Stewart, Henry, first Lord Methven, 200.
------- John, Duke of Albany, 87, 88, 97, 156, 157.
Stile, John, 37 _n_.
Stillington, Robert, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 306.
Stirling, 88.
Stoke-on-Trent, 10.
Stokesley, John, Bishop of London, 259 _n_, 282 _n_, 300, 327 _n_.
Strode's case, 259.
Stuarts, the, 8, 32, 35 and _note_, 233, 261, 341, 366.
Succession to the Crown, 179-184, 348 _n_; denied to women, 179, 180.
---------- Acts of, 321, 324, 348.
Suffolk, Countess of. _See_ Pole, Margaret.
------- Duke of. _See_ Brandon, Charles.
------- Earl of. _See_ Pole, Edmund de la.
Supreme Head, Henry VIII. as, 268, 286, 325, 328, 330 _n_, 331, 377, 378,
421.
Surgeons, College of, 401.
Surrey, Earl of. _See_ Howard, Henry.
Switzerland, 272.
Swynford, Catherine, 6.
T.
Talbot, George, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, 50, 355 _n_.
Tarbes, Bishop of. _See_ Grammont, Gabriel de.
Taunton, 255.
Taylor, Dr. John, 64 _n_, 235, 236.
Ten Articles, The, 378.
Thames, 63.
Thérouanne, 64, 65.
Thomas, St. _See_ Aquinas.
Torregiano, Pietro, 44.
Torture, use of, 432.
Toulouse, 283.
Tournay, 10, 65, 68, 73, 74, 77, 80, 115, 181.
Tower of London, 2, 10, 19, 38, 44, 50, 112, 114 and _note_, 272, 324,
332, 345, 367, 374, 394, 402-404, 422-424.
Trinity House, 126.
Tudors, the, pedigree of, 5, 7, 8, 14;
infant mortality of, 12, 174-177, 342, 343;
education of, 19;
orthodoxy of, 24;
courage of, 63;
liveries of, 21;
adulation paid to, 32, 35, 36, 239, 248;
autocracy, characteristics of, 38, 233, 433, 435;
government of, 30, 34, 36, 134, 270, 279 _n_, 329, 366,
368, 430, 434;
discontent under, 256, 313.
Tudor, Edmund, Earl of Richmond, 5, 6.
----- ------ Duke of Somerset, son of Henry VII., 22, 38.
----- Jasper, 5.
----- Owen, 5, 6.
Tunstall, Cuthbert, Bishop of London and Durham, his opinions on foreign
policy, 92, 94;
present at the burning of Luther's books, 125;
wide discretion allowed him by Henry, 133;
sent to Spain, 166;
is Lord Privy Seal, 273;
is not summoned to Parliament (1532), 289;
in opposition to the divorce, 306;
president of the Council of the North, 358;
other references to, 102, 289, 297 _n_, 386, 394.
Tyndale, William, 272, 274.
U.
Uniformity, Act of, 391, 417.
Urbino, the Pope's seizure of, 376.
------ Duke of. _See_ Rovere.
V.
Vaux, John Joachim, 247 _n_.
Vendôme, Duc de, 160.
Venice, 25, 29, 51-54, 61, 69-71, 76, 89, 90, 99, 112, 114, 118, 159,
168, 224.
Vere, John de, thirteenth Earl of Oxford, 355 _n_.
Vergil, Polydore, 77, 111, 112, 182.
Vinci, Leonardo da, 140.
Vinea, Peter de, 329.
W.
Wales, 315, 364 and _note_.
----- Prince of. _See_ Arthur, Prince;
_also_ Henry VIII.
----- Statute of, 365-367.
Wallop, Sir John, 402, 410.
Walsingham, Sir Edmund, Lieutenant of the Tower, 272.
---------- Sir Francis, 38.
Warbeck, Perkin, 10, 11, 18, 19.
Warham, William, Archbishop of Canterbury,
marries Henry VIII. to Catherine of Aragon, and crowns
them, 46, 48;
is diplomatist, Lord Chancellor and Archbishop, 48, 92,
258;
is Chancellor of Oxford University, 49;
is present at the burning of Luther's books, 125;
debates the legality of Henry's marriage, 174;
his views on papal authority, 269;
compares Henry VIII. with Henry II., 271;
but admits that _Ira principis mors est_, 270;
death, 296;
other references to, 120, 248, 286.
Warwick, Earl of. _See_ Edward.
Waterford, 11.
Welz, 99.
West, Nicholas, Bishop of Ely, 110, 122, 338.
Westminster, 2, 278, 421, 424.
----------- Abbey, 5, 44, 46, 175, 300, 395, 426.
----------- Bishopric of, 401.
Weston, Sir Francis, 344.
Whitehall Palace, 239, 421.
Wight, Isle of, 375.
William the Conqueror, 3.
------- III., 186.
Wills and Uses, Statute of, 262, 289, 293, 336.
Wilton, 242.
Wiltshire, Earls of. _See_ Boleyn, Thomas;
Stafford, Henry.
Winchcombe, Abbot of, 234, 235.
Winchester, 14, 198, 247, 254, 255, 294, 318.
---------- Bishops of. _See_ Beaufort, Henry;
Fox, Richard;
Gardiner, Stephen.
Windsor, 156, 157, 167, 361, 421, 425, 426.
------- Sir Andrew, 119.
Wingfield, Sir Richard, 166.
--------- Sir Robert, 91.
Woking, 421.
Wolf, John, 259 _n_.
Wolman, Dr. Richard, 198, 199.
Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal Archbishop of York, his birth, 38;
becomes Henry's almoner and member of council, 56;
his industry and many preferments, 177 and _note_;
is made cardinal, 77 and _note_;
is made legate, 97;
his domestic policy, peacefulness of, 119;
his distrust of parliaments, 120, 235, 258;
his partnership with the King, 121, 122, 129-132;
his neglect of the navy, 127;
his demands for money, 164, 165;
his results contrasted with Henry's, 244;
his foreign policy, 56, 62, 77, 78, 89, 98, 108-110,
137 and _note_, 144-147, 160, 166, 167;
opposition to his foreign policy, 92;
results of his foreign policy, 163, 164, 224, 245, 246;
his alliances with Charles V., 148-152, 156, 157;
his alliances with Francis I., 141, 142, 195;
conducts the conference at Calais, 144-147;
is a candidate for the Papacy, 146, 154, 155, 230;
his projects for ecclesiastical reform, 268, 269, 338;
suppresses monasteries, 338;
his educational endowments, 243, 338;
his wealth, 97, 115, 209;
his pensions, 115, 116;
his arrogance, 109 _sqq._;
his jealousy of others, 82, 83, 112-114, 182 and _note_;
his mistress and children, 117, 118;
his impatient temper, 132, 133;
his genius for diplomacy, 135, 136;
his character by Giustinian, 118;
his unpopularity, 203;
his first steps towards the divorce, 198, 200;
visits France in connection with the divorce, 201, 202;
his commission with Campeggio to try, and the trial of,
the divorce, 214, 221-223;
his fall precipitated by his failure to obtain the divorce,
154, 204, 223, 239;
his fall involves the ruin of the Church, 211, 237, 238;
his real attitude towards the divorce, 205, 206;
his attainder passed in the House of Lords, but rejected
in the House of Commons, 246, 247;
devotes his last days to his archiepiscopal duties, 247;
accused of treason and arrested, 247;
his remarks on the fickleness of royal favour; and his
death, 248;
other references to, 66, 81, 94, 119, 123, 138, 141, 142,
177, 235, 242, 248 _n_, 251, 272, 273, 278, 350,
399, 401, 410, 426, 439.
Woodstock, 177.
Woodville, Elizabeth, 15.
Woolwich, 126.
Worcester, 254 _n_.
--------- Bishopric of, 318.
--------- Bishops of. _See_ Ghinucci, Girolamo;
Giglis, Sylvester de;
Latimer, Hugh;
Pace, Richard.
--------- Cathedral, 14.
--------- Earl of. _See_ Somerset, Charles.
Worsley, Sir James, 259 _n_.
Wotton, Dr. Nicholas, 384.
Wriothesley, Sir Thomas, afterwards Earl of Southampton, 390, 394, 402,
411, 423.
Wulford, Ralf, 11.
Würtemberg, 311.
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 188 and _note_, 189, 402.
Wycliffe, John, 232, 270, 274.
Wynter, Thomas, 118.
X.
Ximenes, Cardinal, 73.
Y.
York, 9, 39, 114, 247, 358, 403, 406.
---- Archbishopric of, 88, 117, 298, 318, 329.
York, Archbishops of. _See_ Bainbridge, Christopher;
Lee, Edward;
Wolsey, Thomas.
---- Dukes of. _See_ Richard;
Henry VIII.;
Charles I. of England.
---- House, 239.
Yorkist claimants, 9-11, 13.
------- plots, 9-11, 15.
Z.
Zapolya, John, 226 _n_.
Zurich, 89.
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