of Norfolk; but Henry, who was always bolder bishopric of Tournai, and 100,000 more for his in words than in deeds, was so much alarmed, kind services to the royal family of France; the that he issued a fresh proclamation to set aside whole to be paid by instalments in the course of and annul all the demands he had made. seven years and a half. The French court also agreed to allow to Mary, their queen-dowager, Henry's sister, and now Duchess of Suffolk, the enjoyment of her dower, with the discharge of all arrears thereon. The only clause which was not a money one was an engagement that they would never permit Henry's enemy, the Duke of Albany, to return into Scotland during the minority of the present king, James V. The English court was not more suspicious than were the French unscrupulous as to the means by which they lulled its suspicions. Louisa, the regent, swore to the articles; Francis ratified them; and the principal of the French nobility, with the great cities of Toulouse, Lyons, Amiens, Rheims, Paris, Bordeaux, Tours, and Rouen, bound themselves, under the penalty of forfeiting all their property, to observe the treaty them

We do not believe that so wild a scheme of conquest and partition, and one in which such volatile characters as Henry and Wolsey were to be principal actors, could, under any circumstances, have been successful; but still it was fortunate for France, at this crisis, that the emperor was as poor as the King of England, and that the seeds of discord were sown between the two unscrupulous sovereigns. Such, indeed, was the state of Charles' finances, that he could not pay the long arrears due to his army in Italy; and the victorious troops mutinied, seized and kept the city of Pavia, and even threatened to take forcible possession of the person of the French king, to hold as security for the money due to them. As the emperor had counted upon Henry for large subsidies, he seems to have considered him as the principal cause of these trou-selves, and compel their king to observe it. At bles, which at one moment were most alarming. We believe that it was from this consideration, and from irritation at the secret negotiations with France, and not from any feeling of conceit and inflation, that Charles changed his tone with Henry after the battle of Pavia. He no longer wrote to his loving uncle with his own hand, nor lavished his expressions of reverence and submission; and his letters to the English king were thenceforth merely signed "Charles," a trifle that was likely to produce a great effect on the vain-glorious king. Before the arrival of the English ambassadors, the council of Charles had decided (or rather poverty decided for them) that the invasion of France was not to be thought of. They had even consented to a truce for six months, hoping to turn the captive Francis to good account, and to make their profits by negotiation. There was a great deal of diplomatizing, which deceived neither party; and Henry presently adopted the course which was most likely to bring him in an immediate supply of money. He renewed his separate negotiation with France, concluded a truce for four months, and then an alliance offensive and defensive. The price paid by France was high: Henry got for himself the sum of 2,000,000 crowns, to be paid by halfyearly instalments of 50,000 crowns each; and, after liquidation of this, an annual pension of 100,000 crowns. The cardinal got 30,000 crowns on account of his former resignation of the

Guicciardini. This great writer adds that Charles was already averse to the marriage with the Princess Mary of England, and was in treaty for the hand of the Princess Isabella of Portu

gal, whom he married in March, 1526. It appears, however, that even in this matter Henry's sincerity was equal to that of

Charles', and that he had secretly offered his daughter Mary in marriage both to the King of Scotland and the King of France!

the same time, however, the attorney-general and solicitor-general of the parliament of Paris secretly entered a solemn protest against the whole treaty, in order that Francis, who was rather delicate on the point of honour, might found thereon a reason for not fulfilling these onerous engagements. But, notwithstanding the treaty with England, Francis encountered great difficulties in freeing himself from the hands of the emperor, and was obliged himself to plunge deep in perjury. At his own earnest request he was transferred from the castle of Pizzighitone to the Alcazar of Madrid; but, as the ministers insisted that Charles ought not to trust his feelings in a personal interview with the gallant and engaging prisoner, he never obtained the advantages he had counted upon from a personal interview with the young emperor. Negotiations were opened by cool-headed and cunning diplomatists. Francis offered to give up all his pretensions to Milan, Naples, and Flanders-to restore the Constable Bourbon—and to pay a large sum of money for the possession of Burgundy, which he said he could not dissever from his kingdom without ruining the monarchy for ever It was replied, for Charles, that Burgundy had been robbed from his family, and that Francis must either restore it or remain a prisoner for life. At last, on the 14th of January, 1526, the treaty, or, as it was called, the concord of Madrid, was concluded and signed. As the price of his liberty Francis agreed to surrender Burgundy to Charles within six weeks after his return to France-to place his two eldest sons as hostages in the hands of Charles-to resign all claims to the Italian states, and to the suzerainty of Flan

2 Rymer; Pere d'Orleans.

ders to marry Eleanora, the sister of Charles, who had been promised by treaty to the Constable Bourbon-to replace the said constable in all his honours and states in France-and to guarantee the emperor against certain pecuniary demands of the king. An article was inserted binding Francis to place himself again as a captive if he should find himself unable to fulfil his agreements. On the very morning on which he made up his mind to sign these hard conditions, he caused a secret protest against the validity of the act to be prepared, and then he swore and signed. He set foot in France a little more than a year after the battle of Pavia.

Henry immediately despatched Sir Thomas Cheney and Dr. Taylor, a jurist of high repute, to congratulate the French king on his delivery, and to urge him to break every article of his treaty with the emperor-the latter being a most unnecessary precaution, for Francis never intended to do otherwise. The French king received the two ambassadors at Bayonne with the most flattering speeches, telling them that, after God, he thanked his kind brother of England for his liberty. Francis very soon told Charles that the surrender of Burgundy was impossible, it being contrary to the solemn oaths administered to him at his coronation and equally contrary to the will of the people of Burgundy, which was quite true; and he offered money in compensation, which he knew Charles would refuse. He then prepared for war; and he and his new ally Henry pledged their honour never to make peace with Charles except by mutual consent. The pope was soon induced to absolve Francis from the oaths he had taken at Madrid; and Clement, Sforza, the Duke of Milan, the Florentines, the Venetians, and some minor Italian states, cntered into the league with the Kings of France and England.'

In the preceding year, 1525, the first misunderstanding occurred between Henry and Wolsey. According to the cardinal's showing, the subject of this difference was a mere trifle, "consisting in two things-the one concerning the office of clerk of the market within the liberties of the monastery of St. Alban's; and the other touching certain misorder supposed to be used by Dr. Allen, and other his (the cardinal's) officers," in the suppression of certain small monasteries, "wherein neither God was served nor religion kept;" which he intended, "with the gracious aid and assistance of the king," to convert to a far better use, by annexing their revenues to the new college intended to be founded at Oxford "for the increase of good letters and virtue." Martin Luther chose this moment for addressing Henry, whom he fancied to be wholly estranged from Wolsey-"the monster"-"the nuisance to God and man "-"the pest of the kingdom and caterpillar of England." He said he understood that his grace had now begun to loathe that wicked sort of men, and in his mind to favour the true doctrine. The Reformer, in excuse for the violence of the language he had used in replying to the king's book in defence of the Romish church, averred that he had believed the said book was not in reality the production of the royal pen. In his present attempt, however, Luther was premature; the quarrel between king and cardinal was made up; and Henry told the Reformer that "that reverend father," Wolsey, was the best, the most faithful, the most religious of men; that, whereas he loved him very well before, he would now, in consequence of Luther's impious railing, favour him more than ever; that he would never cease to reckon it amongst his good deeds that none that were infected with German leprosy, contagion, and heresies, could cleave to his kingdom or take root in it."

It is natural for Romanist historians to trace the great Eng-secular interests, completed its downfall. The schism in English schism which ended in the English Reformation, to Henry's disappointment in not obtaining his divorce so soon as he expected from the pope, and this has long been the common popular view of the case. Such, however, is not the view of Ranké, in his admirable History of the Popes. Speaking of the early Reformation period, he says:-"The Popedom was in a false and untenable position throughout. Its secular tendencies had brought upon it a decline, from which there had arisen innumerable opponents and deserters; but the continuance of the me symptoms, the still farther complication of spiritual and

land may in reality be traced to the same cause. It is well worth noting that Henry VIII., with all his declared hostility to Luther, and intimately, too, as he was united with the Roman See, yet at the time of the first difference, in matters purely political, as early as the year 1525, threatened the Roman See with ecclesiastical innovations." The historian refers in a note to a letter addressed to Rome, in a threatening way, by Wolsey, as indicating the first movement in the English civil govern ment's secession from Rome.

2 Bishop Godwin; Herbert.

CHAPTER V.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.--A.D. 1526-1533.

HENRY VIII.-ACCESSION, A.D. 1509-DEATH, A.D. 1547.

Difficulties of Pope Clement-Rome assailed by an army of mercenaries—Is stormed and plundered-Indifference of Henry VIII. to the fate of Rome-Commencement of his love for Anne Boleyn-Her early history-Her reception of the king's addresses-Henry's scruples about his marriage to Catherine-Wolsey's conduct on the occasion-His mission to France to negotiate a royal union-Terms of the treaty with France-Henry resolves to divorce Catherine and marry Anne-His negotiation with the pope to that effect-The pope's cautious and equivocal dealing-The sweating sickness visits London-Arrival of Cardinal Campeggio-Proceedings of Wolsey and Campeggio in the divorce of Catherine-They bring it to a trial-Catherine's defence-The trial adjourned by Campeggio-Wolsey declines in the royal favour-Is visited with confiscation and bereavement of office-Persecuted by Anne Boleyn and her party-He is arrested on a charge of high treason-Wolsey's last illness and death-Thomas Cranmer's first appearance-He is sent to collect the opinions of the universities on Henry's divorce-Their sentiments on the subject-Thomas Cromwell-His previous career-His rise after the fall of Wolsey-He advises Henry to renounce the Papal authority-The clergy of England accused as abettors of Wolsey-Henry's demand to be recognized as head of the church in England-Commencement of Henry's persecution of the Reformers-His secret marriage with Anne Boleyn.

In the still wretched state of his finances, the Emperor Charles could raise no regular army, and, in order to keep his grasp on Italy, he employed all sorts of mercenaries and partizan leaders, who undertook the war with the tacit understanding that they were to make the invaded country pay its expenses, or, in other words, that they were to live and enrich themselves on the plunder of the poor Italians, whether friends or enemies, or neutrals in the pen

LTHOUGH flattered by the pope | forces of Lannoy, but gained some brilliant adwith the offer of the title of "Pro- vantages over them. But this was only a gleam tector" of the new Italian league of success for Italy, and the year 1527 came on, against the emperor, the main object —a year full of most atrocious, and, for many of which was to preserve the inde- centuries, unheard-of incidents-a year marked pendence of Italy, Henry made no with the imprisonment of the pontiff, the sack of exertion in his favour, nor did Francis keep any Rome, famine, and the plague, which ravaged of his liberal promises to the pope. Beset on all that beautiful peninsula from the foot of the sides by the Spaniards from the kingdom of Alps to the Faro of Messina.' Naples, and by the Germans and Spaniards from Lombardy, Parma, and Piacenza-Clement was obliged to throw himself on the emperor's mercy, and implore for peace. Moncada, the Spanish Governor of Naples, signed a treaty, and a month after, in alliance with the great Roman family of Colonna, advanced secretly to the Eternal City, surprised one of the gates, plundered the rich palace of the Vatican, and obliged the pope to take refuge in the castle of St. Angelo. A day or two after this exploit (on the 21st of Septem-ding contest. Their ranks were swelled by the ber, 1526) Clement obtained a new treaty of peace, and the Colonnesi left Rome, and Moncada returned to Naples. As soon as the pope was freed from these foes, he resolved not to observe any of the articles which had been extorted from him; and the more effectually to disturb the emperor's possession of Naples, he invited from France the Count of Vaudemont, who, as heir of the house of Anjou, advanced claims to that kingdom, in which there was a powerful faction quite ready to take up arms against the Spaniards. The Viceroy Lannoy heard of this invitation, and, in the month of December, marched out of the kingdom of Naples and fell upon the Roman states. But Clement was not unprovided with troops: his Italian allies had sent him reinforce ments; and the Romans, the Florentines, and the Venetians not only kept in check the veteran

vagabonds and marauders of nearly every country in Europe, but the more numerous divisions were Spaniards, Germans, and Swiss. Freundsberg, a German partizan, and thorough-paced soldier of fortune, was at the head of 14,000 of these adventurers: and the Constable Bourbon, who had been ill-used by all parties, until he was utterly reckless and ferocious, led another body of 10,000. The two desperate hordes formed a junction at Fiorenzuola, whence they marched to plunder the rich and beautiful city of Florence. The Italian Athens was saved by the rapid advance of the confederate army; but this movement exposed Rome, and the robbers precipitated their march in that direction. At the same time Lannoy, the viceroy, hemmed in the capital of the Christian world on the south.

1 Guicciardini; Summonte, Giannone.

the agency of Cardinal Wolsey, in whose house- | the gratification of his passions: notwithstanding hold Percy had been educated, and that young nobleman, probably under the same compulsion, married a daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury,