Part 7 (1/2)
This episode threw into the shade the main purpose of Suffolk's emba.s.sy 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 a.s.sumed the government of the Netherlands, but was completely under the control of Chievres, a Frenchman by birth and sympathy, who signed his letters to Francis ”your humble servant and va.s.sal”.[204] Charles bound himself to marry Louis XII.'s daughter Renee, 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 pa.s.ses 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-a-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 t.i.tle 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 protege, 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 pa.s.sed where the Emperor was, he would always get some portion of it by force or false promises of rest.i.tution.”[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 s.h.i.+fts.
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, amba.s.sador at Maximilian's Court, who, said Pace, ”took the Emperor for a G.o.d 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 plat.i.tudes, 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 amba.s.sador to the Emperors Court.
[Footnote 215: _Ibid._, ii., 1877.]
[Footnote 216: _Ibid._, ii., 2152, 1892, 1896, 2034, 2035.]