Part 9 (1/2)

[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 grat.i.tude, 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 t.i.tle be found for a genuine friend? And, as early as 1515, Henry was pressing the Pope for ”some t.i.tle 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 t.i.tle than even ten years' maintenance of the Pope's temporal interests. His champions.h.i.+p 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 t.i.tle 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 rea.s.sert 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 amba.s.sador. 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 lords.h.i.+p”.[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 pa.s.s 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 att.i.tude 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).]