Part 14 (1/2)
[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 s.h.i.+ps 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 G.o.d,” 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 h.o.a.rd 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 pa.s.sed 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 Vendome 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 Adria.n.u.s s.e.xtus 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 t.i.tle _Liberatori Patriae_.[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 amba.s.sador mocked at Wolsey's hopes; ”as if G.o.d,” 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.