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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 amba.s.sadors 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 antic.i.p.ated from the imperial alliance; his interviews with Charles and professions of friends.h.i.+p 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 publis.h.i.+ng 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 a.s.serted 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 guardians.h.i.+p of James and government of the kingdom during his minority (_Sp. Cal._, ii., 680).
For the a.s.sertion 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 c.u.mberland 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.
lx.x.xiii.-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 t.i.tle 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 t.i.tle 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 G.o.d), a time apt and propice for the recovery of his said right and t.i.tle 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 s.h.i.+ps 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.]