A.D. 1534. Leyden; and Francis pictured to himself a coali- CH. 9. tion between France, England, and the Lutherans, which, if the papacy was attached to their side, would be strong enough to bear down opposition, and reconstitute the churches of Europe upon the basis of liberality which he seemed to have secured for the church of France. The flattering vision in the autumn of the following year dazzled the German princes. Perhaps in the novelty of hope it was encouraged even by the pope, before he had felt the strong hand of fate which ruled his will. and alarm To Charles V. the danger of some such termination of the great question at issue appeared most near and real. Charles, whose resentment at the conduct of England united with a desire to assert his authority over his subjects in Germany, beheld with the utmost alarm a scheme growing to Anxiety maturity which menaced alike his honour, his of the desire of revenge, his supremacy in Europe, and emperor. perhaps his religious convictions. A liberal coalition would be fatal to order, to policy, to truth; and on the election of Cardinal Farnese, the Count de Nassau was sent on a secret mission to Paris with overtures, the elaborate con- The misdescension of which betrays the anxiety that Count of must have dictated them. The count was to Paris with offer the Dauphin the hand of the Princess Mary proposals (whose guardian Charles had constituted himself), league. with the inheritance of England. To Margaret de Valois he was to propose the splendid temptation of a marriage with Philip.* If * State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 584-5. sion of the Nassau to for a Сн. 9. A.D. 1534. Francis would surrender the English alliance, the emperor would make over to him the passionately coveted Duchy of Milan,* to be annexed to France on the death of the reigning Duke. In the meantime he would pay to the French king, as 'tribute for Milan,' a hundred thousand crowns a year, as an acknowledgment of the right of the house of Valois. Offers such as these might well have tempted the light ambition of Francis. If sincere, they were equivalent to a surrender of the prize for which his life had been spent in contending, and perilous indeed it would have been for England if this intrigue had been permitted to succeed. But whether it was that Francis too deeply distrusted Charles, that he preferred the more hazardous scheme of the German alliance, or that he was really too generous and high-minded to stoop to The empe- treachery to his English ally, the Count de Nassau are rejected left Paris with a decisive rejection of the emperor's advances; and in the beginning of January, De Bryon, the High Admiral of France, was sent to England, to inform Henry of what had passed, and to improve the opportunity for the furtherance of the settlement of Europe. ror's offers by Francis. De Bryon sent to England. De Bryon's instructions were remarkable. To consolidate the alliance of the two nations, he was to entreat Henry at length to surrender the claim to the crown of France, which had been the cause of so many centuries of war. In return for this concession, Francis would make over to England, *State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 584-5. ་ A.D. 1534. Gravelines, Newport, Dunkirk, a province of CH. 9. Flanders, and the title of the Duke of Lorrayne to the town of Antwerp, with sufficient assistance for the recovery of the same.' Henry was not to press Francis to part from the papacy; and De Bryon seems to have indicated a hope that the English king might retrace his own steps. The weight of French influence, meanwhile, was to be pressed, to induce the pope to revoke and denounce, voyd and frustrate the unjust and slanderous sentence given by his predecessor; and the terms of this new league were to be completed by the betrothal of the Princess Elizabeth to the Duke of Angoulesme.† There had been a time when these proposals would have answered all which Henry desired. In the early days of his reign he had indulged himself in visions of empire, and of repeating the old glories of the Plantagenet kings. But in the peace which was concluded after the defeat of Pavia, he showed that he had resigned himself to a wiser policy, and the surrender of a barren designation would cost him little. In his quarrel with the pope, also, he had professed an extreme reluctance to impair the unity of the church; and the sacrifices which he had made, and the years of persevering struggle which he had endured, had proved that in those professions he had not been *This is Cromwell's paraphrase. Francis is not responsible for the language. See the long and curious correspondence between the English and Spanish courts in the + State Papers, vol. vii. pp. State Papers, vol. vi. 584-590. CH. 9. insincere. A.D. 1534. Henry's character. But Henry's character was not what it had been when he won his title of Defender of Change in the Faith. In the experience of the last few years he had learnt to conceive some broader sense of the meaning of the Reformation; and he had gathered from Cromwell and Latimer a more noble conception of the protestant doctrines. He had entered upon an active course of legislation for the putting away the injustices, the falsehoods, the oppressions of a degenerate establishment; and in the strong sense that he had done right, and nothing else but right, in these measures, he was not now disposed to submit to a compromise, or to consent to undo anything which he was satisfied had been justly done, in consideration of any supposed benefit which he could receive from the pope. He was anxious to remain in communion with the see of Rome. He was willing to acknowledge in some innocuous form the Roman supremacy. But it could be only on his own terms. The pope must come to him; he could not go to the pope. And the papal precedency should only again be admitted in England on conditions which should leave untouched the act of appeals, and should preserve the sovereignty of the crown unimpaired. Henry's reply to the of the He replied, therefore, to the overtures of overtures Francis, that he was ready to enter into negotiations for the resignation of his title to the crown of France, and for the proposed marriage.* Before other step was taken, however, he desired his French king. any *State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 587-8. must make move to reconcilia tion. good brother to insist that 'the Bishop of Rome' CH. 9. should revoke the sentence, and 'declare his A.D. 1534. pretended marriage with the Lady Catherine The pope naught;' 'which to do,' Henry wrote (and this the first portion of his reply is written by his own hand), wards a 'we think it very facile for our good brother; since we do perceive by letters (from Rome) both the opinions of the learned men there to be of that opinion that we be of; and also a somewhat disposition to that purpose in the Bishop of Rome's self, according to equity, reason, and the laws both positive and divine.' If there was to be a reconciliation with the Holy See, the first advance must be made on the Bishop of Rome's side; and Cromwell, in a simultaneous despatch, warned Francis not 'to move or desire his Grace to the violation of any laws recently passed, as a thing whereunto he would in no wise condescend or agree.'* distrusts Henry, however, felt no confidence either in Henry the sincerity of the pope, or in the sincerity of Francis. the French king, as he haughtily showed. He did not even trust De Bryon's account of the rejection of the overtures of the emperor. 'Notwithstanding,' he wrote, 'if it happeneth that the said bishop would obstinately follow the steps of his predecessor, and be more inclined to the maintenance of the actions and sentences of his see than to equity and justice, then we trust that our good brother-perceiving the right to stand on our side, and that not only the universities |