1509.] MARRIAGE OF THE KING-CORONATION. 259 The doubtful position of the princess Catherine was soon relieved by the determination of Henry to complete the contract of marriage which had been legalised by a papal dispensation in 1503. They were publicly united by the archbishop of Canterbury on the 7th of June, 1509. Catherine was dressed in white, and wore her hair loose,-the fashion in which maidens were customarily married. Their coronation took place at Westminster on the 24th of June. There is a curious document still existing which manifests the attention which the young king paid to his own affairs. It also shows the tendency of his mind, even at this early period, to assert the dignity of the crown in matters of church government. This document is the coronation oath of the kings of England, altered and interlined by the hand of Henry.* The original form says, "The king shall swear at his coronation that he shall keep and maintain the right and the liberties of the Holy Church of old time granted by the righteous Christian kings of England." The copy, as interlined, reads, "The king shall swear that he shall keep and maintain the lawful right and the liberties of old time granted by the righteous Christian kings of England to the Holy Church of England, not prejudicial to his * Cotton MS. See Ellis, "Original Letters," Second Series, vol. i. p. 176. 260 ROYAL SPORTS AND FEATS OF ARMS. [1509-11. jurisdiction and dignity royal." The early education of Henry had led him to the consideration of ecclesiastical questions. Whether, in this modification of the accustomed oath, the king "looked to something like supremacy in the Church of England, at the very outset of his reign; "'*-or whether it was a general assertion of that dominant spirit which could brook no control and admit no superiority,—the interlineations are equally consistent with the character of the man whose individual will was to produce the most signal consequences to the country over which he asserted his "dignity royal" for thirty-eight years. The parliament of the first year of Henry's reign had granted a subsidy of tonnage and poundage, as the customs duties upon certain exports and imports were called. These taxes were granted for the defence of the realm and the keeping of the sea. There were no circumstances to call for an especial provision beyond this ordinary revenue. The ministers of the crown moved in their accustomed course, without any trouble from apprehended dangers at home or abroad. The commonalty were gratified by the vengeance inflicted upon the legal harpies of the preceding reign; and there were no higher violations of the laws, to be met by more stringent legislation, than "the great and costly array and apparel used within this realm, contrary to good statutes;" which excess "hath been the occasion of great impoverishing of divers of the king's subjects, and provoked many of them to rob and to do extortion and other unlawful deeds to maintain thereby their costly array." + Archbishop Warham, the chancellor; bishop Fox, lord privy seal; and Howard, earl of Surrey, lord treasurer, were the king's chief ministers. For two years the narratives of the chroniclers are chiefly limited to descriptions of the king's feats of chivalry and his exercise in all manly sports. In his second year, at the feast of Pentecost at Greenwich, "his grace, with two other with him, challenged all comers to fight with them at the barriers with target and casting the spear; and, that done, with two-handed swords." In the use of the old English long-bow "his grace shot as strong and as great a length as any of his guard." On May-Day, "his grace being young, and willing not to be idle, rose in the morning very early to fetch May or green boughs, himself fresh and richly apparelled, and clothed all his knights, squires, and gentlemen in white satin, and all his guard and yeomen of the crown in white sarsnet." In these Mayings queen Catherine sometimes accompanied her active consort; and very harmless bands of archers shot their flights at the command of Robin Hood, their chief; and the courteous outlaw feasted the gallant company in green arbours decked with flowers. When the king entered the lists to joust, and won the prize which the queen bestowed, "all young persons highly praised, but the ancient fathers much doubted, considering the tender youth of the king, and divers chances of horses and armour." They "fain would have him a looker-on, rather than a doer." It was not in the disposition of this king to be "a looker-on." He soon made for himself more exciting occupations than his daily exercise "in shooting, singing, dancing, wrestling, casting of the bar, playing at the recorders, flute, virginals, and in setting of songs and making of ballads." He was to show himself "the most Christian king," by higher feats than Ellis, "Original Letters," Second Series, vol. i. p. 176. * See especially Hall, from whom we quote a few passages. +1 Hen. VIII. c. 14. 1512.] IMPENDING WAR WITH FRANCE. 261 that skill in music by which "he did set two goodly masses, every of them five parts, which were sung oftentimes in his chapel, and afterwards in divers other places." In the third year of his reign king Henry was preparing for war with France and Scotland. The Statute of 1511-12, which grants a subsidy to the king of "two whole fifteenths and tenths," in the preamble says, "We your humble subjects in this present parliament assembled, well knowing and perceiving that the French king, ancient enemy to this your realm of England, daily obtaineth with great strength and power many great cities, towns, and countries, in the parts of Italy and other parts beyond the sea; and also of his high and insatiable appetite and mind, not contented with region and dominions of France, giveth his assistance to the duke of Gueldres against the archduke and prince of Castile, your near ally, and against his subjects of Flanders; and if he may therein prosper and obtain, it is greatly to be presumed that the same country shall be utterly destroyed and subdued, to the inestimable loss. and damage of this realm."* From this recital we see that the impending * 3 Hen. VIII. c. 22. 262 ALLEGED REASONS FOR THE WAR. [1511-12. war with France was essentially different in one material principle from any previous war in which England had engaged with a continental power. It was a war-if the preamble to the statute correctly interprets the royal counsels-for the maintenance of the Balance of Power in Europe. In the possible success of Louis of France against Ferdinand of Spain, was to be dreaded "the inestimable loss and damage of this realm." The principle thus asserted, in carrying out its necessary consequence of taxation of the people, has been continued to be asserted in the same way for three centuries and a half. Success in this never-ending labour appears as remote as at the first hour when the professors of state-craft threw kingdoms and provinces, now into one scale and now into another, to make the obstinately unresting beam for a moment level. But a war for maintaining the Balance of Power could scarcely appeal to the enthusiasm of the nation for support, and especially to the clergy, the most influential portion of the nation. In 1512, the object of a war with France is more precisely defined. It is to be a war for the "reformation of the schismatic demeanour" of the French king against "our holy father the Pope," who has placed France under an interdict, which the said French king "despising, will not thereby reform himself." The Holy Father," for the succour, maintenance, and defence of his person and of our mother Holy Church, and for the ceasing of the said schism and errors, hath written and sent for aid and assistance unto our said Sovereign Lord, and to many other Christian princes." * How Henry would rejoice in such an appeal cannot be doubted. He was trained from his earliest years in the study of the school divinity; and was as vain of his intellectual accomplishments as of his personal prowess. A contest in which he could at once display his zeal for the Church and his passion for "the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war," if not for its hardships, was a tempting opportunity for this king of England, who had just reached the period when youth is passing into manhood. The real circumstances of this European contest, in which England might well have remained neutral without any loss of power and dignity, may be briefly told. At the commencement of the reign of Henry VIII., the papal throne had been filled during six years by Julius II.,—a pontiff who united the characters of the priest and the warrior, and was equally prepared to uphold the claims of his church, and increase the extent of his dominions, with sword or with interdict. His real policy was to render Italy independent,-a project not to be suddenly accomplished by arms, when opposed to Louis of France, or Maximilian the emperor, or Ferdinand of Spain; but to be gradually furthered by sowing dissensions amongst the temporal princes. He had joined with these sovereigns in curbing the power of the Venetians by the League of Cambray, in 1508. He now professed to dread the ambition of France, and openly defied Louis by the invasion of the territories of his friend the duke of Ferrara. The French king sent an army from Milan to the support of his ally. Julius retired to Bologna, where in 1510 he was besieged by a French army, but without success. In 1511 that papal city was taken; and Louis took the bold step of calling a general Council "for the reformation of the Church, both in its head and its members." He had * 4 Hen. VIII. c. 19. 1512.] CAUSES OF QUARREL WITH SCOTLAND. 263 the support of his own clergy and of five cardinals. But the pope called another Council, and set in action the spiritual weapons of deposition and excommunication. The princes of Christendom were invited to join the 'Holy League" for the defence of the Roman Church and the extinction of schism. The impetuous king of England eagerly rushed to enrol himself amongst the supporters of the pope, who gratefully flattered him with the promise that the king of France should no longer be "the most Christian king," and that the orthodox Henry should bear that honoured title. But there was something in the prospect of a war more tempting to the pride and presumption of Henry than the flatteries of "our holy father." The old dream of the conquest of France-the circumstances being wholly changed which could give the slightest encouragement to a hope of such an issuecame once again before the eyes of an English king, with all its delusive images. In the fifth year of Henry's reign this gay vision was embodied in the preamble to a statute, which shows "the king, our sovereign lord, greatly desiring to recover the realm of France, his very true patrimony and inheritance, and to reduce the same to his obedience." * When Henry went with this avowal to parliament, his warlike career had been marked by some successes which might have intoxicated even a less wilful and arrogant ruler. There was another ancient quarrel of the kings of England, which the government of Henry appears to have kept up with some of the passion and prejudice which a sound policy would have rejected. There were reasonable causes of complaint on both sides between England and Scotland; but when the king asked for a subsidy in the third year of his reign, the quarrel with France being then ripening, the king of Scots is termed by the parliament, very homager and obediencer of right to your highness." + A famous Scotch privateer, Andrew Barton, with his two brothers, had conducted a naval war against the Portuguese, under letters of marque from James IV. The statute of the 3rd of Henry alleges as an offence of Scotland that the king "hath lately taken your subjects with their ships and merchandises on the sea." These captures were made by the Bartons; and the earl of Surrey fitted out two ships to repress these assaults on English vessels, which were not the less obnoxious because they were under colour of search for Portuguese goods. Sir Thomas Howard, the son of Surrey, met Andrew Barton in his ship the Lion, cruising in the Downs; and in a desperate engagement the daring privateer fell mortally wounded on his deck. smaller vessel belonging to this family was taken by another Howard. It is recorded of Surrey, that when the exploits of the Bartons were made known in Henry's council, he said, "The king of England should not be imprisoned in his kingdom, while either he had an estate to set up a ship or a son to command it." When James IV. demanded satisfaction for the death of his brave mariner, Henry replied that kings should disdain to quarrel about the fate of a pirate. But there were other causes of difference less national in their character. Henry VII. had bequeathed some valuable jewels to his daughter Margaret, the queen of Scotland. Her brother, with a meanness which might be supposed alien to his ordinary proud and impulsive bearing, * 5 Hen. VIII. c. 1. Lloyd, "State Worthies," ed. 1670, p. 143. 3 Hen. VIII. c. 22. A |