an old historian, who moralises his theme, "plea- | sures must have their intermission,-and kings, if not by their greatness, are by their affairs severed." After consuming a fortnight Henry returned to Calais, and Francis went towards Paris. The most lasting effect produced by the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," as the interview and the place where it was held were afterwards called, was the ruin of many of the nobility both English and French, who, in their insane rivalry, contracted enormous debts. Of the French it was said that many of them carried their entire estates on their backs.*

The first thing Henry did when the gaudy play was over was, to go to Gravelines, and pay a visit to the more sober-minded emperor, who had prevented his noble subjects from attending the meeting and ruining themselves in shows and tournaments. Charles accompanied him back to Calais, to pay, as was given out, his respects to his dear aunt Catherine, but, in reality, to concert measures with those who had so recently pledged themselves to his rival Francis. The French were most anxious to discover what passed, and employed spies, who got access to the royal palace in the disguise of maskers; but it does not appear that their ingenuity was rewarded with any important discovery. La Roche, the avowed ambassador of Francis, went to work in a more open manner, and obtained an audience of the king and emperor together; but Henry put him off with general expressions, and Charles eluded his demands with less ceremony. After spending three days at Calais, the emperor rode back to his Flemish dominions" mounted on a brave horse covered with a cloth of gold, richly beset with stones, which the king had given him. And he would often speak of his aunt Catherine's happiness, that was matched to so magnificent a prince." Before he departed he flattered the vanity of his dear uncle by appointing him umpire to settle every difference that might arise between himself and Francis ;-a cheap appointment, for Charles could never intend to submit to the judgment of such an inferior mind, except in so far as his awards might be wholly favourable to himself. After spending a few more days at Calais, Henry and his court embarked for Dover, and then returned "all safe in body, but empty in purse," to London.†

Although, in these despotic times, it was dangerous to oppose or criticise the tastes of the king, there were not wanting men who expressed their disapprobation of the ruinous and useless expense into which the nobility of the kingdom had been led for the getting up of the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Among these murmurers one of the loudest was Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, the son of that weak and vacillating duke who, after helping Richard III. to seize the crown, raised an insurrection against him, in which he lost his head, like a fool and coward. But, though Buckingham was Hall.-Du Bellay.-Polydore Virgil.-Godwin.' + Hall.-Godwin.-Du Bellay. See ante, p. 127.

marked out for destruction immediately after Henry's return from the continent, it was not solely on account of his criticism, for he had long been an object of jealousy and suspicion, though the king pretended a great affection for him, and appointed him to several high offices about the court. The origin of the duke's misfortunes was his connexion with royalty, and his descent from the ancient line of the Plantagenets. His next misfortune was his wealth, for he was one of the richest subjects in England. He kept a splendid and hospitable house,† and was exceedingly popular, not only with his servants and retainers, but with the nation at large. He had several of those virtues which it was customary to consider as peculiarly English: he was open-handed and openhearted; frank and free spoken, almost to bluntness; and, unlike his father, he was bold and firm, and not destitute of talent. His credulity in matters of prophecy was a folly common to his age. About eight years before, when the king was preparing that expedition which was to conquer France, and which ended in the taking of two useless towns, the duke became acquainted with one Hopkins, a Carthusian friar, who had gained reputation as a fortune-teller. The friar, it is said, predicted to him (which, considering the caution of Henry, and the rashness of James, he might have done without consulting the stars) that the king of England would return home safe from France, and that the king of Scots would surely perish if he crossed the borders. The fulfilment of both prophecies raised the monk's fame, and with it the credulity of Buckingham, who, thereafter, had frequent and familiar intercourse with the prophet. The monk, seeing that the duke was mindful of his royal descent, and of the fact that the king had no sons, began to foresee that there was something wonderfully high in the destinies of young Stafford, the duke's heir. In other words, it seems he hinted that the duke's son would be Henry's successor on the throne. For so great an effect as the judicial murder of this popular noblemen people naturally sought a variety of causes. "Being yet

a child," says the Bishop of Hereford, "I have heard ancient men say that by his bravery of apparel and sumptuous feasts, he exasperated the king, with whom, in these things, he seemed to contend." Another cause assigned was the enmity of Wolsey, without whose advice, it was believed, the king never undertook anything: and though the cardinal was not a man of blood, he may have contributed to the present execution, his dislike of the duke being notorious. "For he (Buckingham) could by no means bear with the intolerable pride of the cardinal, whose hatred not improbably proved fatal unto him, rather than did the king's

Buckingham sprang from Anne Plantagenet, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, a son of Edward III., and also traced through John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He was hereditary High Constable of England.

+ Henry, it appears, was at times his guest at his splendid seat of Penshurst. Richard Pace, in a letter to Wolsey, written from that place in 1519, says, "The Duke of Buckingham maketh unto the king, here, excellent cheer."-State Papers.

displeasure; for many times princes are with less danger offended than their minions. There goes a tale, that the duke once holding the basin to the king, the cardinal, when the king had done, presently dipped his hands in the same water: the duke, disdaining to debase himself to the service of a priest, shed the water in his shoes. The cardinal, therewith incensed, threatened him that he would sit upon his skirts."*

One cause, however, is quite sufficient to account for what followed; and Henry, who, eight years before, had cut off the head of the Duke of Suffolk for no other crime than that of his royal birth, was not likely, now that he had become much more jealous and tyrannical, to be more scrupulous or tender with regard to Buckingham. He had also taken great offence at the duke's augmenting the number of his retainers, and, a short time before leaving England for the Field of the Cloth of Gold, he had summoned to that most arbitrary tribunal, the Star Chamber, Sir William Bulmer, who was taxed, as with a high crime and misdemeanor, with having deserted the king's household to take service in that of Buckingham. Sir William was made to confess his misdemeanor, and to beg pardon on his knees. Henry granted his pardon to the knight, but made use of certain ambiguous expressions, sounding very like a threat, against the duke.

A.D. 1521.-Buckingham, who was living quietly on his estate of Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, was now suddenly invited to court. The duke, suspecting no mischief, obeyed the summons, and started on his journey, not observing for some time that he was closely followed by three knights of the king's body-guard, "and a secret power of servants-at-arms. His suspicions were first awakened at Windsor, where he lodged for the night, and where he saw the "same three knights lying close by." He was also treated with marked disrespect by a creature of the court, one Thomas Ward, "who was gentleman harbinger to the king;" and the next morning, at breakfast, "his meat would not down." The whole management of the arrest is marked with a detestable treachery, worthy of the worst of times. Before inveigling the duke to court, Henry had thrown one Perk, that nobleman's chancellor, into the Tower, in the view of extorting from him confessions injurious to his master. From Windsor Buckingham rode slowly on to Westminster, where he took his barge in order to row down to Greenwich, where the court then was. He stopped on his way at my Lord Cardinal's bridge,† where he landed with four or five of his servants, and desired to speak with Wolsey: "but he was answered how my lord was diseased (indisposed)." "Well," said the duke, yet will I drink of my lord's wine as I pass" and then a gentleman of my Lord Cardinal's brought the duke with much reverence into

the cellar, where the duke drank. But when he saw and perceived no cheer to him was made, he changed colour, and so departed."

As he descended the Thames, and drew near the city, his barge was hailed and boarded by Sir Henry Marney, captain of the body-guard, and a company of yeomen of the guard, who attached him as a traitor in the king's name. The duke was carried on shore, and conveyed through Thames-street to the Tower, to the great astonishment and regret of the people. This was on the 16th of April. On the 13th of May he was put upon his trial as a peer, but not before a full house assembled in a parliamentary manner. Seventeen peers chosen by the king, and the Duke of Norfolk as High Steward, constituted the tribunal. He was charged with tempting Friar Hopkins to make traitorous prophecies, by means of messages and personal conferences; with having tampered with the king's servants and yeomen of the guard, by means of presents and promises; with having said, when he was reprimanded for retaining Sir William Bulmer, that if his arrest had been ordered he would have plunged his dagger into the king's heart; and with having declared his determination, in the event of the king's death, to cut off the heads of the Lord Cardinal and some others, and then to seize the government. At first Buckingham pleaded that nothing in the indictment amounted to an overt act, and that, therefore, even in the showing of the prosecution, there was no guilt of treason: but Fineux, the chief justice, laid it down as good law that there was treason in imagining the death of the king, and that words spoken without any overt act were evidence enough. The duke, then, with great force and eloquence, replied to the indictment charge by charge, denied his guilt in every particular, and boldly demanded to be confronted with the witnesses. Hopkins the prophet, De la Court his confessor, Perk his chancellor, and Sir Charles Knevitt his own cousin, and formerly his steward, were brought into court. All these individuals had been thrown into the Tower, where, according to the dark practices of those days, they may have been tortured, or threatened with torture, or corrupted by money and promises. They all persisted in their story; but the most determined evidence against him was that of his cousin Knevitt. The Duke of Norfolk rose to pronounce sentence, for the seventeen peers (as might have been expected) unanimously found him guilty; and the hardy soldier, the victor of Flodden Field, though he had not virtue enough to oppose a jealous tyrant, wept like a child as he spoke. Buckingham replied, with a manly voice, "My Lord of Norfolk, you have said to me as a traitor should be said unto; but I was never none. Still, my lords, I nothing malign you for that you have done unto me. May the eternal God forgive you my death, as I do. I shall never sue to the king for life, howbeit he is a gracious prince, and more grace may come from him than I desire

• Hall.

I desire you, my lords, and all my fellows, to pray for me." The edge of the axe was then turned towards him, and he was led to his barge, where Sir Thomas Lovell, treating him with respect, requested him to take his usual seat on the cushions and the carpet prepared for him in the boat; but he declined, saying, "When I came to Westminster I was Duke of Buckingham, but now I am nothing but Edward Stafford, the poorest wretch alive." He persisted in his resolution not to implore the king's mercy, and on the 17th of May the sheriffs led him from his dungeon to the scaffold on Tower-hill. He was as undaunted in sight of the block as he had been before his judges; and he died as brave men die-firmly and meekly, without bravado. As his head fell on the scaffold the people groaned and lamented, for they were not yet brutalised by the frequent spectacle of such executions. "God have mercy on his soul!" exclaims one who reported his trial; "for he was a most wise and noble prince, and the mirror of all courtesy."

It was while the blood of Buckingham was fresh upon him that Henry set himself up as the defender and champion of the holy (Roman) mother church. The history of the Reformation, which was begun by Luther in earnest in the year 1517, and which worked such an amazing change in the north of Europe, will be treated in its proper place. It is enough to state here that the doctrines of the great reformer had been eagerly received by many minds in England, where a respect for the Catholic clergy had long been on the decline, and where the seed, before scattered by Wycliffe, had never been entirely extirpated. On the 14th of May, 1521, Wolsey issued orders to all the bishops of England to seize all heretical books, or books containing Martin Luther's errors; to give notice in all the churches, at time of high mass, that any person having such books, and failing to deliver them up within fifteen days, would incur the pain of excommunication; and also to affix on the doors of their cathedrals, and of the parish churches in their several dioceses, a list of Luther's chief heresies, that people might have the opportunity of reading them and avoiding them. On the 20th of the same month, three days after Buckingham's execution, Henry wrote, with his own hand, a fiery letter to Louis of Bavaria, denouncing "this fire which hath been kindled by Luther, and fanned by the arts of the devil;" and calling upon Louis, as a good Christian, to exterminate Luther, and burn both him and his books. "To the accomplishment of which work," he adds, "at once so sacred and so acceptable to God, we most readily, and from the heart, offer you, royal favour, patronage, assistance, and even, if necessary, our blood. And so we bid you happily farewell."+

of our

But, as Henry had not the power to burn the reformer, he took up the pen of controversy, being

State Trials.-Herbert.-Hall-Stow.-Holinshed. † Geddes, Hist. Reform,

VOL. II.

led thereto by a wish of showing his scholastic learning and of pleasing the court of Rome, which, on a former occasion, when Louis XII. was lying under ban, had threatened to deprive the French kings of their title of "Most Christian," and to give it to Henry and his successors, the kings of England. Another incentive was found in the fact that Luther had spoken disrespectfully of St. Thomas Aquinas, Henry's favourite author. Thus animated, and with plenty of priests and able scholars to supply fuel to his zeal and give polemical point to his pen, Henry wrote his celebrated defence of the Seven Sacraments, which, as he fondly conceived, smashed Luther and all his doctrines. In the month of October, Clark, the English ambassador at Rome, presented this book to the pope in full consistory; and Leo X., after giving himself leisure to read the treatise, was pleased to declare, in an express bull, that he found it sprinkled with the dew of ecclesiastical grace, and that he rendered thanks to God for having inspired the king to write it for the defence of the blessed faith. In the same bull he formally conferred upon Henry the title of "Defender of the Faith," as a glorious and christianly addition to his other styles.*

While Henry was thus seeking distinction by the pen, Francis and Charles were fighting for worldly dominion. The French king was the first to draw the sword. Encouraged by a formidable revolt of the Spaniards against the despotic government of Charles, he marched an army to the crest of the Pyrenees, and, in fifteen days, overran the kingdom of Navarre. Thus far the insurgents of Spain looked on with indifference; but when the French rashly crossed the frontiers of Castile the Spaniards of all parties flew to arms, and not only drove them back, but also recovered Navarre in less than a fortnight. At the same time Francis and his auxiliaries threatened the emperor with an invasion of the Netherlands. But the French king was not more successful in the north than in the south; and, to increase his embarrassments, Leo X. threw up his alliance and contracted a new one with the emperor. At this crisis Francis applied for the friendly mediation of Henry, who immediately engaged to act as a most impartial umpire, and then sent Wolsey, not to negotiate a peaceful and honourable arrangement, but to concert measures with Charles for the dismemberment of the French monarchy. The cardinal arbitrator,-for the whole business was intrusted to him,-embarked at Dover on the 30th of July, and landed on the same day at Calais with a magnificent train, including lords, bishops, doctors learned in the law, and knights and squires out of number. At Calais he was met by ambassadors from Charles and by ambassadors from Francis, and of course he found the pretensions of these diplomatists irreconcilable. Upon this, with the alleged design of disposing the emperor to more

Wilkins, Concilia.-Fiddes, Life of Wolsey-Capefigue, Hist, de la Reforme. 2 Y

*

pacific measures, but with the real intention of completing the hostile league against France, he repaired in all his pomp to the city of Bruges, where Charles received him with wonderful respect. "And here," says a striking old writer, "perhaps it would not be amiss (in regard of these times) to let the reader know the pomp and state of this cardinal,—how many gentlemen attended him apparelled with velvet and adorned with gold chains; and then how many were clothed in scarlet coats, the skirts whereof were guarded with velvet the full breadth of a hand. But let the reader guess Hercules's stature by the length of his foot. Such was the bravery of his attendants that, in Christwiern,+ King of Denmark, and other princes then residing at Bruges, it bred amazement. It was also reported that he was, by gentlemen of the first rank, served on the knee, a kind of state which Germany had yet never known. He spent a huge mass of money in that ambassage, not against his will; for he by all means sought the emperor's favour, hoping that Leo X., although much younger than he, either cut off by treachery or his own intemperance, might leave the world before him; and then were it no hard matter for him, being under-propped by the emperor and our king, to be advanced to the papacy."‡

On the 19th of August this impartial arbitrator wrote from Bruges to his master Henry, telling him that the emperor earnestly required his grace forthwith to declare war against France, and that he, Wolsey, had finally convinced the emperor, upon good reasons and grounds, that it would be better to defer the declaration of hostilities against France till Charles should pay Henry a visit in England. "And in the presence of my Lady," continues the cardinal, "he concluded perpetually to join with you above all princes, and that he would as effectually lean to mine advice therein as to his own council, adding, furthermore, that he would accept and take me as his father, with other many good and loving words, so that the said declaration is deferred till his coming to England, at which time both you and he may farther commune upon the same, so that convenient time may be had to put yourselves in good readiness for war."§ In the same letter Wolsey told his master that he had discussed and debated with the emperor the articles devised at Calais with the emperor's ambassadors for the marriage of the Princess Mary with Charles, and that he and Charles had finally concluded upon that marriage, and settled the date and all other particulars, all which treaties were to be kept strictly secret till such time as the emperor should speak with his grace in his realm of England. This

Towards the end of August the Lord Cardinal returned to Calais and resumed the farce of the pacification with the French ministers. It would be doing great injustice to the diplomatic abilities of the French to suppose that they could be wholly blind to what was passing, or ignorant of the blandishments of Charles at Bruges. They, however, kept their countenances, and even received with respect a plan of pacification, which Wolsey drew up in a manner that he knew the pride of Francis would never accept. The cardinal affected to lament his obstinacy, and then, taking advantage of a good opportunity, he pronounced, as his award, that Francis had been the aggressor in the war, and that Henry was bound by treaty to assist his ally the emperor. The mask was now dropped, and the result of Wolsey's negotiations was disclosed in a league signed at Calais in the month of October between the pope, the emperor, and the King of England. It was agreed that, in order to check the wicked ambition of France, and to expedite a European crusade against the Turks, who were gaining ground beyond the Danube, each of these contracting powers should fall upon Francis from different quarters at the same time; and that, "for the common good of Christendom," the marriage between the Dauphin and the Princess Mary should be set aside, and that princess be married to the emperor.†

Hostilities had not been interrupted during Wolsey's negotiations, and the results of the campaign were most adverse to Francis. Beyond the Alps the Italian league, headed by the pope, and assisted by the emperor, had driven the French out of Milan and taken possession of nearly all their conquests. In the north of France the Imperialists had taken Tournay, for which Francis had recently paid so great a price to Henry; and all that the French had to set off against these losses was the capture of Hesdin and Fuente Rabia. The brilliant success of Leo X. was, however, closely followed by his death. lowed by his death. The Italians rejoiced as much at the expulsion of the French as if they were never to return, and as if they had done something better than change masters or prepared the way for the dominion of the emperor with his Spaniards and Germans, who were scarcely better masters than the French. The pope, who was of a joyous disposition, ordered the event to be cele

keeping your subjects at home more this year than at any other vintage heretofore, whereby not only the payment of your pension might be stopped, but an inclination towards the wars might be in appear ance on your part, whereof many inconveniences might ensue." Letter from Wolsey to Heury in the Brit, Mus., and printed in State Papers.

State Papers.

+ State Papers.-Lord Herbert.-Hall.-Guicciardini.: