The youth of Henry VIII

Introduction

Although " The Youth of Henry VIII.," like its companion volume, " The Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth," may be left to stand alone, and read as a separate memoir, it forms an integral part of the series in which I hope eventually to illustrate the whole history of England by what James Howell describes as " the more gentle and familiar way " of letters. " Nothing," says Swift, " is so capable of giving a true account of history as letters are, which describe actions while they are alive and breathing, whereas all other relations are of actions past and dead." Ruskin is still more emphatic when he declares, in the same connexion, that " the only history worth reading is that written at the time of which it treats, the history of what was done and seen, out of the mouths of men who did and saw." Ruskin, of course, was exaggerating but his exaggeration was intended merely to accentuate the truth. My object is, therefore, to link together the essential letters of historic importance and the intimate correspondence of more domestic interest, so as to form a living record of each chapter in our country's story. The books will not attempt to pass judgment on controverted topics, but will endeavour always to allow each side to state its case in its own words, leaving the reader as far as possible to judge for himself. Historical documents, as someone has said, are very like the letters of the alphabet ; they can be arranged and shuffled according to the point of view of any writer, whatever his prejudices may be. My own design is simply to arrive at the facts, and let the facts speak for themselves. As in the companion volume, the spelling has been modernised — for I am vi INTRODUCTION

appealing not only to the student who is without access to these documents in their original form, but also to the general reader, to whom the text of most of them will be new — and translations have been made, where necessary, from other tongues. Some explanation is, perhaps, due for the delay in bringing out the present volume. The generous reception, both in this country and in the United States, of my " Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth " encouraged me to extend the scope of the series and prepare the groundwork for the whole scheme, but I now hope, with the help of other workers in the same field of research, to issue the volumes more frequently.

The youth of Henry VIII., here dealt with, is the least known period of that monarch's career, the " thorny subject" of the divorce exercising the minds of most historians to the exclusion of the first and fairer phase of Henry's life. Side by side with the King's own story is that of Catherine of Arragon in the troubled days of her girlhood and widowhood, and in the early years of her marriage with her royal brother-in-law, before the tragedy of the divorce wrecked her short-lived happiness. Among other events may be traced the rise of Wolsey ; the progress of Henry's French campaign, with the Battle of the Spurs, and the capture of Terouanne and Tournay ; the greater victory of Flodden Field during his absence ; and the romantic love affair between his younger sister Mary and his favourite, the Duke of Suffolk, the reckless course of which is followed in their own letters. I have not attempted to mention all the books consulted, or other sources explored for documentary evidence while the volume was in progress, but a list is given of the principal works from which the letters themselves have been selected.

I have to thank the Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office again for permission to print the letters chosen from the Calendars of State Papers, the Rolls Series, and the Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission. To the Navy

INTRODUCTION vii

Records Society I am indebted for the selection from M. Spont's " Letters and Papers relating to the War with France, 1512 — 15 13," published by that Society in 1897 ; and to Mr. F. Morgan Nichols for permission to reproduce a number of the letters from his admirable edition of " The Epistles of Erasmus," in English, published by Messrs. Longmans. The portraits are from contemporary paintings in various public and private collections. That of Prince Arthur, elder son of Henry VII., is in the Royal collection at Windsor Castle, and is reproduced by permission of the Lord Chamberlain. The portraits of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, I owe to the courtesy of the Earl of Yarborough, who furnished me with the photograph of the painting by Mabuse, which is in his possession. The likeness of Henry VIII. as an infant is also included through the kindness of the owner of the original painting, Lady Verney, who, as the scholarly editor of " The Verney Memoirs," is known to have much sympathy with the telling of history through letters.

FRANK A. MUMBY.

FlNCHLEY,

January 1, 191 3.

CALENDARS OF STATE PAPERS AND OTHER COLLECTIONS FROM WHICH LETTERS HAVE BEEN SELECTED

Calendar of State Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. Vols. I. and IV. Edited by J. S. Brewer. 1862— 1870.

Calendar of Letters, Despatches and State Papers relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain. Vols. I. and II. and supplementary volume. Edited by G. A. Bergenroth. 1862— 1868.

Calendar of State Papers relating to English Affairs preserved in the Archives of Venice. Vols. I. and II. Edited by Rawdon Brown. 1864 — 1867.

Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland. Vol. I. Edited by Markham J. Thorpe. 1858.

Calendar of State Papers relating to Ireland. Vol. I. Edited by H. Claude Hamilton, i860.

" Report on Duke of Rutland's MSS. at Belvoir Castle." Vol. I. Historical MSS. Commission. 1883.

" Report on the Marquess of Salisbury's MSS. at Hatfield." Vol. I. Historical MSS. Commission. 1883.

Letters and Papers illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII. Vol. II. Edited by James Gairdner. Rolls Series. 1863.

" Memorials of Henry VII." Edited by James Gairdner. Rolls Series. 1858,

Ellis's " Original Letters." Three series. 1824, 1827, 1846.

" The Epistles of Erasmus." Translated by F. Morgan Nichols. Vols. I. and II. 1904.

" Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies." Mary Everett Wood (Mrs. Everett Green). 3 vols. 1846.

" Letters of the Kings of England." Halliwell-Phillipps. 2 vols. 1846.

" Life and Reign of Henry VIII." Lord Herbert of Cherbury.

Hall's " Chronicle." Edited by H. Ellis. 1809.

" Lettres de Louis XII." Vol. IV.

STAJE PAPERS AND OTHER SOURCES

Letters and Papers relating to the War with France in 15 12 — 15 13." Edited by Alfred Spont. Navy Records Society. 1897.

Correspondance de Maximilien et de Marguerite d'Autriche." 2 vols. 1839.

Four years at the Court of Henry VIII." Sebastian Giustinian. Translated by Rawdon Brown. 2 vols. 1854.

Court and Society from Elizabeth to Anne." William Drogo Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester. 2 vols. 1864.

History of the Life and Times of Wolsey." Joseph Grove. 1742— 1744.

Life of Wolsey." John Gait. 3rd edition. 1846.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction ........ v — vii

Calendars of State Papers and Other Collections

from which Letters have been selected . . ix— x

List of Illustrations ....... xv

Chapter I A Younger Son (149i — 1502)

Why Prince Henry became Duke of York — High Offices of a Royal Infant — The Tudor Policy — A Future Archbishop — His Scholarly Education — Erasmus's Visit to the Royal Nursery — Henry and his learned Grandmother — Erasmus's Account of English Scholarship — Catherine of Arragon betrothed to Henry's Brother — Latin Love-letters — Spain and the Upstart Tudors — Catherine's Girlhood — Her Voyage to England — First Meetings with Bridegroom and Henry — Married to Prince Arthur — The Question of Consummation — Catherine's Position after Marriage — Puebla's Double-dealing — Henry VII. and Catherine's Property — Death of Prince Arthur . 1 — 25

CHAPTER II HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES (l502 — 1507)

First Proposal to Marry Henry to Catherine — Rival Advances from France — Isabella's Strategy — Ferdinand's Fears of French Designs — Dona Elvira Manuel's Testimony — Henry Succeeds as Prince of Wales — Tortuous Negotiations for his Betrothal — Puebla's Shady Character — Death of Elizabeth of York — Rumour Concerning Henry VII. and Catherine — Isabella Demands her Return unless Betrothed to Prince Henry — Treaty of Marriage Signed — Ferdinand and the Papal Dispensation — Catherine and the Prince at Court — Julius II. sends the Brief to Isabella on her Death-bed — Catherine Deserted — Henry's secret Protest Against his Betrothal — Pitiful Position of Catherine — The Visit of Philip and Juana — Catherine Appeals to her Father — Death of the King of Castile — Its Effect on Catherine's Position — Erasmus Renews Acquaintance with Prince Henry .... 26 — 67 xii CONTENTS

Chapter III Page

Ferdinand's Empty Sympathy — Catherine's Share in Henry VII. 's Proposal to Marry her Mad Sister — Catherine's Increasing Poverty — Her New Confessor — More about Henry VII. 's Matrimonial Schemes — Catherine Prevented from Seeing Prince Henry — Henry VII. Renounces Marriage Treaty owing to Non-payment of Marriage Portion — Catherine Begs her Father to Send it — Ferdinand Appoints her his Ambassador — She again describes her Pitiful Situation — Warns her Father Against Henry VII. and Puebla — Her own Gifts of Dissimulation — She Writes to Juana of Castile on Behalf of Henry VII. — Ferdinand's Attitude in the Matter — Rumours of Rival Candidates for Prince Henry's Hand — English Designs on Castile — The Conference of Cambrai — Fuensalida becomes Ambassador in England — Ferdinand's Threatening Attitude — Grave Condition of Henry VII. — Disorders in Catherine's Household — Her Relations with her Confessor — Her Defence — Desperate Condition — Death of Henry VII 68 — 120

Chapter IV

Henry VIII. Ready to Marry Catherine — Archbishop Warham's Objection — Ferdinand's Advice and Condolence — Continued Friction Between Catherine and Fuensalida — Ferdinand's Threat — Contrast Between Henry VII. and Henry VIII. — Catherine and the New King's Private Marriage — Erasmus Invited to England " to behold this New and Auspicious Star " — Henry's Letters to Margaret of Savoy and his Father-in-Law — Catherine's Triumph — England as Ferdinand's New Kingdom — Henry Agrees to Support Spain against France — His Reception of the French Ambassador — Champions the Cause of Venice — His Sports and Pastimes — Birth and Death of his Son — Expeditions to Spain and Flanders — Rise of Wolsey — Henry Enters the Holy League — Urges Maximilian to Join — A Diplomatist's Life in London — Henry Sends an Army to Combine with the Spaniards against France — His Call to Arms — French Proclamation — How Ferdinand Used Henry's Troops — English Army becomes Demoralized and Returns of its own Accord — Henry's Resolve to Wipe out the Disgrace . . 121 — 158

Chapter V

Henry's Eagerness for Fresh Campaign — Wolsey's Genius for Organization — English Domestic Life — Preparations

CONTENTS xiii

PAGE

for War in England and France — James IV. Sides with France — Sir Edward Howard's Fatal Fight with Pregent — Lord Thomas Howard Succeeds his Brother — Ferdinand's Treacherous Truce with France — Henry Sails with his Invading Army — Catherine Appointed Governor in his Absence — Henry's Army Marches to the Front — Catherine's Anxiety — James IV. Unmasks — Catherine's Preparations for War — Battle of the Spurs — Catherine's Congratulations — Flodden Field — Erasmus and the Battle — Fate of the Franco-Scottish Fleet — Catherine's Trophy of Victory — James's Neglected Remains — Henry's Visit to Margaret at Lille — Surrender of Tournay — Brian Tuke's Summary of Events — Charles Brandon and Margaret of Savoy — Henry's Share in their Flirtation — Elizabeth Blount — Henry's Return — Replies to Pope's Proposals for Peace — Border Warfare — Rewards for Flodden — England's Increasing Influence . . 159 — 235

Chapter VI

Ferdinand's Fears of England's Growing Power — Quintana's Treacherous Mission — Margaret Tries to Preserve Maximilian's Loyalty — Henry Deserted by his Allies — His Rage — Refuses Loan to Maximilian — Emperor's Old Offer of Imperial Crown — Leo X. Sends Henry Sword and Cap of Maintenance — Investiture at St. Paul's — Henry Repays his Betrayers in their own Coin — Burning of Brighton — Proposed Marriage between Louis XII. and Princess Mary — Henry's fresh Hopes of an Heir — State of Ireland — Scotland — Henry's new Ship — His Horses — Sends Present in Return to Marquis of Mantua — Henry's Negotiations with the Duke of Longueville — Mary Betrothed to Louis of France — She Writes to Him — Their Marriage by Proxy — Ferdinand Blames Maximilian — Maximilian and Margaret Blame Henry — Henry's Retort — Margaret's " Secret Matters " — The French King's Longing — Assassination of Cardinal Bainbridge — Bishop of Worcester Accused and Pronounced Innocent — Wolsey Succeeds as Archbishop of York — Henry's Tribute to his Merits — ■ Wolsey Aims at the Cardinalate .... 236 — 281

Chapter VII

Mary's Departure for France — Her Stormy Crossing — How Louis XII. Received Her — State Entry into Abbeville — Wedding Festivities — Mary's English Attendants Dismissed — Her Grief Assuaged by Precious Stones — ■ Suffolk Received by the French King — Worcester's Interview with Louis — Proposals to Drive Ferdinand from Navarre and Castile — Affairs in Scotland — Margaret Marries Angus — Arran Heads Revolt — Duke of Albany's xiv CONTENTS

PAGE

Call to Scotland — English Achievements in the Paris Jousts — Margaret Appeals to her Brother — Risk of French Interference in Scotland — Henry's Disappointed Hopes of an Heir — First Rumours of Divorce — Peter Martyr's Uncorroborated Story — Spanish Ambassador and Queen Catherine — He Begs Ferdinand to put a Bridle on Henry — Death of Louis XII. . . . 282 — 306

Chapter VIII

A New Situation — Wolsey's Masterful Manner — His Advice to the Widowed Mary — Her Perilous Position in Paris — She Reminds Henry of his " Waterside Promise " — Suffolk sent with new Embassy to Paris — His Pledge before leaving — Henry and the Crisis in Scotland — Suitors for Mary's Hand — Suffolk's Reception by Francis — Mystery of his Marriage — Suffolk's Confession to Wolsey — Wolsey's Reply — Mary takes Blame upon Herself — Struggle for her Dowry, Plate and Jewels — Suffolk's Mission a Failure — New Treaty between England and France — Second Marriage of Mary and Suffolk in Paris — The " Mirror of Naples " — Return of the Culprits — Suffolk's Last Appeal — Reconciliation with Henry — Publicly Married at Greenwich — The Marriage Settlement — Sebastian Giustinian's Journey to London — His Interview with Francis I. — Pen Portraits of the King — Royal May Day at Shooter's Hill — Catherine and the King ...... . 307 — 350

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Henry VIII. From the Painting in the National

Portrait Gallery . . . . . Frontispiece

Henry VIII. as a Child. From the Painting in

the Collection of Lady Verney, at Rhianva, pa ge

Anglesey Facing 14

Prince Arthur, Eldest Son of Henry VII, About 1502. From the Painting in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle . . . . . ,,24

Henry VII. Painted in 1505 by an unknown

Flemish artist. National Portrait Gallery . . „ 100

Cardinal Wolsey. From the drawing attributed to Jacques le Bcucq of Artois in the Library of the town of Arras „ 144

Catherine of Arragon, about 15 15. From the

Painting in the National Portrait Gallery . . „ 206

Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland. From the

Painting in the National Portrait Gallery . . „ 300

Mary Tudor, Queen Dowager of France, and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. From the Painting by Mabuse, in the Collection of the Earl of Yarborough . , „ 334

THE

YOUTH OF HENRY VIII

Chapter I A Younger Son (149i 1502)

Why Prince Henry became Duke of York — High Offices of a Royal Infant — The Tudor Policy — A Future Archbishop — His Scholarly Education — Erasmus's Visit to the Royal Nursery — Henry and his learned Grandmother — Erasmus's Account of English Scholarship — Catherine of Arragon betrothed to Henry's Brother — Latin Love-letters — Spain and the Upstart Tudors — Catherine's Girlhood — Her Voyage to England — First Meetings with Bridegroom and Henry — Married to Prince Arthur — The Question of Consummation — Catherine's Position after Marriage — Puebla's Double-dealing — Henry VII. and Catherine's Property — Death of Prince Arthur.

The unimportance of being a younger son is obvious as soon as we begin to search contemporary documents for references to the childhood of Henry VIII. Only a dim light, a glimpse here and there of a lusty and somewhat precocious youngster, is thrown on his early boyhood. It is not until he is well into his eleventh year that he emerges from this shadowy background, thrust by the tragic death of his brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, to the proud position of heir to a throne which no longer seemed insecure. Although young Henry's position had meanwhile been one of comparative insignificance, he had already played a useful, if involuntary, part in statecraft and diplomacy. The year 1491, which witnessed his birth at Greenwich Palace (on June 28) also brought to light in Ireland the most threatening plot with which Henry VII. had been confronted since fighting his way to the throne through Bosworth Field. This was the Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, which cast its

Y.H. B shadow over England for a number of anxious years. The birth of a younger son to Henry VII. furnished the King with a useful opportunity not only of offering a sop to Yorkist prejudice, but also of repudiating by implication the false claim to the title of Duke of York set up by Perkin Warbeck and his powerful patrons. Thus was little Prince Henry, in November, 1494, created Duke of York amid the pomp and pageantry which already characterised the house of Tudor in its ceremonial moods. This was the origin of the custom of conferring the title of Duke of York upon the second son of the English sovereign, or of the heir-apparent, a custom handed down to our present King.

The new Duke, though little more than three years old, also played a profitable, if passive, part in other great affairs of State. Six weeks before receiving his new title he was appointed Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland, with Sir Edward Poynings as his able deputy ; and he had been nominal Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle since he was between nine and ten months old. Among other dignities crowded upon him in his infancy were those of Earl Marshal and Warden of the Scottish Marches, in addition to which he was created a Knight of the Bath and admitted to the Order of the Garter, being invested with the last of these honours on May 17, 1495, a few weeks before his fourth birthday. There is more to be said for the wisdom of Henry VII. in appointing a child to so many high offices than may appear at first sight. It was always the Tudor policy not only to reign, but to rule, and Henry VII. found it expedient to concentrate as many as possible of these great administrative posts round his own person, rather than fill them as of old with nobles whose increase of power and wealth thereby might not always make for the safety of his throne. Deputies of a lower rank filled the posts just as efficiently as the nobles. Besides, there was the further advantage of adding a number of substantial incomes to the royal purse, an advantage which no monarch was ever quicker to appreciate than the King who could make even rebellions pay more than their own expenses.

According to Lord Herbert of Cherbury the future Henry VIII. during the life of his elder brother was intended for the Archbishopric of Canterbury, " the prudent King his father choosing this as the most cheap and glorious way of bestowing of a younger son." Whatever end his father had in view for him at this time he saw that Prince Henry, like his other surviving children, reaped the full advantage of the higher education of the day. In this the King was guided as much by the scholarly influence of his mother, the " Venerable Margaret," as by his own inclination. Like most of the Tudors, young Henry was fond of learning, and proved an apt pupil. He mastered Latin and French, understood Italian, and, besides an early aptitude for theology and mathematics, displayed even in his boyhood that taste and proficiency in music which eventually made him an excellent performer on the organ, the lute and the harpsichord, as well as a composer of no mean order. Our earliest intimate glimpse of him is furnished by Erasmus, who paid his first visit to England in 1499 as the guest and travelling companion of his pupil, William Blount, Lord Mountjoy, afterwards, as Erasmus himself describes him, " more friendly than munificent." It was in the summer of 1499 that Mountjoy was chosen by the King as companion and mentor of the young Duke of York, then living at Eltham Palace, which was used at this period as a sort of nursery for all the royal children, with the exception of Arthur, now in his thirteenth year, who lived, as was then expected of the Prince of Wales, at his residence on the Welsh border.

With the Duke of York were his two sisters, Margaret — his senior by nineteen months and destined by her marriage to James IV. of Scotland to be the ancestress of the royal house of Great Britain — and Mary, some five years his junior, whose lot it was to become the Queen of the worn-out Louis XII. of France, and almost immediately after his death, the wife of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Happily their young minds were as yet untroubled by these vast and weighty matters. The glimpse supplied by Erasmus of the royal household as he saw it on the occasion of his visit with Mountjoy in 1499 is worth preserving, if only for its agreeable contrast to the pictures which have to follow of their later years, when Margaret, Henry, and Mary were all

B 2 mixed up in the complicated affairs of England, Scotland, and France.

I was staying at Lord Mountjoy's country house (writes Erasmus) when Thomas More came to see me, and took me out with him for a walk as far as the next village, where all the King's children, except Prince Arthur, who was then the eldest son, were being educated. When we came into the hall, the attendants not only of the palace but also of Mountjoy's household were all assembled. In the midst stood Prince Henry, then nine years old, and having already something of royalty in his demeanour, in which there was a certain dignity combined with singular courtesy. On his right was Margaret, about eleven years of age, afterwards married to James, King of Scots, and on his left played Mary, a child of four. Edmund was an infant in arms. 1 More, with his companion Arnold, after paying his respects to the boy Henry, presented him with some writing. For my part, not having expected anything of the sort, I had nothing to offer, but promised that on another occasion I would in some way declare my duty towards him. Meantime I was angry with More for not having warned me, especially as the boy sent me a little note, while we were at dinner, to challenge something from my pen. I went home, and in the Muses' spite, from whom I had been so long divorced, finished the poem within three days. 2

This was the poem entitled " Prosopopoeia Britannise," which Erasmus sent with a dedicatory letter to the Prince, the conclusion of which runs as follows :

We have for the present dedicated these verses, like a gift of playthings, to your childhood, and shall be ready with more abundant offerings, when your

1 Prince Edmund, the third son and fifth child of Henry VII., died in the following year (1500).

2 From Erasmus's " Catalogue of Lucubrations," apparently written in 1523 ; here printed from " The Epistles of Erasmus," translated by F. Morgan Nichols, Vol. I.

virtues, growing with your age, shall supply more abundant material for poetry. I would add my exhortation to that end, were it not that you are of your own accord already, as they say, under way with all sails set, and have with you Skelton, that incomparable light and ornament of British Letters, who can not only kindle your studies, but bring them to a happy conclusion. Farewell, and may good letters be illustrated by your splendour, protected by your authority, and fostered by your liberality. 1

Skelton, who had long been Poet- Laureate, and recently admitted to orders, remained the most distinguished of Henry's tutors. The Prince's studies, as we have already mentioned, were jealously watched over by the King's mother, the Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess^of Richmond, whose favourite grandchild he is said to have been. That he owed something of his scholarship to her own enthusiasm for letters we know from a memorial to her nephew Sir John St. John in the parish church at Bletsoe, which bears an inscription stating that Sir John was educated by Lady Margaret, together with her grandson Prince Henry. It was the dawn of the Renaissance in England, and Henry VIII. was our first Sovereign to be taught under its influence. Erasmus provides us with a sketch of the state of learning in England at the time when Henry VIII. was studying under Skelton, who has himself commemorated that fact in the lines beginning with :

The honour of England I learned to spelle In dignity royal that doth excelle, I gave him drink of the sugred welle Of Helicon's waters crystalline, Acquainting him with the Muses nine.

Erasmus, to return to his account of the state of learning in England at the close of the fifteenth century, spent two or three months at Oxford during his first visit to this country, but returned in December to Lord Mountjoy, with whom he probably remained until his departure for the continent in the following month. We suspect, with Mr. Nichols, that the following letter to Robert Fisher which

1 " Epistles of Erasmus," translated by F. Morgan Nichols, Vol. I.

was forwarded to its destination by means of Mountjoy himself, was intended as much for the eyes of his host as for those to whom it was addressed :

ERASMUS TO ROBERT FISHER.

[" The Epistles of Erasmus," translated by F. Morgan Nichols,

Vol. I.]

London, December 5, 1499.

. . . Yq|i would have seen me in Italy before this time, if my Lord Mountjoy, when I was prepared for the journey, had not carried me off to England. Whither indeed would I not follow a young man so courteous, so amiable ? I would follow him, by heaven, to the grave itself. You had amply sounded his praises, %nd described him like a picture ; but he daily surpa^es both your praises and the opinion I had myself formed of him.

" But how do you like our England ? " you will say. Believe me, my Robert, when I answer that I never liked anything so much before. I find the climate both pleasant and wholesome ; and I have met with so much kindness, and so much learning, not hackneyed and trivial, but deep, accurate, ancient, Latin and Greek, that but for the curiosity of seeing it, I do not now so much care for Italy. When I hear my Colet, I seem to be listening to Plato himself. In Grocin who does not marvel at such a perfect round of learning ? What can be more acute, profound, and delicate than the judgment of Linacre ? What has Nature ever created more gentle, more sweet, more happy than the genius of Thomas More ? I need not go through the list. It is marvellous how general and abundant is the harvest of ancient learning in this country, to which you ought all the sooner to return.

At this time ardent love-letters were passing between Henry's future wife, Catherine of Arragon, and his elder

1 Robert Fisher had been a fellow pupil with Mountjoy under Erasmus in Paris, and was now acting as English agent in Italy. He died early in 15 12, after receiving various church preferments. Wolsey received his vacant stall at Windsor.

brother Arthur, to whom she was then betrothed ; and it is to this diplomatic courtship and its sad sequel that our attention must now turn. The Prince of Wales and Catherine — nine months his senior — had already been married by proxy, more than once, and Henry VII., eager to secure the prize for which he had so long been bargaining, grew impatient for the coming of the bride herself. But the final marriage treaty was not even yet ratified. Twelve years had passed since Henry first negotiated with Ferdinand of Arragon and Isabella of Castile for this marriage, and it is no part of our present purpose to recapitulate all the moves and counter-moves in the Machiavellian strategy which characterised both sides of the game. Henry VII. and Ferdinand of Arragon were well matched in this form of statecraft. Although the Spanish King seems to have had the best of the bargain when he succeeded in drawing England into the league against France, by means of a betrothal which he knew quite well could be dissolved if necessary before it had gone too far, yet the alliance had also helped Henry both to prove that England had regained some of her influence in European politics, and to safeguard his position at home. " The very treaty itself," as Bacon says, " gave abroad in the world a reputation of a straight conjunction and amity between them, which served on both sides to many purposes that their several affairs required, and yet they continued still free."