The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (210 page)

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The more to cement the union between these princes, a new 18th Sept.

treaty was, some time after, concluded at London; in which Henry agreed finally to renounce all claims to the crown of France; claims, which might now indeed be deemed chimerical, but which often served as a pretence for exciting the unwary English to wage war upon the French nation.

As a return for this concession, Francis bound himself and his League with France.

successors to pay for ever fifty thousand crowns a year to Henry and his successors; and that greater solemnity might be given to this treaty, it was agreed, that the parliaments and great nobility of both kingdoms should give their assent to it. The mareschal Montmorency, accompanied by many persons of distinction, and attended by a pompous equipage, was sent over to ratify the treaty; and was received at London with all the parade, which suited the solemnity of the occasion. The terror of the emperor’s greatness had extinguished the ancient animosity between the nations; and Spain, during more than a century, became, though a more distant power, the chief object of jealousy to the English.

This cordial union between France and England, though it added influence to the joint embassy, which they sent to the emperor, was not able to bend that monarch to submit entirely to the conditions insisted on by the allies. He departed indeed from his demand of Burgundy as the ransom of the French princes; but he required, previously to their liberty, that Francis should evacuate Genoa, and all the fortresses held by him in Italy: And he declared his intention of bringing Sforza to a trial, and confiscating the dutchy of Milan, on account of his pretended treason. The English and French heralds, therefore, according to agreement, declared war against him, and set him at defiance. Charles answered the English herald with moderation; but to the French, he reproached his master with breach of faith, reminded him of the private conversation which had passed between them at Madrid before their separation, and offered to prove by single combat, that he had acted dishonourably. Francis retaliated this challenge by giving Charles the lie; and, after demanding security of the field, he offered to maintain his cause by single combat. Many messages passed to and fro between them; but though both princes were undoubtedly brave, the intended duel never took place. The French and Spaniards, during that age, zealously disputed which of the monarchs incurred the blame of this failure; but all men of moderation every where lamented the power of fortune, that the prince the more candid, generous, and sincere, should, by unhappy incidents, have been reduced to so cruel a situation, that nothing but his violation of treaty could preserve his people, and that he must ever after, without being able to make a proper reply, bear to be reproached with breach of promise by a rival, inferior to him both in honour and virtue.

But though this famous challenge between Charles and Francis had no immediate consequence with regard to these monarchs themselves, it produced a considerable alteration on the manners of the age. The practice of challenges and duels, which had been part of the ancient barbarous jurisprudence, which was still preserved on very solemn occasions, and which was sometimes countenanced by the civil magistrate, began thence forth to prevail in the most trivial incidents; and men, on any affront or injury, thought themselves entitled, or even required in honour, to take revenge on their enemies, by openly vindicating their right in single combat. These absurd, though generous maxims, shed much of the best blood in Christendom during more PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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than two centuries; and notwithstanding the severity of law and authority of reason, such is the prevailing force of custom, they are far from being as yet entirely exploded.

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[Back to Table of Contents]

XXX

Scruples concerning the king’s marriage — The king enters into these scruples —

Anne Boleyn — Henry applies to the pope for a divorce — The pope favourable —

The emperor threatens him — The pope’s ambiguous conduct — The cause evoked to
Rome — Wolsey’s fall — Commencement of the reformation in England — Foreign
affairs — Wolsey’s death — A parliament — Progress of the reformation — A
parliament — King’s final breach with Rome — A parliament
Notwithstanding the submissive deference, paid to papal authority before the reformation, the marriage of Henry with Catherine of Arragon, his brother’s widow, had not passed, without much scruple and difficulty. The prejudices of the people were in general bent against a conjugal union between such near relations; and the late king,

though he had betrothed his son, when that prince was but twelve 1527. Scruples years of age, gave evident proofs of his intention to take concerning the king’s

afterwards a proper opportunity of annulling the contract.
y
He marriage.

ordered the young prince, as soon as he came of age, to enter a

protestation against the marriage;z
and on his death-bed he charged him, as his last injunction, not to finish an alliance, so unusual, and exposed to such insuperable objections. After the king’s accession, some members of the privy council, particularly Warham, the primate, openly declared against the resolution, of completing the marriage; and though Henry’s youth and dissipation kept him, during some time, from entertaining any scruples with regard to the measure which he had embraced, there happened incidents, sufficient to rouse his attention, and to inform him of the sentiments, generally entertained on that subject. The states of Castile had opposed the emperor Charles’s espousals with Mary, Henry’s daughter; and among other objections, had insisted on the illegitimate birth of the young princess.
a
And when the negociations were afterwards opened with France, and mention was made of betrothing her to Francis or the duke of Orleans, the bishop of Tarbe, the French ambassador, revived the same objection.
b
But though these events naturally raised some doubts in Henry’s mind, there concurred other causes, which tended much to encrease his remorse, and render his conscience more scrupulous.

The queen was older than the king by no less than six years: and the decay of her beauty,

together with particular infirmities and diseases, had contributed, The king enters into notwithstanding her blameless character and deportment, to these scruples.

render her person unacceptable to him. Though she had borne him several children, they all died in early infancy, except one daughter; and he was the more struck with this misfortune, because the curse of being childless is the very threatening, contained in the Mosaical law, against those who espouse their brother’s widow. The succession too of the crown was a consideration, that occurred to every one, whenever the lawfulness of Henry’s marriage was called in question; and it was apprehended, that if doubts of Mary’s legitimacy concurred with the weakness of her sex, the king of Scots, the next heir, would advance his pretensions, and might throw PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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the kingdom into confusion. The evils, as yet recent, of civil wars and convulsions, arising from a disputed title, made great impression on the minds of men, and rendered the people universally desirous of any event, which might obviate so irreparable a calamity. And the king was thus impelled, both by his private passions, and by motives of public interest, to seek the dissolution of his inauspicious, and, as it was esteemed, unlawful marriage with Catherine.

Henry afterwards affirmed, that his scruples arose entirely from private reflection; and that on consulting his confessor, the bishop of Lincoln, he found the prelate possessed with the same doubts and difficulties. The king himself, being so great a casuist and divine, next proceeded to examine the question more carefully by his own learning and study; and having had recourse to Thomas of Aquine, he observed that this celebrated doctor, whose authority was great in the church and absolute with him, had treated of that very case, and had expressly declared against the lawfulness of such

marriages.c
The prohibitions, said Thomas, contained in Leviticus, and among the rest, that of marrying a brother’s widow, are moral, eternal, and founded on a divine sanction; and though the pope may dispense with the rules of the church, the laws of God cannot be set aside by any authority less than that which enacted them. The archbishop of Canterbury was then applied to; and he was required to consult his brethren: All the prelates of England, except Fisher, bishop of Rochester, unanimously declared, under their hand and seal, that they deemed the king’s marriage unlawful.
d
Wolsey also fortified the king’s scruples;
e
partly with a view of promoting a total breach with the emperor, Catherine’s nephew; partly desirous of connecting the king more closely with Francis, by marrying him to the dutchess of Alençon, sister to that monarch; and perhaps too somewhat disgusted with the queen herself, who had reproved him for certain freedoms, unbefitting his character and

station.f
But Henry was carried forward, though perhaps not at first excited, by a motive more forcible than even the suggestions of that powerful favourite.

Anne Boleyn, who lately appeared at court, had been appointed Anne Boleyn.

maid of honour to the queen; and having had frequent

opportunities of being seen by Henry, and of conversing with him, she had acquired an entire ascendant over his affections. This young lady, whose grandeur and misfortunes have rendered her so celebrated, was daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, who had been employed by the king in several embassies, and who was allied to all the principal nobility in the kingdom. His wife, mother to Anne, was daughter of the duke of Norfolk; his own mother was daughter of the earl of Ormond; his grandfather Sir Geoffry Boleyn, who had been mayor of London, had espoused one of the daughters and co-heirs of lord Hastings.
g
Anne herself, though then in very early youth, had been carried over to Paris by the king’s sister, when the princess espoused Lewis XII. of France; and upon the demise of that monarch, and the return of his dowager into England, this damsel, whose accomplishments even in her tender years were always much admired, was retained in the service of Claude, queen of France, spouse to Francis; and after the death of that princess, she passed into the family of the dutchess of Alençon, a woman of singular merit. The exact time, when she returned to England, is not certainly known; but it was after the king had entertained doubts with regard to the lawfulness of his marriage with Catherine; if the account is to be credited, which he himself afterwards gave of that transaction. Henry’s scruples PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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had made him break off all conjugal commerce with the queen; but as he still supported an intercourse of civility and friendship with her, he had occasion, in the frequent visits which he paid her, to observe the beauty, the youth, the charms of Anne Boleyn. Finding the accomplishments of her mind nowise inferior to her exterior graces, he even entertained the design of raising her to the throne; and was the more confirmed in this resolution, when he found that her virtue and modesty prevented all hopes of gratifying his passion in any other manner. As every motive, therefore, of inclination and policy,

seemed thus to concur in making the king desirous of a divorce Henry applies to the

from Catherine, and as his prospect of success was inviting, he pope for a divorce.

resolved to make applications to Clement, and he sent Knight, his secretary, to Rome for that purpose.

That he might not shock the haughty claims of the pontiff, he resolved not to found the application on any general doubts concerning the papal power to permit marriage in the nearer degrees of consanguinity; but only to insist on particular grounds of nullity in the bull, which Julius had granted for the marriage of Henry and Catherine.

It was a maxim in the court of Rome, that, if the pope be surprised into any concession, or grant any indulgence upon false suggestions, the bull may afterwards be annulled; and this pretence had usually been employed, wherever one pope had recalled any deed, executed by any of his predecessors. But Julius’s bull, when examined, afforded abundant matter of this kind; and any tribunal, favourable to Henry, needed not want a specious colour for gratifying him in his applications for a divorce. It was said in the preamble, that the bull had been granted upon his solicitation; though it was known, that, at that time, he was under twelve years of age: It was also affirmed, as another motive for the bull, that the marriage was requisite, in order to preserve peace between the two crowns; though it is certain, that there was not then any ground or appearance of quarrel between them. These false premises in Julius’s bull seemed to afford Clement a sufficient reason or pretence for annulling it,

and granting Henry a dispensation for a second marriage.h

But though the pretext for this indulgence had been less

The pope favourable.

plausible, the pope was in such a situation, that he had the strongest motives to embrace every opportunity of gratifying the English monarch. He was then a prisoner in the hands of the emperor, and had no hopes of recovering his liberty on any reasonable terms, except by the efforts of the league, which Henry had formed with Francis and the Italian powers, in order to oppose the ambition of Charles. When the English Secretary, therefore, solicited him in private, he received a very favourable answer; and a dispensation was forthwith promised to be granted to his master.
i
Soon after, the march of a French army into Italy, under the command of Lautrec, obliged the Imperialists to restore Clement to his liberty; and he retired to Orvietto, where the Secretary, with Sir Gregory Caffali, the king’s resident at Rome, renewed their applications to him. They still found him full of high professions of friendship, gratitude, and attachment to the king; but not so prompt in granting his request as they expected. The emperor, who had got intelligence of Henry’s application to Rome, had exacted a promise from the pope, to take no steps in the affair before he communicated them to the Imperial ministers; and Clement, embarrassed by this promise, and still more overawed by the emperor’s forces in PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)