THIS appearance of a cordial union between France CHA P. and England, though it added influence to the joint em- XXIX. baffy, which they fent to the emperor, was not able to bend that ambitious monarch to fubmit entirely to the 1527. conditions infifted on by the allies. He departed indeed. from his demand of Burgundy as the ranfom of the French princes; but he required, previously to their recovery of liberty, that Francis fhould evacuate Genoa, and all the fortreffes held by him in Italy: And he declared his intention of bringing Sforza to a trial, and confifcating the dutchy of Milan, on account of his pretended treason. The English and French heralds, therefore, according to agreement, declared war against him, and fet him at defiance. Charles antwered the English herald with moderation; but to the French, he reproached his mafter with breach of faith, reminded him of the private converfation which had paffed between them at Madrid before their feparation, and offered to prove by fingle combat, that that monarch had acted dishonourably. Francis retaliated this challenge by giving Charles the lie; and, after demanding fecurity of the field, he offered to maintain his caufe by single combat. Many meffages paffed to and fro' between them; but though both the princes were undoubtedly brave, the intended duel never took place. The French and Spaniards, during that age, disputed zealously 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 fincere, fhould, by unhappy incidents, have been reduced to that cruel fituation, that nothing but the breach of his word could preserve his people, and that he must ever after, without being able to make a proper reply, bear to be reproached with his infidelity by a rival, inferior to him both in honour and virtue. BUT though this famous challenge between Charles and Francis had no immediate confequences with regard to these monarchs themfelves, it produced a confiderable alteration on the manners of the age. The practice of challenges and duels, which had been part of the antient barbarous jurifprudence, which was ftill preferved on very folemn occafions, and which was even countenanced by the civil magistrate, began thenceforth to prevail in VOL. IV. F the CHA P. the most trivial incidents; and men, on any affront or XXIX. injury, thought themselves entitled, or even required in honour, to take revenge on their enemies, by openly 1527. vindicating their right in fingle combat. Thefe abfurd, though generous maxims, fhed much of the best blood in Christendom during more than two centuries; and notwithstanding the severity of law, fuch is the prevailing force of custom, they are far from being as yet entirely exploded. С НА Р. CHA P. XXX. Scruples concerning the king's marriage.-- The king en ters into thefe fcruples. applies to the pope for a divorce. Anne Boleyn. Henry -The pope favourable. The emperor threatens him. The pope's ambiguous conduct. The cause evoked to Rome. Wolfey's Commencement of the reformation in England. Foreign affairs.--Wolfey's death.-— A parli fall. ment. Progrefs of the reformation. A parliaKing's final breach with Rome. ment. ament. NOTW! A parli peo OTWITHSTANDING the fubmiffive deference C H A P. paid to the papal authority before the reformation XXX. the marriage of Henry the eighth with Catherine of Arragon, his brother's widow, had not paffed, without 1527. much scruple and difficulty. The prejudices of the Scruples ple were in general bent against a conjugal union between concerning the king's fuch near relations; and the late king, though he had marriage. folemnized the efpoufals, when his fon was but twelve years of age, gave evident proofs of his intention to take afterwards a proper opportunity of annulling them ^. He ordered the young prince, fo foon as he came of age, to enter a proteftation against the marriage ; and on his death-bed he charged him, as his laft injunction, not to finish an alliance fo unusual, and exposed to fuch infuperable objections. After the king's acceffion, fome members of the Privy Council, particularly Warham, the primate, openly declared against the resolution of compleating the marriage; and though Henry's youth and diffipation kept him, during fome time, from entertaining any fcruples with regard to the measure which he had embraced, there happened incidents fufficient to rouse his attention, and to inform him of the fentiments generally entertained on that fubject. The states of Castile had opposed the emperor Charles's efpoufals with Mary, Henry's daughter; and, among other objections, had infifted F 2 A Morifon's Apomaxis, p. 13. In's Queen Mary, p. 2. on Morifon, p. 13. Hey XXX. CHA P. on the illegitimate birth of the young princess. And when the negociations were afterwards opened with France, and mention was made of betrothing her to 1527. Francis or the duke of Orleans, the bishop of Tarbe, the French ambassador, revived the fame objection D. But though thefe events naturally raised some doubts in Henry's mind, there concurred other causes, which tended much to encrease his remorfe, and render his confcience more fcrupulous. The king THE queen was older than the king by no less than enters into fix years; and the decay of her beauty, together with thefe fcru- particular infirmities and difeafes, had contributed notples. withstanding her blameless character and deportment, to render her person unacceptable to him. Though she had borne him feveral children, they all died in early infan cy, except one daughter; and he was the more ftruck with this misfortune, because the curfe of being childlefs is the very threatening, contained in the Mofaical law against those who efpouse their brother's widow. The king was actuated by a strong defire of having male isfue: With a view to that end, it is believed, more than from defire towards other gratification, he had, a few years before this period, made addreffes to a young lady, Catherine, daughter of Sir John Blount; and when the bore him a fon, he expreffed the highest fatisfaction, and immediately created him duke of Richmond. The fucceffion of the crown too was a confideration, that occurred to every one, whenever the lawfulness of Henry's marriage was queftioned; and it was apprehended, that, if the doubts of Mary's legitimacy concurred with the weakness of her fex, the king of Scots, the next heir, would certainly advance his own pretenfions, and might throw the kingdom into confufion. The evils, as yet recent, of civil wars and convulfions, arifing from a difputed title, made great impreffion on the minds of men, and rendered the people univerfally defirous of any event, which might obviate fo irreparable a calamity. And the king was thus impelled, both by his private paffions, and by motives of public intereft, to feek the diffolution of his inaufpicious, and, as it was esteemed, unlawful mar❤ riage with Catherine. • Lord Herbert, Fiddes's life of Wolfey. xiv. 192, 203. Heylin, p. 3. HENRY D Rymer, vol. 1527. HENRY afterwards affirmed, that his fcruples of con- CHA P. science arofe entirely from private reflection; and that on XXX. confulting the bishop of Lincoln, he found that prelate poffeffed with the fame doubts and difficulties. The king himself, being fo great a cafuift and divine, then proceeded to examine the question more carefully by his own learning and ftudy; and having had recourfe to Thomas of Aquine, he obferved that this celebrated doctor, whofe authority was great in the church and abfolute with him, had treated of that very cafe, and had exprefsly declared against the lawfulness of fuch marriages . The prohibitions, faid Thomas, contained in Leviticus, and among the reft, that of marrying a brother's widow, are moral, eternal, and founded on a divine fanction; and though the pope may difpenfe with the rules of the church, the laws of God cannot be fet afide by any authority less than that which enacted them. The archbishop of Canterbury was next applied to; and he was required to confult his brethren: All the prelates of England, except Fisher, bishop of Rochester, declared unanimously, under their hand and feal, that they deemed the king's marriage unlawful F. Wolfey alfo fortified the king's fcruples; partly with a view of promoting a total breach with the emperor, Catherine's nephew, partly defirous of connecting the king more closely with Francis, by marrying him to the dutchess of Alençon, fifter to that monarch; and perhaps too fomewhat dif gufted with the queen herself, who had reproved him for certain freedoms, unbefitting his character and station H. But Henry was carried forward, though perhaps not at first excited, by a motive more forcible than even the fuggeftions of that powerful favourite. ANNE Boleyn, who lately appeared at court, had been created maid of honour to the queen; and having had frequent opportunities of being feen by Henry, and converfing with him, fhe had acquired an entire afcendant over his affections. This young lady, whose grandeur and misfortunes have rendered her fo celebrated, daughter to Sir Thomas Boleyn, who had been employ was and Burnet, Fiddes. F Burnet, vol. i. p. 38. Stowe, p. Anne Boleyn. |