League with The more to cement the union between these princes, a new treaty was some time after conFrance. cluded at London (Sept. 18); 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 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 in 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 thenceforth 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 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. CHAP. 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 himThe pope's ambiguous conduct-The cause evoked to RomeWolsey's fall-Commencement of the Reformation in EnglandForeign Affairs-Wolsey's death-A parliament-Progress of the Reformation-A parliament-King's final breach with Rome -A parliament. Scruples ing the NOTWITHSTANDING the submissive deference concern- paid to papal authority before the Reformation, king's the marriage of Henry with Catherine of Arramarriage. gon, 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 years of age, gave evident proofs of his intention" to take afterward a proper opportunity of annulling the contract. He ordered the young prince, as soon as he came of age, to enter a protestation against the marriage; and on his deathbed 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 a Morison's Apomaxis, p. 13. r Morison, p. 13. Heylin's Queen Mary, p. The king enters of the young princess. And when the negotiations were afterward 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. But though these events naturally raised some doubts in Henry's mind, there concurred other causes, which tended much to increase his remorse, and render his conscience more scrupulous. The queen was older than the king by no less into these than six years; and the decay of her beauty, scruples. together with particular infirmities and diseases, had contributed, notwithstanding her blameless character and deportment, to render her person unacceptable to him. Though she had born 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 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 afterward affirmed that his scruples arose en • Lord Herbert. Fiddes's Life of Wolsey. tirely 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." 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.* Wolsey also fortified the king's scruples, 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. 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 Anne Boleyn, who lately appeared at court, Boleyn. had been appointed maid of honour to the queen; and having had frequent opportunities of being seen by u Burnet. Fiddes. * Burnet, vol. 1. p. 38. y Le Grand, vol. 3. p. 46. 166. 168. Saunders. Stowe, p. 548. 88. |