Council Court, and Henry VIII.'s Council, or, as it is often called, Star-Chamber, could bring to bear upon too honest juries.

The King having won popularity by these three acts,—the retention of the better members of his father's Council, the completion of his marriage with Catherine, and the punishment of the most hated of his father's financial agents,—found himself in a position to follow

Henry engages

in European politics. 1511.

his personal inclination, and to plunge into the difficult intricacies of European politics, and a European war. Italy was the point where at this time the interests of politicians centred. Louis XII. had followed the example of his predecessor, and had sought to win glory in that country which Comines calls the burialplace of the French. Meanwhile, amid the petty states of Italy, the cold consistent policy of the aristocratic Republic of Venice had raised that power to a great pre-eminence. Leaving her home among the islands, she had won considerable territory on the mainland, and had even laid her hand on some portions of the States of the Church. The Papal throne was at that time occupied by Julius II., a man who, if he were not a good Churchman, was at least an ardent Italian, and who, a soldier and a statesman rather than a prelate, was bent upon two great objects-the curtailment of the encroachments of Venice and the expulsion of all foreigners from the Italian peninsula. Under his influence the famous League of Cambrai was set on foot. It included the Emperor, the Kings of France and Spain, the Duke of Burgundy and the Pope, and its avowed object was an assault upon the Venetian power. Against such a league Venice could do but little, and a very few defeats on the mainland convinced her of the wisdom of throwing over all that she possessed in Italy, and of retiring within her ancient limits. Having thus made use of the strength of these foreign countries to rid himself of his domestic enemies, the Pope now aimed at winning his higher object of clearing Italy of the foreigner. For this purpose he picked a quarrel with the King of France by attacking his ally the Duke of Ferrara. Although unable to withstand the French in the field, he yet contrived to show himself so formidable, that Louis, among other efforts for his destruction, summoned a council at Pisa, thus giving Julius an opportunity to raise the cry that the Church itself was threatened, and to establish for his own support a Holy League. Of all the Princes who joined this League Henry VIII. was probably the most disinterested. Maximilian of Germany was desirous of winning Milan, which the French had occupied (claiming it through

Holy League, 1511.

1511]

WAR WITH FRANCE

369

Valentine Visconti, the grandmother of Louis XII.). Ferdinand of Spain aimed at Navarre, which was in French hands, while the Pope expected to clear Italy of its barbarian conquerors. Henry alone had no apparent interest in the quarrel. The chivalrous love of glory natural to his age, and to one so personally gifted, combined with a sincere wish to uphold the Papacy, which his early theological training had strengthened, were the chief motives for his adhesion to the League. But there was also a desire, perhaps as yet undefined, of preserving the balance of power. This notion-the creation of Italian statesmanship-had begun to spread among European statesmen, and, with its varied consequences of good and evil, has held its place among them till the present time. It is interesting to observe, however, that there was a sharp discussion in the King's Council as to the wisdom of the war; a considerable number of the King's advisers urging, as they might urge now, that if aggrandizement was to be sought, Providence had marked out the way for us, namely the sea. difference of opinion, as to whether England should aim at European connections, or confine itself to the natural development of its advantages as an island, will be found henceforward at the bottom of all party differences with regard to its foreign policy.

France.

This

In the following year, the operations of the League were begun. An English army was despatched to co-operate with Ferdinand in the South of France, while the war was carried on with English army vigour by the Papal and Spanish armies in Italy. The in South of English, who were under the Marquis of Dorset, found 1512. themselves used as a cat's-paw by the Spanish King, who objected— and perhaps by strict military rules he was right-to any advance beyond the frontier till Navarre had been secured. When this had been done, wholly to the advantage of Ferdinand, the English army, weary of waiting, had become disorganized. The garlic and the hot wine of the Peninsula had attacked its health, and Dorset, in dudgeon, brought back his men to England, to Henry's grievous disappointment. Nor were our maritime efforts much more successful. An indecisive battle was fought off the coast of Brittany, where, though the great French ship the "Cordelier" of Brest was burnt, the "Regent," the largest British ship, perished with it, while the French fleet made good its retreat into Brest. In Italy, where, under the fiery guidance of the young Gaston de Foix, they had at first carried all before them, before the year was over the French had been entirely worsted. A victory they had won at Ravenna had cost them dear; they had there lost their intrepid commander, and had since that time been continu

had collected the money, lost his life. Neither such lukewarm assistance as Henry's, nor the more earnest efforts of Maximilian, King of the Romans, who was a suitor for her hand, could save Anne, who, in the year 1496, accepted the hand of Charles, and united Brittany to the French monarchy. This afforded Henry a fresh opportunity for raising a subsidy, to wreak his vengeance, as he said, on the French King. But the vengeance came to nothing; for, though a fine army crossed the Channel, it had not been there a week before a treaty with Charles was made. As might have been expected from the character of the King, this arrangement, known as the Treaty of Estaples, related chiefly to money, Charles binding himself to pay Henry £149,000. Henry's counsellors and advisers did not come out of the negotiation empty handed. One consequence of this treaty was the removal of the pretender Warbeck from the French Court. He thence betook himself to the Court of Burgundy, In Burgundy. and placed himself under the protection of Margaret, Edward IV.'s sister, who, as Dowager, held her dower lands in complete independence. By her he was fully acknowledged, and by her influence the King of the Romans (Maximilian), his son Philip the Archduke of Austria, the Duke of Saxony, the Kings of Denmark and Scotland, sent him ambassadors. Nor was he without powerful support in England. In 1494 several Lords were arrested on the charge of high treason and executed, among them Sir William Stanley (January 1495), one of the family who had secured the throne for Henry; his great wealth escheated to the Crown. In 1496, Henry's diplomatic skill succeeded in removing the pretender from Burgundy. But meanwhile he had made an unsuccessful descent upon the coast of Kent, when 169 prisoners were taken, and all hanged,—an instance both of Henry's determination to show no mercy to the Yorkists and of the little value in which human life was held, in consequence, partly no doubt, of the barbarous bloodshed of the last century. The treaty which expelled Perkin Warbeck from Burgundy was called "The Great Intercourse." For the last several years both countries had been suffering from the interruption of the commercial intercourse between England and the Netherlands. The present treaty was a broad and wise commercial arrangement, stipulating a reciprocal liberty of trading "in all commodities to each other's ports without pass or license," and mutual assistance and support in all commercial matters, such as the suppression of piracy and privateering. It marks an era in the history of international relations. From Flanders, Perkin Warbeck, still hovering round England,

1496]

WARBECK'S REBELLION

361

took refuge with the King of Scotland, whose reception of him was more practical and chivalrous than that of any of his In Scotland. earlier protectors. He did not hesitate to give him his 1496. kinswoman Lady Katherine Gordon in marriage, and before winter declared war in his behalf with the King of England. The proclamation of Warbeck, however, in which he spoke of Henry as "Henry Tyddor, the false usurper," and explained his escape from the Tower, met with no response, and after wasting some districts in the North of England, the army withdrew. But Henry could not let such an opportunity slip. He at once demanded a large sum from his Parliament. It was not raised without difficulty. The Cornish men rose against it, elected as their leaders one Hammock, an attorney, and Joseph a blacksmith. They afterwards, on advancing to Wells, obtained the assistance of Lord Audley, who put himself at their head, and under his command pushed on to London, and were not checked till they suffered a complete defeat on Blackheath. The leaders were at once executed, but the bulk of the insurgents made their way back to Cornwall. To this discontented neighbourhood Warbeck, who had found it necessary to leave Scotland, betook himself. With a small following he landed at Whitsand Bay, and leaving his wife at St. Michael's Warbeck lands Mount, found himself before Exeter at the head of in Cornwall. 6000 men. His assaults upon that city failed, and one of his counsellors, who may well be suspected of being Henry's spy, deserted him. Bacon, in his history of the reign, speaks contemptuously of those who remained as " Sterne, a bankrupt mercer, Hulton, a tailor, and Astley, a scrivener." Desertions appear to have become frequent; and though a considerable force still kept together, their leader's courage forsook him, and he fled by night and took sanctuary in the Abbey of Beaulieu. He was there, in January 1498, surrounded, and having received a promise that his life should be spared, he left the sanctuary in a forlorn and comfortless plight. Without foreign assistance he had ceased to be an object of terror. He was allowed to move freely about London, but on attempting to escape, was placed in the Tower, after having read in public a full confession of his imposture. In this document he declared himself to be the son of John Osbeck, comptroller of the town of Tournay, and asserts that, while travelling as a servant, the people of Cork insisted on his being a Plantagenet. This would seem at all events to prove a very strong resemblance to that family, while the length of time during which he played his part, without, it

1497.

is asserted, committing a single error, prevexts an absolute dispersion of the mystery which hangs over him; for although careful inquiries were made, and witness taken to prove his base birth, they were so entirely in the hands of Henry's agents, that their depositions cannot be taken for more than an ex parte statement. In November 1499,

Is executed. 1499.

Perkin and the young Earl of Warwick, whom he had met in the Tower, were both executed. The charges against them were that they had attempted to escape, and some witness, which looks like a forgery, was advanced to prove their treasonable intentions. It is possible that Warwick may have listened to the suggestions of Warbeck. It is certain that the Yorkist feeling was not dead, for another spurious Earl of Warwick had just been suppressed and executed, and it is possible that at the bottom of this execution lay the intrigues of Ferdinand of Spain, with whom Henry was now negotiating a marriage for his eldest son, and who might not unreasonably object to contracting his daughter to a Prince whose claim was insecure, and who might easily by a turn in the wheel of Fortune be an exile and a wanderer.

Henry's good position.

Having thus rid himself of the last dangerous pretender of the House of York, Henry found his position secure. He was enabled to spend the remaining ten years of his reign in completing those lines of policy the foundations of which he had been laying during the seven years of discomfort which Warbeck had caused him. At home he had in a great degree completed the work of establishing the royal power. The large subsidies which he had collected during the war with France, and again in James's attack on England, had been used but sparingly. His household was so economically managed that he lived within the income which Parliament had granted him for the purpose of keeping it up. His yearly expenses were somewhat over £12,000, the grant was £13,000. He thus found himself in a position to act without frequent recourse to Parliament, which met but three times in the last ten years of his reign.

Ireland pacified. 1495.

Ireland, which had twice shown its devotion to the House of York, had been brought into comparative order by Sir Edward Poynings, acting as a deputy for Henry's second son, afterwards Henry VIII., at that time a child of four years of age. The Earl of Kildare had been apprehended and sent to England, and the Irish Parliament had passed the statute known as Poynings' Law, by which the country was much more closely connected with England. It was enacted that in future no Parliament should be held without