ing the same negociations, he succeeded in detaching the emperor Maximilian from the French interest, and Henry, notwithstanding his disappointments in the former campaign, was still persuaded to prosecute his warlike preparations againt Lewis. He accordingly summoned a new session of parliament, and obtained a poll-tax, imposed at different rates, according to the station and riches of the person to be taxed. A duke paid ten marks, an earl five pounds, a baron four pounds, a knight four marks; every man, valued at eight hundred pounds in goods, four marks. An imposition of two fifteenths and four tenths was also granted to him, and these supplies, joined to his father's treasure, which was not yet entirely dissipated, enabled him to levy a powerful army. The parliament was then prorogued to November 7th, 1513.

The league against France was signed by the plenipotentiaries, April 5th, 1513. By this treaty, the pope engaged to invade Provence or Dauphine, and to fulminate the thunders of the church against Lewis XII. The emperor was to invade France or some other territories belonging to that kingdom, out of Italy; and to enable him to do so, England was to pay him one hundred thousand golden crowns. The king of Spain engaged to invade Bearn, Guyenne, or Languedoc, and the king of England Guyenne, Normandy or Picardy. So shameful was the duplicity of Ferdinand, that he was privately negociating a truce for one year in his own name, and in the name of his allies, the emperor and the king of England, with Lewis XII. and his allies, the king of Scotland and the duke of Gueldres, at the same time that he was negociating the above confederacy against France, and both these treaties, so contrary to one another, were concluded and signed by his ministers plenipotentiaries, at different places, almost on the same day.

Before engaging in a continental war, Henry endeavoured to secure the continuance of peace with Scotland, by adjusting amicably all differences with that country. Offers of redress and satisfaction were made, and commissioners appointed on both sides for that purpose, but they could not come to any agreement. Besides the ancient league which subsisted between France and Scotland, James was farther incited to take part in the quarrel, by the invitation of Anne Queen of France, whose knight he had, in all tournaments, professed himself, and who summoned him, according to the ideas of romantic gallantry prevalent in that age, to take the field in her defence, and prove himself her true and valorous champion.

Henry, all on fire for military fame, spent the first five months of this year (1513) in making every possible preparation for a vigorous offensive war: with France, and defensive war with Scotland. About the middle of May, fourteen thousand of his troops landed at Calais, and soon after invested Terouenne, a strong town in Artois. Henry joined them towards the beginning of July at the head of an army of twelve thousand men, and attended by his favourite Wolsey, now his prime minister, and by many noblemen, impatient to display their courage under the eye of their young monarch. Maximilian, who, as well as the other confederates, had made no preparation for invading France, was not ashamed to inlist in Henry's army at the rate of one hundred crowns a day, and proved an useless expensive soldier and most pernicious counsellor.

The duke of Longueville advanced with an army to the relief of Terouenne; Henry met him at Guinegate, where an action ensued, August 19th, in which the English obtained an easy victory, and as the French cavalry, seized with a panic, used their spurs rather than their swords, this battle was commonly called the battle of the spurs. The popu

lous city of Tournay was soon after invested and surrendered, agreeing to pay fifty thousand crowns immediately, four thousand livres a year for ten years, and to admit an English garrison.

On the same day that Tournay surrendered, Henry received the important news of the death of James IV. who had been slain September 9th in the memorable battle of Flowden Field which began about four o'clock in the afternoon, and raged with uncommon fury and slaughter, till night put an end to the bloody contest, without its being known who had obtained the victory. The English retired a little from the field and rested all night upon their arms. The Scots finding themselves without leaders as almost all had perished, they went off in small parties. When the English approached the field of battle next morning, they found it abandoned, which gave them a good title to claim the victory; though, in point of numbers, the loss was nearly equal on both sides; but in the quality and importance of the persons slain it was very different, as the Scots had lost their king and the flower of their nobility.

Henry kept a most magnificent court at Tournay, where he was visited by Margaret, Governess of the Low Countries, and her nephew, Charles Prince of Spain, with many lords and ladies, who were all sumptuously entertained with tournaments and other diversions for fourteen days, at an immense expense. In the mean time, the ministers of the confederate princes were employed in negociating a new treaty against France, which was signed by Henry at Lisle, October 15th; by which it was stipulated, 1. that as winter was approaching, Henry might retire with his army into England, after leaving a sufficient garrison at Tournay: 2. that the emperor should keep on foot an army of ten thousand men during the winter and spring, for the protection of the Low

Countries and Tournay, and for harassing the frontiers of France, for which Henry should pay him two hundred thousand crowns: 3. that by the 1st of June next, the emperor and the king of England should invade France, each at the head of a powerful army, and neither make peace nor truce but by mutual consent: 4. that the marriage of Charles duke of Burgundy with Henry's sister, the princess Mary, should be solemnized at Calais about the middle of May. In this transaction there was as much sincerity on the side of Henry, as dissimulation and perfidy on the part of his confederate.

The bishop of Tournay was lately dead, and a new bishop had been already elected by the chapter, but as he refused to swear fealty to the conqueror, Henry bestowed that rich see, with the Abbey of St. Martin's in the same city, on his favourite Wolsey; and in the month of November next, when Henry arrived in England and distributed rewards to several lords and gentlemen who had attended him in France, Wolsey was appointed bishop of Lincoln, and the rich Abbey of St. Albans was given him in commendam.

Ann. 1514.

While Henry was thus promoting the interests and fighting the battles of his perfidious confederates, they violated all their engagements, and did not hesitate to betray and abandon him as soon as they had obtained their own ends. The pope honoured him with the title of Champion of the Church, and sent him, as presents of inestimable value, a consecrated sword and bonnet, accompanied with a letter full of the most fulsome flattery; but he had already secretly concluded a peace with France, without giving the least hint of his intention to Henry, and he now boldly trampled on the rights of his crown and the

laws of his country by four bulls, dated February 1514, by which he stated that he had reserved the bishopric of Lincoln to his own disposal, bestowed it on Thomas Wolsey, declaring any other nomination or election that had been made by any others through ignorance and presumption (meaning the nomination by the king and election by the chapter) to be null and void. The emperor infringed every stipulation of his late treaty with Henry without the least apology; and Ferdinand, at the same time that he was soliciting his son-in-law to enter into a new confederacy against France, concluded a truce with Lewis XII. for another year.

At these repeated instances of ingratitude, treachery, and contempt, Henry lost all patience; but he fell into a violent rage when he heard that the marriage of his beloved sister Mary, who had been affianced to Charles prince of Spain, was no more thought of, and that Maximilian and Ferdinand had entered into a negociation, in which proposals had been agreed to for the marriage of that same prince with the princess Renée, a daughter of Lewis XII. Such a complication of injuries inspired the king with the highest desire of breaking all connection with those who had imposed on his youth and inexperience, and abused his too great facility.

The duke of Longueville, who had been made prisoner at the battle of Guinegate, being still prisoner in England, was admitted by Henry to share in his pleasure parties, and took advantage of his present dispositions to expatiate upon the deceitful arts and selfishness of Maximilian and Ferdinand, extolling in the mean time the honour and good faith of his own sovereign, and insinuating how much he would value an intimate friendship and even an alliance with the young king of England, for whom he entertained the highest esteem. When Longueville found that Henry was far from being