A.D. 1504-1509.] HENRY'S EXTORTIONATE DEMANDS. 421 Duke of Suffolk, who was nearest prince of the blood, enabled Henry to enrich himself still more. The duke fled to the unfailing sanctuary of Henry's foes-the court of his late wife's aunt, the Duchess of Burgundy-and his friends were arrested, pillaged, and imprisoned as if they had already been guilty of rebellion. But a greater windfall was at hand. A ship put into Weymouth from stress of weather, and when Henry ascertained that fortune had thrown into his power the Archduke Philip and his wife, Joanna Queen of Castile, he resolved to make the most of the event. He sent down a stately retinue to bring the royal guests to Windsor; he closeted himself with Philip, and forced that involuntary negotiator to agree to many things which only the fear of violence could have extorted. First, he was to surrender the Duke of Suffolk, who was under his protection in Flanders. "Think what disgrace it will be," he said, "to surrender a suppliant like that." "I'll take all the disgrace," replied Henry; "so we will say no more about it." Next he was to give him the hand of his sister, Margaret of Savoy, a widow of enormous wealth, and to add from himself a portion of 300,000 crowns; and lastly, he was to affiance his son Charles, heir of all his kingdoms, to his daughter Mary Tudor-about whose portion he maintained a judicious silence. When the unwilling guest had agreed to all these demands, Henry rewarded his ductility by making him Knight of the Garter. The royal couple were detained in England till the unhappy Suffolk was brought over from Flanders; and when Henry had no more demands to make, they were allowed to depart, and must have had a strange idea of the honesty and generosity of their English host. § 16. None of the arrangements, however, came to fulfilment. Margaret of Savoy was left in the lurch by Henry; for when Philip, the young and handsome husband of Joanna, died, he immediately proposed for the disconsolate widow himself. A Queen of Castile, in possession, with Arragon in reversion, was better than a dowager of Savoy. Joanna, however, went mad, and the Duchess resented his fickleness, and kept her riches unshared. Yet even in this defeat he contrived to make money. He forced Ferdinand, Joanna's father, to pay another hundred thousand crowns as the portion of Catherine, or he would not allow her marriage with his son Henry to go on. Thus grasping at riches wherever they were to be found-sparing of blood where it would be unprofitably shed, but trampling on liberty as an enemy to kings-summoning no parliament and continuing his dark, doubtful, and deceitful policy to the close-the hand of this destroyer of chivalry, of freedom, of public honour and private independence, relaxed its hold of an oppressive and humiliating sceptre, and he died amid the contempt and hatred of the nation he had enslaved. With a bound of renewed hope, the people turned to his successor; for already there was no place from which alleviation could be expected except the throne, which had arrogated to itself all the powers of the State. A.D. LANDMARKS OF CHRONOLOGY, A.D. panies Perkin Warbeck in an invasion of England. 1497. Perkin invades Exeter at the head of a Cornish force, but is captured, and brought to London. 1499. He makes his escape, but is captured, and eventually executed along with the Earlof Warwick. 1501-3. Marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Arragon. On the death of Arthur, Catherine is married to Henry, Prince of Wales. 1504. The Princess Margaret, King Henry's eldest daughter, married to James IV., King of Scotland, whence sprang the Stuart dynasty of England. 1507. Extortions of Henry through his emissaries Empsom and Dudley. 1509. Death of Henry VII. CHAPTER II. HENRY THE EIGHTH. A.D. 1509 TO A.D. 1547. CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. FRANCE.-Louis XII.; Francis I. Of Navarre.-Henry II. of Albret. EMPERORS OF GERMANY.-Maximilian I.; Charles V. King of POPES.-Julius II.; Leo X.; Adrian VI.; Clement VII.; § 1. Accession of Henry VIII. His disposition and character.-§ 2. His marriage with the widow of his brother.-§ 3. Trial and execution of Empsom and Dudley.-§ 4. Henry joins Ferdinand of Spain in a war against France, which he invades. Battle of the Spurs. Chevalier Bayard.-§ 5. Cardinal Wolsey and his great influence. § 6. Battle of Flodden Field, in which the English were victorious. § 7. Henry's successful policy, and his great ascendancy both at home and abroad.-§ 8. Charles V. elected to the empire of Germany. Leo X.—§ 9. Painting, and the encouragement it received. § 10. Interview between Henry and Francis I. Visit of Charles V. Field of the Cloth of Gold.-§ 11. Execution of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham.-§ 12. Henry writes an attack on Luther, and receives the title of "Defender of the Faith."§ 13. Wolsey's intrigues with Charles V. and Francis.-§ 14. His imperious conduct in the House of Parliament. He obtains supplies. -15. Treachery of the Duke of Bourbon. Is killed in his attack on Rome.—§ 16. Henry becomes enamoured of Anna Boleyn, and raises scruples about his marriage with Catherine of Arragon. He gives instructions to Cardinal Wolsey to negotiate with the Pope for a divorce. Qualities of Anna Boleyn. Considered as the representative of the Protestant cause.-§ 17. Proceedings for a divorce. 18. Wolsey's disgrace and fall.-§ 19. Rise of Cranmer. He takes part in the divorce case, and repudiates the right of the papal see to adjudicate.-§ 20. Secretary Cromwell, and his advice in favour of the royal divorce. - § 21. Henry's marriage with Anna Boleyn Peter's pence and other popish offerings abolished. The Pope's supremacy disavowed. The Reformation. The Holy Maid of Kent. Murder of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More. Birth of the Princess Elizabeth. Execution of Queen Anna, and Henry's marriage with Jane Seymour.-§ 22. Henry's confiscations of Church property. Popular discontent and insurrections. Pilgrimage of Grace. - 23. Birth of Prince Edward, and death of Queen Jane. Henry's persecuting spirit. § 24. Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the king's favourite adviser. Divorce of Anne of Cleves. The king's marriage with Catherine Howard. Her execution.-§ 25. Invasion of Scotland. Murder of Archbishop Beaton.-§ 26. Henry's marriage with Catherine Parr. His expedition against France. § 27. Execution of the Earl of Surrey and the Duke of Norfolk.-§ 28. Death of the king, and his atrocious character. § 1. A YOUTH of eighteen, succeeding to the richest exchequer and one of the greatest thrones in Europe, endowed with many bodily advantages and a considerable amount of talent, gave a prospect of becoming the foremost man of all that time. In his anxiety, however, to act up to his great position, he followed too exclusively the promptings of his own will. Flattered and submitted to by the dependents on his favour, he was found unequal to the great circumstances among which he was thrown. He was excelled in policy by his contemporary, Charles V.; in chivalrous dash and mental refinement by Francis I.; in argument, vigour, and sincerity by the champion of the Reformation, Martin Luther; and the only sphere in which he reigned supreme was in his domestic affairs. Here he gave full play to his disposition for cruelty and blood, and, in spite of the joviality of manner which endeared him to the people in his earlier time, and the blessings which were seen to proceed from his selfish and unprincipled behaviour to the Church, and the pretensions to virtue and patriotism with which he and his parasites endeavoured to conceal the real objects he had in view, he will always be remembered in English history as the most tyrannical of kings and most bloodthirsty of husbands. executed more subjects and murdered more wives than any Christian potentate who ever lived. He § 2. The first months of the new reign were occupied in A.D. 1509–1512.] EMPSOM AND DUDLEY EXECUTED, 425 the marriage and coronation of the king. The widow of his brother, Prince Arthur, was eight years senior to her husband ; but as she maintained that the previous union had been merely nominal, no objection was now made by Henry, and she appeared at the altar in bridal white, and without the tying-up of the hair which betokened widowhood. This circumstance became of importance afterwards, when it was a matter of life or death to dissolve or sustain the marriage. § 3. After the ceremonies of wedding and coronation, it was found necessary to satisfy the hatred of the nation with the sacrifice of the instruments of the late king's extortions; and Empsom and Dudley, on a feigned accusation of treason, were put to death. The new monarch succeeded to the private hoards of those unfortunate men as traitors' goods forfeited to the Crown, and having punished the infamous agents of his father's injustice, enjoyed the fruits of it in peace. § 4. Henry, however, was too rich and too vain to continue long at rest. He was persuaded by his father-in-law, Ferdinand of Spain, to join him and other powers in a league against France. Thoughts of Crecy and Agincourt swelled the bosom of the most self-indulgent of kings, and he sent over a demand for the immediate restitution of his just heritage of Anjou, Maine, Normandy, and Guienne. The English were as vain and insolent as their king, and made little doubt of seeing him crowned in Paris. An army was sent to Fuentarabia, on the Bidassoa, and the wily Ferdinand availed himself of the alarm created by their arrival to attack the small kingdom of Navarre, and attach it permanently to the Spanish crown. This was not the way Henry had intended to make himself master of the provinces which had now been so long united to France, and he summoned his forces back. Ferdinand established his authority over his new kingdom, and laughed at his English ally. France, which had seized on Milan, was hard pressed by |