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MEETING BETWEEN HENRY VIII. AND FRANCIS 1. 201

Another royal meeting was appointed, to confirm the new league between the kings of England and France; and though it was less magnificent than that of the Cloth of Gold, there was, on both sides, a proud display and a profuse expenditure: 2400 beds, and stabling for 2000 horses were provided in Calais, besides what the adjacent villages could contain. The two kings met between that place and Boulogne, and went on, hawking as they went, to the latter town, where both made their offering at the shrine of our Lady of Boulogne, to whom Louis XI. had done homage, and of whom, in like homage, his successors professed to hold the Boulonnois, paying upon every succession a heart of fine gold, weighing 2000 crowns.* Sumptuous apartments had been fitted up for the king of England: his retinue was lodged, every man according to his degree, the best but straitly for lack of room; but they were most hospitably entertained: "the poultries, larders, spiceries, and cellars of wine were all open; and likewise hay and litter, and all other things; ask and have, and no man durst take any money, for the French king paid for all. He caused also two gowns to be made of white velvet, pricked with gold and damask; and the capes and vests were of frets of whipped gold of damask, very rich:" these he sent to Henry, requesting him to choose one, and wear it for his sake: "so that day the two kings were both in one suit." When the visit was returned, and the kings were saluted as they entered Calais, "what out of the town and the castle, and what out of Risebank, and the ships in the haven, the Frenchmen said they never heard such a shot. And when they were entered the mill gate, all the soldiers of the town stood on the one side, apparelled in red and blue; and on the other side of the streets stood all the serving-men of England, in coats of French tawny, with their lords' and masters' devices embroidered, and every man a scarlet cap and a white feather, which made a goodly show. There were lodged in Calais that night, besides the town-dwellers, 8000 per

*St. Julien, Mélanges Historialles, p. 670.

sons at the least." Whether the guests were as straitly lodged as at Boulogne or not, they must have been quite as closely packed. "If the French king,” says Hall, "made good cheer to the king of England and his train, I assure you he and his train were requited."* The concluding scene was near Sandyngfeld; the two kings 66 alighted on a fair green place, where was a table set, and there the Englishmen served the Frenchmen with wine, hippocras, fruit, and spice abundantly." When Henry and Francis "had communed a little, they mounted on their horses, and at the very entering of the French ground, they took hands, and with princely countenance, loving behaviour, and hearty words, each embraced the other, and so then departed." +

The peace lasted several years, which were rendered more eventful to England by the changes in religion, and the king's capricious cruelty, than any foreign war could have made them. At length Henry began to apprehend that the pope would succeed in forming a strong confederacy for the purpose of reducing this country to the obedience of the church of Rome. In his own person, therefore,

he took " very laborious and painful journeys toward the sea-coast;" and caused all those places where a landing could be conveniently effected to be well surveyed and 1540. fortified; and ordered the earl of Southampton, then lord

A. D.

"The king's officers of England had made preparation in every place, so that the Frenchmen were served with such multitude of divers fishes, this Friday and Saturday, that the masters of the French king's household much wondered at the provisions. So likewise on the Sunday they had all manner of flesh, fowl, spice, venison, both of fallow and red deer, and as for wine they lacked none, so that well was the Englishman that might well entertain the Frenchman. The lords of France never fetched their viands, but they were sent to them; and oftentimes their proportion of victual was so abundant, that they refused a great part thereof.... The Sunday at night the French king supped with the king of England. The French king was served three courses, and his meat dressed after the French fashion; and the king of England had like courses after the English fashion; the first course of every king was forty dishes, the second sixty, the third seventy, which were costly and pleasant."- Hall, 793.

+ Hall, 790-794. "While the king of England was in the French king's dominion, he had the upper hand, and likewise had the French king in his dominion; and as the French king paid all the Englishmen's charges at Boulogne, so did the king of England at Calais, so that every thing was recompensed; saving that the king of England gave to the French king divers precious jewels and great horses, and to his nobles great plenty of plate, for the which I could never hear that he gave the king of England any other thing but the white gown, as you have heard; but to the lords of the king's council he gave certain plate and chains."

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admiral, "to prepare in readiness ships for the sea, to his great cost and charges."* At the same time the old statutes against exporting goods of any kind, and importing wine and woad in any but English bottoms, were confirmed, the preamble complaining that the navy and multitude of ships had been of late marvellously impaired; the people who had their living thereby were minished and impoverished; and the towns, villages, and inhabitations adjoining the coasts utterly fallen in ruin † and decay. These acts had from time to time been relaxed, as the immediate interest of the merchants prevailed over the permanent good of the state. But the necessity of maintaining an efficient naval force was well understood, and nothing was deemed unimportant which affected its efficiency. The inhabitants of Bridport represented that the greater part of the cable ropes and other tackling for the navy, and for most other ships, had been made in their town, and the king and his subjects right well served; but that, of late, evil disposed persons, for their private lucre, had removed from the town into the adjoining country, and things had there by these persons been slightly and deceivably made, to the injury of the buyer, and enhancement of the price, and the ruin of that town, unless speedy remedy were provided. The relief for which the petitioners applied was granted: it was enacted that no hemp grown within four miles of that town should be sold any where but in that market, on pain of forfeiture; nor any cordage or other tackle made of hemp be manufactured within the same distance. An act was passed for amending and maintaining the ports of Plymouth, Dartmouth, Teignmouth, Falmouth, and Fowey; which, it was said, had been, in

* Hall, 828.

† 32 Hen. 8. c. 14.

The emperor's ambassador represented that this act "for the provocation of strangers to ship in English bottoms, tended greatly to the detriment of the Low Countries, and was, not without cause, very displeasantly taken there. The act, he said, had such a meaning in it, as it had been all one to have prohibited by express words that no stranger should lade in any other but English bottoms, and to make it in such sort as it is; for the alleviation, he said, of the custom causeth all men to have such regard to their own gain and lucre, that none but fools will ship in any other." State Papers, 668-676.

§ 21 Hen. 8. c. 12.

1544.

times past, the principal and most commodious havens within this realm for ships resorting from all places of the world, as well in peril of storms as otherwise: for, hitherto, all vessels under the portage of 800 tons might enter them at low water, and there lie in surety what wind or tempest soever did blow; and in time of war these ports had been the greatest fortification and defence of that part of the realm, and the special preservation of the greater part of the navy. But of late the streamworks from the tin mines had so choked these ports that vessels of 100 tons could scarcely enter at half flood. Regulations were made for the miners to prevent such evil in future, and enforced by penalties *, which were doubled † when it was found that they were not observed.

66

For some time, things continued in an uneasy state between England and France: "there was neither perfect peace nor open war, but ships were taken on both sides, and merchants robbed;" after a while the merchants' goods were mutually seized, and the ambassadors of both realms detained: they were soon set at liberty, but yet the merchants were, robbed, and no war proclaimed." Meantime Henry was negotiating a league offensive and defensive with the emperor. War was A. D. then declared. Vengeance was taken upon Scotland by one of those barbarous invasions, the object of which was to lay waste an enemy's country, and inflict upon it all the evil that could be done by sea and by land; and Henry, attending more to what was then deemed purely English interests, than to aid the general purposes of the confederacy, sent an army under the duke of Norfolk against Montreuil, and another under the duke of Suffolk against Boulogne. The lower town was abandoned by the inhabitants; the tower, called the "Old Man," which served as a beacon for those who were to enter the haven, was surrendered, and the upper town had been vigorously attacked and bravely defended for some days, when Henry came to take the command of the siege in +27 Hen. 8. c. 23.

23 Hen. 8. c. 8.

+ Hall, 857.

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person. Not many years had elapsed since he had visited Boulogne as the friend and guest and sworn confederate of the still reigning king of France, and made his offering at our Lady's altar: the steeple of our Lady's church was now battered down by his artillery," and the town so beaten with shot out of the camp, and from the mount and trench by the mortar pieces, that very few houses were left whole therein.' It was defended with great courage. A party of 200 men, guided by a priest who could speak English, attempted to enter the place; and the daring enterprise was so well conducted, that they passed by the scouts and then the watch; and though they were discovered before they had all passed over the trench, more than half succeeded in getting in. Small as this succour was, it encouraged the inhabitants; but contrary winds frustrated an attempt made to throw in supplies by sea, and the lord high admiral arrived to assist in the siege with his fleet from the coast of Scotland, which he had ravaged. The admiral was sir John Dudley, then viscount Lisle, afterwards more and worse known in history as duke of Northumberland. He was a brave seaman, and is said to have boarded the admiral off Sluys, in some action, of which nothing further has been recorded, 66 fighting her ship to ship." When part of the castle had been blown up, and such breaches made as were deemed practicable, he solicited and obtained permission to make the assault with his seamen *: it was resisted as gallantly as it was made; and, after considerable loss, Henry called off his men. But on the part of the besieged, Philippe Corse, by whom the

The character of our seamen was then what it is now. They are thus described in Christopher Ockland's poem, which was ordered to be taught in all grammar and free schools;

"Proximus invigilat muris Dudleius heros,

Nautarum, veniens pelago, comitante catervâ.

Nautæ, hominum genus impavidum, temerarius et audax,
Quos mare fluctivagum vehementi turbine motum,
Quando vadis tremulas syrtes everrit ab imis,
Nonnunquam gelidâ pavidos formidine reddit.
Non quicquid terrere potest per saxa, per ignes;
Per mare, per terras, non ulla pericula terrent.
Istis præfectus pelagi gaudebat alumnis,
Seque putat rursum tali duce nauta beatum."

Anglorum Pralia.

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