Ghent and Bruges who had revolted from him. In short, the entire subjugation of Brittany seemed imminent. At the approach of the storm Duke Francis and a majority of the nobility applied to England for assistance. At that moment, as we have seen, Henry was absorbed by his own troubles; but when those difficulties were over he was in no haste to accede to the prayer of the Bretons. We believe the fact to be, that he had already accepted of a retainer from the French court. If this were not the case, he must forfeit his reputation for cunning and quick-sightedness, and stand in this particular in the light of a dupe. "King Charles," says Bacon, knew well he could not receive any opposition so potent as if King Henry should, either from policy of state, in preventing the growing greatness of France, or upon gratitude unto the Duke of Brittany for his former favours in the time of his distress, espouse that quarrel, and declare himself in aid of the duke. Therefore he no sooner heard that King Henry was settled by his victory (at Stoke), than he sent ambassadors unto him, to pray his assistance, for at the least that he would stand neutral: which ambassadors found the king at Leicester, and delivered their ambassage to this effect: they first imparted unto the king the success that their master had had a little before against Maximilian, in recovery of certain towns from him; which was done in a kind of privacy and inwardness towards the king; as if the French king did not esteem him for an outward or formal confederate, but as one that had part in his affections and fortunes, and with whom he took pleasure to communicate his business. After this compliment, and some gratulation for the king's victory, they fell to their errand-declaring to the king that their master was enforced to enter into a just and necessary war with the Duke of Brittany, for that he had received and succoured those that were traitors and declared enemies unto his person and state. That they were no mean, distressed, and calamitous persons that fled to him for refuge, but of so great quality, as it was apparent that they came not thither to protect their own fortune, but to infest and invade his-the head of them being the Duke of Orleans, the first prince of the blood, and the second person of France. That, therefore, rightly to understand it, it was rather on their master's part a defensive war than an offensive, as that could not be omitted or forborne, if he tendered the conservation of his own estate; and that it was not the first blow that made the war invasive (for that no wise prince would stay for), but the first provocation, or at least the first preparation." After saying a good deal more touching the danger of giving encouragement to aspiring princes of the blood and rebellious subjects (a point upon which Henry was very susceptible), the Frenchmen represented to him, that if he had been beholden to

Britain" is the form of the name used by Bacon; to prevent confusion, we have substituted the more usual form in this and other places.

the Duke of Brittany in his adversity, so also the king, their master, had aided him when the said Duke of Brittany or his mercenary ministers failed him, and would have betrayed him to the tyrant Richard. They praised his wonderful virtuesamong which they mentioned his great love of peace being so newly settled and recovered from intestine seditions, their master could not reasonably press him to aid him in this war, but he would be well satisfied if he would look on and stand neutral. "But touching the mystery of re-annexing of the Duchy of Brittany to the crown of France, either by war or by marriage with the daughter of Brittany, the ambassadors bare aloof from it, as from a rock, knowing that it made most against them. And, therefore, by all means declined any mention thereof, but contrariwise interlaced in their conference with the king the assured purpose of their master to match with the daughter of Maximilian; and entertained the king also with some wandering discourses of their king's purpose to recover by arms his right to the kingdom of Naples, by an expedition in person; all to remove the king from all jealousy of any design in these hither parts upon Brittany."*

Henry, to acquit himself, as he said, of his gratitude to both the King of France and the Duke of Brittany, for whom he "was ready even to go a pilgrimage," and to "satisfy all obligations both to God and man," offered himself as mediator. Upon this the ambassadors departed well pleased, for they knew that his mediation would not stop the progress of their army. Charles's generals, indeed, proceeded with more vigour than ever; and, while they were fighting, Henry despatched Christopher Urswick, his chaplain" a person by him much trusted and employed"--to talk to the French court. From Paris Urswick went to Rennes, the capital of the Duke of Brittany. When Francis saw the priest, he told him that, having been a benefactor and a kind of foster-father to Henry for many years, he looked, at this time, from the "renowned King of England" rather for succour in a brave army, than a vain treaty of peace. The chaplain then returned to Paris, and the court there sent him back to London, to tell his master of the obstinacy and disrespect of Duke Francis. And still the French troops continued their operations, and whenever they gained a battle or took a town they emphatically repeated that they had no wish to make conquests, but were most anxious for the success of Henry's mediation. How little did our ancestors leave us to learn in these matters! Another embassy was sent over to England, and Henry could not do less than return the compliment. Urswick was despatched again to the French court, and with him were associated the Abbot of Abingdon and Sir Richard Tunstal, a layman. But by

Bacon. In all the earlier stages of these transactions, and down to the year 1491, when Charles VIII. freed himself from the guardianship of his sister, the manager for France was the Princess Anne, the wife of Bourbon. The name of Charles appeared, as a

matter of course.

Sir

this time the people of England were beginning to lament that the French king should be allowed to aggrandise himself at the expense of an ancient ally of their country; and some gallant knights, in whom the spirit of chivalry and the recollections of Crecy and Azincourt were not yet extinct, were all on fire to hasten to the rescue of an unfortunate prince, and measure swords with the French. Edward Woodville, one of the queen's uncles, collected a brave band of four hundred men, and set sail from the Isle of Wight for St. Malo, on the coast of Brittany. When the news of this expedition reached the French court, the poor chaplain Urswick and his brother ambassadors there had a narrow escape from the fury of "divers young bloods." But "presently came an agent from King Henry to purge himself touching Lord Woodville's going over, using for a principal argument, to demonstrate that it was without his privity, for that the troops were so small, as neither had the face of a succour by authority, nor could much advance the Brittany affairs. To which

message, although the French king gave no full credit, yet he made fair weather with the king, and seemed satisfied."*

This was, indeed, a business where everybody was seeking to deceive everybody. Henry, however, forbade other English adventurers to join Duke Francis; and, as the zeal of the nation blazed the more from repression, he determined to turn it to his advantage financially. "Wherein first he thought to make his vantage upon his parliament-knowing that they, being affectionate unto the quarrel of Brittany, would give treasure largely. Which treasure, as a noise of war might draw forth, so a peace succeeding might coffer up. And because he knew his people were hot upon the business, he chose rather to seem to be deceived, and lulled asleep by the French, than to be backward in himself; considering his subjects were not so fully capable of the reasons of state which made him hold back. Wherefore to all these purposes he saw no other expedient than to set and keep on foot a continual treaty of peace, laying it down and taking it up again as the occurrence required. Besides, he had in consideration the point of honour in bearing the blessed person of a pacificator."+ The wily Morton, now Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor, was instructed so to address parliament as to affect them towards the business, but without engaging the king in any express declaration of war; and the ambiguous speech of the right reverend minister fully answered these ends. Parliament eagerly caught at the bait, and recommended strong measures, as well in respect of the emulation between the nations, and the envy at the late growth of the French monarchy, as in regard of the danger to suffer the French to make their approaches upon England, by obtaining so goodly a maritime province, full of sea-towns and havens that might do mischief to the English

either by invasion or by interruption of traffic." They were also indignant at the injustice and oppression used in Brittany-for no one could be well deceived by the manifestoes of the French court; and they advised the king to embrace the cause of the Bretons openly and manfully, and then they with "much alacrity and forwardness" voted an unusually large subsidy. When Henry got the money he sent his chaplain to warn the French court, and to explain that, with all his friendly feelings, it would be impossible for him to resist the motion of his people. At the same time the priest was to hint that the English succour to be sent to Duke Francis would be limited, and that the troops would be instructed not to wage war against the French beyond the limits of Brittany. The French did what might be expected: they reinforced La Tremoille, who carried the towns of Chateau-Briant, Ancenis, and Fougères. By this time the Breton nobles were fully aware of the folly they had committed in inviting them. into the country: the factions united for common defence; and an army of the unfortunate duke, strengthened by the few English under Woodville, by the fifteen hundred Germans sent by Maximilian, and by a few companies of Gascons and of Basques, sent by the family of d'Albret, took the field under the supreme command of the Duke of Orleans, who was quite ready to fight against his own countrymen, but who had not the entire confidence of the Bretons. After some minor operations, the two armies engaged in a general battle on the 20th of July, 1488, between Andouillé and St. Aubin-du-Cormier. La Tremoille, by his superiority in numbers and in field artillery, gained a complete and sanguinary victory. Sir Edward Woodville was slain; and of his four hundred men, and seventeen hundred Bretons who had assumed the white coats and red crosses of the English to deceive the enemy, but very few escaped. The Duke of Orleans, who had fought bravely on foot, was taken prisoner, and Brittany lay helpless at the foot of the conqueror. That night Orleans supped with La Tremoille: towards the end of the repast two father confessors stole into the room: he turned pale, for he thought that his last hour was come; but the conqueror told him that the monks were only come to shrive certain French gentlemen, who had been taken prisoners with him, and that it was for the king alone to dispose of a prince of the blood. gentlemen were confessed and executed iminediately the Duke of Orleans was sent to the Tower of Bourges, where he remained a close prisoner for nearly three years.*

The

When the news of this disastrous battle and of the slaughter of their countrymen reached England, the people raised so loud an outery that Henry was startled from his pleasant dream. Still, however, he was disposed to wait events, hoping that Maximilian would succour Brittany, and that he

Daru, Hist. de la Bretagne.-Actes de Bretagne.-Mezerai.Bacon.-Hall.

should be allowed to keep the money which parlia- | ment had voted for the war. But the course of events could not improve. La Tremoille took

Dinant and St. Malo, and threatened to besiege the unfortunate Duke Francis in Rennes, his capital. Finding that no assistance arrived from England or from any other quarter, Francis at last accepted the hard terms offered by the French court; and in the middle of August (1488) he signed the treaty of Verger. Hereby, the claims of the French crown to the duchy were submitted to the consideration of certain commissioners: the French were to retain the conquests they had made, and the duke was bound never more to call in troops from England or any other country, and not to marry either of his daughters without the full approbation of his suzeraine lord the King of France. The Bretons complained that, since the object put forth in the former manifesto had been obtained by the capture of the Duke of Orleans, these were very harsh conditions, and proved that the French court had acted all along with great falsehood and treachery, aiming at nothing less than the destruction of their liberties and the seizure of the whole country. And, not confining themselves to the useless language of complaint and reproach, many of them prepared for a fresh struggle; but their poor duke, who seemed heartbroken, sickened, and died on the 7th of September, about three weeks after he had signed the treaty.*

The Princess Anne was even now only in her twelfth year, and her little court was distracted by the intrigues of the rivals for her hand. D'Albret, one of her suitors, who had found his way into Brittany in a beggared state, but who had a powerful party in his favour, attempted to carry her off and marry her by force; for Anne felt a very natural aversion to a man who was old, exceedingly ugly, and of a ferocious temper. The Count of Dunois rescued her, and carried her off, seated behind him on his war-horse; and she was subsequently protected by the people of Rennes. While men were disputing within Brittany who should be her husband, the French court claimed the right of being her guardian. This, of course, was only a delicate way of demanding the whole government of the duchy; and before the bishops and barons could get ready a proper answer a French army took the field, and carried by assault Pontrieu, Guingamp, Concarneau, Brest, and other places of less importance. This most unequal war now excited fresh cries of indignation in England; and Henry was urged, as the sovereign of a generous people, as a father, to save the helpless orphan. The king conceived the notion of forming an extensive alliance; but it was rather the natural course of things, than any inspiration of Henry's, that led to the first formation of those coalitions which afterwards became so common. He despatched ambassadors to Maximilian, King of the Romans, to his son the Archduke Philip, to the

• Original MSS. and Actes de Bretagne, quoted by Daru.

King of Spain, and to the King of Portugal, calling upon them to act in concert with him, in order to check the lawless ambition of the French court. He then summoned another parliament, and asked for more money, to carry on the war.

A.D. 1489.-Parliament, which could not be ignorant of the use made of the sums already voted for the defence of Brittany, reduced Henry's demand from 100,000l. to 75,000/.* But the levying even of this diminished amount, in the temper in which the nation was, occasioned alarming commotions in some parts of the kingdom. These we shall presently notice: meanwhile Henry offered to the Breton government the services of six thousand archers, but he limited the time of their service to six months; and would not send them at all until two of the best seaport towns of Brittany were put into his hands as security for the repayment of the entire expense of the armament, and until the young duchess had taken an oath never to marry without his consent. By the treaty of Verger she was bound not to marry without the consent of the King of France: it was not likely that Henry and Charles would ever agree on this delicate point. In the spring the Lord Willoughby de Broke landed in Brittany with his small army at the same time a Spanish force advanced through Roncesvalles, to make a diversion in the south of France; and Maximilian hoped, after subduing the insurrection of his Flemish subjects, to attack the French on their northern frontier. By this plan of operation the French were prevented from concentrating in full force in Brittany; and Lord Willoughby de Broke, with his small army, was enabled not only to keep them completely in check, but also, with the help of some Breton troops, to gain several advantages over them. Though nearly half a century had passed since the last real battle fought by the English on the continent, the French had not forgotten the old campaigns; and they paid such a respect to the valour of the islanders, and their conduct in the open field, that they cautiously avoided anything like a pitched battle. kept themselves in fortified towns and entrenched camps. "But, meanwhile, to harass and weary the English, they did, upon all advantages, set upon them with their light-horse; wherein, nevertheless, they received commonly loss, especially by means of the English archers." The Lord de Broke, instead of being encouraged to risk his little army frankly, was constantly checked by the unwarlike and most cautious king, who, moreover, recalled him and his troops in less than six months, finding that the Bretons were too poor even to find the men in provisions, and that there was a good prospect of settling the business by treaty, without his spending any more of his money. The French had been obliged to detach a great army towards Fuente-Rabia to oppose the Spaniards; and Maximilian, aided by a small force of English, chiefly drawn from Calais, had gained some important

Rot. Parl.

They

advantages in the north, and taken the town of St. Omer. Not more for these reasons than for others of a less apparent nature, resulting from a change of plan which was not made visible until a year and a half later, the French court offered to treat for peace, and soon after signed a treaty at Frankfort with Maximilian. The chief clauses were, that the French troops should retire from Brittany; that the Duchess Anne should dismiss all her foreign auxiliaries; that the fortresses of St. Malo, Fougères, Dinant, and St. Aubin, should be put into the hands of the Duke of Bourbon and the Prince of Orange, to be by them held till all the differences between France and Brittany should be amicably settled; and, finally, that a congress should be held at Tournay for that settlement. Maximilian took good care to conceal from the French court his now fixed project for marrying the young duchess: in regard to her, he pretended to act merely as a friendly mediator, and the French had their eyes too constantly fixed on their own intrigues and deceptions to perceive his.*

Thus finished the war of 1489. The English had expected great glory, and they got none.† The harshness used in levying the subsidy had driven the northern counties into insurrection, and had cost the life of the king's lieutenant, the Earl of Northumberland, who was murdered by the people. At one moment this insurrection threatened to shake the throne, but it was put down by an army commanded by the Earl of Surrey, whom Henry had released from the Tower and taken into favour. John à Chambre, "a very boute-feu (firebrand), who bore much sway amongst the vulgar and popular," was taken alive; and Sir John Egremont, who had joined the insurgents for higher objects, "fled into Flanders to the Duchess of Burgundy, whose palace was the sanctuary and receptacle of all traitors against the king." "John à Chambre," continues the learned historian, " executed at York in great state; for he was hanged upon a gibbet raised a stage higher in the midst of a square gallows, as a traitor paramount, and a number of his men that were his chief complices were hanged upon the lower story, round about him; and the rest were generally pardoned." The obnoxious tax, instead of producing 75,000l., stopped short at 25,000.

was

A.D. 1490.-In the beginning of this year parliament made up the deficiency by passing a new

Daru.-Bacon.

There was, however, one brilliant episode in the war. We have seen that there was a small English force acting as auxiliaries with Maximilian. This force, which consisted of about two thousand archers, commanded by " that gentle young knight the Lord Morley" and by Lord Daubeny, in conjunction with some German troops, marched to the relief of Dixmude, which was besieged by Maximilian's revolted Flemish subjects and a French force under the famous Des Cordes. The besiegers had made their entrenchments, and thrown up a strong battery. The brave bowmen of Old England ran up to this formidable position, sent a flight of arrows across the trenches, fell on their faces till the enemy fired off their great guns, then, rising to their feet, sent a second volley point-blank, and then rushed over ditches and 'embankments, and carried the entrenched camp sword in hand. The victory was disgraced with cruelty. In their revenge for the loss of their idol, "the gentle Morley," the English refused quarter; and, it is said, that between them and the Germans nearly, eight thousand Flemish and French were butchered.

Bacon.

grant of a tenth and fifteenth, in order that the war with France might be carried on with vigour; for Henry's interests were not taken into account by the treaty of Frankfort, and it was already evident that that treaty would not preserve the independence of Brittany. The English people again expected to be gratified by an active war, but Henry put their money into his coffers, and sent some priests to the continent to negotiate with the various courts. A new coalition was now formed, the principal members being Henry, Ferdinand of Spain (a sovereign who was his match in craft and selfishness), and Maximilian, King of the Romans. This league, which was contracted with great solemnity, with protestations that it was meant merely for the curbing of French ambition, and for the general good of Europe, without any hope or view on the part of the allies of making any private advantage, was in effect as base, selfish, and hollow as the mass of coalitions have been from that day to this. The King of England wanted to exact from the fears of France a large sum of money and other advantages, for which he would have broken the alliance: the King of Spain expected to recover the province of Rousillon: the King of the Romans hoped to get back a large strip of territory in the north of France, which had formerly belonged to his family.*

Maximilian, who had a claim to the gratitude of the Bretons for his prompt assistance, and whose suit had formerly been approved by Duke Francis, in spite of the treaty of Frankfort, and without consulting his new allies, whose treaty, as yet, remained a secret, proposed an immediate marriage with the young duchess, and Anne was induced to give her consent. But at the moment Maximilian, "whose property was to leave things then, when they were almost come to perfection, and to end them by imagination, like ill archers that draw not their arrows up to the head," feared to make the journey into Brittany either by land or water, and sent the Prince of Orange in his stead. A marriage, by proxy, was performed at Rennes with so much mystery that the servants of Anne were not aware of it until some time after, and the date of the ceremony has never been precisely ascertained. Precautions of an extraordinary nature † were taken to make the marriage binding, but, as Bacon observes, Maximilian would have done much better had he gone to his young bride in person. As soon as that disappointed suitor, the fierce D'Albret, ascertained the object of the Prince of Orange's mission, he gave information to the French court, and betrayed the important city of

Rymer.-Rot. Parl.-Bacon.- Daru. "

+ Bacon tells an amusing story, which Daru repeats, without mentioning, however, that he has found any confirmation of it in the Breton or in the old French writers. "The marriage," says Bacon, "was consummated by proxy, with a ceremony, at that time, in these parts new; for she was not only contracted, but stated, as a bride, and solemnly bedded; and after she was laid, there came in Maximilian's ambassador, with letters of procuration, and in the presence of sundry noble personages, men and women, put his leg, stript naked to the knee, between the espousal sheets; to the end that this ceremony might be thought to amount to a consummation," &c.

Nantes, which he had surprised, to a French army. As the treaty of Frankfort had been but indifferently observed by the French, and as they had kept possession of many of the fortresses in the heart of Brittany, they renewed the war with many advantages. The young duchess applied to her husband for aid; but he was again distressed by the revolt of his Flemish subjects, and could give her nothing but the empty title of "Queen of the Romans," which she now publicly assumed; and King Henry, in reply to her demands for English troops, increased her distresses by asking her for money at a time when her coffers were quite empty, and when the only money current in Brittany was stamped leather cut into pieces of different sizes.

About the same time an important revolution had taken place in the French court. King Charles, who was now in his twenty-first year, freed himself from the authority and guardianship of his sister, released the Duke of Orleans from his dungeon at Bourges, changed most of the ministers and officers, and took upon himself the business of government. This Charles was an extraordinary character: he was romantic, fond of war and military glory, dissipated, and at the same time cool and crafty, as if mindful of the lesson (said to be the only maxim ever taught him by that tender parent) instilled into him in his childhood by Louis XI.-that the prince who could not dissemble was utterly unfit to reign over a civilized people.* This well-instructed king, who, however, was excessively ignorant in other respects, saw that to obtain possession of Brittany by force of arms would, after all, be a work of great danger and difficulty, and he resolved to obtain his end in a very different manner. more than seven years he had been solemnly affianced to Margot, the "gente demoiselle," the daughter of the fair Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian,--a match which, it will be remembered, was considered as the last great political achievement of Louis XI., and which was supposed to have hastened the death of our Edward IV. Margot had been "nourished and brought up" at the French court, and, as she was now in her eleventh year, it was expected that the marriage would be consummated in two or three years. But Charles, who had now firm possession of the rich provinces of France which had been constituted her dower, and who saw but a distant and

For

uncertain prospect of deriving any further advantage from the contract, determined to break it, and marry the Duchess Anne, in spite of that princess's marriage by proxy to Maximilian, the father of Margot; for thus he confidently hoped to obtain quiet possession of Brittany. This sudden move took all parties by surprise. For, "the better to amuse the world," he had retained in his court the daughter of Maximilian, "who formerly had been sent unto him to be bred and educated

in France; not dismissing or renvoying her, but, contrariwise, professing and giving out strongly that he meant to proceed with that match: and that for the Duchess of Brittany he desired only to preserve his right of seigniory, and to give her in marriage to some such ally as might depend upon him."* At the same time he bribed most of the ladies in the court of Brittany, and cajoled or terrified the ministers of that weak and distracted government. The Countess of Laval, the Countess of Dunois, the Marshal de Rieux, and Montauban, chancellor of the duchy, engaged to obtain Anne's assent; and the Duke of Orleans, who had formerly aspired to her hand, now pleaded and intrigued in favour of his sovereign.+ But they had a greater difficulty than they expected. The young duchess, or "Queen of the Romans," considered her marriage contract with Maximilian as binding, both by divine and human law; and she was well aware of the contract which existed between the King of France and Margot of Burgundy. She was now in her fifteenth year, and her natural talents had been developed by an unusually careful education, and by an early experience in the affairs and troubles of the world. She saw that this new husband they wished to force upon her was the oppressor of her country,-the despoiler of her family: it was sword in hand that he wooed her, and he was not a generous conqueror. She was proud and high-minded, and was revolted at the idea of surrendering herself and her country in servitude to the French king. She would have preferred being independent mistress of Brittany to the possession of the higher dignity of Queen of France. In point of age the French match seemed more suitable than any that had been proposed for her; but, if Charles was young, his merely personal advantages ended there : he was short, ill-made, and had a deformed head. Anne, besides being eminently handsome, was accomplished, and even learned; for she knew Latin, and had some Greek. Charles, on the contrary, was wholly uncultivated, and scarcely knew how to read when he ascended the throne of France. Though constantly assailed by her ladies and her ministers, her repugnance did not yield until a French army advanced and threatened to besiege her in her capital. Then, seeing that she must be either the wife or the captive of Charles, she consented to a treaty, the principal articles of which were, that she should marry the French king, and convey to him her rights over Brittany; that Charles, if he survived her, should retain possession of the duchy, as an integral part of France; and that, if she survived Charles, and remained single, she should bequeath her dominions to the reigning sovereign, or, if she married, she should marry no one but the actual possessor or the presumptive heir of the crown of France. In this