ciate. Still, Cardinal Adrian was not yet deprived, and Campeggio, when he reached Calais in June, had to wait there till the king was satisfied on this point also; so that it was only on 23 July that he landed at Deal, and on the 29th that he entered London. On 3 Aug. the two legates were received by the king in state at Greenwich. Meanwhile, on 30 July at Rome, Leo X granted to Wolsey the administration of the bishopric of Bath and Wells; he held this bishopric for four years in commendam.
But under cover, partly of the proposed general European peace, partly of an arrangement for Tournay, plans were now formed for a closer union between France and England. A son had been born to Francis in February, and on 9 July secret articles were signed by the king and Wolsey and the French ambassador for the marriage of the dauphin to the Princess Mary and for the surrender of Tournay. A special commission was issued to Wolsey next day to treat with Villeroy, the French king's secretary of finances, for a peace and for the marriage. A splendid embassy then arrived from France, with Bonnivet and Bishop Poncher at the head, to treat with the representatives of Leo X, Henry VIII, and other princes for a general European league, but certainly with a view to a more particular treaty with England. And though the French raised objections at first to some points in the general league, they had to waive them in order to conclude the closer alliance, in which, besides very advantageous terms for the marriage and the redemption of Tournay (a town of no value to England), Wolsey obtained from them a concession that Albany was not to be allowed to go to Scotland during the minority of James V [see Stewart, John, Duke of Albany]. On Sunday, 3 Oct., Wolsey sang mass at St. Paul's, when the king took his oath to the treaty in a scene which Bonnivet declared ‘too magnificent for description.’ On the 5th the proxy marriage took place at Greenwich; and in the evening Wolsey gave a supper at Westminster, which in the opinion of the Venetian ambassador must have exceeded the banquets of Cleopatra and Caligula. The whole hall was decorated with huge vases of gold and silver. Of the disguisings and pageants a description is given by Hall which partly resembles a well-known scene described by Cavendish and dramatised in the play of ‘Henry VIII,’ except that nothing is mentioned on this occasion of the discharge of cannon. Finally, on 8 Oct., it was agreed that an interview should take place between the kings of England and France near Calais before the end of July 1519.
The world had been for some time blinded as to what was going on when this new French alliance emerged into the light of day. It was not relished in England, and no doubt Polydore Vergil expresses only the ignorant feeling of the time when he says that the giving up of Tournay was a triumph to the French. The whole thing was managed, as Sir Thomas More told the Venetian ambassador, ‘most solely’ by the cardinal, and the king's other councillors had only been called in to approve after the matter was already settled. Charles's ambassador was disgusted at the separate treaty with France, and insisted that it should be cancelled before he accepted the general one, beneficial as he admitted that it was for his master's interests. But Charles himself, desiring to be included as a principal contrahent, ratified the league at Saragossa on 19 Jan. 1519 (Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, iv. 266–9).
Charles was ignorant at that date that his grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian, had died in Austria on the 12th. Although the empire was elective, Maximilian had done his best to secure beforehand the succession of his grandson; but Francis I entered the field as a competitor, and spent much money in bribing the electors. Henry VIII, too, hoping for encouragement from the pope, who dreaded the election of either prince, felt his way towards offering himself as a third candidate, and sent his secretary, Pace (who had been Wolsey's secretary before), to show each of the electors in great confidence the serious objections that existed to either of the other two. To retain his hold on the king Wolsey was obliged to be the instrument of this policy, though he evidently did not think it judicious. Pace's mission was fruitless, and his machinations, not having been effectually concealed, opened the eyes of Francis to the perfidy of Henry VIII, who had actually promised to advance his candidature. Wolsey, however, made a curious use of the affair in his despatches to Rome, getting the bishop of Worcester, Silvestro Gigli [q. v.], to tell the pope that he had done his best to mitigate the king's displeasure with his holiness for having latterly acquiesced in the election of Charles, and to urge that for his services to the universal peace his legateship, which was only temporary like Campeggio's, should be prolonged indefinitely. Campeggio, on his return to Rome, backed up the suggestion, and the pope extended Wolsey's legateship for three years. It was afterwards continued for
