accordingly on 10 July at Gravelines, and next day the emperor, with his aunt, Margaret of Savoy, visited the king at Calais, and stayed with him till the 14th, when he took his leave.
This further meeting was naturally not relished in France. Without knowing what was done at it, the French saw that they were overreached. The fact was, a proposal had been discussed, both at Calais and at Canterbury, for the marriage of the emperor to the Princess Mary, so lately betrothed to the dauphin; and on the very day that the emperor took his leave a new treaty was signed between him and Henry, whereby each of them engaged for two years to make no new treaty with France which should bind either of them further to those matrimonial alliances which both had already contracted in that quarter; for Charles had pledged himself to marry the French king's daughter Charlotte, and Henry to give his own daughter to the dauphin. This and some further points being concluded, Henry sent to inform Francis that he had consented to the interview at Gravelines only out of courtesy, and that it had been made the occasion of most dishonourable proposals from Charles's ministers for the breaking off of marriage treaties on both sides with France that Henry might assist the emperor to be crowned in Italy. Francis was not deceived, and showed his real feelings at first by ordering Ardres to be fortified; but Wolsey, as a friend, remonstrated so strongly against his doing so that he forbore. He was afraid to give England provocation, promised not to let Albany go to Scotland, and deferred an intention he had announced in September of going in person to Italy to secure Milan against the emperor.
The arrest and execution of the Duke of Buckingham in the spring of 1521 were not due to Wolsey, as stated by the cardinal's great enemy, Polydore Vergil [see Stafford, Edward, third Duke of Buckingham]. It is true that Buckingham, like other noblemen, bore him ill will, and the examination of some of the duke's servants showed that he had said, if the king had died of a recent illness, that he would have had Wolsey's and Sir Thomas Lovell's heads chopped off. But the duke's fall was procured by a secret informer, whose name we do not know, in a paper delivered to Wolsey at the Moor in Hertfordshire, and it appears that Wolsey, far from being over-ready to take action, had given the duke warning at first to be cautious what he said about the king, whatever he might think fit to say about himself.
Matters were now tending to war between the emperor and Francis, and errors on both sides favoured Wolsey's policy of making England arbiter between them. Charles was too eager to commit Henry to take his part, while evading fulfilment of his secret pledge to marry Mary; but Wolsey advised the king not to press for further guarantees, assuring him that the imperialists would ere long seek to him ‘on their hands and knees’ for assistance. The French made a brave start in the war, and were soon masters of Navarre, but, attempting to push their conquests further, were defeated and lost all they had gained. They thus became more willing to accept England's mediation, which they had at first refused. But Charles called upon Henry to declare war against France, as he had bound himself to take part with either side if attacked by the other. Henry, however, required first to ascertain who was the real aggressor, and it was arranged that Wolsey should cross to Calais and hear deputies from both sides on the merits of their dispute, pledges being taken in the meanwhile from both parties that neither should make any private arrangement with the other till England had given its decision.
Wolsey accordingly left England with a number of alternative commissions, dated 29 July 1521, to settle differences between the emperor and Francis, to make a league with both powers and the pope, to treat for a closer amity with France, or for a league with the emperor against France. He landed at Calais on 2 Aug., and the conferences opened under his presidency on the 7th. The principal speakers were the imperial chancellor Gattinara, the French chancellor, Du Prat, and the nuncio, Jerome Ghinucci, then bishop of Ascoli (afterwards of Worcester), who had been despatched from Rome in the year preceding to be present at the great interview between Henry and Francis I. The proceedings were extraordinary. Wolsey proposed a truce during the deliberations of the conference, but neither the nuncio nor the imperialists had any commission for this, and the latter declared that Charles was so offended with Francis that he had forbidden them to treat at all. Wolsey might, however, negotiate with the emperor himself, who had come to Bruges to be near at hand. On this suggestion he acted, and persuaded the French deputies to remain at Calais till his return, giving them to understand that he would be only eight days absent.
Shameful to state, this suspension of the conference and visit to the emperor at Bruges had been planned before Wolsey left England, and under the pretence of removing diffi-
