Nassau left Paris with a decisive rejection of the Emperor's advances; and in the beginning of January, De Bryon, the High Admiral of France, was sent to England, to inform Henry of what had passed, and to propose for Elizabeth the marriage which Charles had desired for the Princess Mary.
De Bryon's instructions were remarkable. To consolidate the alliance of the two nations, he was to entreat Henry at length to surrender the claim to the Crown of France, which had been the cause of so many centuries of war. In return for this concession, Francis would make over to England, Gravelines, Newport, Dunkirk, a province of Flanders, and 'the title of the Duke of Lorrayne to the town of Antwerp, with sufficient assistance for the recovery of the same.' Henry was not to press Francis to part from the Papacy; and De Bryon seems to have indicated a hope that the English King might retrace his own steps. The weight of French influence, meanwhile, was to be pressed, to induce the Pope to revoke and denounce, voyd and frustrate the unjust and slanderous sentence[1] given by his predecessor; and the terms of this new league were to be completed by the betrothal of the Princess Elizabeth to the Duke of Angoulesme.[2]
There had been a time when these proposals would have answered all which Henry desired. In the early days of his reign he had indulged himself in visions of
