Wolsey now found, through his spies, that Francis, while so near Rome, had strongly urged upon the Pope the claims of the French Bishop, and with such effect that he had obtained a bull in his favour. Enraged at this, Wolsey now fanned with all his subtle skill the spleen of Henry's mind, and disposed him to break with Francis. But this was so serious a matter, having recently sworn to maintain peace with that country, and with the rising reputation of Francis, that Henry was prudent enough not to give way to Wolsey's persuasions without counsel with his other experienced ministers. The Duke of Norfolk, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of Winchester, were summoned to Court, and the matter laid before them. It is quite certain that, had there been real cause for war with France these ancient counsellors of the crown, who had retired in disgust from the arrogance of Wolsey, would have argued against it; but as they had right on their side they strongly denounced a breach of the peace with France as equally impolitic, dishonourable, and unjust. Wolsey replied in an equally high strain that Francis had shown himself a prince of an aggressive character, of an insatiable ambition, and that his successes in Italy would lead to fresh attempts; and that unless England interposed to crush his soaring spirit of conquest, he would become the terror and molester of all Europe. The Bishop of Durham, and the rest of the counsellors who were under the influence of Wolsey, warmly supported these views, and Henry, distracted by these conflicting opinions, declared that he would adopt the suggestions of both parties; he would take measures to curb the ambition of France, but he would do it so as to avoid an open breach.
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| Henry VIII. | Catherine of Arragon. | Thomas Wolsey. |
His sapient plan was this. Untaught by the gross style in which he had been imposed upon by Maximilian, he resolved to employ him to put down Francis. He therefore dispatched an ambassador to the emperor, who was, as he always had been, poor and greedy of money, to engage him by a large subsidy to march an army into Italy to join his forces to those of Francisco Sforza, the brother of Maximilian Sforza, to take Milan, and place Francisco on the ducal throne. Maximilian Sforza had resigned all his rights to Francis, and was therefore to be set aside. This scheme, which Henry put forth as his own, was, in fact, but another speculation of Wolsey's. Francisco Sforza, desirous to make Milan his own, had already applied to Wolsey, and engaged, if he succeeded, to pay that corrupt and greedy minister 10,000 ducats a year, and in return Wolsey had engaged not only to procure Henry's consent, but to make him the perpetual friend and protector of Sforza.
The Emperor Maximilian having got a large sum in hand, put his troops in motion for Italy, and pursued the journey with the greater alacrity because he was also furnished with bills to a still greater amount on the Friscobaldi, the great Italian bankers. Dr. Richard Pace, Henry's ambassador, hastened on before the emperor with another large sum of money, with which he engaged an army of Swiss to join Maximilian. With this augmented force, the German emperor pursued the route to Milan, where he made a feeble and spiritless attempt against it, and then coolly turned his face homewards and marched back again, saying the Friscobaldi were bankrupts, the bills were waste paper, and his engagement at an end. Henry was justly served for once more trusting to so rotten a reed. In addition to the loss of his money, he had shown Francis his teeth without being able to bite.
On the 12th of November, 1515, Parliament was summoned to meet. Henry had caught a very discouraging
