Henry's divorce, his conduct to the University of Paris, and his assurances repeated voluntarily on many occasions, show that he was sincerely desirous to forward it. He did not care for Henry, or for England, or for the cause itself; he desired only to make the breach between Henry and Charles irreparable; to make it impossible for ever that 'his two great rivals' should become friends together; and by inducing the Pope to consent to the English demand, to detach the Court of Rome conclusively from the Imperial interests.
The two princes who disputed the supremacy of Europe, were intriguing one against the other, each desiring to constitute himself the champion of the Church; and to compel the Church to accept his services, by the threat of passing over to her enemies. By a dexterous use of the cards which were in his hands, the King of France proposed to secure one of two alternatives. Either he would form a league between himself, Henry, and the Pope, against the Emperor, of which the divorce, and the consent to it, which he would extort from. Clement, should be the cement; or, if this failed him, he would avail himself of the vantage-ground which was given to him by the English alliance to obtain such concessions for himself at the Emperor's expense as the Pope could be induced to make, and the Emperor to tolerate.
Such, in so far as I can unravel the web of the diplomatic correspondence, appear to have been the open positions and the secret purposes of the great European powers.
