Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/139

A.D. 1513.] in his preparations for the invasion of France. The long peace had had its usual effect in unfitting the English for military matters, while the war which had been constantly waging on the Continent had rendered those nations more formidable and expert. There was a great change, moreover, in the weapons employed. The Swiss and the Spaniards had greatly improved the stability and tactics of their infantry, which, armed with pike and sword, was often more than a match for the heavy-armed cavalry of the period. Firearms had grown considerably into use, but the cannon was so heavy and difficult of transport and of quick removal, and the hand-guns were so clumsy, that they could not, after all, compete with the English bow in practical hands. Peace in England, however, had greatly decayed that practice, and strenuous exertions, all spring and early summer, were obliged to be made to render the archers equal to those who had done such wonders in France aforetime.

In June, however, Henry deemed himself fully prepared to cross with his army to Calais. Lord Howard was ordered to bring his fleet into the Channel, to cover the passage, and on the 6th of June, 1513, the vanguard of the army passed over, under the command of the Earl of Shrewsbury, accompanied by the Earl of Derby, the Lords Fitzwater, Hastings, Cobham, and Sir Rice ap Thomas. A second division followed on the 16th, under Lord Herbert, the chamberlain, accompanied by the Earls of Northumberland and Kent; the Lords Audley and Delawar, with Carew, Curson, and many other gentlemen. Henry himself followed on the 30th, with the main body and the rear of the army. The whole force consisted of 25,000 men, the majority of which consisted of the old victorious arm of archers.

Before leaving Dover, to which place the queen attended him, Henry appointed her regent during his absence, and constituted Archbishop Warham and Sir Thomas Level her chief counsellors and ministers. On the plea of leaving no cause of disturbance behind him to trouble her majesty, he cut off the head of the Earl of Suffolk. The reader will remember the art by which Henry VII. inveigled this nobleman into his hands at the time of the visit of the Archduke Philip, on the assurance that he would not take his life. We have related that Henry VII., however, on his death-bed, left an order that his son should put him to death. The earl had remained till now prisoner in the Tower, and Henry had been fatally reminded of him and of his father's dying injunction by the imprudence of Richard de la Pole, the brother of Suffolk, who had not only attempted to revive the York faction, but had taken a high command in the French army.

Henry himself, instead of crossing direct to Calais, ran down the coast as far as Boulogne, firing continually his artillery to terrify the French, and then returning entered Calais amid a tremendous uproar of cannon from ships and batteries, announcing rather prematurely that another English monarch was come to conquer France. In order to this conquest, however, he found none of his allies fulfilling their agreements, except the Swiss, who, always alive at the touch of money, and having fingered that of Henry, were in full descent on the south of France, elated, moreover, with their victory over the French in the last Italian campaign. Maximilian, who had received 120,000 crowns, was not yet visible. But Henry's own officers had show no remissness. Before his arrival, Lord Herbert and the Earl of Shrewsbury had laid siege to Terouenne, a town situate on the borders of Picardy, where they found a stout resistance from the two commanders, Teligni and Crequi. The siege had been continued a month, and Henry, engaged in a round of pleasures and gaieties in Calais amongst his courtiers, seemed to have forgotten the great business before him, of rivalling the Edwards and the fifth of his own name. But news from the scene of action at length roused him. The besieged people of Terouenne, on the point of starvation, contrived to send word of their situation to Louis, who dispatched Fontrailles with 800 Albanian horses, each soldier carrying behind him a sack of gunpowder and two quarters of bacon. Coming unawares upon the English camp, they made a sudden dash through it, up to the town fosse, where flinging down their load, which was as quickly snatched up by the famishing inhabitants, they returned at full gallop, and so great was the surprise of the English that they again cut their way out and got clear off.

This bold deed startled Henry from his effeminate inertia, and the information that a strong force was advancing under the Duke of Longueville, to support another attempt at relief, by Fontrailles; he marched out of Calais on the 21st of July, with a splendid force of 15,000 foot and horse. Sir Charles Brandon, now created Viscount Lisle, and the Earl of Essex, led the van; his minister, old Bishop Fox, and his rising favourite, Wolsey, brought up the rear; and Henry advanced in the centre, which was commanded by the Duke of Buckingham and Sir Edward Poynings. Scarcely had they passed Ardres when they saw a powerful body of French cavalry manœuvring before them. At this sight preparation was made for a battle. Henry threw himself from his horse, determined to imitate the example of his great predecessors, and fight on foot, in the midst of his chosen body-guard of 1,200 men, armed with his battle-axe. The celebrated Bayard, le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, who led on the cavalry, was ready to charge them; but he was held back by Longueville, who had strict orders from the cautious Louis to avoid the fatal temerity of their ancestors in engaging the English in the open field. Accordingly, the French, after closely reconnoitring the advancing force, turned and rode off, giving great triumph to Henry and his commanders, who saw them thus fly at the very sight of them. But the clever Frenchmen, while they had drawn not only the attention of the monarch and his detachment, but also that of the officers before Terouenne, to their movements, had managed again to throw supplies into that town.

On arriving before Terouenne, on the 4th of August, Henry was soon joined by Maximilian, the emperor. This strange ally, who had received 120,000 crowns to raise and bring with him an army, appeared with only a miserable complement of 4,000 horse. Henry had taken up his quarters in a magnificent tent, blazing in silks, blue damask, and cloth of gold, but the bad weather had driven him out of it into a wooden house. To do all