Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/164

150 gorgeous shrine was one of the very first that he stripped when he began his onslaught on the ancient Church.

From the cathedral the emperor was conducted by his royal host to the palace of the archbishop, where he was for the time quartered, and there introduced to his aunt, Queen Catherine, and to Mary, the Duchess of Suffolk, and Queen Dowager of France. To her Charles had originally been engaged, and when he now saw her in the blaze of her full-blown beauty, he is said to have been greatly moved, and to have bitterly deplored the political events which had broken that contract, and robbed him of so charming a queen. For three days the archiepiscopal palace as a scene of the gayest festivities; nothing was omitted by Henry to do honour to his august relative; and nothing on the part of Charles to win upon Henry, and detach him from the interests of France. Nor the less assiduously did the politic emperor exert himself to secure the services of Wolsey. He saw that ambition was the great passion of the cardinal, and he adroitly infused into his mind the hope of reaching the Popedom through his influence and assistance. Nothing could bind Wolsey like this fascinating anticipation. Leo X. was a much younger man than Wolsey himself; but this did not seem to occur to the sanguine spirit of the cardinal, for "all men think all men mortal but themselves;" whilst to Charles the circumstance made his promise peculiarly easy, as he could scarcely expect to be called upon to fulfil it.



On the fourth day Charles embarked at Sandwich for the Netherlands, less anxious regarding the approaching interview of Henry and Francis, for he had made an ardent impression on the king, and had put a strong-hook into the nose of his great leviathan—the hope of the triple crown. Simultaneously with the departure of Charles, Henry, his queen, and court, embarked at Dover for Calais; and, on the 4th of June, Henry, with his queen, the Queen Dowager of France, and all his court, rode on to Guisnes, where 2,000 workmen,