Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/339

 say, six years later—and Henry to give her a very considerable dower, deducting, however, the debts of the emperor and his grandfather Maximilian. Both princes also agreed to invade France before May 1524, and the emperor to pay Henry those pensions which Francis, out of very natural suspicion, had already withheld from him for a whole year.

But Henry, in his eagerness for war, had already before the emperor's arrival despatched Clarencieux herald to declare it to Francis; and Clarencieux did so at Lyons on 29 May of this year (1522), and returned to the king at Greenwich while the emperor was still with him. The two princes then made a further treaty on 2 July to arrange for the joint war which was to commence at once, and on the 6th the emperor sailed from Southampton. Three days before leaving he had given Wolsey a new patent for his pension, which was now to be charged on the vacant bishoprics in Spain instead of the bishopric of Badajoz. But Wolsey's Spanish pensions were always in arrear, like the debts which the emperor owed the king.

Wolsey's hand had been forced by the war party in the council, and on 6 July he declared to the lords in the Star-chamber the first success of the war—the sacking of Morlaix by Surrey—urging them to aid the king with their money. A loan of 20,000l. had already been obtained from the city of London under promises of repayment by the king and cardinal. But the nation was really ill prepared for war, and of course it was involved with Scotland as well as with France. For Francis, seeing the turn things were taking, had let Albany escape in the end of 1521. The Scots, however, were also ill prepared for war; and when Albany at last moved to the borders, he did not know how easily he might have captured Carlisle. But Lord Dacres, putting a bold face on the matter, induced him to negotiate a truce and to withdraw his forces.

Wolsey was immensely relieved, and easily got Dacres pardoned for his felix culpa in having negotiated a truce without commission. But popular ignorance and hatred of the Scots lamented a great opportunity thrown away, while levies raised in various parts had been sent home unpaid. Skelton's bitter invective against Wolsey, ‘Why come ye not to Court?’ written clearly just at this time, is full of this and other popular complaints which are very significant of the feeling against the cardinal (SKELTON, Works, ed. Dyce, ii. 26–67). One of his complaints was that the king's court was comparatively deserted by ambassadors and suitors crowding to Hampton Court or York Place at Westminster. Hampton Court was a mansion of the knights of St. John, of which Wolsey had taken a ninety-nine years' lease on 11 Jan. 1514–[15], just before he became a cardinal. It had been visited even by Henry VII, but Wolsey spared neither pains nor cost to make it far more magnificent. No doubt it was owing to cavils like Skelton's that three years later (1525) Wolsey made over his lease of it to the king, who, however, allowed him not only still to occupy it, but to lodge, when he saw fit, in his own palace of Richmond, rather to the annoyance, it would seem, of some old servants of Henry VII, in whose days that place of pleasure had been reared.

In the city Wolsey was hated, not for the truce made with the Scots, but for his too cogent measures to get in money for the war. The loan already raised had itself lightened many pockets, when on 20 Aug. he sent for the mayor and aldermen and the most wealthy citizens, and told them that for defence of the realm commissioners were appointed all over the country to swear every man as to the value of his movable property; and he desired to be certified within a reasonable time of the names of all who were worth 100l. and upwards, that they might contribute a tenth. The citizens remonstrated that many of them had already lent a fifth. But Wolsey insisted that the 20,000l. already subscribed could only be allowed as part of the tenth required from the whole city, and the citizens made their own conscientious returns to his secretary, Dr. Toneys, at the chapter-house of St. Paul's.

Yet for all this, more money was required; and next year (1523) parliament was called together on 18 April to vote supplies for the war. It was opened at the Blackfriars by the king in person, with Wolsey at his right hand; but as the cardinal's weak health forbade him to make a long address as chancellor, Cuthbert Tunstall [q. v.] did so in his place, declaring the causes of the war. On the 29th Wolsey, accompanied by divers lords both spiritual and temporal, entered the House of Commons and stated that a subsidy of 800,000l. would be required, which might be raised by a tax of four shillings in the pound on every man's goods and land. Next day Sir Thomas More, as speaker (whose election Wolsey himself had procured), did his best to enforce the demand; but the debates were so long and serious that Wolsey visited the commons again and addressed the members in a way that compelled More to plead