Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/341

 of which he had enjoyed since 30 April, and Wolsey thereupon resigned Bath and Wells (, iii. 293).

As to the war, Wolsey used very plain speaking to the emperor about the past, but simply in the tone of an aggrieved friend, and endeavoured to elicit definite assurances for 1524 both from him and Bourbon. But it was soon clear that the emperor, having recovered Fontarabia from the French in February, was neither able nor willing to do more; and Bourbon, who was invited to England to arrange matters, replied that the emperor wished him to stay at Genoa, where he very conveniently blocked the way of Francis into Italy, but did Henry no particular service. In March Wolsey suggested to the pope (who was naturally afraid of the French becoming strong again in Italy) that he should exhort Francis to send some one to England to treat for peace, with suggestions of afterwards settling the question of Milan by marrying the Duke of Milan to the French king's daughter. Francis took the hint; and while nothing seemed to come of the avowed efforts of the pope for peace when he sent Schomberg, archbishop of Capua, to France, Spain, and England in succession, a Genoese merchant, Giovanni Joachino Passano (called by the English John Joachim), came in June to London as if on private business, and carried on secret negotiations with Wolsey as the agent of Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I.

These, indeed, remained without visible fruit that year, and the imperial ambassador actually arranged with Henry VIII for joint support of Bourbon in an attack on France. But this was clogged with a condition that the duke should do homage to Henry as king of France, which he refused, alleging that Henry had given him his duchy free. Wolsey did not believe that much was to be expected from Bourbon; but Pace, who had been despatched to the duke to report on the situation, was strangely sanguine, and said it was only owing to Wolsey and the delay of the king's money that the crown of France was not set on Henry's head. As a matter of fact, money did come from England, though rather late. It was the emperor, as usual, who failed in his engagements when it came to the second payment. Bourbon entered Provence and laid siege to Marseilles; and in September orders were sent out in England to prepare for an invasion of France in support of him. The king was ready either for peace or war, but, by Wolsey's advice, he would have no middle course. Bourbon withdrew from the siege of Marseilles to Nice, and, by strict orders from Henry, no further disbursements were made to him. No army crossed from England, and Francis, taking courage, invaded Italy and recovered Milan.

His success, however, was transient, and on 24 Feb. 1525 he was defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia. The event took Wolsey, like the rest of the world, by surprise; for though he had not thought highly of the French prospects in Italy, he had been doing his best to secure the king's interests in any event by a renewal of secret negotiations with John Joachim. And he had just taken a most audacious step to cover these secret practices. As the imperial ambassador De Praet was inconveniently inquisitive, he contrived (for there can be no doubt it was not an accident, a special search having been ordered in London that very night) that a messenger of De Praet's should be arrested by the watch as a suspicious character, and his letters taken from him and laid before himself in the chancery next morning. He opened and read them, and found, as he no doubt expected, many severe reflections on himself and the insincerity of the king's friendship towards the emperor. On this he stopped a courier already despatched by De Praet, upbraided the ambassador for what he had written to his own court, and penned a strong despatch to Sampson, the English ambassador in Spain, to represent to the emperor the mischief done by an agent who was endeavouring to disturb friendly feelings between him and Henry! He moreover got Henry himself to write to the emperor with his own hand complaining of the unfriendly conduct of his ambassador.

The outrage no doubt was deliberately designed to show the emperor how little he must presume upon the universal respect paid to his greatness, while offering, as he continually did, mean excuses for breach of engagements. And Wolsey knew that Charles, after mild remonstrance, would pocket the affront, as he actually did, deeply as he at heart resented it. De Praet himself believed that Henry was still the emperor's friend, whom it would not do to alienate; and as Wolsey, with cynical insincerity, professed to be devoted to the common interests of the emperor and his own sovereign, Charles also professed to take him so. This was the more necessary in order that he might keep the profits of his great victory to himself. On hearing of it Wolsey took counsel with some Flemish envoys, at whose request he at length dismissed John Joachim, and he urged the emperor to make full use of his advantage in concert with England, suggesting a joint