Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/71

 door sports, and frank and hearty in his manner. He was well-educated and an excellent musician; but withal, vain, self-willed, and extravagant. His selfishness grew with his years until all the good qualities of his youth were lost. Nevertheless, outside of his own court, the people loved him and “Bluff King Hal” was to the very last popular in England. Henry’s first acts as king were for the good of the country. He encouraged ship-building, established dock-yards, and punished the miserable instruments of his father’s exactions.

6. Foreign Wars.—Henry loved display and flattery, and he longed to play a great part in European politics. At that time France and Spain were the most powerful nations in Europe, and a keen rivalry existed between them. Henry was anxious to hold the balance of power, and much of his’ reign is taken up with the intrigues of the French and Spanish kings to win his favour. Almost at the beginning of the reign, he joined Spain and Germany in a war to defend the Pope against France. He accomplished nothing, however, beyond wasting the treasure his father had so carefully stored up for him.

A more successful war was carried on against Scotland, whose king, James IV., to help his ally, the King of France, attacked England in 1513. He was met at Flodden Field by the Earl of Surrey, and, with many of his nobles and knights, killed. This was not the only war with Scotland in this reign, for in 1542, James V. the nephew of Henry, attacked England; but like his father, he met with a disastrous defeat.

7. Wolsey.—During many years Henry was much guided by Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey had risen step by step by humoring the king and falling in with his pleasures till he became Chancellor, or chief law officer, Archbishop of York, papal legate, and a Cardinal of the Church. He was a man of great ability and shrewdness, strongly attached to Henry, and desirous of making him all-powerful; but at the same time vain, proud, and fond of money and show. Wolsey was a friend of the ‘‘New Learning” and showed his interest in education by founding a college at Oxford. He, however, tried to rule without parliaments, and to fill the king’s treasury by fines and forced loans. Wolsey himself grew