Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/835

* HENRY VIII. 771 HENRY VIII. •was a favorite with all classes of the English people. He chose his ministers with rare saga- city, ami, in spite of liis gayety, know wiuit, was going on in his administration. He had a violent temper, and no monarch ever held his servants under firmer control. Until 1529 affairs were in the hands of Wolsey (q.v.), whom Henry had raised from a humble station to be Archbishop of York (1514) and Chancellor (1515), and caused to be appointed cardinal (1515) and legate a latere (1518). Wolsey had thus in his hands almost supreme power over Church and State, and he rivaled the King in outward splendor; yet no one was in doubt as to who was the real master. Wolsey's precarious tenure depended upon his ability to fulfill, and if possible to anticipate, his young master's wishes. During approximately the first half of Henry's reign, before the matter of the King's divorce be- came urgent, his attention was occupied with for- eign afl'airs. After 1519 Europe was divided into two hostile camps by the rivalry between Cliarles V. and Francis I. Henry could be depended upon in the long run to take the side of Charles, not only on account of his relationship, having mar- ried Charles's aunt, and the close commercial relations between England and Charles's posses- sions in the Low Countries, but because Henry dreamed of renewing the Hundred Years' War and rivaling the deeds of Edward III. and Henry V. For these reasons, Henry always op- posed Francis when it came to actual warfare, though ho frequently changed sides in the diplo- matic struggle. Even before the accession of Charles V. and Francis I., the relations of their predecessors had been much the same, and in loll Henry had been drawn into the Holy League between the Papacy, Spain, Austria, and Venice against France. Early in 1512 Henry had sent an abortive expedition to regain Guienne. In the following year he took part in person in the triumphant campaign in Northern France. The French were defeated at Guinegate, August 16th, in what is known as 'the Battle of the Spurs,' from the rapidity of the French flight; Therou- anne surrendered August 24th, and Tournay September 25th. James IV. of Scotland, taking advantage of Henry's employment elsewhere, in- vaded England, and was defeated and slain at Flodden, September 9, 1513. Henry fully intended to renew the campaign the next year; but when he learned that both Ferdinand of Spain and Maximilian of Germany had deserted him, he secretly made peace, which was cemented by the marriage of his sister Mary with Louis XII. From this time until the outbreak of the first war between Francis and Charles (1521), Wol- sey was free to carry out with tolerable siiccess his favorite policy of mediation between the two rivals. There were many interviews, among others the famous 'Field of the Cloth of Gold' (1520), and much treachery on all sides; but in the end Wolsey's peace policy had to give way before Henry's warlike spirit. There were cam- paigns against France in 1522 and 152.1; but they had no other result than an increased taxa- tion at home, for which Wolsey was popularly held accountable. In 1525 Francis was not only defeated at Pavia, but taken prisoner, and TTenry thought that the time had come to recover the cro«-n of France. With this purpose in view, he demanded an immediate loan from his sui- jects in proportion to their incomes, but at so extortionate a rate that riots broke out and the loan had tu be recalled, lli'iiry, as wn- his wont, meanly threw the odium upon Wolsey, who was in no wise responsible. The failure of the loan made peace with France necessary, which waa signed in 1525. In the following y<'ar Francis re- gained his freedom upon agreeing to Charles's ex- tortionate demands ; but lie held himself not bound by forced concessions, and war broke out anew (1527-29), in which he found an ally in Pope Clement VII. Henry took no direct jiart in this war, but he was anxious to join the French and Papal side, for the reason that he was medi- tating the divorce of Catharine of Aragon, to W'hieh the consent of the Po])e was necessary. For some years Henry had been growing tired of Catharine, and his inditTerence increased after the appearance at Court in 1522 of tlie young and sprightly Irish beauty, .Ainne Boleyn. In addition, Catharine's only surviving child was her daughter Mary, and since no queen had ever sat upon the throne of England, it might reasonably be doubt- ed whether the succession was safe without a male heir. Heme's professed motive, however, was conscientious scruples concerning the valid- ity of his marriage with his brother Arthur's wife, notwithstanding the Pope's dispensation, and in 1527 he asked Clement VII. not merely to grant him a divorce, but to declare that the dispensation of Julius II. was invalid, and that the marriage with Catharine had been void from the beginning. ,part from otlier considerations, Clement VII. could hardly be expected to impair his own authority by such a ruling; nor was the time propitious for such a request, for in the year in which it was made the Imperial troops had sacked Rome, and Clement VII. was at the mercy of Charles V. The most that Henrj' could obtain was a legatine court, composed of Wolsey and Campeggio : but the Pope's sole pur- pose in granting it was delay. Campeggio could neither induce Henry to change his mind nor Catharine to yield, and in 1329 Clement revoked the case to Rome, where Henry knew that it would be useless to press the matter further, espe- cially as Charles and Clement were now in alli- ance. The result was the fall of Wolsey. and the beginning of momentous changes in the relations between the State and Church in England. Henry probably little realized the importance of the steps which he took in order to satisfy his lust. He certainly did not intend to introduce Prot- estantism, for which he had an aversion. He was no mean theologian, and in 1521 he had written a book against Luther entitled A.iscrtio Septeni Sacrainentoruni. which won for him, by the irony of fate, the Papal title 'defender of the faith,' which English sovereigns have borne to the present day. In I0.IO Henry was occupied with Cranmer's suggestion that the favorable opinion of the learned doctors of the universities as to the nullity of the marriage would leave him free to marry again without the Pope's eon- sent. Bribery and cajolery were freely used with considerable success; but in L^.ll Ilenr^' proceeded to more vigorous measures. I'pon the suggestion of Tliomas Cromwell, an adventurer, who rose to influence soon after Wolsey's fall, he conceived the plan of seizing the Papal au- tliority and revenue in England, thereby not only securing the divorce, but vastly increasing the