Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/467

 HISTORY OF KI.&amp;lt;; HKNUY VII. .339 that he is in good peace with all his neighbour ]imicrs. and especially with the King of Knir- Jand, whom for good causes he estrrmrth UI-M. &quot; But now my lords, give me leave to use a few words to remove all scruples and misunderstand ings between your sovereign and ours, concerning some late actions; which, it they be not cleared, may perhaps hinder this peace. To the end that for matters past neither king may conceive un- kiudncss of other, nor think the other conceiveth unkindness of him. The late actions are two; that of Britain and that of Flanders. In both which it is true that the subjects swords of both kings have encountered and stricken, and the ways and inclinations also of the two kings, in respect of their confederates and allies, have severed. &quot; For that of Britain, the king your sovereign knoweth best what hath passed. It was a war of necessity on our master s part. And though the motives of it were sharp and piquant as could be. yet did he make that war rather with an olive- branch, than a laurel-branch in his hand, more desiring peace than victory. Besides, from time to time he sent, as it were, blank papers to your king to write the conditions of peace. For though both his honour and safety went upon it, yet he thought neither of them too precious to put into the King of England s hands. Neither doth our king on the other side make any unfriendly inter pretation of your king s sending of succours to the Duke of Britain; for the king knoweth well that many things must be done of kings for satisfac tion of their people; and it is not hard to discern what is a king s own. But this matter of Britain is now, by the act of God, ended and passed ; and, as the king hopeth, like the way of a ship in the sea, without leaving any impression in either of the kings minds; as he as sure for his part it hath not done in his. &quot; For the action of Flanders : as the former of Britain was a war of necessity, so this was a war of justice; which with a good king is of equal necessity with danger of estate, for else he should leave to be a king. The subjects of Burgundy are subjects in chief to the crown of France, and their duke the homager and vassal of France. They had wont to be good subjects, howsoever Maximilian hath of late distempered them. They fled to the king for justice and deliverance from oppression. Justice he could not deny : purchase he did not seek. This was good for Maximilian, if he could have seen it in people mutinied, to ar rest fury, and prevent despair. My lords, it may be this I have said is needless, save that the king our master is tender in any thing that may glance upon the friendship of England. The amity be tween the two kings, no doubt, stands entire and inviolate; and that their subjects swords have clashed, it is nothing unto the public peace of the crowns : it being a thing very usual in auxiliary forces of the best and straitest confederates to meet and draw lilood in the field. Nay many tirnt-n there be aids of the same nation on both sides, and yet itis not, for all that, a kingdom divided in itself. &quot;It resteth, my lords, that I impart unto you a matter that I know your lordships all will much rejoice to hear; as that which irnporteth the Christian common weal more than any action that hath happened of long time. The king our mas ter hath a purpose and determination to make war upon the kingdom of Naples ; being now in the possession of a bastard slip of Arragon, but apper taining unto his majesty by clear and undoubted right; which if he should not by just arms seek to recover, he could neither acquit his honour nor answer it to his people. But his noble and Chris tian thoughts rest not here: for his resolution and hope is, to make the reconquest of Naples but as a bridge to transport his forces into Grecia; and not to spare blood or treasure, if it were to the im pawning of his crown and dispeopling of France, till either he hath overthrown the empire of the Ottomans, or taken it in his way to Paradise. The king knoweth well, that this is a design that could not arise in the mind of any king that did not steadfastly look up unto God, whose quarrel this is, and from whom cometh both the will and the deed. But yet it is agreeable to the person that he beareth, though unworthy of the thrice Chris tian king and the eldest son of the church. Where- unto he is also invited by the example, in more ancient time, of King Henry the Fourth of Eng land, the first renowned king of the house of Lancaster; ancestor, though not progenitor to your king ; who had a purpose towards the end of his time, as you know better, to make an expedition into the Holy Land ; and by the example also, present before his eyes, of that honourable and re ligious war which the King of {Spain now mak- eth, and hath almost brought to perfection, for the recovery of the realm of Granada from the Moors. And although this enterprise may seem vast and unmeasured, for the king to attempt that by his own forces, wherein heretofore a conjunc tion of most of the Christian princes hath found work enough ; yet his majesty wisely consider- eth, that sometimes smaller forces being united under one command, are more effectual in proof, though not so promising in opinion and fame, tha^ much greater forces, variously compounded by association and leagues, which commonly inashori time after their beginnings turn to dissociations and divisions. But, my lords, that which is & voice from heaven, that calleth the king to thi enterprise, is a rent at this time in the house of the Ottomans. I do not say but there hath been bn&amp;gt;- ther against brother in that house before, but never any that had refuge to the arms of the Chris tian as now hath Gemes, brother unto Bajazet that reigneth, the far braver man of the two. the othui