Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/508

 390 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. nando in state as it was before : the rather, in re gard of the infirmity of Joan his daughter, who, ioving her husband, by whom she had many child ren, dearly well, and no less beloved of him, howsoever her father, to make Philip ill-beloved of the people of Spain, gave out that Philip used her not well, was unable in strength of mind to bear the grief of his decease, and fell distracted of her wits. Of which malady her father was thought noways to endeavour the cure, the better to hold his regal power in Castile. So that as the felicity of Charles the Eighth was said to be a dream ; so the adversity of Ferdinando was said likewise to be a dream, it passed over so soon. About this time the king was desirous to bring into the house of Lancaster celestial honour, and became suitor to Pope Julius, to canonize King Henry the Sixth for a saint, the rather, in respect of that his famous prediction of the king s own assumption to the crown. Julius referred the matter, as the manner is, to certain cardinals, to take the verification of his holy acts and miracles : but it died under the reference. The general opinion was, that Pope Julius was too dear, and that the king would not come to his rates. But it is more probable, that the pope, who was extremely jealous of the dignity of the see of Rome, and of the acts thereof, knowing that King Henry the Sixth was reputed in the world abroad but for a simple man, was afraid it would but diminish the estimation of that kind of honour, if there were not a distance kept between innocents and saints. The same year likewise there proceeded a treaty of marriage between the king and the Lady Margaret, Duchess-dowager of Savoy, only daugh ter to Maximilian, and sister to the King of Cas tile; a lady wise, and of great good fame. This matter had been in speech between the two kings at their meeting, but was soon after resumed ; and therein was employed for his first piece the king s then chaplain, and after the great prelate, Thomas Wolsey. It was in the end concluded, with great and ample conditions for the king, but with promise de futuro only. It may be the king was the rather induced unto it, for that he had heard more and more of the marriage to go on between his great friend and ally Ferdinando of Arragon, and Ma dame de Fois, whereby that king began to piece with the French king, from whom he had been always before severed. So fatal a thing it is, for the greatest and straitest amities of kings at one time or other, to have a little of the wheel ; nay, there is a farther tradition in Spain, though not with us, that the King of Arragon, after he knew that the marriage between Charles, Prince of Castile, and Mary, the king s second daughter, went roundly on, (which though it was first moved iy the King of Arragon, yet it was afterwards wholly advanced and brought to perfection by Maximilian, and the friends on that side,) entered ituo a jealousy that the king did aspire to the go vernment of Castilia, as administrator during the minority of his son-in-law ; as if there should have been a competition of three for that government ; Ferdinando, grandfather on the mother s side; Maximilian, grandfather on the father s side; and King Henry, father-in-law to the young prince. Certainly it is not unlike, but the king s govern ment, carrying the young prince with him, would have been perhaps more welcome to the Spaniards than that of the other two. For the nobility of Cas tilia, that so lately put out the King of Arragon in favour of King Philip, and had discovered themselves so far, could not be but in a secret distrust and distaste of that king. And as for Maximilian, upon twenty respects he could not have been the man. But this purpose of the king s seemeth to me, considering the king s safe courses, never found to be enterprising or adven turous, not greatly probable, except he should have had a desire to breathe warmer, because he had ill lungs. This marriage with Margaret was protracted from time to time, in respect of the infir mity of the king, who now in the two-and-twentieth of his reign began to be troubled with the gout: but the defluxion taking also into his breast, wasted his lungs, so that thrice in a year, in a kind of return, and especially in the spring, he had great fits and labour of the phthisic : neverthe less, he continued to intend business with as great diligence as before in his health : yet so, as upon this warning he did likewise now more seri ously think of the world to come, and of making himself a saint, as well as King Henry the Sixth, by treasure better employed, than to be given to Pope Julius ; for this year he gave greater alms than accustomed, and discharged all prisoners about the city, that lay for fees or debts under forty shillings. He did also make haste with religious foundations ; and in the year following, which was the three-and-twentieth, finished that of the Savoy. And hearing also of the bitter cries of his people against the oppression of Dudley and Empson, and their complices : partly by de vout persons about him, and partly by public ser mons, the preachers doing their duty therein, he was touched with great remorse for the same. Nevertheless Empson and Dudley, though they could not but hear of these scruples in the king s conscience; yet, as if the king s soul and his money were in several offices, that the one was not o intermeddle with the other, went on with as great rage as ever. For the same three-and-twentieth year was there a sharp prosecution against. Sir William Capel, now the second time: and this was for matters of misgovernment in his mayor- Ity: the great matter being, that in some pay ments he had taken knowledge of false moneys, nd did not his diligence to examine and beat it out who were the offenders. For this and some other things laid to his charge, he was condemned
 * o pay two thousand pounds ; and being a man