1521. miles, which he had made him, of feconding his preten- CHA P. fions to the papal throne. Wolfey, fenfible that Adrian's XXIX. great age and infirmities promised a fudden vacancy, dif. fembled his refentment, and was willing to hope for a more profperous iffue of the next election. The emperor renewed the treaty made at Bruges, to which fome articles were added; and he agreed to indemnify both the king and Wolfey for the revenues, which they should lofe by a breach with France. The more to ingratiate himfelf with Henry and the English nation, he gave to Surrey, admiral of England, a commiffion for being admiral of his dominions; and he himself was installed knight of the garter at London. After a stay of fix weeks in England, he embarked at Southampton, and in ten days arrived in Spain, where he foon pacified the tumults, which had arisen in his abfence I. THE king declared war against France; and this meafure was founded on fo little reason, that he could alledge nothing as a ground of quarrel, but Francis's refusal to fubmit to his arbitration, and his fending Albany into Scotland. This laft ftep had not been taken by the War with French king, till he was quite affured of Henry's refo- France. lution to attack him. Surrey landed fome troops at Invafion Cherbourg in Normandy; and after laying waste the of France? country, he failed to Morlaix, a rich town in Brittany, which he took and plundered. The English merchants had great property in that place, which was no more fpared by the foldiers, than the goods of the French. Surrey then left the charge of the fleet to the vice-admiral, and failed to Calais, where he took the command of the English army, deftined for the invafion of France. This army, when joined by forces from the Low Coun tries under the command of the count de Buren, confifted in the whole of 18,000 men. THE French had made it a maxim in all their war with the English, fince the reign of Charles the fifth, never, without great neceffity, to hazard a general engagement; and the duke of Vendome, who commanded the French army, now embraced this wife policy. He supplied the towns moft expofed, efpecially Boulogne, Montreul, Teroüenne, Hedin, with ftrong garrifons and plenty of provifions: He himself took poft at Abbeville, D 2 1 Petrus de Angleria, epift. 765. with 1521. CHAP. with fome Swiss and French infantry, and a body of caXXIX. valry: The count of Guife encamped under Montreuil with fix thousand men. Thefe two bodies were in a fituation to join upon occafion; to throw fuccour into any town that was treatened; and to harrafs the English in every movement. Surrey, who was not fupplied with magazines, first divided his army for the convenience of fubfifting them; but finding that his quarters were every moment beaten up by the activity of the French generals, he drew togother the forces, and laid fiege to Hedin. But neither did he fucceed in this enterprize. The garrifon made vigorous fallies upon his army: The French forces affaulted them from without: Great rains fell: Fatigue and bad weather threw the foldiers into dyfenteries: And Surrey was obliged to raise the fiege, and put his troops into winter quarters about the end of October. His rear-guard was attacked at Pas in Artois; and five or fix hundred men were cut off; nor could all his efforts make him master of one place within the French frontier. THE allies were more fuccefsful in Italy. Lautrec, who commanded the French, loft a bloody battle at Bicocca near Milan; and was obliged to retire with the remains of his army. This misfortune, which proceeded from Francis's negligence in not fupplying Lautrec with money, was followed by the lofs of Genoa. The castle of Cremona was the fole fortrefs in Italy which remained in the hands of the French. EUROPE was now in such a fituation, and fo conne&ed by alliance and intereft, that it was almoft impoffible for war to be kindled in one part, and not diffuse itself through the whole: But of all the leagues among kingdoms, the clofeft was that which had so long fubfifted between France and Scotland; and the English, while at war with the former nation, could not expect to remain War with long unmolested on the northern frontier. No fooner had Scotland. Albany arrived in Scotland, than he took measures for kindling a war with England; and he fummoned the whole force of the kingdom to meet in the fields of Rofline. He thence conducted the army fouthwards inte Annandale; and prepared to pafs the borders at SolwayFrith. But many of the nobility were difgufted with, the * Guicciardini, lib. 14.. L Buchanan, lib. 14. Drum mond. Pitfcottie. 1522. the regent's administration; and obferving, that his con- CHA P. nections with his native country were very feeble in com- XXIX. parifon of thofe which he maintained with France, they murmured, that for the fake of foreign interefts, their peace fhould be so often disturbed, and war, during their king's minority, be wantonly entered into with a neighbouring nation, fo much fuperior in force and riches. The Gordons, in particular, refused to march any farther; and Albany, obferving a general difcontent to prevail, was obliged to conclude a truce with lord Dacres, warden of the English weft marches. Soon after he departed for France; and left the oppofite faction fhould gather force in his abfence, he fent thither before him the earl of Angus, husband to the queen dowager. NEXT year, Henry, that he might take advantage of the regent's abfence, marched an army into Scotland under the command of Surrey, who ravaged the Merse and Teviotdale without opposition, and burned the town of Jedburgh. The Scots had neither king nor regent to condu& them: The two Humes had been put to death; Angus was in a manner banished: No nobleman of vigour or authority remained, who was qualified to affume the government: And the English monarch, who knew the diftreffed fituation of the country, determined to push them to extremity, in hopes of engaging them, by the fense of their prefent miferies, to make a folemn renunciation of the French alliance, and embrace that of England B. He even gave them hopes of contracting a marriage between the lady Mary, heiress of England, and their young monarch; an expedient, which would for ever unite the two kingdoms: And the queen dowager, with her whole party, recommended every where the advantages of this alliance, and of a confederacy with Henry. They faid, that the interefts of Scotland had too long been facrificed to thofe of the French nation, who, whenever they found themselves reduced to difficulties, called for the affiftance of their allies; but were ready to abandon them, fo foon as they found their advantage in making peace with England: That where a fmall state. entered into fo close a confederacy with a greater, it must always expect this treatment, as a confequence of B Buchanan, lib. 14. Herbert. Le Grand, vol. iii. the. P. 39, 1523. CHA P. the unequal alliance; but that there were peculiar circumXXIX. ftances in the fituation of the kingdoms, which, in the prefent cafe, rendered it inevitable: That France was fo diftant and fo divided from them by feas, that she scarcely could by any means, and never could in time, fend fuccours to the Scots, fufficient to protect them against ravages from the neighbouring kingdom: That nature had, in a manner, framed an alliance between the two British nations; having enclosed them in the fame island: given them the fame manners, language, laws, and form of government; and prepared every thing for an intimate union between them: And that, if national antipathies were abolished, which would foon be the effect of peace, these two kingdoms, fecured by the ocean and by their domeftic force, could fet at defiance all foreign enemies, and remain for ever fafe and unmolested. THE partizans of the French alliance, faid, on the other hand, that the very reasons, which were urged in favour of a league with England, the clofe neighbourhood of the kingdom and its fuperior force, were the real caufes, why a fincere and durable confederacy could never be framed with that hoftile nation: That among neighbouring states, occafions of quarrel were frequent; and the more powerful people would be fure to feize every frivolous pretence for oppreffing the weaker, and reducing them to fubjection: That as the near neighbourhood of France and England had kindled a war almost perpetual between them, it was the intereft of the Scots, if they wished to maintain their independency, to preferve their league with the former kingdom, which balanced the force of the latter; That if they deferted that old and falutary alliance, on which their importance in Europe chiefly depended, their antient enemies, stimulated both by intereft and by paffion, would foon invade thera with fuperior force, and reduce them to fubje&tion: Or if they delayed the attack, the infidious peace, by making the Scots lofe the ufe of arms, would only prepare the way for a flavery more certain and more irretrievable D THE arguments employed by the French party, being feconded by the natural prejudices of the people, feemed rather to prevail: And when the regent himself, who had been long detained beyond his appointed time P Buchanan, lib. 14. by XXIX. 1523. by the terror of the English fleet, at last appeared among CHA P. them, he was able to throw the balance entirely on that fide. By authority of the convention of states, he affembled an army, with a view of avenging the ravages committed by the English in the beginning of the campaign; and he led them fouthwards towards the borders. But when they were paffing the Tweed at the bridge of Melrofs, the English party were again able to raise such oppofition, that Albany thought proper to make a retreat. He marched downwards, along the banks of the Tweed, keeping that river on his right; and fixed his camp oppafite to Werk-Castle, which Surrey had lately repaired. He fent over fome troops to befiege that fortrefs, who made a breach in it, and stormed fome of the outworks: But the regent, hearing of the approach of an English army, and difcouraged by the advanced feason, thought proper to disband his forces and retire to Edinburgh. Soon after he went over to France, and never again returned to Scotland. The Scots nation, agitated by their domeftic factions, were not, during feveral years, in a condition to give any more disturbance to England; and Henry had full leisure to prosecute his designs on the con tinent. THE reafon, why the war against France proceeded fo flowly on the part of England was the want of money. All Henry the seventh's treasures were long fince diffipated; the King's habits of expençe ftill remained; and his revenues were unequal even to the ordinary fupport of his government, much more to his military enterprizes. He had last year caufed a general furvey to be made of the kingdom; the numbers of men, their years, profeffion, stock, revenue; and expreffed great fatisfaction on finding the nation fo opulent. He then iffued privy feals to the most wealthy, demanding loans of particular fums; and this act of power, though fomewhat irregular and tyrannical, had been formerly practifed by kings of England; and the people were now familiarized to it. But Henry carried his authority much farther on this occafion, He published an edit for a general tax upon his fubjects, which he ftill called a loan; and he levied five fhillings in the pound from the clergy, two fhillings from the laity. This pretended loan, as being more regular, was really c Herbert. Stowe, p. 514. more |