The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (232 page)

the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, Fitzalan earl of Arundel, Vere earl of Oxford, the earl of Surrey, Paulet lord St. John, lord Ferrers of Chartley, lord Mountjoy, lord Grey of Wilton, Sir Anthony Brown, Sir Francis Bryan, and the most flourishing nobility and gentry of his kingdom. The English army was soon joined by the count de Buren, admiral of Flanders, with ten thousand foot, and four thousand horse; and the whole composed an army, which nothing on that frontier was able to resist. The chief force of the French armies was drawn to the side of Champagne, in order to oppose the Imperialists.

The emperor, with an army of near sixty thousand men, had taken the field much earlier than Henry; and not to lose time, while he waited for the arrival of his confederate, he sat down before Luxembourg, which was surrendered to him: He thence proceeded to Commercy on the Meuse, which he took: Ligny met with the same fate: He next laid siege to St. Disier on the Marne, which, though a weak place, made a brave resistance, under the count of Sancerre, the governor, and the siege was protracted beyond expectation.

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The emperor was employed before this town at the time the English forces were assembled in Picardy. Henry, either tempted by the defenceless condition of the French frontier, or thinking that the emperor had first broken his engagement, by forming sieges, or, perhaps, foreseeing at last the dangerous consequences of entirely subduing the French power, instead of marching forward to Paris, sat down before Montreuil and Boulogne. The duke of Norfolk commanded the army before Montreuil: The king himself that before Boulogne. Vervin was governor of the latter place, and under him Philip Corse, a brave old soldier, who encouraged the garrison to defend themselves to the last extremity against the English.

He was killed during the course of the siege, and the town was 14th Sept.

immediately surrendered to Henry by the cowardice of Vervin; who was afterwards beheaded for this dishonourable capitulation.

During the course of this siege, Charles had taken St. Disier; and finding the season much advanced, he began to hearken to a treaty of peace with France, since all his schemes for subduing that kingdom were likely to prove abortive. In order to have a pretence for deserting his ally, he sent a messenger to the English camp, requiring Henry immediately to fulfil his engagements, and to meet him with his army before Paris. Henry replied, that he was too far engaged in the siege of Boulogne to raise it with honour, and that the emperor himself had first broken the concert by besieging St. Disier. This answer served Charles as a sufficient reason for concluding a peace with Francis, at Crepy, where no mention was made of England.

He stipulated to give Flanders as a dowry to his daughter, whom 18th Sept.

he agreed to marry to the duke of Orleans, Francis’s second son; and Francis, in return, withdrew his troops from Piedmont and Savoy, and renounced all claim to Milan, Naples, and other territories in Italy. This peace, so advantageous to Francis, was procured, partly by the decisive victory obtained in the beginning of the campaign by the count of Anguyen over the Imperialists at Cerisolles in Piedmont, partly by the emperor’s great desire to turn his arms against the protestant princes in Germany. Charles ordered his troops to separate from the English in Picardy; and Henry, finding himself obliged to raise the siege of

30th Sept.

Montreuil, returned into England. This campaign served, to the populace, as matter of great triumph; but all men of sense concluded, that the king had, as in all his former military enterprizes, made, at a great expence, an acquisition, which was of no importance.

The war with Scotland, meanwhile, was conducted feebly, and with various success.

Sir Ralph Evers, now lord Evers, and Sir Bryan Latoun, made an inroad into that kingdom; and having laid waste the counties of Tiviotdale and the Merse, they proceeded to the abbey of Coldingham, which they took possession of, and fortified.

The governor assembled an army of eight thousand men, in order to dislodge them from this post; but he had no sooner opened his batteries before the place, than a sudden panic seized him; he left the army, and fled to Dunbar. He complained of the mutiny of his troops, and pretended apprehensions lest they should deliver him into the hands of the English: But his own unwarlike spirit was generally believed to have been the motive of this dishonourable flight. The Scottish army upon the departure of their general, fell into confusion; and had not Angus, with a few of his retainers, brought off the cannon, and protected their rear, the English might have gained great PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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advantages over them. Evers, elated with this success, boasted to Henry, that he had conquered all Scotland to the Forth; and he claimed a reward for this important service. The duke of Norfolk, who knew with what difficulty such acquisitions would be maintained against a warlike enemy, advised the king to grant him, as his reward, the conquests of which he boasted so highly. The next inroad made by the English, shewed the vanity of Evers’s hopes. This general led about five thousand men into Tiviotdale,

and was employed in ravaging that country; when intelligence 1545.

was brought him, that some Scottish forces appeared near the abbey of Melross. Angus had roused the governor to more activity; and a proclamation being issued for assembling the troops of the neighbouring counties, a considerable body had repaired thither to oppose the enemy. Norman Lesly, son of the earl of Rothes, had also joined the army with some voluntiers from Fife; and he inspired courage into the whole, as well by this accession of force, as by his personal bravery and intrepidity. In order to bring their troops to the necessity of a steady defence, the Scottish leaders ordered all their cavalry to dismount; and they resolved to wait, on some high grounds near Ancram, the assault of the English.

The English, whose past successes had taught them too much to 17th Feb.

despise the enemy, thought, when they saw the Scottish horses led off the field, that the whole army was retiring; and they hastened to attack them.

The Scots received them in good order; and being favoured by the advantage of the ground, as well as by the surprize of the English, who expected no resistance, they soon put them to flight, and pursued them with considerable slaughter. Evers and Latoun were both killed, and above a thousand men were made prisoners. In order to support the Scots in this war, Francis, some time after, sent over a body of auxiliaries, to the number of three thousand five hundred men, under the command of

Montgomery, lord of Lorges.s
Reinforced by these succours, the governor assembled an army of fifteen thousand men at Haddington, and marched thence to ravage the east borders of England. He laid all waste wherever he came; and having met with no considerable resistance, he retired into his own country, and disbanded his army. The earl of Hertford, in revenge, committed ravages on the middle and west marches, and the war on both sides was signalized rather by the ills inflicted on the enemy, than by any considerable advantage gained by either party.

The war likewise between France and England was not distinguished this year by any memorable event. Francis had equipped a fleet of above two hundred sail, besides gallies; and having embarked some land-forces on board, he sent them to make a

descent in England.t
They sailed to the Isle of Wight, where they found the English fleet lying at anchor in St. Helen’s. It consisted not of above a hundred sail; and the admiral thought it most advisable to remain in that road, in hopes of drawing the French into the narrow channels and the rocks, which were unknown to them. The two fleets cannonaded each other for two days; and except the sinking of the Mary Rose, one of the largest ships of the English fleet, the damage on both sides was inconsiderable.

Francis’s chief intention, in equipping so great a fleet, was to prevent the English from throwing succours into Boulogne, which he resolved to besiege; and for that purpose, he ordered a fort to be built, by which he intended to block up the harbour.

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After a considerable loss of time and money, the fort was found so ill constructed, that he was obliged to abandon it; and though he had assembled, on that frontier, an army of near forty thousand men, he was not able to effect any considerable enterprize.

Henry, in order to defend his possessions in France, had levied fourteen thousand Germans; who, having marched to Fleurines in the bishopric of Liege, found that they could advance no farther. The emperor would not allow them a passage through his dominions: They received intelligence of a superior army on the side of France ready to intercept them. Want of occupation and of pay soon produced a mutiny among them: And having seized the English commissaries as a security for arrears, they retreated into their own country. There seems to have been some want of foresight in this expensive armament.

The great expence of these two wars, maintained by Henry, 23d Nov. A

obliged him to summon a new parliament. The commons granted parliament.

him a subsidy, payable in two years, of two shillings a pound on

land.u
The spirituality voted him six shillings a pound. But the parliament, apprehensive lest more demands should be made upon them, endeavoured to save themselves by a very extraordinary liberality of other people’s property: By one vote they bestowed on the king all the revenues of the universities, as well as of the chauntries, free chapels,
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and hospitals. Henry was pleased with this concession, as it encreased his power; but he had no intention to rob learning of all her endowments; and he soon took care to inform the universities, that he meant not to touch their revenues. Thus these ancient and celebrated establishments owe their existence to the generosity of the king, not to the protection of this servile and prostitute parliament.

The prostitute spirit of the parliament farther appeared in the preamble of a statute;
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in which they recognize the king to have always been, by the word of God, supreme head of the church of England; and acknowledge, that archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastical persons, have no manner of jurisdiction but by his royal mandate: To him alone, say they, and such persons as he shall appoint, full power and authority is given from above to hear and determine all manner of causes ecclesiastical, and to correct all manner of heresies, errors, vices, and sins whatsoever. No mention is here made of the concurrence of a convocation, or even of a parliament. His proclamations are in effect acknowledged to have, not only the force of law, but the authority of revelation; and by his royal power he might regulate the actions of men, controul their words, and even direct their inward sentiments and opinions.

The king made in person a speech to the parliament on

24th Dec.

proroguing them; in which, after thanking them for their loving attachment to him, which, he said, equalled what was ever paid by their ancestors to any king of England, he complained of their dissentions, disputes, and animosities in religion. He told them, that the several pulpits were become a kind of batteries against each other; and that one preacher called another heretic and anabaptist, which was retaliated by the opprobrious appellations of papist and hypocrite: That he had permitted his people the use of the Scriptures, not in order to furnish them with materials for disputing and railing, but that he might enable them to inform their consciences and instruct their children and families: That it grieved his heart to find how that precious jewel was prostituted, by being introduced into the conversation of PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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every alehouse and tavern, and employed as a pretence for decrying the spiritual and legal pastors: And that he was sorry to observe, that the word of God, while it was the object of so much anxious speculation, had very little influence on their practice; and that, though an imaginary knowledge so much abounded, charity was daily going to

decay.y
The king gave good advice; but his own example, by encouraging speculation and dispute, was ill fitted to promote that peaceable submission of opinion, which he recommended.

Henry employed in military preparations the money granted by 1546.

parliament; and he sent over the earl of Hertford, and lord Lisle, the admiral, to Calais, with a body of nine thousand men, two thirds of which consisted of foreigners. Some skirmishes of small moment ensued with the French; and no hopes of any considerable progress could be entertained by either party.

Henry, whose animosity against Francis was not violent, had given sufficient vent to his humour by this short war; and finding, that, from his great encrease in corpulence and decay in strength, he could not hope for much longer life, he was desirous of ending a quarrel, which might prove dangerous to his kingdom during a minority.

Francis likewise, on his part, was not averse to peace with England; because, having lately lost his son, the duke of Orleans, he revived his ancient claim upon Milan, and foresaw, that hostilities must soon, on that account, break out between him and the emperor. Commissioners,

therefore, having met at Campe, a small place between Ardres 7th June. Peace with

and Guisnes, the articles were soon agreed on, and the peace France and Scotland.

signed by them. The chief conditions were, that Henry should retain Boulogne during eight years, or till the former debt due by Francis should be paid. This debt was settled at two millions of livres, besides a claim of 500,000 livres, which was afterwards to be adjusted. Francis took care to comprehend Scotland in the treaty. Thus all that Henry obtained by a war, which cost him above one million three hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling,
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was a bad and a chargeable security for a debt, which was not a third of the value.