READING HALL DOORS OF WISDOM

DOORS OF WISDOM

ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS.KING HENRY VII(1485-1509).

CHAPTER IV.

RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN POWERS 1495-1503 — THE SPANISH AND THE SCOTCH MARRIAGES.

Misfortune had perpetually accompanied Perkin Warbeck throughout his wanderings; not one single blow he aimed at his royal rival was successful. Directly he tried to act alone, without the guidance of his protectors, he showed himself to be without plan, without cleverness, and without courage. His political importance lay quite apart from himself, and depended on the fact that the various Powers made use of him, or simply of his existence, for their own political ends. In every event that concerned England from the year 1492, we find him mixed up—in the affairs of Ireland, in the French war, in the rupture with Maximilian and Burgundy and the commercial crisis arising therefrom, in the complication with Scotland and in its sequel, the Cornish insurrection. Thus the relations of England with all the Powers were for years influenced, and in part controlled, by this adventurer.

If, through Perkin Warbeck, difficulties beset Henry in his foreign relations, the political situation in Europe, on the other hand, was for him a fortunate one, for the ambitious grasping policy of France made the friendship of England equally valuable to those monarchs who were trying to keep the balance of power, and to France herself, who found herself threatened by them. The ruler of the island kingdom, lying far away from the contest in Italy, had only to take advantage of his geographical position to maintain his importance between the two Powers, Spain and France, who were suing for his friendship.

As the Spanish monarchs wanted to make Henry serve their own ends and draw him into the Holy League against France, they viewed with impatience all entanglements which were a hindrance to their object. For this reason their ambassador, Ayala, made every effort to reconcile England and Scotland; for this same reason they were the only rulers who always tried to thwart Warbeck’s intrigues. This, however, did not prevent them from making use of the pretender to further their own designs with regard to Henry. “If your majesties keep the so-called Duke of York in your royal hands, then you can carry out your will in all points and without hindrance in England”; so wrote Puebla to his sovereigns, they having already sent Ayala to Scotland with his secret instructions. And though Ayala did not attain his end, either with James or Perkin, he had in fact—though decidedly against his own wish—materially helped Perkin in his last enterprise against Henry. No doubt the Spanish rulers would have liked to have Warbeck at their disposal, not only as an impostor who might be sold to Henry for valuable concessions, but also as a pretender who might be useful. It was certainly not by accident that Warbeck, who had always been called by them “he,” or “he of York,” or “the so-called Duke of York,” should in their first letter written after his capture, appear for the first time under his own name Perkin.

To the English king they had naturally always declared him to be an impostor, and even offered to give particulars as to his origin; but as Henry still bore a grudge against many of their subjects for openly taking the side of Perkin, they reserved for themselves at least the possibility of veering round, as soon as it should serve their interests to favour the pretended Yorkist prince. To this point, however, they never came, and as it is highly improbable that they believed even for a short time in the genuineness of the impostor’s claim, so they alone never took his part against the Tudor.

Henry’s distrust was well founded, especially as he discovered that those who were urging him on against France had entered privately into communications with her, which,, in the spring and summer of 1496, were continued quite openly through the medium of ambassadors.1 Moreover, the Spaniards had not been very fortunate in their assurance about Maximilian.

After the formation of the Holy League, Henry had expressed a wish to join it, and this was certainly more than a mere polite form of expression, for he desired a friendly alliance with the Powers united in the League; but to enter a warlike coalition, one member of which, Maximilian, was his bitter foe and moreover the patron of the pretender to his throne, was not to be thought of. For the present, therefore, he prudently held back. The danger to the Pope which had been alleged, could not be great, as he himself had not even written to England on the subject.

At the same time Henry’s continued friendly relations with France were a thorn in the side of the Spaniards. A regular and polite intercourse by means of envoys was kept up between England and France, although certain complaints of piracy and injury to commerce occasionally crept in. In July, 1495, indeed, Henry declared to Ferdinand and Isabella that he was free to enter into any league, and to engage in a war; but in the following spring he pronounced himself in favour of a matrimonial alliance, proposed by Charles, between their two Houses, and ready for a personal meeting. He granted a reprieve of a year for the payment of sums due, and offered to mediate between France and the Powers of the Holy League. Of course, all the time he had his own objects in view—that Charles should deliver up the Duke of Albany and take action against Scotland, who now was threatening war. Charles seemed inclined to take advantage of this to quench the dawning influence of Spain, which threatened to become dangerous to the long-established French ascendancy in Scotland. He proposed to James a marriage with a French princess. Why should Henry break with this friend? If he joined the League, it must assume a form which would preclude this necessity. This was indeed to require much of a coalition directed against France.

The King of the Romans continued to form the chief obstacle to the designs of Spain. The Spaniards demanded the admission of Henry into the League, Maximilian opposed it; he did so in hopes of Warbeck’s success, who would prove a more amenable ally against France. At all events he determined to wait the result of the contest, nor was he discouraged by Warbeck’s defeat on the coast of Kent in the summer of 1495. The Pope and the Duke of Milan, as well as the Spaniards, urged Maximilian to give up his stubborn opposition; but the demands he made, whilst apparently yielding, amounted almost to a refusal. Henry was to break openly with France, and to go to war, whilst he undertook to send a force of two thousand men to Henry’s assistance, and to negotiate in his behalf with Warbeck, as well as in Ireland and Scotland. Instead of the required abandonment of Warbeck, these words seemed to imply an open acknowledgment of his claims. Henry gave an evasive answer. When his envoy, Egremont, appeared at Nordlingen, Maximilian assembled all the envoys of the League who were present, under the presidency of the Italian, Ludovico Bruno, his confidential Latin secretary, who was well known to be a partisan of the pretender. He wished to insist on the conditions he had imposed, but was warned especially by the Spanish envoy not to irritate Henry by so doing, since it would undoubtedly drive him into the arms of France. Though a hostile movement on the part of England was to be desired, the chief object should be merely to prevent her alliance with France. In the end Maximilian gave in so far that Egremont was despatched with the intimation that the King of the Romans was willing to see Henry join the League. Not one word was said about the principal difficulty—Warbeck.

As long as Maximilian entertained hopes for his protégé, there was no depending upon him. In spite of papal and Venetian influence, he and Bruno expressly insisted upon his obligations towards Perkin, whilst Henry still demanded that the pretender should be given up. From the answer given to Egremont, Henry thought he had already gained something, and at the end of April, 1496, Sir Christopher Urswick appeared at Augsburg and presented himself to the King of the Romans. The ambassador saw little to encourage him. Maximilian, while insisting on war, had himself made no preparations for arming, and the friends of Perkin still held their heads high at court. Urswick was also informed of the prevailing dislike of England, and of the compact with the pretender in Scotland. In the face of such opposition, it was impossible for the moment to come to any agreement, and, at the end of May, 1496, Urswick was dismissed with a few friendly words, to the great vexation of the Spaniards.

The difference between Maximilian’s fitful, sanguine conduct, and Ferdinand’s steady policy, always bent on the same goal and moving on the same lines, stood out in strong contrast in their conduct towards England. As there were rumours afloat of a marriage between Prince Arthur and the daughter of Anne de Beaujeu, it was doubly annoying to the Spaniards that England should be unnecessarily irritated by the obstinacy of Maximilian; and thinking that the promise to fulfil the marriage treaty would prove successful, as it had once done before, not only in preventing Henry from uniting with France, but even in dragging him into the war against her, they issued full powers for concluding the negotiations on the 30th of January, 1496.

That Burgundy gave up the policy into which it had been led by Maximilian’s influence was certainly a notable advantage. An important commercial treaty between Henry and Duke Philip, which was concluded in London, on the 24th of February, 1496, prohibited either side from giving assistance to rebels against the other. It was specially stated that no rebel should be permitted to remain in territories under Philip’s lordship belonging to the Duchess Margaret, or any other person, but that they should be immediately proceeded against. This was the exact contrary to the answer given to Poynings and Warham. The Spaniards had also contributed towards bringing about this settlement. Urged by them, the Pope had bestirred himself. He wrote to Henry, and empowered Puebla to conduct in his name the negotiations for Henry’s admission into the League. They demanded the same of Maximilian, as some slight protection against his shiftiness, and, even before Urswick arrived, he had given in, and signed the power on the 18th of April, 1496. But in doing so, he had only repeated his acquiescence in the admission of Henry to the League, nor did it occur to him to give up his protégé on that account.

It was a question whether the situation at that time would decide Henry, even without Maximilian’s last concession, to join the League and thereby to secure the friendship of the other Powers, or, at least, their neutrality. It was still open to him to choose. France would have accepted his alliance as gladly as would the members of the League. For the moment, therefore, he evaded the question ; in the negotia­tions about the Spanish marriage also, his plenipotentiaries showed a cautious reticence. The very urgency of the Spaniards gave him a feeling of security; indeed they ordered their ambassador to conclude the marriage treaty, even if Henry did not immediately declare war against France, and conceded to the demand of Henry that if he joined the League, he should be free from any obligation to take steps against France, or contribute money for the purpose. In return for this concession, Henry overlooked Maximilian’s conduct, especially as he gave no more assistance worth naming to Perkin. After all, there was as little sense in the policy of the King of the Romans with regard to the pretender, as there was danger from it to Henry.

The final negotiations did not take place in England, but in Rome, whither, in April, Henry had sent his secretary, Robert Sherbourne. On the 18th of July, 1496, the agreement was concluded there in the presence of the Pope. The text of the new League was the same as the old one of the 31st of March, 1495, only that the provisions concerning help in time of war and the disposition of troops were omitted; the members of the older League were, however, expressly bound by these earlier provisions. The announcement and conclusion of the treaty followed immediately. Henry signed it on the 23rd of September, 1496, two days after Perkin Warbeck had again beer obliged to retreat over the Scottish border. The Pope sent Henry, in acknowledgment, a consecrated hat and sword, which were received with much ceremony on All Saints Day.

Though the old provisions for offence might be retained for the other members of the coalition, yet the League, in the form in which Henry was permitted to enter it, was completely stripped of its aggressive character. It was not, indeed, the admission into the alliance of this prince, with his pronounced desire for neutrality, that caused this change, but his entrance made clear the change that had already taken place. The peaceful turn in European politics, which broke up the League, originated with Ferdinand himself, the author of it.

Cordova’s victories in Italy, accompanied by some successes on the Pyrenean border, had practically destroyed French ascendancy in Naples by the year 1496, and, as certain important places remained in the hands of the Spaniards, the way was prepared for their occupation of the country. The League having thus fulfilled its object with regard to Spain, there was some hope of coming to a friendly settlement by means of the negotiations actively carried on with France in 1496. Hostilities had not ceased on the border until the 27th of February, 1497, when an armistice between France and Spain was agreed upon at Lyons. The truce, which included the other members of the League, was to begin for Spain on the 5th of March, for the others on the 25th of April, and to last for the present till the 1st of November, in order that the permanent peace might in the meanwhile be settled. This armistice was extended, as the plenipotentiaries did not meet till well on in the following year at Perpignan for the final negotiations.

No one could be more pleased with this turn of affairs than Henry, for his friendship with France, as is shown most plainly by the conclusion of a new commercial treaty between them in May, 1497, was in no way shaken by his adhesion to the League. In other ways, also, pacific tendencies were making themselves felt. It was certainly no sign of dissatisfaction that Pope Alexander, even before the end of 1496, bestowed on Ferdinand and Isabella the title of the “Catholic Kings.”1 The Burgundian government now began to free itself from the influence of Maximilian, not only with regard to England, but to France, and to make overtures of friendship. The King of the Romans alone held out. But he was not to be reconciled, and when, on the 7th of April, 1498, Charles VIII, at the age of twenty-seven, died unexpectedly and without issue, Maximilian at once confronted the new ruler, Louis XII, with his claims on the Duchy of Burgundy, and began to arm for an onslaught; he could not, however, effect anything, unsupported as he was by the other members of the League. He remained completely isolated.

By divorcing his wife and marrying Charles’ widow, Anne, Louis prevented the separation of Brittany from France, and he openly took up the traditional policy with regard to Italy, by assuming the title of King of France and Duke of Milan. Elsewhere his aim was peace. He at once despatched an embassage to London, where a solemn funeral service was held for his predecessor in St. Paul’s. On the 14th of July, 1498, the Treaty of Etaples was renewed in Paris by Henry’s plenipotentiaries, and the continued payment of the sum due was guaranteed. It was only the article concerning rebels, which always played its part in all English settlements, that underwent any material alteration, and this was worded with more severity in consequence of recent experiences. Louis swore to the concluded treaty on the Holy Gospels and on a fragment of the true Cross, promising special punctuality in the payment of the money. Later, on the 1st of February, 1500, at the wish of the contracting parties, Pope Alexander bound them more closely to their treaty with threats of the penalties of the Church.

Louis had not been long in making up his mind to purchase for himself the lasting friendship of England by these rather unequal concessions, even though he is said to have made great difficulties at first. He strove to abide by the treaty, which he caused to be recognised by his Estates, and the article concerning rebels came into force when in the summer of 1499, John Taylor, the partisan of Warbeck, was seized in France and handed over to Henry. Care was also taken, by means of ample pensions, to secure good friends for Louis at the English court.

Maximilian had again made repeated attempts in the years 1497 and 1498 to induce the English king, for whom he otherwise displayed the most unequivocal enmity, to take the field in his interests against France, he promised to give him his support in an attack on Guienne; there was even some idea of investing him with Brittany. Designs such as these were not likely to interfere with Henry’s peaceful projects, but it must have been a far greater disappointment to the King of the Romans, when, in spite of all his efforts to the contrary, his own son Philip made peace with France. By the treaty of Paris of the 2nd of August, 1498, Philip, amongst other things, renounced this very Duchy of Burgundy reclaimed by Maximilian, and did homage to the French king for Flanders and Artois.

On the 5th of August, only a few days later, followed Louis’ agreement with the Spaniards, at Marcoussis. They were naturally mainly interested in discussing the arrangement about Naples, and here the Spanish design of a partition of that kingdom formed the basis of the understanding; but on these ulterior plans the treaty itself was for the present silent, it only dealt with peace and friendship between the two Powers. It was this contract which completely shattered the Holy League; Maximilian alone struggled to escape from these trammels of a peace thus imposed on the whole of Western Europe.

Never yet had the efforts of Henry and his Spanish friends followed so completely on the same lines, as now in this time of a universal agreement for the preservation of peace. The Spaniards would indeed have preferred that Henry should have joined in the old war league, but this merely with the object of bringing the English king into more direct opposition to France. This time they were in the disagreeable position of being forced to give in to English demands, for, what now seemed to stand like some menacing spectre in the background was the dread of any influence from England that might injuriously affect that diplomatic war just embarked on with France, and also of the possibility of an increase of strength to that country by her closer union with England. Thus it came about that Henry, in the very year that saw the attack on him by the pretender in league with Scotland, managed, by a clever use of the European situation, to achieve one success after another; the defeat of Warbeck was also a defeat for Maximilian, who was reckoning on Warbeck’s success.

Finally the Spaniards endeavoured, by the help of the pro­mised treaty of marriage, to make Henry assume a more hostile attitude towards France, while their own efforts for peace made it more easy for them to drop their original demands for war. In return, the marriage treaty was at all events to be accompanied by a covenant binding England more closely to Spain, and by the long-wished-for concessions with respect to trade. But here, too, Spain had to yield; the treaty in London of the 1st of October, 1496, rested only on the marriage conditions of the treaty of Medina del Campo, without taking into consideration the special wishes of the Spaniards—no alliance to bind England, no commercial conditions, only the marriage of Arthur and Katharine, formed the contents. The questions as to the dowry and jointure remained as before, except that some points hitherto uncertain were cleared up, and while Katharine’s right of succession in Spain was again secured to Fer, Henry on his part confirmed by a special document the right of succession of Arthur and his descendants in England before his brothers and sisters.

On the 1st of January, 1497, the Catholic kings executed the new treaty, and empowered their ambassador, Puebla, to arrange the formal betrothal in England by proxy; at the same time they now pressed for the conclusion, at least, of a closer alliance; they even spoke again of a war against France. At this moment Ayala was beginning his work as intermediary in Scotland, and they were still hoping to get Perkin into their hands as a useful tool against Henry. The plan failed, and since their wishes for closer alliance and facility for trade were reserved for future settlement, Henry had a pledge for the punctual fulfilment of the marriage treaty. That he intended to keep what he had got is shown by the promise to lessen the customs duties “ in honour of the joyful arrival of the princess Katharine in England.” He even hesitated about the execution of the marriage treaty, and did not sign it till the 18th of July, 1497, when the Cornish insurrection rendered Spanish intervention in Scotland absolutely necessary to him. A month later, in the presence of the court, at Woodstock, the solemn betrothal took place, when Puebla, as directed by his instructions, represented the princess. It is this which probably explained the second ratification of the treaty by the Spanish monarchs, on the 4th of February, 1498, at Alcala.1 The September of 1497 saw a truce with Scotland, concluded for Henry with the help of Spain, and by October the troublesome pretender was in his power. The new political schemes and entanglements into which Maximilian had plunged, caused a temporary cessation of hostilities even with his rival; though his feelings towards Henry had by no means changed, and were only waiting fresh opportunity to burst forth with renewed activity.

The English king and the Spanish monarchs were able on the whole to congratulate themselves on their success. The Spaniards, the acknowledged leaders of European politics, in whose name a new world had been disclosed in the western hemisphere, had driven Charles VIII out of Italy, and by the truce of Lyons had gained for the present a free hand in Naples; moreover, they had kept possession of Cerdagne and Roussillon, concluded an agreement for the projected double marriage with the children of Maximilian, and finally had prevented the dreaded union of England with France.

But Henry had maintained his position with peculiar cleverness in the midst of a crowd of domestic and foreign difficulties, which beset him on every side. Foreign observers agreed in saying, that England for many years had not obeyed any monarch so well as the Tudor; his throne from henceforth stood secure. His position with regard to foreign affairs was completely changed; he who at first sued for friendship, now found his friendship sought by all, and that this fact was recognised is proved by the price which Spain paid for the renewal of the friendship with England.

The further settlement of the general question and the completion of the marriage itself were, in due course, to follow the last marriage treaty with Spain. That this treaty was so advantageous for Henry was due, not only to the European situation being favourable to him, and to his own cleverness or the lucky accident that Warbeck did not succumb to Spanish blandishments, but in great part to the inadequate and undignified diplomatic representative of Ferdinand and Isabella in England.

Among the plenipotentiaries of foreign powers accredited to Henry’s court, Roderigo Gondesalvi de Puebla, doctor of civil and canon law, who permanently resided there, played a peculiar part. He was at first only temporarily in England, in 1488 and 1489, then permanently, from 1494 till his death in 1509. In the year 1496 were heard the first complaints of his indifferent despatches, his sovereigns heard nothing from him about the great Cornish insurrection, and they suspected that their ambassador represented English rather than Spanish interests. At the same time Puebla was filled with the deepest jealousy of each one of his official colleagues, who appeared in England. In this he was to a certain extent justified when his monarchs left him in ignorance of a difficult task which Ayala had fulfilled with regard to Perkin Warbeck ; it was just on this very Ayala, so far superior to himself, that he poured forth the vials of his wrath, whilst he blackened his rival’s character in every way with the hope of damaging his reputation with the kings. They, however, caused inquiries to be made about Puebla’s own behaviour by the two ambassadors, Londono and the sub-prior of Santa Cruz, who passed through England to Flanders in the spring of 1498.

Their suspicions that Puebla was working more for England than for Spain found special confirmation from his failure to take advantage in his sovereigns’ interests of favourable moments, such as the great rebellion of 1497, and from his careless handling of the customs question, which had roused against himself the animosity of the Spanish merchants, who complained that they could get nothing out of Henry by his means unless they bribed him; no captain, no common sailor even could get what he wanted without money. It was said he carried on the trade of an attorney, and was covetous and usurious. Now, however, he got into evil case, as his salary was not paid him in spite of all his complaints. In June, 1500, he begged for at least a third of the arrears due to him, and this third alone he reckoned at eleven hundred ducats.

This somewhat explains his scandalous mode of life. For three years he lived in the house of a mason who harboured loose women, and he dined daily for twopence at the same table with this company. He could take his meals still more cheaply and comfortably at court; and a courtier, when asked by the king what was the reason of Puebla’s coming, answered with a sneer, “To eat.” He was certainly not looked upon with much respect by the English, and still less by his own countrymen. One opinion of him may suffice. This describes him as a liar, flatterer, calumniator, beggar, and doubtful Christian. Henry is not likely to have had a much better opinion of him; he knew, however, how to make clever use of him, and to attach him to himself by small favours and the prospect of greater rewards. But with good reason his masters were pointedly silent about the plan of giving him an English bishopric, or of marrying him to a rich wife in England. They treated in the same way the wish he expressed, when in financial difficulties, that they should hand over to him the civil and criminal jurisdiction over the Spaniards residing in England; although, when preferring this request, he enclosed the document granting him the appointment, prepared for signature. It may be that they wished to keep him in a state of dependence, for it was only Puebla’s satisfactory relations with Henry which induced them, in spite of all the bad reports, and all their own unfavourable experiences, to leave him at his post. In any negotiations of importance they associated with him capable men like Ayala. However much Puebla’s jealousy and vanity might rebel against this, all his boasting about his own superiority and experience was of no avail. They signified their dissatisfaction some­times ironically and often plainly enough to the vain and foolish man, whom they occasionally smoothed down again by fair words. But still this most original and comical diplomatist continued to be kept at the English court.

In all subsequent negotiations, Puebla did not belie his nature. The next task for diplomacy to undertake was a closer alliance with England, strongly insisted on by the Spaniards, as a supplement to the matrimonial treaty. The position of affairs, however, was quite different from what it had been in March, 1489, when Spain had compelled her ally to take part in her war with France. Desirous of peace, she had sent Londono to England with an official communication of her pacific intentions, while Henry, now that he was sure of his affair, even began, at least in Puebla’s presence, to speak of warlike plans against France. The Spanish draft of the treaty of alliance did not please him; the wording of the clauses on rebels, so important for him, offered in particular considerable difficulty, and Puebla calmly confessed that in this matter he had exceeded his powers.

On the 10th of July, 1499, a settlement was effected in London, in which the earlier treaty of Medina del Campo served again as a general basis. Certain of the single clauses on friendship, help in war, freedom of trade, and protection against rebels, were now drawn up more precisely, and the treaty was to hold good for the present rulers and their successors. England now stood, not only in appearance, but in fact, on a footing of equality with her ally. Puebla tried to make the most, to his somewhat dissatisfied sovereigns, of the difficulties overcome, the excellence and great importance of this treaty, which, with evident self-satisfaction, he characterised as “a master-stroke of diplomacy.”

On the subject of the marriage treaty also, the fulfilment of which was to wait for some years, owing to the youth of the betrothed pair, there were now various unnecessary delays, originating more in a certain distrust justified by former experience, than perhaps in a wish on either side to postpone the agreements. That both parties were in earnest was shown by their efforts to secure the papal dispensation, in order that a formal marriage by proxy might be concluded before the young couple had reached a marriageable age. This marriage took place immediately after the arrival of the dispensation in the summer of 1498, and in pursuance of a special power sent by Katharine to Puebla, was repeated once more in due form on the 19th of May, 1499, at Bewdley, Arthur’s country seat. After vows exchanged, he and Puebla—who represented the princess—laid their hand in each other’s, whereupon both declared the marriage concluded, and that they regarded each other as man and wife. The newly married children, who had not yet made each other’s acquaintance, now exchanged their first affectionate letters, in which they spoke of love and longing, and expressed the hope that they should often hear from each other.

Some difficulties were raised on the question of sending Katharine over to England, which was to be on the completion of Arthur’s fourteenth year, and therefore in 1500. The English, on their side, were for pressing on the date; the princess ought, they said, as soon as possible to become accustomed to the new life and foreign tongue. The queen and the queen-mother suggested that she should at least exercise herself in French, for which she had opportunity, because English ladies did not understand Latin or even Spanish; and it was pointed out to her that to accommodate herself to the English customs and mode of life would not be easy. On the subject of a suite which was to accompany Katharine, there were differences of opinion. Henry and his queen begged that the ladies might be of good family and handsome—at least, that none of them should be strikingly plain; and they wished to reduce the number of Spanish servants, whilst Ferdinand and Isabella wished to increase it, but expected the English king to pay the salaries.

In spite of the assurances of the Spaniards that they would adhere to the appointed date, the preparations for the princess’s departure were still delayed : having regard, therefore, to the approaching stormy season of the year, Henry declared himself ready to agree to a further postponement till June, 1501. Meanwhile, as Arthur had now reached an age when he could be party to a treaty, the Spaniards insisted on a repetition of the wedding ceremony, already twice performed. Apparently they were filled with anxiety lest their ally should at the last moment leave them in the lurch. After some additional delays, Henry gave in, and the ceremony was again repeated on the 22nd of November, 1500. The tables were now turned. The cause of the Spaniards’ anxiety was the friendly relations which were begun in the year 1500 between Henry and the Archduke Philip, and which culminated in a personal meeting between the two rulers. In June, 1500, Gomez de Fuensalida went to England, charged with a secret commission, to be concealed even from Puebla, to inquire whether there was any foundation for the report that Maximilian wished to frustrate the Spanish marriage of the Prince of Wales, and to substitute another.

The real object of this embassage was hidden in somewhat peculiar fashion under the pretext of a commission to assist Puebla in introducing an alteration into the marriage treaty; and to Puebla himself this pretended commission was made specially emphatic by the censure of his bad mode of conducting business on this occasion. At the same time, after all the firm and binding covenants, the proposed change was to be a feeler to discover Henry’s true state of mind; so Fuensalida, to Puebla’s annoyance, very soon brought forward the matter for discussion, but without achieving any special result. The whole commission was now withdrawn by fresh instructions from Spain, and Puebla was left to splutter forth his sus­picion, jealousy, and self-conceit on the subject of this new rival. It must have been extremely annoying to him that even Henry requested King Ferdinand to leave Ayala, who had already been recalled, in England, till the arrival of Katharine, though Puebla had begged that this rival, who had become a constant nightmare to him, might be removed. Nothing, therefore, was left him but to indulge in fruitless anger and pathetic lamentations over his unappreciated talents as a diplomatist.

These customary petty jealousies on the part of the am­bassador disturbed the progress of affairs as little as did the Spaniards’ temporary distrust of the honourable intentions of England. This feeling had indeed been increased by Fuensalida’s first reports, when he heard on his journey through France of the meeting between Henry and the archduke near Calais, and of the consequent surmises of the French. Towards the end of the journey, however, this distrust was removed. The best witness for Henry’s good faith was afforded by the preparations for the wedding in England, and by the distrust again exhibited by the English in Fuensalida’s own masters. The wedding ceremony had been once more repeated, according to their express wish, and they now sent to beg Henry to exercise some moderation in the festivities for which he was making ready. The king was said to have spent in France £14,000 on jewels alone for the wedding

Once more the departure was delayed, the reason given being a rising of the Moors in Ronda. On the 21st of May, 1501, the princess left her parents in Granada, but did not arrive at Corunna till the middle of July. On the 25th of August the squadron set sail, but was driven back to Laredo by a storm; it set out again on the 27th of Sep­tember. A spell of fine weather was followed by a strong south wind. The waves rose high, and, as if the storms on her passage were a foreboding of all the sorrows of heart that awaited the Spanish princess in her new home, foul weather accompanied them throughout the voyage, till they landed in Plymouth on the 2nd of October.

Forthwith the English prepared a fitting welcome. Henry greeted his future daughter in a French letter; many nobles hastened to receive and escort her. But Henry did not set out ’to meet her till the 4th of November, and Prince Arthur joined him on the way. When the Spanish prothonotary announced to him Ferdinand’s instructions that no one was to see the princess at present, the king replied, after consulting his council, that as soon as she set foot on English soil the Spaniards were relieved of their office as her guardians, and that any further orders would be issued by the king of England. He met Katharine at Dogmersfield, and soon after him Prince Arthur greeted her. Then they separated. Katharine arrived at Lambeth on the 9th of November, where she remained till the day of her state entry into London. Henry went by another way to Richmond, then to Baynard’s Castle, in London, whither his wife Elizabeth followed him.

On the 12th of November Katharine entered the capital. When she arrived at London Bridge, women in the garb of the Saints Katharine and Ursula welcomed her with a Latin distich and a longer poem in English, and at Gracechurch Street, Cornhill, Soper Lane, and Cheapside, the procession was greeted in the same way. The young Spanish princess could hardly have understood the meaning of the lengthy verses, and as little of the speech of the Recorder, delivered in the name of the citizens in Cheapside, where the Lord Mayor with the aldermen on horseback awaited the future queen. But pomp and splendour greeted her on all sides. The streets were richly decorated; costly draperies hung from all the windows, and wine flowed out of conduit pipes, to the delight of the crowd. Her procession stopped at the Bishop of London’s palace, and here Henry appeared shortly after, with his wife and mother.

On Sunday, the 14th of November, 1501, the marriage ceremony took place, in presence of a crowd of spectators, at St. Paul’s, on a great platform extending from of the west door to the choir. The Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated mass, and then the bride, accompanied by the Spanish ambassador and young Henry of York, returned to the bishop’s palace. Her jointure had been solemnly adjudged to her in the church itself, and the half of the dowry that was due had been brought thither and paid over to her.

Then followed a splendid banquet, and days of endless festivity. At Westminster there were tournaments, and in the Hall again the favourite allegorical representations. The royal party themselves led off the dance before the assembled guests, and it delighted them all to see how young Henry, throwing aside the state robe which hampered his movements, gaily went on in his doublet Thus day after day they continued with dancing, feasting, play, and tournament, bearing with astonishing endurance for two whole weeks the monotony of this gay round of revelry. Henry himself informed Katharine’s parents of all that had taken place. He vowed he would be a second father to her, a promise he was to ignore for a long time.

With noisy rejoicings and the gorgeous display of his immense wealth, the king had solemnized the union of the two princely Houses. The goal was reached for which he had striven ever since his accession. An idle rumour declared that it was not till the execution of the Earl of Warwick that Ferdinand considered the throne of the Tudor to be firmly established, and gave his consent to the marriage contract; but, in fact, that contract had been decided on before Warwick’s death, and Henry had already given ample evidence of the security of his throne.

If of late years English and Spanish policy had been following the same course, it was not, as before, because England gave in submissively to the wishes of her stronger ally; rather it was Spain who now was the one to yield. The Spaniards rendered far more direct services to the English king than the English king did to them, and while their own marriage negotiations were still going on, Spanish policy gave its aid, as it had done before, to English policy in Scotland. Out of the truce and treaty of peace with that kingdom was to spring that matrimonial alliance, so full of importance for the future, which, as well as the Spanish alliance, Henry was able to regard as his peculiar work.

That Henry was genuinely in earnest in his peace policy, and pursued it for its own sake, is nowhere more clearly shown than in his dealings with Scotland. His inclination for peace impelled him to go to the furthest limit at which he could allow a less powerful neighbour to meet him; for had not his proposals of a marriage for James been totally disregarded by the latter? When at last, in the year 1497, Henry was rousing himself to serious retaliation on account of Scotch hostility, the Cornish insurrection forced him back into his old pacific policy. In December, 1497, after the fresh onslaught in the autumn had been repulsed, the final treaty was concluded, to last the lifetime of the two monarchs. Henry helped to keep Scotland isolated, for by maintaining friendly relations with France he withdrew from Scotland the support which she had found hitherto in all her struggles with England. Besides this, Henry’s other ally, Spain, was now working in the most decided way in accordance with the king’s wishes; with Perkin’s capture the ostensible reason for the continual fighting had at last been removed.

Henry showed himself, indeed, not quite satisfied with the conditions of the December truce; the guarantee against future support given to rebels seemed to him insufficient. But his attitude being on principle 'conciliatory, he was ready to make concessions, and James’s annoyance at his demand would have been without importance, if an unfortunate occurrence on the Border had not added fuel to the flame. Sometime in June, 1498, some young Scotchmen appeared in a very suspicious way before Norham, against which place James’s last attack had been directed. As they would not answer any questions about their intentions, high words soon led to blows. The Scotch, who were in the minority, were driven away, leaving some of their number on the field; the English pursued, and some pillaging took place within Scottish territory. James, who would gladly have again drawn the sword, resolved on making a complaint to Henry, who thereupon sent to him his experienced negotiator, Richard Fox, Bishop of Durham, while James begged Ayala, then in London, to act as intermediary.

Ayala, who had received further instructions from home through Londono, promised to do his best, although he almost despaired of being able to persuade the hostile neighbours to agree to a lasting peace. Besides, he now met with difficulties from Henry. It appears that during the negotiations carried on at Melrose between James and Fox about the late occurrence, the scheme of a marriage which had already been mooted was seriously discussed, and that James at last gave his consent to it. As soon as Henry felt tolerably sure of carrying his point, he held back and feigned hesitation. Perhaps he was thinking less of the Scotch than of the Spaniards, who had involved themselves pretty deeply in the pretended negotiations for James’s Spanish marriage. They would have been placed in the greatest embarrassment by Henry’s withdrawal, for James treated the question of his Spanish marriage so much in earnest, that Ayala, in order not to vex him, advised his sovereigns really to give him the hand of their third daughter, the Infanta Maria, who, eventually, was married in Portugal.

Perhaps Henry knew of this, when by an unexpected question about the Infanta, during an interview with Londono, he made himself certain that he would risk nothing by now bringing forward his scruples on the subject of the Scottish marriage. Margaret, who was born on the 29th of November, 1490, was really much too young, and besides, weakly for her age ; the time of waiting would therefore in any case be long. The king also spoke of the opposition of his mother and wife, on account of the bad effect it was likely to have on the health of the child. It was at that time believed that Henry would rather marry her to the Crown Prince of Denmark, who was then also a child, than to the king of Scots, who was so much her elder. Henry seems especially to have striven to put pressure on the Spaniards ; he was then particularly anxious to obtain their mediation on account of the Border difficulties, and at the beginning of 1499, therefore, plenipotentiaries were again actively at work settling the indemnities to be paid on both sides.

The marriage negotiations were still dragging on. It was thought that Scotland’s relation with France had something to do with this; Henry therefore considered it necessary to assure the Spanish monarch that the Scotch affairs were not going so badly as they supposed. We do not know the details, but anyhow Henry was successful in his tactics. On the 12th of July, 1499, a treaty of peace and political alliance was once more concluded at Stirling, between the English and Scotch plenipotentiaries, which in every particular fulfilled Henry’s wishes, and met the objections he had made to the preceding treaty. The bond was drawn closer. Henry protected him­self against any help which James might perhaps give to his former friend Perkin and his accomplices, then still living; for on that score he was not without misgivings.

In the never-ending series of English and Scotch treaties, no sooner made than broken, a settlement had at last been arrived at, which contained real guarantees of peace. This new covenant therefore marked one stage in advance towards that last and strongest union after which Henry, though he seemed to be evading it, was constantly striving. Preliminary discussions seem to have gone on in London with the Scotch ambassadors. On the nth of September, 1499, Henry again empowered Richard Fox to negotiate about the marriage and dowry. How the Spaniards managed to withdraw their own matrimonial offer we do not know. Some doubts still arose, because of James’s possible intentions with regard to the hand of Maximilian’s daughter Margaret, or of a French princess; but after some further proceedings, in October, 1501, he despatched his plenipotentiaries, who appeared in London on the 20th of November, just at the time of the festivities in honour of the Spanish marriage. Their negotiations were still going on when the new year began; the capital did not fail to honour the foreign dignitaries with a banquet, to which they responded by a poem in praise of the city of London. On the 24th of January, 1502, the treaty of marriage and alliance was finally drawn up in three separate documents.

The marriage treaty determined that Margaret should be handed over to her husband not later than the 1st of September, 1503; the rest of the treaty mainly dealt with the financial settlements. With suspicious caution, which led to the most minute details, English interests were safeguarded as much as possible in the question of jointure and dowry. In return for the £2000 jointure, a dowry of only 30,000 English nobles or £1o,ooo was given. The payment was to be made in three yearly instalments, and to cease at once if Margaret died childless within that time. James was expressly bound to undertake the maintenance of the young queen’s court, of which twenty-four English servants were to form part. The treaty of alliance made at the same time widened and strengthened that of 1499. It was to hold good for ever ; each party was to supply aid in time of war to his ally, if the other were attacked by a king, prince, or any other person”; intercourse in commerce and on the Border was regulated, as well as protection for the same and the punishment of any deed of violence. The new treaty was to guarantee peace as securely as possible, and this especially by means of the strong bond of matrimony. It cannot therefore but strike us as strange and regrettable that Henry should have insisted, in such an emphatic and obtrusive manner, on the preservation of the smallest and pettiest money interests, when such great issues were involved.

On the 25th of January, 1502, the very day after the signing of the three documents, the marriage was celebrated at Richmond, when Patrick, Earl of Bothwell, acted as proxy for his king. The court, the ambassadors of Spain, France, Venice and the Pope, were present, together with a large number of English notables. The Archbishop of Glasgow performed the ceremony; a flourish of trumpets brought the solemn act to a conclusion. The Scotch plenipotentiaries dined at the royal table, tourneys and more banquets followed, whilst from St. Paul’s Cross in London the completion of the marriage was announced to the people, and in the church Te Deum was sung. Bonfires blazed, and beside each fire a hogshead of wine was tapped for the benefit of the thirsty populace. Distribution of prizes, and again banquets and tournaments went on for the next two days, after which the Scotchmen were sent back to their homes with the customary presents.

In spite of all the obligations imposed by the treaty, many a moment of doubt and insecurity was to follow. Cause for anxiety continued to exist in consequence of the relations between the Scottish king, who was an ardent lover of women, and the beautiful Lady Margaret Drummond, till that hindrance was removed by her somewhat mysterious death, which occurred in the same year as the conclusion of the treaty. A mistake on the part of James called forth fresh correspondence. When swearing to the treaty, he—the king of a country from the earliest times on friendly terms with France—had given Henry the title claimed by him of King of France. On the 10th of December, 1502, James renewed the oath in another form; and, on the 17th of December, he ratified the treaties, as Henry had done before him on the 31st of October. This led Henry to demand of James at the last minute the assurance that he would not renew his “ old league and covenant with France.” Shortly before Margaret crossed the border, James, indeed, undertook not to renew the alliance for a time, but would not pledge himself to more than this.

It was the necessary postponement of the marriage in consequence of Margaret’s tender age, which contributed to lengthen out the proceedings. In the year 1503 Henry again made James specially promise that he would not demand his bride before the date fixed, also, that he would have the treaty ratified by the Scotch parliament, and Henry sent special envoys to Scotland with a view to ascertaining exactly the value of the landed estates assigned for Margaret’s jointure.

The bride was given over to her husband in conformity with the conditions of the treaty. Henry himself superintended most carefully the clothing and equipment of his daughter, in which he seemed to be particularly desirous that, where possible, the red rose of the Lancastrians should be introduced. He accompanied her from Richmond to Collyweston, in Northamptonshire, the favourite residence of his mother, and there, on the 8th of July, 1503, Margaret took leave of her family.

Through Newark, York, Durham, and Newcastle, the stately procession moved slowly towards Berwick. The young queen travelled in a litter, but whenever the authorities of the counties and towns came forward to greet her, she appeared richly attired, mounted on an ambling jennet. In the towns through which she passed, especially in York and Newcastle, she was given a brilliant reception; the bells pealed from the towers, a crowd of curious spectators thronged the gaily decorated streets, whilst the bands which accompanied her poured forth their melodies. A retinue of richly dressed, well-mounted noblemen surrounded Margaret as, on the 1st of August, with her escort of some two thousand horse, she approached the Border. There, at Lamberton Kirk, the Archbishop of Glasgow greeted her in the name of the king. Two days afterwards, near Dalkeith, her husband met her, approached her with his head uncovered, kissed her, and, after greeting her escort, stepped aside with her alone. After they had dined together, music struck up, and the queen danced before James with Lady Surrey. She did the same on the following day, when James surprised her playing cards with her ladies. He, in return, displayed his proficiency on the clavichord and lute, and on bidding her farewell, he sprang into the saddle without touching the stirrups, and galloped away, let follow who would. On the 7th of August they entered Edinburgh, Margaret sitting on horseback behind her husband. The marriage was celebrated by the Arch­bishop of Glasgow with great pomp in the chapel of Holyrood Palace. Days of festivity followed, with church services, knightly games, and banquetings; the ceremonies connected with his marriage had cost the king a good round sum.

Thus was concluded the union, which, according to its promoter’s wish, was to bring about a long and peaceful connection between two neighbour countries, ever jealous of each other, and hitherto in a state of perpetual and useless warfare. Be the story true or not, nothing shows more clearly the sagacity of deed and thought in the wise Tudor than the answer which he is reported to have given to the anxious question whether, by hereditary succession, England might not at some future time fall to a Scotch prince; and if it were so, he replied, he did not see how this would do harm to England, for England would not fall to Scotland, but Scotland to England, since the lesser was always drawn to the greater. Seldom has the course of history more fully justified word and deed of political wisdom.

COMMERCE AND DISCOVERIES.

In the tangled web of English politics from the year 1490 to 1500, it is necessary to separate the individual threads which touch and cross each other in every direction, if we would take a general survey of the whole. During that period, Henry, in spite of all domestic and external difficulties, pushed the commercial interests of his country in accordance with the principles already adopted, not only in the same channels as heretofore, but even ventured on new and as yet untried ground.

Perkin Warbeck’s intrigues had exercised a marked influence on the trade between England and the Low Countries, for a serious stoppage of trade had been the result of Henry’s interdiction, and the Londoners’ hatred of the foreigner culminated in the attack on the Steelyard in October, 1493. And yet, in spite of incessant hostility on the part of the ever-restless Maximilian, it was during the quarrel with the Burgundian Netherlands that the first step was taken towards an adjustment of difficulties. Whilst Perkin was still in Scotland, and Spain was strenuously urging Henry to join the Holy League, Burgundy concluded, in February, 1496, commercial peace with England, although the King of the Romans still openly showed his aversion to the English king. The constant state of war had become extremely burdensome, and encounters on the sea were frequent between the people of both countries. After a Burgundian embassage had opened, in London, preliminary negotiations, the details of which are not known to us, Philip and his council at Brussels, on the 14th of December, 1495, gave instructions to the Lord of Beures and five companions, and sent them to London, where they arrived on the 1st of February, 1496, and were quartered in Crosby Hall. On the 24th of February they concluded a treaty as a basis for future commercial relations, the general political conditions of which we have already been able to touch on.

No further burdens than those that had been customary for the last fifty years should be laid for the future on the merchants of either country; the free interchange of all kinds of goods was only so far restricted that, if occasion arose, the export of the necessaries of life might be prohibited; not only trade, but the fisheries were made free. Traders should enjoy every protection; piracy, as much as possible, be put a stop to; the people, as well as their rulers, should cease from hostilities, and mutually support each other; orderly and just dealing was promised.

If this treaty of peace contained the sum of all the general regulations by which an unrestricted and successful commercial intercourse was possible, the period immediately following it did not, unfortunately, fulfil the hopes which such agreements justified. On the whole, the preceding rupture must have been less felt by England than by her rival. Henry, indeed, showed a favourable disposition towards Burgundy. He expressed this also by his hospitable reception of the ambassadors; but in other respects, odd as it may appear, the peace was not assented to with pleasure in England. Only after much resistance did the Londoners, at Henry’s demand, resolve on affixing the seal of their city to the document, and the Lord Mayor considered it necessary to issue a special manifesto in order to justify this compliance. The same command was sent to other towns, such as Canterbury and Southampton.

But after all it was from the Low Countries that fresh difficulties arose. As early as June, 1496, Henry protested emphatically against a duty imposed in Antwerp on English cloth, contrary to the treaty; the Spanish monarchs tried to smooth over these disagreements, but they lasted on into the following year. Henry passed from threats to the actual removal of the English mart from Antwerp to Calais, where a special duty was levied on Burgundian merchants. It was not till the 7th of July, 1497, that an understanding, arrived at in London, abolished the Antwerp duty. English cloth was to have free admission into all Philip’s dominions except Flanders, and any fresh violation of the treaty, on the part of Burgundy, was to give Henry the right to-annul all other treaties; on the other hand, the question of the corresponding English duty was to be settled at Bruges.

But the ill feeling once firmly rooted was not easily removed by new treaties, nor can we quite determine how far outside influences, perhaps again that of the King of the Romans, had to do with it. The conference at Bruges in April, 1498, was without result; the proceedings, however, were continued in London, where, at the end of July, the Bishop of Cambray appeared with three colleagues. Henry did not issue his powers till the 25th of August, and we do not hear of any treaty being concluded. We cannot attach much weight to the Spaniard Puebla’s assertion that the result was a satisfactory one, for he only made use of the occasion to sing his own praises with childish vanity, and to pose as the friend in need, who had come to the assistance of the helpless parties with a solution of the difficulty. Still, he was not altogether wrong, for the ambassadors were respectfully dismissed, and the English merchants received permission to return to Antwerp, where, having been greatly missed, they were given a splendid reception, amid general rejoicing. It is evident, however, that no distinct settlement was arrived at, for it was necessary to call together a con­ference at Calais in March, 1499, with a view to a fresh agreement.

If the treaty of 1496 determined the general principles of commercial relations, the one concluded on the 18th of May, 1499, regulated the numerous individual difficulties. Henry, in this, as in all commercial questions, held with tenacity to the standpoint of English interests, and managed step by step to gain his end. The merchants of the Low Countries received a slight abatement of price on the English wool sold by the Staplers at Calais, and also a guarantee of honest packing. Delegates from the Staple merchants themselves were admitted to these negotiations, and signified their approbation. In return for this, English cloth was relieved from the still-existing customs duties; the whole trade was put on a freer footing, but the retail sale of English cloth was not permitted in the Low Countries themselves. The English, too, gained an important point in the permission to export coined, or otherwise wrought, precious metal.

The settlement had been dragging on slowly enough for many years, but nevertheless Henry had managed practically to secure the advantage on his side ; the rivalry between Flanders and Brabant contributing still further to improve the favourable position of the English. Other political questions arose incidentally in connection with this question of commerce, which largely affected the relations of England and Burgundy; thus Henry showed himself dissatisfied with the securities to be provided for him by the February treaty of 1496, against the intrigues of the Duchess Margaret, and although the duchess herself, in the autumn of 1498, begged his forgiveness and gave reassuring promises, the king demanded new and more severe measures against her. If more friendly relations were the immediate result of the commercial agreement, the last settlement had not long been made before commerce was adversely affected by a new political dispute.

Henry having, with more and more astuteness, succeeded in turning the political situation to his own advantage, had thereby made it possible for himself to enter the Holy League without endangering his friendship with France. This friendship of France was of great value to him with regard to Scotland, as was also the increase to his revenue by the payment of the French treaty debt; and he managed especially to make it useful for English trade. The trade with France was by no means of the same vital importance for England as was that with the Netherlands, still it was important enough to play its part in the mutual relations of the two countries. In spite of the Navigation Act which had sensibly affected France, the first treaty concluded by Henry (on January 17, 1486), immediately after his accession, had been extended, and perfectly free intercourse established, while all the special burdens introduced within the last twenty-two years had been abolished; perhaps, as a consequence of this, the Navigation Act was not renewed in the second Parliament.

The state of war which followed naturally affected commerce prejudicially, and even after war had ceased, new imposts, burdensome to the English, remained, which Henry was able to point to as justification for the Navigation Act, which was extended and came into force in June, 1490. In this Brittany, after its annexation, was naturally included. The treaty which Henry, on the 2nd of July, i486, had concluded with the Duke Francis—in its commercial conditions only a repetition of a treaty of Edward IV (July 2, 1468)—had already expired, at the death of the old duke. In December, 1494, Henry complained emphatically of piracies committed by the inhabitants of Brittany and Normandy, of the uselessness of all claims for damages, and of the treatment of English merchants, especially in Bordeaux. He therefore made Charles VIII pay him a heavy price for his neutrality during the Neapolitan war, for we find that on the nth of April, 1495, Charles signed at Naples a decree which gave back to the English their ancient trade privileges. A duty levied, in spite of this, at Bordeaux, had to be taken off again, and the sums overcharged had to be refunded.

Henry took good care not to disturb a state of affairs so specially favourable to his own interests; a new settlement at Boulogne, on the 24th of May, 1497, was made only for the purpose of meeting the heavy damage done by the piracy which then prevailed everywhere. It was England who reaped all the benefit; and bitterly did Bretons and French­men complain of the restrictions they had to suffer, both on imports and exports, of impediments to traffic, and annoyances in the way of customs duties; how for every infraction of the law they were threatened with the seizure of their goods, whilst the English enjoyed in France privileges hitherto unknown. In their replies the English brought forward fresh justifications and subterfuges for such grievances, but of redress they said not a word.

Besides this, the English took advantage of the war between France and Spain, to try and get into their hands the trade of the two countries. It appears, indeed, that the Spanish government had to interfere in the matter in the summer of 1496, and forbid English ships bound for France to sail from Spanish ports. In France, on the contrary, things remained as before. Louis XII’s later attempt (in the year 1504) to hinder exportation seems to have resulted in nothing. We hear once again that, in March, 1508, French emissaries were negotiating in England about commercial affairs, otherwise all the authorities are silent on the subject. Nothing further ensued to ruffle political friendly feeling, and Henry kept firm hold of the advantages he had gained.

The same thing happened with the Hanse towns, except that with them commerce alone, and not mere political relations, came into question. The whole condition of affairs was uncomfortable, as Henry only put matters off in order, by continual annoyances and persecutions, to compel them to sacrifice their privileges, or at all events to concede more to the English. After the Antwerp diet, the strained interpretation as to the wares of the Hanse Merchants had indeed been allowed to drop; yet the Hanse merchants at once renewed their old complaints of oppressions, and especially of the obnoxious regulation, which compelled them to have the cloth in­tended for export dressed in London. At the same time they were ever threatened with the union between Henry and Denmark. In 1492, the Danish chancellor himself went to London, and later, in 1495 and 1496, negotiations were carried on, the details of which, however, we do not know. Henry took advantage of the outburst of popular feeling at the time of the rupture with Burgundy and the consequent attack on the Steelyard, in 1493, to exact caution money to the amount of £20,000, that the Hanse merchants would not carry on any trade between England and Burgundy. They even had to submit to the intrusion of customs officers into the Steelyard and to the seizure of goods. The Hanse towns were already thinking, as a counter­measure, of forbidding their merchants to frequent the mart set up at Calais. Furthermore, they were dissatisfied with their merchants in London, whom they reproached with dishonesty, bad methods of conducting business, extravagance and luxury in dress, and with constantly frequenting taverns and houses of ill-fame; saying they ought the rather to make sober use of their privileges, and not do anything to prejudice the English against them.

Under various pretexts the proposed diet was repeatedly postponed. The interdiction on trade with the Netherlands did not end till the commercial peace of January, 1496. The newly imposed duty on English cloth in the Netherlands pressed on the Hanse merchants also; and Cologne, especially, complained of the embargo which then lay on the importation of manufactured silk goods into England. Henry met these complaints with fresh insult. Instead of a regular diet, he proposed at the beginning of 1497 a conference between their ambassadors at Antwerp on the grievances alleged on both sides since 1491; but when in June his representatives arrived at Antwerp, they required from the Hanse commissioners formal and general authority from all the towns, which in the given time could not have been procured, and from the character of the meeting had not appeared necessary. As a substitute for this, a full power was procured in all haste from the chief town, Lubeck; but when it arrived the Englishmen had already taken their departure. All this trouble had been without result, and Henry’s arbitrary conduct was only more clearly shown than ever.

During the interval that elapsed before a diet was really held at Bruges, in June, 1499, Henry had made a fresh attempt to open up the Baltic trade. Dantzic having obstinately opposed all the English demands, it is probable that Henry hoped to turn the trade with the East away from Dantzic to some other centre; in any case, to break through at one point, in the interests of Englishmen, the exclusive Hanseatic trade system. He entered into an agreement with Riga, which was not one of the contracting parties in the Utrecht treaty, and on the 26th of November, 1498, a settlement was made at Westminster, accepting the English interpretation of the Utrecht treaty, with the highest warrantable privileges. Besides this, any existing English bonds were to be declared cancelled, and the mutual ratifications of these conditions were to be exchanged at Calais within five months.

At this juncture, in April, 1499, King John of Poland wrote both to Henry and to Lubeck, with a view to mediating. He advised some concessions, if privileges were guaranteed in return. When the negotiations were opened in June at the Bruges diet, the English resorted to their old tactics. They required full powers, and refused especially to agree to any discussion on existing parliamentary statutes his majesty the king would nobly fulfil all that was properly his duty to do. The Hanse deputies brought forward their old accusation of the unsettled grievances of 1491, and they again cut short any attempt to tamper with their privileges. They said they did not come to that diet to give up one iota of their privileges; they would defend themselves in that matter like men.

The Hanse deputies were beginning to think of breaking off such idle negotiations, when the Englishmen once more consulted their king, whose answer, dated the 9th of July, 1499, decided the. fate of the diet. Not a word of concession was spoken. His own demand about Prussian trade was persisted in, and a court of arbitration, proposed by the Hansa, was refused. As Henry was only wishing to avoid an open rupture, everything else could remain as before. After more disputing, a general outline of the final protocol (July 20, 1493) was agreed to—that things were to remain as they were till the 1st of July, 1501. When the almost contemptuous suggestion was made to the Hansa that they had better trust their cause to the mercy of the king, they plainly answered that the towns well knew what they had had to endure in England, “which they would fain have written with a pen of iron on a hard flint-stone, that they might never more forget it.”

They were able to retaliate by frustrating Henry’s hopes in the compact with Riga. If Riga had any desire to separate from the Hanse league, it did not last long. An ,English bond of the year 1409, specially mentioned in the treaty with Riga, lay in the Hanseatic counting-house at Bruges, and the messenger who was to demand the payment of it there, and probably also carried the ratification of the treaty with him, was at the same time charged with special recommendations to the Lubeckers. The Hanse merchants of Bruges thought it advisable not to hand over the bond, but rather to take away from the messenger his other papers. They behaved as if it had only been a question between England and Riga of the reception of the latter into the treaty of Utrecht, and Lubeck, on the strength of her right as the chief town to announce this, took the whole matter into her own hands. In July, 1500, Riga acquiesced. She acknowledged Lubeck’s precedence, assented to the Utrecht treaty, and only added to it a clause, no longer of much importance, in favour of the peace concluded with England. Lubeck announced to Henry Riga’s readmission into the league, and begged she might be entitled to the Hanseatic privileges; whereupon the king, without mentioning the still unaccomplished ratification, declared that the treaty with Riga should remain as before. The Hanse allowed the matter to rest for the present. Riga, announced formally at a diet of Livonian towns, and also in a special document, that she had never thought of separating from the Hanse league.

Thus the upshot of the business was that it ended in smoke. This renewed attempt on the part of Henry to encroach on the Hanse merchants in the field of the Baltic trade had failed, and this time finally. Now a somewhat more peaceful period was about to begin, even though both parties held to their own views. The projected new diet was finally put off to 1504; but before that time had arrived, an unexpected change had taken place in Henry’s attitude. For the first time his relation to the commercial league was connected with other political questions. We shall have to consider these circumstances later.

Henry’s policy with regard to the Hanse merchants was really a breach of treaty, thinly veiled by quibbles. His aim was ever the same—to oust the Hansards from their English trade as much as possible, and to break down their monopoly on the Baltic. The Hanse towns, when opposing the advance of the English into Prussia, had laid down the rule that the burghers and inhabitants of the towns ought always to have greater advantage than outsiders. This dictum Henry turned against themselves. It was not possible that a condition of affairs resting on such a one-sided advantage for the Hanse league could continue; sooner or later the grow­ing mercantile power of England must burst the fetters of the Utrecht treaty.

We have already seen how the king followed out the same clear idea in mercantile policy in the south, as well as in the north; just at this time he held still more firmly to it with regard to Venice than to the Hanse towns. His relations with Venice were peculiar, for, though a war of tariffs was going on about the wine, in other respects perfectly friendly relations prevailed. General politics had something to do with this, for Venice was sparing no pains to induce Henry to join the Holy League, and for this purpose endeavoured to mediate with the King of the Romans. After Henry’s admission into the league, Andrea Trevisano was, in November, 1496, appointed permanent ambassador in London; and in the following October, after his arrival, Henry gave him a public reception into the town, granted him audience with much ceremony, and, a few months later, conferred on him the honour of knighthood, but he flatly refused the request that he would take off the English duty on wine, and demanded that the Venetian customs dues should first be remitted.

He gained the day, for in June, 1490, the Signory abolished the extra payment imposed on foreigners, while Henry allowed his customs law to remain, and only conceded by royal decree a reduction of one noble. Even with this, his subjects reaped the greater benefit, and in spite of all prayers and threats from the Venetians, Henry kept firmly to his point.

During this time, other commercial intercourse was going on undisturbed; the Flanders galleys took their usual voyages; only some natural excitement was created when French seamen were bold enough to seize a captain and several respectable Venetians in the English port of Southampton, and to extort from them a ransom. When, in 1497, the galleys did not come as usual, Henry himself urged that they should be sent off, and Venice at once was made to feel the deficiency in the supply of English wool. Later, on the 1st of May, 1506, Henry granted to the Venetians special facilities over all foreigners for the purchase and export of wool and tin.

As the Flanders galleys made successful voyages, and often had not room in their holds for all the goods bought in England, there was no cause for complaint about dullness of trade. The commanders of the galleys reported on the excel­lent reception they continued to meet with; in 1506, the king once invited the captain to his table. If any damage had been sustained by a ship, artisans and necessary material were at once placed at their disposal, and when some Venetians were attacked and slain in England, care was immediately taken to offer satisfaction, and to punish the murderers. In fact, having gained what he wanted for English shipping, with respect to the duty on wine, Henry tried to make up for the injury thus inflicted by friendly advances in all other ways. When the League of Cambray, shortly before his death, had agreed together to overthrow the Republic, he would not be a party to it; in fact, he urged very strongly that Venetian ships, trading with England, should not be interfered with.

Between England and Spain also, there was the same double relation—political friendship existing alongside of a war of tariffs. Here too, Henry, in spite of his earlier pliancy, and of the later closer bond between them, held obstinately to the advantages in customs which he had wrung from the Spaniards through a misunderstanding on their part in the treaty of Medina del Campo. The Spaniards had constantly complained, during the treaty negotiations, of the unfair burdens laid upon their merchants. Henry went so far as to promise some concession, but afterwards had become more stiff again, and had included no sort of commercial settlement in the marriage treaty of 1496; finally, he held out the prospect of a regulation of the customs as a reward, should the Princess Katharine be really sent to England. In return, the Spaniards revenged themselves by stopping the English carrying-trade between their country and France; but though they demanded securities from every outgoing ship that it would not run into any French port, and even detained many, they conceded so far as to relinquish their demand for securities from the traders, and contented themselves with a general authoritative promise from the king. And yet, in September, 1496, before the conclusion of the marriage treaty, they threatened to enact as a counter­measure, that the same heavy duties should be levied on the Englishmen in Spain.

In the treaty of alliance of the 10th of July, 1499, it was at last decided that, besides enjoying freedom of trade, the natives of both countries should be treated by each contracting party as his own subjects, but “with full preservation of the local rights, laws, and customs.” By this means the article in the old treaty objected to by the Spaniards was set aside.

But from this clause concerning local rights and customs, much friction arose, for Henry held to the Navigation Act, which deprived the Spaniards of the right to import into England wine and woad, and he, on his part, could complain that in Spanish ports the freighting of foreign ships was as a rule more strictly forbidden than in England by his law. Isabella, however, denied this (March, 1501), and asserted that Spanish ships only had the right to be freighted first, and that in every country native shipping enjoyed the same protection. In spite of the treaty, the struggle over navigation policy continued, until, in this matter also, redress was obtained by a change in the other relations of the two states.

Meanwhile the Spaniards had been for a time threatened by English competition in a direction where they believed themselves supreme; for from England some apparently promising attempts had been made to take part in the discoveries and conquest of the western world.

The starting-point for all undertakings of the kind was Bristol, on the estuary of the Severn, which opening into the ocean, sent forth the dwellers on its banks not so much to the old continent as to the unknown regions of the West. Early attempts were made by the daring mariners of Bristol to draw aside the mystery which hung over the western ocean. The men of Bristol were in constant communication with the great seamen of other nations; Christopher Columbus is said to have started from Bristol, in February, 1477, on his first, though somewhat apocryphal voyage to the north-west. Thomas Lloyd sailed from there in July, 1480, for the “Island of Brazil to the east of Hibernia,” till tempestuous weather compelled him to return. The desire still prevailed to reach this mysterious Atlantic island of Brazil, with its seven cities on the other side of Ireland, and thence to pass on to India; and in the year 1498, Ayala informed his sovereigns that for the last seven years, the people of Bristol had, every year, “sent out two, three, or four light ships in search of the island of Brazil.” Ayala declares the moving spirit in the enterprises to be “the citizen of Genoa.”

This man, John Cabot, was born in Genoa, and had, in 1476, been given rights of Venetian citizenship; it is not known when he came to Bristol, with his three sons, Ludovico, Sebastiano, and Sanctus. He was the leader in the Bristol voyages of discovery, but these first attempts did not achieve any result, until Cabot succeeded in gaining Henry’s interest and support for his cause.

It is said that Christopher Columbus had also applied to the English king when, having been dismissed by Portugal in 1484, he had to wait long years in Spain, before he received the means for his first voyage of discovery in 1492. In the meantime he sent his brother Bartholomew to England, but he was robbed by pirates, and arriving penniless, had to earn his bread by drawing maps. With one of these he succeeded at last in gaining the attention of Henry, but it is doubtful whether Henry, in the year 1493, acceded to Bartholomew’s request, as he had already heard of Christopher Columbus’s first success. Be this as it may, it was in any case too late, for when Bartholomew returned home, his brother had already started on his second voyage, and remained in the service of the Spaniards.

Possibly this helped Cabot, when, towards the end of 1495, he applied to Henry, and explained his plans by means of a map of the world, which he had sketched. We know that Henry approved of Cabot’s proposals, for, in January, 1496 we find Puebla writing home on the subject, and Fer­dinand and Isabella forthwith made haste to prevent such competition. They offered timely words of warning, and represented the whole affair, as suggested by the malice of France, and intended to draw off Henry from other and more profitable things. Such enterprises, they urged, were very uncertain, and pointed to the losses incurred by Spain and Portugal as a warning. But Henry had already, on the 5th of March, 1496, signed the patent which empowered Cabot and his sons to sail in search of all unknown lands, with five ships, and such crews as they desired. They were to carry the king’s flag, to plant it in the discovered territory, of which they were to take possession, and govern in the king’s name. They were to exercise there an unrestricted monopoly of trade, and only to pay a fifth part of the profits to the Crown. All English subjects were invited to further the undertaking.

The chief point, however, was to secure Henry’s pecuniary help, whereby others should be encouraged to contribute to the enterprise. For this, unfortunately the time chosen was most inopportune, for how could Henry, overwhelmed just then by other political tasks, think of such novel, doubtful, and far-reaching undertakings! But after James IV, and Perkin Warbeck’s invasion had been repulsed, after Henry had entered the Holy League, and the new Spanish marriage bond had been concluded in the autumn of 1496, the king not only had his hands more free, but also had ample means from loans and taxes at his disposal. The patent, it is true, spoke of the enterprise being at the cost of its promoters, but Henry was fully determined to fit out a ship himself; it is possible that merchants both of London and Bristol helped also, and laded the ship with some of their goods.

Cabot’s little fleet at last started, in May, 1497, at the favourable season of the year. On the 24th of June he touched the mainland of North America, probably on the coast of Labrador, and sailed along it towards the north-west. “He saw no human being, but he brought to the king certain snares which had been set to catch wild game, and a needle for making nets; he also saw some felled trees, and therefore supposed there were inhabitants.” He and his English companions spoke highly of the quantity of fish in the waters they had visited, saying that with such a supply, Iceland would no longer be necessary to England. Three months after he set sail, Cabot was again at home, and laid before Henry a chart of his discoveries; the king seemed pleased, and ordered ten pounds to be paid “ to hym that founde the new Isle.”

Henry at once made plans for sending out a new fleet the next year under Cabot; ten or more vessels were talked of, to be manned with criminals ; the founding of a colony was kept in view, men dreamt of an abundance of rich spices, and wonderful tales were told, how that the seven cities and the land of the great Khan had been discovered. Cabot was the hero of the day; he again took up his abode at Bristol, and received a yearly income of £20. A Venetian reports that he was styled the Great Admiral, and that high honour was paid him. “These English run after him like mad people, so that he can enlist as many of them as he pleases, and a number of our own rogues besides.”

Henry’s new patent of the 3rd of February, 1498, did not show the same extravagant hopes as the first. Cabot was permitted to fit out six vessels of as much as two hundred tons’ burden, without having to pay more for them than the king himself, and to man them with any Englishmen who might volunteer their services. Here again Henry seems to have gone beyond what he promised, for he probably had the vessels equipped himself, showed himself greatly interested in the matter, and often spoke of it to the Spanish ambassador. Sometime in April or May, 1498, the second squadron, counting five ships, provisioned for one year, set sail. One vessel was driven by a storm into an Irish port, the rest continued their voyage; they were expected to be back in September.

Apparently John Cabot died during the voyage. It is altogether extraordinary that we have no reliable account of a voyage of discovery undertaken with such great hopes; no doubt the success did not come up to the extravagant expectations that had been formed. This specially affected John’s successor, his son Sebastian, as the king did not place the same confidence in him as in his father. For years the name even of the seafarer remained forgotten.

But the merchants of Bristol took upon themselves his father’s work, and were never tired of seeking for the north­west passage to the coveted Indies. The king’s active participation was somewhat cooled by his first disappointments, even though his interest long remained keen. On the 19th of March, 1501, he granted a new patent to make voyages of discovery under the royal flag to several citizens of Bristol, and to some Portuguese who were living there and had come from the Azores ; in this patent a definite scheme of colonization was put forward, with rights of trading and of jurisdiction for the discoverers; of course the acquired territories were to be under English supremacy. How far the new undertaking succeeded we do not know. In January, 1502, “the men of Bristoll that founde th’Isle” again received a small reward, and in the same year, according to a report of the London Chronicle, three men were brought to England “ out of an Hand founde by merchaunts of Bristoll farre beyond Ireland, the which was clothed in Beests skynnes and ate raw flessh, and were in their demeanour as Beests.” No one understood their language, but the king had them provided for at Westminster, and after an interval of two years, two of them who were still living there were found—“clothed like Englishmen, and could not be discerned from Englishmen.”

It appears that a squabble had broken out in the trading company to which Henry granted the last patent, for from a new one of the 9th of December, 1502, we find three members excluded; in other respects it was like the former, only that instead of the licences being for ten years, they were granted for forty, and an article added to. the effect that if they should discover countries for which others had already received patents, but had not succeeded in discovering them, they could without scruple take possession of them.

We hear nothing of any success this time, but in September, 1503, a sum of £20 was again paid over to Bristol merchants, and certainly voyages to the west continued, as is proved by payments in gratitude for rare animals, some of which were brought from thence for the king. The spread of Christianity was also not forgotten, for we twice hear of clergymen going out in the ships.

The voyages of discovery under Henry VII were attempts which had after all no lasting results. The cause of this is obvious. The discoverer sailing from Spain was led in his voyages westward to the tropical clime of Central and South America, while Cabot and his followers, who tried for the north-west passage, arrived at the more inhospitable north, which did not possess such evident riches as metals and spices. As these were the only things sought after, it was but natural that Henry’s ardour, thus disappointed, should soon cool. The history of discovery under, the first Tudor remains therefore only an episode; but it shows how Henry, whose mercantile policy embraced the whole known field of commerce in Europe, also turned his eyes towards the unknown regions ; and it was to his intelligent support that Cabot owed the achievement of setting foot on the American continent, even before the Spaniards. England especially ought not to forget those bold pioneers, the merchants of Bristol, who with untiring energy and daring first led the way to future greatness for their countrymen.

The Spaniards at least were freed from one cause for anxiety: England still left to them the precedence in the New World, for Henry still confined himself to the one field of conflict in Europe. Here, however, he had gained for his new dynasty its position in this the most difficult and yet most successful period of his whole reign, and nothing bears witness more truly to the strength of this position as compared with that held in the preceding decade, than the last effort of the Yorkist party against the Tudor dynasty in the revolt of Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk.

CHAPTER V.

THE EARL OF SUFFOLK.