Young Henry: The Rise of Henry VIII (26 page)
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Authors: Robert Hutchinson
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The leading elements of the French cavalry were confronted suddenly by a strong force of English horsemen and pulled up in surprise, only to fall under fire from the guns and volleys of arrows from the archers. Fearing encirclement, they turned tail and almost immediately crashed into their comrades coming up behind. Chaos ensued and the panic-stricken French fled the field pell-mell, ‘throwing away their spears, swords and maces’ in their haste (Plate 14). They were pursued and hunted down by the English who captured nine standards and two hundred and fifty prisoners, led by Louis d’Orléans, Duc de Longueville, René de Clermont, Vice-Admiral of France, and Louis, Marquis of Rothelin. The speed of the French flight led to the contemptuous name – the Battle of the Spurs – given by the English to this brief clash.
That night Henry graciously dined with his noble captives, bidding them ‘good greeting’ and cladding Rothelin in an expensive gown of cloth of gold. A jarring note to all this magnanimous chivalry was sounded by the Frenchman, who refused to sit down to eat with his enemy, but the king was having none of that and told him brusquely: ‘You are my prisoner and must do so.’
92
92
Although the French force was routed, the fight was a far cry from a second Crécy or Agincourt, although Henry (who had taken no part in their pursuit) naturally hailed it as such. The queen also loyally waxed lyrical at her husband’s feat of arms:
The victory has been so great that I think none such has been seen before.
All England has cause to thank God [for] it and I especially, seeing that
the king begins so well – which is to me, a great hope that the end shall be like.
the king begins so well – which is to me, a great hope that the end shall be like.
I think with the company of the emperor and his good counsel, his grace shall not adventure himself so much as I was afraid of before.
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93
In truth, the Battle of the Spurs was little more than a skirmish but the final failure to resupply the embattled town led to its surrender at nine o’clock on the morning of 23 August. Over the next two weeks, Thérouanne’s fortifications were systematically destroyed and its buildings burnt, save for the cathedral and the adjoining homes of the clergy.
Henry was jubilant at the town’s capture. Cardinal Bainbridge in Rome – that walking embodiment of the adjective ‘obsequious’ – claimed his master’s glory was truly ‘immortal’.
94
The king convinced himself that the road to Paris now lay wide open to him and announced that he intended ‘to have himself crowned King of France’ there.
95
94
The king convinced himself that the road to Paris now lay wide open to him and announced that he intended ‘to have himself crowned King of France’ there.
95
Twenty-four hours earlier James IV, at the head of an army of 35,000 men, had crossed the River Tweed at Coldstream to invade and pillage northern England.
Henry decided to send his noble prisoner Longueville to Katherine ‘as a present’ to live in her household until he was ransomed, or a peace treaty signed with France. The homely queen, ‘horribly busy’ embroidering battle flags, was none too happy about this idea, as she was planning to lead reinforcements northwards towards the Scottish border. She told Wolsey ‘there is no one to attend upon him except Lord Mountjoy who is going over to Calais’. Better that he be sent to the Tower, ‘especially [with] the Scots so busy as they now be and I looking for my departing every hour’. She ended: ‘Pray God to send us good luck against the Scots [such] as the King has had’ in France.
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96
Maximilian meanwhile convinced his gullible English ally to besiege Tournai, a city on the borders of his dominions in the Low Countries, rather than attacking more logical strategic objectives such as Boulogne or Montreuil, which would have enhanced the defences of the English Pale around Calais.
97
97
Henry arrived at Lille in early September – ‘a place having much the appearance of an island in the middle of a marsh’ according to the
chaplain Taylor. The English king was paying a courtesy call on Margaret of Savoy and his arrival was greeted by its inhabitants in enthusiastically large numbers.
chaplain Taylor. The English king was paying a courtesy call on Margaret of Savoy and his arrival was greeted by its inhabitants in enthusiastically large numbers.
Girls offered crowns, sceptres and garlands. Outlaws and malefactors with white rods in their hands sought pardon.
Between the gate of the town and the palace, the way was lined with burning torches, although it was a bright day and there was scarce room for the riders to pass.
Maximilian sent Henry ‘a great bull’ as a present, although Taylor thought it was a strange gift, aside from its ‘unwieldy size’.
98
The Milanese ambassador was completely overwhelmed by the splendour of it all:
98
The Milanese ambassador was completely overwhelmed by the splendour of it all:
The most serene King of England entered this place, with about two hundred men-at-arms and his guards … with great pomp.
His majesty wore a white tunic over his armour and thirteen boys [?pages] went before him.
The horses had trappings of solid silver and their cloths were of rich gold [on one side] and the other … of black velvet, with numerous gold stripes and the fleur-de-lys of France.
[Margaret of Savoy] went to meet him on the palace staircase and made him a deep reverence, while he bowed to the ground to her.
That night, the king boisterously danced with Margaret ‘from the time the banquet finished until nearly day, in his shirt and without shoes’. Henry also gave her ‘a beautiful diamond in a setting of great value’. Henry was ‘wonderfully merry’ and postponed a conversation with the Milanese ambassador Paulo de Laude to another time ‘as he was in a hurry to go and dine and dance afterwards. In this he does wonders and leaps like a stag.’
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The flirtations continued. After dinner Charles Brandon knelt before Margaret and ‘drew from [her] finger [a] ring and put it upon his’. He pledged himself her ‘right humble servant’ if she would ‘do unto him all honour and pleasure’. Henry, it was reported, might have promoted the relationship between his old friend and Margaret. Afterwards the rumours of their possible marriage embarrassed the king who
threatened death to those who spread this gossip, although in truth, it was probably Henry himself.
100
threatened death to those who spread this gossip, although in truth, it was probably Henry himself.
100
A week later, Tournai was invested by the English and Imperial forces and siege works – gun emplacements and trenches – dug around its walls. It seemed a softer nut to crack than Thérouanne; the Milanese envoy reported that the besiegers ‘walk close to the walls daily and the king himself does so occasionally for three hours and a half at a time’.
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Henry received news there from his wife of the crushing defeat of James IV and his army on 9 September at Flodden Field in Northumberland by the seventy-year-old Earl of Surrey and his 23,000-strong army.
My lord Howard has sent me a letter by which you shall see at length the great victory that our Lord has sent your subjects in your absence.
This battle is to your grace and all your realm the greatest honour that could be and more than [if] you should win all the crown of France.
Thanks be to God for it and I am sure your grace [will not] forget to do this, which shall be cause to send you many such great victories, as I trust he shall do.
I send your grace a bill found in a Frenchman’s purse of such things as the French king sent to the King of Scots to make war against you.
Surprisingly warlike and bloodthirsty, Katherine dispatched James IV’s torn and bloody tabard, bearing his arms, recovered from his mutilated body, to Henry as a proud trophy of war.
Your grace shall see how I can keep my promise [to protect England], sending you for your banners a king’s coat.
I thought to send himself to you but our Englishmen’s hearts would not suffer it.
My Henry, my lord of Surrey … would know your pleasure in the burying of the King of Scots’ body.
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The queen then departed for the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham to offer up thanks for the victory, in which the Scots lost 12,000 killed, around half their number that fought that day. Almost every Scottish noble family had lost a father, son or brother.
Henry triumphantly passed on the news of Flodden to Maximilian Sforza, Duke of Milan. After the Battles of the Spurs and Flodden, his Tudor swagger was impossible to suppress, including playing down the importance of the Scots’ initial gains:
The King of Scots himself with a great army invaded our realm of England and first took a little old town belonging to the Bishop of Durham, already nearly in ruins and practically unfortified and … almost deserted.
He then advanced four miles (6.4 km) into our realm. There the noble lord, the Earl of Surrey, to whom we had committed the charge of repelling the Scots … met them in a battle which was long and fiercely contested.
With the Almighty … aiding the better cause, our forces emerged victorious and killed a great number of the enemy … and put the rest to flight, captured all their cannon and plundered the whole camp.
The king added a postscript: ‘Since these were written, we have received news that the King of Scots himself was killed … so he has paid a heavier penalty for his treachery than we would have wished.’
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Henry celebrated the news with a
feu de joie
, a carefully timed rippling salvo of 1,000 cannon, declaring: ‘I will sing him a death knell with the sound of my guns.’
feu de joie
, a carefully timed rippling salvo of 1,000 cannon, declaring: ‘I will sing him a death knell with the sound of my guns.’
Surrey, the victor of Flodden, was rewarded by being ‘honourably restored unto his right name of Duke of Norfolk’ – his title lost after Bosworth when the Howards had fought for Richard III. His eldest son was created Earl of Surrey in his place.
Tournai surrendered after eight days’ siege. The king wrote to Leo X, pointing out that the news of Flodden and the city’s capitulation demonstrated clearly that ‘God is fighting on behalf of the Holy Alliance’. He had intended to pursue the French army ‘but they fled so rapidly that I despaired of overtaking them’.
Henry announced that he was returning to England ‘now that winter is close at hand and the Scotch affairs are urgent’. He also planned to meet his Parliament, which had been summoned for 1 November.
The king promised Leo that he would return ‘as soon as possible with a larger army and prosecute the war with all possible vigour’.
The court poet Bernard André penned some short Latin verses in praise of his ‘invincible’ master, invoking the ‘deities of land and sea, whose duty is to guard England’s crown’. For Henry, ‘neither plunder nor bloodshed is the aim of his arms; instead is sought the return of dominions rightly due his sway’.
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But Henry did not return to France in full fighting fig for more than three decades to try again to claim that inheritance.
HOME AND ABROAD
‘I am contented with what I have. I wish only to govern my own subjects. Nevertheless, I will not allow anyone to have it in his power to govern me – nor will I ever suffer it.’
Henry VIII to Sebastian Giustinian, Venetian ambassador, June 1516.
1
1
Henry fully intended to take another army back to France before June 1514. In the forefront of his thoughts was the unsettling knowledge that he had failed to annihilate the military might of Louis XII, but instead had merely captured a handful of French towns. One of them, Thérouanne, he had deferentially relinquished to the Emperor Maximilian and the other, Tournai, he briefly retained as an outpost of the English possessions in northern France.
2
2
The king therefore was no nearer to securing the throne of France than he had been before the cripplingly expensive adventure across the English Channel.
3
Moreover, Julius II’s papal brief that named him ‘Most Christian King’ and so happily approved his claim on France had mysteriously failed to arrive in England. Despite Henry’s very best efforts to lay his hands upon it, the document was hopelessly trapped in some dusty corner of the Vatican’s labyrinthine bureaucracy and, in fact, never appeared again.
3
Moreover, Julius II’s papal brief that named him ‘Most Christian King’ and so happily approved his claim on France had mysteriously failed to arrive in England. Despite Henry’s very best efforts to lay his hands upon it, the document was hopelessly trapped in some dusty corner of the Vatican’s labyrinthine bureaucracy and, in fact, never appeared again.
The king was nobody’s fool. Howard’s illustrious triumph at Flodden, so devastating to the Scottish crown and nation, may have safely secured England’s northern borders but it unfortunately made his own inexperienced deeds on the battlefield, at the Battle – or rather skirmish –
of the Spurs, appear just a smidgen inglorious. They would certainly fail to be included in any history of famous victories, despite Henry’s crowing hyperbole and his courtiers’ fawning compliments.
of the Spurs, appear just a smidgen inglorious. They would certainly fail to be included in any history of famous victories, despite Henry’s crowing hyperbole and his courtiers’ fawning compliments.
At least England’s military reputation had been restored at the European courts, creating the opportunity to cement alliances. As first fruit of the tactical successes in France, he had confirmed with the emperor that his younger sister Mary, now aged seventeen, should marry Maxmilian’s grandson, Charles, Duke of Burgundy, at Calais by May, when he would be fourteen. After the lavish nuptial celebrations, emperor and king would don their armour, collect their fearsome trappings of war and again strike boldly at perfidious Gaul.
4
4
Henry also received handsome gifts as tokens of friendship from lesser overseas potentates. In June 1514 the Marquis of Mantua sent him two fine horses named
Altobello
and
Goventore
. After riding them for six days, the king declared that he had never ‘ridden a horse that pleased him more than
Goventore
’. He enquired what would please the marquis and was told he ‘required nothing but the king’s love’.
5
Altobello
and
Goventore
. After riding them for six days, the king declared that he had never ‘ridden a horse that pleased him more than
Goventore
’. He enquired what would please the marquis and was told he ‘required nothing but the king’s love’.
5
But despite such minor tangible benefits from his foray into mainland Europe, none of Henry’s ambitious schemes came to fruition, as he failed to take account of the treacherous shifting sands of European politics.
The new Pope, the vacillating and irresolute Leo X, decided to dissolve the Holy League and to seek peace with France. He sent his legate Gianpetro Caraffa to London to discuss the plan but Henry huffily refused to meet him. Leo, committed firmly to the sacred cause of Christian unity, wrote a smoothly worded appeal to the king in December 1513, pleading with him to ‘eliminate all hatred’ and to ‘sow the seeds of peace’. As the holy purpose to which Henry took up arms ‘had been secured’ the Pope ‘hoped he will listen to the proposals for an honourable peace’.
6
The same day he briefed the king’s ministers, Warham, Ruthal and Fox, on his attempts to ‘earnestly move Henry, King of England, to incline to peace’. Leo had not forgotten
6
The same day he briefed the king’s ministers, Warham, Ruthal and Fox, on his attempts to ‘earnestly move Henry, King of England, to incline to peace’. Leo had not forgotten
that he took up arms for the liberty of the Church but as his adversary [Louis XII] has humbly come to the Apostolic See for pardon and he
himself has gained both profit and glory, it is a Pope’s office to prohibit slaughter and there are other enemies of the Faith [the Turks] to be repelled.
7
himself has gained both profit and glory, it is a Pope’s office to prohibit slaughter and there are other enemies of the Faith [the Turks] to be repelled.
7
He earnestly exhorted them to convince the king that universal peace should reign again amongst the European nations.
8
8
Leo ramped up the pressure on Henry by sending him a costly sword and a
pileus
(the cap of maintenance)
9
given to European sovereigns by popes as a mark of their particular esteem.
10
The award was celebrated by a special high Mass at St Paul’s on Sunday 21 May. The king, wearing a chequered gown of purple satin and gold, knelt at the high altar as the long sword, with a gilded guard and scabbard, was buckled around his waist. The foot-high (30.5 cm) cap ‘of purple satin, resembling the crown of the caps worn by the Albanian light cavalry’ was placed on his head, ‘which by reason of its length covered his whole face’.
11
The subsequent stately procession proved a little perilous as the king felt his way around the interior of the cathedral.
pileus
(the cap of maintenance)
9
given to European sovereigns by popes as a mark of their particular esteem.
10
The award was celebrated by a special high Mass at St Paul’s on Sunday 21 May. The king, wearing a chequered gown of purple satin and gold, knelt at the high altar as the long sword, with a gilded guard and scabbard, was buckled around his waist. The foot-high (30.5 cm) cap ‘of purple satin, resembling the crown of the caps worn by the Albanian light cavalry’ was placed on his head, ‘which by reason of its length covered his whole face’.
11
The subsequent stately procession proved a little perilous as the king felt his way around the interior of the cathedral.
It may be that the king’s pointed snub to the Papal Legate was not merely immature tantrum. Around December 1513 Henry contracted smallpox, a disease rife in sixteenth-century England. The attack was severe: foreign reports suggested his physicians ‘were afraid [for] his life … [but] he is risen from his bed, fierce against France’.
12
Erasmus had planned to give a gift to Wolsey (now appointed Bishop of Lincoln) while in London in January, but postponed his plans ‘deeming it unsafe there in consequence of the plague’. He reported: ‘The king was ill when I was there, that is at Richmond [Palace] but the doctor said he had escaped all danger.’
13
Happily, Henry was spared any pockmarks on his face, often a telltale sign of the disease.
12
Erasmus had planned to give a gift to Wolsey (now appointed Bishop of Lincoln) while in London in January, but postponed his plans ‘deeming it unsafe there in consequence of the plague’. He reported: ‘The king was ill when I was there, that is at Richmond [Palace] but the doctor said he had escaped all danger.’
13
Happily, Henry was spared any pockmarks on his face, often a telltale sign of the disease.
Princess Mary was meanwhile pining for her young bridegroom-to-be, who was reported to be a sickly boy with a solemn disposition verging on the melancholy.
14
Gerard de Pleine, the President of the Council of Flanders, met her in London in June 1514 and described his impressions to Margaret of Savoy:
14
Gerard de Pleine, the President of the Council of Flanders, met her in London in June 1514 and described his impressions to Margaret of Savoy:
She is one of the most beautiful young women in the world. I think I never saw a more charming creature.
She is very graceful. Her deportment in dancing and in conversation is as pleasing as you could desire.
There is nothing gloomy or melancholy about her.
It is certain … that she is much attached to Prince Charles of whom she has a very bad picture and is said to wish to see it ten times a day.
Never a day passes that she does not express a wish to see him.
I had imagined that she would have been very tall but she is of middling height and … a much better match in age and person for the prince than I had heard.
15
15
But this match was not to be. Louis XII’s wife, Anne of Brittany, died on 9 January 1514 and the fifty-one-year-old French king made unexpected secret overtures to take Mary as his new wife.
Sporadic fighting between England and France continued. The following month the French attacked the south coast of England and burnt Brighton to the ground (leaving only the parish church of St Nicholas standing) before they were driven off by hastily mustered archers.
16
In retaliation, Henry sent a punitive expedition to Normandy under the newly created Earl of Surrey to burn and ravage the countryside near Cherbourg.
17
French troops also attacked Guisnes in the Pale of Calais and threatened to besiege it, ‘but the English sallied forth and repulsed them with much slaughter’.
18
16
In retaliation, Henry sent a punitive expedition to Normandy under the newly created Earl of Surrey to burn and ravage the countryside near Cherbourg.
17
French troops also attacked Guisnes in the Pale of Calais and threatened to besiege it, ‘but the English sallied forth and repulsed them with much slaughter’.
18
Surprisingly, the French king’s proposal was not rebuffed, primarily because Ferdinand of Spain was about to sign a unilateral peace treaty with France and Maximilian had pulled out of the Holy League.
19
Thus deceitfully deserted by his allies, Henry at first considered fighting on alone against France but then began to woo the Swiss as potential fellow combatants. Wolsey and Bishop Fox, however, urged a new peace treaty with the French king: Henry instructed Wolsey that he required 100,000 crowns as an annual ‘tribute’ paid ‘for withholding my inheritance’ – the throne of France – and that peace should ‘no longer continue than the payment of the money’.
20
19
Thus deceitfully deserted by his allies, Henry at first considered fighting on alone against France but then began to woo the Swiss as potential fellow combatants. Wolsey and Bishop Fox, however, urged a new peace treaty with the French king: Henry instructed Wolsey that he required 100,000 crowns as an annual ‘tribute’ paid ‘for withholding my inheritance’ – the throne of France – and that peace should ‘no longer continue than the payment of the money’.
20
Under the subsequent treaty, signed on 7 August 1514, Louis agreed to pay a million gold crowns (£250,000) to Henry in ten annual instalments.
The final clause was an agreement that Mary should marry Louis XII.
21
The final clause was an agreement that Mary should marry Louis XII.
21
In Rome, the English ambassador Cardinal Bainbridge, Archbishop of York, died suddenly on 14 July, having probably been poisoned by his chaplain Renaldo da Modena, who was indignant after being punched by his violent master. Henry formally requested Pope Leo to make Wolsey a cardinal in his place: ‘His merits are such that we esteem him above our dearest friends and we can do nothing of the least importance without him,’ he wrote. Furthermore, ‘no one laboured and sweated’ for the Anglo – French peace more than Wolsey.
22
22
Louis was not an attractive catch for Mary. He was toothless, syphilitic and gout-ridden, suffered from a scorbutic skin condition like scurvy and displayed symptoms of premature senility. Some roguish reports even suggested he had contracted elephantiasis
23
or leprosy. He was scarcely the first choice of lover in any teenage girl’s dream of wedded bliss.
23
or leprosy. He was scarcely the first choice of lover in any teenage girl’s dream of wedded bliss.
The only glimmer of hope was that he was unlikely to live long. After much cajoling, a reluctant princess eventually told her brother that she would marry Louis only on condition that she had complete freedom to choose her next husband after he died. She already had Charles Brandon, created Duke of Suffolk in 1514, in her sights. On 30 July, she solemnly renounced her proposed marriage with Charles of Burgundy at a short formal ceremony at the royal manor of Wanstead, Essex, witnessed by Wolsey, Norfolk and Suffolk himself.
24
24
The proxy wedding was held on 13 August at Greenwich, with the French hostage, the Duc de Longueville, acting as Louis XII’s representative. The symbolic consummation followed with Mary, after having undressed, climbing into bed in the ‘presence of many witnesses’. Another French prisoner, the Marquis de Rothelin, wearing a doublet and garish red hose (but with one leg naked) crept under the covers and touched her body with his bare leg.
25
The marriage was declared duly consummated amid polite applause from the bystanders. Mary’s real wedding night would be much less entertaining.
25
The marriage was declared duly consummated amid polite applause from the bystanders. Mary’s real wedding night would be much less entertaining.
The king paid out nearly £1,000 for her trousseau, more than half of
which went on embroidery, including the £233 paid to a jeweller for the glittering gilt spangles sewn on Mary’s dresses.
26
which went on embroidery, including the £233 paid to a jeweller for the glittering gilt spangles sewn on Mary’s dresses.
26
Henry and Katherine saw his unenthusiastic sister off at Dover on 30 September 1514 but her voyage to France became an uncomfortable chapter of accidents. The Earl of Surrey, as Lord Admiral, was detailed to shepherd the wedding party safely across the English Channel but stormy weather delayed them for four days of
mal de mer
and abject misery.
27
Mary’s ship was separated from the flotilla and ran jarringly aground on a sandbank outside Boulogne, forcing her to be rowed ashore in a small boat through the raging surf. Finally, Sir Christopher Garnish, staggering through the waves, had to carry her in his arms onto the beach.
28
A true Tudor, she was vocal in her angry protests at the danger and damage to her dignity. Amongst her ladies was Mary Boleyn (daughter of Katherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting and the diplomat Sir Thomas Boleyn), who was chosen to join the entourage because of her fluent French.
mal de mer
and abject misery.
27
Mary’s ship was separated from the flotilla and ran jarringly aground on a sandbank outside Boulogne, forcing her to be rowed ashore in a small boat through the raging surf. Finally, Sir Christopher Garnish, staggering through the waves, had to carry her in his arms onto the beach.
28
A true Tudor, she was vocal in her angry protests at the danger and damage to her dignity. Amongst her ladies was Mary Boleyn (daughter of Katherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting and the diplomat Sir Thomas Boleyn), who was chosen to join the entourage because of her fluent French.
The bride’s first glimpse of her husband at Abbeville was unedifying. Clearly entertaining lascivious thoughts, the French king was ‘licking his lips and gulping his spittle’. His outfit was ludicrous, more befitting a younger man. The wedding was postponed for a few weeks because drooling Louis suffered a bad attack of gout, but finally their nuptials were celebrated in Abbeville Cathedral on 9 October. After the wedding night, the groom boasted vaingloriously that he had ‘performed marvels’ although his cousin and heir apparent Francis, Duke of Angoulême, unkindly gossiped ‘that unless I have been told lies … the king and queen cannot possibly have a child’.
29
Most of her English servants were promptly sacked, much to Mary’s chagrin, although Mary Boleyn remained a lady of her chamber.
29
Most of her English servants were promptly sacked, much to Mary’s chagrin, although Mary Boleyn remained a lady of her chamber.
Henry sent Suffolk to Paris on a secret mission to discuss plans to wreak his personal revenge on the Spanish king for violating his alliance with England and his cavalier treatment of him. Henry sought a military pact with Louis to expel Ferdinand from the kingdom of Navarre and assistance in pressing a barely plausible claim on Castile, of which Queen Katherine, the king insisted, was the legitimate heir.
Before the duke departed, Henry extracted a solemn promise from
him at Eltham Palace in front of Wolsey that he would make no attempt to seduce or make love to Mary while he was in France.
30
him at Eltham Palace in front of Wolsey that he would make no attempt to seduce or make love to Mary while he was in France.
30
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