R. Nisbet Bain - The Cambridge Modern History

It was a new world altogether when Henry VIII, in his eighteenth year, succeeded his father upon the throne. With a full exchequer and an undisputed title, the young King was at the commencement of his reign liberal and generous; and being handsome in person, highly accomplished and fond of manly exercises, he was abundantly popular. The old King just before his death had desired to atone for past severities, and had issued a general pardon, which his successor at o^ce renewed, excepting from it, however, among others, those instruments of extortion, Empson and Dudley, who were arrested the very day after his accession. By his father’s dying advice, moreover, the unfriendly policy towards Ferdinand of Aragon was dropped at once, and the King married Katharine on June 11. He was crowned with her on the 28th at Westminster.

Dudley was found guilty of constructive treason at the Guildhall of London on July 18, 1509, and Empson at Northampton on August 8. The treason in both cases consisted in their having written to friends to come up to London armed, in anticipation of the old King’s death, to help them to maintain their influence. Both Empson and Dudley were attainted in the Parliament which met in January, 1510, and both were beheaded on Tower Hill on August 17 following. The bonds which they had wrung from many on various legal pretexts were one by one brought into Chancery, and cancelled. It is noteworthy that Dudley during his imprisonment composed a treatise called The Tree of Common Wealth, in which he pointed out the chief dangers of the time, including that of the cruel administration of penal laws, in which he himself had taken so much part.

The first two years of the King’s reign were peaceful and happy. There were no events to chronicle but Court pageants and tournaments, Christmas revels and May games; and when, on January 1, 1511, Katharine bore to the King a son named Henry, a new stimulus was given to these displays. But, though a household was appointed for the royal infant, he died on February 22. That same month the King received a request from his father-in-law, Ferdinand of Aragon, for the aid of fifteen hundred archers to make war on the Moors of Barbary. The men were easily found, and were placed under the command of Lord Darcy. But the expedition was unfortunate; for they had scarcely landed at Cadiz when they found that Ferdinand, pressed by France, had been obliged to make a truce with the Moors, and their services were not required. The men, too, were ill-disciplined, became intoxicated with Spanish wines, had frays with the natives, and returned home in ill-humour. Another expedition of fifteen hundred archers sent under the command of Sir Edward Poynings to the assistance of Margaret of Savoy and the Burgundians against Gelders was at first more satisfactory; for with their aid some places were captured and destroyed (August). But when, after these successes, siege was laid to Venloo and had continued twenty-nine days, Poynings began to feel that their allies were making undue use of the detachment, and it obtained leave to return home. Hereupon, the river being swollen by heavy rains, the Burgundians raised the siege and retired for the winter, wasting the country round about.

Shortly before this began a misunderstanding with James IV of Scotland, on account of acts of piracy stated to have been committed by his sea captain, Andrew Barton. The King sent out against him Lord Thomas Howard, eldest son of the Earl of Surrey, with his younger brother Edward, soon afterwards knighted and created Lord Admiral. In the Downs, Lord Thomas overtook Andrew Barton, who after a fierce fight fell into his hands, mortally wounded, his ship the Lion being captured with her crew by the Englishmen, who after a further chase also took the bark Jenny Pirwyn, the Lion’s consort, and brought them both to Blackwall on August 2. The Scotch prisoners appealed to the King for mercy, confessing their offence to be piracy, and were sent out of the country; but James was exceedingly angry, and demanded redress for Barton’s death and the capture of his two ships.

In this year (1511) King Henry VIII was also first drawn into continental politics. In 1508 the leading Powers on the Continent had combined against Venice in the League of Cambray; but France, the prime mover in the game, very soon alarmed her confederates, and especially Pope Julius II, by her successes in Northern Italy. Pope Julius thereupon made friends with the Seigniory, and in April, 1510, sent a golden rose to Henry VIII. The surrender of Bologna to the French in May, 1511, and the attempt, in which Louis XII secured the concurrence of the Emperor Maximilian, to set up a Council at Pisa enraged the Pope still more, and drew other princes to his aid. The Holy League was proclaimed at Rome on October 4 between the Pope and Ferdinand of Aragon; and Henry joined it on November 13, promising to make active war against France in the following spring. The recovery of Guyenne, which had now been lost to England for sixty years, was the reward held out to him by the treaty. Accordingly in May, 1512, while the French seemed still to be making head in Italy, having on Easter Sunday cut to pieces the papal and Spanish forces at Ravenna, an expedition was despatched to Spain under the Marquis of Dorset for the invasion of Guyenne, in the hope of its-being supported by Spanish troops. It landed in Biscay on June 7; but it was even more unfortunate than Lord Darcy’s expedition. No preparation had been made in Spain for its reception, not even by way of supplying the soldiers with victuals, or with carriage for their ordnance. They were exposed to the weather, and-’the diet and wines of Spain disagreed with their English habits of body. Moreover, while hundreds died of diarrhoea, the force was kept idle for months, expecting the Duke of Alva to join it. But Alva was engaged on Ferdinand’s work in the conquest of Navarre, in which he succeeded perfectly; and the only effect of the English expedition was to hamper the French in Italy, where they soon completely lost their footing. Dorset’s troops at last mutinied, and at a council of war on August 28 resolved to return home without leave,—in fact, against orders. The King was very indignant, but was unable to punish where so many were in fault.

It had been arranged that, while Dorset sought to recover Guyenne, English ships were to keep the Channel as far as Brest, and the Spaniards the sea thence to the Bay of Biscay. Sir Edward Howard was appointed Admiral of the English fleet on April 7, and after cruising about the Channel and chasing French fishing-boats he accompanied Dorset’s fleet as far as Brest. He then landed on the Breton coast, burning towns and villages ruthlessly over a circuit of thirty miles, and returned home. But the Spanish fleet did not come to join the English till September, when it was really useless; and French ships were meanwhile got ready both in Normandy and Britanny, and placed under the command of the redoubted Pregent de Bidoux, summoned hastily from the Mediterranean. Thus by August, when another expedition sailed from England for Brest harbour, the French had a pretty fair squadron there, and on the 10th a fierce action took place between the two fleets. The Regent, the largest vessel on the English side, grappled with her chief opponent the Cordeliere (called by the English the Great Carrack of Brest), till by some means both vessels took fire, and were totally consumed with the loss of nearly all their crews. Sir Thomas Knyvet, commander of the Regent, was among the victims. The King at once determined to repair the loss of the Regent by building a still larger ship called the Henry Grace de Dieu, or “The Great Harry,” which was launched two years later.

In April, 1513, Sir Edward Howard again sailed to the entrance of Brest harbour, intent on avenging Knyvet’s fate. He found drawn up in shallow water a line of French galleys, which rained shot and square bolts upon him from guns and crossbows. Putting himself in a row-barge he faced this tremendous fire and boarded Pregent’s galley, while his men cast the anchor on to the galley’s deck. But the cable was either let slip or cut by the French; and Sir Edward, left in the hands of the enemy, was thrust overboard and perished. The attack was foolhardy; but Howard’s gallantry retrieved the honour of the English nation.