ENGLAND. 



649 



History. 



Accession of 

 Henry 

 VIII. 

 1509. 



le king's 

 urriage. 



11. 



tocracy ; and taught the peaceful arts of civilized life to 

 a warlike and turbulent people. 



Henry VIII. ascended the throne, when he was about 

 18 years of age, with every advantage that a young 

 prince could possess, and with the fairest prospects of a 

 happy reign. Uniting in his person the claims of the 

 houses of Lancaster and of York, his title was indisputed, 

 and all factions were extinguished. Beautiful in his form, 

 expert in every manly exercise, accomplished in all the 

 literature of the times, and even an adept in school divi- 

 nity, he was regarded by his people with indulgent affec- 

 tion and high expectation. At peace with all Europe, 

 and in possession of a well-stored public treasury, he 

 found his subjects advancing in commerce and the arts, 

 and was himself furnished with the means of contributing 

 to their power and prosperity. His first measures were 

 dictated by the wisest policy, and were at the same time 

 well suited to increase his popularity. He chose as his 

 ministers, men of eminent abilities and experience ; con- 

 firmed, by proclamation, the general pardon granted by 

 the late king ; and renewed the treaties of peace which his 

 father had concluded with Scotland, France, and Spain. 

 But, destitute of wisdom to improve his advantages, and 

 of virtue to prosecute the welfare of his subjects, he be- 

 came negligent of public affairs ; and abandoning himself 

 to idle dissipation, entrusted the government of tl>e state 

 to the hands of his ministers. Even in gratifying the 

 wishes of the nation, he shewed himself more oppressive 

 than just. Empson and Dudley, the instruments of the 

 late king's rapacity, were brought to trial ; but, as they 

 could not be impeached for having merely put the laws 

 in execution in obedience to the will of their sovereign, 

 nnd as they had cautiously preserved the royal orders for 

 all their proceedings, they were charged with a treason- 

 able design to seize the administration ef the govern- 

 ment upon the decca.se of their late master, and, by the 

 weight of popular prejudice and of court influence, with- 

 out either probability or proof, were condemned and ex- 

 ecuted. 



One of the first and most important matters, which 

 engaged the attention of the council, was the marriage of 

 the king to his brother's widow, Catherine, the Infanta 

 of Spain, to whom he had formerly been contracted, and 

 a dispensation for the union obtained from the Pope. 

 Though Henry himself was averse to the match, and it 

 was opposed by Wai ham, archbishop of Canterbury, as 

 .in incestuous alliance, yet the majority of the council, 

 for political reasons, recommended the completion of the 

 contract. The royal nuptials were solemnized at Green- 

 wich, June 1, \ 509, and the ceremony of the coronation 

 was soon afterwards performed with the most extraordi- 

 nary pomp and magnificence. Engaged in a succession 

 of expensive amusements, the young king .seemed to 

 think himself born for no other object, than to dissipate 

 the treasures which his father had amassed ; but not con- 

 tented with his own private extravagance, he proceeded 

 to involve Ins people in die heavier burdens of an un- 

 meaning and unnecessary war. Seduced by the artifices 

 of Pope Julius II. and of Ferdinand king of Spain, lie 

 entered into a league with them against Louis XII. of 

 France. He was flattered with the idea of being the pro- 

 tector of the church, and of receiving the title of The 

 Most Christian King," which the pope had promised to 

 transfer from the French to the English monarch. He 

 was so far blinded by vanity and ambition, as even to 

 Announce an intention of conquering France, and annex* 



VOJ.. VIII. PART 1L 



ing it to the English crown. The parliament and the History, 

 nation entered with sufficient alacrity into his views, and S ""Y""'' 

 granted the most liberal supplies for prosecuting the war. 

 In 1513, having appointed the queen regent of the king- 

 dom, Henry landed at Calais with a powerful army ; and 

 after an easy victory over the French, a few useless sieges, 

 and an expensive display of his magnificence at Tournay, 

 he returned to England, with sufficient honour to his 

 troops, but with no advantage to his kingdom. His un- 

 provoked attack upon the French king, had involved him 

 in a war also with James IV. of Scotland : and, though 

 liis arms were here attended with greater military success, 

 by the fall of the Scottish king, with the flower of his 

 nobility, in the memorable battle of FlouJen-fiekl ; yet 

 little political benefit accrued to his subjects to compen- 

 sate tlie death of his sister's husband, who might have 

 proved one of his most faithful allies. Discovering, 

 however, the selfish views of his confederates, who were 

 severally negotiating secret treaties with the French 

 king, he readily listened to the overtures of Louis, with p e!|ce wit]l 

 whom he not only concluded a peace, but also formed a France, 

 family alliance, by giving him in marriage his youngest August T. 

 sister, the Princess Mary. 151 *' 



Henry, now left at liberty to indulge his love of ex- 

 pensive pleasures, soon exhausted all the treasures which 

 he had inherited from his father, or obtained from his 

 parliament ; and he had found a minister ready to gratify 

 his most extravagant demands, and to execute his most 

 tyrannical measures. Thomas Wolsey, (the son of a Cardinal 

 private gentleman, or, according to others, of a butcher w _ ol . se y 

 at Ipswich,) who had successfully executed some public nunlst ' :r ' 

 commissions in the late reign, had been introduced to 

 Henry, by Fox, bishop of Winchester, as a proper person 

 to assist him, in his insinuating arts, in drawing the king's 

 favour from his rival die Earl of Surrey ; and so com- 

 pletely did he fulfil, or rather exceed the wishes of his 

 patron, that, in a few months, he supplanted all former 

 favourites and counsellors of the king ; became the com- 

 panion of his pleasures, the repository of his secrets, his 

 sole and absolute minister. (See WOLSEY.) At once 

 archbishop of York, bishop of Durham, a cardinal, pope's 

 legate, lord-chancellor of England, prime minister of 

 state, and master of Henry's thoughts and affections, he 

 directed the affairs of England with the authority of a 

 sovereign, and attained a degree of opulence, power, and 

 influence in the affairs of Europe, which no British sub- 

 ject had ever possessed. Under his administration, how- 

 ever, as chancellor, justice was ably and impartially ad- 

 ministered, and the public tranquillity so well established, 

 that the king and his minister might have ruled without 

 either domestic disturbance or foreign alarms, had they 

 abstained from avaricious measures, and ambitious pro- 

 jects. 



The king of England, by the native force and situa- 

 tion of his kingdom, was enabled to hold the balance be- 

 tween the two rival princes, Charles V. and Francis I. ; 

 and, had he known how to improve his singular ail van- 

 tages, might have been, in reality, a greater potentate 

 than either of these monarchs, who were so keenly con- 

 tending for tlie dominion of Europe. But, actuated by 

 his own capricious passions, or directed by the interested 

 views of his favourite, this distinguished superiority of 

 his situation was never employed for the essential benefit Interviews 

 of his dominions. Both of the rival monarchs anxiously "'* 

 sought a personal interview with him, in die view of p^ds * 

 conciliating his friendship ; and the emperor, particular. is?o. 

 4N 



