240 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 



principal person about Maximilian, and one that had 

 taken the oath of abolition with his master, pretend 

 ing the religion thereof, but indeed upon private 

 ambition, and, as it was thought, instigated and cor 

 rupted from France, forsook the emperor and Maxi 

 milian his lord, and made himself an head of the 

 popular party, and seized upon the towns of Ipres 

 and Sluice with both the castles : and forthwith sent 

 to the Lord Cordes, governor of Picardy under the 

 French king, to desire aid ; and to move him, that 

 he, on the behalf of the French king, would be pro 

 tector of the United Towns, and by force of arms 

 reduce the rest. The Lord Cordes was ready to 

 embrace the occasion, which was partly of his own 

 setting, and sent forthwith greater forces than it had 

 been possible for him to raise on the sudden, if he 

 had not looked for such a summons before, in aid of 

 the Lord Ravenstein and the Flemings, with instruc 

 tions to invest the towns between France and Bruges. 

 The French forces besieged a little town called 

 Dixmude, where part of the Flemish forces joined 

 with them. While they lay at this siege, the King 

 of England, upon pretence of the safety of the Eng 

 lish pale about Calais, but in truth being loth that 

 Maximilian should become contemptible, and thereby 

 be shaken off by the states of Britain about this mar 

 riage, sent over the Lord Morley with a thousand 

 men, unto the Lord D Aubigny, then deputy of 

 Calais, with secret instructions to aid Maximilian, 

 and to raise the siege of Dixmude. The Lord 

 D Aubigny, giving it out that all was for the strength- 



