242 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 



of Newport. Whereupon the Lord Cordes, dis 

 couraged, and measuring the new succours, which 

 were small, by the success, which was great, levied 

 his siege. By this means matters grew more exas 

 perate between the two kings of England and 

 France, for that, in the war of Flanders, the auxiliary 

 forces of French and English were much blooded 

 one against another. Which blood rankled the more, 

 by the vain words of the Lord Cordes, that declared 

 himself an open enemy of the English, beyond that 

 that appertained to the present service ; making it a 

 common by-word of his, &quot; That he could be content 

 &quot; to lie in hell seven years, so he might win Calais 

 from the English.&quot; 



The king having thus upheld the reputation of 

 Maximilian, advised him now to press on his mar 

 riage with Britain to a conclusion. Which Maximi 

 lian accordingly did, and so far forth prevailed, both 

 with the young lady and with the principal persons 

 about her, as the marriage was consummated by 

 proxy, with a ceremony at that time in these parts 

 new. For she was not only publicly contracted, 

 but stated, as a bride, and solemnly bedded ; and 

 after she was laid, there came in Maximilian s am 

 bassador with letters of procuration, and in the pre 

 sence of sundry noble personages, men and women, 

 put his leg, stript naked to the knee, between the 

 espousal sheets; to the end, that that ceremony 

 might be thought to amount to a consummation and 

 actual knowledge. This done, Maximilian, whose 

 property was to leave things then when they were 



