HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 251 



&quot; only rather a civil request than any essential part 

 &quot; of our negociation, which the king maketh to the 

 &quot; king your sovereign. The king, as all the world 

 &quot; knoweth, is lord in chief of the Duchy of Britain. 

 &quot; The marriage of the heir belongeth to him as 

 &quot; guardian This is a private patrimonial right, and 

 &quot; no business of estate : yet nevertheless, to run a 

 &quot; fair course with your king, whom he desires to 

 u make another himself, and to be one and the same 

 &quot; thing with him, his request is, that witrrthe king s 

 &quot; favour and consent he may dispose of her mar- 

 &quot; riage, as he thinketh good, and make void the in- 

 &quot; truded and pretended marriage of Maximilian, 

 &quot; according to justice. This, my lords, is all that I 

 &quot; have to say, desiring your pardon for my weak- 

 &quot; ness in the delivery.&quot; 



Thus did the French ambassadors with great 

 shew of their king s affection, and many sugared 

 words, seek to addulce all matters between the two 

 kings, having two things for their ends ; the one to 

 keep the king quiet till the marriage of Britain was 

 past ; and this was but a summer fruit, which they 

 thought was almost ripe, and would be soon ga 

 thered. The other was more lasting ; and that was 

 to put him into such a temper as he might be no 

 disturbance or impediment to the voyage for Italy 

 The lords of the council were silent ; and said only, 

 &quot; That they knew the ambassadors would look for 

 &quot; no answer, till they had reported to the king ;&quot; 

 and so they rose from council. The king could not 

 well tell what to think of the marriage of Britain. 

 VOL. 3. p 



