HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 401 



the manner is, to certain cardinals, to take the veri 

 fication of his holy acts and miracles : but it died 

 under the reference. The general opinion was, that 

 Pope Julius was too dear, and that the kin;*- would 

 not come to his rates. But it is more probable, that 

 that pope, who was extremely jealous of the dignity 

 of the see of Rome, and of the acts thereof, knowing 

 that King Henry the Sixth was reputed in the world 

 abroad but for a simple man, was afraid it would but 

 diminish the estimation of that kind of honour, if 

 there were not a distance kept between innocents 

 and saints. 



The same year likewise there proceeded a treaty 

 of marriage between the king and the Lady Marga 

 ret, Duchess Dowager of Savoy, only daughter to 

 Maximilian, and sister to the King of Castile ; a lady 

 wise, and of great good fame. This matter had 

 been in speech between the two kings at their meet 

 ing, but was soon after resumed ; and therein was 

 employed for his first piece the king s then chaplain, 

 and after the great prelate, Thomas Wolsey. It 

 was in the end concluded, with great and ample con 

 ditions for the king, but with promise de futuro 

 only. It may be the king was the rather induced 

 unto it, for that he had heard more and more of the 

 marriage to go on between his great friend and 

 ally Ferdinando of Arragon, and Madame de Fois, 

 whereby that king began to piece with the French 

 king, from whom he had been always before severed. 

 So fatal a thing it is, for the greatest and straitest 

 amities of kings at one time or other, to have a little 



