under the conduct of the Lord Morley, they made up to the number of two thousand or better. Which forces joining with some companies of Almaynes, put themselves into Dixmue, not perceived by the enemies; and passing through the town (with some reinforcement from the forces that were in the town) assailed the enemies' camp, negligently guarded as being out of fear, where there was a bloody fight, in which the English and their partakers obtained the victory, and slew to the number of eight thousand men, with the loss on the English part of a hundred or thereabouts; amongst, whom was the Lord Morley. They took also their great ordnance, with much rich spoils, which they carried to Newport; whence the Lord Daubigny returned to Calais, leaving the hurt men and some other voluntaries in Newport. But the Lord Cordes being at Ipre with a great power of men, thinking to recover the loss and disgrace of the fight at Dixmue, came presently on and sat down before Newport and besieged it; and after some days siege, he resolved to try the fortune of an assault; which he did one day,2 and succeeded therein so far, that he had taken the principal tower and fort in that city, and planted upon it the French banner; whence nevertheless they were presently beaten forth by the English, by the help of some fresh succours of archers, arriving by good fortune (at the instant) in the haven of Newport. Whereupon the Lord Cordes, discouraged, and measuring the new succours which were small by the success which was great, left his siege. By this means

1 A town at the mouth of the river on which Dixmude stands.

2 This was on Midsummer's Day, 1489. See the Herald's journal. Cott.

Jul. xi. f. 55.

8 So MS. Ed. 1622 has "levied."

matters grew more exasperate 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, That he could be content to lie in hell seven years so he might win Calais from the English.

The King having thus upheld the reputation of Maximilian, advised him now to press on his marriage with Brittaine to a conclusion; which Maximilian accordingly did; and so far forth prevailed both with the young lady and with the principal persons about her, as the marriage was consummate by proxy2 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 ambassador with letters of procuration,

1 Res et existimationem.

2 Polydore Vergil, from whom all this comes, does not give the date of this proxy-marriage, and the diligence of modern French historians does not seem to have succeeded in fixing it with certainty. It is said to have been performed with such secrecy that even the servants of the Duchess were not aware of it for some time. If so- and the existence of a doubt as to the date of such an event makes it probable that secrecy was affected, though it does not oblige us to believe with Rapin that neither Henry nor Charles knew of it for above a twelvemonth after the object must have been to keep it from Charles; and we need not seek so far as Bacon does to account for Maximilian's being content with a marriage by proxy: had he gone to Brittany in person, the secret would have been harder to keep.

Lingard dates the marriage as late as April, 1491; which must be wrong; for there is a commission extant dated the 29th of March in that year, in which the marriage is distinctly mentioned. See Rymer, xii. 43ʊ. D'Argentré (xiii. 56.) puts it about the beginning of November, 1490.

and in the presence 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 almost comen to perfection, and to end them by imagination; like ill archers, that draw not their arrows up to the head; and who might as easily have bedded the lady himself1 as to have made a play and disguise of it,) thinking now all assured, neglected for a time his further proceeding, and intended his wars.2 Meanwhile

1 Besides the reasons suggested in the last note, it must be remembered that Anne did not complete her fourteenth year till the 26th of January, 1490-1. See Daru, iii. p. 84.

2 What then became of the English forces in Brittany? Polydore Vergil did not know they were there; the old English historians, following Polydore without suspicion, do not raise the question; the modern, by correcting Polydore's dates, raise, but do not perfectly answer it. There they were however all this time; and it is particularly important with reference to Henry's administration to know when and under what circumstances they came back. For it was the most considerable move in the game, and was regarded by Bacon as the single exception to the good fortune of Henry's military enterprises; and one so little in keeping with the rest that he is obliged to impute it to an accident, for which through want of political foresight he had neglected to provide. French historians supply us with the true story, and show that this business was in fact no exception, but a striking illustration both of the qualities and the fortune which Bacon ascribes to him.

I have already explained that the expedition was planned with great deliberation, and formed part of a combined movement, in conjunction with Spain and Flanders, to arrest the French King's progress in the reduction of Brittany. In pursuance of this plan Spain threatened France in the south at Fontarabia; Maximilian, though hampered with troubles at home, contrived with Henry's assistance to effect an important diversion in the north; at the same time secretly and successfully pressing his suit for the young Duchess's hand; and the English forces in Brittany meanwhile, if they gained no brilliant successes over the French, yet effectually stopped their career of conquest: the result of all which was that Charles gave up the attempt to carry his ends that way. It has in.

the French King (consulting with his divines, and finding that this pretended consummation was rather

deed been stated, not only by Polydore Vergil and those also who followed him, but by modern writers with better information, that Henry not only failed to give these forces due support and encouragement while they were there, but recalled them in less than six months, that is before the stipulated time of service had expired. But this is surely a mistake, arising from some attempt to combine Bacon's narrative with the facts derived from Rymer's Fœdera and the Breton archives, instead of setting it aside altogether, as inconsistent with them and resting itself upon no better authority than Polydore's. The fact is that in the middle of August, 1489, which was the fifth month after their landing, Henry instead of recalling was reinforcing them. (See Rymer, xii. 337.; also Calendar of Patent Rolls, where we find commissions issued on the 14th, 15th, and 16th of August for the raising of a force "destined for Brittany;" and compare Lobineau, i. p. 805.); and (not to attempt to trace with exactness, the separate operations of the many causes which conspired to bring about the total result) the end of it all was that Charles consented soon after to make peace, on terms by no means disadvantageous to Brittany. By the treaty of Frankfort, concluded between him and Maximilian sometime in the autumn of 1489, it was agreed that Charles should restore to the Duchess all the towns which he had conquered since her father's death (except three or four which were to be held in trust by the Duke of Bourbon and the Prince of Orange until the differences should be amicably settled; for which purpose a congress was to be holden at Tournay in the following April); that he should in the meantime withdraw his troops out of Brittany, and that she should dismiss her foreign auxiliaries. "Et vuyderont" (says D'Argentré) "les gens de guerre François de Bretagne, comme aussi la Duchesse feroit vuyder les Anglois." This treaty was accepted by the Duchess, according to Lobineau, in November, 1489; whereupon the English forces would of course be withdrawn, or if they remained it was only pending the payment of expenses.

We see therefore that there is no ground for regarding the issue of this enterprise as a thing requiring explanation or apology. If it did not aim to accomplish much, it is not the less characteristic of Henry on that account. What it did aim at it accomplished; and it does not appear to have been his fault if the winning of the move did not secure the game. The project of marriage between Maximilian and the Duchess was so far advanced that a commission for consummating it by proxy was issued (D'Argentré, xiii. 56.) on the 23rd of March, 1489that is, I presume, 1489-99, though it matters not to the present question to which year the date belongs and had it been regularly completed, which might (it seems) have been done if Maximilian had not left it when it was all but done, Charles would apparently have been fairly checkmated. As it was, he was obliged to quit the attempt to possess himself of Brittany by

an invention of court than any ways valid by the laws of the church,) went more really to work; and by secret instruments and cunning agents, as well matrons about the young lady as counsellors, first sought to remove the point of religion and honour out of the mind of the lady herself; wherein there was a double labour; for Maximilian was not only contracted unto the lady, but Maximilian's daughter was likewise contracted to King Charles: so as the marriage halted upon both feet, and was not clear on either side. But for the contract with King Charles, the exception lay plain and fair; for that Maximilian's daughter was under years of consent, and so not bound by law; but a power of disagreement left to either part.2 But for the contract made by Maximilian with the lady herself, they were harder driven: having nothing to allege, but that it was done without the consent of her sovereign lord King Charles, whose ward and client she was, and he to her in place of a father; and therefore it was void and of no force, for want of such consent. Which defect (they said) though it would not evacuate a marriage after cohabitation and actual consummation, yet it was enough to make void a contract. For as for the pretended consummation, they made sport with it, and said that it was an argument that Maximilian was a widower, and a cold wooer, that could content himself to be a bridegroom by deputy, and would not make a little journey to put all out of question. So that the young lady wrought upon by

force, and try it another way. In all respects therefore, the enterprise appears to have been planned with characteristic caution and concluded with characteristic success

1 Magis solide.

2 This clause is omitted in the translation.