peace. The French King meanwhile invaded Brittaine with great forces, and distressed the city of Nantes with a strait siege,1 and (as one who, though he had This is Polydore Vergil's statement; who seems, as I said, to have been the original authority for these transactions; and whose narrative could not then be corrected by comparison with more authentic records. Rymer's Fœdera however and the Rolls of Parliament enable us now to detect inaccuracies of date, which show that his means of informatica were either imperfect or carelessly used; and the researches of mode.u historians into the Breton archives supply several material corrections. Bacon seems to have taken Polydore's narrative as his ground-work, to have done his best to make out the meaning of it, and then to have told it as plainly and luminously as he could. And the meaning of it- -the ideas and designs of the parties, the ends they were aiming at, and the issues they brought out- - he appears to have divined with great accuracy; insomuch that every correction of his story in its details seems to make the truth of his general interpretation more manifest. But as he was obliged to fit his narrative into Polydore's frame-work, which contains several wrong dates, the details are of course very far from accurate. a story that hangs well together, a single false date will commonly affect the whole sequence of events; and when that false date happens to separate material points that were in fact connected or to bring together material points that were in fact separate, it may even affect the whole series of causes and effects. In Though I know how inconvenient it is for a reader to be continually called away from the story in the text to listen to a different version of it, I fear that in this case the inconvenience must be submitted to. The corrections would not be intelligible to him if the original story were not fresh in his memory; and if I were to remit them to the appendix, I should be obliged either to repeat the whole or to interrupt him by reíerences to the body of the narrative which would be more troublesome than references from the text to foot-notes. If he wishes therefore to take a true impression of Henry's proceedings in the matter of Brittany, I must ask him to pause at the points which I shall indicate, and hear what I hive to say before he goes on. In the present instance, Bacon, following Polydore Vergil, has misdated the siege of Nantes by eight or nine months. It was commenced (see D'Argentré, xiii. 38.) on the 19th of June, 1487,- only three days after the battle of Stoke; and raised on the 6th of August following, a little before the time when Charles sent his first embassy to Henry. Which if Bacon had known, he would probably have included the fresh failure of this enterprise among Henry's reasons (see pp. 106, 112,) for thinking that Brittany was not in immediate danger from France; especially if he ould have connected it with another fact, which he does not seem t: no great judgment, yet had that, that he could dissemble home1) the more he did urge the prosecution of the war, the more he did at the same time urge the solicitation of the peace; insomuch as during the siege of Nantes, after many letters and particular messages, the better to maintain his dissimulation and to refresh the treaty, he sent Bernard Daubigny,2 a person of good quality, to the King, earnestly to desire him to make an end of the business howsoever. The King was no less ready to revive and quicken the treaty ; and thereupon sent three commissioners, the Abbot of Abingdon, Sir Richard Tunstall, and Chaplain Urswick formerly employed, to do their utmost endeavour to manage the treaty roundly and strongly. About this time the Lord Woodvile (uncle to the Queen) a valiant gentleman and desirous of honour, sued to the King that he might raise some power of voluntaries under-hand, and without licence or pass have been aware of, though it is mentioned by D'Argentré, xiii. 41., and which Henry must have known, namely, that the Duke of Brittany did at that very time (24th Sept. 1487) formally entertain Maximilian's suit for his daughter. But though it is not true that Charles was investing Nantes while the negotiations which Bacon is here speaking of were proceeding, it is true that he was preparing a fresh invasion of Brittany. (See Daru, iii. p. 134.) The inaccuracy therefore does not in this case affect the substantial truth of the narrative. 1 Sed tamen qui simulationum artes in sinu patris optime didicerat. 2 Bernardum Dobenensem, honestum equitem, according to Polydore. We learn from the Herald (Lel. iv. p. 236.) that "the Lorde Dawbeney, em bassator of Fraunce" was at Windsor on Twelfth Even, 1487-8: which may have been the occasion Polydore was thinking of. The embassy which he represents as sent by Henry in answer (after some delay, it seems, from the illness of one of the commissioners) was despatched on the 17th of March, 1487-8. See Rymer. This Bernardus Dobenensis was, I suppose, Bernard Stewart, Lord Aubigny; a gentleman of Scotch extraction; who commanded the body or French soldiers that accompanied Henry to England. See Tytler's Hist. of Scotl. vol. iv. p. 296. port (wherein the King might any ways appear') go to the aid of the Duke of Brittaine. The King denied his request, or at least seemed so to do, and laid strait commandment upon him that he should not stir; or that the King thought his honour would suffer therein, during a treaty to better a party. Nevertheless this lord (either being unruly, or out of conceit 2 that the King would not inwardly dislike that which he would not openly avow,) sailed secretly over into the Isle of Wight whereof he was governor, and levied a fair troop of four hundred men, and with them passed over into Brittaine, and joined himself with the Duke's forces.3 The news whereof when it came to the French court, put divers young bloods into such a fury, as the English ambassadors were not without peril to be outraged. But the French King, both to preserve the privilege of ambassadors, and being conscious to himself that in the business of peace he himself was the greater dissembler of the two, forbad all injuries of fact or word against their persons or followers. And presently came an agent from the King to purge himself touching the Lord Woodvile's going over, using for a principal argument to demonstrate that it was without his privity, for that the troops were so small, as neither had the face of a succour by authority nor could much advance the Briton affairs. To which message although the French King gave no full credit, yet he made fair weather with the King and seemed satisfied. Soon after the English ambassadors returned, having two of them been likewise with 1 Absque commeatu aut fide publica. 2 Opinione temeraria. 8 Compare W. Paston's letter, 13th May, 1488; quoted in note, p. 105. 4 Cum serenitate quadam respondit. the Duke of Brittaine1 and found things in no other terms than they were before. Upon their return they informed the King of the state of the affairs, and how far the French King was from any true meaning of peace, and therefore he was now to advise of some other course. Neither was the King himself led all this while with credulity merely, as was generally supposed. But his error was not so much facility of belief, as an ill-measuring of the forces of the other party. For (as was partly touched before) the King had cast the business thus with himself. He took it for granted in his own judgment that the war of Brittaine, in respect of the strength of the towns and of the party, could not speedily come to a period. For he conceived that the counsels of a war that was undertaken by the French King (then childless 2) against an heir apparent of France, would be very faint and slow; and besides that it was not possible but that the state of France should be embroiled with some troubles and alterations in favour of the Duke of Orleans. He conceived likewise that Maximilian 1 According to Lobineau, i. 783, who gives as his authority Registre, an embassage consisting of the three commissioners above mentioned; viz. the Abbot of Abingdon, Sir Richard Tunstall, and Chaplain Urswick, together with Dr. Wardes, - passed from France into Brittany in June, 1488: which agrees with Sismondi's statement, that from the 1st to the 26th of June in that year hostilities were suspended in consequence of Henry's mediation. Polydore adds that the ambassadors, before they returned, renewed the truce between Henry and Charles for twelve months ·(renovatis in duodecim menses cum Carolo induciis). They probably agreed upon the terms of the truce which was signed by Henry at Windsor on 14th July, 1488, (see Rymer) and was to continue from that day till the 17th of January, 1489-90. I do not however find any trace of the counterpart signed by Charles: and it is not irnprobable that it was interrupted before completion by the events which immediately followed. King of the Romans was a Prince warlike and potent, who he made account would give succours to the Britons roundly. So then judging it would be a work of time, he laid his plot how he might best make use of that time for his own affairs. Wherein first he thought to make his vantage upon his Parliament, knowing that they being affectionate unto the quarrel of Brittaine would give treasure largely. Which treasure as a noise of war might draw forth, so a peace succeeding might coffer up. And because he knew his people were hot upon the business, he chose rather to seem to be deceived and lulled a-sleep by the French, than to be backward in himself; considering his subjects were not so fully capable of the reasons of state which made him hold back. Wherefore to all these purposes he saw no other expedient than to set and keep on foot a continual treaty of peace, laying it down and taking it up again as the occurrence required. Besides he had in consideration the point of honour, in bearing the blessed person of a pacificator. He thought likewise to make use of the envy that the French King met with by occasion of this war of Brittaine, in strengthening himself with new alliances; as namely that of Ferdinando of Spain, with whom he had ever a consent (even in nature and customs); and likewise with Maximilian, who was particularly interested. So that in substance he promised himself1 money, honour, friends, and peace in the end. But those things were too fine to be fortunate and succeed in all parts; for that great affairs are commonly too rough and stubborn to be wrought 1 Satis indulgenter promiserat. |