XXIX.

1527,

account of his pretended treason. The English and CHAP. French heralds, therefore, according to agreement, declared war against him, and set him at defiance. Charles answered the English herald with moderation; but to the French he reproached his master with breach of faith, reminded him of the private conversation which had passed between them at Madrid before their separation, and offered to prove, by single combat, that he had acted dishonourably. Francis retaliated his challenge, by giving Charles the lie; and after demanding security of the field, he offered to maintain his cause by single combat. Many messages passed to and fro between them; but though both princes were undoubtedly brave, the intended duel never took place. The French and Spaniards during that age zealously disputed which of the monarchs incurred the blame of this failure; but all men of moderation every where lamented the power of fortune, that the prince, the more candid, generous, and sincere, should by unhappy incidents have been reduced to so cruel a situation, that nothing but his violation of treaty could preserve his people, and that he must ever after, without being able to make a proper reply, bear to be reproached with breach of promise by a rival, inferior to him both in honour and in virtue.

BUT though this famous challenge between Charles and Francis had no immediate consequence with regard to these monarchs themselves, it produced a considerable alteration on the manners of the age. The practice of challenges and duels, which had been part of the ancient barbarous jurisprudence, which was still preserved on very solemn occasions, and which was sometimes countenanced by the civil magistrate, began thenceforth to prevail in the most trivial incidents; and men, on any affront or injury, thought themselves entitled, or even required in

honour,

1527.

CHAP. honour, to take revenge on their enemies, by XXIX. openly vindicating their right in single combat. These absurd, though generous maxims, shed much of the best blood in Christendom during more than two centuries; and notwithstanding the severity of law and authority of reason, such is the prevailing force of custom, they are far from being as yet entirely exploded.

CHAP. XXX.

Scruples concerning the king's marriage-The king enters into these scruples-Anne Boleyn-Henry applies to the pope for a divorce-The pope favourable-The emperor threatens him-The pope's ambiguous conduct-The cause evoked to RomeWolsey's fall-Commencement of the reformation in England-Foreign affairs-Wolsey's death-A parliament-Progress of the reformation-A parliament-King's final breach with Rome-A par

liament.

NOT

concern

marriage.

OTWITHSTANDING the submissive deference C H A P. paid to papal authority before the reforma- XXX. tion, the marriage of Henry with Catherine of 1527. Arragon, his brother's widow, had not passed Scruples without much scruple and difficulty. The preju- ing the dices of the people were in general bent against a king's conjugal union between such near relations; and the late king, though he had betrothed his son when that prince was but twelve years of age, gave evident proofs of his intention to take afterwards a proper opportunity of annulling the contract.' He ordered the young prince, as soon as he came of age, to enter a protestation against the marriage ;" and on his death-bed he charged him, as his last injunction, not to finish an alliance so unusual, and exposed

Morison's Apomaxis, p. 13.

"Morison, p. 13. Heylin's Queen Mary, p. 2.

XXX.

CHA P. exposed to such insuperable objections. After the king's accession, some members of the privy coun1527. cil, particularly Warham, the primate, openly declared against the resolution of completing the marriage; and though Henry's youth and dissipation kept him during some time from entertaining any scruples with regard to the measure which he had embraced, there happened incidents sufficient to rouse his attention, and to inform him of the sentiments generally entertained on that subject. The states of Castile had opposed the emperor Charles's espousals with Mary, Henry's daughter; and, among other objections, had insisted on the illegitimate birth of the young princess." And when the negotiations were afterwards opened with France, and mention was made of betrothing her to Francis or the duke of Orleans, the bishop of Tarbe, the French ambassador, revived the same objection. But though these events naturally raised some doubts in Henry's mind, there concurred other causes, which tended much to increase his remorse, and render his conscience more scrupulous.

these scru

X

The king THE queen was older than the king by no less enters into than six years; and the decay of her beauty, togeples. ther with particular infirmities and diseases, had contributed, notwithstanding her blameless character and deportment, to render her person unacceptable to him. Though she had borne him several children, they all died in early infancy, except one daughter; and he was the more struck with this misfortune, because the curse of being childless is the very threatening contained in the Mosaical law against those who espouse their brother's widow. The succession too of the crown was a consideration that occurred to every one, whenever the lawfulness

Lord Herbert, Fiddes's Life of Wolsey.

* Rymer, vol. xiv. 192. 203. Heylin, p. 3.

of

XXX.

of Henry's marriage was called in question; and it CHAP. was apprehended, that if doubts of Mary's legitimacy concurred with the weakness of her sex, the 1527. king of Scots, the next heir, would advance his pretensions, and might throw the kingdom into confusion. The evils, as yet recent, of civil wars and convulsion arising from a disputed title, made great impression on the minds of men, and rendered the people universally desirous of any event which might obviate so irreparable a calamity. And the king was thus impelled, both by his private passions, and by motives of public interest, to seek the dissolution of his inauspicious, and, as it was esteemed, unlawful marriage with Catherine.

HENRY afterwards affirmed that his scruples arose entirely from private reflection; and that, on consulting his confessor the bishop of Lincoln, he found the prelate possessed with the same doubts and difficulties. The king himself being so great a casuist and divine, next proceeded to examine the question more carefully by his own learning and study; and having had recourse to Thomas, of Aquine, he observed that this celebrated doctor, whose authority was great in the church, and absolute with him, had treated of that very case, and had expressly declared against the lawfulness of such marriages. The prohibitions, said Thomas, contained in Leviticus, and among the rest that of marrying a brother's widow, are moral, eternal, and founded on a divine sanction; and though the pope may dispense with the rules of the church, the laws of God cannot be set aside by any authority less than that which enacted them. The archbishop of Canterbury was then applied to; and he was required to consult his brethren: All the prelates of England, except Fisher, bishop of Rochester, unanimously declared, under

"Burnet, Fiddes.