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CHAPTER III.

EUROPE AT THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII.-1509-1512.

Ambition of Venice.-Julius II. determines to reduce that Republic.-Defeat of the Venetians.The Pope's plan to expel all Foreigners from Italy.--Julius unites with Henry VIII. against Louis XII.-Designs of the King of England against France.-Dorset sent to Navarre.Deceived by Ferdinand of Arragon.-The Arms of England unsuccessful by Land and at Sea.— Naval Engagement off Brest.

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THE termination of the fifteenth century was marked by great revolutions, which tended completely to change the face of affairs in Europe. It was at this period that the kingdoms of Castile and Arragon were united, and the Moors expelled from Spain; that the wars of the roses brought to a close by the death of Richard III., and the conqueror, Henry VII., compelled, for the peace of his newly acquired kingdom, to marry Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV.; that Louis XI., King of France, accused Charles the Bold of treason, and seized on the Duchy of Burgundy, and the earldom of Artois.

Peace reigned in Europe. Great monarchies, whose powers were on a level, were fast rising. The ocean defended England from foreign invasion. Formed of various states united under the same sceptre, Spain obeyed Ferdinand the Catholic, a prudent but artful man. Louis XII. had, by his marriage with Anne, Duchess of Brittany, annexed that valuable province, so necessary for the prosperity of his kingdom, to the crown of France. Maximilian I., Emperor of Germany, had despatched an embassy to Henry VIII., congratulating him on his accession, and praying for the confirmation of the treaty he had entered into with Henry VII. in 1502.(a) After having had his right over the hereditary states of Austria acknowledged, Maximilian had

(a) Rymer Foedera. XIII., 257.

succeeded in founding a sort of German nationality of the numerous Electorates of an empire, shortly destined to tremble at the words of an Augustine monk—Martin Luther. Charles, Prince of Castile, grandson of Maximilian and Ferdinand, had succeeded to the possessions of the House of Burgundy, but too young yet to govern his people, he was studying royalty under a Thomist, destined at a future period to wear the tiara, Florentius of Utrecht. The Netherlands, during his minority, were governed by his aunt, Margaret of Savoy, whose name is still venerated in Germany.(b)

Julius II. succeeded Pius III. As long as the Kings of Spain and France respected the Italian peninsula, so long was the Sovereign Pontiff her master; but on Louis XII. taking possession of the duchy of Milan, and Ferdinand of Naples, the influence of the papacy was considerably weakened. Julius II., in consequence, forined the project of expelling these foreigners, whom he contemptuously called Barbarians.(c) He charged them with coveting the patrimony of St. Peter, of covering with ruins and blood countries that were the refuge of the arts and sciences, of retarding the intellectual movement that the papacy directed, and which bid fair, if not arrested in its progress, to extend throughout the

(b) Ranke, deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation.

(c) The motto of Julius II.: "Lord deliver us from the Barbarians," is well known. -Guicciardini, Paolo Giovia.

whole world. Ambitious of glory, a soldier without fear, a bishop and a captain, Julius conceived the idea, for the accomplishment of the spiritual redemption of Italy, of erecting an empire under the sceptre of one master, defended by the threefold girdle of rocks, snow, and sea, and that master to be no other than the Pope.(a) But ere they were expelled from Italy, Julius felt that he ought first tɔ humble the Venetian republic, daily increasing in power and menacing Rome by sending her aid to the European nonarchs alternately, for the purpose of destroying the temporal power of the Sovereign Pontiff. Venice, the advanced bulwark of Christendom against the Turks, ranked amongst the principal nations of the continent. Friuli, Treviso, Verona, Vicenza, Paudua, Bergamo, Brescia, Crema, Cremona, Rovigo, Polesina, Ravenna, Fäenza, and Rimini, had submitted to the yoke of the Queen of the Adriatic. No nation in Europe was so rich as Venice, no state could boast of such prosperous finances. Her numerous vessels covered the Mediterranean and the ocean. naval and military strength was formidable. She had a valliant soldiery, and leaders who, like Alviano, after having nobly served their country, spent the remainder of their days in deciphering old manuscripts. Venice loved the arts, and, thanks to the press of Aldus Manucius, diffused light into the German and Latin worlds. She had acquired all her possessions either by force of arms or money; still it was impossible for their former masters to see, without feeling some little regret, in the hands of their rival, cities which they once possessed. Maximilian coveted Treviso, Verona, Padua, and Vicenza, which had formerly belonged to the German empire. Friuli had been taken from the church of Aquileia, to which it had been given by Otho I. Rovigo and Polesina had been conquered from the duchy of Ferrara;

Her

(a) "You do not understand why I exert myself so much at such an advanced period of life. I do it to unite the whole of our common country under one master, who ought to be the Roman Pontiff."-Letter from the unpublished journal of Paride Grassi, No. 13, pp. 75-79, Barberini MSS.

Cremona and Ghiaradadda had depended on the duchy of Milan, to which state they had been ceded by Louis XII. Ravenna, Fäenza, and Rimini were claimed by Julius II., as belonging to the patrimony of St. Peter, and accordingly, Venice was called on to restore them to the Holy See. She replied, that she had not wrested them from St. Peter, but from Cæsar Borgia.(b) The Pontiff threatened to excommunicate the republic: the menace was treated with silent contempt. Julius then called on the enemies of the republic to aid him in regaining possession of these fiefs of Rome.(c) The Sovereign Pontiff could rely on the assistance of his allies, as each imagined he would thereby be enabled to re-annex to his dominions those dependances which he believed to have been lost for ever.

Such was the plea brought forward by the league, formed at Cambray, against Venice, and of which the Pope, the Emperor, and the King of France were the principal promoters. At Cambray, the division of the already defeated republic had been made. Ravenna, Fäenza, and Rimini, were to be allotted to the Pope; to Maximilian, Vicenza, Verona, and Padua; to Louis XII., the contested duchy of Milan, Cremona, Ghiaradadda, Brescia, Crema, and Bergamo; to the King of Spain, Manfredoni, Trani, Brindisi, and Otranto. In April, 1509, the King of France, according to agreement, invaded Italy with an army of 4,000 men; the Papal forces entered Romagno, under the command of Francesco Maria de la Rovera, Duke of Urbino; Raimundo del Cardena entered Lombardy at the head of the Neapolitan army; the Duke of Ferrara invested Polesina; and the emperor occupied Trent, whence he was able to watch the proceedings of the confederates. (d) The Pope also about this time excommunicated Venice, charging the citizens with being only Christians in name, of denying the gospel, and of always having evinced a disobedient spirit towards the Holy See.

(b) Schmidt. Histoire des Allemands. (c) Lingard.

(d) Mezerai. Histoire de France.-Sardi, Historia di Ferrara.

On the 11th of May, the Venetians, under the command of two veteran generals, the Count di Pitigliana and Bartolomeo d'Alviano, advanced, by forced marches, against the French army. Pitigliano desired to watch the enemy, without risking an engagement, but the rash advice of d'Alviano was followed, and the Venetians, raising their war cry of "Marco! Marco!" commenced the engagement, which was of a short duration; they were defeated at Ghiaradadda, and d'Alviano taken prisoner.(a) Disconcerted at their defeat, the citizens lost courage, and retired in perfect confusion to their ships. (b) Louis was master, in less than a fortnight, of Cremona, Peschiera, Crema, Brescia, Bergamo, and all the cities, formerly dependant on Milan. The cities, once vassals to the empire, threw open their gates to Maximilian. The Duke of Urbino, at the head of the Pontifical army, had taken possession of Ravenna, Cervia, Fäenza, and Rimini. The Duke of Ferrara had made himself master of Rovigo, and the Marquis of Mantua had forced a few citadels.(c) It was a critical period, and had Maximilian, instead of waiting at Trent to receive the Venetian ambassador, Antonio Giustiniani, who craved for pardon on his knees, marched on Venice, the republic must have fallen. The emperor's inaction saved her, for she was aware that a state with such resources as hers might recover from the check received at Ghiaradadda, and completely defeat the league of Cambray, if not by force of arms, at least by diplomacy.(d)

Louis XII., after his victory, had returned to France, leaving a remnant of his forces incorporated with Maximilian's army. The departure of the French monarch was a propitious circumstance for the republic, and consequently, taking advantage of it to levy fresh troops, she surprised Padua, and threw into Friuli sufficient men to keep the imperialists in check. Venice purchased the alliance of Ferdinand by the sacrifice of a few cities, (e) and by a con

(a) Schmidt.--Raynaldus, Eccl. Annals. (b) Seissel. Hist. de Louis XII.-Guicciardini, Storia d'Italia, lib. VIII.

(e) Petrus Martyr, Ep. 418.

(d) Mariana de rebus Hispanias, XXIX. 19. (e) Bembo, Hist. Venet. VIII.

tinual protestation of repentance, appeased the Sovereign Pontiff, who took off the interdict under which it lay.

Julius II. had triumphed; he had humbled the pride of Venice, and had obtained the restitution of the ancient domains of St. Peter's patrimony; but his work was not completed. Two powerful monarchs, the King of France and the Emperor of Germany, if united, threatened the independence of Italy; the one by occupying the duchy of Milan, the other by encamping before the walls of Verona and Vicenca. It was reported that it was their intention to seize on the peninsula, and consequently the Pope clearly saw that it was his interest to be reconciled with Venice, to detach Ferdinand from the league, to induce Maximilian to quarrel with Louis, to invite the Swiss into Italy, and, lastly, to draw the King of England into a war with France. These plans required great activity of mind and body, a courage incapable of yielding to difficulty, firmness in danger, ambition and enthusiasm, and, lastly, the ardour of a young man, conjointly with the mature judgment of an old diplomatist. Julius II. possessed all these qualities.(f) In the course of a few weeks, Julius's policy succeeded beyond his most ardent expectations. Venice, by desisting from all pretensions to the cities of Romagna, permitted the subjects of the Church to navigate the gulf. She also further conceded the right of being represented at Ferrara by the Bisdominio; Ferdinand promised to abandon the league, on condition that he should be permitted by the Holy See to receive the investiture of the kingdom of Naples; Schinner, Bishop of Sion, left for Switzerland, and, by the sound of his horn, invited the mountaineer peasants of Uri and Unterwalden to march to the aid of the Church; and Henry, on receiving from Warham the gold rose,(§) sent from Rome,

(f) Machiavelli, at that time deputy of the Republic, felt great delight in rendering justice to the abilities of Julius (see his despatches in Vol. VIII. of his works, Biblioteca scelta di opere Italiane.) This war, of which Italy was the theatre, is well described by Sharon Turner, in his "View of the State of Europe at the accession of Henry VIII."

(8) Alexander III., on sending the rose to Louis VII. King of France, thus wrote to him:

declared himself ready to aid the papal policy, as far as lay in his power. Julius, in a letter to Henry, (a) had skilfully flattered the young prince's vanity by styling him the head of the holy league, which, under the auspices of the representatives of Catholicity, was to put an end to the ambition of Louis XII., and deliver Italy.(b) Wolsey, who was fast progressing in the royal favour, won over by the wishes of the Vatican, was eager in the interests of Julius, and it was no easy matter for Henry to listen unmoved to the flattery of his Almoner, who was his continual companion, partaking in his amusements even in such as were prohibited by the Church.(©)

If any credit can be given to the chronicles of this period, Wolsey exercised an irreristible power over the mind of his young master, for he was a proficient in poetry, painting, music, and sculpture; and it was for a short while imagined that he had persuaded Raphael to leave the Vatican and to come and reside in England.(d) Wolsey is accused of having been extravagant, because he had in his palace some valuable objects. Colet, on seeing him pass by St. Paul's daily on his way to Greenwich, prophesied to Erasmus that he would one day be premier of England. The philosopher believed his friend, wrote and dedicated a work to Wolsey as the king's Almoner, but while the volume was traversing the Channel, Wolsey had been created canon of Windsor.(e) Erasmus again set to work and dedicated another volume to Wolsey, as canon of Windsor, but the post was not so rapid as Wolsey's promotions; in less than a week, the canon had been metamorphosed into a dean, and Erasmus in a pet flung down his pen, at a loss to know by what title to

"Whence we, following the custom of our predecessors, have found no one so worthy to receive this flower as Your Excellence.' Notæ in L. III. Guillelmi Neubrigensis, De rebus Anglicis, a Joanne Picardo, Bellov. Canonico.

(a) Burnet's History of the Reformation.

(b) Could the King of France overcome the Pope, he might hope to possess the whole of Italy, and to dictate his own terms to all the princes of Christendom.-P. Martyr, Ep. (c) Polydore Virgil.

(d) Howard.

(e) Rymer. XIII., p. 293.

address a favourite who every week changed his habit and dignity.(f)

Ferdinand co-operated with Julius in detaching Henry from the league of Cambray, for he apprehended that Louis XII. would not be willing that he should take possession of Naples, which had been guaranteed to him by his marriage with Isabella. The King of Spain acted in an underhand and clandestine manner, not wishing to take an open part in the matter. On the 6th of January, he ordered Louis de Carrara de Villaragod, his ambassador at London, to treat with Henry VIII. respecting an alliance between the crowns of England and Spain. The treaty was signed on the 24th of May following,(g) and stipulated that mutual assistance should be granted in case of foreign invasion: ergo, if one of the contracting powers was attacked, the other bound itself to declare war against the aggressor.(h) Julius, desirous of putting his plans into execution, ordered the Duke of Ferrara to join the papal forces, who, although one of his vassals, refused to quarrel with Louis, and Alphonso's dominions were accordingly invaded. (i) Louis, aware that the duke's real crime was his attachment to France, resolved to succour at every hazard so faithful an ally.

Chaumont accordingly left Milan, and, by an unexpected movement, surprised Julius at Bologna. His Holiness was ill in bed but not yet conquered; if he consented to negociate with the French general at his cardinals' request, it was only to gain time. He was waiting for Colonna, who was advancing to his succour at the head of some veteran troops. Chaumont, instead of taking the Sovereign Pontiff prisoner, lost time in treating with the commissioners of the Holy See, and found himself at last compelled to retreat; he was taken ill and died, imploring the papal mercy and pardon for having been guilty of carrying arms against the Church. Julius II. lost no time in acquainting Henry with Louis's insolence in having, during peace, presumed to insult the Vicar of Jesus

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Christ, by endeavouring to take him prisoner at Bologna, an attempt which he fully intended to punish by excommunicating the French general. His Holiness' manifesto caused no little sensation in France. Anne, the queen, at that time enceinte, besought the king not to go to war with the Pope, inasmuch as it would assuredly draw down a curse on France.(a) But Louis XII. was inflexible; he convoked the bishops of his kingdom at Tours, to consult them as to how he should act. They were of opinion that the king should first offer terms of peace to the Holy See, but in case of their rejection, Louis might securely attack Julius even in the pontifical states. The struggle went on, and Louis, in a spirit of opposition, after having gained over a few cardinals, convoked a council at Pisa. He stated that it was his object to reform the Church in her head as well as her members. The fathers assembled, but meeting with much opposition from the people, fled from the banks of the Arno to Milan,() where they were pelted by all the children. They then crossed the Alps, and were received with great ridicule on their arrival at Lyons, that Rome of Gaul; the women when they met them signed themselves with the sign of the cross, and the clergy shut the door of the cathedral, whence it was evident that the sympathies of the people were with the Holy See.(c) Julius II. evinced no fear; in opposition to this schismatic council, he summoned the bishops of Christendom to assemble on a certain day at the Basilica of the Lateran; the prelates, submissive to the summons of the Vicar of Christ, obeyed, and arrived at Rome from all parts of the world. Julius, then, in the name of Almighty God, excommunicated the cardinals and prelates who had countenanced by their presence the schismatical Council of Pisa, who, on their part, did penance for their sin.(d) Shortly after, another manifesto from the Vatican proclaimed to all

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Europe the ambition of a prince, who, not content with his own fair dominions of France, had taken possession of Milan, attempted to invade the states of the Church, and made known, through impious medals, his intention to annihilate the very name of Rome, which he treated as Babylon.(e)

Once master of the Eternal City, Louis would soon have overcome the whole, of Italy, and the European equilibrium would have been thus utterly destroyed. We can therefore well understand the apprehension into which the European powers were plunged; they were united by sentiments of fear, and used religion as a cloak to conceal their ambition. One only, and that was Julius, acted with candour and frankness, as he candidly acknowledged, that the object he had in view in expelling the French, was the perfect liberation of Italy. A noble thought, which, if we are not much mistaken, ought to be a sufficient apology for his martial acts. Under the armour which Julius wore at the seige of Mirandola, beat the heart of a patriot and a Christian: his country

(e) Joannis Harduini Explicatio nummi sub Ludovico Francorum rege cusi inscriptique: Perdam Babylonis nomen, p. 405. Leblanc (Monnaies de France) thus describes the medal: the head crowned with a lily, and the device," Ludo. Franc. regnique Neapol. R.” on the reverse three fleurs de-lis placed under a crown, with the inscription: "Nomen perdam Babylonis. De Thou (Historia sui temporis) regards it in the light of a threat against Rome, and as referring to Isaiah xiv. 22, where it is said of Babylon in Chaldæa: "Perdam Babylonis nomen." Hardouin is of a different opinion. The medal was struck while Louis was King of Naples, as the inscription states, "Ludovicus Francorum regnique Neapolitani rex." Louis XII. ceased (after 1503) to use the title of King of Naples. The kings of Naples had been called since the time of the Emperor Frederick II., kings of Jerusalem: this title Louis XII. took procuratione parliamenti provinciæ, anno 1501: REX FRANCIÆ, Neapolis et Jerusalem. As King of Jerusalem, Louis hoped to recover the Holy Land by ravaging Egypt as far as Cairo, commonly called Babylo, pro Babillone, its ancient name. The sultans reigned there at that time. we have a slight knowledge of the paradoxical language generally used by Hardouin. His view, although supported by Du Cange, has been opposed by several learned Italians.-Roscoe's Life of Leo X.

But

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