XVII

SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTERIES

1509-1539

HENRY VIII. began his reign by an act which endeared him to his magnates. Dudley and Empson, the agents who had been employed by his father to fleece the rich, were executed. The extortion of money ceased, and Parliaments were summoned. The King married his sister-in-law, Catherine of Aragon; and joined the Holy League in 1511. An English fleet sailed to Guienne, but Ferdinand once again used the AngloSpanish alliance to further the interests of Spain, whilst England gained nothing. As Rousillon and

Cerdagne had been added to Ferdinand's dominions when Henry VII. was Spain's ally, so now the Spanish won Navarre, but the English failed to establish themselves in Guienne. The French invasion of Italy was, however, wrecked by this counter-attack.

English politicians were looking forward to the future when Ferdinand's death would place his grandson Charles on the Spanish throne. In 1508 Mary, the sister of Henry VIII., had been married by proxy to Charles, and the scene of the Anglo-French war was shifted to the North of France. Here the English met with more success. In alliance with Charles' German

grandfather, Maximilian, Henry VIII. was able to make himself master of the rich and populous city of Tournay after winning the Battle of the Spurs in August 1513. Meanwhile, the Scotch had followed their ancient custom of allying themselves with France against England, but Scotland's army was destroyed, and her king, James IV., killed at Flodden Field in September 1513.

After the Battle of the Spurs, Louis XII. of France abandoned the fight for Italy. Ferdinand was expressing his anxiety to marry his grandson, Charles, to one of Louis' daughters when Henry made peace with France. Tournay was left in England's keeping and a large French annuity was promised to the King of England. Mary, in spite of her marriage by proxy to Charles, was actually married to Louis XII., only to become a widow within a few months, when in 1515 Louis died and his cousin became Francis I. of France. Mary then married the Duke of Suffolk without her brother's consent. The unfortunate Lady Jane Grey was Mary's grandchild.

After Flodden, Scotland was governed by Henry's sister, Margaret, as Regent for her infant son, James V. He, as the only living grandchild of Henry VII., might at any moment have become King of England as well as King of Scotland. This is enough to account for the fact that Flodden Field was not followed by an invasion of Scotland. The Saxons of Great Britain were drawing closer to each other. The nobles of Scotland, who had still the semi-independent power which their English brethren had lost during the Wars of the Roses, were naturally averse to the union; but

a strong body of opinion in England and in Scotland was in its favour, and time was on the side of the unionists. When English magnates told Henry VII. that the marriage of his daughter, Margaret, might place England under a Scotch King, he laughed at their fears, telling them that "the greater would draw the less." This was, however, but a half-truth; in a perfect union there is neither greater nor less. If the union of England and Scotland proves that this is true, the union of Great Britain and Ireland also proves that a union is not perfect if the economic bond is absent.

The Anglo-French peace enabled the French to win the victory of Marignano in 1515 and become masters of Northern Italy. The army of a Holy League, which did not include England, was defeated, and the Medicean Pope, Leo X., allied himself with Francis I. In 1516 Ferdinand died, and Charles of Burgundy, at the age of sixteen, became Charles I. of Spain. When Charles took possession of his kingdom he was followed by Flemings and other foreigners who were anxious to do the work which had formerly been done by the Moors and Jews. But hatred of the foreigner and contempt for home production were deeply engrained in the Spaniards. Their communes rose in revolt, and, though the insurgents were defeated, their policy was adopted. The development of Spain's industry was checked. She became a military parasitic power. With her industry her ancient liberty also passed away. Her ruler is known as the Emperor Charles V., not as King Charles I. of Spain. Three years after Ferdinand's death Charles inherited the

German and Austrian lands of his other grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian, thus becoming the greatest European monarch since the days of Charles the Great.

Meanwhile Cardinal Wolsey, who was directing the policy of England, found in the alliance of Francis I. and the Pope, which followed Marignano, a problem hard for an English Cardinal to solve. He maintained nominal peace with France, whilst he sent subsidies to enable Maximilian to resist Francis I. and tried to form a new Holy League by detaching Leo X. from the French alliance. Wolsey's plans were shattered when Ferdinand died. Charles was by birth and education a Fleming, and the policy of Flanders at this time has been described by Machiavelli. "The people of Flanders live generally of their own manufactures, which they vend at the fairs in France-that is, at Paris and Lyons-for towards the seaside they have no utterance, and towards Germany it is the same, for there are more of their commodities made than in Flanders, so that whenever their commerce with the French is cut off they will have nowhere to put off their commodities, nor nowhere to supply themselves with victuals. So that, without irresistible necessity, the Flemings will never have any controversy with France."

Antwerp was enjoying the short-lived prosperity of a trading town whose commerce is not founded on home production; whilst the producers of Flanders were clinging desperately to France, the one market in which they were to some extent secure. From their native land, which Antwerp's free importation was ruining, the Flemish fled to protected England in such numbers that, in 1517, on Evil May Day there

were riots in London in which alien workmen were killed. These riots were suppressed, and when order was enforced Parliament passed measures to redress the grievance. Wiser than the Spanish, the English continued to welcome aliens who could teach new crafts, but the number of foreign journeymen who could be employed was limited that Englishmen might have work. The foreign craftsmen had to take English apprentices that Englishmen might become independent of foreign instructors. This carefully planned State aid enabled England to improve her woollen industry.

Six months after his accession to the throne of Spain Charles signed the peace of Noyou with Francis I., confirming the peace by a promise to marry the French King's daughter. After his grandson's defection Maximilian still took English gold, but as he failed to do the promised fighting, in 1518 an Anglo-French treaty was signed. England again received large sums of money from France; Henry's infant daughter Mary was betrothed to the Dauphin, and Tournay was restored to France. Northern Italy was left under French control, whilst the Spanish were masters in the south. Between these rival powers the Pope and his allies, the Medici of Florence, ruled over buffer States, which contained the highly prized mines of alum. England now sought to solve the Italian problem by placing an Englishman, Cardinal Wolsey, on the papal throne. Had she been able to control the supply of alum the development of her woollen industry would have secured her from any injury from the rise in prices. Whilst European affairs were