tnote 157: _L. and P._, i., 4560.]

[Footnote 158: _Ibid._, i., 5203.]

[Footnote 159: _Ven. Cal_., ii., 295. Charles was
fourteen, Mary eighteen years of age.]

Henry was learning by bitter experience. Not only was he left to face
single-handed the might of Louis; but Ferdinand and Maximilian had
secretly bound themselves to make war on him, if he carried out the
treaty to which they had all three publicly agreed. The man whom he
said he loved as a natural father, and the titular sovereign of
Christendom, had combined to cheat the boy-king who had come to the
throne with youthful enthusiasms and natural, generous instincts. "Nor
do I see," said Henry to Giustinian, "any faith in the world save in
me, and therefore God Almighty, who knows this, prospers my affairs."[160]
This absorbing belief in himself and his righteousness led to strange
aberrations in later years, but in 1514 it had some justification. "Je
vous assure," wrote Margaret of Savoy to her father, the Emperor, (p. 073)
"qu'en lui n'a nulle faintise." "At any rate," said Pasqualigo, "King
Henry has done himself great honour, and kept faith single-handed."[161]
A more striking testimony was forthcoming a year or two later. When
Charles succeeded Ferdinand, the Bishop of Badajos drew up for
Cardinal Ximenes a report on the state of the Prince's affairs. In it
he says: "The King of England has been truer to his engagements
towards the House of Austria than any other prince. The marriage of
the Prince with the Princess Mary, it must be confessed, did not take
place, but it may be questioned whether it was the fault of the King
of England or of the Prince and his advisers. However that may be,
with the exception of the marriage, the King of England has generally
fulfilled his obligations towards the Prince, and has behaved as a
trusty friend. An alliance with the English can be trusted most of
all."[162]

[Footnote 160: _L. and P._, ii., 3163.]

[Footnote 161: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 406.]

[Footnote 162: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 246.]

But the meekest and saintliest monarch could scarce pass unscathed
through the baptism of fraud practised on Henry; and Henry was at no
time saintly or meek. Ferdinand, he complained, induced him to enter
upon the war, and urged the Pope to use his influence with him for
that purpose; he had been at great expense, had assis