tomless English purse;[232] and in January, 1517, the
Emperor marched down to the Netherlands, breathing, in his despatches
to Henry, threatenings and slaughter against Charles's misleaders. His
descent on Flanders eclipsed his march on Milan. "Mon fils," he said
to Charles, "vous allez tromper les Francais, et moi, je vais tromper
les Anglais."[233] So far from breaking the Treaty of Noyon, he (p. 094)
joined it himself, and at Brussels solemnly swore to observe its
provisions. He probably thought he had touched the bottom of Henry's
purse, and that it was time to dip into Francis's. Seventy-five
thousand crowns was his price for betraying Henry.[234]

[Footnote 228: On 23rd Jan. (_L. and P._, ii.,
1541, 1610). Brewer in his introduction to vol. ii.
of the _L. and P._ says "in February".]

[Footnote 229: His mother Juana was rightfully
Queen, but she was regarded as mad; she thought her
husband, the Archduke Philip, might come to life
again, and carried him about in a coffin with her
wherever she went (_Ven. Cal._, ii., 564).]

[Footnote 230: _L. and P._, ii., 2930.]

[Footnote 231: _L. and P._, ii., 2303, 2327, 2387;
_Ven. Cal._, ii., 769, 773.]

[Footnote 232: _L. and P._, ii., 2406, 2573, 2626,
2702.]

[Footnote 233: _Ibid._, ii., 2930.]

[Footnote 234: _L. and P._, ii., 2891.]

In conveying the news to Wolsey, Tunstall begged him to urge Henry "to
refrain from his first passions" and "to draw his foot out of the
affair as gently as if he perceived it not, giving good words for good
words which they yet give us, thinking our heads to be so gross that
we perceive not their abuses".[235] Their persistent advances to
Charles had, he thought, done them more harm than good; let the King
shut his purse in time, and he would soon have Charles and the Emperor
again at his feet.[236] Tunstall was ably seconded by Dr. William
Knight, who thought it would be foolish for England to attempt to undo
the Treaty of Noyon; it contained within itself the seeds of its own
dissolution. Charles would not wait to marry Francis's daughter, and
then the breach would come.[237] Henry and Wolsey had the good sense
to act on this sound advice. Maximili