ise, and they
disputed the point for a month. Honours were divided; the question was
settled for the time by twenty ships sailing while the dispute was in
progress.[365] Apparently they returned in safety, but the seizure of
English ships at Bordeaux in the following March justified Henry's
caution.[366] The King was already an adept in statecraft, and there
was at least an element of truth in the praise which Wolsey bestowed
on his pupil. "No man," he wrote, "can more groundly consider the
politic governance of your said realm, nor more assuredly look to the
preservation thereof, than ye yourself." And again, "surely, if all
_your_ whole council had been assembled together, they could not (p. 132)
have more deeply perceived or spoken therein".[367]

[Footnote 363: _Ibid._, iii., 576.]

[Footnote 364: _L. and P._, iii., 1454, 1473,
1474.]

[Footnote 365: _Ibid._, iii., 1629, 1630.]

[Footnote 366: _Ibid._, iii., 2224.]

[Footnote 367: _L. and P._, iii., 1544, 1762.]

The Cardinal "could not express the joy and comfort with which he
noted the King's prudence"; but he can scarcely have viewed Henry's
growing interference without some secret misgivings. For he was
developing not only Wolsey's skill and lack of scruple in politics,
but also a choleric and impatient temper akin to the Cardinal's own.
In 1514 Carroz had complained of Henry's offensive behaviour, and had
urged that it would become impossible to control him, if the "young
colt" were not bridled. In the following year Henry treated a French
envoy with scant civility, and flatly contradicted him twice as he
described the battle of Marignano. Giustinian also records how Henry
went "pale with anger" at unpleasant news.[368] A few years later his
successor describes Henry's "very great rage" when detailing Francis's
injuries; Charles made the same complaints against the French King,
"but not so angrily, in accordance with his gentler nature".[369] On
another occasion Henry turned his back upon a diplomatist and walked
away in the middle of his speech, an incident, we are told, on which
much comment was made in Rome.[370]

[Footnote 368: _Ibid._, ii., 1113, 1653.]

[Footnote 369: _Ven. Cal._, iii., 493.]

[Footnote 370: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 314.]

But these outbursts were rare and they grew