k. The Emperor at no time
made any effort on Wolsey's behalf; he did him the justice to think
that, were Wolsey elected, he would be devoted more to English than to
imperial interests; and he preferred a Pope who would be undividedly
imperialist at heart. Pace was sent to join Clerk at Rome in urging
Wolsey's suit, and they did their best; but English influence at the
Court of Rome was infinitesimal. In spite of Campeggio's flattering
assurance that Wolsey's name appeared in every scrutiny, and that
sometimes he had eight or nine votes, and Clerk's statement that he
had nine at one time, twelve at another, and nineteen at a third,[437]
Wolsey's name only appears in one of the eleven scrutinies, and then
he received but seven out of eighty-one votes.[438] The election was
long and keenly contested. The conclave commenced on the 28th of
December, and it was not till the 9th of January, 1522, that the
cardinals, conscious of each other's defects, agreed to elect an
absentee, about whom they knew little. Their choice fell on Adrian,
Cardinal of Tortosa; and it is significant of the extent of Charles's
influence, that the new Pope had been his tutor, and was proposed as a
candidate by the imperial ambassador on the day that the conclave
opened.[439]

[Footnote 433: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 365; _L. and P._,
ii., 1795.]

[Footnote 434: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 370.]

[Footnote 435: _L. and P._, iii., 1960.]

[Footnote 436: _L. and P._, iii., 1884.]

[Footnote 437: _Ibid._, iii., 1952, 1960.]

[Footnote 438: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 375. It is not
quite clear how these votes were recorded, for
there were not eighty-one cardinals.]

[Footnote 439: _Ibid._, ii., 371.]

Neither the expulsion of the French from Milan, nor the election of
Charles's tutor as Pope, opened Wolsey's eyes to the danger of (p. 156)
further increasing the Emperor's power.[440] He seems rather to have
thrown himself into the not very chivalrous design of completing the
ruin of the weaker side, and picking up what he could from the spoils.
During the winter of 1521-22 he was busily preparing for war, while
endeavouring to delay the actual breach till his plans were complete.
Francis, convinced of England's hostile intentions, let Albany loose
upon Scotland and refused to pay the pe