med. He may
have stood alone in his confidence of success, and in his penetration
through these appearances into the real truth of the situation behind.
That, from a purely political or non-moral point of view, is his chief
title to greatness. He knew from the beginning what he could do; he
had counted the cost and calculated the risks; and, writes Russell in
August, 1533, "I never saw the King merrier than he is now".[865] As
early as March, 1531, he told Chapuys that if the Pope issued 10,000
excommunications he would not care a straw for them.[866] When the
papal nuncio first hinted at excommunication and a papal appeal to the
secular arm, Henry declared that he cared nothing for either.[867] He
would open the eyes of princes, he said, and show them how small was
really the power of the Pope;[868] and "when the Pope had done what he
liked on his side, Henry would do what he liked here".[869] That
threat, at least, he fulfilled with a vengeance. He did not fear the
Spaniards; they might come, he said (as they did in 1588), but (p. 308)
perhaps they might not return.[870] England, he told his subjects,
was not conquerable, so long as she remained united;[871] and the
patriotic outburst with which Shakespeare closes "King John" is but an
echo and an expansion of the words of Henry VIII.

This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself....
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.

[Footnote 865: _L. and P._, vi., 948.]

[Footnote 866: _Ibid._, v., 148.]

[Footnote 867: _Ibid._, v., 738.]

[Footnote 868: _Ibid._, v., 1292.]

[Footnote 869: _Ibid._, v., 287.]

[Footnote 870: _L. and P._, vi., 1479.]

[Footnote 871: _Ibid._, vi., 324.]

The great fear of Englishmen was lest Charles should ruin them by
prohibiting the trade with Flanders. "Their only comfort," wrote
Chapuys, "is that the King persuades the people that it is not in your
Majesty's power to do so."[872] Henry had put the matter to a
practical test, in the autumn of 1533, by closing the Staple at
Calais.[873] It is possible that the dispute between him and the
merchants, alleged as the cause for this step, was real; but the King
could have