ea of marrying his widow Juana, though she was no
longer in her right mind. He opened a negociation about it, which he
pursued with zeal and apparent earnestness. The Spaniards ascribe to
him the project of marrying himself to Ferdinand's elder daughter, and
his son to the younger, and making the latter marriage, which he was
purposely always putting off, the price of his own. One should hardly
ascribe such a folly to the prudent and wise sovereign at his years
and with his failing strength. That he made the proposals admits of
no doubt: but we must suppose that he wished purposely to oppose to
the pressure of the Spaniards for the marriage of his son with the
Infanta a demand which they could never grant. For how could they let
the King of England share in Juana's immense claims of inheritance?
Henry wished neither to break off nor to complete his son's marriage;
for the one course would have made Spain hostile, while the second
might have produced a quarrel with France. Between these two powers he
maintained an independent position, without however mixing in earnest
with their affairs, and only with the view of warding off their enmity
and linking their interests with his own. His political relations
were, as he said, to draw a brazen wall round England, within which he
had gradually become complete lord and master. The crown he had won on
the battlefield, and maintained as his own in the extremest dangers,
he bequeathed to his son as an undoubted possession. The son succeeded
the father without opposition, without a rival--a thing that had not
happened for centuries. He had only to ascend the throne, in order to
take the reins of government into his hand.

_Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey in their earlier years._

But that the political situation should continue as it was could not
be expected. What has not seldom in the history of great kingdoms and
states formed a decisive turning point now came to pass: to the father
who had founded and maintained his power with foresight and by painful
and continuous labour, succeeded a son full of life and energy, who
wished to enjoy its possession, and feeling firm ground under his feet
determined to live in a way more after his own mind. Henry VIII too
felt the need of being popular, like most princes on their accession:
he sacrificed the two chiefs of the fiscal commission, Empson and
Dudley, to the universal hate. In general his father's point of view
seemed to him too nar