ecessors' claims and his own, and
he wished to use it. Only he preferred not to commence war at once,
since he was not yet armed, and since a broader alliance should be
first formed. The cardinal hoped to be able to draw the Pope, the
Swiss, and the Duke of Savoy, as well as the Kings of Portugal,
Denmark, and Hungary, into it. What an impression then it must have
made on him, when Pope Leo X, without being pressed, at once allied
himself with the Emperor! Wolsey's attempt at mediation--no room for
doubt about it is left by the documents that lie before us--was only
meant as a means of gaining time. At Calais Wolsey had already given
the imperial ambassadors, in the presence of the Papal Nuncio, the
most definite assurances as to the resolution of his King to take part
in the war against France. Before he returned to England to call the
Parliament together, which was to vote the necessary ways and means,
he visited the Emperor at Bruges. At the last negociations, being at
times doubtful about his trustworthiness, Charles V held it doubly
necessary to bind him by every tie to himself. He then spoke to him of
the Papacy, and gave him his word that he would advance him to that
dignity.[83]

The opportunity for this came almost too soon. When Leo X died, just
at this moment, Wolsey's hopes rose in stormy impatience. When the
Emperor renewed his assurance to him, he demanded of him in plain
terms to advance his then victorious troops to Rome, and put down by
main force any resistance to the choice proposed. Before anything
could be done, before the ambassador whom Henry VIII despatched at
once to Italy reached it, the cardinals had already elected, and
elected moreover the Emperor's former tutor, Hadrian. But was not this
a proof of his irresistible authority? Hadrian's advanced age made it
clear that there would be an early vacancy: and to this Wolsey now
directed his hopes. He gave assurance that he would administer the
Papacy for the sole advantage of the King and the Emperor: he thought
then to overpower the French, and after completing this work he
already saw himself in spirit directing his weapons to the East, to
put an end to the Turkish rule. At his second visit to England the
Emperor renewed his promise at Windsor castle; he spoke of it in his
conferences with the King.[84] Altogether the closest alliance was
concluded. The Emperor promised to marry Henry's daughter Mary,
assuming that the Pope would grant him the