Madame, de la quelle la dicte guerre
durant, il avoit eu des grants presens, qui furent cause, que Suffolc
estant a Montdidier il ne le secourut d'argent comme il devoit dont
advint que il ne print Paris.'

[86] The Instructions to Tunstall and Wingfield (30 March 1525),
hitherto known only from the extract in Fiddes, are now printed in the
State Papers vi. 333. Compare my German History, Bk. IV. ch. 2, but
the statement there made needs revision in accordance with the
newly-found documents.

CHAPTER III.

ORIGIN OF THE DIVORCE QUESTION.

Perhaps it is not a matter of such very great weight whether the
Emperor did his best for Wolsey in the conclave, or Wolsey his best
for the Emperor in the campaign of 1523. That the result did not
correspond to the expectations on either side was quite enough to
bring about an estrangement. What could the Emperor do with an English
minister who was not in a condition to support warlike enterprises
properly? what could the English do with an ally who appropriated to
himself exclusively the advantages of the victory they had won? Henry
VIII, while trying to win the French crown, had only weakened it, and
thereby given the house of Burgundy a preponderance in European
affairs, by which all other powers, and himself as well, felt
themselves threatened.

After the battle of Pavia a feeling prevailed throughout the world
that the rule of Spain and Burgundy would be intolerable, if France
were no longer independent. The ministers of the Pope in Rome first
came to a consciousness of this: as the best means of restoring the
balance, they looked to the dissolution of the alliance between Henry
VIII and Charles V. The Pope's Datary, Giberti, made approaches to the
English Court, though still with timid caution, in order in the first
place only to propose a reconciliation between England and France.[87]

To his joy he remarked that Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey were more
inclined to this plan than he had expected. If not before yet
certainly since his alienation from the Emperor, the cardinal had
entered into secret negociations with the mother of the King of
France: the last proposals to the Emperor had been only an attempt to
turn the success of his arms to the advantage of England also: when he
rejected them, the cardinal entered into the French connexion with
increased zeal. Before the end of the summer of 1523 peace between
England and France was effected with the sympathisi