inst the princes
who adhered to it: he freed their subjects from all oaths of allegiance,
and gave their dominions to every one who could take possession of them.

* Guicciard. lib. x.

** Guicciard. lib. ix.

Ferdinand of Arragon, who had acquired the surname of Catholic, regarded
the cause of the pope and of religion only as a cover to his ambition
and selfish politics: Henry, naturally sincere and sanguine in his
temper, and the more eo on account of his youth and inexperience, was
moved with a hearty desire of protecting the pope from the oppression to
which he believed him exposed from the ambitious enterprises of Lewis.

{1512.} Hopes had been given him by Julius, that the title of "most
Christian king," which had hitherto been annexed to the crown of France,
and which was regarded as its most precious ornament, should, in reward
of his services, be transferred to that of England.[*] Impatient also
of acquiring that distinction in Europe, to which his power and opulence
entitled him, he could not long remain neuter amidst the noise of arms;
and the natural enmity of the English against France, as well as their
ancient claims upon that kingdom, led Henry to join that alliance which
the pope, Spain, and Venice had formed against the French monarch.
A herald was sent to Paris, to exhort Lewis not to wage impious war
against the sovereign pontiff; and when he returned without success,
another was sent to demand the ancient patrimonial provinces, Anjou,
Maine, Guienne, and Normandy. This message was understood to be a
declaration of war; and a parliament, being summoned, readily granted
supplies for a purpose so much favored by the English nation.[**]

* Guicciard. lib. xi. P. Daniel, vol ii. p. 1893. Herbert.
Holingshed, p. 831.

** Herbert. Holingshed, p. 811.

Buonaviso, an agent of the pope's at London, had been corrupted by the
court of France, and had previously revealed to Lewis all the measures
which Henry was concerting against him. But this infidelity did the
king inconsiderable prejudice, in comparison of the treachery which he
experienced from the selfish purposes of the ally on whom he chiefly
relied for assistance. Ferdinand, his father-in-law, had so long
persevered in a course of crooked politics, that he began even to value
himself on his dexterity in fraud and artifice; and he made a boast of
those shameful successes. Being told one day, that Lewis, a prince of a
very