A Child's History of England

by Dickens, Charles

  of those scoundrels the secrets they disclosed or invented. Some

  arrests and executions took place in consequence. In the end, the

  King, on a promise of not taking his life, obtained possession of

  the person of Edmund de la Pole, and shut him up in the Tower.

  This was his last enemy. If he had lived much longer he would have

  made many more among the people, by the grinding exaction to which

  he constantly exposed them, and by the tyrannical acts of his two

  prime favourites in all money-raising matters, EDMUND DUDLEY and

  RICHARD EMPSON. But Death - the enemy who is not to be bought off

  or deceived, and on whom no money, and no treachery has any effect

  - presented himself at this juncture, and ended the King's reign.

  He died of the gout, on the twenty-second of April, one thousand

  five hundred and nine, and in the fifty-third year of his age,

  after reigning twenty-four years; he was buried in the beautiful

  Chapel of Westminster Abbey, which he had himself founded, and

  which still bears his name.

  It was in this reign that the great CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, on behalf

  of Spain, discovered what was then called The New World. Great

  wonder, interest, and hope of wealth being awakened in England

  thereby, the King and the merchants of London and Bristol fitted

  out an English expedition for further discoveries in the New World,

  and entrusted it to SEBASTIAN CABOT, of Bristol, the son of a

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  Venetian pilot there. He was very successful in his voyage, and

  gained high reputation, both for himself and England.

  CHAPTER XXVII - ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE EIGHTH, CALLED BLUFF KING

  HAL AND BURLY KING HARRY

  PART THE FIRST

  WE now come to King Henry the Eighth, whom it has been too much the

  fashion to call 'Bluff King Hal,' and 'Burly King Harry,' and other

  fine names; but whom I shall take the liberty to call, plainly, one

  of the most detestable villains that ever drew breath. You will be

  able to judge, long before we come to the end of his life, whether

  he deserves the character.

  He was just eighteen years of age when he came to the throne.

  People said he was handsome then; but I don't believe it. He was a

  big, burly, noisy, small-eyed, large-faced, double-chinned,

  swinish-looking fellow in later life (as we know from the

  likenesses of him, painted by the famous HANS HOLBEIN), and it is

  not easy to believe that so bad a character can ever have been

  veiled under a prepossessing appearance.

  He was anxious to make himself popular; and the people, who had

  long disliked the late King, were very willing to believe that he

  deserved to be so. He was extremely fond of show and display, and

  so were they. Therefore there was great rejoicing when he married

  the Princess Catherine, and when they were both crowned. And the

  King fought at tournaments and always came off victorious - for the

  courtiers took care of that - and there was a general outcry that

  he was a wonderful man. Empson, Dudley, and their supporters were

  accused of a variety of crimes they had never committed, instead of

  the offences of which they really had been guilty; and they were

  pilloried, and set upon horses with their faces to the tails, and

  knocked about and beheaded, to the satisfaction of the people, and

  the enrichment of the King.

  The Pope, so indefatigable in getting the world into trouble, had

  mixed himself up in a war on the continent of Europe, occasioned by

  the reigning Princes of little quarrelling states in Italy having

  at various times married into other Royal families, and so led to

  THEIR claiming a share in those petty Governments. The King, who

  discovered that he was very fond of the Pope, sent a herald to the

  King of France, to say that he must not make war upon that holy

  personage, because he was the father of all Christians. As the

  French King did not mind this relationship in the least, and also

  refused to admit a claim King Henry made to certain lands in

  France, war was declared between the two countries. Not to perplex

  this story with an account of the tricks and designs of all the

  sovereigns who were engaged in it, it is enough to say that England

  made a blundering alliance with Spain, and got stupidly taken in by

  that country; which made its own terms with France when it could

  and left England in the lurch. SIR EDWARD HOWARD, a bold admiral,

  son of the Earl of Surrey, distinguished himself by his bravery

  against the French in this business; but, unfortunately, he was

  more brave than wise, for, skimming into the French harbour of

  Brest with only a few row-boats, he attempted (in revenge for the

  defeat and death of SIR THOMAS KNYVETT, another bold English

  admiral) to take some strong French ships, well defended with

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  batteries of cannon. The upshot was, that he was left on board of

  one of them (in consequence of its shooting away from his own

  boat), with not more than about a dozen men, and was thrown into

  the sea and drowned: though not until he had taken from his breast

  his gold chain and gold whistle, which were the signs of his

  office, and had cast them into the sea to prevent their being made

  a boast of by the enemy. After this defeat - which was a great

  one, for Sir Edward Howard was a man of valour and fame - the King

  took it into his head to invade France in person; first executing

  that dangerous Earl of Suffolk whom his father had left in the

  Tower, and appointing Queen Catherine to the charge of his kingdom

  in his absence. He sailed to Calais, where he was joined by

  MAXIMILIAN, Emperor of Germany, who pretended to be his soldier,

  and who took pay in his service: with a good deal of nonsense of

  that sort, flattering enough to the vanity of a vain blusterer.

  The King might be successful enough in sham fights; but his idea of

  real battles chiefly consisted in pitching silken tents of bright

  colours that were ignominiously blown down by the wind, and in

  making a vast display of gaudy flags and golden curtains. Fortune,

  however, favoured him better than he deserved; for, after much

  waste of time in tent pitching, flag flying, gold curtaining, and

  other such masquerading, he gave the French battle at a place

  called Guinegate: where they took such an unaccountable panic, and

  fled with such swiftness, that it was ever afterwards called by the

  English the Battle of Spurs. Instead of following up his

  advantage, the King, finding that he had had enough of real

  fighting, came home again.

  The Scottish King, though nearly related to Henry by marriage, had

  taken part against him in this war. The Earl of Surrey, as the

  English general, advanced to meet him when he came out of his own

  dominions and crossed the river Tweed. The two armies came up with

  one another when the Scottish King had also crossed the river Till,

  and was encamped upon the last of the Cheviot Hills, called the
<
br />   Hill of Flodden. Along the plain below it, the English, when the

  hour of battle came, advanced. The Scottish army, which had been

  drawn up in five great bodies, then came steadily down in perfect

  silence. So they, in their turn, advanced to meet the English

  army, which came on in one long line; and they attacked it with a

  body of spearmen, under LORD HOME. At first they had the best of

  it; but the English recovered themselves so bravely, and fought

  with such valour, that, when the Scottish King had almost made his

  way up to the Royal Standard, he was slain, and the whole Scottish

  power routed. Ten thousand Scottish men lay dead that day on

  Flodden Field; and among them, numbers of the nobility and gentry.

  For a long time afterwards, the Scottish peasantry used to believe

  that their King had not been really killed in this battle, because

  no Englishman had found an iron belt he wore about his body as a

  penance for having been an unnatural and undutiful son. But,

  whatever became of his belt, the English had his sword and dagger,

  and the ring from his finger, and his body too, covered with

  wounds. There is no doubt of it; for it was seen and recognised by

  English gentlemen who had known the Scottish King well.

  When King Henry was making ready to renew the war in France, the

  French King was contemplating peace. His queen, dying at this

  time, he proposed, though he was upwards of fifty years old, to

  marry King Henry's sister, the Princess Mary, who, besides being

  only sixteen, was betrothed to the Duke of Suffolk. As the

  inclinations of young Princesses were not much considered in such

  matters, the marriage was concluded, and the poor girl was escorted

  to France, where she was immediately left as the French King's

  bride, with only one of all her English attendants. That one was a

  pretty young girl named ANNE BOLEYN, niece of the Earl of Surrey,

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  who had been made Duke of Norfolk, after the victory of Flodden

  Field. Anne Boleyn's is a name to be remembered, as you will

  presently find.

  And now the French King, who was very proud of his young wife, was

  preparing for many years of happiness, and she was looking forward,

  I dare say, to many years of misery, when he died within three

  months, and left her a young widow. The new French monarch,

  FRANCIS THE FIRST, seeing how important it was to his interests

  that she should take for her second husband no one but an

  Englishman, advised her first lover, the Duke of Suffolk, when King

  Henry sent him over to France to fetch her home, to marry her. The

  Princess being herself so fond of that Duke, as to tell him that he

  must either do so then, or for ever lose her, they were wedded; and

  Henry afterwards forgave them. In making interest with the King,

  the Duke of Suffolk had addressed his most powerful favourite and

  adviser, THOMAS WOLSEY - a name very famous in history for its rise

  and downfall.

  Wolsey was the son of a respectable butcher at Ipswich, in Suffolk

  and received so excellent an education that he became a tutor to

  the family of the Marquis of Dorset, who afterwards got him

  appointed one of the late King's chaplains. On the accession of

  Henry the Eighth, he was promoted and taken into great favour. He

  was now Archbishop of York; the Pope had made him a Cardinal

  besides; and whoever wanted influence in England or favour with the

  King - whether he were a foreign monarch or an English nobleman -

  was obliged to make a friend of the great Cardinal Wolsey.

  He was a gay man, who could dance and jest, and sing and drink; and

  those were the roads to so much, or rather so little, of a heart as

  King Henry had. He was wonderfully fond of pomp and glitter, and

  so was the King. He knew a good deal of the Church learning of

  that time; much of which consisted in finding artful excuses and

  pretences for almost any wrong thing, and in arguing that black was

  white, or any other colour. This kind of learning pleased the King

  too. For many such reasons, the Cardinal was high in estimation

  with the King; and, being a man of far greater ability, knew as

  well how to manage him, as a clever keeper may know how to manage a

  wolf or a tiger, or any other cruel and uncertain beast, that may

  turn upon him and tear him any day. Never had there been seen in

  England such state as my Lord Cardinal kept. His wealth was

  enormous; equal, it was reckoned, to the riches of the Crown. His

  palaces were as splendid as the King's, and his retinue was eight

  hundred strong. He held his Court, dressed out from top to toe in

  flaming scarlet; and his very shoes were golden, set with precious

  stones. His followers rode on blood horses; while he, with a

  wonderful affectation of humility in the midst of his great

  splendour, ambled on a mule with a red velvet saddle and bridle and

  golden stirrups.

  Through the influence of this stately priest, a grand meeting was

  arranged to take place between the French and English Kings in

  France; but on ground belonging to England. A prodigious show of

  friendship and rejoicing was to be made on the occasion; and

  heralds were sent to proclaim with brazen trumpets through all the

  principal cities of Europe, that, on a certain day, the Kings of

  France and England, as companions and brothers in arms, each

  attended by eighteen followers, would hold a tournament against all

  knights who might choose to come.

  CHARLES, the new Emperor of Germany (the old one being dead),

  wanted to prevent too cordial an alliance between these sovereigns,

  and came over to England before the King could repair to the place

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  of meeting; and, besides making an agreeable impression upon him,

  secured Wolsey's interest by promising that his influence should

  make him Pope when the next vacancy occurred. On the day when the

  Emperor left England, the King and all the Court went over to

  Calais, and thence to the place of meeting, between Ardres and

  Guisnes, commonly called the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Here, all

  manner of expense and prodigality was lavished on the decorations

  of the show; many of the knights and gentlemen being so superbly

  dressed that it was said they carried their whole estates upon

  their shoulders.

  There were sham castles, temporary chapels, fountains running wine,

  great cellars full of wine free as water to all comers, silk tents,

  gold lace and foil, gilt lions, and such things without end; and,

  in the midst of all, the rich Cardinal out-shone and out-glittered

  all the noblemen and gentlemen assembled. After a treaty made

  between the two Kings with as much solemnity as if they had

  intended to keep it, the lists - nine hundred feet long, and three

  hundred and twenty broad - were opened for the tournament; the

  Queens of France and England looking on with great array of lords

  and ladies. Then, for ten days, the two sovereigns fough
t five

  combats every day, and always beat their polite adversaries; though

  they DO write that the King of England, being thrown in a wrestle

  one day by the King of France, lost his kingly temper with his

  brother-in-arms, and wanted to make a quarrel of it. Then, there

  is a great story belonging to this Field of the Cloth of Gold,

  showing how the English were distrustful of the French, and the

  French of the English, until Francis rode alone one morning to

  Henry's tent; and, going in before he was out of bed, told him in

  joke that he was his prisoner; and how Henry jumped out of bed and

  embraced Francis; and how Francis helped Henry to dress, and warmed

  his linen for him; and how Henry gave Francis a splendid jewelled

  collar, and how Francis gave Henry, in return, a costly bracelet.

  All this and a great deal more was so written about, and sung

  about, and talked about at that time (and, indeed, since that time

  too), that the world has had good cause to be sick of it, for ever.

  Of course, nothing came of all these fine doings but a speedy

  renewal of the war between England and France, in which the two

  Royal companions and brothers in arms longed very earnestly to

  damage one another. But, before it broke out again, the Duke of

  Buckingham was shamefully executed on Tower Hill, on the evidence

  of a discharged servant - really for nothing, except the folly of

  having believed in a friar of the name of HOPKINS, who had

  pretended to be a prophet, and who had mumbled and jumbled out some

  nonsense about the Duke's son being destined to be very great in

  the land. It was believed that the unfortunate Duke had given

  offence to the great Cardinal by expressing his mind freely about

  the expense and absurdity of the whole business of the Field of the

  Cloth of Gold. At any rate, he was beheaded, as I have said, for

  nothing. And the people who saw it done were very angry, and cried

  out that it was the work of 'the butcher's son!'

  The new war was a short one, though the Earl of Surrey invaded

  France again, and did some injury to that country. It ended in

  another treaty of peace between the two kingdoms, and in the

  discovery that the Emperor of Germany was not such a good friend to

  England in reality, as he pretended to be. Neither did he keep his

  promise to Wolsey to make him Pope, though the King urged him. Two