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235. Chapuys to Charles V.
Since my last letters of the 8th, the King has got a priest of his to preach before him and the lady, that all the while he had lived with the Queen he had been guilty of adultery, and that all his good subjects ought to pray God to pardon his offence, and enlighten him at once to take another lady ; to which the Lords of his Council should solicit and even constrain him, without any regard to the censures or other provisions that the Pope could make, who ought not to be obeyed in this matter, commanding what was against God and reason. He said also that it would be no wonder if he took a wife of humble condition in consideration of her personal merits, like Saul and David. This was said with such vehemence and warmth that not only were the Queen's servants scandalised, but the Queen herself, who, for this and other bad symptoms that she sees here, is again compelled to implore by her letters sent herewith the aid and favor of your Majesty. I received the day before yesterday your letters of the 3rd inst., and took occasion to go to court, to learn not only about the affairs of Scotland, and of the German, of whom I last wrote to your Majesty, and also of the charge of lord Rochford, who left here in post two days ago to visit the king of France, with the intention, as some say, to get him to take in hand the affairs of Scotland, with which they are already marvellously troubled ; for there is no lord or other who would willingly go in the said enterprise ; and the earl of Wiltshire has today confessed to me that the King, his master, would be glad of. peace if he was asked for it, because the other is his nephew, and moreover that it was a costly war, very injurious to the English, from which no good could be expected, and further that the Scots had taken seven or eight of their gentlemen. He would name no more, but the common report is that there were about 25, all men of some mark. Among other reasons for believing that Rochford was despatched for this cause is that two days before his departure the King held a great council, to which were summoned the brother of the earl Douglas and another captain, who had just returned from the Borders. Others think that he has gone to know if the King would like to come here as he promised at Boulogne ; and they build upon the rumors current both at Boulogne and here as soon as the King returned, and the orders issued by the King to put his parks in order, revoking all licenses that he had given to hunt,a sign that he means to give this pastime at the meeting. To ascertain the truth, I have had today some conversation with the King about the French king's journey to Compiegne, which was in order to approach near here ; but he would not enter on the subject, only saying it was an ordinary removal of the King for his amusement. I then began to extol the last meeting at Calais, and the causes which had taken him there ; but, for all that, he would not speak of the second. Notwithstanding, it escaped him that the said assembly has been formed chiefly to feast together, and to testify their mutual amity. I think he said this to me because I had told him I had seen the treaty, which was very clumsily forged in the said assembly, and that it did not deserve to have the reputation of having caused that assembly. At last I said to him that they had had such great pleasure and pastime together that they might some day repeat it. He told me it might be so, and that the confidence between himself and the French king was so great that they could visit each other without any ceremony. But he spoke in such a frigid way that I do not think their affairs have gone quite so far, though I think he would vastly desire the said coming of the king of France, especially as he wishes to accomplish his marriage. I was with him two hours this morning, walking and talking in his garden. To tell you all that passed would be great fatigue to you. I omit, therefore, the less important details. I spoke to him of the league of Italy, and hoped he would take the news in good part, as he had always been a mediator in Christendom. He did not show any gratification at it ; and after thinking awhile, he told me it was not general, and that neither the Venetians nor the duke of Ferrara were included in it. I said I would not insist on the contrary, but on a matter which I thought would be more agreeable to him, viz., the departure of your Majesty from Bologna. At which he was pleased, and asked me, more than four times, the reasons of your going into Spain. He said that your long stay with the Pope, and the great humility you had shown to him, had much irritated Germany, which you had left in great disorder, and the world was astonished at it ;that you had left without coming to any resolution. When I justified your conduct, I asked him what more you could have done for the affairs of Germany than you had done. He said he was not wise enough to give you advice ; and when I told him he was fully informed of affairs in that quarter, from the time that there was an intention of creating the king of the Romans, which I put forward in order to set him bragging, and push him to say more, he told me that without him your Majesty would never have been Emperor ; saying that Germany was very much discontented that you had promised a General Council, and there was no appearance of it, and the Pope would never consent to it, whatever brief he may have written. When I told him of the conversation I had had with Langez of his master's willingness to summon a Council, he laughed to himself, and said that things were not yet ready ; and that the Pope, seeing the ugly bastinadoeing he would be sure to incur, would keep himself from any such Council. On this he began to speak of the wrong you had done him in his great affair, repeating to me the same things over and ever again ; to which I replied pertinently and gently, without losing temper, showing him that the Queen, his people, and almost all the world, blamed you very much, for that, being twice with the Pope, you had not finished this cursed affair. He replied that if you had used such language to any great personage (meaning the Pope), he would have told you that neither you nor the Queen had any right to complain of the delay, for whenever sentence was pronounced the Queen must be condemned. Then I told him he did ill in not allowing the said sentence to be delivered, since he was so certain of gaining it ; and that you desired, as reason and justice required, that this should have been done long ago ; and, if such had been the case, that your Majesty, I thought, would have been very anxious to withdraw the Queen your aunt, and place her with the Empress, and would have been very glad to have had so virtuous and pious a lady with her. I gave him this tag (atache), knowing that one of the great fears he has is that if he make this marriage the Queen will retire into Spain ; and I added, beside that, it would be a marvellous good thing for you and your countries, for if it happened that you returned into Germany or Italy for the Council, you might take the Empress with you, leaving as gouvernante the Queen, who was so much beloved that she was absolutely adored ; and that I was informed by very good authorities that if your Majesty required any good assistance for the affairs of the Queen, that all Spain would put at your disposal their wives and their children. I thought right to tell him this, seeing the danger, and as a rebuff to what he had said on another occasion, that Spain did not care for this matter. These remarks set him thinking. He then turned to discuss his own affair, saying that the Spanish prelates who had written to the Pope in favor of the Queen had not shown any great regard for their honor, for they had contradicted the constitution made at the synod of Toledo five years ago, which they ought to have maintained ; and that if the Pope would not remit the cause here he would do him the greatest wrong in the world, for which he would find a remedy ; and it was a greater wrong in not admitting his excusator, not only to himself, but also to you and all Christian princes, who would be compelled to appear personally at the discretion of the Pope ; and that he would like to see the said excusator removed by interlocutory, for then there would be a fine to-do with the king of France and himself, who would make their solemn protestations against the Pope, to tie his hands and prevent him attempting anything against them,I do not know whether he meant in this affair only, or in all others also. I showed him several strong arguments why the process should not be treated here, which would occasion doubts in future, sooner than if it were despatched at Rome ; but all to no purpose. He remained as obstinate as ever, saying he knew well what he had to do, and that he did not think that on his doing what he knew he could do quite well, you would break the treaties last made with him, which his good brother and he would observe inviolably, and defend themselves against any one who attacked them. I said he might rest assured that your Majesty had no more thought of making war against him than Lycurgus had of punishing parricides, holding it impossible that he could give your Majesty any occasion. To which he replied that occasions sometimes presented themselves to the minds of those who wished to break treaties, and that he thought that nothing could justify a rupture, except the causes expressed in the treaty. Perceiving that he wished to insinuate that his marriage would not be a sufficient cause, I told him that there were several causes and considerations comprised in most treaties, as, not to do anything against reason or justice, and to the dishonor or injury of the party. He answered that if that was the case he had good occasion to complain of your Majesty for having procured what you had done against him, meaning the last brief ; and that your Majesty not only solicited, as I alleged, that justice should be done, but wanted everything to be done according to your own appetite. This I would not allow to pass, and I got him to soften these expressions, using, however, all courtesy. On this he began to say a thousand things of the Pope,among others, of the vanity of letting his feet be kissed, and of his great ambition, and the authority he assumed over the Empire and the other realms of Christendom, creating or deposing emperors and kings at his pleasure ; and that he had lately got hold of a book, which he thought had been stolen / forged/ robbed? in the Pope's library, in which the Popes claimed all the kings of Christendom as their feudatories, even the king of France, and moreover the dukes of Bavaria ; and for his part he meant to remedy it, and repair the error of kings Henry II. and John, who, by deceit, being in difficulties, had made this realm and Ireland tributary, and that he was determined also to reunite to the Crown the goods which churchmen held of it, which his predecessors could not alienate to his prejudice, and that he was bound to do this by the oath he had taken at his coronation. I let him talk on without contradiction, in order to have an opportunity of recommending the General Council, without which the things he talked of could not well be done ; but I could not get him to relish the said Council. At the end of our talk, the King asked if it was true the king of Portugal was dead. He then began to extol as highly as possible the riches and great power of France, saying that he never saw France better furnished with gentlemen, or with finer men, and that of late the French had been stealing the beauty and corpulence of Englishmen, and that it seemed they were properly Englishmen, and not Frenchmen ; at which expressions I was much astonished, as they implied that there could be no fine men except Englishmen, except among the common people. Yesterday and today it was proposed in Parliament to make a statute declaring the Pope had no authority in this kingdom ; which many people have found very strange. Nevertheless, every one thinks it will go further ; for the King is entirely set upon it, and has arranged all his policy to this end. If the Pope wished to help, it would be by despatching the affair of the Queen, helping the king of Scotland with money, and passing censures to prevent the contracting [of the new marriage], as I have formerly written ; otherwise there is danger that things will go all wrong. The King says the German, of whom I lately wrote, came here upon a report of war to offer his services, with letters of recommendation from the Landgrave. Besides the six ships of which I wrote, they are arming four others. People here are astonished at the number of ships the Scots have, and suspect they receive help elsewhere. I forgot to say the King told me the Pope was very urgent to give his niece to the duke of Orleans, and that he considered the thing done. I said I thought your Majesty would be very glad, thinking it a means to promote the common peace. London, 15 March 1533. |
The Pope
King Henry II and King John etc. below Without Henry Charles would never have been Emperor
The Pope
King Henry II and King John Proposal for Act of Restraint of Appeals
Proposed Marriage of Catherine Medici
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