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Date: 24 September 1535
434. Chapuys to Charles V. When the ships this King was sending to Denmark, of which I wrote on the 13th and in preceding letters, were about to sail, news came that the affairs of the Lubeckers were going ill, that the army of the king of Sweden and his confederates had taken 12 or 14 English ships, richly laden, on their return from Dantzic, and that there was some apprehension as to the ship which conveyed Candix and Dr. Bonard the English ambassadors; also that the castle to which the King meant to send the said two ships had been taken. For this reason the King has countermanded the voyage of the said ships; and the artillery, munition, victuals, &c., have already been discharged; and, as I understand, the King and his Council are greatly astonished at the said news and have used big words against the captain under whose charge the ships were to go, because he had disguised matters in a different fashion from what appears by the event. But such words will not compensate the poor merchants who have lost their goods, and have no other revenge except to abuse the King and his government and his rash enterprises. The bailly of Troyes arrived with the King about six days ago. By what he said in passing, he was only to remain for a very short time, but I think he will at least await the answer of the courier whom he sent on the following day. The delay of his coming troubled the English marvellously, as the ambassador of France has said, especially as Wallop wrote long ago that Francis had despatched the said bailly in all possible haste, and made him dislodge at midnight, charging him to use extreme diligence. Before the arrival of the said bailly the said ambassador of France knew not what he was coming for, unless it was to satisfy the English touching this last interview at Cambray; and hitherto I have not been able to learn anything else. I am told the said bailly has not brought pleasant news to the King, for he appeared sad and melancholy when he had read the letters the bailly presented. The French ambassador is believed to have said that it was thought in France, and here also, that the Pope had cooled in his intention of fulminating the censures against the English from a fear that your Majesty's coming to Italy was partly to deprive the Church of its temporal jurisdiction, and that if his Holiness provoked this King further his case would not be better, but very much worse, and although this suggestion is very absurd there is no reason to be surprised at it, coming from such a quarter. The King having arrived at Winchester, where he is at present, caused an inventory to be made of the treasures of the church, from which he took certain fine rich unicorns' horns (licornes), and a large silver cross adorned with rich jewels. He has also taken from the Bishop certain mills, to give them to the community in order to gain favour. Cromwell, wherever the King goes, goes round about visiting the abbeys, making inventories of their goods and revenues, instructing them fully in [the tenets of] this new sect, turning out of the abbeys monks and nuns who made their profession before they were 25, and leaving the rest free to go out or to remain. It is true they are not expressly told to go out, but it is clearly given them to understand that they had better do, it, for they are going to make a reformation of them so severe and strange that in the end they will all go; which is the object the King is aiming at, in order to have better occasion to seize the property without causing the people to murmur. Five or six days ago Kildare, arrived with the King, conducted thither by lord Leonard, brother of the late Marquis, and of Kildare's mother-inlaw. It is thought that, although no great hope was given him at Cromwell's arrival, and he attaches little importance to the promise made to him by lord Leonard, yet the King will pardon him, especially as he has deigned to give him audience, and he goes about the Court at liberty; and the words of Cromwell tended to increase the obligation which the said Kildare ought to have to the King's clemency in giving him a free pardon, without being bound by the said promise or otherwise; yet it is to be feared that whenever the King has got the country of Kildare in hand, and Ireland reduced to obedience, he will get up some new quarrel against the said Kildare to have a pretext to dispatch him, as he has already done to White Rose and others. They pretend that lord Leonard has left hostages for Kildare's surety; but one of the Privy Council told his wife, as she informed me yesterday, that the said Kildare stole away from his men and came in his shirt to the said lord Leonard. I will get further information of the whole matter. It is said one of the uncles of Kildare still holds out (tient tousiours bon), which is very probable, as there is no report that the English have occupied any lands in Ireland. While writing, I have been informed that one of the French ambassador's servants had asserted, as perfectly true, that the bailly of Troyes had only come to ask the King to deliver the Princess to the Dauphin, according to the promises and treaties therenpon made, and at the same time to warn him as a sort of protest touching her good treatment and health. It cannot be long before I discover the whole truth, which I will use every effort to obtain. 25 Sept. 
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