(1542.)
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.
It is easy to imagine the wrath of Henry VIII. when he found himself alone at York. He had made an agreement with his nephew; he had left London to have a conference with him; he had made great preparations; he had gone to the north; and then the young man was missing at the rendezvous! He was beside himself with anger. His sister, the mother of James, had died at the end of November 1541. But even if she had lived it was hardly likely that her influence would have appeased the rage of the king. He was provoked not only because his favorite project broke down just at the moment when he expected to see it carried out, but still more by the intolerable affront which the King of Scotland had just offered him. He could not endure it, and he swore that he would wash his name and his memory of that insult by a startling act of vengeance. He wrote to James letters full of the sharpest reproaches and the most violent menaces. ‘I have still in my hand,’ said he, ‘the very rod which chastised your father.’ That rod was the duke of Norfolk, who while earl of Surrey had commanded at Flodden, where James IV. was killed. Henry immediately authorized piratical expeditions by sea, and invasions on the Scottish borders; but these pirates and marauders were only the precursors of the chastisements which he was preparing.
James was frightened; and as it was to please his prelates that he had failed to keep his promise, it was his wish that the expenses of the war should fall on them. He told them that, thanks to them, he was going to war with the King of England, and demanded the subsidies which they had promised. ‘If you do not furnish me with them,’ he added, ‘I shall have no choice but to confer with my uncle and satisfy his wishes.’ This menace terrified the prelates; ‘for rather would they have gone to hell.’[246] What would France say? What would the pope say? thought the cardinal. The bishops promised mountains of gold. After deliberation on the matter, they agreed to give the king fifty thousand crowns a year so long as the war lasted. They added, that their servants and other dependents who were exempt from military service would take up arms. These promises filled the heart of the rash young monarch with confidence and pride. Troops were sent to Jedburgh and to Kelso, and the priests and all their party were pluming themselves on their wealth and their power, and talking of nothing but their victory. They were mad with joy, and were already dreaming of again bringing England under the papal sway. It was possible for an instant to suppose that they were right. The parliament of England had not shown itself so forward as the clergy of Scotland; its members had closed their ears to Henry’s demands for money. This slackened his preparations for war. There were, however, some troops on the frontier, and they formed the design of seizing Jedburgh. The earl Angus and Sir George Douglas, his brother, who had been banished from Scotland for some years, joined these troops, which numbered four thousand men. But the Scots had taken their measures. Lord Huntley, at the head of a large force, encountered the English troops at Halidon on August 24. The fight was already begun, when another Scottish party appeared. The English, perceiving that they were in danger of being surrounded, retreated. Only a few were killed, but very many were taken prisoners.[247]
There was no longer any limit to the joy of prelate and priest. They encouraged the king; they vaunted themselves as if they had in person gained a victory. In bishops’ palaces, in the parsonages of priests, and in the convents of monks, nothing was heard but shouts of triumph. ‘All is ours,’ said they; ‘they are but heretics. If we be a thousand and they ten thousand, they dare not fight. France shall enter the one part and we the other, and so shall England be conquered within a year.’[248]
PROJECTS OF HENRY VIII.
James, notwithstanding his imprudence, did not indulge in these foolish illusions. He knew that Henry VIII. was much stronger than himself. The blow which the wrath of his uncle had inflicted on him made him turn from left to right. He wished to take advantage of the petty victory of Halidon for making peace with England. Persecution ceased in Scotland, and liberty of conscience was more liberally granted. On the day after the engagement, and before James was informed of the result, he had already written to Henry, and had asked him for passports for his plenipotentiaries. On September 1 he wrote to him again: ‘We assure you, dearest uncle,’ said he, ‘there is within our realm neither of spiritual nor temporal state that may or shall change our favor and kindness toward you.’[249] But Henry was not of such an easy temper: he bore in mind the affront at York, and he intended to avenge it. He forbade the ambassadors of his nephew to pass beyond that city. During this time he was collecting all kinds of munitions of war, and in very large quantities. He assembled an army such as Scotland had not for a long time seen at her borders, and gave the command of it to that duke of Norfolk who was to defeat the son as he had defeated the father. The King of England wanted also to be the king of Scotland, and wished that the whole of Great Britain should belong to the same prince. This dream was one day to be realized, but with this great difference, that it would not be the King of England who should become king of Scotland, but the King of Scotland who should become king of England. We find in the State Papers the following despatch, addressed by the English privy council to the archbishop of York:—‘Minding to have the king’s majesty’s title to the realm of Scotland more fully, plainly, and clearly set forth to all the world, that the justness of our quarrel and demand may appear, we have appointed certain learned men to travail in the same. And for because we knew that your lordship in times past hath taken some pains in the same thing, we pray you not only to cause all your old registers and ancient places to be sought, where you think anything may be found for the more clear declaration to the world of his majesty’s title to that realm, and so what shall be found to certify us thereof accordingly; but also to signify unto us what ancient charters and monuments for that purpose you have seen, and where the same are to be sought for.’ For having failed to make the promised visit, James must lose his crown. Once let the King of England have possessed himself of Scotland (thanks to his soldiers, without doubt, more than to his charters and muniments), he would banish popery and establish his own bishops in its place, and above all his own papacy.
Henry published a manifesto in which he declared that his nephew had been the aggressor. He claimed for the Tudors the crown of the Stuarts. He resented as bitterly as ever the wound received at York; and the vengeance which he reckoned on taking was to be cruel, memorable, and revolutionary. The energy of the uncle was as conspicuous as the feebleness of the nephew; and when James wrote again with all naïveté, ‘I love you,’ Henry replied savagely, ‘I hate you.’
Norfolk, impatient to avenge the retreat from Halidon, determined to make an inroad into Scotland before the whole of the army was mustered. He therefore marched from Berwick, at the northeastern extremity of England, ravaged the country districts, took several unimportant places, got himself into various scrapes, and announced that he should immediately appear at Edinburgh. But within eight or ten days after passing the Borders he withdrew. He had merely paid an unceremonious visit, preliminary to one official and in state.
MUTINY OF THE SCOTS.