A History of England, Volume 1: Prehistory to 1714 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9780132064750
Goodreads: 235341
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2001-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

WAR AND DIPLOMACY

Henry had not been on the throne more than two years before he faced a critical decision. Should he continue his father's policy of peace and no continental entanglements or should he pursue a policy of war and conquests in France? His advisers counseled peace, as did More and Erasmus. Henry, however, chose war—not that he needed any prompting, for he was young, athletic, vain, eager to help the Pope, and to prove himself in battle. In 1511 he joined the Holy League, composed of the Pope, Spain, Venice, and the Swiss, a league formed to drive France from Italy. The next year, at the King of Spain's urging, Henry sent 18,000 men to northwest Spain, with the intention of marching into Aquitaine. But Ferdinand, the King of Spain and father of Henry's queen, Catherine, never sent the men and supplies he had promised; instead he took the opportunity to capture the kingdom of Navarre to the east. The English army suffered through the hot, wet Spanish summer at Fuentarrabia, where the soldiers drank wine as though it were beer until they came down with dysentery. Against Henry's orders, the army finally boarded their ships and came home. Ferdinand meanwhile compounded his treachery by making a separate truce with France.

The next year Henry decided to act without Ferdinand. The Emperor Maximilian sent him 2000 men and the Pope secretly bestowed on him the title of King of France. Parliament voted the necessary money; Wolsey organized the supplies and prepared the ships. In June Henry landed at Calais with 25,000 men. From there he marched slowly south, captured the small town of Therouanne, and won a skirmish against a French cavalry force. Henry next besieged Tournai, which fell in September. He returned home with his French standards, his glory, and two French towns in his possession. For this trivial accomplishment he had spent £922,000, a vast sum for a king whose ordinary revenue was only £150,000 a year.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.