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CHAP. Daubeney and Morley with two thousand archers and thrice that number of Germans, attacked them in their camp, though it was defended by a strong battery. The archers poured a volley of arrows into the trenches, fell on the ground till the guns had been discharged, rose on their feet, poured in a second volley, and rushed precipitately into the camp. The victory was complete: but it was stained with cruelty. Revenge for the death of "that gentill yong knight the "lord Morley," so transported the victors, that they refused to give quarter, and eight thousand of the enemy are said to have been slain, a carnage almost unparalleled, if we consider the small number of the combatants in each army.51

At

The expedition to Bretagne had, however, been productive of some advantage. It had stopped the progress of the French arms. the same time the levies of Ferdinand king of Spain had compelled Charles to detach a numerous force to Fontarabia, for the protection of that frontier. In these circumstances the defeat at Dixmude, and the surrender of St. Omer to the king on the Romans, induced the French

51 Hall, 18. Bacon, 47. The herald has celebrated in his journal the resolution of an archer, called John Person of Coventry, who having lost a leg by a cannon shot, continued to discharge his arrows kneeling or sitting, “ And when the Frenchemen fledde, he cried to "one of his felowes, and saide, have thow these six arrowes that I have lefte, and folow thow the chase, for I may not. The which "John Person died within few days after, on whose soulle Gode **have mercy." Lel. Coll. iv. 247.

VI.

monarch to listen to proposals for peace; and in CHAP. a convention with Maximilian, he consented to restore to the princess all the towns which belonged to Francis at the time of his death, and promised that, as soon as the English forces. should retire, and she should give security for her allegiance, St. Malo, Fougeres, Dinant, and St. Aubin should be sequestered, to remain in the hands of an indifferent person, till the claim of Charles to the dutchy could be satisfactorily determined.

tion in

We may now return to England, where of the Insurrecsum voted in the last session of parliament only Northum a small part had been raised. The commons of berland. the northern counties had not only refused to pay their proportion, but had even murdered the king's lieutenant the earl of Northumberland. But the insurrection was quickly sup- April 28. pressed by the earl of Surrey: John à Chambre, one of the ringleaders, suffered at York: and sir John Egremond, the other, escaped to the dutchess of Burgundy. In the next session the deficiency of the tax, which instead of seventy- Feb. 27. five had produced no more than twenty-five thousand pounds, was amply supplied by the grant of a tenth and fifteenth. Henry with great care deposited the money in his coffers. War was not his object. Instead of military preparations he consumed the whole of the pre

52

52 Hall, 16. Bacon, 41. Fab. 528. Lel. Coll. iv, 246.

1490.

VI.

CHAP. sent and a great part of the next year in forming and reforming alliances with the kings of Spain and of the Romans. Never perhaps did three princes profess more, and feel less, affection for each other. For the common advantage of christendom they agreed to set bounds to the ambition of France: but in reality each sought, by working on the apprehensions of Charles, to promote his individual interest. Maximilian hoped to recover the ancient patrimony of his family on the north of France, and with the dutchess to obtain the dutchy of Bretagne: Ferdinand expected to procure the restitution of Rousillon, which he had formerly mortgaged for a loan of three hundred thousand crowns while Henry cared little for the fate of Bretagne, or the interest of his allies, provided he could extort from Anne security for the repayment of his expenses, and from Charles a valuable present in reward of his forbearance.53

Anne of Bretagne married

by proxy.

The king of the Romans both by the promptitude with which he had formerly sent succours to Francis, and the attention which he had lately paid to the interests of Anne, had won the esteem of both the father and daughter: and when, during the cessation of hostilities, she signified her consent to his proposal of marriage, she did no more than comply with the wishes of her deceased parent. If Maximilian had improved

53 Rot. Parl. vi. 438. Rym. xi. 387, 394-430. 437. 440. 443.

the golden opportunity to visit Bretagne, he would have secured the object of his ambition; but his Flemish subjects were in rebellion; the journey by land or water would expose him to his enemies; and it was thought that a marriage by proxy would be equally certain, and less dangerous. With this view the prince of Orange, as the representative of the king of the Romans, married the dutchess in his name in the month of April: and within a few weeks, the lord d'Albret, one of her suitors, to revenge the disappoinment, betrayed to the French the important city of Nantes. War was now renewed: the king of the Romans thinking himself secure, neglected to succour his wife: Henry harassed her with demands of money for the repayment of his former expenses: and Charles formed the plan, suspected by neither of these powers, of compelling her to break her contract with Maximilian, and to marry himself."

CHAP.

VI.

1491.

April.

May.

to marry

the king of

France.

It was true that at an early age he had been She is contracted to Margaret of Austria, Maximilian's compelled daughter, who had been educated in France as his consort, and only waited till she reached the age of puberty to ratify the marriage. But this circumstance, which might have deterred other princes, only supplied Charles with a cloak to conceal his real intention. By promises and bribes he bought the counsellors of the dutchess:

54 Hall, 20. Bacon, 48, Com, Supplem, vi.

VI.

CHAP. but when the proposal was made to her, she rejected it with disdain. Was not Charles her natural enemy? Was he not contracted to Margaret? Was not she herself married to Maximilian? They replied that she ought to sacrifice a feeling of dislike to the interest of her country that the contract between Charles and Margaret was void, because that princess was under age: and that the marriage between herself and Maximilian had not been consum→ mated, and might therefore be dissolved, because Bretagne was a fief of the French crown, and by law an heiress could not marry without the consent of her lord. These reasons made no impression on the mind of Anne; but they were supported by a French army, which appeared before the gates of Rennes. She was now told that her obstinacy had been punished. There remained no hope of escape. She must be either the wife or the captive of Charles. Subdued at last by importunity and terror, she consented to a treaty, of which the principal ar ticles were that she should marry the French king; that the rights of each should be reciprocally communicated to the other; that the survivor should retain possession of the dutchy; but that, in case she were the survivor, she should, if she remained single, bequeath her dominions to the reigning prince, or, if she chose to marry, marry no one but the actual possessor, or the presumtive heir, of the French

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