ART. X.-Brewer's Calendar of State Papers. Published under the direction of the Right Hon. the Master of the Rolls. London: 1862-4.

IT

T is difficult to understand how future historical writers will be able to deal with the superabundant supply of materials now forthcoming, not only from the researches of private individuals, but from the publication by various Governments of an immense amount of evidence and correspondence heretofore jealously concealed in their respective archives. Our own series of Calendars of the State Papers, published under the authority of the Master of the Rolls, has now reached to no less than twenty-six portly volumes, extending from the year 1509 to 1665, and we must say that a more useful and important literary work has never been accomplished at the public expense. Every document contained in the voluminous records of the realm is here at least described. The more interesting are deciphered and quoted; and although these records must obviously be regarded as the materials of history rather than as history itself, the authenticity of contemporary evidence and the lifelike personal character they give to the study of a departed age, have peculiar charms for the reader. We have already on a former occasion shown to what an extent these papers illustrate the singular history of the first marriage of Queen Katharine of Arragon; and we now propose to borrow from the Calendar of Mr. Brewer some account of another Princess whose matrimonial adventures were equally strange, though far less tragical than those of the divorced Queen of Henry VIII.

Mr. Brewer's Calendar embraces the correspondence of the early years of the reign of Henry VIII., from 1509 to 1518, and it will be remembered that Mr. Froude, though he has prefaced his work by a general introduction of considerable interest in itself, takes as his point of departure the end of Wolsey's career. Mr. Brewer serves as a guide to a correspondence which gives a very full picture of the important events which preceded that period; we gather our own conceptions of the characters who figured on the stage; and we discover to what an extent England was taking a part in European affairs before the date selected by Mr. Froude as his starting-point. The introductory essay on the earlier portion of the reign of Henry VIII., prefixed to this volume, is a masterly production, which exhibits at a glance the person and the court of the youthful English monarch, the administrative

genius of Wolsey, and the ascendancy which England rapidly acquired, upon the accession of Henry VIII., in the affairs of Europe.

Nothing, indeed, can be more graphic, and we may almost say dramatic, than the impression which the reader receives from works like that of Mr. Brewer, which give more or less in extenso the very words and writings of the leading personages. And when it is remembered that amongst these are included Henry VIII., Louis XII., Maximilian and his daughter Margaret of Savoy, Francis I., Ferdinand of Arragon, Leo X., Wolsey, Tunstal, Fox, Sir T. More, besides the statesmen who exercised a leading influence in the councils of the respective Sovereigns, it is hardly too much to say with the editor of these papers that they present a mass of materials, not only for the reign of Henry VIII., but of Europe generally, to which, in interest and completeness, no parallel can be found in this or any other country.

Mr. Brewer has, in our opinion, met with unmerited reproach for incorporating in his work résumés of the despatches of Giustiniani first published by Mr. Rawdon Brown; but he informs us that the plan of his work did not confine him to a bare catalogue of the Public Records preserved in the State Paper Office, and in these volumes he has included all other original documents which could be found to illustrate his history of the period. By so doing he has given a continuous character to much which would otherwise have been fragmentary. For the same reason, though scarcely to the same degree, we think he has done well to include portions of the correspondence of Erasmus, affording an insight into the studious life of that age, which was not then to the same extent as in modern times separated by a broad line of distinction from the more active life of the council-chamber or camp. It is agreeable to turn at times from the intricacies of political combinations, and from the wearisome correspondence of political agents, to the letters of literary men, and to find the silver thread of study and contemplation running through the tangled web of public affairs. We can hear Erasmus as he talks of the progress of his New Testament, and learn the early impressions produced by the publication of More's Utopia'; and if at the same time we are reminded not only of the wit, but also of some of the more questionable characteristics of the Epistolæ 'obscurorum Virorum,' the picture of the times is rendered more interesting and complete.

We have alluded, however, only to the names of the leading men concerned, but these Calendars are full of particulars

regarding many of the women whose fortunes were mixed up in events of historic importance. Until the publication of Mr. Bergenroth's Calendar, comparatively little was known of the interesting particulars connected with the marriage of Katharine of Arragon; and Mr. Brewer now gives us the curious details of the history of Mary, the sister of Henry VIII. Although the story of this Princess as now presented to the reader is wanting in many of the pathetic points of interest connected with Katharine, we have thought that it is so full of varying events, and so characteristic of the times, that we shall be doing a service to many readers by giving them the substance of what Mr. Brewer's volumes contain on the subject.

The Princess Mary, youngest daughter of Henry VII., her sister Margaret having married James IV. of Scotland, had been in 1506, in accordance with the usage of times when royal marriages were made so subservient to political purposes, affianced by her father to the infant Prince Charles, afterwards to become celebrated as Emperor, but even then, by his relationship to the Emperor Maximilian and to the Spanish sovereigns, one of the greatest matches in Christendom. The proposed marriage was thus in full accordance with the shrewdness which characterised the policy of Henry VII., nor did it lose its political significance in the eyes of his successor when the death of the Archduke Philip placed Charles in the position of heir to the crown of Castille. But the position of the other principals concerned was also to be affected by this and other political considerations. Ferdinand of Arragon, old, selfish, and deceitful, was the first to show disinclination to the marriage. Jealous as he had been of the rights of the Archduke Philip, he was not likely to view with much favour an alliance which would strengthen the position of the youthful heir; and when by the acquisition of Navarre, not effected without the concurrent action of Henry VIII., he had secured important advantages, no principles of honour, no gratitude for obligations, or considerations of existing family connexion, were sufficient to counterbalance a policy founded only on motives of self-interest.

It would, on the other hand, be difficult to give to the policy of Maximilian even so consistent a motive. Few characters in history figure in a more pitiable light than that of this Sovereign, as judged by the correspondence in Mr. Brewer's volumes. Wavering and uncertain in his policy, money was his object, and for money he was ever ready to make any sacrifice. As Pope Julius expressed himself regarding him, "Imperator Fest levis et inconstans: alienæ pecuniæ semper mendicus

. . est tamen conciliandus nomine diaboli, et pecunia ei 'semper est danda.' A tone of ridicule as regards the royal mendicant runs throughout the correspondence of the statesmen of the day, and specially in the despatches of the English agents who were frequently concerned in pecuniary transactions with him; for in these times, as in more modern instances, we find Germany looking to England for the means to enable it to fight its own battles.

Hume appears to have somewhat undervalued the policy pursued by Henry and by Wolsey with a view to counteract the successes of Francis in his first Milanese campaign, by purchasing the concurrence of Maximilian. It is evident, indeed, that, in spite of the difficulties which attached to any co-operation with the Emperor, an important check was thus placed on French designs in Italy; but this was not effected without a large expenditure of English gold, disbursed in the hands of Maximilian's Swiss auxiliaries, so far at least as it could be kept from his own clutches.

The correspondence of Wingfield and Pace, the two agents employed by Henry in this matter, is most interesting, and the contrast between the two characters is well worth study in their despatches. Wingfield, a veteran agent, credulous and feeble, but withal a gentleman in his tone-a very pantaloon of diplomatists-was called upon to co-operate with Richard Pace, an agent of a totally different character. Our readers will recollect Shakspeare's allusion to the latter :

Camp. Was he not held a learned man?
Wolsey.

Yes, surely.
Camp. They will not stick to say you envied him,
And fearing he would rise, he was so virtuous,
Kept him a foreign man.

Richard Pace appears to have been a shrewd and determined agent, undaunted by Maximilian's threats, inaccessible to his blandishments, and patient under the severe trials to which he was subjected by his fidelity to the interests intrusted to him. Writing from a bed of sickness or from prison, and even when summarily dismissed by the Emperor, we find the same constancy and incorruptibility. Joint action between two such opposite characters was manifestly impossible. Wingfield's easy nature was necessarily irritated by the unyielding disposition of his colleague. Personal jealousy was soon to follow, and querulous complaints against the confidence which Henry reposed in Pace. But the King and his Minister were not the men to misunderstand the true state of things. To be plain 'with you,' wrote Henry to Wingfield, we now evidently,

'perceive, more by your own writings than by the relation of others, that ye having better opinion in yourself than your 'wisdom or qualities can attain to, not only by elation of a 'glorious mind, but moved by the instigation of malice against our Secretary, Mr. Pace, have more considered your sensual 'appetite than regarded our commandments, weal, profit, or surety.' Better, added the angry monarch, that Wingfield had not been born than that inconvenience should result from his vainglorious ways, more studying to win thanks there, 'than regarding our honour and profit.' But we must leave the poor old knight in the midst of his tribulations, and only wonder that Henry did not forthwith accede to his request that his poverty might be remembered, and that he might be permitted to retire and make his pilgrimage to Our Lady of Walsingham, where, as he wrote, by the leave of God I 'would gladly leave my beard, which is now of so strange a 'colour that I need none other arms or herald to show what 'favour I am worthy or like to have from henceforth amongst ladies and gentlewomen.'

We have digressed thus far from the history of Mary and her fortunes, as it was necessary to allude to the characters concerned in the matter of her marriage with Charles of Castille. Whatever might be the interests and inclinations of Ferdinand and Maximilian, they could not ignore the engagement contracted with Henry VII.; but it was in spite of his inclinations that Ferdinand in 1509 ratified the engagement, for Henry's agent, Knight, reported that, whether he feareth that the Prince waxeth too ripe in age, or that he remembereth old injuries, or that he would dissever the marriage, your Grace may truly imagine that he is not well disposed.' In like manner in 1513 Maximilian also signed the articles of the marriage, which was fixed to take place in the following year, but again we find the same agent stating that the Emperor was not to be trusted, and that he had instructed Margaret to defer the marriage on the plea of the Prince's health; and Charles's own Council, acting under French influence, also appear to have desired to raise difficulties on the ground that the Prince was but a child and Mary fullgrown.

Henry VIII. was not likely to submit to such hesitations. Explanations were demanded, and his Ambassador at Brussels

A very few years were to see the end of this shrine. In 1538, the wonder-working image was brought to Chelsea and there burnt. (Paston Letters, note to letter xvi.)