extremely popular, and reports arriving from Spain touched the national pride. There was a talk of calling Parliament. Mendoza and Catherine again urged Charles to speak plainly. The Pope must inhibit Parliament from interfering. The Nuncio in London would present the order, and Parliament, they thought, would submit.[1] They were mistaking the national temper. Mendoza's letters had persuaded the Spanish Council that the whole of England was in opposition to the King. The Spanish Chancellor had said publicly that if the cause was proceeded with there would be war, and "the King would be dethroned by his own subjects." The words were reported to Wolsey, and were confirmed by an English agent, Sylvester Darius, who had been sent to Valladolid on business connected with the truce.[2] Darius had spoken to the Chancellor on the probability of England taking active part with France. "Why do you talk of the King of England?" the Chancellor had answered; "if we wished, we could expel him from his kingdom in three months. What force had the King? his own subjects would expel him. He knew how matters were."[3] It was one thing for a free people to hold independent opinions on the arrangements of their own royal family. It was another to be threatened with civil war at the instigation of a foreign sovereign. Wolsey quoted the dangerous language at a public meeting in London; and a voice answered, "The Emperor has lost the hearts of a hundred thousand Englishmen."[4] A
- ↑ Catherine to Charles V., Nov. 24, 1528.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. part 2, p. 855.
- ↑ Mendoza to Charles V., Dec. 2, 1528.—Ib. p. 862. Jan. 16, 1529.—Ib. p. 878.
- ↑ Sylvester Darius to Wolsey, Nov. 25, 1528.—Calendar, Foreign and Domestic, vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 2126.
- ↑ Du Bellay to Montmorency, Dec. 9, 1528.—Calendar, Foreign and Domestic, vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 2177.
