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A30405 Reflections on Mr. Varillas's history of the revolutions that have happned in Europe in matters of religion and more particularly on his ninth book that relates to England / by G. Burnet ... Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1686 (1686) Wing B5852; ESTC R13985 50,351 202

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scrupulosity of writing truth yet that profound Policy to which he always pretends should oblige him to take a little care that the falsehoods that he advances may not be easily discovered 3. He says Henry the 8th was 12. year old when his Brother died and that his Father had designed him for the Ecclesiastical State This was taken up by the Writers of the last Age to make the Parallel between Iulian the Emperour and him seem to agree that as Iulian had been a Reader in the Church so King Henry should be represented as an Abbot with a little band But as King Henry was not 12 year old when his Brother died for he wanted some Months of 11 and as at that Age young Princes considering the respect that is payed to them in their Education have seldome been found far advanced in Learning so it does not appear that he had then any other Education different from what was given his Brother who understood Latin and some of the beginnings of Learning Learning was then in great reputation and K. Henry the 7th engaged his Children to study either to raise their Authority the higher by that means or perhaps to amuse them with Learning that they might not think of pretending to the Crown during his Life since the undoubted Title to it resting in the Person of their Mother it had devolved upon them by her Death thô they did not think fit to claim their Right 4. He says that when K. Henry the 7th intended to marry his younger Son to P. Arthur's Widdow the Privy Council of England approuved it the more easily because of the precaution that had been taken to hinder the consummation of the former Mariage and to confirm this he cites on the Margent the Petition that the Parliament of England offered upon this matter to P. Alexander the 6th But as the Depositions are yet extant of the Duke of Norfolk that was then a Privy Councellour and of two others that there was no precaution used to hinder the consummation so Warham that was at that time Archbishop of Canterbury opposed the second Mariage as being neither honourable nor well-pleasing to God as he himself did afterwards depose upon Oath The Parliament took no cognisance of the matter nor did it make any address to the Pope so that this citation is to be considered as an effect of Mr Varillas his notion of Religion 5. He runs out in his manner into a long speculation concerning the different interests of England and Spain that made the Spaniards go backwards and forwards in the agreeing to the Match that was proposed for P. Henry and the Princess whom by an extravagant affectation he calls always Duke of York and makes the Princesse's Parents represent to K. Henry the 7th the danger of his Son 's growing weary of the Princess since he was 4 year younger than she was and that in order to the procuring of a dissolution of the Mariage from the Court of Rome he might pretend that his Father had forced him to marry her whenever he should grow weary of her All the other Writers of that time put K. Henry the 7th's desiring this second Mariage meerly on his covetousness which made him equally unwilling to repay the Portion or to send a great jointure yearly after the Princess and the Prince of Wales was too great a Match to be so uneasily admitted by the King and Queen of Spain He whom he calls by the Title of the Duke of York was indeed only Duke of York for some Months after his Brother's Death during which time it was supposed that the Princess might be with child by his Brother which proves beyond exception that it was believed that the first Mariage was consummated But when there was no more reason to apprehend that then he carried the Title that belongs to the Heir apparent of our Crown But it seems the King and Queen of Spain were more easily satisfied in this matter than Mr. Varillas would make us believe they were for two years after the Bull was granted when P. Henry came to be of Age he instead of entring into any engagement to marry the Princess made a solemn protestation in the hands of the Bishop of Winchester by which he recalled the consent that he had given during his Minority and declared that he would never marry her But it is very likely Mr. Varillas had never heard of this thô the instrument of that Protestation was not only mentioned but printed by many of the Writers of that Age and it is confessed by Sanders himself who after all Mr. Varillas's flourish with his Letters is his only Author And for this foresight that he thinks he may justly ascribe to the King and Queen of Spain because they are represented by the Writers of that time to have had an extraordinary Sagacity the reason that he makes them give shews it was a contrivance of his own since a moral force such as the Authority of a Father was never so much as pretended to be a just ground to annul a Mariage after it was made and consummated otherwise most of the Mariages that have been made might have been dissolved 6. He adds to this another speculation that is worthy of him he pretends that the King and Queen of Spain apprehended that K. Henry the 7th had acquired the Crown of England and by consequence had a right to dispose of it at his pleasure upon which the Crown of Spain was afraid least he should have disinherited his Son and given the Crown to the Duke of Suffolk that was then at Brussels and was preparing an Invasion of England from which they did not know but K. Henry the 7th might save himself by declaring Suffolk his Successour and that upon those fears they were unwilling to consent to the Match Here is such a mixture of Follies that it is not easy to tell which of them is the most remarkable This Doctrine of the Crown of England's being alienable at the King's pleasure might have passed well with those that some years ago thought to have shut out the next Heir and yet even these did not pretend that it could have been done by the King alone But here is a new Theory of Politicks for which we are sure Mr. Varillas can cite no Authorities from the Laws and Constitutions of England K. Henry the 7th had indeed acquired the Crown by defeating that Tyrant and Usurper Richard the 3 d but as he pretended to be Heir of the Lancastrian Race himself so by marrying to the Heir of the House of York that was the right Heir he by a conjunction of all Titles made the matter sure But this gave him no right to alienate the Crown at his pleasure and to fancy that a King might be induced to give away his Crown from his own Son to the Person in the World that he hated most and whom at his Death he ordered his Son never
another But since for a round Periods sake he will needs split Charles the 5th in two and name both the Emperour and the K. of Spain as two Pretenders he might have as well subdivided him into the King of Arragon and Castile Sicily and Naples and the very Titular Kingdome of Ierusalem might have come in for its share 16 He tells us that thô the match of Scotland was the most for the Interest of the Nation yet King Henry was so angry with his Nephew the King of Scotland for taking part against him in his last war with France that he resolved never to give him his Daughter Here Mr. Varillas will see again the necessity of purchasing a Chronological Table for thô that will cost him some money which as I am told goes very near his heart yet it will preserve him from some scurvy errours they may spoil the sale of his books for any one of those Tables even the worst and cheepest would have shewed him that it was not his Nephew that took part with France against him but his Nephew's Father for King Iames the 4th that was King Henry's Brother-in-Law made war on that occasion and was killed in it leaving an Infant Son behind him but it is pleasant to see the Ignorance of this Scribler that makes in one place King Iames the 4th to court the Princess for his Son thô he died several years before she was born and then makes King Iames the 5th to be making war with his Uncle during his Father's life and while himself was an Infant 17. He says the Emperour came and pretended the second to the Princess and upon that he sets down a large negotiation that he had with Cardinal Wolsey But he shews here an ignorance of Charles the 5th's Life thô he pretends to have made more than ordinary discoveries concerning his Affairs that proves that he has studied all History alike ill He reckons up the series of the Propositions for the Princess quite wrong for she was first contracted to the Dolphin the 9 November 1518 by a Treaty yet extant then Charles the 5th came into England in Person and contracted a Mariage with her at Windsor the 22 of Iune 1522 after that there was a Proposition made for the King of Scotland that was soon let fall and last of all there was a Treaty set on foot for the King of France then a Widdower or for his second Son the Duke of Orleans it being left to Francis's option to determine that and so remarkable a passage as Charles the 5th's coming to England in person was unhappily unknown to Mr. Varillas otherwise he would have dressed up a mighty Scene of Politicks to adorn it 18 He gives us the character and the History of Card. Wolsey with his ordinary colours in which truth comes very seldome in for an ingredient he tells us how he was Bp. of Tournay or rather Oeconome of that See and how many journeys he made between Tournay and London and that he being enriched at Tournay he got the Bishoprick of Lincoln after that upon the Bp. of Winchester's death he had that See from that he was raised to be Archbishop of York then he was made Chancellour of England then Cardinal and Legat à Latere and last of all he was made Chief Minister of State and to shew our Author 's deep Judgment this last Article seemed so doubtful a point to him that he must needs bestow a proofe on it and he sends us to P. Leo the 10th's Register thô the advancements that he had already reckoned up may well make this pass without a more particular Proof nor is P. Leo's Register a place likely to find it in Here is a great deal to let his Reader see how entirely he was possessed with the History of that time since he could run out so far with the Character and History of that Minister but for the strain in which he sets out his Character one must see it is only Mr. Varillas's fancy for how came he to know Cardinal Wolsey's air and manner of deportment even in the smallest thing I that have seen much more of him in his Letters Dispatches and Instructions than Mr. Varillas can pretend to have done dare not goe so far because I have not arrived at Mr. Varillas his pitch of Religion but if his character is no truer than the History that he gives of Wolsey I know what name is due to it He was made Bishop of Tournay in October and Bp. or Lincoln in the March thereafter or rather in February for the Temporalty was given him the 4th of March which is always restored after the Consecration so that here was not time enough to make such journies between Tournay and London nor to enrich himself with the former he had not Winchester but 15 years after that but he was made Archbishop of York two year after he had Lincoln he was also made Cardinal and Legate before he was made Chancelour for Warham Archbishop of Canterbury was Chancelour while he was Legate and had some disputes with him touching his legative power upon which he obtained that Dignity for puting an end to all disputes and in stead of his being last of all Minister of State he was first of all Minister of State while he was only the Lord Almoner and all his other dignities came upon him as the natural effects of that Confidence and favour into which the King had received him 19. He cannot assent to some Historians that imagine he was the Confident of K. Henry's Pleasures since he thinks if that had been true he could not have been so cheated afterwards as he was Here is a Demonstration that he never read my History into which I have put besides other Evidences of his being on the secret of Anne Boleyn's matter two letters that she writ to him which are undeniable proofs of it But as for the long Story into with he runs out concerning Charles the 5th's Intrigues with him and his way of writing to him in the stile of Son and Cousin for which he cites on the Margent the Emperour's Letters to Wolsey that lie in his fancy that is the greatest Library in the World but the hardest to be come at all this is so loosely writ that it is plain Mr. Varillas had no light to direct him in it since he says not a word of the most important circumstance of it which was the Emperour's coming in person to England which was beleeved to have been done chiefly to gain Wolsey entirely and in which it is certain that he had all the success that he had wisht for 20. He says Wolsey being alienated from the Emperour engaged the King of France after he was set at liberty to treat for a Match between the Dauphin and the Princess of England upon which they were contracted with great Magnificency but that was not enough for the Cardinal's malice I have formerly