Henry’s anger in response to the events of 1512 made him desperate to wipe out the disgrace of his troops but he was also bound to a treaty to invade France. Late 1512 saw Maximilian join the alliance but at the same time Ferdinand decided privately to withdraw from the alliance, as he was satisfied with the personal gains that he had achieved. In 1514, Henry remained keen to go to war against France but instead was compelled to agree to a peace treaty with them because his allies had deserted him. Although he briefly contemplated attacking Spain in alliance with France because of his anger at the events of and following 1512, Henry quickly returned to an anti-French stance, realising that this was the safer and potentially more advantageous position to be in.
1516 saw the death of Ferdinand and the accession of Charles V, a much younger and inexperienced king who had little interest in France of whom Henry held little respect. This meant that there were three young kings leading three of the major powers in Europe at the time, Henry VIII of England, Francis I of France and now Charles V of Spain. In 1518 the Treaty of London was agreed which was a Treaty of ‘Universal Peace’ which was centred by an Anglo-French treaty and embraced all of the major powers and around twenty minor ones, Under the treaty no-one was able to challenge France’s power so it left France supreme but offered security to everyone else. In 1519 Maximilian died resulting in the three young kings coveting the position of Holy Roman Emperor. The natural choice was Charles V as he was the grandson of both Maximilian and Ferdinand but Francis and Henry both campaigned for the title.
At the age of just nineteen, Charles V became Holy Roman Emperor now ruling Germany, Austria, the Low Countries and parts of Italy as well as Spain and this dramatically changed his status on the international scene, a new power had been created which was strong enough to challenge the superiority of France and thus began a new stage of European politics. Thomas Wolsey saw the opportunity of benefiting from the ancient rivalry between the houses of Hapsburg and Valois and in 1520 negotiated a meeting between Henry VIII and Francis. This meeting took place in May 1520 and has become famously known as the ‘Field of The Cloth of Gold’ and, more diplomatically, the beginning of the end of the Treaty Of London. Charles V, also eager to court English friendship, arrived for a state visit in 1520 in an attempt to persuade Henry not to meet with Francis but Henry refused instead agreeing to meet Charles in Flanders afterwards.
After three weeks of competition, Henry VIII and Francis I signed a treaty of friendship, putting an end to the meeting of the Field of The Cloth of Gold but in reality they were not at peace, and there remained a great deal of tension between the two kings. In July the English Court hosted a banquet for Charles V in Calais, which infuriated the French king, and on July 14th 1520, Henry and Charles signed a treaty agreeing not to make alliances with France for the next two years. This started a short period of friendship in alliance between Henry and the Emperor and in spring 1521, Charles proposed to marry Princess Mary, which would strengthen the alliance even further. In May 1522, Charles arrived in England for the betrothal ceremony of his old tutor Adrian following the death of the Pope and three days later Henry declared war on France. It was decided that England would go to war with France in 1523 and, with the knowledge of this declaration, Charles himself returned to France and also declared war on the supreme power.
In 1523, Henry was refused an immediate grant for war from the English parliament and so had to wait but Charles V saw this as Henry going back on his promise in their alliance and was livid. In 1525, Charles was victorious at the battle of Pavia in Italy where Francis was taken prisoner. Henry too, although indirectly, was victorious; he wanted to take advantage of France’s downfall and wage war again but finances were still and issue making this near impossible Charles V was now a danger to the whole of Europe with his new found strength and power. In August 1525 he pulled out of the marriage to Mary and Henry released him from the betrothal, at the same time negotiating and signing a new treaty with France.
On May 6th 1527, The Emperors troops sacked the city of Rome and forced the pope to take refuge meaning that Charles V now held the pope and the papacy in his power. With his newly cemented ties with France, Henry felt that he no longer needed the goodwill of Spain as support and so he endangered the Emperor by casting aside his aunt, Catherine of Aragon who was no longer able to grant Henry the male heir that he required and also wanting to released the Spanish ties and remarry. In January 1528, England and France declared war on the Emperor in alliance with each other, which was ineffective in reducing the Emperor’s strength. In 1529 the Peace of Cambrai brought a settlement between France, the Empire and the pope but Henry played no part in this alliance.
Henry VII’s relationship with the King’s of Spain varied dramatically between the years of 1509 and 1529. When Henry came to the throne in 1509, his ambitions were to wage war against France and so he pursued and rebuilt his father’s peaceful policy with Ferdinand whom he greatly respected as a counterweight to the supreme power. The relationship was then peaceful and the two countries were in negotiation with each other until the death of Ferdinand in 1516 and the accession of Charles V to the throne, whose policy varied dramatically from that of Ferdinand’s, involving very little interest in France. The competitive relations between the young King of France and Henry primarily increased the alliance between Henry and Charles as a counterweight to the power but when Charles gained the title of Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 the balance of power shifted and Henry was infuriated at the respect that he should hold for someone less experienced than himself. Charles’s newly found power resulted in Henry making alliances with France and other European powers to try and counterbalance him but from the battle of Pavia in 1525, and Charles capture of the Papacy in 1527, Henry and Charles were enemies resulting in the exclusion of England from the Peace of Cambrai in 1529.
