Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
foreign policy - Coggle Diagram
foreign policy
1509-14
- renewal of treaty of Etaples 1510
- sent Archbishop of York to Rome to persuade the creation of the Holy League, which joined England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, and the Papacy in an anti-French alliance.
- Henry didn't realise the extent to which he was being used by Ferdinand of Aragon and Maximilian I
- in 1512 Henry sent a substantial army of 10,000 men to Southwest France under the command of the Marquis of Dorset this achieved nothing and was used by Ferdinand as a diversionary tactic while he successfully conquered Navarre
- in 1513 Henry himself led a force to northeastern France - successful in the fact that he won the Battle of the Spurs and captured the towns of Therouanne and Tournai
- September 1513 Battle of Flodden - King James IV crossed the border with a substantial force but was defeated by a smaller English army led by the Earl of Surrey. James IV was killed along with much of the Scottish nobility but Henry did nothing to build on the fact that the Scottish throne was left unstable
-
- a further campaign was contemplated in 1514 but it was abandoned after Ferdinand and Maximilian each made separate peace with France - it was left to Wolsey to pick up the pieces he recovered the Etaples pension and securing a marriage alliance between Henry's younger sister Mary and the much older King Louis XII of France
1514-26
-
- by the end of 1514 Henry had run out of money to continue a warlike foreign policy - he was unable to exploit the weaknesses of Scotland following the death of James IV at Flodden, he sought peace with France, the settlement being reinforced by the marriage of his younger sister Mary but the marriage was short lived
- the death of Louis XII left French throne in the hands of Francis I, whom Henry saw as a political rival - his immediate response was to seek an alliance with Ferdinand but he died in 1516 and his grandson Charles V sought an alliance with the French - Charles and the Emperor Maximilian agreed the Treaty of Cambri with the French
- One consequence of the isolation caused by the treaty of cambri was that it offered Francis I the opportunity to undermine the Anglo-Scottish relations - he was able to do this because the Duke of Albany, heir presumptive to the Scottish throne, was a member of the French nobility - Henry showed himself as incapable of exploiting divisions and weaknesses within scotland
- Wolsey ended Englands isolation with the Treaty of London in 1518, emerging as the lead diplomat in Western Europe. Pope Leo desired a united Christian front against what he saw as the threat of the Ottoman Turks, this treaty had it's origins in the peace negotiations between England and France
- the scope of the Treaty of London widened into the Treaty of Perpetual Peace - a non aggression pact between England, France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and other smaller states Future conflicts would suggest the treaty as meaningless however it was a diplomatic coup for Wolsey, the Popes need for a christian front meant that he appointed Wolsey as a Papal legate over England
- newfound friendship between France and England continued, England agreed to return Tournai to France but the French agreed to pay the English a pension to compensate for its loss - the French also agreed to keep the Duke of Albany out of Scotland which ensured more peaceable relations on the Anglo-scottish border. the French were concerned with the increased power spain could exert with the election of the Spanish king to the post of Holy Roman Emperor, and this encouraged the French change of attitude. the relations were reinforced by the field of the cloth of gold in June 1520
field of the cloth of gold - a meeting of more than 2 weeks between Henry VIII and Francis I. the location was close to Calais which was held by the English. each king was accompanied by a large retinue and set up base in a lavish pavilion used for dining and entertainment. the event lost some entertainment in Henrys eyes as he lost a wrestling match to Francis. it has been estimated that the event cost £15,000
in diplomatic terms, nothing was achieved and conflict arose between Francis I and Charles V and in August 1521, Wolsey negotiated the Treaty of Bruges with Charles.
- could improve relations with the Pope who was anxious to reduce French control over northern Italy
- he believed he could gain more territory with France
- part of the deal entailed a marriage alliance between the emperor and Henry's younger daughter, the princess Mary
1514-26
- English armies invaded northern France in both 1522 and 1523, the campaigns proving costly and gained little - parliament proved reluctant to grant the extraordinary revenue necessary to cover the costs
- Henry showed a lack of strategic awareness by the way in which he attempted to benefit from the emperors crushing defeat of the French at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, suggesting to Charles that they launch a joint invasion of northern France in order to achieve territorial gains
- the lack of support for the Amicable Grant in 1525 showed there was a major lack of support for the adventure - Henry had to back down, his resentment towards Charles grew when Charles repudiated his marriage contract with Princess Mary, Wolsey's domestic prestige never really recovered
- the fracturing of the Anglo-imperial alliance led Henry and Wolsey in the direction of a pro-French foreign policy - becoming evident when he sent support to the League of Cognac which was put together by the Pope in order to counter balance the excessive power of the emperor in northern Italy - the emergence of the kings great matter at this time caused some issues