The accession of Henry VIII. was now hailed with great rejoicing.  He was but eighteen years of age, but handsome and smart.  He soon married Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his brother Arthur.  She was six years his senior, and he had been betrothed to her under duress at his eleventh year.

A very fine snap-shot reproduction of Henry VIII. and Catherine in holiday attire, from an old daguerreotype in the author’s possession, will be found upon the following page.

[Illustration:  HENRY VIII.  AND CATHERINE.]

Henry VIII. ordered his father’s old lawyers, Empson and Dudley, tried and executed for being too diligent in business.  He sent an army to recover the lost English possessions in France, but in this was unsuccessful.  He then determined to organize a larger force, and so he sent to Calais fifty thousand men, where they were joined by Maximilian.  In the battle which soon followed with the French cavalry, they lost their habitual sang-froid and most of their hand-baggage in a wild and impetuous flight.  It is still called the Battle of the Spurs.  This was in 1513.

In the report of the engagement sent to the king, nothing was said of the German emperor for the reason, as was said by the commander, “that he does not desire notice, and, in fact, Maximilian objections to the use of his name.”  This remark still furnishes food for thought on rainy days at Balmoral, and makes the leaden hours go gayly by.

During the year 1513 the Scots invaded England under James, but though their numbers were superior, they were sadly defeated at Flodden Field, and when the battle was over their king and the flower of their nobility lay dead upon the scene.

[Illustration:  WOLSEY OUTSHINES THE KING.]

Wolsey, who was made cardinal in 1515 by the Pope, held a tremendous influence over the young king, and indirectly ruled the country.  He ostensibly presented a humble demeanor, but in his innermost soul he was the haughtiest human being that ever concealed beneath the cloak of humility an inflexible, tough, and durable heart.

On the death of Maximilian, Henry had some notion of preempting the vacant throne, but soon discovered that Charles V. of Spain had a prior lien to the same, and thus, in 1520, this new potentate became the greatest power in the civilized world.  It is hard to believe in the nineteenth or twentieth century that Spain ever had any influence with anybody of sound mind, but such the veracious historian tells us was once the case.

Francis, the French king, was so grieved and mortified over the success of his Spanish rival that he turned to Henry for comfort, and at Calais the two disgruntled monarchs spent a fortnight jousting, tourneying, in-falling, out-falling, merry-making, swashbuckling, and general acute gastritis.

[Illustration:  THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD.]