g of
Poland, the King of Hungary,[222] the Duke of Saxony, the Duke of
Bavaria, the Duke of Brandenburg, the Landgrave of Hesse, and other
potentates."[223] Vaughan's mission had been merely tentative, and had
failed. Yet the offer of a league, offensive and defensive, the
immediate and avowed object of which was a general council at which the
Protestants should be represented, might easily succeed where vague
offers of amity had come to nothing. The formation of a Protestant
alliance, however, would have been equivalent to a declaration of war
against Catholic Europe; and it was a step which could not be taken,
consistently with the Treaty of Calais, without first communicating with
Francis.

[Sidenote: The King writes to Francis, menacing him with this
expedient.]

[Sidenote: December 2.]

[Sidenote: A Protestant alliance highly desirable to put an end to the
usurpation of the pope.]

[Sidenote: He will not act, however, without first consulting his good
brother.]

Henry, therefore, by the advice of the council, wrote a despatch to Sir
John Wallop, the ambassador at Paris, which was to be laid before the
French court. He explained the circumstances in which he was placed,
with the suggestion which the council had made to him. He gave a list of
the princes with whom he had been desired by his ministers to connect
himself,--and the object was nothing less than a coalition of Northern
Europe. He recapitulated the injuries which he had received from the
pope, who at length was studying "to subvert the rest and peace of the
realm "; "yea, and so much as in him was, utterly to destroy the same."
The nobles and council, he said, for their own sake as well as for the
sake of the kingdom, had entreated him to put an end, once for all, to
the pope's usurpation; and to invite the Protestant princes, for the
universal weal of Christendom, to unite in a common alliance. In his
present situation he was inclined to act upon this advice. "As
concerning his own realm, he had already taken such order with his
nobles and subjects, as he would shortly be able to give to the pope
such a buffet as he never had heretofore; "but as a German alliance was
a matter of great weight and importance, "although," he concluded, "we
consider it to be right expedient to set forth the same with all
diligence, yet we intend nothing to do therein without making our good
brother first privy thereunto. And for this cause and consideration
only, you