aly from the French."[141] The pomp
and parade of Henry's wars have, indeed, somewhat obscured the
fundamentally pacific character of his reign. The correspondence of
the time bears constant witness to the peaceful tendencies of Henry
and his council. "I content myself," he once said to Giustinian, "with
my own, I only wish to command my own subjects; but, on the other
hand, I do not choose that any one shall have it in his power to
command me."[142] On another occasion he said: "We want all potentates
to content themselves with their own territories; we are content with
this island of ours"; and Giustinian, after four years' residence at
Henry's Court, gave it as his deliberate opinion to his Government,
that Henry did not covet his neighbours' goods, was satisfied with his
own dominions, and "extremely desirous of peace".[143] Ferdinand said,
in 1513, that his pensions from France and a free hand in Scotland
were all that Henry really desired;[144] and Carroz, his ambassador,
reported that Henry's councillors did not like to be at war with any
one.[145] Peace, they told Badoer, suited England better than
war.[146]

[Footnote 139: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 340.]

[Footnote 140: _L. and P._, i., 4864.]

[Footnote 141: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 362.]

[Footnote 142: _L. and P._, ii., 1991.]

[Footnote 143: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1287; Giustinian,
_Desp._, App., ii., 309.]

[Footnote 144: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 142.]

[Footnote 145: _Ib._, ii., 201.]

[Footnote 146: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 298; _cf. L. and
P._, i., 3081.]

But Henry's actions proclaimed louder than the words of himself (p. 068)
or of others that he believed peace to be the first of English interests.
He waged no wars on the continent except against France; and though he
reigned thirty-eight years, his hostilities with France were compressed
into as many months. The campaigns of 1512-13, Surrey's and Suffolk's
inroads of 1522 and 1523, and Henry's invasion of 1544, represent the
sum of his military operations outside Great Britain and Ireland. He
acquired Tournay in 1513 and Boulogne in 1544, but the one was
restored in five years for an indemnity, and the other was to be given
back in eight for a similar consideration. These facts are in curious
contrast with the high-sounding schemes of