linquish his claim to Milan and his support of the
German princes; Henry was bent on compelling him to abandon the cause
of Scottish independence. If Charles could secure his own terms, he
would, without the least hesitation, leave Henry to get what he could
by himself; and Henry was equally ready to do Charles a similar turn.
His suspicions of the Emperor determined his course; he was resolved
to obtain some tangible result; and, before he would advance any
farther, he sat down to besiege Boulogne. Its capture had been one of
the objects of Suffolk's invasion of 1523, when Wolsey and his imperialist
allies had induced Henry to forgo the design. The result of that folly
was not forgotten. Suffolk, his ablest general, now well stricken in
years, was there to recall it; and, under Suffolk's directions, the
siege of Boulogne was vigorously pressed. It fell on the 14th of
September. Charles, meanwhile, was convinced that Boulogne was all
Henry wanted, and that the English would never advance to support him.
So, five days after the fall of Boulogne, he made his peace with
Francis.[1137] Henry, of course, was loud in his indignation; the
Emperor had made no effort to include him in the settlement, and
repeated embassies were sent in the autumn to keep Charles to the (p. 413)
terms of his treaty with England, and to persuade him to renew the war
in the following spring.

[Footnote 1136: See for the Scottish war the
_Hamilton Papers_, and for the war in France
_Spanish Cal._, vol. vii., and _L. and P._, vol.
xix., pt. ii. (to December, 1544).]

[Footnote 1137: For Charles's motives see the
present writer in _Cambridge Modern History_, ii.,
245, 246.]

His labours were all in vain, and Henry, for the first time in his
life was left to face an actual French invasion of England. The horizon
seemed clouded at every point. Hertford, indeed, had carried out his
instructions in Scotland with signal success. Leith had been burnt and
Edinburgh sacked. But, as soon as he left for Boulogne, things went
wrong in the North, and, in February, 1545, Evers suffered defeat from
the Scots at Ancrum Moor. Now, when Henry was left without an ally,
when the Scots were victorious in the North, when France was ready to
launch an Armada against the southern coasts of England, now, surely,
was the time for a national