ed by her interests, to support
the independency of that duchy; and the most dangerous opposition was
therefore, by Anne of Beaujeu, expected from that quarter. In order to
cover her real designs, no sooner was she informed of Henry's success
against Simnel and his partisans, than she despatched ambassadors to the
court of London, and made professions of the greatest trust and
confidence in that monarch.

The ambassadors, after congratulating Henry on his late victory, and
communicating to him, in the most cordial manner, as to an intimate
friend, some successes of their master against Maximilian, came in
the progress of their discourse to mention the late transactions in
Brittany. They told him that the duke having given protection to French
fugitives and rebels, the king had been necessitated, contrary to his
intention and inclination, to carry war into that duchy; that the honor
of the crown was interested not to suffer a vassal so far to forget
his duty to his liege lord; nor was the security of the government less
concerned to prevent the consequences of this dangerous temerity: that
the fugitives were no mean or obscure persons; but among others,
the duke of Orleans, first prince of the blood, who, finding himself
obnoxious to justice for treasonable practices in France, had fled
into Brittany; where he still persevered in laying schemes of rebellion
against his sovereign: that the war being thus, on the part of the
French monarch, entirely defensive, it would immediately cease, when the
duke of Brittany, by returning to his duty, should remove the causes of
it: that their master was sensible of the obligations which the duke,
in very critical times, had conferred on Henry; but it was known also,
that, in times still more critical, he or his mercenary counsellors
had deserted him, and put his life in the utmost hazard: that his sole
refuge in these desperate extremities had been the court of France,
which not only protected his person, but supplied him with men and
money, with which, aided by his own valor and conduct, he had been
enabled to mount the throne of England; that France in this transaction
had, from friendship to Henry acted contrary to what, in a narrow view,
might be esteemed her own interest; since, instead of an odious tyrant,
she had contributed to establish on a rival throne a prince endowed with
such virtue and abilities; and that, as both the justice of the cause
and the obligations conferred o