ight need Cranmer's pliable ingenuity
again. So, although he issued the Commission, he made Cranmer its head,
and gave to him the appointment of its members; with the natural result
that the accusers and all their abettors were imprisoned and forced to beg
the Primate's forgiveness for their action.[242] But the man who gave life
to the whole plot, Bishop Gardiner of Winchester, still led the King's
political counsels, much as Henry disliked him personally; for the armed
alliance with the Emperor could only bring its full harvest of profit and
glory to the King of England if the Catholic powers on the Continent were
convinced of Henry's essential orthodoxy, notwithstanding his quarrel with
the Pope.[243] So, though Cranmer might be favoured privately and
Katharine's coquetting with the new learning and its professors winked at,
Gardiner, whose Catholicism was stronger than that of his master, had to
be the figure-head to impress foreigners.

In July 1543 the English contingent to aid the imperial troops to protect
Flanders was sent from Guisnes and Calais under Sir John Wallop. By the
strict terms of the treaty they were only to be employed for a limited
period for the defence of territory invaded by the enemy; but soon after
Wallop's arrival he was asked to take part in the regular siege of
Landrecy in Hainault, that had been occupied by the French. Henry allowed
him to do so under protest. It was waste of time, he said, and would
divert the forces from what was to be their main object; but if he allowed
it, he must have the same right when the war in France commenced to call
upon the imperial contingent with him also to besiege a town if he wished
to do so. Both the allies, even before the war really began, were playing
for their own hands with the deliberate intention of making use of each
other; and in the dismal comedy of chicanery that followed and lasted
almost to Henry's death, this siege of Landrecy and that of St. Disier
were made the peg upon which countless reclamations and recriminations
were hung. The Emperor was ill, in dire need of money, and overwhelmed
with anxiety as to the attitude of the Lutheran princes during the coming
struggle. His eyes were turned towards Italy, and he depended much upon
the diversion that Henry's forces might effect by land and sea; and
conscious that the campaign must be prompt and rapid if he was to profit
by it, he sent one of his most trusted lieutenants, Ferrante Gonzaga,