ater experience in
warfare, the Duke of Alburquerque, and he, too, was received with the
splendour and ostentation that Henry loved, ultimately accompanying the
King to the siege of Boulogne as military adviser; both the King and
Queen, we are told, treating him with extraordinary favour.[249]

By the time that Henry was ready to cross the Channel early in July to
join his army, which several weeks before had preceded him under the
command of Norfolk and Suffolk, the short-lived and insincere alliance
with the Emperor, from which Henry and Gardiner had expected so much, was
already strained almost to breaking point. The great imperialist defeat
at Ceresole in Savoy earlier in the year had made Henry more disinclined
than ever to sacrifice English men and treasure to fight indirectly the
Emperor's battle in Italy. Even before that Henry had begun to show signs
of an intention to break away from the plan of campaign agreed upon. How
dangerous it would be, he said, for the Emperor to push forward into
France without securing the ground behind him. "Far better to lay siege to
two or three large towns on the road to Paris than to go to the capital
and burn it down." Charles was indignant, and continued to send reminders
and remonstrances that the plan agreed upon must be adhered to. Henry
retorted that Charles himself had departed from it by laying siege to
Landecy. The question of supplies from Flanders, the payment and passage
of mercenaries through the Emperor's territories, the free concession of
trading licences by the Queen Regent of the Netherlands, and a dozen other
questions, kept the relations between the allies in a state of irritation
and acrimony, even before the campaign well began, and it is clear thus
early that Henry started with the fixed intention of conquering the
territory of Boulogne, and then perhaps making friends with Francis,
leaving the Emperor at war. With both the great rivals exhausted, he would
be more sought after than ever. He at once laid siege to Montreuil and
Boulogne, and personally took command, deaf to the prayers and
remonstrances of Charles and his sister, that he would not go beyond
Calais, "for his health's sake"; but would send the bulk of his forces to
join the Emperor's army before St. Disier. The Emperor had himself broken
the compact by besieging Landrecy and St. Disier; and so the bulk of
Henry's army sat down before Boulogne, whilst the Emperor, short of
provisions, far in an