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The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic Henry VIII 1522 is in Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic Henry VIII.
January 1522. Calig. D. VIII. 180. B. M. [FRANCIS I.] to LA BATIE and POILLOT.
I have received your first and second letters, relating the conversations you have had with the king of England and the cardinal of York. The whole question is whether my good brother intends to maintain his fraternal love and alliance. As to the suspicions which he says have arisen, I have done nothing openly or covertly against the amity between us. The going of the duke of Albany into Scotland was much more against my will than his; but he found means to escape when I was much occupied by the war. I am sending a gentleman into Scotland to command him to return. The taking of some English ships by my subjects was against my will. If I had those who did it, I would punish them. Englishmen frequently rob my subjects, which I suppose is not agreeable to him.
January 1522. Calig. D. VIII. 180. B. M. [FRANCIS I.] to LA BATIE and POILLOT.
I trust that the suspicions mentioned in your instructions, which I might have against him, are unfounded; yet I think it very strange that this treaty of Bruges was concealed from me, and also the powder and balls which are going to Antwerp;—that his subjects go and take the Emperor's pay;—that the English scholars at Paris have returned home, and also the daughter [Anne Boleyn (age 21) or Mary Boleyn (age 23)] of Mr. Boullan (age 45), while ships were being made at Dover, and musters taken in England, the rumor being that it was to make war on France. Nevertheless, if Henry desire it, I will do what I can to withdraw the duke of Albany, and we will renew our treaties by chapters and oaths; and if he desire to add an article for offensive war upon just quarrel, according to the power shown by the Cardinal to my Chancellor at Calais, I will agree, either with a general reservation of allies, or specifically against his enemies and mine.
January 1522. Calig. D. VIII. 180. B. M. [FRANCIS I.] to LA BATIE and POILLOT.
I do not know if he find it difficult to maintain the friendship of myself and the Emperor elect, considering the enmity between us; but he must choose between neutrality and a declaration for one or the other. As to neutrality, I should not be dissatisfied; but if he were to declare against me, I should consider it a great wrong, after all the familiarities, oaths and treaties between us. I am willing to do everything to satisfy him in the things which he has demanded of me. If he had been in my case, I should have helped him personally, and with all I had. If he will consider well, he will see that the war made upon me by the Emperor elect is against God, justice and honor, as shown by the articles delivered to you. And if he will compare the friendship of myself and the Emperor, he will find the difference, both in surety, in persons and in power; but if he should declare against me, I hope to provide for it. I content myself with my own, which the Emperor does not do; and my good brother should consider what is likely to happen, if the Emperor retain his purpose, now that a Pope has been made entirely at his devotion. The Emperor's ambassadors, at the last diet at Zurich, held on Saturday after the feast of Kings, offered the lords of the Leagues to make a league against France, and assured them that England would join, and give them plenty of pay. The Emperor pretends to put the duke of Barri in possession of Milan, in order that the Swiss and Italians may not be jealous of his greatness; but if my army were out of Italy, the first thing he would do would be to occupy the duchy, and consequently the whole of Italy, including even the patrimony of the Church, which the Pope, being his creature, would not deny. He has told the lords of the Leagues that I have broken the five years' truce, and that he was thus prevented from going to war against the Infidels, although it is notorious who is the real cause of war. Nevertheless, the lords of the Leagues have refused his demand, and declared their resolution to adhere to their alliance with France; for which cause, on Friday next, 20,000 men will leave the cantons, with the principal captains of those countries, and the banners they have been accustomed to carry in their own wars. They will be led by my uncle the Grand; Master and the marshal De Chabannes, and will meet with little opposition in the duchy, where my gens d'armerie have already driven out the enemy, except the banished men.
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January 1522. Calig. D. VIII. 180. B. M. [FRANCIS I.] to LA BATIE and POILLOT.
I send, for my good brother's satisfaction, the instructions delivered to my Chancellor when he went to Calais, with his power to treat with the ambassadors of the Emperor. The whole consists of three points: (1.) the maintenance of treaties; (2.) the surety of the same for the future; and, (3.) recompense for the injuries done to me. If you find they have recourse to dissimulation, as they had at Calais, break off at once entirely. I was sorry my Chancellor showed so much patience with them at Calais, their dissimulations were so transparent. As to Henry's complaint, that I have attempted to treat with the Emperor by other means than through him, it is not true. All that I have done has been at his intercession, and I never gave any charge to Mouhye, as La Batie knows. As to what he says, that Robertet was to meet a secretary of the Emperor to arrange a treaty, it is truce that an Italian named Abbatis, who was with the Chancellor of Flanders at Calais, came to me at Paris, to say that if I would send Robertet to Cambray, the Emperor would send Hannart his secretary, which I would not consent to. He then asked me for a safeconduct for the secretary of the dowager of Savoy, to be sent by her to my mother; which I granted; but I know not whether he came or not. I think not. As to the pilgrimage of my mother, she never thought of it. The King and Wolsey ought to know by this time the fictions which proceed from that house.
Fr., mutilated, pp. 10.