Wolsey replied that Sandys would be cheaper than an earl,[364] but the command was entrusted to the Earl of Surrey.

Henry thought it unsafe, considering the imminence of a breach with France, for English wine ships to resort to Bordeaux; Wolsey thought otherwise, and they disputed the point for a month.

Honours were divided; the question was settled for the time by twenty ships sailing while the dispute was in progress.[365] Apparently they returned in safety, but the seizure of English ships at Bordeaux in the following March justified Henry's caution.[366] The King was already an adept in statecraft, and there was at least an element of truth in the praise which Wolsey bestowed on his pupil.

"No man," he wrote, "can more groundly consider the politic governance of your said realm, nor more assuredly look to the preservation thereof, than ye yourself." And again, "surely, if all _your_ whole council had been assembled together, they could not (p.

132) have more deeply perceived or spoken therein".[367] [Footnote 363: _Ibid._, iii., 576.] [Footnote 364: _L.