But Charles had no purpose in any case of playing the English game, or of carrying out the pledges by which he had lured England into war.

He concluded an armistice with his prisoner, and used Wolsey's French negotiations in the previous year as a ground for evading fulfilment of his stipulations.

The alliance was in fact at an end; and the schemes of winning anew "our inheritance of France" had ended in utter failure.

So sharp a blow could hardly fail to shake Wolsey's power.

The popular clamour against him on the score of the Benevolences found echoes at court; and it was only by a dexterous gift to Henry of his newly-built palace at Hampton Court that Wolsey again won his old influence over the king.