Question 1
Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages and explain which you think is more
convincing as an explanation of why England went to war with France in 1557.
Passage A
The episode which eventually enabled Philip and Mary to push the English council into war with France has never been satisfactorily explained. There were many English exiles in France at the time, whom Henry II had periodically encouraged with small subsidies and facilities for carrying out their piratical activities in the Channel. At the beginning of 1557 the exile community was seething with rumours of conspiracy and impending war. Henry II was seriously alarmed by the prospect of Mary declaring war against him and was unlikely to support any further exile adventure unless war became absolutely certain. Stafford had been received at the French court, but Henry had drawn back, as he had done so often before, and there was no further alarm in that direction for three months.
[When Stafford did land at Scarborough] news of his incursion travelled with incredible speed and the council responded in similar fashion.
Stafford attracted virtually no support, apart from the handful of adventurers who had accompanied him from France. It is natural, therefore, to wonder whether Stafford’s apparently hairbrained and provocative venture was not connived at, or even prompted by, Paget and his agents. Henry II denied involvement. He knew enough of what was going on in the English council to have realised the likely consequences of such a move. War was not declared at once, but the decision to do so was taken within a week of Stafford’s capture.
Adapted from: D. M. Loades, The Reign of Mary Tudor: Politics, Government, and Religion in England, 1553–1558, published in 1979.
Passage B
The war of 1557–9 was the culmination of that long struggle for the control of Italy and the 150‑year‑old feud between the kings of France and the dukes of Burgundy. The English, dependent as they were on the Antwerp market for the sale of their cloth, were the natural allies of the Burgundian dukes and their successors the Habsburgs, now also kings of Spain.
The marriage [of Philip and Mary] always carried with it a potential clash of interest; and knowing this the English were keen to negotiate peace between the emperor and the king of France. They failed, but a truce was signed.
The truce was always uneasy. But it was Pope Paul IV who destroyed it. Paul managed to provoke a Spanish invasion of the Papal States and the king of France could not resist the chance to re‑establish French power there. Philip had no wish for war. Nevertheless, if war were forced on him, he would fight to the best of his ability and therefore arrived in England in March 1557 to invoke English aid. There he found himself faced by a hostile council. There was talk of financial aid to Philip, even a small expeditionary force, though no formal English involvement for the moment; although that might be possible once the harvest was in and the immediate threat of famine removed. In the event, Henry II’s long‑standing protection of English rebels cut the Gordian knot*; Henry had unwittingly provided a solidly English reason for a declaration of war.
* Gordian knot – an extremely difficult or involved problem
Adapted from: C. S. L. Davies, ‘England and the French War’ in The Mid‑Tudor Polity c.1540–1560, published in 1980.
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