The executions of More and Fisher had convulsed Europe; but the second shock was felt as much more deeply than the first as the glory of the saint is above the fame of the highest of living men. The impious tyrant, it now seemed, would transfer his warfare even into heaven, and dethrone the gods. The tomb of Becket was the property of Christendom rather than of England. There was scarcely a princely or a noble family on the Continent some member of which had not at one time or other gone thither on pilgrimage, whose wealth had not contributed something to the treasure which was now seized for the royal coffers. A second act had opened in the drama—a crisis fruitful in great events at home and abroad.
The first immediate effect was on the treaty for the King's marriage. Notwithstanding the trifling of the commissioners in April—notwithstanding the pacification of Nice, and the omission of the King's name among the contracting parties—Charles succeeded in persuading Wyatt that he was as anxious as ever for the completion of the entire group of the proposed connections; and Henry, on his part, was complacently
did not assume the title of Rex Hiberniæ till two years later. Dominus Hiberniæ, or Lord of Ireland, is his invariable designation in every authentic document of the year to which these are said to belong. This itself is conclusively discrediting. If further evidence is required, it may be found in the word 'Londini,' or London, as the date of both citation and sentence. Official papers were never dated from London, but from Westminster, St James's, or Whitehall: or if from London, then from the particular place in London, as the Tower. Both mistakes would have been avoided by an Englishman, hut are exceedingly natural in a foreign inventor.
