Smyth, p. 223). At the beginning of 1505 West was commissioned as sole plenipotentiary to conclude a treaty with George, duke of Saxony (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, i. 1717). Calais was the place of negotiation. The real object of the treaty was to prevent the harbouring of Suffolk [see Pole, Edmund de la, Earl of Suffolk] by the duke. The convention was ratified at Dresden on 30 Dec. 1505 (Rymer, Fœdera, xiii. 123). In 1506 West was one of the commissioners who negotiated a treaty of commerce with the Netherlands so favourable to England that it was known in Flanders as the ‘intercursus malus.’
On 10 May following this brilliant success West received another diplomatic mission. This was to take the ratification of a treaty of marriage between Henry VII and Margaret of Savoy, sister of Philip, king of Castille (ib. xiii. 128). The treaty, which had no practical result, was confirmed at Valladolid on 13 July 1506, West being present (ib. xiii. 155). In this document West is styled archdeacon of Derby.
In 1508 West was one of the commissioners for settling the conditions of a marriage between Charles, archduke of Austria and prince of Castille, and the Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VII. The Flemish embassy arrived in England to negotiate the treaty in December of that year. West, as one of a small deputation of the council, was appointed to meet them on their way (Gairdner, Letters and Papers, Richard III and Henry VII, i. 371). It is clear from this that, though he retained his benefices and his archdeaconry, he was still about the court. The treaty was signed by Henry on 8 Dec. 1508 (Rymer, Fœdera, xiii. 187).
On 3 Nov. 1509 West received his first preferment from Henry VIII, the grant of the deanery of St. George's, Windsor (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, i. 624). On 20 June 1510, having Sir Thomas Docwra [q. v.], a former colleague, as leader of the mission, West was despatched to France for the purpose of taking the oath of Louis XII to the observance of the treaty of 23 March 1509 (ib. i. 1104). After West's return he took up his residence at Windsor, and occupied himself with the completion of St. George's Chapel. In September 1511 a warrant was issued for the payment to him of 200l. for the vaulting of the building, to be repaid by the knights of the Garter to the exchequer (ib. ii. p. 1452).
On 3 Nov. 1511 West was nominated an ambassador to James IV of Scotland (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, i. p. 1926). He set out in November and arrived as far as York (ib. ii. p. 1453). But his journey seems to have been arrested, and West returned. On 4 Feb. 1512 he was appointed to the sinecure office of receiver of petitions to parliament from Gascoigne and beyond seas (ib. i. 2082). On 15 Feb. he received a fresh appointment as commissioner to treat with Scotland for redress of grievances (ib. i. 3007). On 15 Feb. 1513 Lord Dacre and West were again appointed ambassadors to settle differences with the Scots (ib. 3726). The real object of Henry VIII was to keep Scotland quiet pending his invasion of France [see Henry VIII]. James IV, on the other hand, was waiting the moment of England's embarrassment in France formally to declare war. The final result of West's embassy was the concession by James of a commission to treat of the grievances on the border, which met, without transacting any business, in June 1513. Meanwhile West had returned to England, and the fruitlessness of his mission was proved by the invasion of England by James in the following summer.
During his stay in Scotland West had availed himself of the hospitality of the Friars Observant at Stirling (ib. 3838). It was perhaps a consequence of this intimacy that on 25 Jan. 1514 he was admitted to the order, a favour recited in the deed of admission as granted ‘on account of the services he had rendered them’ (ib. 4678). That Henry VIII did not attribute the failure of his mission to any remissness upon West's part is evident from the fact that on 18 Aug. 1514 he nominated him, together with Charles Somerset, earl of Worcester [q. v.], the head of the mission, and his former colleague, Sir Thomas Docwra, a commissioner to take the oath of Louis XII to the treaty of peace of 7 Aug. 1513 and to receive that king's obligation for the payment of 1,000,000 crowns of gold (ib. 5335). The ambassadors arrived at Boulogne on 3 Sept. 1514 (ib. 5379), proceeding by way of Abbeville to Paris (ib. 5391). Part of their mission was the celebration by proxy of the marriage of the Princess Mary [see Mary of France], sister of Henry VIII, to Louis XII, which was among the terms of the treaty of peace (ib. 5482). On 1 Jan. 1515 Louis XII died, and West was again despatched, together with Suffolk and Sir Richard Wingfield [q. v.], to present to Francis I the condolences of Henry on the death of his predecessor (ib. ii. 24, 25).
The fruit of the diplomacy of West and his colleagues was a defensive alliance with France, dated 5 April 1515. This secured to Francis immunity from interference during the prosecution of his Italian campaign
