personally was under great obligations both to France and to Brittany,
especially to France; but political exigencies evidently compelled him to
favour the maintenance of Breton independence.

During 1487 France had been carrying on active hostilities in Brittany, but
the results had been small and a treaty had been signed. Lewis, Duke of
Orleans, and others of the French nobility who were hostile to the regency
of Anne of Beaujeu, were actively promoting the Breton cause within the
dukedom; there was no longer an active French party there; and now that
Henry in England had suppressed the Simnel rising France became anxious to
secure English neutrality. But, if Henry could not keep clear of the
complication altogether; if once the parties in the contest began appealing
to him; he was liable to find himself forced to take part with one side or
the other. Hence the necessity for calling upon Parliament to vote money
for armaments.

[Sidenote: 1488 Henry intervenes cautiously]

Thus in the opening months of 1488 we find Henry on the one hand fitting
out ships, and on the other offering friendly mediation both to France and
to Brittany: while his policy was not simplified by the unauthorised
interposition of his queen's uncle Edward Woodville, who secretly sailed
with a band of adventurers to support the Bretons. Henry repudiated
Woodville's action, and extended the existing treaty of peace with France
to January, 1490. In the same month (July, 1488) the Bretons suffered a
complete defeat, and the Duke was obliged to sign a treaty on ignominious
terms. Within a fortnight, however, the Duke was dead, and his daughter
Anne, a girl of twelve, succeeded him.

The result was the renewal of war; since Anne of Beaujeu and the Breton