Ample justification was soon afforded for Henry’s strict adherence to the policy of neutrality, for events on the Continent had moved rapidly forward, and Charles and Francis were at last at open war. By restraining Cromwell from making the mistake of cementing an alliance with the Emperor, and by guarding himself against a too close intimacy with Francis, the King had succeeded in placing England in such a position that the two great continental powers were forced to grovel at her feet. From the beginning of 1536 until the autumn of 1537, when the truce between France and Flanders (forerunner of the peace of Nice in the summer of 1538) was concluded, the history of the foreign policy of England is as simple as it is glorious and triumphant. Henry, constantly pretending to be desirous of arbitrating between France and Spain, ‘for the peax and weale of Christendome,’ as he elegantly put it, was in reality solely occupied with the endeavour to embroil them the more. Alternately encouraging and repelling advances from both sovereigns, by judiciously proposing and then retreating from alliances with each of them, he succeeded admirably in keeping Charles and Francis in a constant state of anxiety, as regarded his true position. Cromwell’s letters tell the story of the time very clearly. ‘An answer soo general that it doth neither refuse their alliance, ne moche encorage them, to co_n_ceyue that they maye w_i_t_h_out difficultie obteyn their desire’ was the reply which the English ambassadors were ordered to give at the French and Spanish Courts[591]. So secure did Henry feel himself abroad that he dared to issue a manifesto in contempt of the General Council[592], which the Pope had summoned to meet at Mantua, and to publish the Ten Articles of 1536, which, while primarily intended to serve another purpose, were politically useful as a formal refusal to respect it. It was very fortunate for England that her affairs abroad were so prosperous at this juncture, as the end of 1536 and the beginning of 1537 were full of anxiety at home, owing to the outbreak of the rebellion in the North.