A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER XI

THE RIVALRY BETWEEN CHARLES V AND FRANCIS I TO 1525

WE shall now revert to the general affairs of Europe at the point where we left them in chapter the ninth. While Charles was taking possession of his new dignity, and putting in order the affairs of the Empire, his Spanish dominions were in a state of open insurrection, the first symptoms of which, excited by the unconstitutional act of the Cortes assembled in Gallicia, had manifested themselves, as we have already observed, before his departure in 1520. Toledo first rose, under the leadership of Don Juan de Padilla, eldest son of the Commendator of Castile, and of Ferdinand de Avalos, two nobles who now assumed the part of demagogues. The deputies who had voted the donative were either murdered or compelled to fly for their lives. Confederations were formed among the various towns, the chief of those implicated in the revolt being Toledo, Segovia, Zamora, Valladolid, Madrid, Burgos, Avila, Guadalajara, and Cuenca. The Dutch Regent Adrian Boyens was led to suppose that he could put down the insurrection by making an example of Segovia, with which view he sent Ronquillo thither early in June; but the Segovians being supported by the Toledans, the royal army was defeated. Antonia de Fonseca, dispatched to Ronquillo’s assistance, took Medina del Campo by storm, and treated it with such cruelty as excited several other places to revolt which had hitherto remained faithful; while Fonseca' s house at Toledo was razed to the ground by the infuriated populace. Adrian, alarmed at these occurrences, disclaimed the acts of Fonseca. In July, deputies from the principal Castilian cities met in Avila; and having formed an association called the Santa Junta, or Holy Congress, declared the authority of Adrian Boyens illegal, on the ground of his being a foreigner, and required him to resign it; while Padilla, by a sudden march, seized Joanna at Tordesillas. The unfortunate Queen, in an interval of reason, authorized Padilla to do all that was necessary for the safety of the Kingdom; but soon relapsed into her former imbecility, and could not be persuaded to sign any more papers. The Junta nevertheless carried on all their deliberations in her name; and Padilla, marching with a considerable army to Valladolid, seized the seals and public archives, and formally deposed Adrian. Charles now issued from Germany circular letters addressed to the Castilian cities, in which great concessions were made. These, however, were not deemed satisfactory by the Junta; who, conscious of their power, proceeded to draw up a remonstrance containing a long list of grievances. It is remarkable that these complaints much resemble those subsequently urged by the Commons of England against the Stuarts; thus showing that Spain was then prepared to throw off feudal oppression and assert the principles of civil liberty.

The most important demands were, that the King should not reside out of Spain, nor marry without consent of the Cortes; that no foreigner should be capable of holding the Regency or any other office in Church or State; that no foreign troops should be brought into the Kingdom; that the Cortes should be held at least once in three years, whether summoned by the King or not; and various conditions were laid down to insure the worthiness and independence of the members, especially that neither they nor any of their family should hold places or pensions from the King; that the judges should have fixed salaries, and not receive any part of the fines or forfeitures of persons condemned by them; that all privileges enjoyed by the nobility which were detrimental to the Commons should be abolished; that indulgences should not be preached or sold in the kingdom till the Cortes had examined and approved the reasons for publishing them, and that the profits should be strictly applied to the war against the Infidels; and that all bishops should reside in their dioceses at least six months in the year.

Charles having refused to receive the remonstrance, the Junta proceeded to levy open war against him and the nobles; for the latter, who had first sided with the Junta, finding their own privileges threatened as well as those of the King, began now to support the royal authority. The army of the Junta, which numbered about 20,000 men was chiefly composed of mechanics and persons unacquainted with the use of arms. Padilla was dismissed, and the command given to Don Pedro de Giron, a rash and inexperienced young nobleman, who had joined the malcontents out of private pique against the Emperor. On the other hand, Charles authorized the Constable and the Admiral of Castile to assist Adrian Boyens, and they were joined by the Duke of Najera, Viceroy of Navarre.

Towards the end of November, Giron marched with about 11,000 men towards Rioseco in order to seize the Regent Adrian, who had retired thither; but he was out-maneuvered by the Count of Haro, the royal general, who, proceeding to Tordesillas, recaptured that place, together with the person of Joanna and the great seal, as well as many leaders of the Junta (December 5th, 1520). That party, however, was not discouraged, and they now reappointed Padilla their general. But it was Padilla’s wife, Dona Maria de Pacheco, a woman of high spirit and noble birth, who was in reality the soul of the league; and by her advice all the costly plate and precious ornaments of the Cathedral of Toledo were seized in order to raise money for supporting the army. It was evident, however, that the affairs of the Junta were declining. Neither Padilla nor the Council of Thirteen could succeed in preserving order; Castile became a wide scene of anarchy and confusion; and those who loved tranquility or had anything to lose hastened to join the party of the King and the nobility. In the spring of 1521, Padilla attempted to form a junction with the French who had invaded Navarre and advanced into Castile—a maneuver which was prevented by the coming up of the royal army; and on the 23rd April, 1521, Padilla being utterly defeated, and captured near Villalar, was beheaded on the following day. The Bishop of Zamora was captured on the same occasion. He was so zealous a revolutionist as to have organized a regiment of clergy, which distinguished itself in the defence of Tordesillas.

The defeat just mentioned proved the ruin of the Junta. Valladolid and most of the other confederated towns submitted, but Toledo, animated by the grief and courage of Padilla’s widow, still held out; till at length the inhabitants, impatient of the long blockade and despairing of all succor, surrendered the town. Dona Maria retired to the citadel and held it four months longer; but on 10th of February, 1522, she was compelled to surrender, and escaped in disguise to Portugal; after which tranquility was re-established in Castile.

A still more violent insurrection had raged in Valencia, headed by the Hermandad, which, though without any leaders of note, contrived to maintain the war during the years 1520 and 1521. Their efforts, however, were ultimately directed, not against the prerogative of the King, but the power of the nobles, whom Charles left to fight their own battles. In Aragon the symptoms of insubordination were checked by the prudent conduct of the Viceroy, Don Juan de Lanusa. Andalusia remained perfectly tranquil during these tumults. Had the various Spanish realms united together, they might doubtless have enforced their own terms; but their different forms of government prevented them from joining in any common plan of reform; they still formed distinct Kingdoms, and retained all their former national antipathies.

These commotions in Spain afforded the French the opportunity for invading Navarre, before referred to,—one of the methods by which Francis gave vent to his ill humor at the loss of the Empire. His competition with Charles for the Imperial Crown had been conducted apparently with the greatest good humor, and Francis had remarked in a playful tone to Charles's ambassadors, “We are two lovers, who woo the same mistress; whichever she prefers the other must submit, and harbour no resentment”. But in the bitterness of defeat all these generous feelings vanished. Francis now began to view the Spanish King in a new light; he no longer regarded Charles as an equal and ally, whose scattered dominions were insecure and in some degree at his mercy, and to whom therefore his friendship was necessary, but as a rival who had gained a marked superiority, and who by his elevation to the Empire had not only acquired claims to some parts of the French dominions, but also perhaps the power of enforcing them. Pretexts for quarrelling were sufficiently abundant. Navarre was a bleeding wound in the side of Spain, which by the treaty of Noyon Francis had at any time a pretense for opening. The House of Austria had never digested the loss of Burgundy, wrested from them by Louis XI. In Italy, where Francis had neither received nor sought investiture of Milan from the Emperor, the old Imperial claims threatened to be a fertile cause of strife. It was plain that before long a war must ensue from the rivalship of two youthful and ambitious sovereigns, whose growing disagreement was visible in all their transactions. The wounded pride of Francis called loudly for revenge, but there were many reasons which dissuaded him from seeking it by an open declaration of hostility. He trembled for the safety of his Italian conquests; he had no funds for carrying on an extensive war, except by the sacrifice of his magnificence and his pleasures; above all, he knew that if he declared war against the Emperor and the Pope, they would be immediately joined by the King of England. He therefore resolved to consult his safety and at the same time indulge his ill-temper by adopting towards Charles a petty and underhand system of annoyance, and with this view he had encouraged the Castilian communities in their rebellion, and endeavored to raise a party against Charles among the Electors of the Empire; his jealousy rendering him blind to the fact that such a course must inevitably kindle the war which it was so much his interest to avoid.

Francis had certainly colorable grounds for an invasion of Navarre, as Charles had neglected that stipulation of the treaty of Noyon by which he was bound to do the deposed King justice within six months. John d'Albret and his consort Catharine were both dead, and the scepter of Navarre had devolved to their son, Henry II. The French King’s mistress, the beautiful Countess of Chateaubriand, of the House of Foix, whose family had reversionary claims to Navarre through their kinship to Henry II, also used her influence with Francis to induce him to invade Navarre; and he resolved to strike a blow which love and hatred combined to counsel. The Navarrese were favorable to the cause of their exiled King, and the citizens of Estella in particular invoked his presence in language which partook of Eastern poetry. “Do but come. Sire”, they wrote, “and you will behold rocks, mountains, and trees take up arms for your service”. Francis permitted Andrew of Foix, Lord of Lesparre, the third brother of Madame de Chateaubriand, to levy a small army of 5,000 or 6,000 Gascons, with which, and 300 lances belonging to his eldest brother, Marshal Lautrec, he entered Navarre. As Ximenes had razed nearly all the fortresses in that little Kingdom, it was soon overrun; Pamplona alone, animated by the courage of Ignatius Loyola, made a short resistance.

This siege indirectly caused the origin of the Society of Jesuits. Loyola, whose leg had been shattered by a cannon-ball, found consolation and amusement during his convalescence in reading the lives of the Saints, and was thus thrown into that state of exaltation which led him to devote his future life to the service of the Papacy.

Lesparre was stimulated by his easy success to exceed the bounds of his commission, and instead of confining himself to the reduction of Navarre, to pass into Castile, where his attempt to form a junction with the malcontents under Padilla was defeated in the manner before related. At the invitation, however, of the heroine Dona Maria de Pacheco, he undertook the siege of Logrono, a frontier town of Old Castile, on the farther side of the Ebro. All the pride of the Castilians was roused by this insult. Forgetting their complaints against Charles and his Regent Adrian, they flew to arms; Lesparre was obliged to raise the siege, and retreat towards Pamplona; but being overtaken at Esquiros by the Castilian army under the Constable, the Admiral, and the Duke of Najera, was defeated and captured June 30th, 1521. He shortly afterwards died of a wound received in the action. Navarre was now recovered by the Castilians as easily as it had been overrun by the French.

Francis adopted the same policy of petty intervention on his northern border. Robert de la Marck, Duke of Bouillon and Lord of Sedan, long one of Charles’s best friends, and who had helped his election to the Empire, having a suit respecting a castle on the French frontier, had taken offence at the Chancellor of Brabant entertaining an appeal from his courts, which he contended were independent; and Louise of Savoy, in an interview with the Duke at Romorantin, fomented his discontent and approved his projects of vengeance. The Parliament of Paris sent an officer to cite before them, not only the President and Attorney-General of Charles's supreme Netherland court, but even the Emperor himself, or rather as the decree ran, the Count of Artois and Flanders; and the Duke of Bouillon was ridiculous enough to dispatch a herald to the Diet at Worms to challenge the Emperor before all his Princes. With the connivance of the French Court, though contrary to an ostensible prohibition, La Marck levied a small army in France, and together with his son Fleurange laid siege to Vireton, a town of Luxembourg. Henry VIII, at the request apparently of the Emperor, now interfered, and Bouillon, by order of Francis, raised the siege, March 22nd, 1521.

Charles, however, was not inclined to let his insolence pass unpunished. The Imperials generals, the Count of Nassau, Sickingen, and Frunsberg, not only entered Bouillon's dominions, where they took and destroyed several places, but even crossed the French frontier and committed several acts of violence; and though, on the approach of a French army, Nassau granted Bouillon a truce of six weeks, yet hostilities still continued between the Imperialists and the French. Nassau, who had retired into Luxembourg, again entered France, captured Mouzon, and laid siege to Mézières, which was valiantly defended by Bayard; but on the approach of the Duke of Alençon with his army, Nassau was again compelled to retire.

An open war seemed to be now impending between Francis and the Emperor, and in this state of things Henry VIII, assuming his favorite character, offered to mediate between them; a proposal which, after some reluctance on the part of Francis, was accepted by both Princes. Charles had no reason to object to such a course; he was assured of Wolsey’s support, and he was in intimate alliance with the Pope, whose Legates were to be present at the discussions. After some delay the conference was fixed to be held at Calais on the 8th of August. But before proceeding to that matter, we must take a brief view of the affairs of Italy and the conduct of the Pope.

ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR

The thoughts of Leo were perpetually directed towards the temporal aggrandizement of his family. We have already seen how, with the French King’s connivance, he succeeded in wresting Urbino from Francesco Maria della Rovere, and bestowing it on his own nephew Lorenzo. Not content with withholding Modena and Reggio from Alfonso d'Este, he next designed to seize upon Ferrara itself. Having failed, in 1519, in an attempt to surprise that place, he tried in the following year to gain his end by treachery, and bribed Rudolf Hell, a German captain in Alfonso's service, to betray one of the gates to his forces. But Hell revealed the whole plot to his master; and Alfonso, though unwilling to take any public step in the matter, let the Pope plainly see that he was aware of his designs.

In 1520 Leo treacherously procured the destruction of the Lords of Perugia and Fermo. Perugia was in the hands of Gian Paolo Baglioni, a famous condottiere, who had made himself master of his native city. According to contemporary writers Baglioni was a monster steeped in every vice—a fact, however, which can hardly justify Leo’s conduct; who, having entrapped him to Rome under promise of security, caused him to be apprehended and tortured; when he is said to have confessed enormities deserving of a thousand deaths. However this may be, he was beheaded in the Castle of St. Angelo, and the Pope escheated his possessions.

Lodovico Freducci of Fermo was attacked on similar pretexts by Giovanni de' Medici with an army of 5,000 men, and slain in attempting to escape. After these examples many of the smaller tyrants in the March of Ancona submitted; some of whom, relying, like Baglioni, on Leo’s good faith, were tried for their former conduct and put to death. That most of them deserved their fate can hardly be doubted. The wretched state of morals among Italian princes may be safely inferred from Machiavelli’s Principe, as well as from their own histories; but the conduct of the Pontiff in condemning those over whom he had no temporal jurisdiction, in order to appropriate their possessions, can hardly be justified on the plea of their immorality.

Leo seconded these acts of violence by the most treacherous and double-faced negotiations. Early in 1521 he had entered into a treaty with Francis I, by which it was agreed that they should unite to drive the Spaniards out of Naples; on the accomplishment of which the town of Gaeta, with all the northern part of Campania Felix as far as the Garigliano, was to be ceded to the Holy See, the remainder of the Kingdom being assigned to the second son of the French King; who, however, till he should attain his majority, was to be under guardianship of an Apostolic Legate. Francis, either from negligence, fear of England, or suspicion of the Pope's sincerity, seems to have delayed the ratification of this treaty, and to have withheld the promised subsidies.

Piqued by this conduct, as well as offended by the proceedings of Lautrec, who had succeeded Bourbon as Governor of the Milanese, and especially by his refusing to acknowledge Rome’s authority in the matter of benefices, Leo now secretly entered into an alliance with Charles V, on the basis of a counter-project for driving the French, instead of the Spaniards, from Italy. The chief articles were, that Frances Sforza, second son of Ludovico, should be installed in the Duchy of Milan; that Parma and Piacenza should be ceded to the Holy See, and that its claims on Ferrara should be supported by the Emperor; that the annual tribute paid by Naples to the Holy See should be augmented; that the Neapolitan Duchy of Cività di Penna should be conferred on Alessandro de' Medici, a child of nine, and a pension of 10,000 crowns on Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, secured on the revenues of the Archbishopric of Toledo, then vacant. The Pope on his side undertook to forward the Emperor's claims upon Venice. This treaty, which was concluded while the Diet of Worms was sitting, bears the same date as the outlawry of Luther, or Edict of Worms (May 8th, 1521), and it can hardly be doubted that both were intimately connected. By the sixteenth article the Emperor engaged to reduce to obedience the adversaries of the Apostolic throne, that is, Luther and his adherents, and to avenge all the wrongs they had done it.

After the conclusion of this treaty, the Pope and Emperor made attempts to gain partisans in the various Italian cities. Jerome Morone, formerly Chancellor of Milan, one of the numerous citizens whom the harshness of the French rule had compelled to quit their native country, proposed to Leo a scheme for attacking several places in the Milanese by means of malcontent exiles. The Pope adopted the project, and secretly advanced money for its execution; and when it proved abortive he permitted the exiles to take refuge at Reggio. Charles and the Pope also supported the Adorni and Fieschi in a plan which they had formed to wrest Genoa from the Fregosi, who governed it for the French; and the Pope fitted out some galleys for that purpose. But this scheme also was defeated by the vigilance of Octavian Fregoso.

At this time, Odet of Foix, Lord of Lautrec, the Governor of the Milanese, was absent in France, and had left the supreme command to his brother, Thomas of Foix, commonly called Marshal de Lescun; who, hearing of the proceedings of the Pope, marched with some troops to Reggio, intending if possible to surprise the town, or at all events to demand an explanation. On his appearance before the place, Guicciardini, the Governor, gave him an audience outside the gates. Whilst they were conferring, Lescun’s men attempted to force an entrance into the town; a skirmish ensued; blood was spilt on both sides; the French were repulsed, and Guicciardini detained Lescun to answer for his conduct, but dismissed him on the following day. Lescun subsequently dispatched an envoy to the Pope to apologize for his conduct; but Leo, glad of so good an opportunity to throw off the mask, refused to hear the envoy, complained of the French King’s hostility, excommunicated Lescun as an impious invader of the territory of St. Peter, and publicly avowed in Consistory the treaty which he had concluded with the Emperor.

Such was the position of affairs between the Pope, the Emperor, and the French King, when the appointed conference was held at Calais. It was managed on the part of Charles by the Count of Gattinara, a Piedmontese, for Chievres had died at Worms in the preceding May; on the part of Francis, by the Chancellor Duprat. Wolsey was master of the situation, the arbiter whom both sides sought to gain. Duprat was assiduous in supplying all his wants, which the Cardinal was not scrupulous in intimating : now providing him with a litter, as Wolsey complained of the fatigue of riding his mule; now sending far and wide for some better French wine than could be procured at Calais. The Cardinal, however, was already sold to the Emperor for the reversion of a more splendid prize than it was in the power of Francis to offer.

Before the conference, Henry VIII and his minister had already made preparations for hostilities against Francis, by providing a body of 6,000 archers, and devising plans for the destruction of the French fleet. Nay, so ardent was Wolsey in the cause, that though, as he says, “a spiritual man” and in general prone enough to assert the superiority of the toga over arms, yet he expressed his readiness to march with his cross at the head of the English troops. He affected, however, the greatest impartiality, and declared that his only solicitude was to ascertain who had first broken the peace. To have effected a satisfactory mediation between the two Sovereigns would have been impossible. Each made claims which he knew the other would not grant—Francis demanding the restitution of Navarre and Naples; Charles requiring that Milan and Genoa should be evacuated, homage for Flanders remitted, and Burgundy restored. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that Wolsey's mediation only resulted in procuring a treaty for the suspension of hostilities between the French and Netherland vessels engaged in the herring fishery.

Technically speaking, Francis was certainly committed by Lesparre’s invasion of Spain, of which the Emperor had complained before the opening of the conference, at the same time requiring Henry to declare against France as the first aggressor; but, in any event, the result of the conference was predetermined. In fact, the Emperor himself, in a speech which he made to the people of Ghent, in July, had told them that “he would leave the French King in his shirt, or else Francis should so leave him”. While the conference was going on, Wolsey, escorted by 400 horse, went in great state to Bruges to visit the Emperor, who received him as if he had been a sovereign prince. Here, in the name of his master, the Cardinal concluded with Charles a treaty, the chief purport of which was, that in the following year the Emperor should invade France on the south, and Henry on the north, each with an army of 40,000 men. At the same time a marriage was agreed on between the Emperor and Henry's daughter Mary, to be celebrated when the latter should have attained the age of ten. Mary was to have a dowry of £680,000, but from this sum was to be deducted all money owed by the Emperor to England. We have seen that Mary was already betrothed to the Dauphin, and that the Emperor himself had engaged to marry Francis’s daughter Charlotte. The treaty was to be kept profoundly secret till such time as Charles should visit England, on his return to Spain, when Henry was to declare war against France.

The Pope was not idle during these negotiations. He sanctioned the treaty (August 25th) by a beneplacitum, and on the 4th September he issued a bull of excommunication against Francis I, releasing his subjects from their allegiance. A treaty was also arranged at Bruges, between the Emperor, the King of England, and the Pope, which was ratified November 24th, at Calais. The Emperor and the King of England promised to support Leo, whose greatest care, it was affirmed, was for spiritual affairs, against the German and other heretics. It was at this time that Henry VIII published his book against Luther, which procured him the title of “Defender of the Faith”.

Meanwhile the war went on. On the southern French frontier the Admiral Bonnivet and the Count of Gruise, who had been dispatched with an army to revenge the disaster of Lesparre, not only succeeded in recovering Lower Navarre, or that part of the Kingdom north of the Pyrenees—which the House of Albret did not again lose—but also took Fuenterabia. This news arrived before the conference at Calais was concluded. Charles V, supported by Henry VIII, immediately demanded the restoration of Fuenterabia, which opened to the French the road into Biscay; and on the refusal of Francis, the negotiations ended. In the north, Francis entered the Cambresis at the head of his army in October, and on the 22nd came up with Nassau between Cambray and Valenciennes; but with a hesitation quite unusual with him, and contrary to the advice of his best and most experienced captains, missed the opportunity of attacking the Imperialists at an advantage. The French, however, succeeded in capturing Hesdin, after which Francis retired to Amiens, and disbanded the greater part of his army. But this success was more than counterbalanced by the loss of Tournai, which surrendered to the Imperialists before the end of December, after a blockade of six months. During this period we find Wolsey, in his assumed character of a peaceful mediator, writing the most treacherous letter to Francis (October 20th), in order to deter him from a battle with the Emperor, the result of which the Cardinal feared; and this in direct contravention of his master's advice to the Emperor, to provoke the French King to fight. Wolsey had followed up this letter by sending an embassy to Francis, then near Valenciennes, to persuade or frighten him into a truce. To this Francis would not consent; but the delay which this embassy occasioned arrested his operations, and probably caused the loss of Tournai. Thus was opened that series of wars between the rival Houses of France and Austria, which, with little intermission, lasted nearly two centuries, and which may be divided into two periods; namely, till the peace of Vervins, in 1598, and to the death of Louis XIV, in 1715.

The war, which was now fairly kindled, soon spread into Italy, where, as we have seen, hostile symptoms had already displayed themselves. The French rule in that country had been anything but wise or popular : the government was conducted with military harshness, and the Italians were made to feel that they were a conquered people. Lautrec, the eldest brother of the frail Madame de Chateaubriand, a good soldier, but a man of cruel and inflexible character, conducted his viceroyalty on a system of terror; his own family, as well as the treasury, was enriched by confiscations and executions, and he is said to have banished half the principal inhabitants of the Milanese. Even the veteran Marshal Trivulzio, a native of Milan, one of the first captains of the age, who had assisted the French in their enterprises in Italy ever since the days of Charles VIII, was treated with contumely by Lautrec, on account of his Guelf principles. At the age of eighty Trivulzio crossed the Alps in winter to lay his complaints at the feet of Francis I, but was denied an audience through the influence of the Countess of Chateaubriand. He died heartbroken soon after in France. But the French interests in Italy were as much damaged by intrigues at home as by bad policy abroad. The Court was divided into two factions, each led by a woman; for the period had arrived when cabal, female influence and the caprices of mistresses, were to play so great a part in the affairs of France, to direct and often to damage her most important enterprises. At the head of one party was the King’s mother, Louise of Savoy, whose principal adherents were the Chancellor Duprat, the Admiral Bonnivet, and René, the Bastard of Savoy, Louise’s brother, for whom she wished to obtain the command in Italy.

On the other side was the King’s mistress, Madame de Chateaubriand, with Lautrec and her other brothers : but the love of Francis was now beginning gradually to decline, and with it the credit of the Countess. Lautrec had neglected to pay the King'’ mother sufficient court : he had even had the audacity to speak too freely of her conduct; and Louise in her wrath resolved to punish him, were it even at the expense of the interests and honor of France. When the cloud of war began to lower over Italy, Lautrec, who, as we have said, was in France, received orders to repair to his government; but he declared that he was in want of money to pay the troops, and refused to stir unless he was supplied with 400,000 crowns. The King and Semblançay, the minister of finance, promised on oath that the money should be remitted to him, and Lautrec departed. When, however, it was collected, Louise seized it for her own use, thus gratifying at once her rapacity and her revenge. When in the following year Lautrec, after his defeat in Italy, again returned to France, and denied having received the money, Louise's tool, Semblançay, to clear himself, accused her to the King. Semblançay was subsequently sacrificed to her vengeance, and hanged on a false charge in 1527. The want of this money was the main cause which deprived the French of the Milanese.

The Papal and Imperial army, to which Leo’s influence added the troops of Florence, took the field in August, 1521. This war is attributed by Guicciardini, on the authority of Leo’s cousin, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, to the restless ambition of that Pontiff. The Spanish troops were led by Ferdinand de Avalos, Marquis of Pescara, the Papal army by Frederick Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, with Guicciardini over him as commissary-general; while the command in chief was entrusted to Prosper Colonna. The last, though an able general, was too slow and cautious in his movements; he lost a fortnight in waiting for reinforcements, and then, instead of marching upon Milan, laid siege to Parma, which he entered September 1st. By the advance, however, of Lautrec on one side, and the Duke of Ferrara on the other, he was again obliged to retire on the Lenza, where he wasted another month, suspicious of the Pope’s real intentions.

Leo had taken advantage of his treaty with Francis early in the year to hire the services of 6,000 Swiss, whom the French permitted to pass through the Milanese, and he now procured additional reinforcements from Switzerland. That Confederacy was not disposed to lose its mercenary traffic in blood by any declaration of neutrality. Although a Diet convened at Lucerne at the beginning of August decided on assisting the French, the influence of the Cardinal of Sion prevailed in the Cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, in favor of the Imperialists, and hence the number of Swiss in each army was nearly equal, or about 20,000. Having received some of these reinforcements, Colonna crossed the Po, October 1st, and carried the war into the Cremonese, where Lautrec was posted. That commander relied mainly on his Swiss, whom, however, he had disgusted by his hauteur, and still more by failing to pay their wages, which the peculation of Louise had deprived him of the means of furnishing. The heads of the Cantons, moreover, sensible of the infamy that would be incurred if the two bodies of Swiss should be engaged against each other, having sent orders to recall both, the Cardinal of Sion bribed the messengers who were to convey the order to the Imperial camp; and thus it was delivered only to the Swiss in the French service, whose discontent not only prompted them immediately to obey it, but even induced many to join the Cardinal and the Imperialists. Lautrec, thus deserted, was obliged to shut himself up in Milan. Morone having sent a message to Colonna, that if a night attack were made on the town, the Ghibelins, or Imperial faction, would open one of the gates, Pescara advanced with the Spanish infantry, on the night of the 19th November, to the Porta Romana, through which he was admitted. Lautrec and his brother Lescun, thus taken by surprise, escaped the same night with the remnant of their army to Como, whence they proceeded to Lonato, in the territory of Brescia.

Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, whom Leo had dispatched to the allied army in the character of Papal Legate, entered Milan with the victorious troops, and at Rome it was commonly believed that the Duchy was destined for him; but for the present Morone was invested with the government, as lieutenant for Francesco Maria Sforza. The rest of the Milanese cities, except the citadel of Milan, the town of Cremona, and a few other places, eager to throw off the French yoke, now submitted to the Imperialists; and thus in a campaign of three months, the French lost nearly all the Milanese without a single pitched battle having been fought. The schemes of Leo X were thus entirely successful, and all his darling projects seemed on the point of accomplishment. Soon after the fall of Milan, Parma and Piacenza were occupied by the Allies, which places, conformably to the treaty with the Emperor, were to be made over to the Pope. The news of these successes reached Leo at his favorite villa of Malliana. He was seized the same night with a slight illness, and immediately returned to Rome, where his symptoms grew worse; and on the 1st of December he died so unexpectedly that there was not time to administer the last sacraments.

Leo X had nearly completed his forty-sixth year at the time of his decease, and had filled the Apostolic chair eight years, eight months, and nineteen days. In temper he was bland and easy, but indolent and luxurious; little attentive to appearances, so that, to the horror of his master of the ceremonies, he would ride out to enjoy his favorite diversion of hunting, in boots, and without a surplice. He was a passionate lover of music, of which he was not only a connoisseur, but also a good performer himself; and as he was liberal, or rather prodigal, in rewarding the ministers of his pleasures, he would sometimes give 100 ducats to a musician who had sung with him. He delighted in the company of buffoons, was fond of games of chance or skill, and took an almost childish pleasure in splendid fetes and pompous exhibitions. Although little versed in theology or sacred learning, one of his best traits was the liberal patronage which he afforded to literature and art. Thus his Court exhibited a kind of intellectual sensuality, which while it formed a striking contrast to the gross debauchery of Alexander VI, or the stern economy and martial bearing of Julius II, was just as far removed from those qualities and virtues which might be expected in a Christian Pontiff.

Leo’s political character, the chief traits of which are treachery and cruelty, may be gathered from the preceding narrative. That such a Pope should not have been popular at Rome can only be accounted for by his extravagant expenditure, which involved him in debt and emptied the Roman treasury. In so low a state, indeed, was his exchequer, that it was necessary to use at his funeral the wax tapers which had already served at the obsequies of a Cardinal. Immediately after his death his character was assailed in the most scurrilous libels; nay, it was even debated in Consistory whether his name should be expunged from the records of the Holy See. Leo’s prodigality, however, produced a sort of artificial prosperity at Rome, which under his Pontificate was much enlarged and beautified.

Upon Leo’s death Prosper Colonna was obliged to dismiss the greater part of the Swiss and other German contingents in the Papal army for want of funds to pay them; the Florentine troops, who had no direct interest in the war, returned into Tuscany, while Giovanni de' Medici went over to the French with a well-disciplined corps of about 3,000 foot and 200 horse, called, from the colors which they bore, the Black Bands. Several of the Italian Princes seized the opportunity to recover the dominions of which they had been deprived: Alfonso d'Este regained the greater part of his possessions; the expelled Duke of Urbino was received with enthusiasm by his former subjects, and similar revolutions happened at Perugia, Rimini, and other places. Meanwhile all eyes were directed towards Rome, where the Conclave had assembled (December 27th) for the election of a new Pope. The contest lay between Giulio de' Medici and Soderini, also a Florentine, who was supported by the French interest. Charles V did not, as it has been asserted, break his promise to Wolsey on this occasion; he recommended that Cardinal to the Sacred College, but perhaps without any very ardent wish for his success. The votes in favor of Wolsey amounted not to twenty, while twenty-six, or those of two-thirds of the thirty-eight Cardinals assembled, were necessary to secure the election. Giulio de' Medici was undoubtedly the candidate best qualified for the vacant throne. He belonged to one of the most powerful families in Italy; had presided in Leo’s councils, and was intimately acquainted with his projects as well as with the views of the various European Courts. The Cardinals, however, were averse to the notion of the Papacy being converted into a family succession. The contest, which subjected the Cardinals to the severest privations, and was conducted with the most violent and disgraceful altercations, had long seemed doubtful, when one of the Conclave, some say Giulio de' Medici himself, suddenly and as if by mere chance named Adrian of Utrecht, the Regent of Spain, who was immediately elected (January 9th, 1522). The election was so distasteful to the Roman populace, who feared that the Papal seat might be removed to Spain or Germany, that at first none of the Cardinals dared leave his house

NEW DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH

Early in the spring, both parties made preparations for resuming the war in Italy. The French affairs were not altogether desperate. Lautrec, as we have seen, still held several places, and René, the Bastard of Savoy, succeeded in raising 10,000 men in Switzerland, where the influence of the Cardinal of Sion had declined in consequence of the trick he had played off. Lautrec, however, was still in want of money; for although Duprat had by the most unprecedented extortions, and by the sale of some of the royal domains, raised funds sufficient to support a brilliant army, the money was either squandered by Francis among his mistresses, or diverted by the avarice of his mother. On the other side, Jerome Adorno and George Frunsberg had with inconceivable rapidity led 5,000 Germans through the Valtellina to Milan, where Colonna and Pescara lay with the Imperial army. The French gens d'armes and Venetians under Lautrec, being joined by the Swiss reinforcements, that commander crossed the Adda, March 1st, 1522; and after an abortive attempt to relieve the citadel of Milan, laid siege to Pavia, which, however, the advance of Colonna obliged him to raise. As the Swiss began to grow clamorous for their pay, Lautrec directed his march upon Arona, whither some money had been sent. It was necessary, however, to dislodge Colonna from a position which he had taken up at a villa and park called the Bicocca, between Milan and Monza. As the position seemed almost impregnable, and the Imperial army was daily weakened by desertion, Lautrec wished to defer the attack; but the Swiss would listen to no arguments, and sent in their last demand in three words—argent, congé, ou bataille (pay, dismissal, or battle). Thus between two alternatives—for money he had none—Lautrec was obliged to order an assault (April 29th). It failed, as he had anticipated, in spite of the most prudent arrangements. The Swiss being repulsed with great slaughter, refused to renew the attack in support of Lescun, who had assailed the position on the opposite side. After this defeat matters appeared to be irretrievable. The Swiss having retired into their own country, Lautrec returned to France, leaving the defence of the Milanese to his brother. The task, however, was a hopeless one, and Lescun found himself obliged to enter into a capitulation with Colonna, May 26th, by which he agreed to evacuate the whole of the Milanese Duchy, with the exception of the citadels of Milan, Novara, and Cremona; after which, he also retired into France. Genoa fell into the hands of the Imperialists shortly afterwards, almost by accident. Some Spanish and German soldiers having entered by a breach in the walls which they perceived to be undefended, the inhabitants were incited to rebel; Ottaviano Fregoso was deposed and imprisoned, and Antoniotto Adorno, who accompanied the Imperial army, made Doge in his stead. After these reverses, Francis I abandoned for a while his designs upon Italy, being compelled indeed to defend his own frontier against the combined attacks of Charles V and Henry VIII.

During the events just narrated the Emperor was still residing in Germany. Adrian’s election to the Papacy, which obliged him to vacate the Regency of Spain, as well as the still unsettled state of that country, determined Charles to proceed thither; especially as he wished to visit England on his way, in order to reconcile himself with Wolsey, now smarting under his disappointment. During the six weeks which he spent in England, the Emperor courted the favor of Henry, and succeeded in soothing Wolsey by fresh promises. He engaged to make good to the Cardinal a pension of 12,000 livres, secured to him by the French King on the bishopric of Tournai, of which the contemplated rupture with France would deprive him; nor did he neglect to render himself popular with the English people, whose confidence and goodwill he acquired by making the Earl of Surrey his High Admiral. During the Emperor’s stay in England the agreement entered into between himself and Wolsey, the preceding year at Bruges, was formally ratified; and Henry declared war against France, May 29th, 1522. Although the ostensible pretext for this rupture was the refusal of Francis to accept the terms proposed at the conference of Calais, and to sequester Fuenterabia into the hands of the English, there were other grounds of complaint. Francis, aware of the English preparations, had suspended the payments which he had engaged to make; he had put an embargo on English ships, and had connived at the return of the Duke of Albany to Scotland in the preceding autumn, with the view that he should excite the Scots to make a diversion, which, however, proved a failure. When Henry remonstrated, the French King protested that he had not instigated Albany's conduct; but Henry refused to believe him, and wrote him an insulting letter, accusing him of breach of faith.

As France was thus left to contend with the greatest and most formidable Powers of Europe, it was fortunate for that country that its eastern frontier at least was secured by neutral States. The Swiss, who had renewed their alliance with France by the treaty of Lucerne, May 5th, 1521, being unwilling that the County of Burgundy, or Franche-Comté, which bordered on their own territories, and was at that time an appanage of Charles’s aunt Margaret, should become the seat of war, had procured a treaty to be executed between Francis and Margaret (July 8th, 1522), guaranteeing that there should be no hostilities for three years between Franche-Comté and the neighboring French provinces as far north as Mouzon sur Meuse. This treaty being continually renewed for more than a century, the two Burgundies enjoyed the advantage of peace and commerce during a long period of the struggle between France and the House of Austria, and preserved the French frontier on that side from attack. It was at present further covered by the neutral territories of Lorraine and Bar, as well as of Savoy, whose ruler, Duke Charles III, the uncle of Francis, maintained a good understanding both with his nephew and the Emperor. The war was begun in June on the part of the English by some descents on the maritime towns of France, in which Cherbourg and Morlaix were taken and plundered. Surrey, with the main body of the English army, then landed at Calais, and after an unsuccessful attempt upon Boulogne joined the Imperialists in the Netherlands, under the Count of Buren, and invaded Picardy. Little, however, was effected, although Francis had not yet assembled any formidable force. The siege of Hesdin, not a very strong place, occupied six weeks; and at the beginning of November, the English, after losing a great many men by dysentery, were compelled by the season to quit France. The French, by long experience, had learned the most effectual method of opposing them—by abstaining from pitched battles, defending their walled places, harassing convoys, and attacking advanced posts, they succeeded in wearing out the English. On the Spanish frontier the campaign of 1522 was also favorable to the French, the Marshal de la Palisse having forced the Spaniards to raise the siege of Fuenterabia.

The Emperor, after his sojourn at the English Court, set sail for Spain, and arrived at the port of Santander July 26th. As he had resolved to spend some years in Spain, and had now taken the reins of government into his own hands, he adopted such measures as were likely to make him popular. With wise humanity he refused to shed any more blood, though strongly advised to do so by his council; and on the 28th of October he published a general amnesty, from which only eighty persons were excepted, and even these he took no measures to apprehend. He humored the pride of the Castilians; he applied himself to conform to the manners and to speak the language of the country; he appointed only natives to posts of trust and dignity, whether in Church or State; and thus, by securing the affections of the Spaniards, he at length acquired a more extensive authority over them than had been enjoyed by any of his predecessors. While, however, he rendered himself popular by his manners, he took care to enlarge and secure his power by abridging the liberties of the people. Instead of allowing the burgesses deputed to the Cortes to begin with their grievances and then grant a servicio, or supply, he reversed the practice—took the supply first, and then heard the grievances. He summoned these assemblies but seldom, and caused the three estates to meet in different places in order to prevent them from combining together; nor would he allow them to debate except in presence of a president appointed by himself. He introduced the practice of corruption by granting or promising favors to the deputies, so that a seat in the Cortes began in process of time to be looked upon as a profitable thing, and we find a deputy paying 14,000 ducats for one as early as 1534. After the year 1538, when the nobles were no longer summoned, and the Cortes were composed of burgesses alone, they were assembled every three years, and granted whatever was demanded.

But though the period of Charles’s sojourn in Spain was in general characterized by a policy which tended to strengthen his government, it was also disfigured by his persecution of the Moors. In this respect Charles’s bigotry, one of the worst traits in his character, led him to follow in the steps of his predecessors. The unfortunate Moors found no safety but in flight; and it is calculated that by the year 1523, 5,000 houses were deserted in Valencia alone. In 1525, at the instigation of Pope Clement VII, Charles formed the wild and wicked project of compelling all the Moors in Spain to forswear Islam and adopt Christianity. Their mosques were shut up, the Koran was taken from them, all dealing with them was forbidden, and leave was given to capture and enslave those who were found wandering beyond their own villages. Those not baptized before the 8th of December were ordered to quit Spain by the 1st of January, 1526; while, in order to prevent them from proceeding to Africa, Coruña was the only port at which they were allowed to embark. Thus the penalty of banishment was aggravated by compelling them to traverse the whole of Spain, amidst insults and wrongs of every description. The unfortunate Moors offered 50,000 crowns for a respite of five year; an offer, however, which only led Charles to impose harsher terms; and he now ordered that those who were not baptized by the 15th of January should forfeit their goods and be sold into slavery. Driven to desperation, many took up arms, and obstinately defended themselves in the mountains of Valencia. At length, after great slaughter, the rest, with the exception of about 100,000 who succeeded in escaping to Africa, submitted to the rite of baptism, with what sincerity it is needless to say. Yet they were still subjected to the greatest oppressions. They were required to lay aside their language and national dress before the expiration of ten years, and in short became little better than beasts of burden in the service of the Spaniards. Subsequently, however, they purchased the privilege of retaining some of their customs with a payment of 80,000 ducats.

Charles, before landing in Spain, had appointed an interview with the late Regent Adrian at Barcelona; but the latter, either ashamed of his misgovernment, or unwilling it should be supposed that the Emperor influenced his conduct as Pope, embarked for Italy as soon as he heard of Charles’s arrival. It was not till the beginning of September, 1522, that Adrian reached Rome to take possession of his new dignity; and during the interval the Papal government had been conducted by a triumvirate of Cardinals, renewed every month by lot. If the Romans regretted the elevation of Adrian at the time of his election, that ill impression was strengthened among the higher classes, when they beheld a humble and austere old man, unacquainted with the language or manners of Italy, ignorant of and averse to the policy of the Court of Rome, and so totally devoid of all taste for art that when shown the group of the Laocoon he turned away with horror, exclaiming, “These are pagan idols!”. Adrian’s phlegmatic temper, and his parsimony, were not calculated to create a better feeling; in short, no more striking or more distasteful contrast could have been offered to those who had admired the warlike pomp of Julius II, or the more refined splendor of Leo X. His humility, however, produced a great impression in Adrian's favor among the populace, who were inclined to reverence him when, after having come on foot to Rome, he put off his shoes and hose before entering the city, and passed through the streets bare-footed and bare-legged towards his palace. If the wealthier and more educated Romans disliked the Pope’s manners, his actions disgusted them still more. He was very scrupulous in bestowing places. He even revoked some grants of spiritual dignities, and thus drew upon himself a host of the bitterest enemies. He found the Roman treasury exhausted through the extravagance of his predecessor, who had left a debt of 700,000 ducats, and was hence obliged to lay on new taxes, which made him very unpopular. He was almost constantly buried in his studies, during which he was inaccessible, so that business was delayed; and even those who obtained an audience were put off with a set phrase—cogitabimus, videbimus (we’ll think about it, we’ll see to it). Being a foreigner, and having no family interests to serve, he was indifferent to the temporal aggrandizement of the Holy See and the intestine disputes of Italy, so that he was ready to do justice to the potentates who had been despoiled by Leo’s ambition. He confirmed the Duke of Urbino in the dominions which he had recovered, and restored to the Duke of Ferrara several places of which he had been deprived. His simple habits rendered him indifferent to wealth. Such of his friends and kinsfolk as came to Rome with the view of pushing their fortunes he sent back with the present of a woolen garment, and enough money to defray their traveling expenses. He looked with calm and unruffled judgment on the abuses of the Church and of the Court of Rome, which he showed an inclination to reform; yet his scholastic education caused him to reject with aversion the doctrines of Luther, and disposed him to adopt the severest measures in order to repress them : for he belonged to those “Magistri Nostri” of Louvain who had so long opposed the rising literature and theology.

The simplicity of Pope Adrian’s character was regarded by the subtle and designing politicians of Italy as the effect of inexperience and incapacity, and hence he became the butt on which the wits of the day exercised their talent for ridicule. With regard to foreign politics the same dispositions rendered Adrian desirous of peace. He at first declared himself neutral, and persisted some time in that course, notwithstanding that his countryman Lannoy, Viceroy of Naples, visited him at Rome in hope of making him declare for the Emperor. He entertained the extravagant project, which could never have entered the head of any one but a recluse unacquainted with mankind, of reconciling two jealous and rival Princes, and inducing them to unite in a league against the Turks, who were now striking fresh terror into Europe, by their conquests.

SOLIMAN I

We have already recorded the death of Sultan Selim I in September, 1520. At that event the joy was great in Europe, for his son and successor, Solyman I—such was the erroneous opinion entertained of one of the greatest and most warlike of the Turkish Sultans—passed for a mild and pacific Prince, who had neither the disposition nor the talent to carry on his father’s plans of conquest. Solyman, who was in his government of Magnesia at the time of Selim’s death, immediately hastened to Constantinople, and having no competitor, ascended the throne without opposition or disturbance. He conciliated the Janissaries by slightly increasing their daily pay as well as the donative, while he secured discipline and subordination by some wholesome examples of severity. Ghasali Bey, Governor of Syria, was the only one of the Sultan’s officers who gave him any trouble, but his attempted insurrection was put down by a total defeat in February, 1521, when, having fallen into Solyman’s hands, he expiated his treason with his life. This example had its due weight with Shah Ismail, and with Chair Bey, Governor of Egypt, who abandoned the rebellion they had contemplated.

The tranquility of the eastern provinces of his Empire enabled Solyman to devote all his attention to the affairs of Europe, and during the whole of his reign the Osmanli power was directed towards the West. Venice, Hungary, and Rhodes were the points which chiefly claimed his attention. The conquest of Rhodes especially was the object nearest to his heart, and with the view of effecting it he desired to be at peace with Venice, in order that his fleet might undertake that enterprise without molestation. He therefore sent an ambassador to Venice to offer a renewal of the treaties which that Republic had effected with his father Selim; and as the Venetians on their side were anxious to preserve their commercial privileges in Egypt, they readily listened to his proposals.

Solyman would willingly have been at peace with the Hungarians also till the conquest of Rhodes had been effected, but this the relations between the two States and the continual border warfare forbade. The Turkish beys near the Hungarian frontier had flown to arms at the news of Selim’s death, and had already captured several fortresses. Solyman had, indeed, offered King Louis II peace, but on terms incompatible with Hungary's honor and independence. He required that Louis should acknowledge himself his vassal by paying a yearly tribute; a proposal deemed so insulting by the Hungarian King, that with a barbarous disregard of the law of nations worthy of the Turks themselves, he caused the ambassadors who brought it to be cast into prison and secretly strangled, and their bodies to be thrown into a fish-pond. This act at once determined Solyman’s course. He resolved to obtain possession of Belgrade and the line of the Danube, whence he might at leisure push his conquests further northwards. With this view a large force was moved in three divisions, the first of which, or left wing, accompanied by Solyman in person, was directed against Schabatz, whilst the center, or main body, composed of Janissaries and Spahis, marched against Belgrade, and the third division, or right wing, took the direction of Transylvania.

Hungary seemed to offer an easy prey. Her frontier fortresses were badly garrisoned and provisioned; her finances did not permit the hire of mercenaries; the arrière-ban, which was reckoned at 60,000 men, met scantily and slowly, and it was with difficulty that a small army was assembled in the southern provinces. Louis applied for aid to the Pope, the Venetians, and the Emperor; but though his complaints were everywhere heard with real or affected sympathy, no hand was stretched forth to help him. Leo X alleged in excuse his empty treasury, and the disturbances in Italy; the Venetians, who had made their peace with the Turk, said that they could do nothing unless all Europe combined in the cause; and the Diet of Worms, in spite of the long and eloquent speech of Hieronymus Balbus, the Hungarian ambassador, was too busy with its own affairs to afford any assistance; the Imperial army had enough to do to maintain the public peace, and the affairs of Hungary and the Turks were not even mentioned in the Diet’s recess. Under these circumstances the Hungarians could offer but a feeble resistance. Schabatz being taken after an obstinate defence, July 8th, Semlin surrendered without a blow, and a number of smaller strongholds were captured and razed. Belgrade must now have surrendered, even if its fall had not been hastened by cowardice and treachery. The garrison being driven from the town made so heroic a defence in the citadel that Solyman himself began to despair of success; when the Bulgarian mercenaries, alarmed by the blowing up of one of the towers, began to treat with the enemy without the commandant's knowledge, and offered to surrender on condition of being allowed to withdraw. The offer was accepted; the Turks were admitted on the evening of the 29th of August, when they massacred all the Hungarians, and even some of the Bulgarians : they who escaped were permitted to settle at Constantinople. Solyman, after taking possession of these fortresses, caused them to be repaired and well garrisoned; and he might now have pushed his conquests further northwards if such had been his plan; but his views were centered on the long-projected attack on Rhodes, the preparations for which employed the following winter (1521-1522). On September 10th, 1521, Solyman in a letter congratulated Philip de Villers de L'Ile-Adam, who had recently been raised to the Grand-Mastership of the Knights of St. John, on his appointment, detailed his Hungarian conquests, and offered peace and friendship. L'Ile-Adam immediately saw the irony of the letter, and replying in the same tone, hastened his preparations for defence

The Knights of Rhodes had long had complete command of the sea which surrounded their island; they infested the Turkish coasts, interrupted the navigation, and held thousands of Osmanlis in the harshest slavery, and their reduction had therefore long been ardently desired by the Turks. In June, 1522, the naval armament begun by Selim passed through the Dardanelles. It consisted of 300 ships with 10,000 chosen troops on board; while an army of 100,000 men assembled at Scutari, at the head of which Solyman himself intended to march to the southern coast of Asia Minor. The Knights of Rhodes, like the Hungarians, found none to help them. The Venetians, doubtful at first of the destination of the Turkish armament, dispatched a squadron of observation to watch over the safety of Cyprus, but its commander had strict orders to lend no help to Rhodes. Solyman, in accordance with the precepts of the Koran, began by addressing a letter to the Grand-Master, declaring war and requiring the surrender of the island (June 1st). L'Ile-Adam, on the other hand, had taken measures for the most resolute defence. All the houses in the neighborhood of the capital were destroyed, lest they should afford shelter to the advancing foe; strong chains were stretched across the harbor, the defence of which, and of the seven principal forts, was entrusted to the Knights according to their division into eight tongues; namely, French, English, Germans, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Proven9aux, and Auvergnats, under their respective Grand Priors. The Grand-Master himself took up his post on the north side of the town, and directed all the operations.

The Turkish fleet cast anchor in the Bay of Parombolin, several miles from the capital, June 24th. More than a month was spent in preparing for the siege and awaiting the arrival of Solyman, during which succors might easily have been sent. A small force would have sufficed to turn the scale and save this bulwark of Christendom, but it was not forthcoming. Towards the end of July Solyman arrived with his army at the little port of Marmaris, on the Anatolian coast; he immediately crossed over to Rhodes, and pitched his tent on the east side of the town. The first assault was delivered August 1st, without success, and during several weeks the attacks were renewed with the same result. In the course of September, some breaches having been effected, and some of the outworks taken, a general assault was made on the 24th, when the Osmanlis were repulsed with the loss of 15,000 men. Solyman, however, was resolved to leave the Fate of the island only as a conqueror; he turned the siege into a blockade; and on the 21st of December, the number of the garrison being considerably reduced, and their ammunition exhausted, the Grand-Master found himself obliged to capitulate. The terms obtained were tolerably favorable. The garrison was permitted to march out with their arms; the inhabitants who chose to remain at Rhodes were exempted from taxes for a term of five years, were allowed the free exercise of their religion, and received an assurance that their children should not be seized for Janissaries. Ships were provided for such of the Knights as wished to repair to Crete, for which island most of them, with the Grand-Master, embarked, January 1st, 1523. In the following March they proceeded to Naples, whence, at the Pope’s invitation, they repaired to Cività Vecchia, and subsequently took up their abode at Viterbo. Six years later (May, 1530) Charles V. presented to the remnant of the order the island of Malta, which became their final home. Thus fell one of the most practically useful of the religious orders. Its fall appears to have inspired the non-military orders with the desire of supplying its functions, and to have suggested to the Minorites a scheme which is here worth recording only for the light which it throws on the statistics of monachism, and the illustration it affords of the dread produced by the success of the Turks. In June, 1523, the Minorites handed into the Roman Curia a plan for raising an army of more than half a million men among the religious orders. The number of the Minorite convents alone was reckoned at 40,000; but taking them at 36,000, each of which was to supply only one man, that order alone could bring a like number of men into the field. On the same principle it was calculated that the convents of all the orders, including the Minorites, could furnish 144,000 men! And as each Minorite convent had, at least, ten parishes attached to it, or in all 360,000 parishes, if these also furnished a man apiece, the result would give a force of 504,000 men. But this proposal was never seriously entertained at Rome.

Pope Adrian attributed the ill-success of his project for a league against the Turks chiefly to the French King, who had shown no inclination to respond to his call : and he was further irritated against Francis by discovering that his agents had been attempting to stir up an insurrection in Sicily. Under these circumstances he was induced to listen to the persuasions of Lannoy, and to join Charles’s party. In pursuance of his new policy, he endeavored to detach the Venetians from their league with France, which he feared might lead Francis to undertake another invasion of the Milanese. From other causes the Venetians themselves were growing weary of the French alliance. Their ambassador, Badoero, had painted to them in strong colors the dissoluteness of Francis and his Court, which had weakened and impoverished the nation to an incredible degree; he attributed to the King’s misconduct all the misfortunes with which France had been afflicted, and he hinted his suspicions that a great Prince of the blood royal was about to go over to the enemy. These representations induced the Signory to listen to Pope Adrian, who succeeded in concluding what was called the “League of Rome” (August 23rd, 1523; an alliance which comprehended besides the Pope, the Emperor, the King of England, the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, Francesco Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, and the Republics of Venice, Florence, Genoa, Siena, and Lucca. It was, however, one of the redeeming traits in the character of Francis that he could throw off his indolence and rouse himself to exertion when danger threatened. In the face of this formidable league he adopted a resolution so bold that it may even be accounted rash. Instead of standing on the defensive, he determined to strike the first blow, and carry the war into Italy. Francis was aware that the position and compactness of his dominions gave him a great advantage; and it is not impossible that his enterprise might have succeeded had it been speedily and judiciously carried out, and not been disconcerted by an unforeseen accident, which must now be related.

Charles, Count of Montpensier and Duke of Bourbon, was at this time the only formidable vassal of the French Crown. He inherited Auvergne and Montpensier from his brother Louis, who had succeeded to them on the death of his father Gilbert, grandson of John I, Duke of Bourbon; and on the death, without male heirs, of Peter II, Duke of Bourbon, who was also the grandson of John I by his eldest son Charles I, the Count of Montpensier claimed the Duchy of Bourbon as next heir in the male line. Duke Peter II, as we have seen, had married Anne, daughter of Louis XI. This Sovereign had required a promise from Peter, before his marriage, that if he had no male heirs, all his lands should revert to the French Crown; a contingency which happened, as Peter left only a daughter, Suzanne. Louis XII, however, recognized the claims of the branch of Montpensier to the Duchy, without altogether rejecting the right of Suzanne; and, to avoid all disputes, he mediated a marriage between her and Charles Montpensier. Thus the latter united in his own person two duchies, four counties, two viscounties, besides a great number of smaller possessions and titles. He was, in fact, the richest lord in Christendom. He had not only the great central fiefs of the Bourbonnais, Auvergne, and La Marche, but also Beaujolais, Forez, Dombes, the wild and rugged mountains of Ardeche, Gien, commanding the Loire; and in the north, Clermont in Beauvais. Many of these dominions were confiscations, which Louis XI imagined he had placed in safe hands, those of his daughter and his son-in-law. In case of the failure of heirs to Francis I, Bourbon cherished even the hope of succeeding to the Crown; for although the Alençons, who were descended from a brother of King Philip VI, possessed a nearer claim, he held that they had forfeited it by a former revolt. Nay, he had even gone so far as to solicit, in such an event, the help of the Venetian Republic. Bourbon had distinguished himself as a soldier. He had accompanied Louis XII, in 1507, in his expedition against Genoa, and had shared in the victory gained over the Venetians at Agnadello, in 1509. Soon after the accession of Francis I, he was made Constable of France and Governor of Languedoc, each of which dignities brought him a revenue of 24,000 livres, in addition to which he received a pension of 14,000 livres as chamberlain, and several smaller ones. These honors and emoluments he is said to have owed to the affection of Louise, the King's mother : and it is even said that a promise of future marriage, pledged by an exchange of rings, had passed between her and Bourbon, in the event of the death of Bourbon’s wife, Suzanne, whose feeble constitution promised no great length of years. Bourbon's services at the battle of Marignano had been so important that Francis rewarded him with the government of the Milanese, which he signalized by the repulse of the Emperor Maximilian. Haughty and taciturn, Bourbon’s temper, however, was the very reverse of that of Francis, with whom he appears to have been never very cordial; and he was soon removed from the government of Milan, either through the jealousy of the King himself, or by the influence of Francis’s mistress, the Countess of Chateaubriand, who procured it for her brother Lautrec. From this time the King seems to have studiously heaped injuries on Bourbon. His salary, as Governor of the Milanese, was left unpaid; nay, even his expenses were not refunded. In the Netherland campaign of 1521, the command of the van, which fell to the Constable of France by virtue of his office, was taken from him and given to the Duke of Alençon. Nor was he any longer consulted on public affairs. Bourbon, who is said to have often had in his mouth the answer of an old Gascon noble to Charles VII, “Not three Kingdoms like yours could make me forsake you, but one insult might”, was not a man tamely to brook this treatment.

An event which might have healed the breach only resulted in making it wider. Bourbon’s wife, Suzanne, died April 28th, 1521, after having, with the approval of her mother, Anne of France, renewed the disposal of her territories in favor of her husband. Bourbon's marriage with Louise of Savoy, who at the age of forty-five still retained considerable beauty, might have prevented the misfortunes which ensued : so far, however, from fulfilling that engagement, he openly manifested his desire to espouse Renée, the second daughter of Louis XII, and sister of Queen Claude. This was enough to rouse the pride of Louise, and sting her to revenge; and, unluckily for Bourbon, she had at her disposal the means of gratifying it. As daughter of Margaret, sister of Duke Peter II of Bourbon, and wife of Duke Philip II of Savoy, she represented the eldest branch of the Bourbons, but through the female line. It was by no means certain, as we have seen in the case of Suzanne, that the duchy was exclusively a male fief. The domains had come into the family through women, and Charles’s claim, as sole male heir, was founded on family compacts among the Bourbons, and on the tradition of Salic law being applicable to all the branches of the reigning house of France. There was, at all events, ample ground for an appeal to law, and Louise instituted a suit against Charles in the Parliament of Paris : while the King also put in a claim for the confiscated estates which Louis XI had bestowed upon Duke Peter II and his consort Anne, as escheated fiefs which reverted to the Crown; and he made them over to his mother.

The Parliament, however, for the first time, displayed an unwillingness to support the Crown against one of its great vassals, and continually adjourned its decision. The King, indeed, in spite of his brilliant qualities, was unpopular with the people, and especially with the magistracy. The concordat, the fiscal oppressions of Duprat, Francis's own violence and disdain of order, had produced this feeling. Bourbon, on the contrary, gave himself out as the leader of the popular party. The Constable’s cup of bitterness was now full, and forgetting all the duties of patriotism, he resolved to gratify his revenge by leaguing himself with the enemies of his country. It is said that his mother-in-law, Anne of France, who died November 14th, 1522, had exhorted him to this step on her death-bed. She had devoted her last days to his defence, had confirmed her daughter’s will in his favor, and had bequeathed to him all her possessions. Bourbon soon after invited Charles to invade France; promising to assist him with 500 men-at-arms, and 10,000 foot, and at the same time demanding one of the Emperor's sisters in marriage; either Eleanor, the Dowager-Queen of Portugal, or Madame Catharine.

The negotiations which ensued soon came to the ears of Francis. Entering unexpectedly when Bourbon was dining with Queen Claude, the King publicly charged him with his misconduct. “Seigneur”, he exclaimed, “it is showed us that you be, or shall be married—is it truth?”. The Duke said it was not so. The King said that he knew it was so; moreover saying that he would remember it. The Duke answered, and said, “Sir, then you threaten me—I have deserved no such cause”; and so departed. After dinner the Duke went to his lodgings, and all the noblemen of the Court with him.

The negotiations, however, went on; and two months afterwards we find Bourbon opening direct communications with Wolsey. His proposals to treat were received with avidity by the English Court; and powers were granted to Dr. Sampson and Sir Richard Jerningham to treat with the Emperor and Bourbon on the subject. A principal condition was that Bourbon was to do homage and swear fealty to Henry as King of France. Bourbon’s treaty with the Emperor was finally concluded, at the end of July or beginning of August, with M. de Beaurain at Bourg in Bresse; for the Duke had retired into the territories of Savoy, where it was easier to conduct the negotiations than in France. The confederates, though not agreed as to the spoil, soon came to a conclusion as to the means of attack. A powerful English army was to invade Picardy by the 25th of August; by the same period 10,000 lance-knights under Count Furstenberg were to march into Burgundy, where they were to be joined by Bourbon with his men, and the united force was to form a junction with the English. In addition to all this, a Spanish army was to invade the French Kingdom from the south. These arrangements were punctually executed by the Emperor and the King of England. Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, with the English van, landed at Calais August 23rd; while early in September, the Spaniards began the campaign in the Pyrenees. The Constable’s cooperation, however, was prevented by an unforeseen accident. The French army destined for the invasion of Italy was assembling in great numbers, and as their route lay through Bourbon’s territories, it was impossible for him to move till their columns should have passed. Francis himself was detained at Lyons, waiting an answer to some proposals which he had sent to the Swiss and the Venetians; and during this interval intelligence reached him of Bourbon's conspiracy. The secret appears to have been revealed by two Norman gentlemen, whom the Duke had attempted to corrupt, and to induce them to admit the English into Normandy. Francis's first impulse was to conciliate his rebellious vassal. The suit against the Constable had not proceeded satisfactorily. The Parliament of Paris, which was to have pronounced its judgment on the 1st of August, instead of doing so, declared itself incompetent, and referred the cause to the King’s Council; in other words, it intimated that it was not free, and did not choose to be responsible. What should Francis do? Bonnivet, with the French van, was waiting for him on the other side of the Alps; the Italian expedition could not be abandoned, nor could so dangerous a subject as Bourbon be left behind. In this dilemma, Francis, early in September, proceeded with an escort of German mercenaries direct to Bourbon’s residence at Moulins, told him frankly all that he had heard, promised that his lands should be restored, and offered him the post of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, but on condition that he should accompany the army into Italy. Bourbon, on his side, confessed that overtures had been made him, but protested that he had never listened to them. He could not refuse the King's offer, who then departed, leaving a gentleman named Uvarty to accompany the Duke; that is, to watch his movements. But Francis’s offers, even if sincere, came too late. The Constable felt that he had compromised himself beyond redemption, and had no idea of joining the King. To gain time he feigned sickness; then after a few days he set forwards slowly for Lyons, but at La Palisse escaped from Uvarty, and hastened to his castle of Chantelle, on the borders of the Bourbonnais and Auvergne.

No sooner was Bourbon’s flight known than several companies of men-at-arms were dispatched to arrest him. Having no means of resisting a siege, and hearing that several of his accomplices had been taken, the Constable fled (September 10th), in the disguise of a valet, with only one companion, the Sieur de Pomperant, and after many hairbreadth escapes they succeeded in joining the lance-knights, who had invaded the eastern frontier. When Bourbon found that his contemplated movements were impeded by the presence of the King and his army, he had written to his confederates to delay their operations; but his letters arrived too late. The English army had already landed at Calais. An attempt which Francis made to divert the English forces, by inciting the Scots to border warfare, proved a failure. Suffolk was joined early in September by the Count of Buren with the Imperial troops, but waited in vain for the Constable's arrival. Under these circumstances the English commander, as the season was advancing, wished to confine his operations to the siege of Boulogne, a place which Henry was very desirous of taking, but Buren at length persuaded him to advance into the interior.

The allied army, after routing La Trémouille near Bray, on the Somme, forcing the passage of the river and taking that town (October 20th), pursued their march towards Paris, and reached the Oise, within eleven leagues of that capital. Paris trembled. Henry fancied the Crown of France already on his brow. But Suffolk was forced to retreat, in the midst of his success, by the approach of Vendome, the desertion of some of his allies, and a season of unprecedented rigor; and by the middle of December he got safely back to Calais. In the south, the Spaniards were equally unsuccessful. They had advanced as far as Bayonne, when they were repulsed by Lautrec, and compelled to retreat; a check, however, which was in some degree compensated by the recovery of Fuenterabia, disgracefully surrendered by the French commandant Frauget. In the east, the 10,000 lance-knights under Count Furstenberg had passed the Rhine (August 26th), traversed Franche-Comté, entered Champagne near Langres, and penetrated as far as Monteclair on the Marne; where, disappointed of the expected aid from Bourbon, and having no cavalry, they were terribly harassed by the gens d'armes of the Count of Guise and M. d'Orval, the Governors of Champagne and Burgundy, and compelled to a precipitate flight. It was with difficulty that Furstenberg regained the Vosges mountains; his rear guard was nearly destroyed in attempting to recross the Meuse near Neufchateau, whilst the ladies of the Court of Lorraine clapped their hands as they beheld this feat of arms from the walls of the town. It was during this retreat of the lance-knights that their path was crossed by the Duke of Bourbon, who was flying towards Germany, accompanied by about sixty gentlemen. Francis sent a message after him, demanding his constabular sword and the collar of his order. “The collar”, replied Bourbon, “I left under my pillow at Chantelle; the King took my sword when he gave the command of the van at Valenciennes to the Duke of Alençon”. Having declined an invitation into England, he succeeded in getting safely into Germany, whence he passed through Tyrol to Mantua, whose Marquis was his first cousin.

Instead of five or six provinces and a great party, Bourbon could now offer Charles only his talents, his valor, and his despair. He soon perceived that the ardor of friendship was gradually succeeded, in the conduct of the Emperor, by the coldness of protection, and he felt that he could not press for the completion of the treaty and the hand of Eleanor till he had achieved something that might deserve it. On the 16th of January, 1524, he was declared a traitor by Francis, and his lands were confiscated. Several of his adherents were sentenced to death. Among them was Jean de St. Vallier, Count of Poitiers, whose treason was the more unpardonable as he was captain of the 200 gentlemen composing the maison du roi, or King’s body-guard. Such was Francis’s indignation when informed of St. Vallier’s crime that he could scarce refrain from killing him with his own hand. Yet he was saved by his daughter. It was St. Vallier’s son-in-law, Louis de Breze, Grand-Seneschal of Normandy, who had revealed the plot of the Norman gentlemen : De Breze’s wife, the lovely Diane de Poitiers, pleaded in favor of her father, and established at the same time her own influence over Francis.

The discovery of so alarming a conspiracy, the extent of which was unknown, caused Francis to give up all idea of leading his army in person. Nevertheless, the expedition was not abandoned. The French army assembled at Susa numbered 40,000 men, and the condition of the enemy might have afforded an able general a good chance of success; but Bonnivet, to whom the command was entrusted, though a great favorite at court, had little military talent. Prosper Colonna, the Imperial commander-in-chief, was laid up by a severe attack of illness; Pescara was in Spain; and the Marquis of Mantua, the Papal commander, was determined not to advance beyond Parma. The Duke of Urbino, the Venetian general, was instructed to avoid a battle, as a defeat might have endangered all the continental possessions of Venice. By a coup de main Bonnivet might have seized Milan, the fortifications of which were in a dilapidated condition; but Francis, aware of his impetuous temper, had exhorted him to be cautious, and he now fell into the opposite fault. The season was wasted in petty operations; Italy, like France, was visited with an early and rigorous winter, and the approach of the army of the league obliged Bonnivet to take up his winter quarters between the Ticinello and Ticino.

ELECTION OF POPE CLEMENT VII

During the progress of this campaign Pope Adrian VI died after a short illness (September 14th, 1523). The joy of the Romans at this event was unbounded, and was expressed with all the malicious wit for which they were famed. On the night after Adrian’s death the house of Macerata, his physician, was adorned with garlands, and the following inscription was placed over his door : “The Roman Senate and People to the deliverer of his country”. In the Conclave which assembled October 21st, a hard struggle for the vacant dignity ensued between the two chief candidates. Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Pompeo Colonna; the former of whom was elected (November 18th), and assumed the name of Clement VII. The Emperor again supported Wolsey, but very lukewarmly; it is even supposed that, from the occurrences of the campaign in France, Charles had begun to suspect him of being in Francis’s interest. Wolsey’s name was proposed, but immediately rejected, in spite of the instructions to the English ambassadors to spare no promises of promotion, as well as of large sums of money, which, it was thought, would at least be successful with the younger Cardinals, for the most part needy men. But Wolsey was unpopular with the Sacred College. Henry VIII appears to have given his ambassador at Rome double instructions, and to have been resigned to accept Cardinal de' Medici as Pope in case Wolsey were not elected. Wolsey did not again forgive the Emperor, although he procured the Cardinal to be named Legate ad latere in England for life, with extraordinary powers.

Clement’s election gave universal satisfaction. Few Pontiffs had ascended the chair with a higher reputation for administrative ability, besides which he was known to be a generous patron of literature and art; and he was himself not only very well informed in theology and philosophy, but also in questions of practical science. He avoided the errors of his two predecessors—the prodigality and indecorous habits of his kinsman Leo, and the repugnancy which Adrian had manifested to the tastes of his Court. The illegitimacy of Clement’s birth, by which he was canonically disqualified for any ecclesiastical dignity, had been fraudulently got over by Leo X; who, at the time when he made his cousin a Cardinal, suborned witnesses to testify that his father and mother had been united in wedlock. The only other remaining male descendants of Cosmo the Great were also illegitimate : Clement’s cousin, Ippolito, a bastard son of the late Julian de' Medici, and Alessandro, reputed a bastard of Lorenzo of Urbino, by a Moorish slave, and inheriting the dark skin, thick lips, and woolly hair of his mother. She herself, however, could not tell whether he was the son of Lorenzo, or of Clement VII, or of a muleteer. Alessandro was now only about fourteen years of age; Ippolito, some two years older, was the hope of the Medici family. To him Clement provisionally entrusted the government of Florence when he went to Rome to take possession of the Papal throne; but the real power was lodged in the hands of Cardinal Passerini, a man of rough manners and small ability, and very unacceptable to the Florentines.

The war was renewed in Italy early in the spring of 1524. The Imperialists had lost their best captain by the death of Colonna, a commander whose skill and caution, which left nothing to chance, procured him the name of the Italian Fabius, and made him the most formidable opponent of French impetuosity. Bourbon, with the title of Lieutenant-General of the Emperor in Italy, and a command superior to that of Lannoy and Pescara, joined the Imperial army at Milan with 6,000 lance-knights. Bonnivet was outmaneuvered by Pescara, who got into his rear and obliged him to shut himself up in Novara. A body of 10,000 Swiss, who had crossed the St. Gothard and advanced as far as Gattinara on the Sesia, seeing the French caught as it were in a trap, declined to share in their misfortunes, but offered to do what they could to facilitate their escape, to which indeed all Bonnivet’s views were now confined. Towards the end of April he succeeded in forming a junction with the Swiss, and then directed his march towards Ivrea, intending to get into France by the Bas Valais. A march of thirty miles would have placed him in safety, but this short retreat proved most disastrous. Pescara and Bourbon, having forced the passage of the Sesia at Romagnano, hung upon and harassed the retreating columns. Bonnivet, who had placed himself in the rear was wounded and obliged to retire; Vandenesse, who succeeded him, shared the same fate. But the greatest misfortune of that day was the death of the brave, humane, and generous Chevalier Bayard, who having in turn assumed the command, was struck by a ball which broke his spine (April 30th, 1524). Being placed against a tree. Bayard yielded his last breath among his pursuing enemies. The Imperial generals caused two solemn Masses to be performed for him, and then sent his remains into France to be interred at Grenoble, his native town. On the arrival of the body in Dauphiné it was escorted by the whole population of the places through which it passed, till it reached its final resting place.

A desperate charge of a body of Swiss, in which, however, they all fell victims, arrested for a while the pursuit of the Imperialists, and enabled the French army, under the conduct of St. Pol, to gain Ivrea in safety. Hence, they crossed the St. Bernard, to the foot of which they had been pursued, and reached France without further molestation. Bourbon now obtained the Emperor’s leave to invade France, expecting that his presence would be the signal for insurrection; a step taken against the advice of Charles's wisest counselor, and contrary to the wishes of the Pope and the Italian States, who therefore remained neutral. But the league against France was renewed by the Emperor, his brother Ferdinand, Henry VIII, and the Duke of Bourbon; and it was arranged that Bourbon should invade France from the Alps; that the Emperor should make a second attack on the side of the Pyrenees; and that Henry VIII, should send Bourbon 100,000 ducats with which to begin the campaign, and either continue this subsidy monthly, or, after Bourbon had obtained some marked success, make a descent on Picardy in order to cooperate with the Imperial forces. Wolsey, however, insisted, before advancing a ducat, that Bourbon should swear fealty to Henry VIII as King of France and England, to which the Duke reluctantly consented. He took the oath in presence of Lannoy, the Viceroy of Naples, and of Beaurain and Pace, the Imperial and English envoys; but he refused to do homage to Henry, on the ground that it was inconsistent with the sovereign rights of his own duchy. He was promised the County of Provence, which, together with his own domains, and Lyons and Dauphiné was to be erected into a Kingdom.

The army of invasion, consisting of about 18,000 men, was under the joint command of Bourbon and Pescara : Lannoy was to follow with the reserve. The Imperialists entered Provence by the Cornice road, crossing the Var at St. Laurent, July 7th, 1524. Here they were delayed some days through Lannoy’s neglect in not forwarding the cavalry : a step attributed to the Viceroy’s jealousy of Bourbon, who had been placed over his head. Bourbon wished to march on Avignon and Lyons, where he would have had most chance of support from his friends and vassals : but this plan was overruled by Pescara. The Emperor instructed the generals to lay siege to Marseilles, the possession of which would have always secured him an easy entrance into France. Several of the most considerable towns of Provence, including Aix the capital, surrendered in a few weeks, and on August 19th, Marseilles was invested. But Bourbon had miscalculated the French temper. Instead of flocking to his standard, his invasion only incited them to display their loyalty to Francis, who was enabled to raise large contributions for his Kingdom’s defence.

There was no possibility of blockading Marseilles by sea. The French galleys, under La Fayette and the Genoese refugee Andrew Doria, had defeated the Spanish fleet under Hugo de Moncada. On the land side the town was obstinately defended by Renzo da Ceri and Philip Chabot, while the approach of Francis with a large army threatened to place the besiegers in jeopardy. Pescara appears to have received some private information respecting the formidable means of defence within the town; and suddenly changing his mind respecting the success of the enterprise, he entered the tent where Bourbon was consulting with his officers, and without even deigning to salute the Duke, exclaimed : “Gentlemen, those who are in a hurry to go to Paradise can remain; for myself, I shall return. We have left Italy bare of troops, and our retreat may be cut off. Trust me, there is nothing left for it but to decamp”. After a general assault on the evening of the 24th of September, Bourbon found himself compelled to adopt the counsel of his rival, who was supported by Zollern and Lodron, the commanders of the German contingent.

Bourbon had, in fact, been neglected, and in some degree betrayed. The invasion of Picardy was never executed; and though Sir John Russell brought him £20,000, the stipulated payments had not been regularly made, so that his troops had begun to mutiny for want of pay. Henry, or rather Wolsey, was apprehensive that England would be deserted by the Emperor; while Charles, on his side, ascribed the failure of the enterprise to the double dealing of Wolsey.

Bourbon began his retreat on the 28th of September, and reached Monaco on the 8th of October. The enemy had escaped; but Francis was unwilling that his brilliant army, amounting to 30,000 men, including 14,000 Swiss and 1,500 men-at-arms, should separate without striking a blow : and in spite of the approaching winter he resolved to cross the Alps, hoping by so unexpected an enterprise to recover the Milanese. His wife Claude, a simple, pious, and modest lady, whom he treated with gross neglect, had died July 25th. All his mother’s persuasions were unable to detain Francis, and it was not till he had reached Pinerolo, on the other side of the Alps, that he published an ordinance appointing Louise Regent.

The dispirited remains of the Imperial army, even when joined by Lannoy with the reserve, were incapable of making head against the fresh and well-appointed forces of Francis, which arrived at Vercelli on the same day that the Imperialists reached Alba in Montferrat. The latter therefore resolved to shut themselves up in the fortified towns, and to exhaust the French by sieges. Francis Sforza evacuated Milan on the King’s approach; the citadel, however, was still held by a garrison of 700 Spaniards; and as the flatterers of Francis persuaded him that it was beneath the dignity of a King of France to enter Milan before the citadel had surrendered, he sat down before Pavia, and allowed the Imperialists to fortify themselves on the Oglio and the Adda. Although Pavia was ill-fortified, an attempt to take it by storm was repulsed with great loss by the commandant, Antonio de Leyva, and the siege was converted into a blockade.

Lodged in a fine old Lombard abbey, which he sometimes exchanged for Mirabella, an ancient villa of the Dukes of Milan, Francis seems to have spent the winter agreeably enough, abandoning himself to pleasures which were rarely interrupted by any serious business. His affairs seemed now to be more flourishing than those of his adversaries. The Imperial army was almost disorganized, was ill-paid, and smitten with sickness, while his own was well supplied and continually recruited. The Emperor, in spite of his vast dominions, found it difficult to raise pay for his troops, though they did not exceed 16,000 men. Henry VIII, occupied with the affairs of Scotland, evaded his engagements; nay, he even demanded back the money which he had advanced to the Imperialists. The Italians were either cold or disaffected to the Imperial cause.

Pope Clement, who, agreeably to the hereditary policy of the house of Medici, was not displeased to see Francis in possession of the Milanese, as a counterpoise to the power of Charles in the south, disguising his political views under the cloak of the common Father of the faithful, proposed to mediate a general truce of five years; and when that proposition was rejected both by the French and the Imperialists, he demanded that his own neutrality and that of Florence should be respected; but under this cloak he sent his minister Giberto to negotiate a secret treaty with the French King. He also engaged Francis to support his family at Florence. Giberto negotiated at the same time for the Venetians, who now regretted their rupture with their ancient allies the French; and these negotiations were confirmed by the Venetian Senate in January, 1525. Clement’s best counselors advised him to march an army to the Po, to unite it with that of the Venetians, and thus to cause the neutrality of the two most powerful States of Italy to be respected; but with all his political ability, the irresolution of Clement's character prevented him from taking so bold a step.

BATTLE OF PAVIA. A.D. 1525

The favorable prospects which now opened upon Francis Albany were, however, destroyed by his own rashness. Elated with his rapid success, he not only sent the Marquis of Saluzzo to seize Genoa, but, as the pacification with the Pope opened a passage through the States of the Church, he also deemed it possible to grasp the long-coveted possession of Naples, and with a fatal imprudence still further dismembered his army by dispatching the Duke of Albany and Renzo da Ceri with 8,000 foot and a numerous cavalry towards the south. At this news the French party in Naples showed symptoms of revolt, and the council in alarm wrote to the Viceroy Lannoy to return with his army. Lannoy would have obeyed this summons had not Pescara, with the penetrating judgment of a true general, pointed out that Naples must be defended at Pavia; that a single reverse of Francis would suffice to make Albany evacuate that Kingdom; whilst on the other hand no victory at Naples could terminate the war in Lombardy. Early in January, 1525, Albany marched into Tuscany unopposed, where he was reinforced with 3,000 infantry. When he entered the Papal States, Clement published the treaty of neutrality which he had hitherto kept secret, complained of the march of the French, and represented himself as forced.

Meanwhile Bourbon, who had gone into Germany to procure reinforcements, returned with about 12,000 men, whom he had levied with help of the Archduke Ferdinand, and with whom he joined Lannoy and Pescara at Lodi. About half of these men were volunteers, led by the celebrated George Frunsberg. Bourbon had borrowed the necessary money from the Duke of Savoy, chiefly through the aid of the Duchess Beatrix, whose sister, Isabella of Portugal, was about to be married to Charles V. The Duke himself, however, had not much reluctance to aid the Emperor against his nephew the King of France, whose alliance was very burdensome to him. Pescara determined to seize the advantage offered by these reinforcements. Breaking up from Lodi, January 25th, 1525, he directed his march on Marignano, as if to threaten Milan; but instead of proceeding thither turned to the left and approached Pavia. Francis was now advised by his best captains to raise the siege of Pavia and to take up a position between that place and Milan; but Bonnivet, who enjoyed his entire confidence, counseled him to remain, and represented to him the shame of flying before the traitor Bourbon. The French army was indeed strongly posted in a fortified camp in the park of Mirabella, on the west bank of the Ticino, where it issues from Pavia. Pescara slowly approached that town, and on the 3rd of February took up a position at Sta. Giustina, within a mile of the French outposts. The Vernacula, a small, but deep river, flowed between the hostile armies, and secured each from a sudden attack. The French camp appeared too strong to be assaulted, and Pescara therefore endeavored to wear out the enemy by a series of petty skirmishes, in the hope of bringing on a general engagement; for his troops had neither provisions, clothes, nor money; the weather was wet and cold, the men began to perish, and were, in short, in such extreme necessity as could no longer be endured. Not succeeding, however, in this object, he determined on a camisade or nocturnal surprise.

The garrison of Pavia was to support the attack, and form a junction with Pescara at a farm-house or dairy in the middle of the park. A body of 2,000 Germans and 1,000 Spaniards appointed to execute the camisade, began to make a breach in the park wall about midnight (February 23rd); but the wall proved stronger than was expected, and day began to dawn before their labor was over. The appearance of these men in the park, however, had the effect of drawing the French from their position. The combat which ensued is variously described by different authors, and we shall therefore confine ourselves to the relation of some of the main incidents. The French artillery began to play on the troops who were entering the park, causing them great damage, till Francis himself charging the enemy with some of his gens d'armes, compelled his artillerymen to suspend their fire lest they should hit the King. This injudicious step on the part of Francis was of great importance in turning the fortune of the day; although he displayed great personal valor, and killed with his own hand a knight said to have been Ferdinand Castriot, Marquis of St. Angelo, the last descendant of Scanderbeg.

The Germans under George Frunsberg were now coming up, and as the French also observed the garrison of Pavia advancing in their rear, they gave themselves up for lost, and began to fly. Even the Swiss did not maintain their ground with their usual firmness, but joined the flight, on seeing their leader John von Diesbach fall. The Duke of Alençon, the King’s brother-in-law, who commanded the rearguard, also fled, leaving the King to his fate. Francis hastened after the Swiss, and endeavored to rally them, but was carried away by the retreating mass. The particulars of his capture are differently related. The most probable account seems to be that having been met in his flight by four Spanish fusiliers, one of them brought down his horse by a blow on the head with the butt end of his arquebuse. Francis rolled off into a ditch; when two Spanish light horsemen coming up, and perceiving from the prisoner’s dress, and from the order of St. Michael, with which he was decorated, that he must be a person of importance, threatened the fusiliers that they would kill him unless they were admitted to share the ransom. Fortunately Pomperant, the companion of Bourbon’s flight, coming up at this juncture, recognized the King, and entreated him to surrender to the Duke. This Francis indignantly refused, and called for Lannoy, who arrived in time to save his life. Lannoy received the King's sword, and gave him his own. The battle had not lasted two hours; but it was a fatal one for France. Bonnivet, when he saw that all was lost, and through his fault, charged into the thickest of the fight, and found the death he sought. Besides him fell La Palisse, or Marshal de Chabannes, Lescun, or Marshal de Foix, Bussy d'Amboise, the aged La Trémouille, Richard de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, the York pretender to the Crown of England, and other persons of distinction.

Among the prisoners were Francis’s future brother-in-law, Henry d'Albret, King of Navarre, Marshal Anne de Montmorenci, Fleurange, the Count of St. Pol, the Bastard of Savoy, and others. The loss of the French was estimated at 8,000 men, that of the Imperialists at only 700. On the very same day the remnant of the French army began a precipitate retreat, which was not molested by the Imperialists, and within a fortnight not a man of it was left in Italy.

After Francis’s wounds had been dressed in the tent of the Marquis del Guasto, he was at his own express desire conducted to the neighboring monastery of the Certosa, instead of the town of Pavia. On the road he recovered all his cheerfulness, laughing and joking with the Spanish soldiers, whose words he caused to be translated to him. Thence he was carried to Pizzighittone, where, though treated with every mark of respect, he was kept under strict ward. According to Ferron, Bourbon had an interview with him at that place, when the King not only received his rebellious vassal graciously, but even invited him to dinner with the rest of the generals. From Pizzighittone Francis addressed a long, rambling epistle to the Emperor, couched in terms sufficiently humble. The celebrated laconic letter to his mother, “Madam, all is lost, but honor”, is a literary invention.

CHAPTER XII

THE RIVALRY OF CHARLES V AND FRANCIS I (CONTINUED TO 1530)

THE DIVINE HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST

READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

THE CREATION IF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING GENESIS

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER XI

THE RIVALRY BETWEEN CHARLES V AND FRANCIS I TO 1525

CHAPTER XII

THE RIVALRY OF CHARLES V AND FRANCIS I (CONTINUED TO 1530)