READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

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

CHAPTER XV

ENEMIES OF CHARLES V.

ABOUT this time Germany was the scene of one of the extraordinary triumphs ever achieved by fanaticism. Since the execution of Thomas Münzer, the Anabaptists, to avoid the persecution to which they were exposed in Thuringia, had taken refuge in East Friesland, Westphalia, and the Netherlands, where they made many converts. Early in 1534, Jan Matthys, or Mathiasen, a baker of Leyden, who had imbibed the Anabaptist tenets, and laid claim to supernatural powers, accompanied by his disciple, Jan Bockolt, repaired to Munster, the chief city of Westphalia, where they were hospitably entertained by Bernhard Knipperdolling, one of the leading citizens. The striking dress, the enthusiastic bearing of the two Hollanders, made a great impression, especially on nuns, among whom they found their first converts; married women next began to slip into the meetings, bringing their jewels and trinkets as offerings to the prophet and pledges of their devotion. The epidemic soon became irresistible. Matthys, who was thought to possess a supernatural potion with which he charmed all those whom he baptized, gradually acquired so much power that he could set the town council at defiance; and on the 8th of February a struggle for mastery took place. The Anabaptists, mostly strangers, were arrayed in the market-place; the magistrates and unconverted citizens seized the streets leading to it and the town gates; a pitched battle seemed inevitable, when, at the last hour, a capitulation was entered into, by which it was arranged that each party should enjoy its own creed, but pay obedience to the civil magistrate. After such a trial of their strength the Anabaptist sect naturally went on increasing. New followers streamed to Munster from all parts: wives without their husbands, husbands without their wives; sometimes whole families together. The fanaticism was increased by the conversion of one Rottman, a clergyman, who promised those who joined the sect that they should obtain tenfold what they abandoned. At the ensuing election of magistrates, all offices were filled by enlightened brothers, mostly mechanics, and Knipperdolling was chosen burgomaster. On the 27th of February an armed assembly met in the council house for prayer, when suddenly Matthys, the prophet, exclaimed that all unbelievers must be driven from the city. On that bitter winter’s day, all who would not deny their baptism, young and old, men, women, and children, were driven through the gates, where the last penny was taken from them; and the Anabaptists having now sole possession of the city, established their spiritual Republic. The rights of property were abolished, and everything was put together into one common stock, concealment being punished with death.

The proceedings had naturally excited alarm among the neighboring Princes; and in April, the Bishop of Munster invested his capital with an army raised among his own subjects, as well as in the Duchy of Cleves and the Electorate of Cologne. The siege, however, made but little progress. The garrison was animated with all the fury of enthusiasm; the very children had been taught to shoot with the bow, in which they had acquired great dexterity. Matthys, who was no sham enthusiast, having made a sally at the head of a few ill-armed followers, in the full confidence of driving the enemy before him, like one of the heroes of Israel, was slain with all his followers, and the prophet’s mantle now fell to his disciple, Jan Bockolt, the son of a headborough at the Hague, who, after wandering about the world, had settled down as a tailor at Leyden, where he afterwards opened a wine and beer shop. Bockolt, or John of Leyden, who was of a goodly person, well spoken, fiery, and enthusiastic, began his administration by appointing a council of twelve elders, six of whom sat alternately in tribunal every morning and afternoon, and whatsoever they ordered was done. John of Leyden introduced plurality of wives, though not without a struggle, many among the Anabaptists themselves viewing such a custom with a natural repugnance; some even opposed it with arms, but being driven into the town hall, were forced to surrender, and cruelly put to death. John was now chosen King, and reigned despotically. Thrice a week he sat on his throne in the market-place, and held his tribunal; while Knipperdolling, who had been appointed executioner, stood a step lower, bearing the sword of justice, The Bishop of Münster’s army was at length reinforced by some Imperial troops; the city was completely invested, and began to suffer all the extremities of hunger, when, on the night of June 24th, 1535, with help of some within, it was taken by storm. Rottman, and many others perished in the conflict. Bockolt, Knipperdolling, and an associate named Krechting, were taken alive and put to death, after the most dreadful tortures. Their skeletons were then placed in three iron cages, affixed to the tower of St. Lambert’s church, where the three cages remain to this day.

These excesses were detested alike by the moderate of all persuasions. Towards the end of 1535 the Protestants renewed and extended the League of Smalkald, which now received several accessions, and especially that of Ulrich, Duke of Würtemberg, whose restoration had been effected by the Landgrave Philip of Hesse with the help of French gold; but not till after the dissolution of the Swabian League, in December, 1533, which had frustrated several attempts for that purpose. Philip of Hesse had raised an army of 25,000 men, with the money supplied by the French King, and totally defeated King Ferdinand at the battle of Lauffen, near Heilbronn, May 13th. The rest of Würtemberg was soon reduced, and Ulrich reinstated in his Duchy. Ulrich’s son Christopher had been kept a close prisoner by Ferdinand, the usurper of the Duchy, under pretence of educating him. In the autumn of 1532 Charles had resolved to carry him into Spain; but on the way through Tyrol he contrived to escape, and, after many dangers, got safely into Bavaria, where he was protected by the Dukes, his maternal uncles.

The affairs of Würtemberg were settled by the peace of Cadan, June 27th, 1534. Ferdinand waived his claim to the Duchy, though with the salvo that it should be regarded as an arrière fief of the Empire, dependent on the House of Austria. On the other hand, the confederates of Smalkald, who were parties to this treaty, consented to recognize Ferdinand as King of the Romans, stipulating, however, that for the future none should be elected to that dignity without the unanimous concurrence of the Electors. But this transaction owes its chief importance to its effect upon the state of religion in Germany. It was agreed that the Imperial Chamber should no longer exercise any jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters, and that all previous decrees in contravention of this principle should be quashed. Würtemberg was immediately reformed, and thus this revolution must be regarded as forming an epoch in the rise of German Protestantism. The Reformation was soon afterwards established in Holstein, Pomerania, the Mark of Brandenburg, and other places. Besides Würtemberg, the King of Denmark (as Duke of Holstein), Dukes Barnim and Philip of Pomerania, George and Joachim of Anhalt, and the towns of Augsburg, Frankfurt, Kempten, Hanover, Hamburg, and Minden, acceded to the League of Smalkald at its renewal in 1535. The King of France also joined it, and the King of England declared himself its protector. The League was renewed for a term of ten years, and the direction of its affairs was divided half-yearly between the Saxon Elector and the Landgrave of Hesse, with the title of Captains-General. At the same time John Frederick of Saxony caused a new Protestant Confession to be drawn up by Luther and other divines, under the name of the Articles of Smalkald, which were essentially the same as those of the Augsburg Confession, but much more strongly worded, betraying the hand of Luther instead of that of Melanchthon. The Pope was branded as the anti-Christ, and represented as under the dominion of avarice, pride, lust, and other evil passions.

Whilst Francis was favoring the Protestants of Germany, in order to damage the Emperor, he was cruelly persecuting those in his own dominions; though it must be admitted that he had received great provocation from the intemperate zeal of some of the new converts, which was condemned even by the more moderate of their own party. Placards containing gross and violent attacks upon the Mass and other matters of the Roman Catholic faith, which Feret, a servant of the King’s apothecary, had caused to be printed at Neufchatel, were posted up in the Paris streets, some even on the Louvre—nay, on the very door of the King’s apartments at Blois.

Montmorenci and Cardinal Tournon persuaded Francis, who was naturally incensed at the audacity displayed in these placards, that this was a beginning of Anabaptism in France; and as his orthodoxy labored at that time under considerable suspicion from his connection with the German Lutherans, with Henry VIII, and also with the Turks, he seized the opportunity to vindicate it in the cruelest and most signal manner. Some victims had been already made in November, 1534; the 29th of the following January was signalized by a solemn auto-de-fe. The image of St. Genevieve, together with her relics, as well as those of other Saints preserved at Paris, as St. Germain, St. Mery, St. Marceau, St. Opportune, St. Landry, St. Honoré, the head of St. Louis, and all the relics of the St. Chapelle, were carried through Paris in solemn procession, followed by the King on foot, his head uncovered, and bearing a taper in his hand. His three sons, and the rest of the royal family, the great officers of state, cardinals, bishops, and others, bearing lighted flambeaux, the Council, the Parliament of Paris, and all other public bodies, joined the procession, which went to Notre Dame to hear a solemn Mass. At the same time an edict was published for the extirpation of Lutheran and other heretics, as well as for the suppression of printing; but the latter does not appear to have been acted upon. These persecutions, which were continued till May with increasing atrocity, caused many Reformers to fly from Paris, and among them John Calvin, destined afterwards to play so remarkable a part at Geneva.

To the confederates of Smalkald, who were naturally revolted at this conduct of their pretended ally, Francis excused himself by alleging that the persons burnt were rebels rather than schismatics, and not Lutherans, but “sacramentaries”. He even held out the hope of a union between the Gallican Church and the Lutheran Churches of Germany; and in an autograph letter, January 28th, 1535, invited Melanchthon to Paris, to discuss with his doctors the question of the Eucharist; but John Frederick, who mistrusted the pliability of Melanchthon’s temper, forbade him to accept the invitation. Such quarrels are, however, easily accommodated, when the interests of both parties are the same, and at present neither Francis nor the Lutherans were disposed to separate.

Marriage of James V of Scotland

On his way back to Paris, after the retreat of the Emperor from Provence, Francis had been met by James V of Scotland, who had come to demand the hand of his eldest daughter, Madeleine. The alliance of that youthful King was sought by the three greatest Sovereigns of Europe. Henry VIII offered James his daughter Mary, but on condition that he should declare himself, after Henry’s own example, supreme head of the Scottish Church; a step which the Scottish King was not prepared to take. The Emperor offered him a choice among three of his female kinsfolk, including also his cousin Mary, for whom he promised to procure the Crown of England. Charles, however, since the death of his aunt Catharine, in January, 1536, had been renewing his advances to Henry VIII; and the French King, sensible that his influence in that quarter was declining, determined to strengthen himself by an alliance with Scotland; with which view he offered James the hand of Mary of Bourbon, daughter of the Duke of Vendome. Resolved to judge for himself, the Scottish King paid a visit, incognito, to Vendome, in September, 1536. The lady did not come up to his expectations; but he saw on this occasion Madeleine, the eldest daughter of Francis, then seventeen years of age; a mutual passion is said to have ensued, which the French King found it difficult to oppose; the royal lovers were married January 1st, 1537, and, after some months spent in fetes and rejoicings, arrived in Scotland, May 28th. Unfortunately, however, a consumptive malady, to which Madeleine was subject, made rapid progress in the harsh climate of Scotland, and soon carried her off (July 7th). James was now pressed by his clergy to marry again. He had already cast his eye on Mary of Guise, widow of the Duke of Longueville, and he dispatched Cardinal Beaton and Robert Maxwell into France to demand her hand. Henry VIII, who, after the execution of Anne Boleyn, was again a widower, by the death of Jane Seymour, made proposals for Mary; but Francis, much to his chagrin, preferred the suit of the King of Scots. This marriage, however, fraught with such momentous consequences both to England and Scotland, did not take place till the summer of the following year.

Francis meanwhile had been preparing for new wars. In a Lit de Justice, held in January, 1537, “Charles of Austria” was summoned to appear before the Parliament of Paris, do homage for Flanders and Artois, which, it was alleged, through Charles’s violation of the treaty of Cambray, were again vested in the French King. Such a citation, before the conquest of Flanders, was simply ridiculous; Charles of course failed to appear, and was condemned as a contumacious vassal. The views of Francis embraced, besides an attack on the Netherlands, large operations in Italy, to be helped by an invasion by Sultan Solyman. The French envoy La Foret had concluded with the Vizier Ibrahim, in January, 1536, an alliance, which, under the appearance of a commercial treaty, was in fact a political league; and it was arranged that, in 1537, Barbarossa should transport an Osmanli army into Apulia for the conquest of Naples, while Francis should cause a diversion in the north, by entering Lombardy with 50,000 men.

Want of vigor on the part of the French King prevented these plans from being carried out to their full extent. Francis’s efforts were first directed towards the Netherlands. He, and Montmorenci, his lieutenant-general, opened the campaign towards the end of March, and took Hesdin, St. Pol, and St. Tenant; when the King, with inconceivable supineness, and content apparently with small successes after such vast pretensions, dismissed great part of his army, sent another part into Piedmont, and hastened back to Paris to enjoy his pleasures. Count Buren, the Imperial general, now appeared in the north with an army of 35,000 men, retook St. Pol, captured Montreuil, and laid siege to Térouenne. Francis hastily reassembled his army, which, under the Dauphin Henry and Montmorenci, was marching to the rehef of Térouenne, when proposals of peace were made by Queen Mary, the Netherlands Regent; and on the 30th of July, (a truce of ten months was signed at Bomy by her and her sister Eleanor, Queen of France.

Solyman, meanwhile, in pursuance of his engagement, had assembled a vast force at the Albanian town of Avlona, whence the coast of Otranto may be discerned, and Hayraddin Barbarossa was in readiness to transport the Turkish army with a fleet of 100 sail, which had been joined by the French admiral, St. Blancard, with twelve galleys. All Italy was in consternation. Pope Paul prepared to fly from Rome; the garrisons were strengthened in all the ports belonging to the Roman States; Andrew Doria, the Imperial admiral, was compelled to put into Messina to escape Barbarossa’s fleet, and left the coast of Apulia exposed to the descent of the Turks. Barbarossa landed 10,000 cavalry near Otranto; but, being unprovided with artillery, they could effect nothing against the larger towns, and contented themselves with making an attempt on Castro, wasting the open country, and carrying off about 10,000 persons into slavery. Francis, however, neglected to appear in Italy at the appointed time, and Solyman, therefore, did not follow up the invasion. The events just related took place in the summer of 1537, and it was not till the end of September that Francis prepared to enter Italy. By the 31st of October the French had penetrated as far as Rivoli, and were desirous of engaging the enemy, when Francis, jealous of his captains, and even of his own son, sent them a message to await his arrival. The prospect of peace may, however, have been the chief cause of his inactivity. After the truce of Bomy negotiations had been continued at Monzon, in Aragon; and on the 16th of November the plenipotentiaries at Monzon signed a truce of three months, to be published in Piedmont by the 27th. The two armies were to be disbanded, and each Power was to retain the territory which it held at the time of the publication of the armistice. It was also agreed that plenipotentiaries should be appointed to consider and adjust a definitive treaty of peace.

Pope Paul III, who, like the Emperor, was desirous of arresting the progress of the Turks, as well as of putting an end to the schism which distracted the Church, neither of which objects could be effectually accomplished so long as Europe was disturbed by the disputes of Charles and Francis, had long been endeavoring to bring their wars to an end; and in these projects he was seconded by the Emperor’s sisters, the Queens of France and Hungary. The aged Pontiff did not shrink from fatigue and danger in order to promote a design which he had so much at heart. He had also, it is true, some personal and family interests to forward. After the example of his predecessor, he wished to form connections both with the Emperor and the French King, by marrying into their families his two grandchildren, Octavius and Vittoria, the offspring of his son, Pier Luigi Farnese, a sort of Caesar Borgia in miniature, whom he had made Duke of Camerino by seizing that place because it had fallen to a female. With these views, Paul arranged a meeting between Charles and Francis at Nice, to agree upon a pacification. Francis readily assented to an interview which offered him a chance of gaining his ends by negotiation instead of arms; and the Emperor, on his side, felt the burden of supporting a war with France and with the Turks, whilst endeavoring at the same time to reestablish Imperial authority in Germany. His finances were far from flourishing. The Lord of half Europe, as well as of Mexico and Peru, could not raise money enough to pay his mercenaries. The Netherlands were his true Indies; but his subjects there, though able, were not always willing to pay, and serious symptoms of revolt had manifested themselves at Ghent on the subject of taxes.

Treaty of Toledo

When Paul arrived at Nice, May 27th, 1538, he found that the Duke of Savoy was not inclined to admit either himself or the Monarchs into the only town which the fortune of war had left him. The Pope was obliged to take up his abode in a Franciscan convent in the suburbs; the French King established his quarters at the village of Villanuova, about two miles from the town, while the Emperor was fain to abide in the little port of Villafranca, in the galley which brought him. Paul could not prevail upon Charles and Francis to see each other, and he therefore received the visits of both in turn, and acted as mediator between them. A mutual mistrust, not unnatural after all that had passed between them, possessed the minds of the two Sovereigns. They could not persuade themselves that any agreement would be faithfully observed; and under these circumstances the only method for obtaining a peace seemed to be to enter into no prospective conditions at all, but to treat on the basis of uti possidetis. Such a method was highly favorable to Francis, as it would give him Savoy and great part of Piedmont, a possession almost as valuable as the Milanese, and much more conveniently situated with regard to his own dominions. Charles, indeed, felt some shame, though Beatrix was dead, in thus abandoning his brother-in-law, the Duke of Savoy, whatever feelings Francis might entertain in stripping his uncle. The wounds of political morality, however, are soon salved, and, as commonly happens in such cases, the helpless party was sacrificed. One of the conditions of the proposed peace was, that Francis should join the Holy League against the Turk, recently concluded between the Pope, the Emperor, and Venice; but Francis was not inclined to an open breach with the Grand Signor, and a truce of ten years was therefore substituted for a regular treaty of peace (June 18th). Both parties thought, and probably with reason, that such a truce was as likely to be observed, and to last as long, as a more formal treaty. Thus Bresse, Savoy, and half of Piedmont, occupied by Francis, remained in his hands, while the rest of Piedmont and the Milanese was retained by the Emperor. Hesdin was restored to the French, but Francis yielded respecting Gelderland, and recognized the Duke’s promised reversion to the Emperor. The County of Nice alone was left to the Duke of Savoy. The Pays de Vaud was retained by Bern, and Geneva preserved its newly-acquired liberty—a circumstance by which both Sovereigns unconsciously sowed the seeds of future revolt in their own dominions, by enabling that city to become the seat of Calvin’s reformation. Francis also obtained Mirandola, and altogether his position was vastly improved by this treaty when compared with that of Cambray. Early in the following year the truce was converted into a “perpetual peace”, by the treaty of Toledo (January 10th, 1539).

Paul III succeeded during these conferences in effecting one of his matrimonial projects. Margaret of Austria, the Emperor’s illegitimate daughter, had in the preceding year become a widow, through the murder of her husband, Alessandro de' Medici. His kinsman, Lorenzino (a man of an equally bad character) now meditated the means of procuring the supreme power for himself. Alessandro had been captivated by Lorenzino’s still young and handsome aunt, the wife of Leonardo Ginori, and Lorenzino pretended that he had procured him an assignation. Duke Alessandro suffered himself to be lured into a dark and secret chamber, where he was set upon by Lorenzino and a hired assassin, and stabbed to the heart (January 6th, 1537). Want of resolution, however, prevented Lorenzino from reaping the fruits of his crime. Struck with remorse and horror at what he had done, instead of rousing the people and putting himself at their head, he fled precipitately to Bologna, and thence to Venice. A party of Florentines, by the advice of Cardinal Cibo and Francisco Guicciardini, the historian, now placed Cosmo de' Medici, son of the great captain, Giovanni, of the Black Bands, not yet eighteen years of age, at the head of their affairs, with the title of Duke; and the choice was subsequently ratified by the Emperor. Cosmo caused Lorenzino to be murdered at Venice, in 1547. Duke Cosmo was desirous of marrying his predecessor’s widow, as a means of securing the Emperor’s favor, and establishing his own position at Florence; but Pope Paul succeeded in obtaining her hand for his grandson Ottavio Farnese.

Charles and Francis at Aigues-Mortes

The refusal of Charles and Francis to see each other at Nice had impressed their respective Courts, as well as the Pope, with the idea that, though from necessity they had agreed upon a truce, they were still at deadly enmity, and that war would be renewed at the first opportunity. This, however, was an erroneous notion. Their unwillingness to have an interview at Nice seems to have arisen from a wish not to expose their plans before witnesses, and it is probable that the two Sovereigns had already arranged there a future meeting. However this may be, Francis lingered after the breaking up of the conference at an abbey in the diocese of Nimes, and the arrival of the Imperial fleet at Aigues-Mortes being announced to him (July 14th), he immediately mounted his horse and rode to the coast. A boat conveyed him to the Emperor’s galley, and Charles helped him with his own hand to ascend the side. “Brother, behold me once more your prisoner!” exclaimed Francis, as he set foot upon the deck. This mark of confidence was returned on the following day by the Emperor, who paid Francis a visit on shore. Queen Eleanor embraced, alternately, a brother and a husband, and the oblivion of past offences appeared to be so complete that even Andrew Doria was presented to Francis. During the few days that the Sovereigns remained here, they had long interviews, to which only the Queen, the Cardinal of Lorraine, and Montmorenci (now Constable), were admitted on the side of France, and on that of the Emperor, Granvelle, Keeper of the Seals, and the Grand-Commander Govea. On the 17th of July the King conducted the Emperor to his galley, and the meeting ended.

A little previously, Francis had solemnly condemned the Emperor as a rebellious vassal, nay, had even accused him of poisoning the Dauphin; whilst Charles had publicly challenged the French King to mortal combat, with every mark of hatred and contempt. The explanation of this altered policy is chiefly to be sought in the influence acquired, at this period by Montmorenci. That nobleman, a man of harsh, overbearing, and arrogant character, but possessing considerable administrative ability, had recently been raised to the dignity of Constable, which, since the treason of Charles of Bourbon, had remained in abeyance; and, being a bigoted Roman Catholic, he was naturally inclined towards the policy of the Emperor, the consistent and persevering foe of heretic and infidel; while the course hitherto pursued by France had necessitated leagues with Lutherans and Turks. Francis, enervated by luxury and disease, was more than ever inclined to entrust to other hands the reins of government; though in the temporary, but violent, reactions from his lethargy, one idea, the dream of his life, still haunted him—the recovery of the Milanese. This Montmorenci taught him to expect, not from arms, but negotiation; and Francis was sufficiently humbled, or sufficiently indolent to seek from the good will of his rival an object which he had in vain attempted to wrest from him by force. In a letter dated from Nimes (July 18th), only a day or two after the interview at Aigues-Mortes, he declared that thenceforth the affairs of the Emperor and his own should be the same.

The change in the policy of France soon became manifest. Two of the questions discussed at Aigues-Mortes seem to have turned on the affairs of religion, and the conduct to be observed towards England. There being no longer any reason to conciliate the German Lutherans, the severity of the persecutions in France was redoubled. An inquisitor at Toulouse, who had been converted by the very persons whom he was appointed to punish, was burnt in that town (September 10th, 1588); and on the 10th December following appeared an edict against the Reformers, far more severe than any hitherto published. Nor was it long before the German Lutherans received intimation of this change. Montmorenci signified to Duke Ulrich of Würtemberg, that he must not attack the neighboring Catholic Bishops—which, indeed, he was not contemplating—unless he wished to draw down upon himself the indignation of France.

The French policy with regard to England was also completely altered, and seemed to be now founded on the presumption that a reconciliation between Henry VIII and the Emperor, was impossible. As there appeared to be no longer any need for courting the friendship of the English King, Francis even began to consider whether it might not be for his interest to break completely with Henry. The obligation to pay 100,000 crowns a year, according to the treaty of Moore, was irksome; the payment had been suspended with Henry’s consent, in consideration of the distress of France consequent on the Emperor’s invasion; and after the truce of Nice, Francis, whose practice it was to observe treaties no longer than was convenient, began to question altogether the validity of the debt. Several causes of coolness had sprung up between the two Kings. We have already referred to Francis’s refusal of Henry’s suit to Mary of Guise. That was not the only French princess with whom Henry entertained matrimonial projects. He had also thought of another daughter of the house of Guise, and of Mademoiselle de Vendome; he was at the same time soliciting the hands of the widow of Duke Sforza and of Queen Mary, the Emperor’s sister.

Papist schemes against Henry VIII

If Henry was regarded by Charles and Francis with an evil eye on account of his schism, the same cause naturally excited a great deal more indignation at Rome. After the beheading of Anne Boleyn, indeed, both the Pope and the Emperor had striven to effect a reconciliation with the English King, and Charles seems to have pursued that object down to the very time of the conference at Nice. From some diplomatic papers still extant, it appears, that even while at Villafranca in the summer of 1538, the Emperor made proposals to Henry for a league against France. The scheme seems to have been connected with the marriage before referred to, between Henry VIII and Charles’s niece, the widowed Duchess of Milan, as well as with a plan for making the Emperor’s nephew, Dom Louis of Portugal, Duke of Milan, and giving him the hand of the English princess Mary. But after Charles’s close alliance with France all these projects vanished, and in November, 1538, we find Henry complaining of his coldness. In the same year Paul III renewed against Henry his bull of deprivation. That Pontiff dreamt of nothing less than hurling the English King from his throne by means of the new alliance between the Emperor and France. The scheme was fomented by the intrigues of Cardinal Reginald Pole, who as a descendant of the House of York had some pretensions to the English Crown, and who, in the true spirit of the Popish hierarchy, while thus conspiring against his King and early benefactor, affected to give out that it was only from his love for Henry and for that Prince’s own good, that he was striving to bring him into obedience to the Pope. The French Court entered into the plan. There was undoubtedly discontent in England, which Castillon, the French ambassador, represented to be such, that if the Emperor and the Kings of France and Scotland combined together, it would be easy not only to dethrone Henry, but even to conquer and partition his Kingdom; the northern part of which, as far as the Humber, might then be given to Scotland, the Emperor taking the midland counties between Humber and Thames, and Francis the southern part as far as Wales. Charles declined the proposal on the ground that his first care must be to reduce the Lutherans and Turks; adding, however, that he should see with pleasure the enterprise undertaken by Francis, who had no domestic enemies to contend with. But Francis, or rather the Constable, was not disposed to enter upon it alone, and Pole and his patron the Pope were obliged to postpone the project. These schemes, however, occasioned Henry a good deal of alarm. In March, 1539, an embargo was laid on the Netherland shipping in English ports. The English coast was fortified under the King’s personal inspection, the fleet was increased to 150 sail, and levies of troops were made throughout the realm. The same danger induced Henry to draw closer his alliance with the confederates of Smalkald, and with that view also, under Cromwell’s guidance, to contract his unfortunate marriage with Anne of Cleves.

We have already mentioned that in 1505 the Archduke Philip obtained possession of Gelderland and Zutphen. He did not, however, hold them long. Charles of Egmont escaped from custody and recovered his dominions, which, with the support of the French, he retained; and when, in 1508, the League of Cambray was formed, he was provisionally confirmed in them, though he was compelled to give up a few places. Like Sickingen, in Germany, Charles of Egmont was a sort of robber-prince; his dominions became the resort of all the restless spirits of the surrounding districts; and he caused the Netherland government a great deal of trouble and anxiety. In 1528, however, Charles V compelled him, by the treaty of Gorcum, to engage that he would appoint the Emperor his successor in Gelderland and Zutphen, in case he himself should leave no heir; and this arrangement was recognized by Francis I in the treaty of Cambray (1529). But in spite of these engagements, Charles of Egmont made, in 1534, a formal donation of his dominions, after his decease, to the King of France, in consequence of which a French envoy repaired to Gelderland, and received an oath of fidelity from the commandants of the principal fortresses. This step was highly unpopular with his subjects. They wished to be the immediate subjects neither of Francis nor of Charles, and they turned their eyes on a neighboring Prince, John III, Duke of Cleves, who had the nearest pretensions to the inheritance, although Duke Antony, of Lorraine, also asserted a claim in right of his mother Philippina, sister of Charles of Egmont. In 1538 the Duke of Gelderland, at the instance of his States, entered into a treaty with John III, by which he engaged to leave his dominions to John’s son, William, surnamed the Rich, and by the death of the Duke of Gelderland in June of the same year, William came into possession. In the following February he also became Duke of Cleves by the death of his father, John. His lands now extended from the Werre to the Meuse, and along both banks of the Rhine from Cologne to the neighborhood of Utrecht; for his father had obtained Berg, Jülich, and Ravensberg by marrying the daughter and heiress of their last Duke. Sibylle, a sister of this powerful Prince, was married to John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, and in 1539, Henry VIII, by the advice of the Protestant members of his Council, married Anne of Cleves, another sister; a step which led to the downfall of Cromwell.

Turkish and Venetian war

In the East, after the failure of Hayraddin Barbarossa’s attempt on Italy, Solyman turned against Venice the preparations he had made for the conquest of Naples; in which design he was encouraged by the French envoy, La Foret. In August, 1537, the Turkish armament assembled at Avlona was directed against Corfu. The attack was, however, repulsed; Solyman was compelled, by disturbances in Asia, to withdraw great part of his forces, leaving only enough to besiege Napoli di Romania and Malvasia, the chief towns held by the Venetians in the Morea. Barbarossa, with his fleet, closely followed by the French squadron under St. Blancard, proceeded to attack the islands of the Aegean, most of which fell during this year and the next into the hands of the Turks. The Holy League, effected in 1538, proved of little benefit to the Venetians. Doria, who seems to have cared little for Venetian interests, performed nothing worthy of his old renown, and in March, 1539, the Republic concluded a three months’ truce with the Porte, which was subsequently prolonged till the end of September, for the purpose of negotiating a peace. In these negotiations, Rincon, a Spanish adventurer, who had succeeded Marillac as French envoy at Constantinople, pretended to second the Venetians, but only to betray them. He had purchased from the secretaries of the Council of Ten and of the Pregadi, the secret that the Venetian government was resolved on peace at any price; and this intelligence he communicated to the Porte. Hence in the treaty at length concluded in November, 1540, the hardest terms were insisted on by the Sultan; and besides Napoli di Romania, Malvasia, and other places, the Venetians were compelled to cede all the islands captured by Barbarossa, and to pay 300,000 ducats: conditions which so reduced the power of the haughty Republic that she was obliged to place herself as it were under the protection of France.

After his interview with Francis at Aigues-Mortes, Charles proceeded into Spain, where he soon became involved in disputes with the Cortes. The Spaniards, especially the grandees, murmured at the increased burdens to which they were subjected, as well as at the drain of their best troops for enterprises in which they had no concern; and the Cortes refused to vote a larger sum than 40,000 ducats. The grandees, headed by the Constable Velasco, otherwise a staunch adherent of the house of Austria, were highly offended at a plan of Charles’s to introduce an excise to which their order would be subject. Velasco insisted that the payment of taxes was the badge of the peasantry; that to impose them on nobles not only curtailed their privileges, earned by the blood of their forefathers, but even derogated from their honor; and he offered the unwelcome and almost insulting advice, that in order to better his circumstances Charles should remain in Spain and diminish his expenditure. The nobles, he maintained, were merely bound to serve the King at their own expense in his wars, and that only in defence of the realm. Charles, finding that he could obtain no more from the Cortes, angrily dismissed them in February, 1539. But by this parsimony the nobles eventually lost all their influence. Charles henceforth forbore to summon to the Cortes either nobles or prelates, on the ground that they paid no taxes; so that the Cortes were henceforth composed only of the deputies of eighteen towns, convened pro forma to grant the taxes to which the commons were subject.

The Spanish nobles now retired to their country seats, or shut themselves up in their palaces; quadrangular buildings in Moorish fashion, without windows towards the street, and enclosing a court planted with trees. They were men of vast possessions, some of them having incomes of 100,000 ducats or more, with 30,000 families dependent on them. They were haughty beyond imagination. Each of them kept his little court, which was often adorned with a splendid bodyguard of 200 men. Being shut out from public affairs, the nobles squandered their revenues in rivaling one another in magnificence; they lost all their martial habits, ran into debt, and reduced themselves at last to fear the King whom they had once caused to tremble. Charles V seldom held a court; Philip II knew how to keep the grandees at a distance; and both would trust only those whose fidelity was beyond all suspicion.

Revolt of Ghent.

As the Emperor had thus to contend in Spain with the pride and power of the nobles, so he had to repress in the Netherlands the factious spirit of his commercial subjects, which had also been roused on the question of taxation. In 1537, Mary, Queen of Hungary, Governess of the Netherlands, had obtained from the States General assembled at Brussels a vote of 1,200,000 florins, payment of which was proportionally allotted to the various towns and provinces. To this assessment all submitted except Charles’s native city, Ghent, which, by means of its guilds and the exemptions and privileges obtained from various Counts of Flanders and Dukes of Burgundy in times past, had achieved a democratic constitution, and asserted the right of refusing any taxes to which it had no mind. The population of Ghent was divided into three classes : Poorters, or rich, the mechanics, and the proletarians. Of these the last two had in certain cases a voice in the government of the city, and they now refused to make any money payment, though they offered to find troops according to ancient custom, while the Poorters declined both the one and the other; in consequence of which refractoriness Mary directed all citizens of Ghent to be arrested wherever they might be found. From this order Ghent appealed to Charles, who, however, refused to hear the case, and referred it to the Great Council of Mechlin, by which the citizens were condemned. The latter now rose in open revolt, expelled the nobility and Imperial officers, put their city in a posture of defence; and in 1539 sent deputies to the King of France to offer to acknowledge him and solicit his protection as their suzerain; which position, indeed, he had claimed in regard of West Flanders and Artois, when, as already related, he had two years previously, in a solemn Lit de Justice, summoned the Emperor to appear before him as his vassal. But the views of Francis were now completely changed. His present policy was to court, instead of to oppose the Emperor, and he not only refused this demand for aid, but even acquainted Charles with the plans of his rebellious subjects, although they had been communicated to him in the strictest confidence. At the same time he renewed an offer which, he had made some months before, that the Emperor should travel through France in case his presence was required in Belgium.

Charles accepted this offer, but it is difficult to believe that for the mere convenience of it he consented to surrender the Milanese. The story rests on the authority of Du Bellay, who has been copied by other writers. It is difficult in such cases to prove a negative, but a little reflection will show the utter improbability of the tale. The revolt had been going on two or three years; it did not extend beyond Ghent and one or two smaller towns, and could easily have been put down without Charles’s presence, whose only object in going thither was to make the punishment of his rebellious fellow-townsmen more signal and conspicuous. He saved no time by passing through France, the journey, from the ceremonies attending his reception, having occupied a quarter of a year! If he was averse to a long sea voyage, yet even the route through Italy and Germany would not have occupied three months, and there was nothing to deter him from it, as he was then on very good terms with the German Lutherans. Indeed, he accepted the offer of Francis with reluctance, and only because the refusal would have betrayed a want of confidence; for besides the danger of being seized as a hostage, he foresaw that it would expose him to the importunities of the French Court. The invitation, like the betrayal of the citizens of Ghent, was clearly a part of Montmorenci’s policy to obtain from the gratitude of Charles what force had failed to extort, and Francis’s much extolled generosity merely an attempt to sell at an exorbitant price a very common act of hospitality.

Charles set out in October, 1539. Francis’s two sons and the Constable Montmorenci met him at Bayonne, when the latter offered the two princes as hostages for the Emperor’s safety; but Charles would not hear of it, and insisted on their accompanying him on his journey. The meeting of the two Sovereigns at Loches was celebrated with magnificent fetes, which were repeated at Amboise, Blois, Orleans, and Fontainebleau, and surpassed by the entry into Paris, January 1st, 1540.

Charles crossed the frontier towards the end of January, 1540, and entered Ghent without opposition on the 24th of February, his birthday. Although the leaders of the revolt, as if unconscious of any criminal act, did not attempt to escape, the Emperor proceeded against them with great severity. The bell of Roland, that formidable tocsin, which had so often called the inhabitants to arms, was taken down; the sheriffs and principal citizens were obliged to ask pardon on their knees, with halters round their necks, and barefooted; nineteen of the popular magistrates were beheaded, and all of them deposed, their places being supplied by persons devoted to the Emperor; the ancient privileges of the city were abolished, and a citadel erected to bridle the inhabitants, the fines levied upon them serving to defray the expense of building it. Oudenarde and Courtray, which had partaken in the revolt, were also punished. Thus an end was put to the liberties of Ghent, for which she had so often fought. Her commercial prosperity vanished with them, and passed away to Antwerp; her republican spirit to Holland, where new Arteveldes were soon to arise.

Charles had scarcely set his foot in the Netherlands when the two French ambassadors who had accompanied him demanded for their master the investiture of Milan, as the price of his passage through France. Nettled at this demand, Charles begged that they would first suffer him to attend to his own affairs; stated that he could enter into no discussions without consulting his brother Ferdinand, whom he expected to meet in the Netherlands; and when further pressed, denied entirely having made the promise imputed to him. When the subject was renewed at Ghent, Charles declared that he would never consent to cede the Milanese to France, and thus sever the chain of connection between his own dominions; but he offered to marry his eldest daughter to the Duke of Orleans, and to give her as a dowry, either his Flemish possessions, together with Burgundy, or the Charolais, or else the Milanese: a proposition which was rejected by Francis. Both parties, however, announced their intention of observing the truce of Nice. The Emperor, after waiting some months to ascertain whether Francis was inclined to renew the negotiations, invested his son Philip with the Milanese at Brussels, October 11th, 1540.

Montmorenci’s policy, which had thus completely failed, ended in his own disgrace. Early in 1541 he found himself compelled to quit the Court, and retire to Ecouen; yet during the six years in which he lived in retirement, he continued to enjoy the favor of the Dauphin Henry. Meanwhile Francis, vexed with his disappointment, and ashamed of the truckling part which he had been made to play, began to meditate an occasion to renew the war with the Emperor. This was not long in offering itself; but before we relate the events of the next campaigns, we must direct our attention for a while to the affairs of the German Lutherans, as well as of the Turks: with both of whom Francis now strove to draw closer the bonds of union and friendship.

CHAPTER XVI

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION