Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 2.djvu/98

 niece to the Duke of Orleans. The meeting took place at Marseilles in October, 1533. What matters may have been discussed between these rulers, whether Francis disclosed to the Head of Christendom his projected alliance with the Turks, is unknown, and matters little, for Clement did not live to see any of their plans carried into execution. But the marriage sets the stamp on his policy and marks it as essentially dynastic, not Italian or ecclesiastical. In order to win a doubtful Milan for his niece, he was ready to expose the peninsula once more to the terrors of war, terrors of which he had earned bitter and personal experience.

The death of the Marquis of Montferrat in 1533 and the enfeoff-ment by Charles of the Duke of Mantua with this frontier State led to hostilities between Saluzzo and Mantua which shook the unstable equipoise of Italy. The news of the conquest of Peru (1532), and the welcome arrival of its treasures, were items to set on the other side. But the relations between the German Protestants and Francis assumed a more dangerous phase in 1534 when the Habsburgs were driven out of Württemberg. In September Francis made proposals to Charles which showed that he was meditating the disturbance of peace. A double marriage was to unite the royal Houses; but Milan, Asti, and Genoa were to return to France, and the Emperor was to give satisfaction to Francis' allies in Germany. The last condition showed that war was inevitable; but Charles determined to gain time by negotiations until a needful piece of work had been accomplished.

For years the western waters of the Mediterranean had been rendered unsafe by a settlement of Muslim pirates on the north coast of Africa, whose head-quarters were at Algiers. In 1518 an expedition from Spain had succeeded in defeating and killing Barbarossa, the founder of this power, but his younger brother, Khair Eddin, who is known as Barbarossa II, had then taken up the command, under the protection of the Porte, and had still further extended the strength and activity of his robber fleets. The settlement by Charles of the Knights of St John at Tripoli and Malta (1530) had been intended to afford a counterpoise to the Muslim, and war had been waged on both sides with piracy and rapine. The dangers of this situation concerned Charles above all others. Not only had Spain a number of possessions dotted along the African coast, but the coasts of Spain, Naples, and Sicily were especially exposed to the raids of the pirate fleets, and their active commerce was endangered. During the Italian wars Charles had neither leisure nor spare energy to attend to this peril; but now immediate measures were not only desirable but possible. The Barbaresques had recently extended their power to Tunis, and in July, 1534, emboldened by the unconcealed favour of Francis, who had concluded with them a commercial truce, they had made a raid of unusual extent upon the Italian coast. Barbarossa had also been named by Solyman as admiral of the