Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/195

] Spanish ambassadors were present when this decision was pronounced, and they said that the king, not being able to fulfil his contract, was bound to return to his captivity, and they called upon him to obey. Instead of a direct answer to this demand, a treaty betwixt the King of France, the Pope, the Venetians, and the Duke of Milan, which had been secretly concluded a few days before, was produced, and published in their hearing. As this was tantamount to a declaration of war, the ambassadors demanded their passports, and returned to Spain. The Pope, on entering into this league, absolved Francis from all the forced oaths that he had sworn.

This confederacy of Francis and the Italian princes and states against the emperor, bound the allies to raise and pay an army of 30,000 foot and 3,000 horse, with a certain number of ships and galleys. The King of France was to be put in possession of the county of Asti and the lordship of Genoa, and Francis Sforza, Duke of Milan, engaged to pay him 50,000 crowns annually, Naples was to be wrested from Charles, and its crown placed at the disposal of the Pope; but the king that he appointed was to pay an annuity of 75,000 crowns to the King of France. Henry of England, though he declined to take any active part in the league, but consented merely to be nominated its protector, was to have a principality in Naples, with 36,000 ducats a year; and the cardinal, who always came in for his share of spoil, was to have a lordship worth 10,000.



Though the league was formed expressly against the emperor, yet, to give it an air of justice and fairness, he was invited to become a party to it, provided he approved of the arrangements designed for Italy, dropped his demand on Burgundy, and consented to liberate the sons of Francis for a liberal ransom. If he declined the terms, as they well knew that he would, the confederates bound themselves to assist the King of France in enforcing them. The completion of this treaty was duly notified to the emperor by the ambassadors of the different confederates. Charles received the information with extreme anger. He severely upbraided the Pope for his part in it, when he knew that he had been the chief means of placing him in the Papal chair, though a bastard; and as for Francis, he denounced him as a thoroughly perjured prince, who had violated every article of the Treaty of Madrid, and he challenged him to justify his conduct by a direct appeal to single combat.

Francis not only replied, but published his reply in every court of Europe, in an able and eloquent defence, drawn up by Duprat, the Chancellor of France. He, in his turn, upbraided Charles with his selfish, grasping, and dishonourable conduct, when the fortune of war put him into his power; stating that he had broken the treaty of Noyon by retaining the kingdom of Navarre; had induced the Duke of Bourbon and his adherents to rebel, and had extorted terms and oaths from him by violence, whilst he was his prisoner, in the most cruel