Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/726

 GOO FRANCIS retreated unpursued to Milan. Shortly afterwards Milan surrendered, and in November a treaty was concluded between Francis and the Swiss, which subsequently took the form of a perpetual alliance. Such rapid and brilliant success at once gave Francis a position of commanding in fluence, and enabled him still further to strengthen himself by additional advantageous treaties. In 1516, he compro mised the long dispute with the popes by superseding the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges by a &quot; Concordat,&quot; an act which, while it recognized tlie superiority of the pope over the councils, and gave him the command of the annates and other rich sources of revenue, entrusted the French monarch with the power of nominating to vacant benefices. In 1517 he entered into an alliance with the emperor Maximilian and Charles I. of Spain against the Turks; and in 151 8 he made an arrangement with Henry VIII. of England, by which France bought back Tournay. On the death of Maximilian in 1519, Francis became a .candidate for the imperial crown ; but chiefly through the recommendation of Frederick the Wise of Saxony the choice fell on Charles I. of Spain, from that time known as Charles V. The success of Charles was prophetic of the relative positions which the two rivals were thenceforth to occupy, for the resolute and persevering ambition of the emperor, and his hitherto wholly unsuspected abilities both in war and in diplomacy, were to prove themselves more than a match for the headstrong valour and showy accom plishments of the French monarch. War between them could scarcely have been avoided, even if the materials for kindling it had not been already prepared ; but inherited disputes in regard to Navarre, Milan, Burgundy, and Aries would in any case have sooner or later rendered an appeal to the decision of the sword almost inevitable. With a view to such possibilities, the great aim of both was to secure the alliance of Henry of England and the pope, and here fortune again ultimately smiled on Charles. Francis, elated by his previous achievements on the battlefield, and chagrined at the overthrow of his hopes of obtaining the imperial crown, was naturally eager to strike the first blow ; and the request of Henry II. of Navarre to aid him in regain ing his kingdom came opportunely to second his wishes. Accordingly, in April 1521 he sent an army to the aid of Henry. Charles at once retaliated by an invasion of France, and in May concluded a treaty with Pope Leo X. for the ex pulsion of the French from Italy. Navarre after being almost won was again lost by Henry ; and in Italy the French, chiefly through the blunders of Lautrec, the brother of the king s mistress, lost Milan, Genoa, and all their conquests with the exception of the stronghold of Cremona ; but the attempt of the imperialists to enter France was pushed back, and Francis, following in pursuit, only by unaccount able negligence missed the opportunity of inflicting a crush ing defeat on Charles between Cambray and Valenciennes. After this, difficulties continued to thicken round the French king; on the 9th January 1522 the papal throne was mounted by Adrian VI, who had formerly been tutor to Charles V., and in May Henry VIII. declared war against France; in August 1523 a coalition was formed against her which included the pope, the emperor, the king of England, the archduke of Austria, the duke of Milan, and the principal Italian republics ; and about the same time Charles Constable Bourbon, having been unjustly used by Louise of Savoy, withdrew from France, and offered his sword to Charles V. The Spanish troops crossed the French frontiers at Bayonne ; the English entered Picardy, and advanced to within 11 leagues of Paris; and after the re pulse of the French army despatched against Milan, the imperialists passed over into Provence and laid siege to Marseilles. Through cautious but stubbornly defensive tactics, however, both the Spanish and English incursions were foiled, and Francis was thus able to advance to the relief of Marseilles with a large army. The imperialists did not wait his approach ; but, determined on retaliation, he crossed the Alps and laid siege to Pavia, where a strong Italian force had taken refuge. Here he was attacked, 24th February 1525, by a relieving army under Bourbon and Pescara. The attack was unsuccessful; but, flushed with the victory which he believed already in his grasp, he rashly left his impregnable position, and so blundered in his manoeuvres as to render his overwhelming defeat inevitable. His army was speedily either cut down or dispersed in flight, and he himself, after a desperate attempt to rally, was made prisoner and conveyed by Charles to Madrid. He only regained his liberty, 21st February 1526, by signing a treaty whereby he ceded to Charles both Burgundy and Milan. Its stipula tions were guaranteed by the retention of his two sons in the emperor s hands ; but he nevertheless resolved to disregard it, and in this he was supported by Pope Clement VII. and also by Henry of England, whom jealousy and alarm at the emperor s success had induced to change sides. Though formal war was not declared, a French army was despatched to Italy, but the supineness with which the campaign was prosecuted enabled the imperialists to have it all their own way; ani an army of mercenaries under Bourbon, who perished in the assault, marching unopposed to Rome, cap tured and sacked the city, and took the pope prisoner. On this Francis and Henry at once declared war against the emperor ; but the arniy sent into Italy under Lautrec almost melted away before the walls of Naples; and Genoa, by sud denly declaring for the emperor, completed the ruin of the French cause in Italy. The pope soon thereafter saw it to be his interest to be reconciled with Charles ; and in August 1529, Charles and Francis agreed to the treaty of Cambray, by which Francis retained Burgundy and obtained by a ransom the release of the French princes, but renounced his claims in Italy and ceded Artois and Flanders to his rival. He also agreed to fulfil the promise entered into at Madrid to marry Eleanor of Portugal, sister of Charles, his first wife having died in 1524. During the years of peace that fol-
 * lowed this treaty, Francis, though he had encouraged the

Smalkald League in Germany, persecuted with great vigour ! the adherents of Protestantism in his own kingdom ; but when war was again declared, he issued an edict of tolera tion. The pretext for the renewal of the war was the mur der of the French ambassador by Duke Sforza of Milan in 1533, but hostilities were delayed till 1535, when, embold ened by the weakened condition of the emperor after his war against the Turks, Francis overran Savoy and took pos session of Turin. His advantages were, however, followed up with so little energy that Charles, after driving the French out of Italy, began an invasion of Provence ; and his progress was only checked by the barbarous destruction of the country before him by Anne of Montmorency. Meantime Francis attacked Flanders, and entered into an alliance with Sultan Soliman II., whose invasion of Hungary induced Charles in 1538 to consent to the ten years truce of Nice. In 1540 Charles, while the guest of the French monarch, held out to him the hope of a complete satisfaction of his wishes through the investiture of the duke of Orleans with the duchy of Milan; but the promise, if definitely made, was never fulfilled, and Francis, finding a favourabh opportunity after the disastrous issue of the emperor s expe dition against Algiers, renewed on a flimsy pretext the war in 1542. An offensive alliance was formed with the Turks, the duke of Cleves, and Denmark and Sweden; separate armies attacked at various points the Spanish, Flemish, and Italian frontiers ; and the united French and Turkish forces captured and burned Nice. The monotony of the indecisive conflict was relieved in April 1544 by a brilliant French victory at Ceresole, but the success came