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 96 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. men were left for dead on the field. Trivulzio declared that the eighteen pitched battles he had been in before were but child's play in comparison. After it Francis insisted on being dubbed by Peter Terrail, commonly known as the Chevader Bayard, a mere captain of men- at-arms, who, from his daring valour and high honour, had become so distinguished in the Italian campaigns that he was called the knight without fear and without re- proach. The battle of Marignano laid the duchy at the feet of Francis, for no one had hitherto been thought able to break the Swiss, and the peace then made with France by the cantons lasted 300 years. 14. The Concordat of Bologna, 15 15. — Milan was easily subdued, and the newly-chosen pope, Leo X., one of the Florentine house of Medici, came to hold conference with Francis at Bologna. He was a bad and worldly pope, but a man of grand and noble manners, splendid in his habits, and with a great taste for classical art and poetry, such as gained the heart of the young king. Leo and Francis now agreed that the French church should disown the canons of the Council of Basel, which forbade payments to Rome and sale of benefices, and secured to the national clergy the right of self-government. On the other hand, free ecclesiastical elections were abolished, and the nomination of bishops and abbots formally given to the king. Thus the pope and the king played into each other's hands at the expense of the national Church, though not without strong resistance on the part of the clergy, who justly foresaw that the freedom and efficiency of their Church would be ruined. The Parliament of Paris refused to register the decree ; the University put up public prayers against it, and only accepted it at the end of a year, under threats of personal violence from the king. 15. The Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520.— In 1519 died the ICmperor-clect Maximilian. As he had never been crowned emperor, no king of the Romans could, according to the custom followed up to this time, be chosen in his lifetime ; the imperial throne was therefore vacant. Francis proposed himself to the electors, offering them bribes, and was greatly indignant when their choice fell on Charles of Austria, grandson of Maximilian, who thus became the most powerful prince in Europe. He had already in- herited the Netherlands and the county of Burgundy from his father, and he reigned in the stead of his insane mother Joan, over Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and the Two Sicilies.