Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/122

 98 IlfSTOR Y OF FRANCE. [chap. 17. Captivity of Francis, 1525.— Following the Span- iards into Italy, Francis laid siege to Pavia, which was bravely defended, and held on till Pescara, Bourbon, and Laniioy, the Flemish viceroy of Italy, came to the rescue. They made a night attack on his camp, and in the early morning routed him so completely that he was forced to surrender, and was sent to Spain as a prisoner. The ransom that Charles demanded was that Francis should re- nounce all claims in Italy, give up the duchy of Burgundy and the feudal rights of the French crown over Artois and Flanders, forgive Bourbon, and repay Henry VIII. the sums he had advanced. Francis declared he would rather kill himself than agree to such terms. He fell sick, and his sii&r Ma7-i^nref, the widowed Duchess of Alenqon, came to Madrid to do what she could for him, and on her way home she fell in with Henry of Albret, the son of Queen Catharine of Navarre, and became his wife. She was a brave and high-minded woman, and her departure left Francis to despair. Saving such conscience as he had by an oath, taken without the knowledge of Charles, that he was acting under compulsion, and did not hold himself bound by the treaty, he swore publicly to the terms required, and further undertook to give up his two eldest sons as hostages, and to marry Charles's sister Eleanor, as Claude of France had lately died. 1 8. The Treaty of Madrid, 1526. — The treaty of Madrid was sworn to in Februar}', 1526, and Francis was ex- changed for his two little sons on the Bidassoa, the boundary river. No sooner was he on his own ground than he rose in his stirrups, drew his sword, and cried, his word and avoid the conditions. He called together the states of the duchy of Burgundy, and put the ques- tion whether they would be made over to the emperor. On their refusal, he offered ioo,ckx),ooo crowns instead of the renunciation, which Charles indignantly refused. He then assembled, not his States-General, but bishops, nobles, and deputies from the provincial parliaments. To them he offered to abdicate, and go back to Spain rather than dismember the kingdom, and thus obtained their declara- tion that the treaty was not valid. 19. The Sack of Rome and Death of Bourbon, 1527. — The war was renewed, and I.autrcc was sent to Italy. Bourbon, nettled at the scorn shown in .Spain for his treason, had already gone thither full of a wild scheme of
 * ' I am yet a king ; " but his only thought was how to break