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 VI.] THE ITALIAN WARS, loi Milan which he had renounced. At the same time he pretended a right to Savoy, through his mother, although the reigning duke, Emmanuel Filibert, was her brother's son. The French troops took possession of almost all Savoy and Piedmont, and the dispossessed duke carried his complaints to the emperor, who in great indignation renewed the war. He not only chased the French out of Piedmont, but crossed the Var and invaded Provence. The defence had been intrusted to the Count of Mont- morency, a man of some talent, brave, honest, but piti- less, who wasted the country before the enemy, burning every village or unwalled town. Thus, though Charles's army was starved out and forced to retreat, the peasants suffered still more, and countless families v/ere ruined, besides the hosts who died of misery. Marseilles held out, but the emperor entered Aries, where he would have been crowned as King of Burgundy, had he not found the place deserted by the nobles and clergy. Hunger and disease made such havoc with his army that he was forced to retreat to Italy as Francis marched southward. During this advance the dauphin died, and Francis actually accused the emperor of having poisoned him. Also, in imitation of Philip Augustus, the king held a court, and cited Charles, as Count of Flanders and Artois, to answer for having made war on his liege lord, and, as he scorned to reply, he was declared to have forfeited these domains. But to take them was a different matter. No French party could be stirred up in Italy, and all Francis could effect among his allies was to cause the shores of Otranto to be ravaged by a Turkish and Moorish fleet. When driven off by the Venetian and Genoese ships, the Moslems took refuge in the port of Marseilles, and there sold their slaves and plunder. All Europe was indignant, and shame as well as exhaustion forced Francis to agree to a ten years' truce. By this he gave up his Turkish alliance in return for Charles with- drawing his support from the Duke of Savoy ; but peace was not made, because the emperor, who had once offered Milan to Francis's son Henry, as Duke of Orleans, would not give it the heir to the crown. 22. Visit of Charles to France, 1540. — Montmorency, who had much influence over both the king and his son, persuaded them of the hopelessness of the struggle. Pre- sently Charles, having occasion to reach Ghent more rapidly than was possible by sea, requested a safe-conduct