Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/126

 102 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. through France. The king replied by an invitation to his court, which the emperor accepted on condition that he should hear nothing about Milan. He was welcomed with lavish display and a course of brilliant feasts, but ail the time he was tormented with entreaties to give Milan to the dauphin. To these he turned a deaf ear, but ommous hints were given, such as the court jesters saying that he was a fool for coming, but that the king would be a greater fool still for letting him go as he came. Charles would not be beguiled into any promise, though, when he had been safely escorted to the frontier, he offered the Low Countries, with his daughter's hand, to the youngest son of Francis, on condition that Savoy was restored to Emmanuel Filibert. Two years later the emperor met with a disaster in attacking the Moors in Africa ; Francis again began to harass him, bringing a lleet of Turkish ships to besiege Nice, the last place remaining to the Duke of Savoy. When it had been sacked and burned, the Turks wintered in Toulon har- bour, and Henry VIII. was so indignant that he took up arms and himself besieged and took Boulogne on the 14th of September, 1544. 23. The Peace of Crespy, 1544. — Again Francis was crushed into accepting terms of peace, and agreed to restore the Duke of Savoy, and work with Charles at bringing quiet to the Church, and defending Christendom from the Turks. Peace was signed at Crespy on the 18th of September, 1544, just fifty years since the Italian war had been begun by Charles VIII., a war in which France had gained nothing, but had lost 2,ooo,ckx) brave men ! The peace did not include Henry VIII., and Francis went with his two sons to retake Boulogne, but fever was raging in Picardy, and the younger died. The king had no heart to carry on the war, and made peace with Henry, undertaking to ransom Boulogne in eight years. Still he avoided restoring Savoy to his cousin, and kept up a secret understanding with the Protestants in Ger- many, who were resisting the assembly of the Council of Trent in 1545. Another war was impending v/hen he died on the 31st of March, 1547, in his fifty-fourth year. His health had been ruined by vice; for, though he has been a favourite hero with those who can be dazzled with false glitter, he had neither honour nor honesty, and was a profligate in life, with only enough religion to satisfy the cornipt court clergy, persecuting at home