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CHA to the charge of his grandfather, Maximilian, who acted as regent. The succession to the Spanish throne was opened to Charles by the death of Ferdinand in 1516; but, as Joanna was still alive, although in a state of mental imbecility, it was not without great difficulty that, on his visit to the Spanish dominions in 1517, the Cortes were prevailed upon to acknowledge him as joint-king. The death of Maximilian having left the imperial throne vacant, Charles, after a keen contest with Francis I. of France, was elected emperor at Frankfort, 28th June, 1519. The preference given to Charles on this occasion excited in the mind of Francis feelings of jealousy and rivalship, which subsisted during the remainder of their lives, and involved them in almost perpetual hostilities. Both were eager to gain the assistance of Henry VIII. of England in their impending struggle, and courted him and his minister Wolsey with the greatest assiduity. Charles paid a sudden visit to England, on 26th May, 1520, and by his attention to Henry, and by a liberal pension and lavish promises to his powerful minister, succeeded in detaching them from the French alliance. He then proceeded to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he was crowned emperor with extraordinary solemnity and pomp.

The first act of his administration was to convoke a special diet of the empire, to be held at Worms, 6th January, 1521, for the purpose of checking the progress of those religious opinions which, under the influence of Luther, were rapidly diffusing themselves over Germany. The great reformer himself was summoned to appear before the diet, and a letter of safe conduct was at the same time sent him, which Charles afterwards regretted that he did not violate. Luther was permitted to depart in safety; but, a few days after he had left Worms, an edict was published in the emperor's name, condemning his doctrines and placing him under the ban of the empire. Other questions soon arose, however, to divert the attention of Charles from these religious disputes. As a rupture with Francis seemed imminent, he entered into a secret alliance with Leo X., for the purpose of expelling the French out of the Milanese. But while the emperor and the pope were preparing to carry out this project, hostilities commenced in Navarre, which Charles unjustly withheld from the children of John d'Albret in violation of the treaty of Noyon. An army, levied in name of Henry d'Albret, but with the connivance of Francis, overran Navarre, but in a short space of time was completely defeated, and their general and principal officers were taken prisoners. About the same time, a petty prince named Robert de la Marck, relying on the support of Francis, declared war against the emperor, ravaged the open country of Luxembourg, and laid siege to Vireton. Charles retaliated by sending an army under the count of Nassau, who entered France, took Mouson, and laid siege to Mezieres, but was foiled by the strenuous resistance made by the famous Chevalier Bayard, and compelled to retreat with loss and disgrace. Meanwhile a congress was held at Calais, 5th August, 1521, under the mediation of Henry VIII., in order to reconcile the differences between Francis and the emperor. But Wolsey, to whom the sole management of the negotiation was committed, was exclusively devoted to the interests of Charles, and took no pains to conceal his partiality. In the end, the congress proved utterly abortive, and after negotiations were broken off, Wolsey joined the emperor at Bruges, and concluded with him a treaty in the name of his master, in which it was agreed that they should invade France—Henry on the side of Picardy, Charles on the frontier of Spain—each at the head of an army of forty thousand men; and that the latter should espouse the Princess Mary, the only child of the English king. Meanwhile the Milanese had become the theatre of war through the intrigues of the pope, and the haughtiness and rashness of the marechal de Lautrec, and his brother, who commanded the French troops in that province. Left without adequate supplies either of men or money, Lautrec was unable to resist the united imperial and papal forces, who compelled him to retreat to the Venetian territories, seized Milan, and stripped the French of nearly the whole of their conquests in Lombardy. In spite of the death of Leo X., 2nd December, 1522, the succeeding campaign was equally disastrous to the French, who were completely defeated at Bicocca, owing to the turbulence of their Swiss allies; and the whole of the fortified places in the Milanese, except the citadel of Cremona, surrendered to the imperialists.

At this juncture an insurrection broke out in his Spanish dominions, which for some time diverted the attention of Charles from his schemes of foreign conquest. The citizens of Segovia, Toledo, Burgos, Valladolid, and other cities of Castile, took up arms for the purpose of obtaining redress of their political grievances, and of vindicating their rights and privileges, which had been grossly violated by the ministers of Charles, and headed by Don John de Padilla, son of the commendado of Castile, a young nobleman of great talent and courage, they inflicted several defeats on the royal troops, formed an association called "The Holy Junta," and for a time obtained the complete control of the kingdom. In the end the insurrection was suppressed, not without considerable bloodshed. Padilla was taken prisoner and executed; the privileges of the free cities of Castile were gradually abolished, and the Cortes, once one of the most considerable orders in the state, were deprived of their right to examine and redress public grievances, and had their powers limited to granting such supplies as the king chose to demand.

Charles had now succeeded in detaching from Francis all his ancient allies, and in uniting them in a confederacy against him. To add to the perplexities of the French monarch at this moment, a domestic conspiracy was discovered which threatened the ruin of his kingdom; and the constable Bourbon, his most powerful subject, provoked beyond endurance by the injuries he had received, went over to the enemy (see ). The French army in the Milanese, owing to the incapacity of its commander, Bonnivet, was foiled by the imperial general, the veteran Colonna. But an English force which entered Picardy under the duke of Suffolk was compelled to retreat; and an army of Flemings and Spaniards, which invaded Burgundy and Guienne, was repulsed with great disgrace in 1523. In the following year the French army was driven out of Italy, and completely defeated on the banks of the Sesia, where the famous Chevalier Bayard was mortally wounded; and an army of eighteen thousand imperialists, under the marquis of Pescara, invaded France and laid siege to Marseilles, but were compelled to retreat with considerable loss. Francis, elated with this success, and eager to recover the possessions of which he had been stripped in the former campaigns, imprudently marched into the Milanese at the head of a numerous army, drove the enemy out of Milan, and laid siege to the town of Pavia. Here, in opposition to the advice of all his most experienced officers, he risked a battle on the 3rd of February, 1525, and was defeated and taken prisoner with the loss of ten thousand men. (See I.) Charles did not use his victory with the moderation which he at first professed. He immediately began to revolve vast and ambitious designs altogether inconsistent with the balance of power and the liberties and peace of Europe, and which excited great alarm in the minds of his allies, and ultimately induced both Henry VIII. and the pope to make common cause with the French king. In the end Charles profited little by his ungenerous treatment of his captive rival. Francis recovered his liberty by a convention agreed upon between him and Charles at Madrid, in January, 1526, but on his return to France he peremptorily refused to fulfil the rigorous terms which had been exacted from him in his prison. The pope, Clement VII., not only absolved the French king from the oath which he had taken to observe the treaty of Madrid, but united in a "holy league," as it was termed, with Henry, Francis, the Venetians, and the duke of Milan against the emperor, to compel him to set at liberty the French king's sons who had been left in his hands as hostages, and to abandon his designs upon the Milanese. The confederates, however, were tardy in their movements and unsuccessful in their projects. Clement was compelled to withdraw from the confederacy; but in spite of this abandonment of his allies, Rome was soon after stormed by the constable Bourbon, who fell in the assault, the inhabitants were cruelly abused and pillaged, and Clement himself was taken prisoner and shamefully treated by the imperialists. Charles hypocritically professed to lament the captivity of the pontiff, and appointed prayers and processions throughout all Spain for the recovery of his liberty. War continued to be waged in the Milanese between the imperialists and the French with varied success. In the end both parties were exhausted by the protracted struggle, and became desirous that it should terminate; and at length peace was concluded at Cambray on the 5th of August, 1529, on terms which, though they modified considerably the treaty of Madrid, left all the advantages of the contest with Charles, and inflicted a serious injury both on the reputation and the interests of his rival. The emperor then proceeded to Italy, where he affected great moderation in his dealings, gave Francis Sforza a full pardon of all past offences,