Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/35

20 his sister were given into the care of his father's sister, the politic Margaret of Austria, who educated them in the Netherlands, where she ruled as Maximilian's governor. But all her care and healthy influence could not prevent Charles from inheriting the sombre temperament of Juana. The man who, when Emperor of half the world, should turn monk and dwell in the Escurial, was as a boy without brilliance, without activity, without fire; a pale, taciturn, studious lad, he seemed no formidable rival. "Un quidam certain petit roi," said the French, and laughed in their sleeves. They did not notice his hungry eyes, his powerful chin; they did not see the subtlety and power of combination which this pious, quiet lad inherited from Ferdinand and Isabel—the rare outbursts of determined energy which showed him the grandson of the fiery Max. He was, in truth, a most formidable adversary.

So it appeared when, in 1517, the three Kings, as candidates for the Empire, sent from France, from Spain, from England, their delegates to Frankfort. "As many were for the King of France as for the Catholic King," says Fleurange, "but not one for the King of England. And the day came at last when the election must be made, when it was cried aloud in the great Church of Frankfort, 'Charles, Catholic King, elected Emperor!' And this being done gave great joy to these who wished well to the Catholic King, and great mourning to them who were for the King of France, and they were vexed and bewildered, for they had spent in vain the moneys they once had."

Francis had lost the chance on which he had surely reckoned. He never forgave his rival. On