Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/429

 FRANCIS (FEANCE) 417 agement of his successful rival, which were re- sented; and from this jealousy, as much as from conflicting interests, arose that hostility between these princes which kept Europe in turmoil during their reigns. It was easy to find causes of strife; Italy and Navarre af- forded them abundantly. But before engaging in war, each strove to gain to his interests the English king Henry VIII., who obviously held the balance in his hand. Charles hastened to pay this monarch a personal visit at Dover as he passed from Spain to his dominions in the Netherlands, and at the same time secured the influence of Cardinal Wolsey by a virtual prom- ise of the papacy. Francis invited Henry to France, where, by a splendid hospitality, he hoped to gain both the cardinal and his master. The sumptuous interview took place in the plain between Guines and Ardres, which his- tory commemorates as the field of the cloth of gold (June 4-24, 1520). Unprecedented mag- nificence, feats of chivalry, and gallant exercises of every description, occupied the two courts. The kings themselves, according to Fleuranges, had a personal wrestling match in private. Fran- cis easily overthrew his antagonist, but by his frank and generous bearing won his friendship. Henry, however, flattered by Charles, whose visit he returned after his conference with Francis, was easily secured to the interest of the emperor, and declared that he wished to remain impartial, but should pronounce against the aggressor. The French king began hostili- ties by seizing Navarre. His troops also in- vaded Spain, but were routed and chased be- yond Navarre. Charles attempted to enter France from the north. He was repelled at Mezieres by the chevalier Bayard, and Fran- cis marched into the Netherlands. By some strange over-cautiousness he lost an oppor- tunity of cutting off the whole imperial army. Meanwhile Cardinal Wolsey effected a league between his sovereign, the emperor, and the pope, against Francis. A papal army, under Prosper Colonna, seized Milan, and dispossess- ed the French of all their Italian conquests except the fortress of Cremona. Francis, in the midst of these disasters, received from Henry of England a declaration of war (May 29, 1522). Undaunted, however, although his treasury was utterly exhausted, he succeeded in putting the kingdom in a state of defence. The constable de Bourbon at this crisis, reject- ing the queen mother's invitation to marriage, and robbed by the incensed woman through legal chicanery of his family estate, not only offered his sword to the emperor, but proposed to incite a rebellion in France. The conspiracy was discovered, and Bourbon fled ; but an in- vasion of English and imperialists, which ad- vanced to within 11 leagues of Paris, compelled Francis to abandon his plan of carrying the war into Italy. He nevertheless despatched an army of 30,000 men against Milan, which failed through the incapacity of Bonnivet, its commander. Bourbon principally conducted the imperial operations in this quarter, and in conjunction with Pescara (1524) drove the French, after a rout at Biagrasso, into their own country. In this defeat the chevalier Bayard, who commanded the vanguard, was killed. The imperialists entered Provence. Francis hastened in person to relieve Marseilles, carried all before him, pursued the enemy again into Piedmont, and laid siege to Pavia. He was_ here defeated in a great battle, Feb. 24, 1525. His Swiss allies fled; and Francis, un- horsed, after killing with his own hand seven of the enemy, at length yielded his sword to the Neapolitan viceroy Lannoy, and was hur- ried a prisoner to Madrid. Europe was filled with alarm. The emperor's unworthy behavior to his gallant captive, together with his grow- ing power and ambition, roused the animosity of Henry of England, who now declared for France, and demanded the liberation of the king, as did also Rome, Venice, Florence, and Genoa. But the emperor insisted on large cessions of territory, the restoration of the con- stable de Bourbon to all his rights, the mar- riage of Francis with Charles's sister Eleanor, queen dowager of Portugal, and the delivery of his two eldest sons as hostages for his good faith. Francis at last signed a treaty on these conditions, but at the same time caused a secret protest against them to be drawn up, and was liberated March IT, 1526, his sons taking his place at Madrid. He at once demanded and obtained from the pope absolution from his oath to fulfil the treaty, and, gracefully thanking the English king for his sympathy and alliance, sent forth armies again to Italy. If, say French historians, he was guilty of perjury, then was every man in France his accomplice. Charles, overreached, and now opposed by all Italy as well as France and England, sent Bourbon with an army of mercenaries against the pope. Rome was sacked, and the pope was imprison- ed. A French army under Lautrec hastened to avenge the insulted pontiff, but after a series of triumphs was destroyed by disease before Naples. Meanwhile Francis challenged Charles V. to a duel ; the emperor accepted ; but the year 1528 was consumed in their mutual charges and recriminations. Both sovereigns were exhausted of men and money, and peace, an obvious necessity for all the belligerents, was concluded at Cambrai by the mother of Francis and the aunt of Charles (Margaret of Austria) in August, 1529. The king of France retained Burgundy, surrendered his Italian claims, and promised 2,000,000 crowns ransom for his sons. Francis at the same time married Queen Eleanor. This treaty secured to France a few years of peace, during which Francis en- couraged letters and art, and, after wavering for a time between the influence of Louise of Savoy and Margaret of Navarre, decided against the reformation, and persecuted the reformers with great rigor. On July 16, 1535, however, he issued an edict of tolera- tion. This change had a political cause. In