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 418 FRANCIS 1533 the duke of Milan put to death an agent of the king of France, charged with murder. Seizing this as a pretext for war, Francis took up arms again, and in 1535 overran Savoy. Charles in the spring of 1536 marched upon Provence, and the French troops hurried again to the defence of that region. Charles lost half his army through famine and disease, the country having been laid waste purposely by the Frencli commander, and with the remain- der fled before the light troops of the province. At the same time the prince of Nassau, who had invaded the north of France, was com- pelled to retreat. Soon after these events, the eldest son of Francis died, poisoned, as was supposed. The crime was laid to the charge of the emperor, probably without any founda- tion; but the circumstance carried the exas- peration of the two sovereigns to the extreme of decency. Francis attacked the Netherlands, and even formed an offensive alliance with the Turkish sultan Solyman ; but the pope and the queen of Hungary interposing with offers of mediation, a truce of ten years was concluded at Nice (1538). The rivals exchanged visits and embraced ; and Charles promised to invest a son of the French king with the sovereignty of Milan, but the promise was never fulfilled, Charles giving the duchy instead to his son Philip. War again broke out in 1542, and Francis sent five armies against various quar- ters of the imperial dominions, and gained a great battle at Ceresole (April 14, 1544), but without important consequences. After a short invasion of France by Henry VIII. and Charles in alliance, peace was concluded with the em- peror at Crespy, Sept. 18, 1544. The war with England continued, but without remarkable actions, until June V, 1546. This treaty, like that of Nice, was followed by renewed perse- cution of the reformers. Having no more need to maintain his Protestant alliances, Francis carried out a most cruel decree against the Vaudois, desolating the country and killing the inhabitants by thousands. The king's health had been hopelessly ruined some years before in consequence of one of his many amours, and death at length ensued. Francis was an unhesi- tating libertine, though during the latter years of his life his attention was given to wiser thoughts ; but notwithstanding his vices and his cruelty to the Protestants, admiration cannot be withheld from many gallant and noble traits of character, which might have been blessings to his country had he been content with any other than military glory. His challenge to Charles V., and his court rules of honor and chivalry, did much to establish the practice of duelling. Yet he introduced into France many improvements of art and learning. Of his munificence many monuments remain ; as the national library of Paris, the original Louvre, Fontainebleau, and Chambord. By his first wife he had seven children ; by the second none. To his son Henry II. he bequeathed a treasury with a surplus of 400,000 crowns. FRANCIS II., king of France, born in Fon- tainebleau, Jan. 19, 1543, died in Orleans, Dec. 5, 1560. He was the eldest son of Henry II. and Catharine de' Medici. His father had suc- ceeded in obtaining some important advantages over the emperor Charles V. and the house of Spain, and in terminating favorably a long series of wars, chiefly in Italy and the Nether- lands, against the growing might of that house. Henry died in 1559 of a wound accidentally received in a tournament. Francis, then a sickly boy of 16 years, possessed of neither character nor talent, succeeded to the throne. He had already (in April, 1558) married the daughter of James V. of Scotland, the beauti- ful and afterward unhappy Mary Stuart. Her influence gave the reins of government to her uncles, Francis, duke of Guise, and the cardi- nal of Lorraine. The arrogant sway of these two ambitious and unscrupulous princes alarm- ed and irritated the princes of the blood, An- thony, king of Navarre and his brother Louis of Conde, who became the leaders of a Prot- estant party in opposition to the court. Every- thing concurred to produce civil commotion. Protestantism had penetrated, in the form of Calvinism, into France. Its spirit suited that t of the feudal nobility, and the profligacy and ' corruption introduced by the Italian Medicis into the court and manners of France, and the influence of strangers, disposed the people to rebellion. It was by secret plots, however, rather than by open revolt, that the Protestant princes tried to wrest power from the hands of the Guises. A great conspiracy was organ- ized, having Conde at its head, and embracing the most prominent nobles of France. It was agreed to enter Amboise on a certain day in detached parties, to massacre the Guises, and seize the person of the king. But the plot was disclosed almost at the moment of execu- tion, by two Protestants ; the duke of Guise secretly assembled a body of troops, and cut to pieces the forces of the conspirators as they were entering the town. His triumph was stained with barbarous cruelty, and the waters of the Loire were colored with the blood of those who fell in combat or perished on the scaffold. The court gazed at the executions, as scenes of public festivity, from platforms and the windows of the castle. Arrests and executions throughout the country followed. The duke of Guise was made lieutenant general of the kingdom. The axe was brought into play to stifle the opposition of the princes, and the inquisition was set up to repress Calvinism. A royal edict made the bishops, instead of the parliaments, judges of heresy. The Huguenots, seeing in this edict their speedy destruction, prepared to resist, and the court convoked at Fontainebleau an assembly, with the purpose of seizing the two princes of Bourbon ; but they came with an escort strong enough to pro- tect them. The princes of Lorraine convened the states general at Orleans. Conde had tried to dissemble his mortification after the failure