XII. believed the moment come to attack the pontiff and
to have him deposed. This was a fault, because this
measure changed the nature of the fight. Above the
enfeebled temporal prince existed the spiritual prince, all-
powerful. Julius II. put the city of Pisa under interdict,
excommunicated the dissenting cardinals, assembled another
council at St. John Lateran, and invoked the support of the
Catholic powers. All responded. Ferdinand of Spain, the
King of England, Henry VIII., Maximilian, the republic
of Venice, and the Swiss, flattered by the name of "de-
fenders of the Holy See," formed the Holy League (Octo-
ber 5, 1511) with the avowed purpose of preserving the
Church from a schism, but in reality to drive the French
beyond the Alps.
The Spaniard Raymond de Cardona with 12,000 men
joined the pontifical troops. The Venetians, thanks to this
diversion, regained little by little their lost places ; 10,000
Swiss, led by Mathieu Schinner, descended from their
mountains ; treason undermined both the troops and the
German garrisons still in the service of Louis XII. in Italy,
while even the frontiers of France were menaced on the
north, east, and south. A young and heroic general for a
CHAP. VII.] ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). 87
moment averted every danger. Gaston de Foix, Duke of
Nemours, twenty-two years old, took command of the army
of Italy. With iron and silver in his hand he first crowded
back the Swiss into thqir mountains (December, 1511).
Bologna was hard pressed by the troops of Spain and the
Holy See ; he threw himself into the city (February 7,
1512) and raised the siege. The Germans had surrendered
Brescia to the Venetians ; he arrived unexpectedly under
its walls and carried it by assault (February 19). Finally,
(April n), he defeated the Spanish army at Ravenna, but
"this thunderbolt of war" fell and died in the midst of his
triumph. He was succeeded, but not replaced, by La
Palisse. The French army, badly conducted, recoiled
before Raymond de Cardona, let Bologna be retaken, and
found in its rear 20,000 Swiss, who fought to re-establish a
son of Ludovico il Moro, Maximilian Sforza, in the duchy
of Milan. La Palisse did not wait for them, and retired
into Piedmont. Meanwhile Julius II. died (February 21,
1513). His last gaze had beheld the French fleeing. His
successor, Leo X., continued his designs. At Malines he
formed anew the Holy League, which, however, the Vene-
tians abandoned through predisposition for Louis XII., and
the invasion of French territory was resolved upon.
Louis XII. made head against the storm. Attacked even
in his kingdom, he did not abandon Italy. In spite of
Ferdinand, who, already master of Spanish Navarre, menaced
French Navarre, and of the English, who had disembarked
at Calais, he sent La Tremoille and Trivulcio into Italy.
First they crowded the Swiss and Maximilian Sforza into
Novara, but powerful re-enforcements entered the city by
night. In the morning the Swiss made a sortie with fixed
pikes, marched straight against the French artillery, made
themselves master of it despite the ravages it caused in their
ranks, and after a desperate conflict put to rout the besieg-
ing army (June 5). On the north near Guinegate a panic
seized the French army when fighting with the English,
whom Maximilian had come to join. Bayard, sacrificing him-
self to arrest the enemy, was made prisoner ; the rest fought
only with their spurs, hence the name of the day Battle of
Spurs (August 16). Finally, 20,000 Swiss penetrated as far
as Dijon, where La Tremoille arrested them by means of
much money and more promises (September 13). The only
ally of France, James IV., the King of Scotland, shared her
88 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II.
evil fortune ; he was conquered and slain at Floclden by
the English (September 9).
The triple invasion which France had just undergone
forced Louis XII. to retreat. The Convention of Dijon had
already disembarrassed France of the Swiss. Louis dis-
avowed the Council of Pisa in order to regain the Pope, and
formed the truce of Orleans with the emperor and the King
of Aragon (March, 1514).
Henry VIII. for some time refused to lay down arms ;
but peace was established on his side also by the treaty of
London, which left him Tournay and assured him an annual
pension of 100,000 crowns for ten years. It was sealed by
the marriage of Louis XII. with Mary, sister of the King of
England ; but he did not long survive this peace and union :
he died (January i, 1515), at the age of fifty-three.
At the end of these twenty years of battle there remained
therefore, as says Comines, no other reminder of the French
New con uest * n Ita\y than the tombs they had left there.
of the Miianias The impetuous pontiff, who had taken as his
Osi5) FranCiS l ' dev i ce > " No more French this side the moun-
tains," had died thinking his task accom-
plished." But the Spaniards ruled at Naples, the Austrians
in Friuliand Vicentino, the Swiss in the Milanais. France,
and especially its new king, had no desire to accept the
inferior situation wherein she was placed by the last
treaties.
While to Julius II. succeeded Leo X., amiable and
brilliant, protector of letters and arts, in France Francis I.
replaced Louis XII. Young, ardent, eager for glory, the
new prince broke the truce of Orleans and undertook to
recover the Milanais. The Venetians, his allies, held in
check the Austro-Spanish troops of Ferdinand the Catholic
and of the emperor Maximilian ; he had therefore to fight
only the Swiss, sole support of the duke Maximilian
Sforza. While deceived by false demonstrations the Swiss
hastened to Mt. Cenis and to Mt. Genevra to guard
the mountain passes, these defenses were turned by the
French army, which passed by the Neck of Argentiere. It
was necessary to throw bridges over chasms and to blast
the crags to give a passage to the seventy-two pieces of
cannon which the army dragged after it. Thanks to the
engineer Navarro and the courage of the troops, every
obstacle was surmounted. The general of the allies,
CHAP. VII.] ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). 89
Prosper Colonna, surprised at table in Villafranca, was
captured with 700 horsemen, and the king entered the
Milanais with 35,000 combatants. He took his position
near the little village of Marignano. Excited by the Car-
dinal of Sion, Mathieu Schinner, the Swiss, 30,000 strong,
advanced along the causeway of Marignano in a solid
column, and, according to their custom, marched straight
against the artillery. The king threw himself in front with
his nobility and his men of arms, but the space was narrow
not more than 500 horse could engage at once and more
than thirty successive charges were unable to break or to
demoralize the enemy. In the morning at daybreak the
combat recommenced, but the Duke of Bourbon had well
employed the night. The Swiss, assailed on their flanks
by the cavalry, and their van crushed by formidable artil-
lery, were beginning to hesitate, when the appearance on
their rear of the Venetian advance guard finally decided
them to retreat upon Milan. They lost 12,000 men, the
honor of the field of battle, and, more important still, their
reputation as invincible. Trivulcio, who had taken part
in seventeen pitched battles, called that of Marignano a
combat of giants (September 13 and 14, 1515).
This battle was not less important for its political results :
the Duke of Milan ceded his rights for a pension ; the
Pope restored Parma and Piacenza by the agreement of
Viterbo, in which the Spaniards were included ; finally, an
advantageous peace closed Italy to the Swiss. By the
treaty of Freiburg the Helvetic Confederation agreed in
return for an annual pension of 700,000 crowns to allow the
king to levy in Switzerland whatever troops he might need.
This peace, called perpetual, lasted as long as the old
French monarchy.
Another treaty, which concerned only France, was signed
with Leo X. This was the concordat of 1516, which re-
placed the pragmatic sanction of 1438. The concordat
abolished appeals to the court of Rome, source of numer-
ous abuses ; also " reservations and promises of survivor-
ships," by which the Holy See exercised the nomination
to a crowd of benefices, and conferred upon the king the
right of nominating directly to all ecclesiastical positions,
Rome reserving to itself only that of refusing investiture
in case of canonical disability. Francis renounced only the
periodical convocation of councils, and re-established the
90 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION.
impost of the annates, or one year's revenue, which every
new beneficiary was to pay the Holy See.
So the first period of the Italian wars terminated to the
apparent advantage of France. She had gained the
duchy of Milan, from which she was separated by the vast
width of the Alps and the dominions of the house of
Savoy. Her king could place one more crown upon his
head, but in return she was to wage a terrible war for forty
years.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE
HOUSES OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA (1519-29).
Francis I. and Charles V. First War (1521-25). Second War (1526-
29). Treaty of Cambrai.
THE very year when Francis I. reaped the fruits of
his victory at Marignano and believed he had estab-
, lished the pacification of Italy as well as the
Francis I. and ' J
Charles v. grandeur of r ranee by signing the " perpetual
First war (1521- peace " and the concordat, the death of the
King of Aragon, Ferdinand the Catholic, gave
Naples and half of Spain to him who was shortly to become
Charles V. (1516). This prince, great-grandson of the
" Grand Duke of the West," a connection which made him
sovereign of the Netherlands and Franche Comte with
claims to Burgundy, was on his father's side grandson of
the emperor Maximilian and heir of Austria, on his
mother's side grandson of Ferdinand the Catholic
and Isabella with right of succession to the crowns of
Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Naples. Francis I. did not
seek to hinder him from gathering this magnificent herit-
age. He even signed with him at Noyou a treaty of
alliance without demanding anything more than the restitu-
tion of Navarre to the d'Albret family. Charles promised,
but with the firm resolution not to keep his word.
Three years after the empire became vacant by the
death of Maximilian (1519). Charles and Francis I. dis-
puted this crown. The electors in the presence of two so
powerful competitors wished neither the one nor the other,
although they would have sold themselves at a high price
to both, and chose Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony ;
but he refused, and advised the princes to elect Charles of
Austria, more interested than anybody else on account of
his hereditary estates in defending Germany against the
9^ CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II.
Ottomans. Moreover, they feared the despotism of the
King of France. Charles was proclaimed emperor. His
representatives had promised that he would make neither
peace nor war nor put any state under the ban of the
empire without the consent of the diet ; that he would
give all the offices to Germans, and would fix his residence
in Germany.
In addition to his resentment at this check Francis I.
had more than one serious reason for combating the new
Caesar. If it is doubtful in fact whether Charles V. ever
aspired to universal monarchy, at least it is certain that one
might fear it, and surely he put in peril the European
equilibrium, he who had just united under his scepter the
Netherlands, Austria, the kingdom of the two Sicilies,
Spain, the New World, and finally the empire. What was
wanting to the ambitious man who had taken as his device,
" Always farther " (Plus oultre], to become a Charlemagne ?
France. It was the destiny of France to resist this menacing
ambition, and hers was the honor of defending against the
house of Austria the independence of the European states,
and in consequence the civilization of the world.
In this struggle, which was to last two centuries, the
inequality of forces was more apparent than real. The
house of Austria had vaster domains ; but they were
scattered, separated by seas, by hostile or foreign states.
France was compact, nothing in her created an obstacle to
the will of the sovereign ; the concordat had just placed
the clergy under his hand ; the nobles and the third estate
were in the same condition long before. Francis I.
boasted of having freed the kings from tutelage, and, first
of French kings, signed his ordinances with this formula :
" For such is my good pleasure." Charles V. had to
struggle against internal resistances and embarrassments of
every sort. Nowhere were his movements free ; in Spain
there was the opposition of the communeros and the privi-
leges of the provinces ; in Flanders, the turbulence of the
citizens ; in Germany, the Protestants ; in Austria, the
Ottomans ; on the Mediterranean, the pirates of Barbary.
America did not yet pour out for him its treasures, while
Francis I. drew at will from the purse of his subjects.
Thus is explained the victorious resistance of Francis I.,
notwithstanding the superiority in talents possessed by the
emperor.
CHAP. VIII. j RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 93
The two rivals first sought allies. There, as in pursuit
of the imperial crown, Charles V. was victor. While
Francis I. in the interview of the Field of the Cloth of
Gold succeeded in wounding only the self-love of Henry
VIII., eclipsing him by his elegant luxury and his chivalric
graces, Charles addressed himself to Wolsey, the all-power-
ful minister of the King of England, promised him the
tiara, and made certain of the English alliance for him-
self. Leo X. likewise declared for the emperor, being
terrified by the progress of the Reformation which he had
before too much despised. Beaten in diplomacy Francis
hoped better results from war. First he made it indirectly.
He gave to Henry d'Albret 6000 men to invade Navarre,
which Charles V. retained contrary to the stipulations of
the treaty of Noyon ; he furnished other troops to the
Duke of Bouillon, who had suffered injuries from the
emperor, and in his own name attacked Luxemburg. But
the French were beaten in Castile, where they arrived too
late to assist the revolted communeros and their heroic
chief Don Juan de Paclilla. The Duke of Bouillon was
equally unsuccessful, and the Imperialists laid siege to
Mezieres. Fortunately Bayard threw himself into the
place, defended it six weeks, and gave the king time to
come up with his army. The enemy drew back in disorder
and the French avenged themselves by invading the Neth-
erlands (1521). But in Italy Lautrec, who had irritated
the populace by a harsh and rapacious government, was
obliged to abandon Parma, Piacenza, and even Milan. To
provide for the expenses of this campaign there were in-
troduced for the first time obligations upon the city hall,
origin of the public debt in France. The king, making
money out of everything, had also sold twenty counselors'
seats in the parliament of Paris, and had melted a silver
railing which Louis XI. had given to St. Martin of
Tours.
The following year (1522) the heavier part of the war
took place in Italy. Lautrec had received re-enforcements,
but no money ; Louise of Savoy, jealous of the Countess
of Chateaubriand, sister of Lautrec, who was the king's
favorite, had, according to a scarcely credible tradition,
ompelled the superintendent Semblancay to give to her
the money designed for the Swiss. The latter, being with-
out pay, mutinied and demanded of Lautrec money, dis-
94 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II.
charge, or battle. He led them to the attack against the
formidable intrenchments of Becocca, which he could have
carried by famine, and he was beaten. This defeat brought
about the loss of the Milanais, where a son of Ludovico il
Moro was re-established, and the defection of Venice and
Genoa (1522). The same year Charles V. had caused his
former tutor, Adrian VI., to ascend the pontifical throne.
Italy was at his discretion.
Francis I. believed he could repair everything by his
presence, and was making ready to cross the Alps with
25,000 men when even the existence of the kingdom was
menaced by the treason of the Constable of Bourbon. He
was the last of the great feudal lords, the most powerful
prince of the kingdom, the best general of Francis I. A
flagrant injustice, which the king through tenderness for
his mother, Louise of Savoy, allowed her to commit, inspired
in the constable the culpable design of revenging himself
upon the king by betraying France. A secret agreement
with Charles V. stipulated the dismemberment of the king-
dom to the profit of the emperor, the King of England,
and the constable ; the ancient kingdom of Aries was to be
re-established in favor of the latter. Francis I., receiving a
vague warning, sought the constable at Moulins, hoping to
draw from him a confession, a mark of repentance, at least
a word of affection and devotion. Bourbon remained
impenetrable and cold, but believed himself discovered and
fled. Instead of leading an army to Charles V. he brought
him only the sword of a proscript. Henry VIII. had the
preceding year declared war against France, and an English
army had just landed at Calais ; the Spaniards were attack-
ing Bayonne and 12,000 Imperialists were entering Cham-
pagne. Francis did not dare go far away. He sent against
the English in Picardy La Tremoille, who held them in check
by skillful maneuvers, and then repulsed them despite the
inferiority of his forces. Lautrec arrested the Spaniards ;
Guise the Germans. Bonnivet was charged to recover
Italy (1523). This last choice was unhappy. The incapa-
ble Bonnivet, beaten and wounded at Biagrasso, left the
command to Bayard, who received a mortal wound while
covering the retreat. The constable continuing the pursuit,
found him lying at the foot of a tree and expressed his
grief at seeing him in this condition. "Sir," he replied,
"it is not I who am to be pitied, for I die an honorable
CHAP. VIII.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 95
man. But I pity you who are serving against your prince,
your country, and your oath " (1524).
After this sad success Bourbon invaded Provence, but
Charles V., distrustful of the traitor, had given the chief
command of the expedition to Pescara. None of the prom-
ises of the constable were realized. He counted upon his
former vassals ; not one stirred. He had believed that the
citizens of Marseilles would come with ropes around their
necks to bring the keys of their city ; they made a vigorous
resistance. Francis I. arrived at the head of a formidable
army. The Imperialists were worsted and fell back in dis-
order (August), stopping neither behind the Alps nor under
the walls of Milan ; Pescara could throw only 6000 men
into Pavia and fortify himself behind the Adda, while
Bourbon sought re-enforcements on every side.
Francis followed, and captured Milan without striking a
blow. Pavia resisted : he besieged it ; yet he believed
himself strong enough to detach 10,000 men from the army
against Naples. The enemy had time to take breath ;
Bourbon, animated by hatred, found resources which they
did not suspect. By every possible means he collected
money, went to Germany, and after a few weeks brought
back 12,000 lansquenets, or German foot soldiers. Then he
rallied Pescara and Lannoy, the Viceroy of Naples, and the
three returned toward Pavia, putting Francis I. between
them and the city, where the veteran captain Antonio de
Leyva, a resolute soldier, commanded. Francis was advised
to choose a stronger position ; Bonnivet cried that a French
king never retreated. They accepted battle. The enemy
to form his line was compelled to endure a terrible fire
from the French redoubts. The grand master of artillery
Genouillac, " made successive breaches in the enemy's
battalions, so that nothing could be seen but arms and
heads flying about." The soldier king rendered this
artillery useless by taking his stand in front of it that he
might rush upon the Spaniards with his guards. Then the
Spaniards reformed their lines ; the garrison made a sortie
and everything was lost ; the Swiss gave way, the lans-
quenets were annihilated ; Francis I. slew seven enemies
with his own hand, but was forced to surrender. All the
gentlemen who had charged with him were captured or
slain (1525). "In order that you may know," wrote he
that evening to his mother, "what is my misfortune, nothing
9 6 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II.
in the world is left me save my honor and my life." From
this heroic saying has been derived, " All is lost save honor "
(February 24, 1525).
Europe was moved at the news of this great disaster and
trembled for herself, believing France captured with her
king. Italy saw clearly that the Spanish victory was her
ruin. Wolsey, counting no longer upon the emperor, who
had just seated a new Pope, Clement VII., upon the papal
throne, avenged himself for having been his dupe by
counseling his king to abandon the Austrian alliance.
Louise of Savoy, the Regent of France, skillfully took
advantage of these resentments. She even formed
relations with Souleiman, the Sultan of the Ottomans.
These negotiations had then no other effect than to free
the French domiciled in Turkey from the tribute which
every Christian paid who wished to enjoy the free exercise
of his religion. But later will be derived from them im-
portant consequences.
However, Francis I. did not find Charles V. at Madrid
as magnanimous as he had believed him. The emperor
had him carefully watched and for a long time refused to
see him. Sick with chagrin, Francis had for a moment the
design of abdicating in favor of his son, so there should
be left in the hands of his enemy only a brave knight
instead of the King of France. This good resolution did
not last. He consented to sign a disastrous treaty (1526),
after having secretly protested against a moral violence
which according to him rendered null all the acts of the
captive. He ceded to Charles the province of Burgundy
under the limitations of homage, renounced his claims to
Naples, Genoa, to the suzerainty of Flanders and Artois,
reinstated Bourbon in his possessions, and promised to
espouse the sister of the emperor, the Queen Dowager of
Portugal.
Restored to liberty, Francis I. refused to execute the
treaty of Madrid : the deputies of Burgundy declared in
the assembly of Cognac that the king had no
The second . . ,/ . , ,, ? . ,
war (1526-29). right to alienate a province of the kingdom
brai aty fCam " whose integrity he had sworn at his corona-
tion to maintain. The emperor accused
Francis of not keeping his word; the king replied that he
had " lied in his throat," and offered to settle their dispute
in single fight. The war recommenced. The Italians,
CHAP. VIII.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 9?
horribly oppressed by the Imperialists, rushed to the war
with enthusiasm. " This time," said Ghiberti, minister of
Pope Clement VII., " the question is not about some small
revenge ; this war is going to decide the deliverance or
enslavement of Italy." " If Italy," said another, " makes
alliance with Francis I. it is for her advantage and not be-
cause she loves the French." Henry VIII. of England
had taken the title of Protector of the League. The Pope,
Venice, Florence, Milan, and the Swiss were members.
But as in every coalition the league of Italian independ-
ence was deficient in concert and energy. Its general, the
Duke of Urbino, let Sforza succumb in Milan. Instead of
supporting the pontifical fleet which menaced Genoa, he
amused himself by capturing Cremona. He dissembled
his terrors by comparing himself to Fabius Cunctator.
During these fatal days Bourbon received re-enforcements.
There came to him from Germany ten to fifteen thousand
lansquenets, fanatic Lutherans, commanded by George
Frondsberg. After having ravaged the Milanais they
wished another prey, Florence or Rome Rome especially,
the " sacrilegious Babylon." Frondsberg wore at his neck
a gold chain with which he swore to strangle the Pope. It
was not displeasing to Charles V. that Italy should receive
a severe lesson ; he left Bourbon without money and with-
out orders. Then those famished bands, henceforth listen-
ing to nothing, slaying their officers and menacing the
constable himself, crossed the Apennines ; the Italian army
was contented with covering Tuscany. Bourbon marched
upon Rome, dreaming perhaps of great designs, an Italian