Henri II: His Court and Times Read Online Free PDF

of Naples. This was
succeeded, thanks to Charles's good offices, by a reconciliation between the
Emperor Maximilian and François, and in May 1517, a treaty of alliance
between the three sovereigns was concluded at Cambrai, by
which they mutually agreed to guarantee their dominions and
to act in concert against the Turk, whose power was daily
growing more threatening. To complete the pacification,
François renewed his alliance with Venice (October 1517),
and a year later came to an arrangement with Henry VIII, by
which France recovered Tournai.
    These successful negotiations, following the brilliant victory
of Marignano, placed the crown upon the power and reputation of François. Enjoying, thanks to the absorption of
the great fiefs, the Concordat, and the subserviency of the
Parlements
, an authority which no French monarch had ever
before exercised, he seemed called to the first place among the
princes of Europe. But for such a position he was eminently
unfitted. His qualities, indeed, were superficial rather than
solid. Brave, open-handed, magnificent, capable of generous
and even lofty impulses, he was, at the same time, thanks to
the deplorable training of his adoring mother, Louise of Savoy,
vain, selfish, indolent, and easily led, without self-restraint,
perseverance, or sense of duty. He had no taste for the stern
business of government; he cared nothing for justice, nothing
for economy. So long as he had money to squander on his
incessant wars and his licentious pleasures, he was contentto leave the management of affairs in the hands of Louise and her
despicable favourite the Chancellor du Prat, "one of the
most pernicious men who ever existed," 03 both of whom showed a cynical indifference for law and justice which has
seldom been surpassed, alienated many of the great nobles,
ground down the people by aggravated taxation, and diverted immense
sums into their own coffers. "
Ce gros garçon nous
gâtera tout
," Louis XII had remarked sadly of his heir.
His prediction came only too true.
    Meantime, a rival had appeared upon the scene. It was the heir
of the four dynasties — Burgundy, Austria, Castile, and Aragon
— that sickly son of an insane mother, 04 who a little while before had seemed almost to court the friendship and
protection of the all-conquering King of France.
    In January 1519, the Emperor Maximilian died, and Charles offered
himself to the suffrages of the Electors. The union of Spain, Naples,
the Netherlands, and the Empire under one head was a contingency
which it was impossible for François to contemplate without alarm,
and one which he was determined to avert. Had he used his influence to
secure the election of one of the other German princes, he would
probably have succeeded in keeping Charles out; but dazzled
by the brilliant prospect of becoming the lay head of Christendom,
and the defender of the Faith against the Moslem, he
entered the lists in person, 05 vowing that "he would have the Empire if it cost him three million
crowns, and that three years after his election he would be in
Constantinople or his grave." But neither the glamour of his
military triumphs, nor the favour of the Pope, nor the mules laden
with gold which he sent to support his pretentions, proved sufficient
to balance the claims of a competitor whose House had already furnished
six wearers of the Imperial purple, and whose hereditary dominions,
bordering as they did on Turkey, enabled him to present himself as
the natural defender of Germany. On July 5, 1519, the young King
of Spain was elected without a single dissentient voice, and is
henceforth known to history as Charles V.
    The irritation of François at his defeat undoubtedly
embittered his personal relations with his successful rival, and
precipitated the outbreak of that long and sanguinary struggle,
which, with an occasional breathing-space, was to continue until
the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1557, and which
inherited disputes in regard to