Henri II: His Court and Times (4 page)

T
HE
reign of François I had opened in a blaze of
glory. The temptation to embark upon those
Italian enterprises for which France had paid so
dearly during the two previous reigns proved too strong for
the restless ambition of the new King, and, undeterred by the
sad experiences of his predecessors, he at once resolved upon
the recovery of the Milanese, the inheritance of which he
claimed through his great-grandmother, Valentina Visconti,
daughter of Gian Galeazzo, Duke of Milan. In order to
dissolve the Holy League which had driven Louis XII from
Italy and secure himself against external attack, he renewed
with Henry VIII the treaty concluded by Louis XII in 1514,
won over the Republic of Genoa, which commanded the
communications between Milan and the sea, secured the
co-operation of the Venetians, and negotiated with his future
redoubtable rival the young Charles of Austria, sovereign of
the Netherlands, a treaty of alliance, in which he promised
him his sister-in-law Renée de France, younger daughter of
the late King, in marriage, and engaged to assist him, when
the time arrived, to secure the vast heritage of his two grandfathers, the Emperor Maximilian and Ferdinand the Catholic.

These negotiations completed, he assembled at Lyons a
composite army of Gascons, French, and
landsknechts
, the
strength of which is variously estimated at from 20,000 to
40,000 men, though the lesser total is probably nearer the
mark, and placed himself at its head. In great alarm, Leo X,
Maximilian Sforza, Duke of Milan, and the Spaniards renewed
their former alliance, and the Swiss mercenaries of Maximilian
promptly occupied the Alpine passes from Mont-Cenis to
Mont-Genèvre. But François, guided by friendly peasants,
succeeded in leading his army over the mountains by a pass
to the south of Mont-Genèvre which had hitherto been deemed
impracticable; and his great victory over the Swiss at
Marignano (September 13-14, 1515) was speedily followed
by the surrender of Milan.

After despatching Maximilian Sforza to Paris, where he
lived in a kind of honourable captivity until his death in 1530,
⁰¹
François, with the object of securing his position in Italy,
entered into negotiations with the Pope and the Swiss. With
the latter he made a treaty which subsequently took the form
of a perpetual peace and was destined to endure as long as
the French monarchy. With Leo X, with whom he had
several interviews at Bologna, he concluded, in February 1516,
a "Concordat," which swept away that great charter of Gallican
liberties the Pragmatic Sanction,
⁰²
by recognising the superiority of the Holy See over all ecclesiastical councils, and
restoring to it the
annates
and other rich sources of revenue,
while giving the King of France the right of nominating to
practically all vacant benefices. The
Parlement
of Paris and
the University subsequently protested vehemently against this
cynical bargain, which deprived the Gallican Church both of
its wealth and its independence; but the only result of their
remonstrances was that François ordered the imprisonment of
several members of the University and took away from the
Parlement
all cognisance of ecclesiastical affairs.

Having disbanded the greater part of his victorious army
and left the remainder, under the command of the Connétable
de Bourbon, to occupy the newly-conquered territory, the
King returned to France. On January 23, Ferdinand V had
died, leaving the crowns of Spain and Naples to Charles of
Austria. The latter, whose accession was encountering grave
difficulties, seemed disposed towards peace and even an
alliance with France; and in the following August a treaty
was signed at Noyon, whereby Charles was pledged to
marriage with the infant French princess, Louise, or, in the
event of her death, to a younger sister yet unborn, or, failing
such a birth, to Louis XII's second daughter, Renée, and to accept by way of
dowry the rights of the Kings of France to the Crown 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 content
to 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 Navarre, Naples, Milan,
Burgundy, and Flanders would in any case have rendered inevitable.
Both sovereigns were sworn to remain at peace whatever
the issue of the election, but in those days such
engagements were but lightly regarded, and pretexts for
violating them were seldom wanting. In view of the approaching
conflict, the great aim of both was now to secure the alliance of
England, and here again Fortune ultimately smiled on Charles.
François invited Henry VIII to an interview, and in the month of
June 1520, the two Courts, "bearing their mills, their forests and
their meadows on their shoulders,"
⁰⁶
met between Guines and Ardres, on a spot which received the name of
the "Field of the Cloth of Gold."

Nothing came of this ruinous pageant, for, though François
parted from his brother of England under the illusion that he
was assured of his support, the latter had been merely acting a part.
Wolsey, indeed, who guided Henry's policy, had been already gained
over by Charles V, and a few days before the English King sailed
for France the Emperor had landed at Dover, and an interview had
taken place between the two monarchs. On taking leave of François,
Henry journeyed to Gravelines to return his nephew's visit, and
Charles escorted him back to Calais. The second interview effectually
destroyed any impressions in favour of François which might
have been left by the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and the
King subsequently announced that he intended to adopt an
attitude of strict neutrality towards the two rivals, and to declare
against the aggressor.

The aggressor, as Henry VIII had doubtless foreseen,
proved to be François, who, in April 1521,
^06b
after several
ineffectual efforts to gall his astute adversary into taking the
offensive, struck the first blow, by sending an army under
Bonnivet
⁰⁷
into Navarre,
to aid Henri d'Albret to recover his
kingdom, and another under the Duc d'Alencon, first husband
of his sister, Marguerite d'Angoulême, to assist Charles's
rebellious vassal, Robert de la Marck, who from his little
principality of Bouillon was devastating the southern borders
of the Netherlands. Charles, on his side, retaliated by
invading France and laying siege to Tournai, and concluded
(May 8, 1521) a treaty with Leo X for the expulsion of the
French from Italy, that Machiavellian pontiff having been
induced to change sides, partly by the promise of territorial
aggrandizement, and partly by the hope of inducing Charles
to check the Reformation in Germany, by procuring the Diet's
condemnation of Luther.

At first, the fortune of war inclined to François's side. The Swiss in the
Papal service were reluctant to fight against their brethren in French pay, and
little impression was made on the defences of the Milanese; Bonnivet surprised
Fontarabia, the key of North-Western Spain; and the Count of
Nassau, who commanded the army which had invaded France,
was compelled by the advance of a superior force under the
King in person to raise the siege of Mezières and fall back
hurriedly across the frontier, leaving the French to ravage
Hainaut and Western Flanders. François was strongly
advised to pursue and fall upon the retreating Imperialists, but
he hesitated and allowed them to escape him. "If he had
attacked them," writes Guillaume Du Bellay, "the Emperor
would that day have lost both honour and fortune. . . . He
was at Valenciennes in such despair that during the night he
fled to Flanders with a hundred horse. That day, God had
delivered our enemies into our hands; but we would not
accept the gift, a refusal which afterwards cost us dear."
⁰⁸

So hopeless, however, seemed Charles's position in the
autumn of 1521, that Wolsey, who on August 2 had concluded
on behalf of Henry VIII a secret agreement with the Emperor
at Bruges, implored him to accept a truce, and his aunt
Margaret of Austria
⁰⁹
used her influence in the same direction.
But Charles refused to consent to such a step, and his obstinacy
was quickly justified, for on November 25, the day after
Wolsey, with many misgivings, had signed the treaty confirming
the Bruges agreement and pledging England to an
offensive alliance with the Emperor, came the news that the
Imperialists and the Papal forces, aided by a popular rising,
had occupied Milan.

The tide now turned strongly against France: Tournai at
once capitulated; the incapable Lautrec,
¹⁰
who commanded for François in Italy, left without money, supplies,
or reinforcements, retreated towards the Swiss frontier, and all the
towns of Lombardy, with the exception of a few scattered
fortresses, followed the example of the capital. As the months
passed, the outlook grew more and more gloomy. The death
of Leo X (December 21, 1521) was followed by the election
to the Pontifical chair of the Emperor's old tutor, Adrian of
Utrecht; at the end of the following April, Lautrec, who,
reinforced by the Venetians and 16,000 Swiss mercenaries,
had re-entered the Milanese, rashly attacked the Imperialists
in their almost impregnable position at La Bicocca, a country-house
surrounded by a great moat near Milan, with the result
that he met with a disastrous repulse and was compelled to
evacuate Italy altogether, while shortly afterwards Henry VIII
declared war against France, and an English force invaded
Picardy, though it effected little.

The summer of 1523 witnessed the formation of a general
league against France, which comprised the Pope, the
Emperor, Henry VIII, Charles V's younger brother Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, Francesco Sforza, now again
Duke of Milan, Venice, Savoy, Florence, Montferrato, and
Lucca; while, at the very moment when all the resources of
the kingdom were being strained to the utmost to make head
against this formidable coalition, came the defection of the
Connétable de Bourbon.