1518.

RESISTANCE OF THE PARLIAMENT

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liberate in the presence of the Bastard of Savoy. They obeyed: but it was to come to the conclusion, that they would not register the concordat; and they appealed to a national council. The university seconded the wish, and joined in the resistance of the parliament. This new resolve of the judicature was made known to the monarch in February, 1518; and his fury was greater than before. My parliament would erect itself into a senate of Venice," said he ; "let it confine itself to the administration of justice, which is worse than ever. must drag the parliament in my suite, as I do the great council, and watch over its conduct." After prolonging the contest some time, the members were at length induced to yield to the menaces of the king. The obnoxious concordat was registered in the presence of La Tremouille; but they at the same time entered into a secret engagement to adhere in their decisions to the pragmatic sanction, and not to the concordat. This secret engagement they kept. When an ecclesiastical vacancy occurred, the king nominated on one side, the chapter elected on the other; and the parliament, to whom the dispute was referred, never failed to decide in favour of the latter. The king was at length wearied by this obstinacy, and ended by depriving the parliament of all jurisdiction over ecclesiastical appointments, ordering that all disputes on these matters should be referred to his council.

Francis was here made to feel how much his sale of judicial offices had made the judicature independent. The disinclination to meet the states-general, had thus raised up in their place another body of functionaries, who felt themselves entitled and emboldened to offer at the least a shadow of a national opposition. It was indeed but a shadow. The famed legal resistance which the parliament henceforward claimed the right of making, proved rather a cause of irritation and delay, than an effectual bar to the pernicious exertions of the royal will. Nevertheless it shows the effort, the tendency of a great and civilised nation to establish some kind of

check to the absolute authority of the prince. Throughout all empires, however despotic, we find human nature making that effort, entering that protest against utter servitude. And thus we may infer, that political freedom and its guaranty form a want, a necessity, and a law of his kind, towards which, as towards society or self-preservation, man always, however unsuccessfully,

aims.

The thoughts of the French monarch were wholly bent upon external policy. He had conquered Milan, won over the pope, and reconciled the Swiss to his interest by the promise of a large pension. He cared not what sacrifices were made at home for the accomplishment of such desirable objects. The enmity of Ferdinand of Spain, and of Maximilian king of the Romans, still remained. The latter undertook a campaign, in 1516, against the Venetians and French; but, as usual, his attempt ended in discomfiture. Ferdinand of Spain died about the same time. The first act of his grandson Charles was to form a new treaty with Francis: it was agreed on at Noyon. By it Claude, the infant daughter of the French king, was betrothed to Charles, and the French claims on Naples were to be given up as her dowry. There was a vague promise that Spain should restore Navarre. But the principal point to Francis was a sum of money and a pension to be paid him by Charles. It is evident, on looking at the treaty, that Francis gave all his advantages, his own claim to Naples, those of his relative to Navarre, and all, apparently, for a beggarly sum of money and an annual stipend. Could he have confided his wants to an assembly of the nation, he would not have needed thus basely to barter his own and the nation's dearly won glory. Peace was, however, purchased by it, and Europe enjoyed a short interval of

repose.

The death of Maximilian king of the Romans took place in January, 1519. It left the throne of the empire vacant; and thus a new apple of discord was flung between the two great monarchs of Europe. Charles

aspired to the imperial crown as heir of the house of Austria; Francis as a powerful and independent monarch.

Both candidates employed all the means capable of influencing the electors, omitting neither bribes, promises, nor intimidation. The question was decided by a person superior to the influence of such motives: this was Frederic duke of Saxony, the patron of Luther. To him, for his virtues, his brother electors decreed the imperial crown: but he magnanimously refused, gave his voice to Charles, and brought his colleagues over to this decision. Charles V. was declared emperor in 1520. Francis had declared that he would woo the ambitious prize, as a mistress, with chivalrous and generous feelings towards his rival. Nevertheless he deeply felt the disappointment, and by no means forgave the young emperor his success. Hitherto the French monarch had entertained feelings of friendship for Charles; now he transferred them to Henry VIII., a monarch more congenial to his temper. A meeting took place between them, at the request of Francis, some leagues from Calais, at a spot called ever after the" Field of the Cloth of Gold," from the magnificence displayed by the two courts at this interview. The time passed in festivities, and tournaments. Although mutual acts of courtesy and tokens of confidence passed between the princes, still the object of Francis was not gained. Henry, though passionate and headlong, had still the suspicious and selfish temper of his father and of the Tudors: he was little given to friendship, and was moreover infected with that insular prejudice which represents the French as the natural enemies of the English. Above all, he was jealous of the military fame of Francis, and never espoused his interest till the battle of Pavia humbled the gallant monarch, and erected the emperor into a fitter object of envy. In short, to the vanity of her king was chiefly owing England's observance at that time of the great principle of the balance of power. Henry met the emperor both before and after his interview with Francis; and his leaning, as well as

that of his minister Wolsey, was evidently towards Charles.

Squabbles and skirmishes were the prelude to a general war. An insurrection breaking out in Spain, was considered as affording a favourable opportunity for recovering Navarre. Lesparre, one of the brothers of the house of Foix, marched into the province and conquered it; but, elate with success, he imprudently entered Castile and besieged Logroño. This roused the pride of the Spaniards. An army marched against Lesparre. A battle ensued, in which, despite the French superiority in cavalry and artillery, the Spanish infantry routed that opposed to them, and won the victory. Navarre was again lost. This expedition was not considered as a formal infraction of peace, the French having reserved to themselves, by treaty, the right of succouring Navarre.

A difference at the same time arose between the emperor and the family of De la Mark, dukes of Bouillon. Their estates were on both frontiers, and Francis supported De la Mark. The latter insolently defied the emperor in full diet, and afforded him ample pretext to arm and to march. Italy, however, was the true centre of intrigue, the chief scene of political as well as of warlike events. The ambitious spirit of the popes, each eager to distinguish his reign by some signal acquisition, would not allow that country to remain at peace. Leo X. first leagued with Francis to conquer Naples, and 6000 Swiss were enlisted under pontifical banners, the king furnishing half their pay. Francis, however, either cooled in the project, or had reason to suspect the pope's intentions. He stopped the pay of these Swiss. Recriminations and angry despatches passed between them; and Leo, piqued, flung himself into the alliance of Charles. It was agreed between them to reconquer the Milanese for Francis Sforza; to restore Parma and Placentia to the Holy See; in short, to banish French power and influence from Italy.

The government of the conquered province had been such as to render the French yoke odious to the Milanese.

1520.

INTRIGUES OF THE COURT.

205

The cause lay in the intrigues and corruption of the court. As soon as the government has grown despotic, we are instantly compelled to look for the causes of events in the scandalous chronicle of harlotry. It has been related that Anne, queen of Louis XII., had assembled around her the daughters of the French nobility; and a court was thus gradually formed, no longer composed solely of warriors and statesmen, but of the gay and idle also of both sexes. This sudden freedom had an ill effect upon public morals. The principles and habits of courtiers were not prepared for the increased temptation. The grossness of the age did not yet admit of that true and pure enjoyment of female society which modern cultivation allows. Francis, when he was suddenly released from Amboise, and found himself possessed of all power, and endowed with all attraction, in the midst of an assemblage of beauty, gave a loose rein to his passions. His wife Claude, daughter of the late king, never had the command of his affections; and the court of Francis soon arrived at that state of dissoluteness which we find recorded in the pages of Brantôme, and from which we shrink in incredulity and disgust.

Francis, however, The countess de capital, and soon

Françoise de Foix was one of those high-born maidens whom Anne of Britany had reared near her person. That queen had given her in marriage to the count de Chateaubriand, who retained her at his remote château, far from the fascinations of a court. insisted on the presence of the beauty. Chateaubriand was summoned to the became the avowed and chosen mistress of her sovereign. Her brother Lautrec was made governor of Milan, the constable Bourbon being recalled to give place to him, and the veteran Trivulzio being passed over. Thus were two powerful men slighted, in order to make room for the brother of the countess of Chateaubriand. Lautrec was a gallant soldier, but he was tyrannical and insolent: he became jealous of Trivulzio, who in his private station still preserved the dignity and influence attached to his years, his services, and his rank. Lautrec rendered the