As soon as the regent Louisa was acquainted with the disastrous battle of Pavia, by a letter from her son, contain ing these words," Madam, all is lost except our honour," she put forth all her talents, which had hitherto been ex pended on useless or dangerous objects, towards the safety of the kingdom ; and that it was saved in this hour of un paralleled and imminent danger, must be ascribed to her exertions and talents. She immediately assembled the no bles at Lyons ; collected the remains of the army, and re cruited it so as to render it fit again to take the field ; levied new troops ; and, above all, endeavoured to conciliate the King of England. Henry had long been jealous, or afraid of Charles ; and \Volscy had not forgotten the promises of the papal dignity, with which the emperor had deceived Lin,. But it was evident, that whatever steps the King of England might he induced to take, immediate measures on the part of France itself were indispensably necessary ; and when the storm had passed away for a little time, it was discovered that it was not in the power of the Imperialists to profit so much by the victory of Pavia as they had hoped, and France had dreaded. Lannoy found himself under the necessity of disbanding the greatest part of his army for want of money. The character of Charles in a great mea sure saved France ; for, instead of pursuing his advantages by the same means by which he had acquired them ; instead of augmenting his armies and pushing his conquests into France,—he endeavoured to gain from his royal captive, by intrigue and negotiation, what he probably could have wrested by force. But Francis indignantly rejected the base and dishonourable terms, and disPlayed, on the occa sion, such spirit, that Lannoy thought it more prudent to send him into Spain, for the purpose of a personal inter view between him and Charles. But this interview, at first, was productive of no effect. Charles behaved to him with so much duplicity, and evidently endeavoured to ex tort from him such dishonourable terms, that Francis, in despair, entrusted to his sister, the Duchess of Alencon, a deed, by which lie resigned his kingdom to the Dauphin. This circumstance at last induced Charles to behave with more openness and honour towards his captive. Ile was also threatened with a confederacy against him, which had for its objects to liberate Francis, and to humble and cur tail the power of his conqueror. By the treaty of Madrid, Francis regained his liberty, and, as the price of it, restored Burgundy to the emperor in full sovereignty, as well as Artois and Flanders. As hostages for the regular and ho nourable fulfilment of these conditions, Francis gave his two eldest sans. In order to render the union between him and the emperor more binding and lasting, he was to marry the emperor's sister, the queen-dowager of Portugal, and to cause all the articles to be ratified and registered by the states. Even these terms did not satisfy the emperor ; for, suspicious of the integrity of Francis, he bound him by an oath to return as a prisoner into Spain, if, within a limited time, all the stipulations were not fulfilled. It was not, in deed, probable, that the French sovereign would himself be willing to execute such stipulations, or, if he were, that his states would permit the kingdom to be so dishonoured ; and, even while he was yet at Madrid, he assembled the few counsellors in whom he could confide, and before them solemnly protested against a treaty which had been extort ed from him, and which lie therefore deemed null and void. The articles, however, were ratified in France, as, till that ratification arrived at Madrid, Francis was not to be at li berty to depart ; but, as soon as Francis passed the bounda ries between France and Spain, he mounted his horse, waved his hand over his head, and joyfully exclaimed seve ral times," I am yet a king !" Scarcely had lie reached Paris, before he disavowed the principal article of the treaty of Madrid, that by which he agreed to cede the province of Burgundy to Charles ; but, in order to colour and excuse this infraction of the treaty, the deputies of that province waited on the king, in the pre sence of the ambassadors from Charles, and represented, that no sovereign could alienate their country from the crown, or transfer it to another, without their consent ; and that, therefore, as Francis had done that, which he had no right or authority to do, the cession of Burgundy must be looked upon as void. Francis assented to these arguments ; but at the same time he offered in lieu of Burgundy, to pay the emperor two millions of crowns. Charles, as might be expected, rejected the proposal; and resolved to have re course to arms, for the purpose of compelling his adversary to fulfil the treaty of Madrid.
But while the fate of Francis had excited the pity,—the ambition and power of Charles had roused the jealousy, or the apprehensions of the other European sovereigns. The Pope, the republic of Venice, and the Duke of Milan, en tered into the confederacy, of which, under the appellation of the Holy League, Henry King of England was declared the head and the protector. Scarcely, however, was this confederacy formed, A. D. 1527, when its dissolution ap peared at hand : The Milanese, indeed, had been overrun by the Constable Bourbon ; but his soldiers not reaping from the conquest of this exhausted territory all the plun der they had anticipated, he was obliged to march them against Rome. This march, perhaps as much as any of the exploits of the Cardinal, proved the greatness of his mili tary talents : it was executed in the depth of winter, with an army of 25,000 men, destitute of money, magazines, and artillery, and in the face of a superior army ; but Rome was reached ; and Bourbon was on the point of witnessing the capture of the capital of the ancient world, when a random shot deprived him of life. The command of his troops de volved on the Mince of Orange ; they were eager for booty, and for revenge, on account of the death of their general; and Rome became a theatre of carnage and desolation, the Pope himself being made prisoner.
But the splendour of this expedition, and its immediate success, by no means compensated for the injury which it did to the cause of Charles: the Milanese were left expo sed ; Catholic Europe was indignant and horrified at the treatment of the Pope ; the states of Italy were wearied with the yoke of Charles, and an army sent wider these circumstances by Francis, was received with congratula tion and gratitude. After the French commander had suc ceeded in reconquering nearly the whole of the Milanese, he directed his march towards Rome, from which place, after having liberated the Pope, he resolved to proceed to Naples. The imperial army was unable to contend with him ; all the Neapolitan territory, with the exception of the capital and Gaeta, submitted to the invaders ; the fleet of the emperor was defeated ; and the French at last seemed to have secured the object, after which they had so long and so frequently directed their efforts. But Francis' charac ter was much better suited for rapid and splendid enter prises, than for such as required continued effort, circum spection, and foresight : Elated with his success, he forgot that his troops still must be supported and paid ; he ne, glectcd or disgusted his Admiral Doria, to whose skill and valour he had been indebted for his naval victory ; he even ordered him to be arrested, because, with a freedom, which the circumstances justified, which his republican birth and education might have excused, and which probably arose in some degree from his attachment to Francis, he opposed some designs of the king, which he deemed injurious to his honour, as well as to the interests of Genoa. Doria, ap prised of his danger, escaped the meditated arrest, en tered into a negotiation with the emperor, and sailed back to Naples, which he protected and delivered. In the mean time, the discontents of the French army increased ; they were in great want of provisions ; constantly harassed by their opponents, and at last attacked with a contagious dis order of this their general died ; and his successor found himself under the necessity of evacuating Naples. Doria, now triumphing over Francis, was resolved to effect the liberation of his native city ; and as the French garrison of Genoa was reduced by desertion to a very inconsiderable number, he had soon the satisfaction of entering it, where he was hailed as the father of his country, and the restorer of its liberty.
The dreams of conquest which Francis had indulged, be.
big thus dispelled by his reverses, he turned his thoughts to peace ; which, however, he might have found it difficult to have gained, had not Charles at this time been alarmed at the progress of the Tut ks, the progress of the Protestant religion in Germany, and the discontents in Spain. In con• sequence of this mutual disposition for peace, the treaty of Cambray was formed. Charles gave up his pretensions to Burgundy. Francis, on his part, renounced all his right to the Milanese, Flanders, and Artois, and espoused Charles' sister, the widow of the King of Portugal. He also agreed to give two millions of crowns of gold for the ransom of his sons. With this money he was supplied by Henry VIII. of England. These terms were not rery honourable or ad vantageous to France. But the French monarch stained his reputation, by abandoning his allies, the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Duke of Ferrara, to the mercy of Charles.