The Court and Reign of Francis the First, King of France

Front matter

THE COURT AND REIGN OF FRANCIS THE FIRST KING OF FRANCE IF* IR. AM € IS IIs? (£a , ria^ices DESIGNED J3Y LE GROS Ss ENGRAVED BY JOS BROWN, AFTER THE PORTRAIT BY TITIAN Lot ■ '. a BenQcy. ttSon THE COURT AND REIGN OF FRANCIS THE FIRST Httig of jFrance BY JULIA P A R D 0_E^ AUTHOR OF 'LOUIS XIV.' 'THE CITY OF THE SU*LWkN,' ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. I. LONDON RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON Pu&iisfjers in ©rtitmro to pjer fHajcstp H>e ©uem Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh TO MY BELOVED FATHER THE PROTECTOR OF MY INFANCY THE GUIDE OF MY GIRLHOOD AND THE FRIEND OF MY RIPER YEARS ®fr£2£ 3JsllumEB ARE VERY AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

Preface

In attempting a record of the Court and Reign of Francis I. I did not for a moment seek to blind myself to the extreme difficulty of the task which I was about to undertake. The successor of Louis XII. has been so universally quoted as the most chivalrous monarch who ever filled an European throne, that those who are only superficially acquainted with his history cannot fail to anticipate a succession of brilliant actions, generous self-sacrifices, refined gallantries, and noble feats of arms. Time and truth have, however, alike tended to place his character in a less ele vated point of view ; and the truth may well be said to have been born of time, for it is only of late years that any French historian has been permitted to allow that a sovereign of France could err. Who that is acquainted with the anecdote can have forgotten the caution given by the Cardinal de Richelieu to an honest and conscientious chronicler, whose zeal had betrayed him into sundry animadversions on a crowned head long laid in the royal mausoleum of St. Denis ?

" Sir," said the minister sternly to the scholar, whom he had summoned to his presence, " you must revise your work. You have been guilty of treason ; you have dared to vilify a king." " I have only recorded well-authenticated facts, your eminence."

PREFACE.

VIII " Perhaps so ; but those facts were not your property. The person and fame of a monarch are alike sacred." " Mo7iseigneur will permit me to remind him that Louis XL has been dead two centuries." "And what of that, sir?" retorted the cardinal sharply. " Understand that it is treason to discuss the actions of a king who has only been dead two centuries." Upon the principle here educed most of the ancient French historians appear to have scrupulously acted ; and thus it is only by a reference to the more confidential records and correspondence of the period that a modern writer can hope to arrive at a just estimate of the charac ter and motives of the sovereign whom he seeks to portray " in his habit as he lived." There can be little doubt that much of the prestige which attaches to the name of Francis I. may be attributed to this circumstance.

To the great mass of readers, alike French and English, he is necessarily known only through the medium of the old and well-tutored chroniclers, or rather, through the modern histories which have been compiled exclusively upon their authority ; and thus, thanks to the timid and time-serving policy of those writers, the " divinity that doth hedge a king " has pro tected his renown throughout the lapse of centuries. For this impunity Francis I. is consequently mainly indebted to the scarcity of familiar chronicles during an age in which, the whole of Europe being almost perpetually in a state of warfare, few cared to register the mere domestic events of the period. Fortunately, however, for the after labourers in the same vineyard, the love of Court gossip was not altogether extinct, and thus some glimpses are afforded of the man as well as of the monarch. It was with the witty and accomplished Marguerite de Valois, his sister, that the taste originated for perpetuating

PREFACE.

IX by the pen the current of passing circumstances ; and it is to her example that posterity is indebted for that courtly cacoethes scribendi by which the annals of subsequent reigns have been so greatly enriched. In this paucity of authentic detail has consisted, as I was aware that it must do, the great difficulty of my task ; but. as I resolved not to insert a single incident into the work for which I had not competent authority, the Court scenes scattered through the following pages may all be accepted as facts, and the reader will be enabled from them to form his own estimate of the claim of Francis I. to be considered as the chivalric monarch par excellence. The glorious day of Marignano saw the rising, and that of Pavia the setting of his fame as a soldier ; so true it is that the prowess of the man was shamed by that of the boy.

The early and unregretted death of one of his neglected queens, and the heart-broken endurance of the other, contrasted with the unbounded influence of his first favourite, and the insolent arrogance of his second, will sufficiently demonstrate his character as a husband. His open and illegal oppression of an over-taxed and suffering people, to satisfy the cravings of an extortionate and licentious Court, will suffice to disclose his value as a monarch ; while the reckless indifference with which he falsified his political pledges, abandoned his allies in their extremity in order to further his own interests, and sacrificed the welfare of his kingdom and the safety of his armies to his own puerile vanity, will complete a picture by no means calculated to elicit one regret that his reign was not pro longed.

Despite this drawback, however, the period was one of great and absorbing interest. The fierce and continual struggle for power between Francis and Charles V.; the well-earned renown of the several generals on both sides ;

PREFACE.

X the names of the Connetable Due de Bourbon, Bayard, Pescara, Da Leyva, Doria, Gaston de Foix, Lautrec, and a host of others equally brave ; the bright galaxy of beauty which adorned the Court — the fair and gentle Madame de Chateaubriand, the haughty and voluptuous Duchesse d'Etampes, the magnificent Diane de Poitiers, the mature, but still attractive Louise de Savoie, the strong-minded and intellectual Marguerite de Valois, and the beautiful Catherine de' Medici, — all combine to invest the age with a charm and a romance totally independent of the personal character of the monarch ; while the fact of its having been the period of the mission of LUTHER, and the crown ing work of the REFORMATION, suffices of itself to render it the greatest landmark on the whole highway of history. Never, perhaps, did the reign of any European sovereign present so many and such varying phases.

A con test for empire, a captive monarch, a female regency, and a religious war ; the poisoned bowl and the burning pile alike doing their work of death amid scenes of uncalculating splendour and unbridled dissipation ; the atrocities of bigotry and intolerance, blent with the most unblushing licentiousness and the most undisguised profligacy; — such are the materials offered to the student by the times of Francis I. Here, as was the case in a former work, I have com menced my volumes by a brief glance at the conclusion of the previous reign ; and, although censured by one of my critics upon that occasion for the introduction of retrospec tive matter, I have in this instance advisedly pursued the same system, from a conviction that the book must fall into the hands of many individuals who, from want of time or opportunity, must necessarily be unacquainted with the precise position of the French nation on the accession of Francis I. To the historical student this preliminary

PREFACE.

XI sketch will be, of course, supererogatory; but as this is not a period at which any author can feel justified in writing only for a class, I believe that a succinct narrative of pre ceding events will tend to render the work more generally acceptable ; and I have, consequently, not suffered myself to be deterred from acting upon that conviction. The scholar will therefore forgive me if, in seeking to augment the gratification of the less learned reader, I have dwelt for a time upon persons and events which, although living and occurring before he ascended the French throne, were destined to exert a powerful influence over the Court and reign of Francis himself. The Shrubbery, NORTHFLEET, KENT. TiOTxdct-n.^l'lic'ha.rd. BeuLL- *.* of the following work, Julia S. H. Pardoe, was the second daughter of Major Thomas Pardoe of the Royal Waggon Train (the precursor of the Transport Corps) — an able officer, who, after serving with dis tinction and winning the confidence and affection of the men he led in the Peninsular campaign and on the field of Waterloo, retired from active service.

His family was said to be of Spanish extraction. Miss Pardoe was born at Beverley, in Yorkshire, in 1806, and at an early age manifested the literary tastes and talents which afterwards distinguished her. Her first work was a volume of Poems, dedicated to her uncle, Captain William Pardoe of the Royal Navy, published when she was only thirteen years old and was followed in a few years by an historical romance of the time of William the Conqueror, called Lord Morcas of Hereward. Being recom mended, on account of consumptive symptoms, to seek a warmer climate, Miss Pardoe spent fifteen months abroad, and embodied her observations on her return to England in Traitsand Traditions of Portugal (dedicated to H.R.H. Princess Augusta, vol. 1 who took a warm interest in the young authoress), the first of her works to attract much notice.

Written in early youth and amidst the brilliant scenes it described, it had the charm of freshness and en thusiasm, and it is not surprising that a second edition was quickly called for. In 1S35 Julia Pardoe accompanied her father to Constantinople, and although a frightful visitation of cholera raged there during her visit, her sojourn in the East appears to have more than realised her most sanguine expectations. "When," she says, " favoured by circumstances which seemed to shape themselves to my wishes in a manner to make me doubt whether the spells of fairyland were indeed all broken, I was enabled to penetrate to the very centre of Turkish society, and to domesticate myself both with princes and peasants, I found that the fallacies which had evaporated would have been but a sorry exchange for the reality that remained, and I gave the advantage to the fact over the anticipation."1 Half a century ago a lady's narrative of Eastern travel was much more novel and noticeable than it would now be, and probably no English authoress since Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had been so intimately acquainted with Turkish life as Miss Pardoe.

Her City of the Sultan, Beauties of the Bosphorus, and Romance of the Harem, accordingly became deservedly popular, especially the two former, which were profusely and beautifully illustrated ; and 1 New introduction to an edition of the Beauties of the Bosphorus. published about the time of the Crimean War. Miss Pardoe was induced in 1838 to publish a series of letters describing the earlier part of her journey to the East, under the title of The River and the Desert: or, Recollections of the Rhine and the Char treuse. A tour through the Austrian empire with her family enabled her to collect the materials for The City of the Magyar: or, Hungary and its Insti tutions, issued in 1840, remarkable at that time for its ample statistics and careful research, and eliciting from one of her critics the acknowledgment that.

" without the sacrifice of truth or utility, she gave to the world a work which possessed all the charm and excitement of a romance." The same country inspired her Hungarian Castle, preceded and followed by nine or ten other novels popular in their day ; but it was not until 1847 that Miss Pardoe produced the first of those historical works on which her fame principally rests. This was Louis the Foztrteenth: or, the Court of the Seventeenth Century, which, it has been justly remarked, combines "the lively spirit of a French biography with a well-defined picture of an historical epoch." It was followed by The Court and Reign of Francis the First, and The Life of Marie de Medici, and a residence in France was recorded in Pilgrimages in Paris. Her health having suffered from long-continued study and perseverance in literary work, Miss Pardoe left London to reside with her parents in Kent, still occasionally writing fiction, and contributing to maga zines.

Her industrious and successful literary career was brought to a close in 1862, when, after suffering from insomnia, she died at Upper Montagu Street on Wednesday 26th November. [The portrait accompanying these lines was engraved by Samuel Freeman, in 1849, from an original drawing by J. Lilley.] CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME

Chapter I

Accession of Francis I. — Misgivings of Louis XII. — Prudence of Louis XII. — His marriage with Jeanne de France— His attachment to Anne de Bretagne — Betrothal of the dauphin, afterwards Charles VIII. — His roman- ' tic passion for Anne de Bretagne — Love of Madame de Beaujeu for the Due d'Orleans — Accession of Charles VIII. — Revolt of the Due d'Orleans — His imprisonment — Restored to liberty at the intercession of his wife — Charles refuses to marry Margaret of Austria — Indignation of the emperor — Proposals of marriage from Charles VIII. to Anne de Bretagne — Reluctance of the young duchess — She yields — Her coronation — Death of Charles VIII. — Anne promises her hand to Louis XII. — Marriage of Louis XII. to Jeanne de France annulled by Alexander VI. — Death of Jeanne de France — Marriage of Louis XII. and Anne de Bretagne — Birth of Francis I. — Comte d'Angouleme — Jealousy of the Comtesse d'Angouleme and the queen — Comtesse d'Angouleme exiled to Amboise — Marechal de Gie appointed governor to the young prince — Accomplishments of Francis — Attachment of M. de Gi<£ to Madame d'Angouleme— Arrival of the Court at Amboise — Household of the queen — Her ostentation — Conflicting politics — Departure of the Court — Charles de Montpensier — His passion for Marguerite de Valois — Her education— Jealousy of GaufHer — The Comte de Montpensier quarrels with the prince — Leaves Amboise — M. de Vanclenesse — Intrigue of Louise de Savoie — M. de Vandenesse dismissed by M. de Gie — Illness of the king — Anxiety of Anne de Bretagne — The queen enters into a treaty of marriage between her daughter and the Archduke Charles — Revenge of M. de &6 — He seizes the queen's property at Namur — His trial — His exile — Treaty of Blois — Mortification of Madame d'Angouleme .........

Page I CONTENTS' XVIII

Chapter II

1504-7 Marguerite de Valois asked in marriage by Henry VII. — Refusal of Louis XII. — Marguerite married to the Due d'Alencon — Her reluctance — Motives of the king — Her writings — Relapse of Louis XII. — Death of Isabella of Spain — Marriage of Germaine de Foix with Ferdinand of Castile — The States-General assembled — Francis betrothed to the Princesse Claude — Death of the Archduke Philip — Jeanne la Folle — The Pope determines on war — Character of Julius II. — Louis sends an army to Bologna — Genoa revolts — Wanton cruelties perpetrated by the Genoese — Louis proceeds to Italy at the head of a large army — Genoa capitulates — Louis XII. takes possession of the city — A Court festival — Dancing bishops — Interview between Louis XII. and Ferdinand — Gonsalvo de Cardova — Refusal of the Pope to meet Louis XII. . . Page 38

Chapter III

1508-12 Julius II. endeavours to subjugate Venice — The Venetians attempt to propitiate Germany and Spain — Treaty between the Four Great Powers — The French army re-enters Italy — Battle of Agnadello — Success of Louis XII. — Despair of the Venetians — Weakness of Maximilian — The Venetians take Padua — The Swiss desert — Flight of the emperor — Louis returns to France — Hostility of the Pope towards France — Defection of Ferdinand — Louis threatened with excommunication — The Pope proceeds with his army to Mirandola — Heroic defence of the Countess Francesca Pico — Death of the Cardinal d'Amboise — The Pope enters into a league with England and Spain — Gallantry of Gaston de Fcix — Victory of Ravenna — Death of Gaston de Foix — The French return to the Milanese ........... 59

Chapter IV

1513 Effects of the battle of Ravenna — Religious scruples of the queen — The Pope raises a force in Switzerland — The emperor withdraws his subjects from the French army — Maximilian Sforza enters Milan — The Genoese revolt — Lord Dorset lands in Spain, is disgusted, and withdraws — Intrigues of Ferdinand — Louis XII. invests Francis with the command of the army of the Milanese — The Spanish general declines his challenge — The CONTENTS XIX French raise their camp before Pampeluna, and repass the Alps — Light heartedness of Francis — A prince and an advocate — Licentiousness of Francis — Ancient notions of piety — France enters into a league with the Venetian states — Treaty of marriage between the Archduke Charles and the Princesse Renee — Union of Venice with France — Death of Julius II. — Accession of Leo X. — His enmity to France — Louis XII. endeavours to propitiate him, but fails — He concludes a truce with Fer dinand and the Venetians — The Swiss take up arms against France — Ferdinand and Henry VIII. join the cause of the Pope — Louis again invades the, Milanese — Takes the principal cities — Battle of Vivegano — The French are driven from the Milanese — Louis mortgages a portion of the crown land — Henry VIII. invades France, and besieges Terouenne — Louis proceeds to Calais — Bayard captures an English gun — Famine in the city — Maximilian joins the English king — The battle of the Spurs — Bayard wins his ransom — Honours rendered to Bayard by Maximilian and Henry VIII. — Louis withdraws his army into Picardy . Page 79

Chapter V

1513-14 Divisions among the French generals — Francis appointed to the command of the new army — Terouenne capitulates, and is destroyed by Henry VIII. — Burgundy revolts — The Swiss determine to invade France — They are worsted at Dijon, and enter into a treaty with the French general — The treaty is disavowed by Louis — Dismal prospects of France — Henry VIII. enters Tournay, and returns to England — A twelvemonths' truce signed by the European sovereigns — Death of Anne de Bretagne — Grief of the king — Marriage of the Princesse Claude and Francis — The Court mourning — Louis urged to take a third wife- — The Due de Longueville negotiates for the hand of the Princess Mary of England — Misunderstanding between the two monarchs— The treaty is renewed — Betrothal of the contracting parties — Mary and Brandon, Duke of Suffolk — Arrival of the young queen in France — Anne Boleyn — The royal marriage— Court festivities — ■ Mary becomes enamoured of Francis — Position of the Princesse Claude — A courtier's caution — Accusation of Brantome — Illness of Louis XII. — His last interview with Francis — Death of Louis XII 109

Chapter VI

1515 The queen cedes her estates to her husband — The Bretons disallow her right — Enthusiasm of the French people on the accession of Francis — His CONTENTS XX coronation — His interview with Queen Mary — His caution to Suffolk — Brandon marries the widowed queen — Is reproached by Francis for his perfidy — But reconciled to Henry at the entreaty of his wife, and returns to England — Francis makes his public entry into Paris— His profusion — His romantic tastes — His high spirit — He forms his government— Charles de Bourbon created Constable of France — Marriage of Mademoiselle de Bourbon with the Due de Lorraine — The king and the wild boar— The Court of Madame d'Angouleme — Her maids of honour — Circle of the queen — Her love of retirement — Francis resolves to recover the Milanese — The Archduke Charles sends ambassadors to France — Is promised the hand of the Princesse Renee, the queen's sister — Henry of Nassau — He marries Claudine de Chalon — State of Europe — Treaty between France and England — Francis endeavours to conciliate the Swiss — They threaten to invade France — Francis marches a strong force towards Burgundy — Ferdinand endeavours to alarm the Pope and the Emperor — Francis removes to Amboise, and sends an embassy to Rome . . Page 133

Chapter VII

iSiS Francis organizes his army — The queen's farewell reception— Magnificence of Bourbon — Emotion of Marguerite de Valois — Jealousy of Bonnivet — Their parting — Indiscretion of Bonnivet — Difficulty in replenishing the treasury — Discontent of the Parliament — Madame d'Angouleme appointed regent — Character of Louise de Savoie — Amount of the French army — Its distribution — Difficulty in passing the Alps — Perseverance of the troops — The vanguard enters Italy — Surprise of Prosper Colonna — His capture — Delivers his sword to Bayard — Alessandria and Tortona taken by the French — Alarm of the Pope — Retreat of the Swiss — Francis endeavours to conciliate them, but fails through the agency of the Cardinal of Sion — The Swiss troops attempt to seize the public chest at Buffaloro — Their leaders apprize Lautrec of the project — They evacuate Italy — Bayard solicits the king's permission to attack the enemy, but is refused — Francis marches upon Turin — He is joined by the Due dc Gueldres — The French headquarters are established at Marignano — Cardona refuses to pass the Po — D'Alviano reaches Lodi — Indignation of Francis against the Swiss — The Cardinal of Sion harangues the mercenary troops — Fleuranges alarms the garrison— The Swiss troops march upon Marignano — The king is apprized of their approach — Battle of Marignano — Francis narrowly escapes capture — Bayard is unhorsed, but effects his retreat — The battle-couch of Francis — The attack is resumed at daybreak — The Swiss troops retreat, and return to Milan, whence they proceed homeward, pursued by D'Alviano — The price of victory — Francis receives knighthood on the field at the hands of Bayard, and confers it upon Fleuranges— The French march to Milan — The Swiss revolt against the CONTENTS XXI Cardinal of Sion, who secures his safety by flight — Reception of the French king by the citizens of Milan — Maximilian Sforza surrenders to Francis — Generosity of the conqueror— The Milanese take the oath of allegiance to France .......

Page 160

Chapter VIII

1515-17 Leo X. proposes a treaty with France, which is ratified at Viterbo — His tergiversation— Francis proceeds to Bologna to meet the Pope — Policy of the pontiff — A league is formed between the two potentates — Francis agrees to abandon his designs on Naples — The question of the Pragmatic Sanction is discussed — Discontent of the University of Paris — Leo X. endeavours to induce Francis to undertake a crusade against the Turks — The Concordat is signed — Exultation of the French people — Ferdinand of Aragon endeavours to arouse the jealousy of Henry VIII. against France — The emperor raises a powerful army — Lautrec besieges Brescia, but is repulsed, and compelled to retire to Milan — The Due de Bourbon destroys the faubourgs of the city, and disbands the Swiss troops — The emperor threatens to raze the city of Milan — The Swiss refuse to act — Maximilian escapes by night from the camp — The siege of Milan is raised — The Swiss troops are recalled by the Diet — The Imperialists evacuate the Milanese — Disgrace of Maximilian — Brescia capitulates — Death of Ferdinand of Aragon — He bequeaths his kingdom to the Archduke Charles — Francis issues several edicts which are unfavourably received by his subjects — Arrogance of the chancellor — Education of Charles of Aragon — His prospects — He endeavours to conciliate Francis — Jealousy of M. de Chievres against the Cardinal Ximenes — Charles sends an ambassador to France — The two monarchs enter into a treaty of alliance — The hand of the infant Princesse Louise promised to the Spanish king — The peace of Noyon — Maximilian accedes to the treaty — State of the Venetian territories — Francis opens a negotiation with the Helvetic States, and concludes a treaty of amity with Switzerland 202

Chapter IX

1515-17 Domestic life of Francis — The Court of Queen Claude — Anticipated birth of a dauphin — Circle of Madame d'Angouleme — Licentiousness of the young king — -He resolves to form a distinct Court — The Comtesse de Chateaubriand — Her birth and girlhood — Her marriage — The count is summoned to Court — His forebodings — The mystic rings — Mistaken confidence — Reception of the count by Francis — Treachery of a confidant — The CONTENTS XXII countess arrives at Chambord — Displeasure of her husband — A misunderstanding — The queen's reception — Presentation of the countess to the king — The queen and the countess — Mistaken violence of M. de Chateau briand — The influence of a Court atmosphere — Policy of Louise de Savoie — M. de Chateaubriand retires from the Court . . . Page 226

Chapter X

1517-18 Francis forms projects for the embellishment of his kingdom and the encouragement of literature — Birth of a dauphin — Francis invites Leo X. to become sponsor to the young prince — The royal christening — Resignation of Queen Claude — Marriage of Lorenzo de' Medici and Madelaine de la Tour-d'Auvergne — Munificence of the Pope — A fancy ball in the sixteenth century — The bridal banquet — Increasing influence of Madame de Chateaubriand — Louise de Savoie becomes jealous of her power over the king — Forbearance of the queen — The countess pushes the fortunes of her brothers — The hunting-party — Lautrec appointed governor of the Milanese — The recall of Bourbon — Indignation of the duchess-mother — Bourbon arrives at Court — Love visions — Jealousy of Francis — The chancellor endeavours to effect the recognition of the Concordat — Perplexity of the king — Magisterial corruption — Pertinacity of Francis — Dismissal of the delegates — Registration of the Concordat — Demonstration of the university — Unpopularity of the king . . . 242 -

Chapter XI

1518 The progress of literature — Leonardo da Vinci — Native talent — Tact of Francis — An Italian charlatan — Erasmus invited to France — He refuses to leave England — Cupidity of Leo X. — Martin Luther — Increasing favour of Madame de Chateaubriand — Unbounded authority of Louise de Savoie— Arrogance of the French king — His profusion — Lautrec disgusts the Milanese — The Marechal Trivulzio — Intrigues of the favourite — Trivulzio is declared a traitor — He demands an audience of the king, is refused, and dies broken-hearted— The vacant b&ton is conferred upon M. de Lescun ......... 267

Chapter XII

1518 Increasing popularity of Charles of Spain — Bonnivet is sent on a mission to England — A league is proposed by Francis to Henry against the Turks — CONTENTS XXIII And the marriage of the infant dauphin with the Princess Mary — The reception of the embassy at the Court of England — Bonnivet secures the interest of Wolsey — Francis enters into a correspondence with the car dinal — Wolsey resigns the bishopric of Tournay — Suspicions of Henry VIII. — The treaty is concluded— The hostages — The betrothal at St. Paul's— The French embassy leaves England — The Earl of Worcester arrives in France — Reluctance of the Earl of Worcester to deliver up the city of Tournay — Indignation of M. de ChatUlon — The betrothal is repeated at St. Denis — The ambassadors leave France — Francis fortifies Tournay and Terouenne — The French king endeavours to conciliate Charles of Castile — The Turks threaten Italy — Francis declares his in tention of joining the Crusade — Death of the Sultan — Charles aspires to be elected Emperor of Germany — Rivalry of Charles and Francis — Maximilian demands the crown of Rome — Intrigues of Leo X. — Chivalric diplomacy — Bonnivet is despatched to Frankfort — Precarious position of Germany — Death of Maximilian — Its effect upon the affairs of Europe — Francis bribes the electoral princes . . Page 28 5

Chapter XIII

1519 A struggle for empire — Contrast between Charles and Francis — Able government of the Cardinal Ximenes — He is displaced and dies — The Germans favour the pretensions of Francis — Tergiversation of the Pope — Duplicity of Henry VIII. — Supineness of the pettv princes — Wily policy of Charles — Germaine de Foix — Francis offends the prejudices of the Flemish — Robert de la Mark — Seckingen — His introduction to the French king — Mutual misgivings — The Due de Gueldres is disgraced at the instigation of Louise de Savoie — Her double dealing — M. de la Mark and the Bishop of Liege join the cause of Charles — Disgust of Seckingen — He joins the princes of Bouillon — Charles of Austria attacks the Turkish galleys .......... 306