FRANCIS I. 



303 



where he was received with the highest honours. 

 The monarch threw himself at his feet, supplicating 

 him to prolong his life. Francis answered him with 

 dignity, and refused his presents. If he was unable 

 to prolong tlte life of the king, he at least aided him 

 in dying with resignation. Charles VIII. and Louis 

 XII. detained him, with his religious, in France. 

 Charles consulted him on all affairs of importance, 

 built him a monastery in the park of Plessis-lds- 

 Tours, and one at Amboise, and loaded him with 

 honours and tokens of veneration. Other princes, 

 also, gave the Minims proofs of their favour. The 

 king of Spain wished to have the order introduced 

 into his dominions, where they were called the 

 brothers of victory, in commemoration of the deliver- 

 ance of Malaga from the Moors, which had been pre- 

 dicted by Francis. In Paris, they were called bons- 

 hommes. Francis, notwithstanding his rigorous mode 

 of life, attained to a great age. He died at Plessis- 

 les- Tours, April 2, 1507, at the age of ninety-two. 

 Twelve years after his death, he was canonized ; 

 and the Catholic church celebrates his festival April 

 2. See Minims. 



FRANCIS I., king of France, called by his sub- 

 jects, thefat/ter of literature, was born at Cognac, in 

 1494. His father was Charles of Orleans, count of 

 Angouleme, and his mother, Louisa of Savoy. He 

 ascended the throne, January 1, 1515, at the age of 

 twenty-one, on the death of his father-in-law Louis 

 XII. Francis determined to support his claims to 

 Milan, and to take possession of the duchy. The 

 Swiss, who had established the duke of Maximilian 

 Sforza in Milan, held all the principal passes ; but 

 Francis entered Italy over the Alps, by other ways. 

 September 13, 1515, after two days' fighting, he 

 gained a victory over the Swiss, who had attacked 

 him in the plains of Marignano. This was the first 

 battle which the Swiss had lost. They left 10,000 

 men dead on the field. In this engagement the king 

 gave striking proofs of his valour and presence of 

 mind. The old marshal Trivulzio, who had fought 

 eighteen battles, declared they were all child's play 

 compared with this combat de geants. Maximilian 

 Sforza now concluded a peace with Francis, surren- 

 dered Milan, and retired into France, where he 

 passed the rest of his days in tranquil retirement. 

 The Genoese declared for Francis. Leo X., alarmed 

 at his success, met him at Bologna, made peace with 

 him, and granted the well-known concordate. A year 

 after the conquest of Milan (1516), Charles I. of 

 Spain, afterwards the emperor Charles V., and 

 Francis, signed the treaty of Noyon, a principal ar- 

 ticle of which was the restoration of Navarre. This 

 peace, however, lasted but a few years. On the 

 death of Maximilian (1519), Francis was one of 

 the competitors for the empire ; but, in spite of 

 the enormous sums he expended to obtain the suf- 

 frages of the electors, the choice fell on Charles. 

 From this period, Francis became his rival, and 

 was almost continually at war with him ; first on 

 account of Navarre, which he won and lost almost 

 in the same moment. He was more fortunate in 

 Picardy, whence he drove out Charles, who had 

 entered it, invaded Flanders, and took Landrecy, 

 Bouchain and several other places. On the other hand, 

 he lost Milan, with its territory ; and, what was still 

 more sensibly felt by him, the constable of Bourbon, 

 forced, by the intrigues of the queen-mother, to 

 leave France, went over to Charles. This great 

 commander defeated the French in Italy, drove them 

 over the Alps, took Toulon, and laid siege to Mar- 

 seilles. Francis flew to the defence of Provence, 

 and, after delivering it, advanced into the Milanese, 

 and laid siege to Pavia (1524). But, while carrying 

 on this siege in the midst of winter, he was impru- 



dent enough to send 16,000 of his troops to attempt 

 the conquest of Naples, which left him too weak to 

 withstand the forces of the emperor, and he was en- 

 tirely defeated at Pavia, February 24, 1525. He 

 himself, after having two horses killed under him, 

 fell, with his principal officers, into the hands of the 

 enemy. Though surrounded, and without hope of 

 rescue, he yet refused to surrender his sword to a 

 French officer, the only one who had followed the 

 constable. He could not endure the thought that 

 Bourbon should receive this proof of his humiliation. 

 De Laiuioy, viceroy of Naples, was then called, to 

 whom he gave up his sword. On this occasion, he 

 wrote to his mother, " All is lost except our honour." 

 Francis was carried to Madrid, and kept in confine- 

 ment. He could recover his liberty only by signing 

 the severe terms of the treaty of January 14, 1526, 

 by which he renounced his claims to Naples, Milan, 

 Genoa, and Asti, the sovereignty of Flanders and 

 Artois, promised to cede the duchy of Burgundy, and 

 to pay 2,000,000 crowns. As security for the fulfil- 

 ment of these conditions, he was obliged to give up 

 his two youngest sons (for whom he was exchanged 

 on the frontiers) as hostages. But when Lannoy, 

 who accompanied him to Paris, as the ambassador of 

 the emperor, demanded the surrender of Burgundy, 

 Francis led him into the assembly of the Burgundian 

 estates, who declared that the king had no right to 

 dismember the monarchy. In addition to this, Lan- 

 noy had the mortification of witnessing the proclama- 

 tion of the holy league, consisting of the pope, the 

 king of France, the republic of Venice, and all the 

 Italian powers, who agreed to check the advances of 

 the emperor. Francis, the soul of this league, com- 

 manded Lautrec to occupy a part of Lombardy 

 (1527), and thus delivered the pope from the imperial 

 troops. He would likewise have taken Naples, had 

 not the plague destroyed almost the whole of the 

 French army, with their general (1528). This loss 

 hastened the peace of Cambray, signed in 1529. The 

 king of France resigned a part of his claims, and re- 

 tained Burgundy, but was obliged to pay 1,200,000 

 crowns as a ransom for his two sons, and married 

 Eleonora, widow of the king of Portugal, and sister 

 of the emperor. But this peace was of short dura- 

 tion. Milan, the constant object of contention, and 

 the grave of the French, still excited the ambition of 

 Francis. In 1535, he once more invaded Italy, and 

 made himself master of Savoy. But the emperor 

 made a descent upon Provence, and besieged Mar- 

 seilles. In the mean time, Francis entered into an 

 alliance with Soliman II. The imperial army could 

 not maintain itself in Provence. At length, at a 

 conference, which took place at Nice, between the 

 king and Charles, through the mediation of the pope 

 (1538), a truce of ten years was conchided. The 

 emperor, who some time after passed through France, 

 to chastise the rebeUious citizens of Ghent, in a per- 

 sonal interview with Francis, promised to invest one 

 of his sons with the sovereignty of Milan ; but no 

 sooner had he left France than he refused to fulfil his 

 promise. In 1541, the imperial governor del Guasto 

 caused the French ambassadors, who had been ap- 

 pointed to Venice and Constantinople, to be murdered 

 on the Po, and war was again kindled. Francis sent 

 armies into Italy, Roussillon, and Luxembourg. 

 Count d'Enghien defeated the imperialists at Ceri- 

 soles, in 1544, and rendered himself master of Mont- 

 ferrat. France now promised herself important ad- 

 vantages from an alliance with Sweden and Algiers, 

 when her hopes were destroyed by the alliance of 

 Charles V. and Henry VIII., king of England. The 

 allies invaded Picardy and Champagne. The em- 

 peror rendered himself master of Soissons ; the kin" 

 of England took Boulogne. Fortunately for France, 



