60 S FRA 
his virtues and accomplifhments dazzled an unthinking 
crowd, blind to the naileries which awaited his impetuous 
v.alonr and inconliderate ambition. 
Mary, after the death of Louis, bellowed her hand on 
Charles Brandon duke of Suffolk; and Francis, who was 
pleafed with a marriage which prevented the king of Eng¬ 
land from forming any powerful alliance by means of his 
filler, reconciled Henry to Mary and her new confort, and 
obtained permiffion for them to return to England. He 
next bellowed the vacant offices of condableand chancel¬ 
lor on Charles duke of Bourbon and Anthony du Prat ; 
and directed his whole attention to the recovery of the 
Milanefe. To fupply the funds for this expedition, he 
not only reftored the taxes which Louis had abolifhed, but 
expofed the offices of the crown to fale, and endeavoured 
to replenifh his coffers by meafures the moll arbitrary and 
impolitic. He now openly avowed his claim 10 the duchy 
of Milan ; nor was he induced to fufpend his refolutions 
by the powerful confederacy formed againd him by the 
emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand of Arragon, pope LSo X. 
Sforza, and the Swifs; the number and refources of his 
enemies feerned only to dimulate his ardour ; the palfes 
of the Alps, which had been occupied by the Swifs, were 
eluded ; new roads were cut by the adtive perfeverance 
of the French ; the army, after having furmounted every 
obdacle of art and nature, entered Italy, and furprifed 
Profper Colonna, the general of the papal forces ; who, 
ignorant of their approach, was negligently encamped 
with a thoufand cavalry on :he banks of the Po. 
Francis, on receiving the intelligence of this fuccefs, 
prepared to join his army ; and, during his abfence, de¬ 
volved the regency of France on his mother Louifa of 
Savoy countefs of Angoulefme; a princefs, whofe cha¬ 
racter in a great meafure influenced the various events 
which diverdfied the reign of her fon. The exquifite 
charms of her face and perfon were fcarcely diminifhed 
by the increafe of years; and in the acquired accomplilh- 
ments of her fex flie Ihone unrivalled. Her ambition and 
third of power were in fome degree juftified by her ta¬ 
lents for government ; die pofieffed courage perfonal and 
political ; penetration, decifion, and a magnanimity fupe- 
rior to adverfity. Yet thefe virtues were frequently over¬ 
whelmed by the impetuous torrent of her padions ; and 
her adminiftration was fullied by the faults and weakneffes 
of a woman. Open to vanity, and dill fufceptible to 
love ; but implacable in her refentments, and actuated 
by the mod malign jealoufy ; impatient of controul, and 
greedy of the national treafures, the wifed projedls were 
difconcerted, and the mod important cnterprifes too often 
baffled, by her infatiate rapacity. 
The king of France, on affuming the command of the 
army, entered the Miknefe, and preffed forwards towards 
the capital. He was oppofed by the Svviffers alone, who 
had encamped at Marignano, about a league from Milan. 
The deady valour of thefe troops had been frequently 
experienced ; but their condancy was fhaken by the al¬ 
luring offer of feven hundred thoufand crowns. While 
they yet hefitated, a reinforcement of ten thoufand of 
their countrymen, and the powerful exhortations of the 
celebrated Matthew Schiener, determined their conduct: 
infpired by his eloquence, and inflamed by a kind of mi¬ 
litary enthufiafm, they furioufly marched forwards to at¬ 
tack the lines of the French. Hiflory fcarcely affords 
any example of £ battle difputed with greater obdinacy 
than that of Marignano. It was begun about four in 
the afternoon, in the month of September, 1515, and 
laded more titan three hours after the clofe of night. 
I.affitude and darknefs fei arated the combatants, without 
abating-their animoflty ; the Swifs renewed the charge in 
the morning with frefh vigour; but they were repulfed 
with cruel daughter ; ten thoufand perilhed on the field ; 
and the red of their forces retired unbroken and undaunt¬ 
ed, dill formidable, although defeated. The lofs of the 
•victors was computed at fix thoufand men; and the intre- 
N C E, 
pidity of Francis expofed hint to the mod imminent dan¬ 
ger. When night fufpended the conflict, he found him- 
felf intermingled with his enemies, and accompanied only 
by a few faithful attendants. On the carriage of a can¬ 
non, completely armed, and anxious for the dawn, he 
fnatched a few moments red ; in every charge he was the 
foremod ; his horfe was wounded, and his body w>as co¬ 
vered with contufions ; but though his perfonal provvefs 
dood unrivalled, the victory of that day was to be afcribed 
to the condable Charles of Bourbon, whofe fkill and 
martial genius were eminently difplayed ; and whofe 
younger brother the duke de Chatelleraud fell gallantly 
fighting by his fide. 
The terror which the battle of Marignano infpired, 
together with the return of the Swifs troops into their 
own country, left Sforza almod deditute of any aflidance. 
He yet fought to prolong the moments of his fovereignty 
by retiring into the cadle of Milan ; but that fortrefs was 
incapable of withdanding tire atdour of 'the French, di¬ 
rected by the duke of Bourbon. It was furrendered to 
that general, together with the city of Cremona ; but 
Sforza at lead obtained honourable conditions from the 
viCtor ; and a fafe retreat, with an ample penfion, were 
affigned him in France. Deditute of talents, he gladly 
retired from a dtuation to which he was unequal, and ex¬ 
pired at lad at Paris, after lingering for fifteen years 
through a life of contempt. 
The death of Ferdinand king of Arragon in 1516, re¬ 
moved the only monarch whofe long experience and nu¬ 
merous refources Francis had reafon to dread. His death 
united under his grandfon Charles archduke of Audria, 
the Netherlands and Franche Comte, the kingdoms of 
Cadile, Arragon, and Naples, with the newly-difcovered 
treafures of the wedern world ; yet many of the dates, 
alarmed for their ancient rights and privileges, confidercd 
Charles as their mod dangerous enemy, and Francis as 
their mod natural ally. This jealoufy, however, vvas 
happily removed by overturesof accommodation between 
the two princes. Connnidioners were appointed, and a 
few days after opening their conferences at Noyon, they 
concluded a treaty, the principal articles of which were, 
that Francis fiiOuld give in marriage to Charles, the 
young king of Spain, his elded, daughter the princefs 
Louifa, an infant of a year old, arid, as her dowry, thould 
make over to him. all his claims and pretenfions upon 
the kingdom of Naples ; that, in conlideration of Charles’s 
being already in poffeflion of Naples, he 11;o 1 Id, until the 
accomplidiment of the marriage, pay an hundred thoufand 
crowns a year to the king of France ; and the half of that 
fum annually as long as the princefs had no children. 
That when Charles Oiould arrive in Spain, the heirs of 
the king of Navarre might reprefent to him their right 
to that kingdom ; and if they obtained not fatisfaclion, 
Francis was left at-liberty to affid them with his forces. 
Such were the conditions of the peace of Noyon, con¬ 
cluded in 15x7 ; too favourable indeed to France for her 
king to expeCt that they would be long obferved. Yet 
they afforded a trandent tranquillity to the fubjeCts of 
thefe rival monarchs ; and the accedion of Maximilian 
to the treaty, huflied the temped of war which had fo 
long agitated Europe. The fatisfaCtion which the king 
derived from the late convention was increafed by the 
birth of a dauphin ; and the liberality of Francis fecn 
gained to his intereds Wolfey, the miniderof Henry VIII, 
of England. By his influence that monarch was pre¬ 
vailed on to redore Tournay, which he had conquered 
from France ; but to render the meafure more palatable, 
it was agreed in 1518, that the dauphin and the princefs 
Mary, both of them infants, diould be betrothed ; that 
this city fhould be confidered as the dowry of the princefs ; 
and that Francis (liould pay fix hundred thoufand crow ns 
for the expences that Henry had been at in repairing the 
fortifications. Encouraged by this fuccefs, the king of 
France extended his views to the recovery of Calais ; but 
though 
