FRANCE. 
701 
mife from him at this juncture, when it rather might 
deem to be extorted by neceflity, than to flow from friend- 
fhip, or the love of juftice. The French king, open and 
generous in his difpofition, fell into the fnare of his artful 
rival ; he readily afl'ented to all the emperor demanded ; 
he offered his two fons, the dauphin and the duke of Or¬ 
leans, as fecurities for his perfon ; and in 1539, enter¬ 
tained him in his capital for fix days with every mark of 
refpeCt and royal magnificence. But Charles had no 
fooner reached his own territories, than the French am- 
baffadots demanded the reftitution of the Milanefe ; for 
leveral months the king of France was deluded by the 
ambiguous anfwers and fpecious delays of the emperor. 
The revolted Flemings were at length completely hum¬ 
bled, and Charles relinquiflied the difguife which was no 
longer necellary ; he peremptorily refufed to give up a 
territory of fuch value, and denied that he had ever made 
any promife which could bind him to an aCtion fo weak 
and imprudent. 
Francis was overcome with indignation when he found 
himfelf thus egregioufly outwitted ; the credulous fimpli- 
city with which he had t tufted his rival, expofed him to the 
ridicule of all Europe.. He now filled every court with 
frefh negociations; but Henry of England had lately beheld 
with fufpicion his frequent interviews with the emperor, 
and his alliance with the king of Scotland ; the pope cho.fe’ 
to maintain an impartial neutrality ; and fultan Solyman 
alone embraced his proffered alliance, and declared himfelf 
ready to avenge his wrongs. Two of theagents of Francis, 
as they returned from the Ottoman Porte, were afl'affinated 
at the inftigation of the marquis del Guafto, governor of 
the Milanefe. The French monarch loudly accufed this 
foul violation of the laws of nations, and demanded the 
punifhment of the atrocious contriver of the guilty deed : 
his demands were eluded ; and he embraced the oppor¬ 
tunity of extorting by arms that juftice which he vainly 
fought in negociating. A difeafe, the effect of his irre¬ 
gular pleafures, precluded Francis from heading his forces 
in perfon; but it did not impede the vigour of his prepa¬ 
rations. The emperor Charles V. was fcarcely returned 
from his fecond expedition again!! the infidels in Africa, 
before the French monarch invaded his dominions with 
five formidable armies. Spain, Luxembourg, Brabant, 
Flanders, and Piedmont, were the objects of their ope¬ 
rations. In the two former countries, the dauphin and 
the duke of Orleans opened the campaign, in 1542. The 
firft laid fiege to Perpignan, the capital of Rouffillon ; 
the laft entered Luxembourg, and reduced the greateft: 
part of the duchy ; but on a report that the emperor was 
advancing to the relief of Perpignan, the duke of Orleans 
imprudently abandoned his conquefts, and haftened to join 
the army of the dauphin. Charles, however anxious he 
might be for the fate of that city, determined not to ha¬ 
zard a decifive engagement ; but committed the defence 
of it to the perfevering valour of the duke of Alva. 
The French, after a fiege of three months, wafted by 
difeafes, and repulfed in feveral attacks, abandoned the 
undertaking, and retired into their own country ; their 
attempts in Brabant, Flanders, and Piedmont, were equally 
unfuccefsful ; and the mighty preparations of Francis 
were thus wafted in ineffectual enterprifes. 
The revolted inhabitants of Rochelle were in 1543, re¬ 
duced by the arms, and pardoned by the clemency, of 
their fovereign ; but the fatisfaftion which Francis de¬ 
rived from this event, was loft in his public rupture with 
the king of England. The French monarch, on his fide, 
poffeffed himfelf of Luxembourg, and, in conjunction 
with fultan Solyman, laid fiege to Nice; but this enter- 
prife proved as unfuccefsful as his alliance with the infi¬ 
del was difhonourable; and the reft of the campaign was 
confumed by all parties in a feeble and defultory war. 
The next, A.D. 1344, opened with more vigour; the 
young count d’Enguicn penetrated into Piedmont, and 
defeated in the battle of Cerizoles the imperial general 
?he marquis del Guafto; but his troops were recalled 
from the purfuit of this victory to oppofe a more formi¬ 
dable enemy. Charles and Henry had entered Picardy 
with two prodigious armies; had they joined their 
forces, and rapidly advanced, Paris mud have again ac¬ 
knowledged the dominion of a foreign mafter; but the 
former obftinately perfevered in the fiege of St. Difier, and 
the latter refufed to abandon his attempt on Boulogne. 
Francis, oppyefied by difeafe, committed bis army to the 
command of the dauphin. St Difier was at Lift betrayed 
to the emperor by an artifice ; but the beft of his troops 
had perifhed in (he liege ; he, however, entered Cham¬ 
pagne, poffeffed himfelf of Efpernay and Clfat.eau-Thi- 
erri, not above two days inarch from Paris, which (truck 
terror into the luxurious inhabitants of that gay metro¬ 
polis ; but the dauphin at this critical moment threw him¬ 
felf between the forces of Charles and the capital, reftored 
confidence to the Parifians, and harraffed by inceffant (kir- 
mifties the imperial army. Charles, ftraitened for forage 
and provilion, liftened to terms of accommodation ; a de¬ 
finitive treaty was figned at Crefpy, by which Francis re- 
figned his acquifitior.s in Savoy and Piedmont; and the 
emperor engaged, in the fpace of two years, to beftow on 
the duke of Orleans his daughter, or his niece, in mar¬ 
riage, with the Low Countries, or the Milanefe, in dowry. 
A.D. 1544. 
Before the negociations at Crefpy were concluded, the 
king of England had reduced Boulogne ; and Francis, to 
recover that important place, advanced with his younger 
fon, the duke of Orleans, to the abbey of Foret-Mouftier, 
between Abbeville and Montreuil. He was here doomed 
to experience a new affliction by the death of that prince, 
who expired in 1345, of a peftilential fever; and Charles 
immediately declared that by this accident he held him¬ 
felf acquitted from all his agreements relative to the Mi¬ 
lanefe. The lofs of the duke of Orleans was followed by 
that of the count d’Enguien, in 1546, who had acquired 
an immortal reputation by the victory of Cerizoles; and 
the death of both thefe princes imp re (Ted Francis with a 
grief, which even.an advantageous peace with England 
could not mitigate. Though at length, finally delivered 
from the cares of war which had afflicted the greateft part 
of his reign, the remaining hours of his life were embit¬ 
tered by dome’fti’c contention. The enmity and intrigues 
of his own miftrefs the duchefs d’Eftampes, and of Diana 
de Poitiers, miftrefs to the dauphin, divided tiie court 
into open and implacable factions; the death of Henry 
VIII. of England deeply wounded Francis* who had long 
known and perfcnally ioved that monarch. His own dif- 
order, refulting from an impure and infatiable indulgence 
with the fex, continually preyed upon hint ; he wandered 
from one palace to another, languid and depreffed; at 
length at Raiubouillet, with exemplary compofure, he 
clofed, in the fifty-third year of his age, A.D. 1347, a 
reign of thirty-two years, diftinguiflied by its length, its 
fplendour, and its viciffitudes of fortune. The magnifi¬ 
cence which accompanied him through life, deferted him 
not in death ; his funeral cbfequies were performed with 
unufual pomp ; and the proclamation which announced 
His death, difplayed his character : “A prince mild in 
peace, and victorious in war ; the father and reftorer of 
learning, and of the liberal fciences.” 
When Henry II. afeended the throne of France, he was 
in the twenty ninth y^ar of his age. The dying injunc¬ 
tions of his father had exhorted him never to recal the 
conftable Montmorency, nor to encourage the dangerous 
ambition of the lioufe of Guife ; but the former was load¬ 
ed with honours, and the latter entrufted with unlimitted 
confidence. The king, atythe early age of thirteen, had 
efpoufed Catharine of Medicis; which princefs had a few 
years fince brought him a fon, who was named Francis ; 
but thofe feducing arts for which (lie was afterwards, fo 
eminent, feem not to have fafeinated the mind of her luif- 
band, who rather profelfed himfelf the willing Have ot 
Diana de Poitiers, duchefs of Valqntinois. 
In 1549, Henry was engaged in quelling a fedition . 
which 
