410 
SPAIN. 
gations to the holy father for bringing about the treaty of 
Nice. His troops everywhere mutinied for want of pay, 
and the ability of his generals only could have prevented a 
total revolt. He had depended, as his chief resource for dis¬ 
charging the arrears due to his soldiers, upon the subsidies 
which he expected from his Castilian subjects. For this 
purpose he assembled the Cortes of Castile at Toledo; and 
having represented to them the great expense of his military 
operations, he proposed to levy such supplies as the present 
exigency of affairs demanded, by a general excise on com¬ 
modities ; but the Spaniards, who already felt themselves 
oppressed by a load of taxes unknown to their ancestors, and 
who had often complained that their country was drained of 
its wealth and inhabitants, in order to prosecute quarrels in 
which they had no interest, determined not to add volun¬ 
tarily to their own burdens. The nobles, in particular, 
inveighed with great vehemence against the imposition pro¬ 
posed, as an encroachment on the valuable and distinguish¬ 
ing privilege of their order, that of being exempted from 
the payment of any tax. After employing arguments and 
promises in vain, Charles dismissed the assembly with in¬ 
dignation ; and from that period neither the nobles nor the 
prelates have been called to the Cortes, on pretence that 
such as pay no part of the public taxes should not claim a vote 
in laying them on. These assemblies have until 1812, con¬ 
sisted merely of the procurators or representatives of 18 cities, 
two from each; in all 36 members, who were absolutely at 
the devotion of the crown. 
The citizens of Ghent, still more bold, broke out not long 
after into open rebellion against the emperor’s government, 
on account of a tax which they judged contrary to their 
ancient privileges, and a decision of the council of Mechlin 
in favour of the imperial authority. Enraged at an unjust 
imposition, and rendered desperate on seeing their rights 
betrayed by that very court which was bound to protect 
them, they flew to arms, seized several of the emperor’s 
officers, and drove such of the nobility as resided among 
them out of the city. Sensible, however, of their inability 
to support what their zeal had prompted them to undertake, 
and desirous of securing a protector against the formidable 
forces with which they might expect soon to be attacked, 
they offered to acknowledge the king of France as their 
sovereign, and to put him into immediate possession of their 
city, and to assist him in recovering those provinces in the 
Netherlands which had anciently belonged to his crown. 
True policy should have made Francis comply with this 
proposal. The counties of Flanders and Artois were more 
valuable than the duchy of Milan, for which he had so long 
contended; and their situation in regard to France made it 
more easy to conquer or defend them. But Francis over¬ 
rated the Milanese. He had lived in friendship with the 
emperor ever since the interview at Aigues-mortes, and 
Charles had promised him the investiture of that duchy. 
Forgetting, therefore, all his past injuries, and the deceitful 
promises by which he had been so often duped, the cre¬ 
dulous, generous Francis not only rejected the propositions 
of the citizens of Ghent, but communicated to the emperor 
his whole negociation with the malcontents. 
The emperor, well acquainted with the weakness of bis 
rival, flattered him in the hope of the investiture of Milan. 
The citizens of Ghent, alarmed at the approach of the em¬ 
peror, who was joined by three armies, sent ambassadors to 
implore his mercy, and offered to throw open their gates. 
Charles only condescended to reply, “ That he would appear 
among them as a sovereign and a judge, with the sceptre 
and the sword.” He accordingly entered the place of his 
nativity on the anniversary of his birth ; and instead of that 
lenity which might have been expected, exhibited an awful 
example of his severity. Twenty-six of the principal citizens 
were put to death : a greater number was banished : the city 
was declared to have forfeited his privileges; a new system 
of laws and political administration was prescribed; and a 
large fine was imposed on the inhabitants, in order to 
defray the expense of erecting a citadel, together with an 
annual tax for the support of a garrison. They were not 
only despoiled of their ancient immunities, but made to pay, 
like conquered people, for the means of perpetuatiug their 
own slavery. 
Having thus re-established his authority in the Low Coun¬ 
tries, Charles began gradually to throw aside the veil under 
which he had concealed his intentions with respect to the 
Milanese, and at last peremptorily refused to give up a terri¬ 
tory of such value. 
This transaction exposed the king of France to as much 
scorn as it did the emperor to censure. The former remon¬ 
strated, however, and exclaimed with such resentment as 
made it obvious that he would seize on the first opportunity 
of revenge, and that a new war would soon desolate the 
European continent. 
Meanwhile Charles was obliged to turn his attention 
towards the affairs of Germany. The Protestants having in 
vain demanded a general council, pressed him earnestly to 
appoint a conference between a select number of divines of 
each party, in order to examine the points in dispute. For 
this purpose, a diet was assembled at Ratisbon, which came, 
however, to no important decision, and it gave great offence to 
the pope; the allowing a diet, composed chiefly of laymen, to 
pass judgment in regard to articles of faith, appearing to 
him no less criminal and profane than the worst of heresies. 
The Protestants also were dissatisfied with the resolution of 
the diet, as it considerably abridged the liberty which they 
at that time enjoyed. They murmured loudly against it; and 
Charles, unwilling to leave any seeds of discontent in the em¬ 
pire, granted them a private declaration, exempting them from 
whatever they thought injurious or oppressive in the resolution, 
and confirming to them the possession of their former privileges. 
The situation of the emperor’s affairs at this juncture made 
these extraordinary concessions necessary. He foresaw a 
rupture with France to be unavoidable, and he was alarmed 
at the rapid progress of the Turks in Hungary. 
Happily for the Protestants, Charles received intelligence 
of this revolution soon after the diet at Ratisbon ; by the 
concessions in question, he obtained such liberal supplies, 
both of men and money, as left him under little anxiety 
about the security of Germany. He therefore hastened to 
join his fleet and army in Raly, in order to carry into execu¬ 
tion a great and favourite enterprise which he had con¬ 
certed against Algiers. 
The loss which the emperor suffered in this calamitous 
expedition encouraged the king of France to begin hos¬ 
tilities, on which he had been for some time resolved ; and 
an action dishonourable to civil society furnished him with 
too good a pretext for taking arms The marquis del Guasto, 
governor of the Milanese, having got intelligence of the 
motions and destination of two ambassadors, Rincon and 
Fergoso, whom Francis had dispatched, the one to the 
Ottoman Porte, the other to the republic of Venice; knowing 
how much his master wished to discover the intentions of the 
French monarch, and of what consequence it was to retard 
the execution of his measures, he employed some soldiers be¬ 
longing to the garrison of Pavia to lie in wait for these ambas¬ 
sadors as they sailed down the Po. The latter were murdered 
with most of their attendants, and their papers seized. 
F’rancis immediately demanded reparation for this barbarous 
outrage ; and as Charles endeavoured to put him off with an 
evasive answer, he appealed to all the courts of Europe, 
setting forth the heinousness of the injury, the iniquity of the 
emperor in disgregarding his just request, and the neces¬ 
sity of vengeance. But Charles, who was a more profound 
negociator, defeated in a great measure the effects of these 
representations: he secured the fidelity of the Protestant 
princes in Germany, by granting them new concessions; 
and he engaged the king of England to espouse his cause, 
under pretence of defending Europe against the Infidels; 
while Francis was only able to form an alliance with the 
kings of Denmark and Sweden (who for the first time inter¬ 
ested themselves in the quarrels of the more potent monarchs 
of the south), and to renew his treaty with Solyman. 
But the activity of Francis supplied all the defects of his 
negociation. Five armies were soon ready to take the field, 
under 
