it; and said, he only valued it, as it would prove the occation of restoring peace to Christendom. Louisa, however, did not trust to those appearances. Instead of giving her self up to such lamentations as were natural to a woman remarkable for maternal tenderness, she discovered all the foresight, and exerted all the activity of a consummate politician. She took every possible measure for putting the kingdom in a posture of defence, while she employed all her address to appease the resentment and to gain the friendship of England20; and a ray of comfort from that quarter soon broke in upon the French affairs.

Though Henry VIII. had not entered into the war against France from any concerted political views, he had always retained some imperfect idea of that balance of power necessary to be maintained between Charles and Francis, the preservation of which he boasted was his peculiar office. By his alliance with the emperor, he hoped to recover some part of those territories on the continent which had belonged to his ancestors: and in that hope, he willingly contributed to give Charles the ascendancy above his rival. But having never dreamt of any event so decisive and fatal as the victory of Pavia, which seemed not only to have broken, but to have annihilated the power of Francis, Henry now be came sensible of his own danger, as well as that of all Europe, from the loss of a proper counterpoise to the power of Charles. Instead of taking advantage of the distressed condition of France, the English monarch therefore determined to assist her in her present calamities. Other causes conspired to enforce this resolution.

The elevation of the cardinal of Medicis to St. Peter's chair, on the death of Adrian VI. under the name of Clement VII. had made the English minister sensible of the insincerity of the emperor's promises, while it extinguished all his hopes of the papacy: and Wolsey resolved on revenge.

20. Ibid.

His master too had ground of complaint. Charles had so ill supported the appearance of moderation which he assumed, when first informed of his good fortune, that he had already changed his usual style to Henry; and instead of writing to him with his own hand, and subscribing himself" your affec"tionate son and cousin," he dictated his letters to a secretary, and simply subscribed himself "Charles." Influ enced by all these considerations, together with the glory of raising a fallen enemy, Henry listened to the flattering submissions of Louisa; entered into a defensive alliance with her, as regent of France and engaged to use his best offices in order to procure a deliverance of her son from a state of captivity21.

Meanwhile Francis was rigorously confined; and hard conditions being proposed to him, as the price of his liberty, he drew his dagger, and pointing it at his breast, cried, " "Twere better that a king should die thus!" But flattering himself when he grew cool, that such propositions could not come directly from Charles, he desired that he might be removed to Spain, where the emperor then resided. His request was complied with: but he languished long before he could obtain a sight of his emperor. At last he was

favoured with a visit; and the emperor dreading a general combination against him, or that Francis, if driven to despair, might, as he threatened, resign his crown to the Dauphin, agreed to abate somewhat of his former demands. A A. D. 1526. treaty was accordingly concluded at Madrid, in consequence of which Francis obtained his liberty. The chief article in this treaty was, that Burgundy should be restored to Charles as the rightful inheritance of his ancestors, and that Francis's two eldest sons should be immediately delivered up as hostages for the performance of the conditions stipulated. The exchange of the captive monarch for his children, was made on the frontiers of

21. Herbert. Mezeray. Mem. de Bellay. Fiddes, Life of Wolsey.

France

France and Spain. And the moment that Francis entered his own dominions, he mounted a Turkish horse, and putting it to its speed, waved his hand, and cried aloud several times, "I am yet a king! I am yet a king 22!"

The reputation of the French monarch, however, would have stood in a fairer light had he died a captive; for the unhappy situation of his affairs, delicate as his notions of honour appear to have been, led him henceforth to act a part very disadvantageous to his moral character. He never meant to execute the treaty of Madrid: he had even left a protest in the hands of notaries, before he signed it, that his consent should be considered as an involuntary deed, and be deemed null and void23. Accordingly, as soon as he arrived in France, he assembled the states of Burgundy, who protested against the article relative to their province; and when the imperial ambassadors urgued the immediate execution of the treaty, the king replied, that he would rigorously perform the articles relative to himself, but in those affecting the French monarchy, he must be directed by the sense of the nation. He made the highest acknowledgments to the king of England for his friendly interposition, and offered to be entirely guided by his counsels.

Charles and his ministers now saw that they were overreached, in those very arts of negociation in which they so much excelled, while the Italian states observed with pleasure, that Francis was resolved to evade the execution of a treaty, which they considered as dangerous to the liberties of Europe. Clement VII. absolved him from the oath which he had taken at Madrid; and the kings of France and England, the pope, the Swiss, the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Milanese, entered into an alliance, to which they gave the name of the Holy League, because his holiness was at the head of it, in order to oblige the emperor to deliver up Francis's two sons on the payment of a

22. Guicciardini. lib. xvi.

23. Recueil de Traitez, tom. ii. reasonable

reasonable ransom, and to re-establish Sforza in the quiet possession of the duchy of Milan24.

In consequence of this league, the confederate army took the field, and Italy became once more the scene of war. But Francis, who it was expected would infuse spirit and vigour into the whole body, had gone through such a scene of distress, that he was become diffident of his talents, and distrustful of his fortune. He had flattered himself, that the dread alone of such a confederacy would induce Charles to listen to what was equitable, and therefore neglected to send sufficient reinforcements to his allies in Italy. Meantime the duke of Bourbon who commanded the Imperialists, over-ran the whole duchy of Milan, of which the emperor had promised him the investiture; and his troops beginning to mutiny for want of pay, he boldly led them to Rome, in spite of every obstacle, by offering to their avidity the rich spoils of that ancient capital. Nor did he deceive them; for although he himself was slain, while encouraging their efforts by his brave example, in planting with his own hands a scalingladder against the walls, they, more enraged than discou raged by that misfortune, mounted to the assault with the greatest ardour; and, entering the city sword in hand, pillaged it for many days, and made it a scene of horrid car. nage and abominable lust.

A.D. 1527.

Never did Rome in any age experience so many calamities, not even from the barbarians, by whom she was suc cessively subdued-from the followers of Alaric, Genseric, or Odoacer, as now from the subjects of a Christian and Catholic monarch. Whatever was respectable in modesty, or sacred in religion, seemed only the more to provoke the rage of the soldiery. Virgins suffered violation in the arms of their mothers, and upon those altars to which they had fled for safety. Venerable prelates, after being exposed to every indignity, not excepting the abuse of unnatural desire,

24. Goldast. Polit. Imperial.

and,

and enduring every torture, were thrown into dungeons, and menaced with the most cruel deaths, in order to make them reveal their secret treasures. Clement himself, who had taken refuge in the castle of St. Angelo, was obliged to surrender at discretion; and found that his sacred character could neither procure him liberty nor respect. He was doomed to close confinement, until he should pay an enormous ransom, imposed by the victorious army, and surrender to the emperor, all the places of strength belonging to the apostolic see25.

Charles received the news of this extraordinary event with equal surprize and pleasure; but in order to conceal his joy from his Spanish subjects, who were filled with horror at the insult offered to the sovereign pontiff, and to lessen the indignation of the other powers of Europe, he ex pressed the deepest sorrow for the success of his arms. put himself and his whole court into mourning; stopped the rejoicings for the birth of his son Philip, and ordered prayers to be put up in all the churches of Spain, for the liberation of the Pope, which he could immediately have procured by a letter to his generals 26.

He

Francis, for the

Alarmed at the even before the

The concern expressed by Henry and calamity of their ally, was more sincere. progress of the Imperial arms, they had, sacking of Rome, entered into a closer alliance, and proposed to invade the Low Countries with a powerful army; but no sooner did they hear of Clement's captivity, than they changed, by a new treaty, the scene of the projected war, from the Netherlands to Italy, and resolved to take the

25. Jov. Vit. Colon. Guicciardini, lib. xviii. Mem. de Bellay. Eight thousand young women, of all ranks, were found to be pregnant, within five months after the taking of Rome (ibid.); a circumstance not a little curious in itself, and which certain sportive writers have considered as a proof, by no means equivocal, that the Roman ladies reciprocated the transports of the rapacious and blood thirsty, but brawny followers of Bourbon. 26. Munroe. Hist. Venet. lib. iii.