"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 were banished: the city was declared to have forfeited its 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 expence of erecting a citadel, together with an annual tax for the support of a garrison. They were not only despoild of their ancient immunities, but made to pay, like a conquered people, for the means of perpetuating their own slavery 18,

Having thus re-established his authority in the Low Countries, and being now under no necessity of continuing that scene of falshood and dissimulation with which he had amused the French monarch, Charles began gradually to throw aside the veil under which he had concealed his intentions with respect to the duchy of Milan, and at last peremptorily refused to give up a territory of such value, or voluntarily to make such a liberal addition to the strength of an enemy, by diminishing his own power. He even denied that he had ever made any promise which could bind him to an action so foolish, and so contrary to his own interest19.

This transaction exposed the king of France to as much scorn as it did the emperor to censure. The blind credulity of Francis, after he had experienced so often the duplicity and artifices of his rival, seemed to merit no other return. He remonstrated, however, and exclaimed, as if this had been the first instance in which the emperor had deceived him. The insult offered to his understanding, affected him even more sensibly than the injury done to his interest; and he discovered 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.

18. Haræi, Annal Brabantiæ.

19. Mem. de Bellay.

Meanwhile

emperor.

A. D. 1541.

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; and such a conference, notwithstanding the opposition of the pope, was held with great solemnity in the presence of the But the divines chosen to manage the controversy, though men of learning and moderation, were only able to settle a few speculative opinions, all points relative to worship and jurisdiction, serving only to inflame the minds of the disputants. Charles, therefore, finding his endeavours to bring about an accommodation ineffectual, and being impatient to close the diet, prevailed on a majority of the members to approve of the following edict of recess: That the articles concerning which the divines had agreed, should be held as points decided; that those about which they had differed, should be referred to the determition of a general council, or if that could not be obtained, to a national synod; and should it prove impracticable also to assemble a synod of Germany, that a general diet of the empire should be called within eighteen months, in order to give final judgment on the whole controversy; that, in the meantime, no innovations should be made, nor any means employed to gain proselytes20.

This edict gave great offence to the pope. The bare mention of allowing a diet, composed chiefly of laymen, to pass judgment in regard to articles of faith, appeared to him no less criminal and profane than the worst of those heresies which the emperor seemed so zealous to suppress. The Protestants also were dissatisfied with it, as it considerably abridged the liberty which they at that time erjoyed. They murmured loudly against it; and Charles, unwilling to leave

20. Father Paul, lib. i. Seckend. lib. iii. Dumont, Corps Diplom. tom iv.

any

any seeds of discontent in the empire, granted them a private declaration exempting them from whatever they thought injurious or oppressive in the edict of recess, and ascertaining to them the full possession of all 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. A great revolution had happened in that kingdom. John Zapol Scapius, by the assistance of Solyman, had wrested from the king of the Romans a considerable part of the country. John died, and left an infant son. Ferdinand attempted to take advantage of the minority, in order to repossess himself of the whole kingdom; but his ambition was disappointed by the activity and address of George Martinuzzi, bishop of Waradin, who shared the regency with the queen. Sensible that he was unable to oppose the king of the Romans in the field, Martinuzzi satisfied himself with holding out the fortified towns, all which he provided with every thing necessary for defence; and he at the same time sent ambassadors to Solyman, beseeching him to extend toward the son, that imperial protection which had so generously maintained the father on the throne. Ferdinand used his utmost endeavours to thwart this negociation, and even meanly offered to hold the Hungarian crown on the same ignominious conditions by which John had obtained it, that of paying tribute to the Porte. But the sultan saw such advantages from espousing the interest of the young king, that he instantly marched into Hungary; and the Germans, having formed the siege of Buda, were defeated with great slaughter before that city. Solyman, however, instead of becoming the protector of the infant sovereign whom he had relieved, made use of this success to extend his own dominions; he sent the queen and

21. Id. Ibid.

her

her son into Transylvania, which province he allotted them, and added Hungary to the Ottoman empire22.

Happily for the Protestants, Charles had received intelligence of this revolution before the close of the diet at Ratisbon; and in consequence of the concessions which he made them, he obtained such liberal supplies, both of men and money, in order to prosecute the war against the Turks, as left him little anxiety about the security of Germany. He therefore hastened to join his fleet and army in Italy, on purpose to carry into execution a great and favourite enterprize, which he had concerted against Algiers; though it would certainly have been more consistent with his dignity to have conducted the whole force of the empire against Solyman, the common enemy of Christendom, who was preparing to enter the Austrian dominions. But many reasons induced Charles to prefer the African expedition. He wanted strength to combat the Turks in so distant a country as Hungary; and the glory which he had formerly acquired in Barbary led him to hope for like success, while the cries of his Spanish subjects roused him to take vengeance on their ravagers.

Algiers, since the taking of Tunis, was become the common receptacle of all the Barbary corsairs; and from the time that Barbarossa, as captain-basha, commanded the Turkish fleet, it had been governed by Hascen Aga, a renegado eunuch, who out-did, if possible, his master in boldness and cruelty. The commerce of the Mediterranean was greatly interrupted by his gallies; and such frequent alarms were given to the coasts of Spain, that there was a necessity for erecting watch-towers at certain distances, and of keeping a guard constantly employed, in order to descry the approach of his squadrons, and to protect the inhabitants from the depredations of the rapacious ruffians with which they were manned.

VOL. II.

22. Istuanhaffe, Hist. Hung, lib. xiv.

PP

Charles,

Charles, before he left Spain, had resolved to humble this daring corsair, and to exterminate the lawless crew who had so long infested the ocean. With this view he had ordered a fleet and army to assemble on the coast of Italy: and although the autumn was now far advanced, he obstinately persisted in his purpose, notwithsanding the remon strances of Andrew Doria, who conjured him not to expose so noble an armament to almost inevitable destruction, by venturing at so late a season to approach the stormy coast of Algiers. Doria's words proved prophetical.

No sooner had the emperor landed in Barbary, than a frightful hurricane arose, scattered his fleet, and dashed great part of it in pieces; while he and his land forces were exposed to all the fury of the elements, in an enemy's country, without a hut or a tent to shelter them, or so much as a spot of firm ground on which they could rest their wearied bodies. In this calamitous situation, cold and wet, they continued during several days, harrassed at the same time by the attacks of the Algerines. At last Doria, happily being able to assemble the remains of the fleet, Charles was glad to reimbark, after having lost the greater part of his army, by the inclemency of the weather, famine, or the sword of the enemy. And the men who yet survived were doomed to encounter new miseries in their return; the fleet being scattered by a fresh storm, and the ships obliged to take shelter, separately, in those parts of Spain or Italy they could first reach23.

Such, my dear Philip, was the result of the emperor's pompous expedition against Algiers, the most unfortunate enterprize of his reign, and that on which he built the highest hopes. But if Charles failed to acquire the glory which ever attends success, he secured that which is more essentially connected with merit. He never appeared greater than amidst his misfortunes. His firmness and constancy of spirit,

23. Nic. Villag. Expedit. Car. V. ad Argyriam. Sandov. vol. ii. Robertson, book vi.