f RANCIS I.] FRANCE 557
- 4-44. for war went on ; Francis made a new scheme for a national
army, though in practice he preferred the tyrant s arm, the foreign mercenary. From his day till the Revolution the French army was largely composed of bodies of men tempted out of other countries, chiefly from Switzerland or Germany. While the emperor strove to appease the Protestant princes of Germany by the peace of Kadan (1534), Francis strengthened himself with a definite alliance with Soliman; and when on the death of Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, who left no heirs, Charles seized the duchy as its over-lord, Francis, after some bootless negotiation, declared war on his great rival (1536). His usual fortunes prevailed so long as he was the attacking party : his forces were soon swept out of Piedmont, and the emperor carried the war over the frontier into Provence. That also failed, and Charles was fain to withdraw after great losses into Italy. The defence of Provence a defence which took the form of a ruthless destruction of all its resources had been en trusted to Anne of Montmorency, who henceforward became constable of France, and exerted great influence over Francis I. Though these two campaigns, the French in Italy and the imperialist in Provence, had equally failed in 153G, peace did not follow till 1538, when, after the terrible de feat of Ferdinand of Austria by the Turks, Charles was anxious to have free hand in Germany. Under the media tion of Paul III. the agreement of Nice was come to, which included a ten years truce, and the abandonment by Francis of all his foreign allies and aims. He seemed a while to have fallen completely under the influence of the sagacious emperor. He gave way entirely to the church party of the time, a party headed by gloomy Henry, now dauphin, who never lost the impress of his Spanish captivity, and by the constable Anne of Montmoreucy ; for a time the artistic or Renaissance party, represented by Anne duchess of Etampes and Catherine de Medici, fell into dis favour. The emperor even ventured to pass through France, on his way from Spain to the Netherlands. All this friendship, however, fell to dust, when it was found that Charles refused to invest the duke of Orleans, the second son of Francis, with the duchy of Milan, and when the emperor s second expedition against the sea-power of the Turks had proved a complete failure, and Charles had returned to Spain with loss of all his fleet and army. Then Francis hesitated no longer, and declared war against him (1541). The shock the emperor had suffered inspirited all his foes; the sultan and the Protestant German princes were all eager for war ; the influence of Anne of Mont morency had to give way before that of the house of Guise, that frontier-family, half French half German, which was destined to play a large part in the troubled history of the coming half-century. Claude, duke of Guise, a veteran of the earliest days of Francis, was vehemently opposed to Charles and the Austro-Spanish power, and ruled in the king s councils. This last war was ns mischievous as its predecessors : no great battles were fought ; in the frontier affairs the combatants were about equally fortunate ; the battle of Cerisolles, won by the French under Enghien (1544), wis the only considerable success they had, and even that was almost barren of results, for the danger to northern France was imminent ; there a combined invasion had been planned and partly executed by Charles and Henry VIII.; and the country, almost undefended, was at their mercy. The two monarchs, however, distrusted one another; and Charles V., anxious about Germany, sent to Francis proposals for peace from Crespy Couvrant, near lf Laon, where he had halted his army; Francis, almost in despair, gladly made terms with him. The king gave up his claims on Flanders and Artois, the emperor his on the duchy of Burgundy; the king abandoned his old Neapolitan ambition, and Charles promised one of the 1544-47. princesses of the house of Austria, with Milan as her dower, to the duke of Orleans, second son of Francis. The duke dying next year, this portion of the agreement was not carried out. The peace of Crespy, which ended the wars between the two great rivals, was signed in autumn, 1544, and like the wars which led to it was indecisive and lame. Charles learnt that with all his great power he could not strike a fatal blow at France ; France ought to have learnt that she was very weak for foreign conquest, and that her true business was to consolidate and develop her power at home. Henry VIII. deemed himself wronged by this independent action on the part of Charles, who also had his grievances with the English monarch ; he stood out till 1546, and then made peace with Francis, with the aim of forming a fresh combination against Charles. In the midst of new projects, and much activity, the marrer of man s plots came on the scene, and carried off in the same year, 1547, the English king and Francis I., leaving Charles V. undisputed arbiter of the affairs of Europe. In this same year he also crushed the Protestant princes at the battle of Muhlberg. Francis reigned long enough to have been able to do The char- much for France, and, following Louis XII., might have a ^ ter of been another " father of his country," setting it in the way "^ of true grandeur and prosperity. And something of this he seemed to see. He liked in the great movements of the age to take that middle course which commends itself to France : like France herself he wished to be Catholic and yet to become champion of the Reformed cause ; he loved letters and art ; he was a brilliant and chivalrous personage, vho had the French qualities strongly marked in character and action. His people felt that he, in the main, repre sented them ; they honoured and loved him as a part of themselves. They accepted their position as a united nation, united, that is, under a master who offered them no constitutional rights or liberties ; it was enough for them that their master was good-natured and kindly; his vices and weaknesses were little blamed, and much followed. History will record that he was mean and self ish, false and licentious, and that, if he knew what was the nobler path for himself and his country, he could not rise to the heroism of following it, when to do so demanded self-denial. History ought also to remember that he was pitted against the ablest statesman of his age, and that he was called on, with insufficient knowledge and strength, to defend the liberties of Europe against an overwhelming power. That he failed to choose the right weapons, that he failed to make the best use of the weapons he did take up, this was the real weakness of his life. His reign filled those years in which Renaissance passed into Reformation in which the new enthusiasm for art and letters made the way ready for a more grave and solemn enthusiasm in reli gion, an enthusiasm which in its simpler side aimed at re storing purity of faith and manners, while in its more extreme developments it mixed itself up with bold political theories, or with a condemnation of all that learning and culture could do for human life. Under the direct king ship of God, men believed that all the older usages, restric tions, and political principles of life were out of place. The Anabaptists carried out, in harsh developments, many of tho ideas proclaimed half a century before by Savonarola at Florence. Now, in the history of France no principle appears so well-established as this, that she ever "subord inated her religious feelings to her political interests." It is almost as generally true that her political interests wero ever subordinated to the personal interests of her leaders. Consequently, we shall always expect to find very little movement of public opinion in France, and only a weak influence of religious sentiment on the general current of
