90 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. Bruges, and kept prisoner for ten months, while the French army was taking place after place in Britanny. The duchess fled from fortress to fortress, till after four years, Dunois, seeing that only her marriage could obtain freedom for his cousin of Orleans, persuaded the Lady of Beaujeu that the wisest course would be to marry her brother the king to the heiress of Britanny. Charles, it should be remembered, was already betrothed, or rather married, to Maximilian's daughter Margaret, who was living at the Court of France. Nevertheless Charles, now two-and-twenty, rode to the gates of Rennes with a few attendants, was admitted to the presence of the duchess Anne, and gained her consent. They were married a fortnight later, in December, 1491, and Margaret of Austria was sent back to her father. The great Celtic duchy was united to the crown, subject to the birth of children of Charles and Anne. Charles himself was a small, sickly, almost deformed man, whom his father had never educated, saying, " that to know how to dissimulate was to know how to reign," and that this was all that was needed by a king. But he had read the romances of chivalry, and gathered their teachings of courtesy and honour, so that Comines says he never knowingly gave pain to any living thing, and he was greatly loved for his gentle courtesy. 3. The Peace of Senlis, 1493. — Maximilian was naturally wroth at Charles's treatment of his daughter, and Henry the Seventh of England, as the ally of Maximilian, took up arms and besieged Boulogne, but was bought oft". By the peace of Senlis in 1493 Maximilian was appeased by the restoration of Artois as a French tief, and of the imperial county of Burgundy. Roussillon and Cerdagna were also restored to Maximilian's other ally, Ferdinand of Aragon. Thus the Breton marriage cost France four counties. Charles now ventured to release his cousin of Orleans. 4. The Expedition to Italy, 1494. — To the crown of France had been bct[ueathcd those claims to the kingdom of Naples which Rene of Anjou had been unable to make good. The present king of Naples was Fcrditumd, an illegitimate son of Alfonso, king of Aragon, Sicily, and Naples. Mis father had left him the kingdom of Naples, while Aragon and Sicily passed to his brother John, who had been succeeded by another Ferdinand, famous as the Catholic. Charles was persuaded to
