VI.] THE ITALIAN WARS. 99 making himself king of Naples. He had gathered together an army of men-at-arms of all nations, Swiss, German, Spanish, Italian, greedy only of plunder. With these desperate men he stormed the walls of Rome early in the year 1527. He fell in the assault, and his wild troops, without a general, burst in. The pope, Clement VIJ, fled to the Castle of St. Angelo, and the city was given up to the most horrible pillage and disorder, till the Viceroy Lannoy, coming from Naples, took the command and got them out of Rome. The kings of France and England charged this enterprise upon Charles, and jointly sent heralds to him with a defiance. The emperor replied to the English that what had taken place had been without his orders, and that the pope had been set free ; but to the French he said that their king was his prisoner, and Jiad no right to defy him. At the same time a pestilence, bred of the horrors of the sack of Rome, spread over Italy ; Lautrec died of it, and the French army was so weakened that it had to surrender to the Spaniards, and most of the men died in captivity, making the sixth army lost within thirty years. 20. The Ladies' Peace, 1529. — ^After sending an absurd challenge to Charles V. to fight a duel, and then backing out of it, Francis sent his mother Louise to meet Margaret, the aunt of Charles V., at Cambrai. Terms were fixed, which, excepting that he retained Burgundy, bore harder on him than the treaty of Madrid. By the " ladies' peace " he had to renounce the homage of Flanders and Artois and his claims in Italy, and, while ransoming his sons, he married Eleanor of Austria. The emperor was thus left free to pursue his main objects, namely, to drive back the Turks, whose advance was threatening Europe, and to obtain a general council to inquire into the numer- ous complaints brought against the clergy in every part of the Church. His great hindrance was the desire of the pope to stave off inquiry, and the hatred and jealousy of Francis, who continually harassed him and baulked him in the fulfilment of his great purposes. Yet by empty flash and dash Francis acquired the sympathies of history, and so flattered the vanity of his people that no king has done more harm than he has by making a great display of honour and bravery go with falsehood, perfidy, and vice. His manners were charming, and he had much taste for art and beauty learned in his Italian campaign. He bad brought home exquisite paintings of Raphael ; Leonardo H 2
