VI.] THE ITALIAN WARS. 103 what he protected abroad that he might annoy his enemies. 24. Henry II., 1547. — Henry II. was a less clever, but more honest man, and in better times might have been a good king. He had a kind of sturdy constancy, which might have been turned to better account than by his unswerving devotion to Montmorency (now constable) as his friend, and to Diana of Poitiejs as his mistress. She was a widow, twelve years his elder, while his wife, the Florentine Catharine de' Medici, was neglected and despised. His heirloom being hatred to Charles V., he declared himself Protector of the P.'otestants of Germany, while he persecuted the Calvinists at home. At the same time he helped the Scots in their resistance to a marriage between their infant Queen Mary Stewart and Edward VI. of England. The mother of the little queen was Mary o/Lorraiiw, daughter of Ctaitde, Duke of Guise, the second son of Rend, Duke of Lorraine. She, being in the French interest, hoped to shelter her child from factions at home and enemies across the border, by ship- ping her off to France, to be bred up as wife to the dauphin Francis. When she was thus secured, Henry made peace with England in 1550, and ransomed Boulogne. 25. Seizure of Metz, 1552. — On the election of a new pope, Juli2(s III., Henry tried to follow in his father's steps by forming leagues in Italy M'ith the kindred of Paul III. The great revolt of Maurice, Elector oj Saxony, also gave him an excuse for calling himself Protector of the Liberties of Germany. In that capa- city he seized the three bishoprics of Aletz, Verdun, and Toul, and laid Elsass waste. There was an undecided battle at Renty, and Henry's troops ravaged, the Netherlands, and Charles's ravaged Picardy, till the emperor agreed in 1555 to a five years' truce. He was designing the abdi- cation which he carried out in that year and the next. From this time the Spanish and German dominions of the house of Austria were quite separate. Charles's brother Ferdinand went on reigning in Austria, while his son Philip inherited Spain, the Sicilies, the Nether- lands, and Charles's other hereditary dominions. In the empire he was succeeded by Ferdinand of Austria, who was already King of the Romans. Strictly, Ferdinand was only Emperor-elect ; but from this time, as no emperor was crowned after Charles the Fifth, he and his successors were ( ommonly spoken of as emperors.
