A.D. 1532.]

subjects for assistance against the alarming advance of the Turks. Negotiations were opened with the confederates of Smalcalde, and a religious peace was concluded at Nuremberg in July, 1532, and shortly afterwards confirmed by the Diet sitting at Ratisbon. By the articles thus sanctioned, religious liberty was granted to the reformers-at any rate until the assembling of a General Council, or a meeting of the Imperial States; on the other hand, the Protestants undertook to assist the Emperor against the invasion of the Turks. The whole of Germany was in truth awakened to the overmastering peril of the time. An army of 80,000 foot and 30,000 horse was soon ready to take the field under the immediate command of the Emperor; and Solyman perceived that it would be no easy matter to annex a territory thus powerfully defended. Francis I. was required to furnish a contingent to the Christian army, as, by the treaty of Cambray, he was bound to do; but the demand was made in so haughty and offensive a manner that the French sovereign refused to supply his former antagonist with either men or money. Towards the end of 1531, Francis had despatched an ambassador to the Sultan, with the professed object of dissuading him from a fresh assault on Christendom. But Solyman had already gone too far to withdraw; and it may be doubted whether Francis was very sincere in desiring to avert an attack which was to be mainly directed against Germany. For the last few years he had been on friendly terms with Solyman, who had granted to the French various commercial and other privileges in Egypt and Jerusalem.

When the Religious Peace was concluded at Nuremberg in the summer of 1532, Solyman had already begun his march from Constantinople. He started on the 26th of April, surrounded by the utmost pomp and splendour, and accompanied by a train of one hundred and twenty cannon. Hungary was entered in June, by which time 350,000 men had assembled under the banner of the Prophet. Indulging a vain hope that some compromise might even now be effected, Ferdinand of Austria sent an embassy to the Sultan at Belgrade, where his representatives were overpowered by the Oriental magnificence of the conqueror, and by the boundless military strength which could set aside 12,000 Janizaries as an approach to the Imperial tent. They were detained two months, and obliged to follow the movements of the invading force; but an arrangement was found impracticable, and on the 20th of July the Turks crossed the Drave on twelve bridges of boats. Hungary submitted without even the pretence of

135

resistance, except at Güns, where Solyman was destined to receive a mortifying check. The place was small and weak, and the garrison consisted of no more than seven hundred men; yet Solyman was detained at this spot more than three weeks, and was at length obliged to purchase a capitulation by promising that he would not occupy the town. At the same time, a body of Turkish cavalry was defeated in attempting to enter Austria through a mountain pass. Andrea Doria had achieved some remarkable successes on the coast of the Morea, and was exciting the Greeks to revolt. The immense forces of the Emperor were taking the field, and showing an eager desire to meet the foe. The entire aspect of affairs had altered since the passage of the Drave a few weeks earlier, and Solyman retreated with more expedition than he had advanced. Not only was Germany saved, but the position of King Ferdinand in Hungary was greatly improved. On the 22nd of June, a treaty of peace was concluded between Ferdinand's ambassadors and the Porte, by which Zapolya was abandoned, and the Emperor's brother was allowed to retain all that he had won from his Sclavonic rival.

During these events, Francis was watching for an opportunity to renew his pretensions in the Italian peninsula. With this view, he made advances towards Henry VIII., and entered into intimate relations with the Pope, who was growing cold towards Charles V., on account of the persistence with which that potentate demanded a General Council of the Church, and because of his interference in Italian affairs which Clement regarded as belonging more properly to himself. Negotiations were opened by Francis for effecting a marriage between his second son, Henry, Duke of Orleans, and Catherine de' Medici, daughter of Lorenzo II., the late Duke of Urbino. The Pope proceeded to Marseilles, where, after prolonged negotiations, the youthful pair were united by Clement himself on the 25th of October, 1533. It was agreed that an Italian principality should be created in favour of the Duke of Orleans and his bride, and Francis ceded all his claims south of the Alps to the son thus favoured. Clement VII. died near the end of September, 1534, and was succeeded by Alexander Farnese, who assumed the title of Paul III. The Italian projects of Francis were seriously disconcerted by the death of Clement, and, instead of marching into the southern peninsula, the King resolved to attack his rival in Germany. An understanding was effected with the Protestant rulers, and with all those princes who, on various grounds, were dissatisfied with

the power and influence of Charles; but the designs of the French sovereign were for a time delayed by an expedition which the Emperor had undertaken, and which was of a nature that would have rendered peculiarly infamous any attack on his dominions during his absence.

Charles had determined to chastise the insolence of the pirate, Khair Eddin, otherwise called Barbarossa II. Reinforced by the Moriscoes who had been driven out of Spain, and by adventurers from many lands, this daring corsair became the terror of Southern Europe, and even extended his ravages to the coast of Provence. As the Sultan's admiral, and the Viceroy of Algiers, he was a man of no slight importance, and Francis I. thought it. prudent to conclude a truce with him in 1533. That intriguing monarch would even have made use of his services for the recovery of Genoa, for Francis was willing to ally himself with the Moslem against his fellow-Christians, if by those means he could gratify at once his ambition, his vanity, and his revenge. Yet he hesitated to attack the Emperor while engaged in suppressing an immense evil, from which some of the most important parts of Europe suffered in no ordinary measure. The pirates under Barbarossa would suddenly descend upon the coasts of Italy or Spain, sack the defenceless cities, murder all who resisted, and carry off ship-loads of treasure, and multitudes of women and children. Spain was the chief victim, as being not far removed from the head-quarters of Barbarossa; and Charles, who had been staying in his peninsular dominions since 1533, conducted an expedition against the sea-rover in the summer of 1535. In the previous year, Barbarossa had taken Tunis from its ruler, Muley Hassan; and here he awaited the attack of the Christians. The land forces were under the command of the Emperor himself; the operations of the fleet were conducted by the heroic Genoese, Andrea Doria. The Goletta, a fortress protecting Tunis from the sea, was taken by storm on the 16th of June; Barbarossa was defeated on the 20th; and the Christian slaves in Tunis rose in insurrection on the 25th, opened the gates of the city, and admitted the strangers, when a massacre of 30,000 Mussulmans avenged the wrongs of 20,000 captives. Muley Hassan was then restored to his dominions, after engaging to put down piracy, to treat the Christians with justice, and to pay a yearly tribute of 12,000 ducats.

The war

was over by the middle of August, and Charles sailed for Italy, preceded by the splendour of a great success.

War between Francis and the Emperor followed

soon after. A pretext was discovered in the execution of a secret agent of the former, who had for some time been employed at Milan, but who was ultimately found guilty of being concerned in the assassination of Count Castiglione. His complicity in this crime was not certain, and the inquiry was conducted after a very summary fashion; so that the French King was not without a legitimate occasion for complaint. Sforza, however, had tendered apologies, and made offers of reparation; but these were not accepted. Shortly after the return of Charles V. from Africa, Sforza expired, leaving his territory to the Emperor, who took possession of it as an Imperial fief. To this arrangement Francis violently objected, and claimed the duchy for himself. After some ineffectual negotiations, he invaded Savoy, the Duke of which province was his maternal uncle. The excuse for these hostilities was readily found in dynastic claims arising from the relationship of the two families; but the real motive was to obtain a convenient base of operations for the contemplated attack on Milan. Duke Charles abandoned Turin on the approach of the invaders. For a little while the French seemed to be carrying all before them; but in the spring of 1536 the Imperial troops drove them out of Fossano, and advanced into Provence. Charles had vowed that he would bring the King of France as low as the poorest gentleman in his dominions, and the terror of his name seemed to guarantee his success. Arles and Marseilles were besieged, but the French laid waste the whole of Dauphiné, and the Constable Montmorency, adopting the Fabian tactics, retired within the walls of Avignon, and refused all temptations to a battle in which he might have been worsted. At the end of two months, the Imperial army, shattered and disorganised, was compelled to retreat with the loss of 30,000 men ; but Italy had been saved from the contemplated designs of Francis. The French made an attack on Flanders in 1537, but without any important results, and a brief suspension of arms was shortly afterwards effected through the mediation of Queen Eleanora of France, and her sister, Queen Mary, the Regent of the Netherlands. During the progress of the war, the Dauphin Francis had expired, and his father for a time believed that the Emperor had procured his death by poison. The young prince's cupbearer, an Italian named Montecuculi, was arrested, and put to the torture, when he confessed his imputed guilt. The fact, however, is extremely doubtful, and the probability is that Montecuculi incriminated himself and others to obtain relief from his sufferings.

A. D. 1538.]

Before the conclusion of the truce arranged by the two Queens, Francis had entered into a treaty with the Turkish Sultan, by which it was agreed that Barbarossa should convey an Ottoman force into Apulia, for the conquest of Naples, and that Francis should enter Lombardy with 50,000 men. Solyman accordingly assembled an immense force on the coast of Albania opposite Otranto, and the Pope was so much alarmed at the prospect of a Mohammedan invasion that he made preparations for flight in case the Turks should effect a landing. Even Andrea Doria was compelled to shelter himself in the port of Messina, lest his vessels should be taken or destroyed by Barbarossa's fleet. The shores of Apulia were thus deprived of all defence, and 10,000 cavalry actually disembarked near Otranto. The Mussulman invaders, however, were not supported by their Christian ally, and contented themselves with carrying off a vast number of persons into captivity. Francis delayed and hesitated, but in the autumn invaded Italy, although the truce recently concluded was yet in force. Negotiations for peace were still proceeding, and these were promoted by Pope Paul III., who had every reason for desiring a cessation of hostilities which threatened to rend Christendom in pieces, and to open a way for the Mohammedans. He therefore arranged a meeting between Charles and Francis at Nice, where he acted as mediator between the two sovereigns, who declined to see one another. The result was a truce of ten years, concluded on the 18th of June, 1538; and this was afterwards converted into a perpetual peace, signed at Toledo on the 10th of January, 1539. One of the chief provisions of the arrangement was that the Duke of Savoy was stripped of all his possessions, excepting the county of Nice: the rest of his territory was divided between the King and the Emperor. People not unreasonably supposed that the two monarchs had refused to see one another out of an unconquerable antipathy, engendered by the personal insults which in former years each had heaped upon the other. But in reality no such feeling existed, and, on the 14th of July, 1538, Francis I., while staying at an abbey in the diocese of Nismes, received intelligence that the Imperial fleet was lying off Aigues Mortes. Riding down to the coast, he put off in a boat, and was helped by the Emperor himself on board his galley. Charles returned the visit on the following day, and long consultations ensued, having reference to the future policy of the reconciled sovereigns. Francis hoped to obtain the Milanese territory by an arrangement with Charles, and both potentates

137

were willing, now that the war was over, to combine their forces against the Protestants.

Nothing gives a more vivid idea of the entire absence of political morality in those days than the readiness with which the leading princes encouraged or oppressed the conscientious in religion, with a view simply to the advancement of their own personal ambition. At the very time that he was supporting the Protestants of Germany, as a means of injuring the Emperor, Francis I. was acting with the utmost cruelty towards the adherents of the reformed faith whom he found in his own dominions. Some palliation of his conduct may be found in the extreme violence with which the French Protestants attacked the religious ideas and practices of the Catholics; but intemperance on the weaker side cannot justify barbarity on the stronger. In the latter part of 1534, and the earlier months of 1535, large numbers of the reformers were burned alive under circumstances of great atrocity. Francis afterwards excused himself to the Confederates of Smalcalde, by alleging that the persons thus executed were rebels rather than schismatics; and at the very time he was burning these unhappy wretches, he sent an autograph letter to Melanchthon, inviting him to Paris, that he might there discuss the question of the Eucharist. The invitation was not accepted, for it was evident to all observers that Francis was merely serving his own purposes. Fearful of losing the support of the German Protestants, the French King even committed himself to an approbation of the principles embodied in the Confession of Augsburg, joined the League of Smalcalde, and published an edict restoring to liberty all persons imprisoned for holding the new doctrines. But by the middle of 1538, when Charles and Francis conferred together at Aigues Mortes, all necessity for flattering the Protestants had ceased, and they were to be repressed by the united efforts of the King and the Emperor.

It happened, very unfortunately for the Protestant cause, that in some quarters the movement was taken up by men of extravagant and fanatical ideas. The reader has already seen how the incitements of Storch and Münzer, in connection with the body called Anabaptists, led to a species of civil war in 1525, during which many dreadful outrages were committed. But a still worse rising occurred some years later, for the principles of the Anabaptists, though checked for the moment, were not extinguished. In Saxony and Franconia,

the party was almost entirely suppressed; but missionaries of the proscribed doctrines

fluence. Another convert was the Protestant minister, Rothmann; Matthiesen himself arrived after a while; and the intruders soon became so strong that, on the 8th of February, 1534, a struggle for the mastery occurred in the marketplace of Münster. A compromise was soon effected, and it was agreed that each party should enjoy the liberty of holding its own opinions, while both should pay obedience to the civil magistrates. But the very necessity of coming to terms with such dangerous enthusiasts added immensely to their power; and the licence which they claimed on several points attracted the profligate from many directions. A few days after the compromise, an election for magistrates occurred, when all the offices were filled by Anabaptists, and Knipperdolling was chosen burgomaster.

walls with such valour and resolution that the siege made little progress. Firmly believing in his own supernatural commission, and relying on the special protection of heaven, Matthiesen headed a sortie one day with no more than thirty ill-armed followers. All were slaughtered, and the office of prophet passed to Matthiesen's disciple, John Bockelsohn, a native of the Hague, who had worked as a tailor at Leyden. John of Leyden is accordingly the appellation by which this singular person is generally known; but Münster was the scene of his wild and furious eccentricities. It was he who introduced the custom of plurality of wives an arrangement which some of the Anabaptists themselves opposed, with the penalty of death for their contumacy. By his directions, the churches were pulled down, and a spiritual