Pizzighitone. "Instead of bearing his captivity with calmness
and fortitude, he chafed and fretted under the loss of his
wonted pleasures; at one moment he called for death to end his
woes, while at another he was ready to sign disastrous terms
of peace, meaning to break faith so soon as ever he might be
free again. ... France, at first stupefied by the mishap, soon
began to recover hope. The Regent, for all her vices and
faults, was proud and strong; she gathered what force she
could at Lyons, and looked round for help. ... Not only were
there anxieties at home, but the frontiers were also
threatened. On the side of Germany a popular movement ['the
Peasant War'], closely connected with the religious excitement
of the time, pushed a fierce and cruel rabble into Lorraine,
whence they proposed to enter France. But they were met by the
Duke of Guise and the Count of Vaudemont, his brother, at the
head of the garrisons of Burgundy and Champagne, and were
easily dispersed. It was thought that during these troubles
Lannoy would march his army, flushed with victory, from the Po
to the Rhone. ... But Lannoy had no money to pay his men, and
could not undertake so large a venture. Meanwhile negotiations
began between Charles V. and the King; the Emperor demanding,
as ransom, that Bourbon should be invested with Provence and
Dauphiny, joined to his own lands in Auvergne, and should
receive the title of king; and secondly that the Duchy of
Burgundy should be given over to the Emperor as the inheritor
of the lands and rights of Charles the Bold. But the King of
France would not listen for a moment. And now the King of
England and most of the Italian states, alarmed at the great
power of the Emperor, began to change sides. Henry VIII. came
first. He signed a treaty of neutrality with the Regent, in
which it was agreed that not even for the sake of the King's
deliverance should any part of France be torn from her. The
Italians joined in a league to restore the King to liberty,
and to secure the independence of Italy: and Turkey was called
on for help. ... The Emperor now felt that Francis was not in
secure keeping at Pizzighitone. ... He therefore gave orders
that Francis should at once be removed to Spain." The captive
king "was set ashore at Valencia, and received with wonderful
welcome: dances, festivals, entertainments of every kind,
served to relieve his captivity; it was like a restoration to
life! But this did not suit the views of the Emperor, who
wished to weary the King into giving up all thought of
resistance: he trusted to his impatient and frivolous
character; his mistake, as he found to his cost, lay in
thinking that a man of such character would keep his word. He
therefore had him removed from Valencia to Madrid, where he
was kept in close and galling confinement, in a high, dreary
chamber, where he could not even see out of the windows. This
had the desired effect. The King talked of abdicating; he fell
ill of ennui, and was like to die: but at last he could hold
out no longer, and abandoning all thought of honourable
action, agreed to shameful terms, consoling himself with a
private protest against the validity of the deed, as having
been done under compulsion."
_G. W. Kitchin,
History of France,
volume 2, book 2, chapter 5._
"By the Treaty of Madrid, signed January 14th, 1526, Francis
'restored' to the Emperor the Duchy of Burgundy, the county of
Charolais, and some other smaller fiefs, without reservation
of any feudal suzerainty, which was also abandoned with regard
to the counties of Flanders and Artois, the Emperor, however,
resigning the towns on the Somme, which had been held by
Charles the Bold. The French King also renounced his claims to
the kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Milan, the county of Asti,
and the city of Genoa. He contracted an offensive and
defensive alliance with Charles, undertaking to attend him
with an army when he should repair to Rome to receive the
Imperial crown, and to accompany him in person whenever he
should march against the Turks or heretics. He withdrew his
protection from the King of Navarre, the Duke of Gelderland,
and the La Marcks; took upon himself the Emperor's debt to
England, and agreed to give his two eldest sons as hostages
for the execution of the treaty. Instead, however, of the
independent kingdom which Bourbon had expected, all that was
stipulated in his favour was a free pardon for him and his
adherents, and their restoration in their forfeited domains.
... The provisions of the above treaty Francis promised to
execute on the word and honour of a king, and by an oath sworn
with his hand upon the holy Gospels: yet only a few hours
before he was to sign this solemn act, he had called his
plenipotentiaries, together with some French nobles,
secretaries, and notaries, into his chamber, where, after
exacting from them an oath of secrecy, he entered into a long
discourse touching the Emperor's harshness towards him, and
signed a protest, declaring that, as the treaty he was about
to enter into had been extorted from him by force, it was null
and void from the beginning, and that he never intended to
execute it: thus, as a French writer has observed,
establishing by an authentic notarial act that he was going to
commit a perjury." Treaties have often been shamefully
violated, yet it would perhaps be impossible to parallel this
gross and deliberate perjury. In March, Francis was conducted
to the Spanish frontier, where, on a boat in mid-stream of the
Bidassoa, "he was exchanged for his two sons, Francis and
Henry, who were to remain in Spain, as hostages for the
execution of the treaty. The tears started to his eyes as he
embraced his children, but he consigned them without remorse
to a long and dreary exile." As speedily as possible after
regaining his liberty, Francis assembled the states of his
kingdom and procured from them a decision "that the King could
not alienate the patrimony of France, and that the oath which he
had taken in his captivity did not abrogate the still more
solemn one which had been administered to him at his
coronation." After which he deemed himself discharged from the
obligations of his treaty, and had no thought of surrendering
himself again a prisoner, as he was honourably bound to do.
_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 2, chapter 5 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_A. B. Cochrane,
Francis I. in Captivity._
_W. Robertson,
History of the Reign of Charles V.,
book 4 (volume 2)._
_C. Coignet,
Francis I. and his Times,
chapters 5-8._
{1193}
FRANCE: A. D. 1526-1527.
Holy League with Pope Clement VII. against Charles V.
Bourbon's attack on Rome.
See ITALY: A. D. 1523-1527, and 1527.
FRANCE: A. D. 1527-1529.
New alliance against Charles V.
Early successes in Lombardy.
Disaster at Naples.
Genoa and all possessions in Italy lost.
The humiliating Peace of Cambrai.
See ITALY: A. D. 1527-1529.
FRANCE: A. D. 1529-1535.
Persecution of the Protestant Reformers and spread of their
doctrines.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1521-1535.
FRANCE: A. D. 1531.
Alliance with the Protestant princes of the German League of
Smalkalde.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1530-1532.
FRANCE: A. D. 1532.
Final reunion of Brittany with the crown.
See BRITTANY: A. D. 1532.
FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.
Treaty with the Pope.
Marriage of Prince Henry with Catherine de' Medici.
Renewed war with Charles V.
Alliance with the Turks.
Victory at Cerisoles.
Treaty of Crespy.
Increased persecution of Protestants.
Massacre of Waldenses.
War with England.
Death of Francis I.
"The 'ladies' peace' ... lasted up to 1536; incessantly
troubled, however, by far from pacific symptoms, proceedings
and preparations. In October, 1532, Francis I. had, at Calais,
an interview with Henry VIII., at which they contracted a
private alliance, and undertook 'to raise between them an army
of 80,000 men to resist the Turk.'" But when, in 1535, Charles
V. attacked the seat of the Barbary pirates, and took Tunis,
Francis "entered into negotiations with Soliman II., and
concluded a friendly treaty with him against what was called
'the common enemy.' Francis had been for some time preparing
to resume his projects of conquest in Italy; he had effected
an interview at Marseilles, in October, 1533, with Pope
Clement VII., who was almost at the point of death, and it was
there that the marriage of Prince Henry of France with
Catherine de' Medici [daughter of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, and
granddaughter of Piero de' Medici] was settled. Astonishment was
expressed that the pope's niece had but a very moderate dowry.
'You don't see, then,' said Clement VII.'s ambassador, 'that
she brings France three jewels of great price, Genoa, Milan
and Naples?' When this language was reported at the court of
Charles V., it caused great irritation there. In 1536 all
these combustibles of war exploded; in the month of February,
a French army entered Piedmont, and occupied Turin; and, in
the month of July, Charles V. in person entered Provence at
the head of 50,000 men. Anne de Montmorency, having received
orders to defend southern France, began by laying it waste in
order that the enemy might not be able to live in it. ...
Montmorency made up his mind to defend, on the whole coast of
Provence, only Marseilles and Aries; he pulled down the
ramparts of the other towns, which were left exposed to the
enemy. For two months Charles V. prosecuted this campaign
without a fight, marching through the whole of Provence an
army which fatigue, shortness of provisions, sickness, and
ambuscades were decimating ingloriously. At last he decided
upon retreating. ... On returning from his sorry expedition,
Charles V. learned that those of his lieutenants whom he had
charged with the conduct of a similar invasion in the north of
France, in Picardy, had met with no greater success than he
himself in Provence." A truce for three months was soon
afterwards arranged, and in June, 1538, through the mediation
of Pope Paul III., a treaty was signed at Nice which extended
the truce to ten years. Next month the two sovereigns met at
Aigues-Mortes and exchanged many assurances of friendship."
_F. P. Guizot,
Popular History of France,
chapter 28 (volume 4)._
In August, 1539, a revolt at Ghent "called Charles V. into
Flanders; he was then in Spain, and his shortest route was
through France. He requested permission to cross the kingdom,
and obtained it, after having promised the Constable
Montmorency that he would give the investiture of Milan to the
second son of the King. His sojourn in France was a time of
expensive fêtes, and cost the treasury four millions; yet, in
the midst of his pleasures, the Emperor was not without
uneasiness. ... Francis, however, respected the rights of
hospitality; but Charles did not give to his son the
investiture of Milan. The King, indignant, exiled the
constable for having trusted the word of the Emperor without
exacting his signature, and avenged himself by strengthening
his alliance with the Turks, the most formidable enemies of
the empire. ... The hatred of the two monarchs was carried to
its height by these last events; they mutually outraged each
other by injurious libels, and submitted their differences to
the Pope. Paul III. refused to decide between them, and they
again took up arms [1542]. The King invaded Luxembourg, and
the Dauphin Rousillon; and while a third army in concert with
the Mussulmans besieged Nice [1542], the last asylum of the
dukes of Savoy, by land, the terrible Barbarossa, admiral of
Soliman, attacked it by sea. The town was taken, the castle
alone resisted, and the siege of it was raised. Barbarossa
consoled himself for this check by ravaging the coasts of
Italy, where he made 10,000 captives. The horror which he
inspired recoiled on Francis I., his ally, whose name became
odious in Italy and Germany. He was declared the enemy of the
empire, and the Diet raised against him an army of 24,000 men,
at the head of which Charles V. penetrated into Champagne,
while Henry VIII., coalescing with the Emperor, attacked
Picardy with 10,000 English. The battle of Cerisoles, a
complete victory, gained during the same year [April 14,1544],
in Piedmont, by Francis of Bourbon, Duke d'Enghien, against
Gast, general of the Imperial troops, did not stop this double
and formidable invasion. Charles V. advanced almost to
Château-Thierry. But discord reigned in his army; he ran short
of provisions, and could easily have been surrounded; he then
again promised Milan to the Duke of Orleans, the second son of
the King. This promise irritated the Dauphin Henry, who was
afraid to see his brother become the head of a house as
dangerous for France as had been that of Burgundy; he wished
to reject the offer of the Emperor and to cut off his retreat.
A rivalry among women, it is said, saved Charles V. ...
{1194}
The war was terminated almost immediately afterwards [1544] by
the treaty of Crespy in Valois. The Emperor promised his
daughter to the Duke of Orleans, with the Low Countries and
Franche-Comté, or one of his nieces, with Milan. Francis
restored to the Duke of Savoy the greater part of the places
that he held in Piedmont; he renounced all ulterior
pretensions to the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of Milan, and
likewise to the sovereignty of Flanders and Artois; Charles,
on his part, gave up the duchy of Burgundy. This treaty put an
end to the rivalry of the two sovereigns, which had
ensanguined Europe for 25 years. The death of the Duke of
Orleans freed the Emperor from dispossessing himself of Milan
or the Low Countries; he refused all compensation to the King,
but the peace was not broken. Francis I. profited by it to
redouble his severity with regard to the Protestants. A
population of many thousands of Waldenses, an unfortunate
remnant from the religious persecutions of the 13th century,
dwelt upon the confines of Provence, and the County Venaissin,
and a short time back had entered into communion with the
Calvinists. The King permitted John Mesnier, Baron d'Oppède,
first president of the Parliament of Aix, to execute [1546] a
sentence delivered against them five years previously by the
Parliament. John d'Oppède himself directed this frightful
execution. Twenty-two towns or villages were burned and
sacked; the inhabitants, surprised during the night, were
pursued among the rocks by the glare of the flames which
devoured their houses. The men perished by executions, but the
women were delivered over to terrible violences. At Cabrières,
the principal town of the canton, 700 men were murdered in
cold blood, and all the women were burnt; lastly, according to
the tenor of the sentence, the houses were rased, the woods cut
down, the trees in the gardens torn up, and in a short time
this country, so fertile and so thickly peopled, became a
desert and a waste. This dreadful massacre was one of the
principal causes of the religious wars which desolated France
for so long a time. ... The war continued between [Henry
VIII.] and Francis I. The English had taken Boulogne, and a
French fleet ravaged the coasts of England, after taking
possession of the Isle of Wight [1545]. Hostilities were
terminated by the treaty of Guines [1547], which the two kings
signed on the edge of their graves, and it was arranged that
Boulogne should be restored for the sum of 2,000,000 of gold
crowns. ... Henry VIII. and Francis I. died in the same year
[1547]."
_E. de Bonnechose,
History of France,
volume 1, pages 363-367._
ALSO IN:
_W. Robertson,
History of the Reign of Charles V.,
book 6-9 (volume 2)._
_J. A. Froude,
History of England,
chapters 20-23 (volume 4)._
FRANCE: A. D. 1534-1535.
The voyages of Jacques Cartier and the taking
possession of Canada.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1534-1535.
FRANCE: A. D. 1534-1560.
Persecution of the Protestants.
Their organization.
Their numbers.
"Francis I. had long shrunk from persecution, but having once
begun he showed no further hesitation. During the remainder of
his reign and the whole of that of his son Henry II.
(1534-1559) the cruelty of the sufferings inflicted on the
Reformers increased with the number of the victims. At first
they were strangled and burnt, then burnt alive, then hung in
chains to roast over a slow fire. ... The Edict of
Chateaubriand (1551), taking away all right of appeal from
those convicted of heresy, was followed by an attempt to
introduce an Inquisition on the model of that of Spain, and
when this failed owing to the opposition of the lawyers, the
Edict of Compiègne (1557) denounced capital punishment against
all who in public or private professed any heterodox doctrine. It
is a commonplace that persecution avails nothing against the
truth--that the true Church springs from the blood of martyrs.
Yet the same cause which triumphed over persecution in France
was crushed by it in Spain and in the Walloon Netherlands. Was
it therefore not the truth? The fact would rather seem to be,
that there is no creed, no sect which cannot be extirpated by
force. But that it may prevail, persecution must be without
respect of persons, universal, continuous, protracted. Not one
of these conditions was fulfilled in France. The opinions of the
greater nobles and princes, and of those who were their
immediate followers, were not too narrowly scanned, nor was
the persecution equally severe at all times and in all places.
Some governors and judges and not a few of the higher clergy
inclined to toleration. ... The cheerful constancy of the
French martyrs was admirable. Men, women and children walked
to execution singing the psalms of Marot and the Song of
Simeon. This boldness confounded their enemies. Hawkers
distributed in every part of the country the books issued from
the press of Geneva and which it was a capital offence even to
possess. Preachers taught openly in the streets and
market-places. ... The increasing numbers of their converts
and the high position of some among them gave confidence to
the Protestants. Delegates from the reformed congregations of
France were on their way to Paris to take part in the
deliberations of the first national Synod on the very day
(April 2, 1559) when the peace of Cateau Cambresis was signed,
a peace which was to be the prelude to a vigorous and
concerted effort to root out heresy on the part of the kings
of France and Spain. The object of the meeting was twofold:
first to draw up a detailed profession of faith, which was
submitted to Calvin--there was, he said, little to add, less
to correct--secondly to determine the 'ecclesiastical
discipline' of the new Church. The ministers were to be chosen
by the elders and deacons, but approved by the whole
congregation. The affairs of each congregation were placed
under the control of the Consistory, a court composed of the
pastors, elders and deacons; more important matters were
reserved for the decision of the provincial 'colloques' or
synods, which were to meet twice a year, and in which each
church was represented by its pastor and at least one elder.
Above all was the national Synod also composed of the clergy
and of representative laymen. This organisation was thoroughly
representative and popular, the elected delegates of the
congregations, the elders and deacons, preponderated in all
the governing bodies, and all ministers and churches were
declared equal. The Reformed churches, which, although most
numerous in the South, spread over almost the whole country,
are said at this time to have counted some 400,000 members
(1559). These were of almost all classes, except perhaps the
lowest, although even among the peasantry there were some
martyrs for the faith."
{1195}
On the accession of Charles IX., in 1560, "a quarter of the
inhabitants of France were, it was said, included in the 2,500
reformed congregations. This is certainly an exaggeration, but
it is probable that the number of the Protestants was never
greater than during the first years of the reign of Charles
IX. ... The most probable estimate is that at the beginning of
the wars of religion the Huguenots with women and children
amounted to some 1,500,000 souls out of a population of
between fifteen and twenty millions. But in this minority were
included about one-fourth of the lesser nobility, the country
gentlemen, and a smaller proportion of the great nobles, the
majority of the better sort of townspeople in many of the most
important towns, such as Caen, Dieppe, Havre, Nantes, La
Rochelle, Nimes, Montpellier, Montauban, Châlons, Mâcon,
Lyons, Valence, Limoges and Grenoble, and an important
minority in other places, such as Rouen, Orleans, Bordeaux and
Toulouse. The Protestants were most numerous in the
South-west, in Poitou, in the Marche, Limousin, Angoumois and
Perigord, because in those districts, which were the seats of
long-established and flourishing manufactures, the middle
classes were most prosperous, intelligent and educated. It is
doubtful whether the Catholics were not in a large majority,
even where the superior position, intelligence and vigour of
the Huguenots gave them the upper hand. Only in some parts of
the South-west and of Dauphiny do the bulk of the population
appear to have been decidedly hostile to the old religion.
During the course of the Civil War the Protestants came to be
more and more concentrated in certain parts of the country, as
for instance between the Garonne and the Loire."
_P. F. Willert,
Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots in France,
chapter 1._
FRANCE: A. D. 1541-1543.
Jacques Cartier's last explorations in Canada.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1541-1603.
FRANCE: A. D. 1541-1564.
The rise and influence of Calvinism.
See GENEVA: A. D. 1536-1564.
FRANCE: A. D. 1547.
Accession of King Henry II.
FRANCE: A. D. 1547-1559.
The rise of the Guises.
Alliance with the German Protestants.
Wars with the emperor, and with Spain and England.
Acquisition of Les Trois Evêchés, and of Calais.
Unsuccessful campaign in Italy.
Battle and siege of St. Quentin.
Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis.