nobility, and to extend their own prerogative-conspired in raising these monarchs to such eminence and authority as none of their predecessors had ever enjoyed.

Immediately before this period, the German empire was in a state of anarchy, from the dissentions among the members which composed it; but the regulations established by Maximilian I. of Austria, who became emperor in 1492, had the effect of maintaining peace and order, and restoring some degree of vigour to the imperial authority.

Italy was in a different state from that of any other part of Europe. Instead of those extensive monarchies which occupied the rest of the continent, it was parcelled out into many small states, each of which possessed sovereign and independent jurisdiction. The only monarchy in Italy was that of Naples. In Venice, Florence, and Genoa, a republican form of government was established. Milan was subject to sovereigns who had assumed no higher titles than that of duke. The states of the church were of an anomalous character, the sovereign being the spiritual head of Christendom, but with a very limited temporal power in his own territories, until the accession of Alexander VI. (1492), who subverted the power of the Roman barons, and rendered the popes masters of their own dominions.

The Ottoman power was then firmly established in Europe, the government better organized, and possessing a more complete command of whatever force the empire was capable of exerting, than any other European state. Besides, the Turkish troops possessed every advantage that arises from superiority in military discipline, which rendered them superior to the forces of the Christian powers.]

SECTION II.

FRANCE, SPAIN, AND ITALY, IN THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH AND BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

1. [ITALY, in the end of the fifteenth century, was eminently flourishing in science and arts. For more than a century, it had been a world by itself, as well in reference to its politics as its culture. In the enjoyment of independence, its states formed a system which had for its object the maintainance of a perfect equality of rights; in virtue of which, the weaker might enjoy in security all that they held by a just right. The popes were exceedingly active in these transactions, employing their influence to prevent the interference of any foreign power in the affairs of Italy.

2. France was the first to carry abroad an activity unemployed at home, and to make Italy feel the change which had taken place in the politics of Europe. The expulsion of Charles VIII.,

in as short a time as he had taken to conquer it (see page 347), only had the effect of "directing towards Italy the attention of all the western powers. They had learned that they were strong enough to act as masters, and, if they pleased, as robbers, in this the richest and most civilized country on the earth. All the powers on the confines henceforth aspired to subject some part of Italy to their dominion. They coveted their share of tribute from a land so fruitful of impost-from those cities in which industry employed such numbers, and accumulated so much capital. Cupidity put arms in their hands, and smothered every generous feeling. The commanders were rapacious; the soldiers thought only of pillage. They regarded the Italians as a race abandoned to their exactions, and vied with each other in the barbarous methods which they invented for extorting money from the vanquished, until at last they completely destroyed the prosperity which had provoked their envy."-Sismondi's Italian Republics, c. 14.]

3. [Charles did not live to seek vengeance-a sudden death, April, 1498, removed him from the world; but his successor,] Louis XII., eagerly bent on vindicating his right to Naples, courted the interest of Pope Alexander VI., who promised his aid, on the condition that his natural son, Cæsar Borgia, should receive from Louis the dutchy of Valentinois, with the king of Navarre's sister in marriage. Louis crossed the Alps (August, 1499), and in the space of a few days was master of Milan and Genoa. Sforza, duke of Milan, became his prisoner for life. Afraid of the power of Ferdinand of Spain, Louis joined with him in the conquest of Naples, and agreed to divide with him the conquered dominions, the pope making no scruple to sanction the partition. But the compromise was of no duration; for Alexander VI. and Ferdinand, judging it a better policy to share Italy between themselves, united their interest to strip Louis of his new territories. The Spaniards, under the celebrated Gonsalvo de Cordova, defeated the French under the Duc de Nemours and the chevalier Bayard; and Louis irrecoverably lost his share of the kindom of Naples; the whole, together with Sicily, becoming dependent on Spain (January, 1504).

4. History relates with horror the crimes of Pope Alexander VI. and his son Cæsar Borgia; their murders, robberies, profanations, incests. They compassed their ends in attaining every object of their ambition, but with the universal abhorrence of mankind, and finally met with an ample retribution for their crimes. The pope died by poison, prepared, as was alleged, by himself for an enemy; and Borgia, stripped of all his possessions by Pope Julius II., and sent prisoner to Spain by Gonsalvo de Cordova, perished in miserable obscurity.

5. Julius II., the successor of Alexander, projected the formidable league of Cambray, 1508, with the emperor, the kings of France and Spain, the duke of Savoy, and king of Hungary,

for the destruction of Venice, and dividing her territories among the confederates. They accomplished in part their design; and Venice was on the verge of annihilation, when the pope changed his politics; and having made the French subservient to his views of plundering the Venetians, now formed a new league with them and the Germans and Spaniards, to expel the French from Italy, and appropriate all their conquests. The Swiss and the English co-operated in this design. The French made a brave resistance, under their generals Bayard and Gaston de Foix (Duc de Nemours, and nephew of Louis), but were finally overpowered. Louis was compelled to evacuate Italy: Ferdinand, with the aid of Henry VIII. of England, stripped him of Navarre, and forced him to purchase a peace. He died in 1515; and, though unfortunate in his military enterprises, from the superior abilities of his rivals, Pope Julius and Ferdinand, was justly esteemed by his subjects for the wisdom and equity of his government.

6. [Francis I. renewed his predecessor's (Louis XII.) treaty of alliance with Venice, and entered Lombardy with a powerful army, August 15, 1515, to repossess the dutchy of Milan. The Swiss hastened in great force to defend Maximilian Sforza, whom they had re-established on the ducal throne. But on imprudently engaging the French at Marignano, they suffered so severely as to be obliged to retreat, when the whole dutchy submitted to their power. Sforza abdicated the sovereignty for a pension of 30,000 crowns, secured to him in France; and the Swiss shortly after agreeing to a treaty of peace (which took the name of the "Paix Perpetuelle," and became the basis of all subsequent treaties with them), the influence of France in Italy seemed to be confirmed (November, 1515). Amidst these transactions, Ferdinand the Catholic died; and his grandson Charles succeeding to his Spanish kingdoms, January 15, 1516, shortly after concluded a treaty at Noyon, by which Francis ceded to him all his right to the kingdom of Naples, as the dower of a new-born daughter, whom he promised to Charles in marriage. The pope and the emperor then acceded to the treaty, which terminated the wars which had grown out of the league of Cambray. The Venetians were once more put in possession of all the states of which they had been dispossessed: but their wealth was annihilated, their population reduced to one-half, their constitution itself shaken, and they were never after in a state to contend for the independence of Italy. Had Italy been allowed to repose after so many disasters, she might still have recovered her strength and population, and been prepared to recommence the struggle with the transalpine nations; but this was denied to her by the heartless levity and ambition of Pope Leo X. (the successor of Julius), who sought only the aggrandizement of the family of the Medicii.]

SECTION III.

GERMANY AND FRANCE IN THE REIGNS OF CHARLES V. AND FRANCIS I.

1. WE resume the detail of the history of Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century; previously remarking, that the Germanic empire continued for above fifty years in a state of languid tranquillity, from the time of Albert II., the successor of Sigismund, during the long reign of Frederick III., whose son Maximilian acquired, by his marriage with Mary duchess of Burgundy, the sovereignty of the Netherlands. Maximilian was elected emperor in 1493; and, by establishing a perpetual peace between the separate Germanic states, laid the foundation of the subsequent grandeur of the empire.

2. Philip, archduke of Austria, son of Maximilian, married Jane the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile; and of that marriage the eldest son was Charles V., who succeeded to the throne of Spain in 1516, and who, on the death of his grandfather Maximilian, preferred his claim to the vacant imperial throne. He had for his competitor Francis I. of France, who had distinguished himself by the conquest of the Milanese, and the adjustment of the contending interests of the Italian states. The German electors, afraid of the exorbitant power both of Charles and of Francis, would have rejected both, and conferred the imperial crown on Frederick duke of Saxony; but this extraordinary man declined the proffered dignity, and his counsel determined the election in favour of Charles of Austria (1519).

3. Charles V. and Francis I. were now declared enemies, and their mutual claims on each other's dominions were the subject of perpetual hostility. The emperor claimed Artois as part of the Netherlands. Francis prepared to make good his right to the Two Sicilies. Charles had to defend Milan, and support his title to Navarre, which had been wrested from France by his grandfather Ferdinand. Henry VIII. of England was courted by the rival monarchs, as the weight of England was sufficient to turn the scale, where the power of each was nearly balanced.

4. The first hostile attack was made by Francis on the kingdom of Navarre (1521), which he won and lost in the course of a few months. The emperor attacked Picardy, and his troops at the same time drove the French out of the Milanese. On the death of Leo X., Charles placed his tutor, Cardinal Adrian, on the papal throne (1522); and by the promise of elevating Wolsey, the minister of Henry VIII., to that dignity on the death of Adrian, gained the alliance of the English monarch in his war against France.

5. At this critical time Francis imprudently quarrelled with his best general, the Constable Bourbon, who, in revenge, desert

ed to the emperor (1523), and was by him invested with the chief command of his armies. The imperial generals were far superior in abilities to their opponents. The French were defeated at Biagrassa, and Charles was carrying everything before him in Italy, when Francis entered the Milanese, and retook the capital; but, in the subsequent battle of Pavia (1525), his troops were entirely defeated, and the French monarch became the Constable Bourbon's prisoner, which he communicated to his mother by letter in these words, "Madame, all is lost, except our honour."

6. The emperor made no advantage of his good fortune. By the treaty of Madrid, Francis regained his liberty in the following year, on yielding to Charles the dutchy of Burgundy, and the superiority of Flanders and Artois. He gave his two sons as hostages for the fulfilment of these conditions; but the states refused to ratify them, and the failure was compromised for a sum of money.

7. On a renewal of the war, Henry VIII. took part with France, and Charles lost an opportunity of obtaining the sovereignty of Italy. The papal army in the French interest was defeated by the Constable Bourbon, and the pope himself made prisoner; but Bourbon was killed in the siege of Rome (1527), and Charles allowed the pope to purchase his release.

8. After the conclusion of the peace of Cambray (1529), Charles visited Italy, and received the imperial diadem from Pope Clement VII. The Turks having invaded Hungary, the emperor marched against them in person, and compelled the sultan Solyman, with an army of 300,000 men, to evacuate the country. He soon after embarked for Africa, to replace the dethroned Muley Hassan in the sovereignty of Tunis and Algiers, which had been usurped by Hyradin Barbarossa; and he achieved the enterprise with honour. His reputation exceeded at this period that of all the sovereigns of Europe, both for political ability, for real power, and the extent and opulence of his dominions.

9. Francis was glad to ally himself even with the Turks, to cope with the imperialists; and Barbarossa invaded Italy: but the troops of Charles prevented the co-operation of the French, and separately defeated and dispersed the allied powers; while another army of the imperialists ravaged Champagne and Picardy.

10. In the interval of a truce, which was concluded at Nice (1538), for ten years between the rival monarchs, Charles passed through France to the Netherlands, and was entertained by Francis with the most magnificent hospitality. He had promised to grant to the French king his favourite desire, the investiture of Milan; but failing to keep his word, the war was renewed with double animosity (1542). The French and Turkish fleets attacked Nice, but were dispersed by the Genoese admiral, Andrea Doria. In Italy the French were victorious in the