enced by the two kings in coming to a common understanding lay in
the fact that, as has been well remarked, while in the enmity of Francis
it was not the Pope but the emperor that occupied the foremost place, it
was just the reverse with Henry.[305]

[Sidenote: Meeting of Francis I. and Clement, at Marseilles.]

[Sidenote: Marriage of Henry of Orleans to Catharine de' Medici.]

Francis had no thought of throwing away so valuable an auxiliary in his
Italian projects, or of permanently attaching to Charles so dangerous an
opponent as the papal power. And thus it happened that, a year from the
time of his consultation with Henry, Francis proceeded to Marseilles to
extend a still more cordial welcome to Clement himself. The wily pontiff
had so dazzled the eyes of the king, that the latter had consented to,
if he had not actually proposed, a marriage between Henry, Duke of
Orleans, his second son, and Catharine de' Medici, the Pope's
niece.[306] The match was not flattering to Francis's pride; but there
were great prospective advantages, and the bride was less objectionable
because the bridegroom, as a younger son, was not likely to ascend the
throne. But here again the king was destined to be disappointed.
Clement's death, soon after, destroyed all hope of Medicean support in
Italy; and the death of Francis, the dauphin, made Henry of Orleans
heir apparent to the throne. It was not long before the French people,
with the soundness of judgment generally characterizing the deliberate
conclusions reached by the masses, came to the opinion, expressed by one
of the Venetian ambassadors two years after the wedding: "Monseigneur of
Orleans is married to Madam Catharine de' Medici, to the dissatisfaction
of all France; for it seems to everybody that the most Christian king
was cheated by Pope Clement."[307] Such were the evil auspices under
which the Italian girl, only fourteen years of age,[308] entered a
country over whose destinies she was to exert a pernicious influence.

[Sidenote: Francis refuses to join in a crusade against heresy.]

There was another part of the Pope's designs in the execution of which
he was less successful. He could not persuade Francis to join in a
general scheme for the extermination of heresy. In the very first
interview, Clement had sounded his host's disposition respecting the
propriety of a new crusade. He had bluntly submitted for consideration
the question, "Ought not Francis and the pious prin