ed that Provence and Dauphiny
should be added to the constable's old possessions, and should form a
state, which Charles V. promised to raise to a kingdom. There was yet a
difficulty looming ahead. Bourbon still hesitated to formally
acknowledge Henry VIII. as King of France, and promise him allegiance.
But at last his resistance was overcome. At the moment of crossing the
frontier into France, and after having taken the communion, he said to
the English ambassador, Sir Richard Pace, in the presence of four of his
gentlemen, "I promise you, on my faith, to place the crown, with the help
of my friends, on the head of our common master." But, employing a ruse
of the old feudal times, the last gasp of a troubled conscience, Bourbon,
whilst promising allegiance to Henry VIII., persisted in refusing to do
him homage. Sir Richard Pace none the less regarded the question as
decided; and, whilst urging Cardinal Wolsey to act swiftly and resolutely
in the interests of their master, he added, "If you do not pay regard to
these matters, I shall set down to your Grace's account the loss of the
crown of France."

Bourbon entered Provence on the 7th of July, 1524, with an army of
eighteen thousand men, which was to be joined before long by six or seven
thousand more. He had no difficulty in occupying Antibes, Frejus,
Draguignan, Brignoles, and even Aix; and he already began to assume the
title of Count of Provence, whilst preparing for a rapid march along by
the Rhone and a rush upon Lyons, the chief aim of the campaign; but the
Spanish generals whom Charles V. had associated with him, and amongst
others the most eminent of them, the Marquis of Pescara, peremptorily
insisted that, according to their master's order, he should besiege and
take Marseilles. Charles V. cared more for the coasts of the
Mediterranean than for those of the Channel; he flattered himself that he
would make of Marseilles a southern Calais, which should connect Germany
with Spain, and secure their communications, political and commercial.
Bourbon objected and resisted; it was the abandonment of his general plan
for this war and a painful proof how powerless he was against the wishes
of the two sovereigns, of whom he was only the tool, although they called
him their ally. Being forced to yield, he began the siege of Marseilles
on the 19th of August. The place, though but slightly fortified and ill
supplied, made an energetic resistance; the name and the p