sovereigns lay thus: the acquisition of
Burgundy was for Charles V. the crowning-point of his victory and of his
predominance in Europe; the giving up of Burgundy was for Francis I. a
lasting proof of his defeat and a dismemberment of his kingdom: one would
not let his prisoner go at any price but this, the other would not
purchase at this price even his liberty and his restoration to his
friends. In this extremity Francis I. took an honorable and noble
resolution; in October, 1525, he wrote to Charles V., "Sir, my brother,
I have heard from the Archbishop of Embrun and my premier-president at
Paris of the decision you have expressed to them as to my liberation, and
I am sorry that what you demand of me is not in my power. But feeling
that you could not take a better way of telling me that you mean to keep
me prisoner forever than by demanding of me what is impossible on my
part, I have made up my mind to put up with imprisonment, being sure that
God, who knows that I have not deserved a long one, being a prisoner of
fair war, will give me strength to bear it patiently. And I can only
regret that your courteous words, which you were pleased to address to me
in my illness, should have come to nothing." [_Documents inedits sur
l'Histoire de France. Captivite du roi Francois I._, p. 384.]

The resolution announced in this letter led before long to the official
act which was certain to be the consequence of it. In November, 1525, by
formal letters patent, Francis I., abdicating the kingship which he could
not exercise, ordered that his eldest son, the dauphin Francis, then
eight years old, should be declared, crowned, anointed, and consecrated
Most Christian King of France, and that his grandmother, Louise of Savoy,
Duchess of Angouleme, or, in default of her, his aunt Marguerite, Duchess
of Alencon, should be regent of the kingdom: "If it should please God
that we should recover our personal liberty, and be able to proceed to
the government and conduct of our kingdom, in that case our most dear and
most beloved son shall quit and give up to us the name and place of king,
all things re-becoming just as they were before our capture and
captivity." The letters patent ordered the regent "to get together a
number of good and notable personages from the three estates in all the
districts, countries, and good towns of France, to whom, either in a body
or separately, one after another, she should communicate the said will of