ands to Henry VIII.
The king swore to the document, pledged his knightly honor, and as
additional securities married Eleanor the sister of Charles and left
two of his sons as hostages.

Even when he signed it, however, he had no intention of executing the
provisions of the treaty which, he secretly protested, had been wrung
from him by force. The deputies of Burgundy refused to recognize the
right of France to alienate them. Henry VIII at once made an alliance
against the "tyranny and pride" of the emperor. Charles was so
chagrined that he challenged Francis to a duel. This opera bouffe
performance ended by each monarch giving the other "the lie in the
throat."

Though France succeeded in making with new allies, the pope and Venice,
the League of Cognac, [Sidenote: May, 1526] and though Germany was at
that time embarrassed by the Turkish invasion, the ensuing war turned
out favorably to the emperor. The ascendancy of Charles was so marked
that peace again had to be made in his favor in 1529. The treaty of
Cambrai, as it was called, was the treaty of Madrid over again except
that Burgundy was kept by France. She gave up, however, Lille, Douai
and other territory in the north and renounced her suzerainty over
Milan and Naples. Francis agreed to pay a ransom of two million crowns
for his sons. Though he was put to desperate straits to raise the
money, levying a 40 per cent. income tax on the clergy and a 10 per
cent. income tax on the nobles, he finally paid the money and got back
his children in 1530.

By this time France was so exhausted, both in {187} money and men, that
a policy of peace was the only one possible for some years.
Montmorency, the principal minister of the king, continued by an active
diplomacy to stir up trouble for Charles. While suppressing Lutherans
at home he encouraged the Schmalkaldic princes abroad, going to the
length of inviting Melanchthon to France in 1535. With the English
minister Cromwell he came to an agreement, notwithstanding the
Protestant tendencies of his policy. An alliance was also made with
the Sultan Suleiman, secretly in 1534, and openly proclaimed in 1536.
In order to prepare for the military strife destined to be renewed at
the earliest practical moment, an ordinance of 1534 reorganized and
strengthened the army.

Far more important for the life of France than her incessant and
inconclusive squabbling with Spain was the transformation passing over
her spirit.