o hear
him do so. The county of Burgundy refused to be transferred; and the
Pope, Clement VII., hating the Spanish power in Italy, contrived a fresh
league against Charles, in which Francis joined, but was justly rewarded
by the miserable loss of another army. His mother and Charles's aunt met
at Cambrai, and concluded, in 1529, what was called the Ladies' Peace,
which bore as hardly on France as the peace of Madrid, excepting that
Charles gave up his claim to Burgundy. Still Francis's plans were not at
an end. He married his second son, Henry, to Catherine, the only
legitimate child of the great Florentine house of Medici, and tried to
induce Charles to set up an Italian dukedom of Milan for the young pair;
but when the dauphin died, and Henry became heir of France, Charles
would not give him any footing in Italy. Francis never let any occasion
pass of harassing the Emperor, but was always defeated. Charles once
actually invaded Provence, but was forced to retreat through the
devastation of the country before him by Montmorency, afterwards
Constable of France. Francis, by loud complaints, and by talking much of
his honour, contrived to make the world fancy him the injured man, while
he was really breaking oaths in a shameless manner. At last, in 1537,
the king and Emperor met at Aigues Mortes, and came to terms. Francis
married, as his second wife, Charles's sister Eleanor, and in 1540, when
Charles was in haste to quell a revolt in the Low Countries, he asked a
safe conduct through France, and was splendidly entertained at Paris.
Yet so low was the honour of the French, that Francis scarcely withstood
the temptation of extorting the duchy of Milan from him when in his
power, and gave so many broad hints that Charles was glad to be past the
frontier. The war was soon renewed. Francis set up a claim to Savoy, as
the key of Italy, allied himself with the Turks and Moors, and slaves
taken by them on the coasts of Italy and Spain were actually brought
into Marseilles. Nice was burnt; but the citadel held out, and as Henry
VIII. had allied himself with the Emperor, and had taken Boulogne,
Francis made a final peace at Crespy in 1545. He died only two years
later, in 1547.

7. Henry II.--His only surviving son, _Henry II._, followed the same
policy. The rise of Protestantism was now dividing the Empire in
Germany; and Henry took advantage of the strife which broke out between
Charles and the Protestant princes to attack th