of Cardinal Wolsey, and to make a most favorable impression on
Henry VIII.; and thus strengthened, he entered on the struggle
against his less wily enemy with infinite advantage. War was
declared on frivolous pretexts in 1521. The French sustained it
for some time with great valor; but Francis being obstinately
bent on the conquest of the Milanais, his reverses secured the
triumph of his rival, and he fell into the hands of the imperial
troops at the battle of Pavia in 1525. Charles's dominions in the
Netherlands suffered severely from the naval operations during
the war; for the French cruisers having, on repeated occasions,
taken, pillaged, and almost destroyed the principal resources
of the herring fishery, Holland and Zealand felt considerable
distress, which was still further augmented by the famine which
desolated these provinces in 1524.

While such calamities afflicted the northern portion of the
Netherlands, Flanders and Brabant continued to flourish, in spite
of temporary embarrassments. The bishop of Utrecht having died,
his successor found himself engaged in a hopeless quarrel with his
new diocese, already more than half converted to Protestantism;
and to gain a triumph over these enemies, even by the sacrifice
of his dignity, he ceded to the emperor in 1527 the whole of
his temporal power. The duke of Guelders, who then occupied the
city of Utrecht, redoubled his hostility at this intelligence;
and after having ravaged the neighboring country, he did not lay
down his arms till the subsequent year, having first procured
an honorable and advantageous peace. One year more saw the term
of this long-continued state of warfare by the Peace of Cambray,
between Charles and Francis, which was signed on the 5th of August,
1529.

This peace once concluded, the industry and perseverance of the
inhabitants of the Netherlands repaired in a short time the evils
caused by so many wars, excited by the ambition of princes, but
in scarcely any instance for the interest of the country. Little,
however, was wanting to endanger this tranquillity, and to excite
the people against each other on the score of religious dissension.
The sect of Anabaptists, whose wild opinions were subversive of
all principles of social order and every sentiment of natural
decency, had its birth in Germany, and found many proselytes in
the Netherlands. John Bokelszoon, a tailor of Leyden, one of
the number, caused himself to be proclaimed king of