ambassador, Merveille, but suddenly turned aside and seized the territory of Savoy. In the following year the imperial troops recovered this province, drove the French out of Italy, and followed them into their own country. But the prudent policy of Marshal Montmorency, the French general, completely foiled the invaders, reduced them to extremities, and at length compelled them to retreat in the greatest disorder. An attack on the side of Flanders proved equally abortive, and a cessation of arms was at length agreed to, through the mediation of the two sisters, the queens of Hungary and France. A truce for ten years was ultimately arranged by the intervention of the pope, Francis agreeing to withdraw from his unpopular alliance with the Grand Turk, and Charles on his part basely consenting to allow the French king to retain one half of the dominions of his ally, the duke of Savoy. A strange interview shortly after took place between the two rivals on the coast of Provence, and from this time forward, though it was impossible they could be friends, their rivalry was less keen and vindictive. Francis not only rejected the offer of the insurgent citizens of Ghent to deliver their city into his hands, but made known their designs to the emperor. Charles proceeded in person to Flanders, passing through France on his way from Spain. The two kings met at Chatelherault, and made a solemn entry together into Paris, and Francis not only entertained his royal guest with great magnificence, but accompanied him to the frontiers of his dominions.
In 1542 war again broke out between these two implacable rivals in consequence, as Francis alleged, of the murder of Rincon, his ambassador to the Porte, at the instigation of the marquis del Vasto, the governor of Milan. Hostilities were carried on by the French in Roussillon, Flanders, and Piedmont, but without any important result. They gained a complete victory, however, over the imperialists at Cerisolles, 14th April, 1544. On the other hand Charles entered Champagne at the head of a numerous and well equipped army, and Henry VIII., who was once more in alliance with him, laid siege to Boulogne. The two monarchs had formed the project of marching to Paris and making a partition of France. But the vigorous resistance of the French people, the increasing strength of the protestant party in Germany, and the formidable power of the Turks, induced the emperor to consent to a peace, which was concluded at Crespi, 18th September, 1544. The war with England lingered for two years longer without any occurrences worth notice, and was at length terminated by a treaty of peace, 7th June, 1546.
As soon as the treaty of Crespi was concluded, Francis renewed his persecution of the French protestants with redoubled zeal. In 1535 he had brought to the stake, with circumstances of the most shocking barbarity, six persons who were concerned in affixing to the gates of the Louvre papers reflecting on the doctrines and rites of the Romish church; and he now put in execution a decree of the parliament of Provence against the protestants, utterly destroyed twenty-two of their villages, razed their houses to the foundations, put to death great numbers of the so-called heretics, and condemned others to the galleys. The death of Francis put a stop to these atrocities. He died on the last day of March, 1547, in the fifty-second year of his age.
Francis was a prince of excellent abilities and a kindly disposition. He was brave to rashness, generous, and unselfish, and was a liberal patron of literature and art. He protected Rabelais, offered Erasmus the government of the new royal college, patronized Budé, Lascaris, the Stephens, Marot, and other men of letters, and Leonardo da Vinci died in his arms. But he had no fixed principle of any kind. He violated treaties and broke his promises whenever it suited his purpose to do so, was licentious in his private life, and laid the foundation of that profligacy which disgraced the French court in the reigns of his successors. By his first wife, Claude, Francis had three sons and four daughters. His eldest son died before him, it was alleged of poison. His daughter Magdalene was the shortlived wife of James V. of Scotland.—J. T.
Francis II., King of France, was the eldest child of Henry II. and of Catherine de Medicis, and was born 19th January, 1543. He was weak and sickly in body, as well as feeble in mind. He is said, however, to have shown aptitude and intelligence, and to have made some progress in the arts and belles-lettres, under Amyot, to whom the care of his education was committed. On the 24th of April, 1558, he was married with great pomp to Mary, the beautiful young Scottish queen, and in December following, obtained from the parliament a grant of the crown matrimonial of Scotland. On the death of his father, 16th July, 1559, Francis succeeded to the throne in the sixteenth year of his age. He was completely under the influence of Francis, duke of Guise, and the cardinal of Lorraine—the uncles of his queen; and they immediately set themselves with the utmost vigour and resolution to crush the protestant party in France, and especially their new and powerful leaders, the king of Navarre and the prince of Conde. The vast power and ambition of the Guises raised against them a host of enemies, and a conspiracy was formed for their destruction at Amboise in 1560. The plot, however, was discovered by them and foiled, and the duke of Guise was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Soon after the edict of Romorentin was issued, which ordained that in future the crime of heresy, which was punishable by death, was to be judged by the bishops, and not by the parliaments. The protestants took alarm and made preparations for resistance, and the Admiral Coligni having presented a memorial in their favour, it was resolved on the suggestion of the chancellor De L'Hopital, to allow them to remain unmolested until a general council should be assembled to decide disputed questions in religion, and that if a general council were not called by the pope a national council should be convoked in France. In December following, the states-general were assembled at Orleans, and the leaders of the Huguenot party having resorted thither without any suspicion of treachery, fell into the snare laid for them by the Guises. The prince of Conde was at once arrested and cast into prison, and condemned to lose his head on a charge of treason, as the alleged leader of the conspiracy at Amboise. His life, however, was saved, and the plans of the Guises completely frustrated by the sudden death of Francis, 5th December, 1560, after a reign of only seventeen months. The cause of his death was an abscess in the ear; but rumours of poison were spread and believed at the time, though they appear to have been without foundation. Francis was succeeded by his brother, Charles I., then a minor.—J. T.
Francis I., Duke of Bretagne, born at Vannes, 11th May, 1414, the eldest son of John VI. of Bretagne, and of Jeanne, daughter of Charles VI. of France, succeeded his father, 14th August, 1442. He is chiefly memorable in connection with the English wars of the period. When Sir Francis Surienne invaded Bretagne on the pretext of redressing the wrongs inflicted by the duke on his brother Gilles, Francis appealed for protection to Charles VII. of France, with whom he had early established the most friendly relations, and who accordingly, after vainly remonstrating with the duke of Somerset on the conduct of Surienne, entered on a campaign against the English which resulted in their being expelled from Lower Normandy. Francis' cruel treatment of his brother is an ineffaceable blot upon his memory; it entailed consequences as terrible as revenge could have desired. A month after the death of Gilles in 1450, Francis, confronted in his sleep by his brother's confessor, was solemnly cited to appear in forty days before the tribunal of God, there to answer for his misdeeds. Terror gave effect to the ghostly citation, and he died, July 19, 1450.—J. S., G.
Francis II., Duke of Bretagne, was born in 1435. Having previously inherited the countships of Etampes and Vertus, he succeeded to the dukedom in 1459; did homage to Charles VII. at Montbazon, and set himself to perform the part of a generous ruler. But Louis XI., who ascended the French throne in 1461, was not less unscrupulous than eager in his resolution to enlarge the royal authority; and his personal antipathy to Francis hastened the commencement of the struggle by encouraging the revolt of the bishop of Nantes. The duke met that movement with more promptitude and energy than might have been expected from a character somewhat deficient in strength. Raising a powerful army in alliance with Burgundy, he marched towards Paris, and compelled the king to conclude the treaty of St. Maur, in which the latter agreed to pay the expense of the campaign, and to confirm Francis in all his dignities. In the subsequent operations of Louis against Normandy and Burgundy, Bretagne for some time either remained neutral or assisted the royal cause. But in 1467 Francis joined the confederated feudatories in the hope of effectual aid from England, and some of the Norman fortresses were recovered. The following campaign, however, turned the scale; Bretagne was invaded and made submission. Some years later the duke refused the collar of St. Michael, and again took the field in league with Normandy,
