A. D.

1536.

tiation, while Charles took possession of it as a vacant fief of the empire, though still pretending to own the equity of the claims of the French monarch.

The emperor having now procured sufficient supplies of money, resolved on attempting the conquest of France. Having driven the French out of Savoy, he invaded the southern provinces at the head of 50,000 men. Two other armies were ordered to enter Picardy and Champagne. The system adopted by Francis was defensive. From the Alps and Dauphiné to Marseilles and the sea the country was laid waste; strong garrisons placed in Arles and Marseilles; one French army strongly encamped near Avignon, another at Valence. After fruitlessly investing Arles and Marseilles, and spending two months in Provence, Charles retreated with the loss of one half of his troops by disease and famine. An attempt by Francis on the Low Countries, was followed by a truce 1538. at Nice under the mediation of the pope Paul III.

The emperor suppressed an insurrection which had broken out in the city of Ghent; but he was forced to make concessions to the protestants in Germany, to gain their assistance against Suleiman, who had seized a part of Hungary. But the favourite object of Charles was the conquest of Algiers; and in the end of autumn he, contrary to the advice of Doria his admiral, landed in Africa with a large army; but tempests scattered his fleet and destroyed his soldiers, and he was forced to 1541. reimbark, with the loss of the greater part of his men.

1542.

The war between the rival monarchs broke out anew.

The emperor was supported by the king of England and the protestant princes, to whom he had made farther concessions. Francis was allied with the kings of Denmark and Sweden, and he renewed the treaty he had formerly made with Suleiman. During two years France, Spain, Italy, and the Low Countries were the scenes of 1544. war; but the only battle of consequence was that of Cerisoles, gained by the French, in which 10,000 imperialists fell. A peace was concluded at Crespi. The chief articles were, that the emperor should give one of

his own or his brother Ferdinand's daughters to the duke of Orleans, second son of Francis, and with her the duchy of Milan, and renounce all claim to Burgundy; Francis doing the same to Naples, Artois, and Flanders; and that they should unite against the Turks.

Affairs of Germany.

Charles was chiefly led to make the peace of Crespi by his desire to humble the protestant princes, and extend his power in the empire. He therefore made also a dishonourable truce with Suleiman, and entered into an alliance with the pope. A general council had been assembled at Trent; but the protestants, seeing the composition of it, refused to submit to its decrees. Charles, as his schemes were not fully ripe, sought still to cajole them; but they saw through his views, and had recourse to arms. Unable to resist them, he negotiated till he had collected an army; but he still declined a battle. Meantime Maurice marquis of Misnia and Thuringia, a protestant prince who had not joined the confederates, secretly agreed to assist the emperor, on condition of getting the dignities and territory of his relative the elector of Saxony. He therefore entered and overran the electorate. The elector returned with his troops to defend his dominions; the city of Ulm submitted; its example was followed by others, and the whole confederacy fell to pieces, leaving the elector of Saxony and the landgraf of Hesse at the mercy of the emperor.

The pope, meantime, seeing the ultimate and real designs of the emperor, withdrew his troops, and Francis negotiated an alliance with him, Suleiman, England, and Venice, and encouraged and assisted with money the elector and the landgraf. A conspiracy, headed by Fiesco, broke out at Genoa, and every thing seemed to combine to throw Charles into perplexity, when the death of Francis, and the suppression of Fiesco's conspiracy, encouraged him to proceed with vigour in Germany. The elector was defeated and taken prisoner at Mulhausen, and obliged to resign the electoral dignity;

A. D.

1547.

the landgraf of Hesse, who was father-in-law to Mau-
rice, submitted, on the elector of Brandenburg and
Maurice becoming securities for his personal freedom;
but Charles, in contempt of them, made him a close
prisoner. All the members of the Smalcaldic league
were treated with the greatest rigour.

Charles now thought he might proceed without oppoA. D. sition in enslaving the German nation. As the council 1548. had been removed from Trent to Bologna, and he could

not now expect to influence it as he desired, he pro-
tested against it, and had a system of doctrine drawn up
and presented to the diet at Augsburg, to be conformed
to till a proper council could be called. This system,
called the Interim, sought to steer between the two par-
ties, leaning, however, greatly to the church of Rome.
It gave great offence at Rome, and could not be fully
carried into effect in Germany. Shortly afterwards,
Charles made a stretch of power even beyond establish-
ing the Interim. When pressed to set the landgraf of
Hesse at liberty, he, by a public deed, annulled the bond
which his securities had entered into with him. This
began to open the eyes of the German princes, and they
now manifested a spirit of resistance. His brother Fer-
dinand had been made king of the Romans by his influ-
ence; but, anxious to transmit the empire to his son
Philip, he tried to make the electors recall their choice,
or at least place Philip next in succession to his uncle;
but the opposition made was so strong, that he was
obliged to abandon his design.

The Lutheran princes were now fully aware of the
designs of the emperor, and Maurice saw that it was
necessary to set bounds to them. Equal to Charles him-
self in dissimulation, he secretly made preparation
against him, without losing his confidence. He con-
trived to get himself appointed general of the imperial
army, sent to force the people of Magdeburg to submit
to the Interim, and after that object was effected, he,
under various pretences, still kept that army in his pay.
Charles, meanwhile, was residing at Inspruck, entirely

occupied with the council, which had been brought back to Trent. Neither he nor Granville, his subtle prime minister, had any suspicion of the designs of Maurice, who had now formed a treaty with Henry II. of France.

Having completed his preparations, he sent an embassy to demand the liberty of the landgraf. It was refused. An army of 20,000 foot and 2000 horse being assembled, Maurice threw off the mask, and assigned his reasons for taking arms; namely, to secure the protestant religion; to maintain the German constitution; to deliver the landgraf of Hesse from prison. The king of France added a manifesto, in which he styled himself Protector of the Liberties of Germany and its captive Princes.

The French troops having overrun Lorraine, Maurice traversed rapidly Upper Germany: the emperor negotiated. Maurice advanced with all the speed he could make; and was so near surprising the emperor, that he was obliged to fly into the Alps in a litter, in the midst of a dark rainy night. The council of Trent broke up, and did not reassemble. A conference was held at Passau: the terms proposed in the name of the princes of the empire were rejected by the emperor. Maurice laid siege to Frankfort on the Main, and the haughty spirit of Charles was forced to bend. The treaty of Passau overthrew the fabric he had so long been raising, and placed 1552 the protestant religion of Germany on a secure basis.

A. D.

His usual good fortune was now deserting Charles ; he raised a large army, entered Lorraine, and laid siege to Metz; but was forced to abandon it with the loss of 30,000 men: he lost the footing he had established in Tuscany: the coast of Naples was ravaged by the Turkish fleet. In the following year he had some success in the Low Countries; but the Austrians were unfortunate in Hungary. Germany was now so tranquil, that a diet assembled at Augsburg, and by what is called the Recess of Augsburg established religious peace in 1555. Germany, to the satisfaction of all parties.

A. D. 1556.

To the surprise of all Europe, Charles abdicated his throne; and, resigning his dominions to his son Philip, retired to spend the evening of his life in the monastery of St. Just in Spain. Having made a vain attempt to induce his brother Ferdinand to resign the dignity of king of the Romans, he left all his other dominions to Philip, now married to Mary queen of England, and formed for him a truce with France for five years. Ferdinand was chosen emperor by the electors.

England.

During the reign of Charles V., England was governed by Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary. Henry 1533. broke with the court of Rome, and seized on the monastic estates: he exercised over his people the most arbitrary power that Europe, perhaps, has ever witnessed. Not merely his will, but his caprice, was law; he dictated in religion, and murdered under form of justice. In his foreign wars he made small and useless acquisitions at 1513. vast expense. The victory of Flodden Field, gained in the early part of his reign over the Scots, whose king, James IV., fell in the field, was the greatest achieved in 1547. this period by the English arms. Under Edward VI.

the protestant religion was much favoured; but his sister 1553. Mary, a bigoted papist, and wife of the dark, malignant

Philip, exercised such cruelties against the professors of the reformed faith, as have affixed in the minds of posterity eternal odium to her name and the religion she professed. In her reign Calais, which England had held since the reign of Edward III., was surprised and 1557. taken by the duke of Guise.

Spain and Portugal.

The commons of Spain made a stand in favour of their hereditary liberties, and they rose in arms against the despotism of the emperor, under the command of the brave Padilla; but the nobles not joining them, as, if they had known their true interest, they should